Unit 2 Promise and Collapse

UNIT 2 PROMISE AND COLLAPSE

1919-1933 (V4)

NOTES

HISTORY 12

LEPORE

March 4, 2015

Stalin and the U.S.S.R.

Stalin’s Rise to Power

The Power Struggle

• a power struggle occurred within the Communist Party after Lenin’s death in 1924 and three groups or ideological positions emerged: left, right, center

Left

they believed that socialism depended on world wide revolution; they believed that Russia must be industrialized more rapidly than the NEP would allow and wanted to abandon it; they believed that capitalist nations would try to destroy Russia so their survival depended on the international revolutionary movement bringing communists to power in industrialized nations in the West > group included Trotsky, Grigori Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev

Right

they supported the need for world revolution but did not feel the same sense of urgency as the left; they wanted to continue with the NEP which they saw as a stop-gap measure to save socialism; they thought any attempt to force the peasants to give up their surplus crops would lead to rebellion in the countryside and starvation in the cities > group included Nikolai Bukharin and A.I. Rykov

Center

they believed that whether or not there was a world revolution socialism could be built in one country; Joseph Stalin saw the practicality of this approach and called for the Soviet Union to develop socialism within its borders, “socialism in one country”, and take a leading role in the spread of communist ideology

• 1923-1927 Stalin supported the right or moderates because he needed their support to defeat his rivals in the left especially Trotsky who was his most serious challenger for the leadership
• Stalin was the General Secretary of the Party, a member of the Politburo, the Party’s policy making body, and member of the Orgburo which ran the Party organization while Trotskyhad been Lenin’s chief assistant, Commissar of War and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• as General Secretary Stalin was able to appoint his supporters as full time Party officials which mean he could call upon his supporters to vote against Trotsky’s initiatives; in the Politburo and meetings of the Party Central Committee Stalin’s supporters would make sure Trotsky’s proposals were always rejected
• as Stalin’s control of the Party increased Trotsky’s power and prestige decreased; 1925 Trotsky was forced to give up his position as Commissar, 1927 Trotsky, along with Kamenev and Zinoviev, was removed from the Politburo and expelled from the Party, 1928 Trotsky was forced into exile, 1940 Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico
• by the end of 1927 Stalin had won the power struggle and embarked on his program of socialism in one country

Stalin’s Rise to Power

Factors that contributed to Stalin’s Rise to Power

• General Secretary of the Communist Party

Stalin used it to appoint his supporters to important positions in the party

• Lenin’s last will and testament

Lenin advised the Central Committee/Politburo to replace Stalin

General Secretary because he abuses his power but the committee did not

act on it

• Stalin’s personality/ background and image

Stalin’s poor background and image as man of the people made him

popular with many members of the party

Trotsky was an intellectual and arrogant which did not enamor him with

manymembers of the party

• Stalin’s alliances

Stalin formed alliances with members of the Central Committee against

othermembers and then abandoned the alliance when it no longer was

needed

1924-26 he allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky

1926-1928 he allied with Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky against Zinoviev and

Kamenev

1928-1929 he opposed the NEP and Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky

• Trotsky’s “World Revolution” vs. Stalin’s “Socialism in one country”

Trotsky’s idea of “world revolution” was not popular as most members of

theparty were tired of revolution and feared it would ruin Russia

Stalin’s idea of “Socialism in one country” was very appealing to many

membersof the party

• Stalin’s political ruthlessness (schemer and tactician)

Stalin was a master schemer and tactician

he played one side of the Central Committee against the other

1924-26 he allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky

1926-1928 he allied with Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky against Zinoviev and

Kamenev

1928-1929 he opposed the NEP and Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky

Stalin and the U.S.S.R.

