Unit 1 - Soviet Government Flashcards
How was Lenin’s government democratic?
People were elected.
Freedom of speech / government debate.
Many socialist parties (Mensheviks and SR had representation in the sovnarkom)
Decree of Land: Peasants had the right to seize land from Nobility and Church.
Decree of Peace: Committed to leave WW1
Worker’s Decree (Nov 1917): Established an 8 hour working day.
Decree of worker’s control: Gave lenin breathing room, Lenin and the Bolsheviks claimed their regime was extremely democratic as committees of working people contributed on the day to day running of the country (compared to Britain which has an election every 5 years)
How was Lenin’s government not democratic?
Lenin ignored result of Jan 1918 election
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was very unpopular
Government led by his vision. This meant other parties felt side lined and unheard. Many Mensheviks and other party members resigned
Sovnarkom was extremely disorganised and poorly resourced
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War)
Used civil war as excuse to centralise
From 1920, Politburo essentially became government - Smaller, less accountable and full of Loyal leninists
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War / Red Army)
Red Army: Lenin abolished Russia’s democratic system of appointing generals through committees - Trotsky appointed Tsarist generals who were better
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War / War Communism)
War communism: Series of emergency economic measures (High levels of industrial production of war goods, efficient allocation of workers and increased food production)
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War / Creation of the Cheka)
Creation of the Cheka: Political task force tasked with defending the revolution, raiding the anarchist organisations and eliminating opposition. (Felix Dzerzhinsky, head of the cheka, came from a wealthy polish background, rooted out and destroyed bourgeois enemies of the state. Was single-minded, dedicated and ruthless, nicknamed the “Shield of the Revolution” and died in 1926.
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / 1921 Party Congress)
Lenin authorised Cheka to destroy opposition parties (Mensheviks and SRs)
‘On party unity’ resolution: Banned factions inside party and party members found guilty of forming factions could be expelled
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / Nomenklatura)
Party members who senior officials trusted to implement government policy without question
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / 1924 Soviet constitution)
- USSR was in theory a federal system
- Tightened the authority of the communist party
- Ukraine were firmly under the control of the central Party Structure
- Russian made up 90% of the land area and 72% of the population of the new state.
How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / OGPU 1922 & Chistka)
OGPU 1922: Terror became more bureaucratic and discreet. Attention was turned to groups within the party and large numbers were purged.
Chistka: cleansing in 1918 and early 1920s, non-violent and had their party membership withdrawn. ⅓ of the party was purged under Lenin.
Step 1/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle
Stalin’s position in the party administration gave him enormous power over both personnel and policy
Step 2/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle
Stalin attended Lenin’s funeral - which Trotsky didn’t attend - and took the opportunity to set himself up as Lenin’s disciple
Step 3/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle
Lenin’s testament - which criticises all the contestants for power (but most especially Stalin) was kept secret and not made public knowledge.
This is because Sinoviev and Kamenev ensured Lenin’s testament wasn’t made public knowledge as it helped Trotsky, who was their political opponent, and they didn’t see Stalin as a major player in the power struggle.
Step 4/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle
Triumvirate - In 1924 at the 13th Party congress, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin had formed the triumvirate and were leading the party.
Trotsky spoke out at the Congress claiming the party had gotten too bureaucratic but he was easily defeated in the vote, as Stalin packed Congress will well instructed Stalin delegates.
Trotsky could’ve appealed to his supporters but didn’t want to split the party.
Step 5/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle
1924: Zinoviev and Kamenev mounted a vicious campaign against Trotsky questioning his loyalty pre-1917
Trotsky responded with an article “Lessons of October” criticising Zinoviev and Kamenev for their lack of support in October 1917.
Stalin remained neutral, watching the Left tear themselves apart.
Step 6/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle
1925: Stalin joined the Right over Socialism in One Country.
Zinoviev and Kamenev launched an attack on Stalin arguing the NEP should be ended but they lost every vote.
They then joined Trotsky and formed the New Opposition. They tried to get the party masses to support them by organising demonstrations but they were accused of factionalism and lost all positions of power before being expelled.
Step 7/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle
1928: Stalin then turned against the Right and advocated rapid industrialisation and attacked the NEP. Bukharin put up a strong defense but was outvoted and removed from Politburo.
Great Purge 1935-38 (Trials)
Dec 1934: Kirov murdered. Stalin used this to claim the party was under attack and that there was a dangerous conspiracy against the party. He used this fear to begin a mass campaign to hunt down his enemies.
Show trials - Most public aspect of terror (Trial of 16,17 and 21)
Secret Trials - Trial of Red Army leaders - 8 leaders who had worked with Trotsky were executed - 37k officers killed
Great Purge 1935-38 (Consequences)
Eliminated Stalin’s rivals
NKVD grew in power
New generation of loyal communists
Senior officials, who could’ve helped Russia’s economy, were purged.
Sent victims to gulags - Used as slave labour to industrialise etc.
Stalin’s power over party and state (Methods of control)
Intimidation
Appointed rival personnel in key positions in both party and state so they would rival each other
Test people’s loyalty (arresting Molotov’s wife etc,)
Purging his opponents
Weakened institution’s power (Made Politburo meet less frequently)
Shifted power from party to state and appointed himself as head of both
Stalin’s power over party and state (Limitations)
Relies on others for administrative work and had to give others power (e.g. Yexhov - Head of NKVD)
WW2: Gave men in Politburo important jobs so that the war could be better coordinated
Occasionally, Stalin gave into opposition (e.g. Stalin’s targets in second 5 year plan were considered too high so he was forced to lower them)
Khrushchev’s Secret speech
Khrushchev negotiated with the Presidium to present his criticisms of Stalin at a secret session of the 20th party congress of 1956 - the first congress since Stalin’s death
The congress started on 14 February. On the night of 25 February, a day after congress ended, delegates were summoned to an unscheduled late night meeting. Khrushchev spoke for 4 hours, setting out a profound critique of stalin’s rule.
A large critique of Stalin’s rule. Outlined Stalin’s mistakes without the party’s guidance such as purging the red army immediately before WWII and concealing Lenin’s last testament. Revealed scale of the terror and claimed that Stalin had committed enormous crimes (Stalin’s policies such as industrialisation, collectivisation or communist ideology were considered sound)
Focused on his cult of personality and argued Stalin had abandoned collective leadership, placing himself above the party and robbing it of a leading role.
Destalinisation (Ending the terror)
Khrushchev and Malenkov set up a special commission to review cases of political prisoners but only 4620 of 113,739 were released. Progressed after the secret speech by June 1956, 51,439 were released.
Destalinisation (Cult of personality)
Khrushchev scrapped plans to turn Stalin’s dacha into a museum celebrating his life.
Annual Stalin prizes were cancelled and there was no official celebration of Stalin’s birthday (For the first time since the 1930s).
People fainted and committed suicide and questioned the legitimacy of communist rule because Stalin was a well-respected member of the party. (Some students in favour of multi-party democracy, suppressed by communist authorities).
Usually quotes from Stalin in newspapers, these were replaced by quotes from Marx and Lenin.
Secret Speech
