Transcript Establishment of Stalin`s Rule

Establishment of Stalin’s
Authoritarian and Single-Party State
Methods: Force, legal
Form of Government: ideology
Nature, extent and treatment of
opposition
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
• 1929: Stalin emerged as the leader of the Soviet
Union
BUT
• Stalin still had opponents in the party – he did
not feel that his position was secure in 1930.
There were still disagreements about economic
policy
• Stalin wanted for the Soviet Union rapid,
transformational
MODERNISATION!
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges.
• Purges had existed even under Lenin – the
expulsion of those considered unsuitable for the
Communist Party. E.g. Drunkards, careerists
and those against Bolshevik polices
• Those within the party that disagreed with the
Five Year Plans and Collectivisation had to be
eliminated.
HOW?
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges.
• Stalin was ruthless in destroying his rivals
• Those who threatened or questioned Stalin’s
leadership were
▫ a) expelled from the Party
▫ b) imprisoned or
▫ c) executed
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges.
1932: Ryutin Affair
• Wrote a document that opposed Stalin’s policies.
• Document was signed by prominent party
members
• Stalin expelled them from the committee and
wanted Ryutin executed.
• Politburo said ‘No!” to Ryutin’s execution
Stalin felt he still wasn’t in complete
control of the Party
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges.
1934: Kirov Assassination
• Kirov was the secretary of the Leningrad Soviet
and was known to have criticized/questioned
Stalin’s methods of discipline in the party
• Kirov killed – Stalin (today) was implicated
• Stalin used the assassination as an excuse to
begin purging all those who were against him
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges.
1934: Kirov Assassination
Stalin as
mourner-in-chief at
Kirov's funeral
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges/Show Trials.
• 1935: Zinoviev and Kamenev were arrested and
accused of instigating terrorist activities
• Death penalty was extended to all those who
were ‘spies’ and ‘traitors’ including those who
knew about such activities
• 1936: First show trial involving Zinoviev,
Kamenev and fourteen others
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges/Show Trials.
Post –Kirov purges 1943 – 1936
• NKVD = Secret Police hunted down 3 000
suspected conspirators (to Kirov’s murder)
• Many were imprisoned or murdered
• Tens of thousands deported to prison camps –
GULAG
• Vacant positions in the party filled with Stalin’s
own nominees.
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Purges/Show Trials.
Post –Kirov purges 1943 – 1936
• Arbitrary arrest and summary execution became the
norm
• Representatives of the Party Congress in 1934
suggests that;
▫ Of the 1996 delegates who attended, 1 108 were
executed during the next three years
▫ In addition of the 139 Central Committee members
selected at that gathering all by 41 of them were
executed during the purges
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
‘The Great Terror’ – 1936 – 1939
Can be broken down into three sections
i) The purge of the Party
ii) The purge of the armed services
iii) The purge of the people
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
The purge of the Party
1936 – Kamenev and Zinoviev along with 14 other
leading Bolsheviks were tried and executed
1937 – seven Bolsheviks were denounced collectively
- ‘Anti – Soviet Trotskyist Centre’ charged with spying
for Germany – all but three executed
1938 – Bukharin, Rykov and others branded
Trotskyist rightist, conspirators = executed
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
The purge of the Party
Why did leading Bolsheviks publically admit their ‘guilt’?
• Torture
• Families were threatened
• Loyalty to the party – martyr to the cause
All of this supported Stalin’s assertions that the Soviet
Union was under threat and the purges were necessary in
order to preserve the Bolshevik Revolution
By 1940 Stalin was the only survivor of Lenin’s 1st
politburo
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
The purge of the armed forces
• Stalin needed to ensure that he had control of the
armed forces – he would do that through terror
• Feared that the Red army, which had been Trotsky’s
creation might sympathise with Trotsky
• ‘Conspiracy’ was discovered and leading generals
were accused of spying for Germany and Japan
• Generals ‘confessed’ – secret trial this time and then
executed
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
The purge of the armed forces
• War Commissars were removed from office
• Three of the five Marshals of the Soviet Union were
dismissed
• 80 out of the 101 Supreme Military Council were
executed
• Fourteen of the sixteen army commanders removed
• 35 000 commissioned officers were either imprisoned or
shot
• By 1939 all of the serving admirals of the naval fleet were
shot or sent to labor camps
• The air force also purged – only one senior commander
survived
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
The purge of the armed forces
RESULT:
Navy, Army and Air Force were left seriously
undermanned
Replaced with inexperienced and incompetent
leaders
Left the defense needs of the Soviet Union in a
serious condition
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
The purge of the people
• Anyone suspected of disloyalty was taken away by
the secret police: NKVD
• One person in every eight of the population was
arrested during Stalin’s purges
• Almost every family in the USSR suffered the loss of
at least one of it members as a victim of the terror
• People who wanted to avoid arrest did so by
providing information about others – even if it was
false
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
A French cartoon
"Visit the Pyramids
of the USSR" political satire
referring to the
Purges. 1930
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
What were the effects of the Great Terror?
• Thousands of Party members lost their lives
• Red army was great weakened in the purges of
the armed forces
• Millions of ordinary, innocent Russians ended
up in the Gulag. Many perished due to the
freezing weather and poor conditions.
• A climate of fear gripped the Soviet people due
to informers in all walks of life
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
• Stalin terrorised the population into obedience
• The Purges disrupted industry and stifled
initiative
• Stalin had complete domination over the Party
• The cult of Stalin expanded – Stalin’s icon took
the place of religion
• The personality cult encouraged ordinary
Russians to regard Stalin as a father-figure – a
genius.
Stalin: Methods: Force, Legal
Under the
leadership of
the great
Stalin forward to
Communism!
Censorship and Propaganda
Stalin tightened his grip on the USSR
• Artists and writers had to follow the Party line,
creating ‘useful’ art for the workers
Students of the Leningrad Academy of
Art preparing the giant portrait of Stalin
for the festive decoration of 1 May 1934
(photo by M. Mitskevich)
Censorship and Propaganda
• Newspapers, cinema and radio spread
propaganda about the heroic workers’ struggle
• Criticism was banned
• History was rewritten so that Stalin became
more important in the story of the October
Revolution than he really had been at that time
Censorship and Propaganda
Censorship and Propaganda
• Trotsky became a non-person
• Photographs were altered to show Stalin as a
close friend and ally of Lenin
Censorship and Propaganda