Stalin

Stalin links:

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= Single Party State Review  = **__ Joseph Stalin __** (remember he will be the focus of Paper I and possibly be included in Paper III. This review hits three birds with one stone!) // Background information:  // § //  1879-1953  // §  //  Born Josef Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia (remember he was not from the province of Russia)  // § //  Grandson of a serf; son of a shoemaker  // § //  Attended and dropped out of seminary school, where he was exposed to radical and revolutionary ideas  // § //  Read Marx’s works  // § //  1899-gave up his religious education to devote himself to the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy  // § //  Member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), which split into Menshevik and Bolshevik factions  // § //  Stalin belonged to the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin  // § //  1912: Lenin elevated Stalin to the leading Bolshevik Party body, the Central Committee  // § //  Stalin, a number of times, was exiled to Siberia  // § //  After the last exile, in 1913, Stalin was released upon the overthrow of the Russian monarchy in the Feb./March 1917 Revolution  // ** Origin of the single-party state ** : §  Conditions: o  Lenin’s death in 1924—did not name a successor o  Newly created Communist government in Russia o  Mass Poverty; industrial production at 16 percent of pre-WWI level; peasants quit taking grain to the city (Scissors Crisis); 1/3 of the city populations moved to country looking for food; hungry soldiers; 1921 drought in the Volga River Basin; Kronstadt naval rebellion o  In conflict over who would be the successor of Lenin with Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin, Lev Kamenev, and Grigori Zinoviev—NOTE: study the notes on this political maneuvering §  Emergence of Stalin as leader: o  Aims: making the USSR a world power; collectivization; gain power for the glory of the motherland o  Ideology: communist; socialism in one country; five year plans; nationalism o  Support: upper middle class; lower peasants; workers; uses fear and secret police to get and maintain support; army/military support o  Held high positions in the Communist Party §  1912: elevated to the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party §  member of the Soviet of People’s Commissars, heading the Commissariat for National Affairs §  1919: elected to the Politburo and Orgburo §  political commissar in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War §  maintained control as the commissar for state control from 1919 until 1923 §  1922: elected general secretary of the Communist Party ·  this post gave him control over appointments and established his base for political power o  Rude and aggressive behavior o  Role of Lenin’s death and the struggle for power ** Establishment of single party state ** : §  Methods: use of legal means within his party position and use of force, later, with the purges o  Bolshevik party o  Role as General Secretary o  Death of Lenin o  Lenin’s //Testament// §  Voiced misgivings about all potential candidates, but especially Stalin §  Kept secret o  Lenin’s funeral: Trotsky did not attend o  The struggle for power (divide party into left wing communists and right wing communists); manipulation of the NEP o  Stalin created the Cult of Leninism o  By the end of 1929, after his political maneuvering, Stalin eliminated his political opponents and was the supreme leader of the USSR §  Form of government: Left wing communism: totalitarian communism §  Treatment of opposition: purges of the Army, the people, the Party o  Political §  Socialism in one country §  Constitution of 1936 §  Creation of satellite states post WWII o  Economic §  Determined in the late 1920s that Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) did not work §  Collectivization §  Five Year Plans—program of rapid industrialization ·  First one implemented in 1928 ·  Believed the USSR needed to industrialize in order to strengthen the communist regime and compete with other world powers §  Collectivization and the FYP resulted in harsh working conditions, famine, millions of deaths, liquidation of the kulaks §  Stakhanovite movement §  Industrialization was achieved (remember by 1939, industrialization had been achieved…USSR=3rd leading power) §  Post WW2: resume FYP o  Political/Social §  Purges—to maintain power and check any potential conspiracies §  Purge of the Party ·  Kirov ’s assassination—1934 ·  Role of the secret police ·  Highly publicized trials ·  Death of Kamenev, Zinoviev, and Bukharin §  Purge of the people §  Purge of the military §  1 in 18 affected by the purges §  role of the forced labor camps in Siberia §  effects of the purges on the leadership in the party (young and devoted to Stalin) and the military (lost a lot of competent leaders and numerous soldiers which will weaken the military) §  Post WW2: POWs; Zhdanov charges and the resultant arrest of doctors ·  People fear a new series of purges §  Education, art, media and propaganda ·  Education: basically rewrote history ·  Media: printed only what would favor communist party §  Status of women, minorities, religious groups ·  Women seen in a traditional sense—but will eventually use in industrialization ·  Women were purged if husband made mistakes or was accused ·  After WWII, Stalin goes after the Jewish population ** Regional and Global Impact ** : §  Foreign Policy: o  “socialism in one country” o  mid-1930s: support the Communist International (Comintern) in a Popular Front against fascism o  Changed his alliances from the Popular Front to Hitler because believed the western countries would not help him if threatened by Nazi Germany…wanted to maintain a buffer state o  Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939—trade agreement, divisions of Eastern Europe, and a non-aggression pact o  Winter War 1940/1941 with Finland: Stalin and the Soviet Union gain control of Finland o  Invasion by Germany through Operation Barbarossa §  Brought into WW2 on the Allied side §  Faced difficulties initially §  Battle of Stalingrad o  WW2: move into Eastern Europe (prepare for spheres of influence) o  WW2: work with Allied leaders §  Yalta §  Potsdam o  Development of Soviet puppet regimes in Eastern Europe after WW2 §  Creation of the Iron Curtain §  Start of the Cold War §  1947: create Cominform (Communist Information Bureau)—international body of Communist leaders to ensure conformity with the Soviet line §  Problems with Yugoslavia and Marshal Tito §  Berlin blockade §  East Germany §  Impact outside the state ·  Western nations are suspicious and reluctant to recognize the USSR when formed ·  Germany is the first to recognize the USSR (Treaty of Rapallo—under Lenin) ·  1930s: oppose Nazism/fascism—tried to work with western European nations ·  Nov. 1936—Germany and Italy create the Anti-Comintern Pact ·  Excluded from Four Powers Pact and Stresa Conference ·  Spanish Civil War—involved with the Popular Front ·  Not involved with Munich Conference and decisions dealing with Czechoslovakia ·  Nazi-Soviet Pact ·  WWII: Great Coalition ·  Cold War roe §  Factor in the Cold War
 * Rule of Single Party State: **

·  One of the two superpowers ·  Spread influence in Eastern Europe ·  Theories blaming the USSR for the Cold War ·  East German policies ·  Berlin Blockade ·  Comecon and Cominform ·  Treatment of Yugoslavia ·  Horrible relations with China