The Modernization of Russia

Economic Planning

• Stalin believed it was necessary for Russia to rapidly industrialize to catch up to other industrialized nations and become stronger to resist being crushed by them (refer to 1931 Stalin speech TCH p.133)
• Stalin would accomplish this goal through a series of five-year plans that implemented a command economy, collectivization of agriculture and accelerated industrialization that emphasized heavy industry
• 1928-1938 Stalin forced the people of the Soviet Union through the most rapid changes in their ways of life than any people in history

Collectivization of Agriculture

• the peasants would be forced to join their land together into collectives (kolkhoz) to make farms large enough to use modern machinery and advanced agricultural techniques; the collectives were under the control of a collective farm committee that was controlled by the Party
• production of crops would increase to feed the workers in the cities and also release large number of farm workers for labour to work in industry
• the peasants crops would be used to feed the cities and sold to other countries to pay for the heavy industry
• 1929-1933 peasants resistance to collectivization took the form of wholesale slaughter of livestock
• the kulaks, rich peasants, were deemed unfit for collective farms because they were independent and unlikely to contribute to socialist production
• Stalin wanted to destroy the kulaks (refer to December 1929 speech TCH p.131)
• the kulaks were forced into concentration camps, deported to Siberia or Central Asia or allowed to stay but given the poorest land to farm; approximately 5 million kulaks "disappeared"
• the treatment of the kulaks frightened other peasants into submission

• February 1930 half of the peasant population was collectivized (60 million); July 1931 53% collectivized, July 1932 62% collectivized
• the chaos caused by collectivization, smaller harvests and excessive procurements (obtaining crops) led to famine; droughts during 1931-1932 compounded the agricultural problems and famine swept the Ukraine
• by 1938 food was more plentiful but the peasants rarely met production quotas
• 24 million people left the countryside half of them went to cities while the other half remained unaccounted for

Industrialization

• Gosplan structured the Five Year Plans that began in 1928 because the NEP was unable to promote the rapid industrialization essential to move the Soviet Union into the ranks of modern industrial nations
• 1926 over 75% of the population was employed in agriculture so collectivization not only gave Stalin control of food production but also the ability to direct workers to industry; by 1940 51% of the population was employed by agriculture

• the First Five Year Plan 1928-1932 was a blueprint for a command economy which established production targets; in a command economy the government controls the production, distribution and consumption of goods
• Stalin wanted to force the development of heavy industry to allow the Soviet Union to build the infrastructure that would be the weapons they needed to defend themselves
• the goals of the first Five Year Plan were staggering as total industrial output was to increase by 250%; heavy industrial production was to increase by 333%, pig iron by 300%, coal by 200%, electrical power by 400% and agricultural production by 150% (refer to targets TCH p.130)
• although the only industry to reach its target was oil (refer to production figures TCH p.132) the plan did improve production; the output of electricity had more than doubled, while the output of oil, coal and pig-iron almost doubled
• by the end of 1929 food rationing was introduced and rationing was also applied to consumer goods; conditions were awful in the cities with overcrowding in spartan apartment buildings
• failure of the plan to reach its targets were blamed on subversives or saboteurs
• the Cheka and OGPU would root out and destroy opposition and terrorize people into silence and obedience; the OGPU would execute people sentenced to death or would imprison those sentenced to exile or forced labour camps called the gulag
• many projects were dependent on slave labour and an estimated 10 million political prisoners were held in concentration camps
• the second Five Year Plan 1933-1937 introduced ambitious production targets but it had to be modified as a result of opposition amongst party officials against the harshness of the first plan
• targets were modified at the 17th Congress of the Communist Party in 1934
• the Soviet Union's industrial output surpassed France, Japan, and Italy
• however agriculture was plagued with problems and the government was less able to feed its people than before WW I; industrial systems were primitive and the system of planning imposed by the government made innovation and adjustments difficult
• 1937 Soviet Union redirected its resources toward armament production in response to the Nazi build up of power and even though a tremendous number of military goods were produced the quality of these goods lagged far behind that of other industrialized nations especially Germany and Japan

