Stalinist+Russia

When Lenin died in January 1924, it was widely expected that Trotsky would take over as leader, but a complex power struggle, developed from which Stalin emerged triumphant by the end of 1929. He remained the dominant figure in the USSR, in effect a dictator, right through the Second World War and until his death in 1953. Immense problems faced communist Russia, which was still only a few years old when Lenin died. Industry and agriculture were under-developed and inefficient, there were constant food shortages, pressing social and political problems, and -many Russians thought- the danger of another attempt by foreign capitalist powers to destroy the new communist state. Stalin made determined efforts to overcome all these problems: he was responsible for the following:
 * Five Year Plans to revolutionize industry, carried out between 1928 and 1941;
 * collectivization of agriculture, which was completed by 1936;
 * introduction of a totalitarian regime.

GOVERNMENT, IDEOLOGY AND THE NATURE OF THE STATE

By the end of the 1930s, Stalin had effectively created a new form of Soviet government, replacing the Bolsheviks who had followed Lenin in 1917 with a new brand of Soviet politician. From a younger generation, these men and women were usually from distinctly proletarian backgrounds, far removed from the intellectuals who had planned the early theories of Bolshevism and the 1917 revolution. More radical still, Stalin overrode the authority of the Party, and created an extremely powerful and remarkably successful system of personal rule.

ELIMINATION OF OPPOSITION

Stalin's system of governmentwas characterised by two outstanding features. The first was the ruthless mobilisation of Russia's enormous economic resources in order to achieve industrial parity with the great capitalist economies. The second feature was the development of a powerful state system, capable of driving forward such a policy and of overcoming all opposition. By the end of the 1930s, the power of the political police had expanded enormously and were backed by a system of prison and labour camps of unprecedented proportions. Stalin's pretence that he was using these powers against class enemies and the agents of foreign capitalism was largely untrue. Although the battle to compel the peasantry was real enough, more dangerous oppostion came from within the Communist Party, and even from within the government itself. Stalin attacked this opposition by the crudest methods of power politics -in the 1920s to establish his leadership, and in the 1930s to consolidate his power and to drive forward his policies. Trumped-up and emotive charges were brought against his opponents, and they were eliminated from political life either by execution or distant imprisonment.

DOMESTIC POLICIES

__**Economic policies** __

Under the N|NEP the Soviet Union had recovered from seven years of warfare (1914-1921), but by 1927 it had not developed its industry much beyond the pre-1914 level and its agriculture was still backward. Also, by the late1920s the NEP was presenting the Communists with a variety of economic and social problems. Stalin, with the support of the majority of the party, felt that the NEP was not delivering the economic performance or the type of society they had envisaged. They wanted to press ahead with rapid industrialisation to build a socialist society.

Collectivisation

Five-Year Plans

FOREIGN POLICIES

It was perhaps in the area of foreign policy that Stalin inherited the most complex and insoluble problems. When Stalin first established his authority in the Soviet Union it was already clear that Lenin's initial assumptions about foreign policy were naive and inaccurate. The Russian Revolution did not trigger the collapse of world capitalism, and it would be necessary for the Soviet Union to define its stance towards its capitalist neighbours. Unfortunately, between the mid-1920s and teh mid-1930s, Soviet politicians adopted two different and contradictory stances. Working through Comintern, some sought Soviet security through the promotion of communism within the capitalist states. At the same time, the Soviet Foreign Ministry sought orthodox diplomatic relations with many of the European states. Such relations assumed much greater importance in the 1930s, as powerful enemies began to emerge to the west and to teh east of the Soviet Union, in Germany and in Japan. From the mid-1930s onwards, the Soviet Union conducted its foreign policy in an orthodox fashion, seeking allies against those forces that threatened its security. Yet its position among the European powers remained unorthodox. Conservative politicians in France, Britain and Eastern Europe could not trust a power that had recently supported the principle of international revolution. Nor could Stalin feel confident that these politicians would not in the end prefer Hitler's ideology to his own. In some cases, he had good grounds for his suspicions. Perhaps the best bet for the security of the Soviet Union was to imitate the capitalist powers and to do a deal with Hitler. That option, too, proved unsuccessful in the long run. When Nazi Germany repudiated the 1939 pact, and launched its attack upon the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin was left in isolation, his foreign policy a failure in all important aspects.

Relations with Britain

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Relations with Germany

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">EDUCATION AND YOUTH

Education

Youth

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">CULTURE AND RELIGION

Propaganda

Cult of Stalin

Proletkult

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">ROLE OF WOMEN

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">TOTALITARIANISM?

Historiography debates

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Lowe, N. Mastering Modern World History. Palgrave MacMillan, NY, 2005.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Bibliography **

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