UNIT 2 PROMISE AND COLLAPSE 1919-1933

Stalin’s Economic Policy

Collectivization and Industrialization

• individual plots of farm land joined together into collectives (called kolkhoz)
• use modern machines to increase production

• increase grain production will feed workers in the cities
• less peasants required to farm thus peasantry to provide the labour for industry

• surplus grain to be sold to other countries to earn money to purchase machinery and technology for the development of heavy industry
• Kulaks opposed collectivization and were targeted by Stalin to be eliminated as a class

• Five Year Plans to focus on the development of heavy industry
• production targets or quotas established in electricity, coal, oil, pig-iron, steel
• build infrastructure to defend themselves against attack from the West
• “socialism in one country”

UNIT 2 PROMISE AND COLLAPSE 1919-1933

Stalin’s Economic Policy

• a quarter of a million kolkhoz were established as 99% of Russia had been collectivized by 1939
• agriculture was more modern with the introduction of new methods, tractors, fertilizers, large-scale production
• 97 million tons were produced by 1937 plus cash crops for export
• 17 million peasants left the countryside to work in the cities between 1928-1937
• the noble landlords were gone
• the Communist Party controlled agricultural production

• the USSR was transformed into a modern state
• there were significant achievements:

• there was no unemployment
• heath care was available with access to doctors and medicine
• education was provided with emphasis on literacy and science

• production of grain and livestock declined between1928-1937
• the Ukraine famine killed approximately 5 million people 1932-1933
• the Kulaks were eliminated and approximately 4 million liquidated

• it was poorly organized as there was inefficiency and duplication of effort and waste
• workers were subjected to extreme discipline
• OGPU/NKVD (secret police) terrorized the population and created fear
• labour camps were established and operated by the OGPU/NKVD
• major building projects (canal) used slave labour
• consumer goods were scarce and poor quality
• housing was poor and limited in the cities
• workers had no rights

Stalin and the U.S.S.R.

The Purges

• the purges were designed to eliminate his real, potential and suspected opposition and thus secure his power as leader of the Soviet Union
• there were two major periods of purging under Stalin

 1929-1933 the purges focused on rank and file opponents such as the

Kulaks

 1934-1938 the purges focused on old Bolsheviks still powerful within the

Communist party, intelligentsia (writers, artists, etc.), and the Red Army

• December 1, 1934 the chief of the Leningrad Communist Party Sergei Kirov was murdered most likely on Stalin’s orders; Kirov criticized the brutality of Stalin’s Five-Year Plan and was a popular member of the party
• Kirov’s murder gave Stalin an excuse to eliminate the remaining old Bolsheviks in the party and other opponents and started the Great Purges
• Kamenev and Zinoviev were arrested for Kirov’s murder and placed on public display in show trials where they confessed to plotting with Trotsky to overthrow Stalin and were executed in 1936
• Kamenev and Zinoviev confessed to save the lives of their families or they were tortured
• other old Bolsheviks were also placed in show trials such as Bukharin and Rykov and were executed in 1938; Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940
• Stalin was the only member of the Bolshevik government to survive as 10 had been executed or imprisoned and 4 had died
• June 11, 1937 Marshal Tukhachevsky and seven other senior generals were arrested for treason and subsequently executed which started Stalin’s purge of the Red Army
• 1937-1939 35,000 army officers were executed including 90% of the army’s generals, 80% of its colonel’s , 3 of 5 marshals, 13 0f 15 army commanders, 57 of 885 corps commanders, 167 of 280 division commanders, 11 vice-commissars for war and 75 0f 80 members of the Supreme Military Soviet
• the air force and navy were equally purged

Mussolini and Fascism in Italy

Fascism

Fascism

• fascism was an extreme right-wing, militaristic European-wide phenomenon that developed from the social, political, and economic problems caused by WW I
• fascist movement developed in Italy, France, England, Belgian, Romania, Spain and Austria
• during times of social dislocation, political instability and economic difficulties, people look to a demagogue (stirs up people by appealing to their emotions and prejudices) to restore order and bring back stability to government
• fascism does not have an ideological doctrine that defines it like Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto on communism or the many philosophers such as John Locke's Two Treatises of Government on democracy
• fascism was mostly defined by the actions rather than thoughts of its proponents

Characteristics of Fascism

• totalitarian
• militaristic
• nationalistic
• dictatorship supported by the armed forces and police
• racial superiority
• war and conquest
• state/government more important than individual
• use of violence against it opponents or enemies of the state
• single-party state
• capitalist economy
• use of propaganda, posters, slogans, uniforms, rallies, parades to play on the pride, loyalties, fears and hatred of their followers

• the leader is exalted, praised and presented as a hero and father figure > personality cult

• anti-labour, anti-communist, anti-liberal, anti-democratic

Communism and Fascism: Compare and Contrast

• communism claimed to be creating a society of equals whereas fascism declared that some individuals and races were superior

• communists believed that the state should control all business whereas fascists allowed private business to make big profits as long as they supplied the state’s needs

• fascism and communism are both totalitarian systems in which the state is supreme over everyone and everything

• communism and fascism appealed to people impatient with democracy

• communism and fascism were revolutionary movements aiming to break with the past and create a new society

• communist and fascist leaders made constant use of propaganda, posters, slogans, uniforms, rallies, parades, and festivals to play on the pride, loyalties, fears and hatreds of their followers

• communist and fascist states built personality cults where the leader was presented to the people as a genius, deep thinker, man of bold action, a brilliant commander of armies, loving father to the nation, the perfect model of strength, wisdom, courage, and compassion

• communism and fascism ignored the rule of law in favor of the leaders orders; the law is just another tool to control people; the police arrested political opponents and the secret police tortured and murdered people

Mussolini and Fascisms in Italy

Mussolini’s Rise to Power

Italy after the First World War

• Italy was a new nation (unification completed by 1870), an elected parliament was a recent development as universal suffrage (right to vote for adult males) was provided in 1912 and thus its democracy was immature
• some of the territory that Britain and France promised to Italy for entering the war in 1915 was not provided at the Paris Peace Conference and many Italian nationalist felt betrayed by the Allies (refer to TCH p.51 or MHMW p.39); Italians referred to these regions in the north as Italia Irredenta (regions with ethnic Italian populations living outside of Italy)
• following WW I Italy was experiencing social and economic problems
• in the industrial northern cities workers organized to improve conditions and went on strikes to increase wages eaten away by the inflation of the war years
• in the agricultural south tenant farmers refused to pay their rents and attacked the landowners demanding land reform
• on the edge of economic collapse and social revolution successive Italian governments had been unable to stabilize the volatile situation
• a socialist revolution seemed imminent and landowners and industrialist were concerned about the possible loss of property and power

The Rise of the Fascists

• March 1919 Mussolini established a new political party called the Fascisti with the purpose of stopping the forces tearing Italy apart
• as did many other leaders Mussolini recruited unemployed war veterans in a quest for political power and established the fasci di combattimento (combat units) that included the unemployed war veterans as well as middle class youths and anti-communists who were referred to as the Blackshirts because of their uniform
• he promised to stabilize the economy, end unemployment, and restore Italy's national prestige lost at the Paris Peace Conference
• according to the Fascists democracy was responsible for Italy's problems because the government was ruled by the ignorant masses and they would put an end to disorder with the power of a totalitarian state (refer to Mussolini’s quote TCH p.52)
• the political doctrine of the fascists evolved from taking action; once in power the political doctrine would develop but first the fascist would get rid of any opposition and secure power
• fascism presented itself as the solution to the liberal and democratic ideas that caused so many problems in Italy
• April 1919 the fasci di combattimento fought in street brawls with strikers and communists and as a result industrialists financed Mussolini's movement to restore order and get workers back to work

• Mussolini's rise to power was fast and violent:

1920 there were 88 Fascist groups with 20,615 members but a year later