Power vacuum after death

• Christopher Reed : 


  Stalins death left a crucial Stalin shaped hole at the centre of the system
• cult of personality means no one will live up to him
• Terror 


  • Crushing soviet union - doesn’t encourage initiative and enabling growth
  • most in gulags were bright people that challenged tyranny - not contributing as in camp
  • terror is counter productive
  • prisoners are free labour - feed, house etc
• Beria knew how much this cost and the amount - head of the MDV - but only told Stalin what he wanted to hear
• 1953 - 2 million people in gulags

  • They were sent on pointless things
  • 83km of railway being laid for no purpose
• Cold War :


  • Pick up Soviet Union in disagreement with us
  • Foriegn policy isn’t great
  • All as a result of Stalin
  • Cold War created NATO - anti-soviet union in 1949
• what is Cold War problem

  Group of hostile countries to Soviet Union

  • Drawn into Korean War and Vietnam to make sure western ideology doesn’t spread and us vice versa
• scientists and producers made to work on failings arm race instead of industry and agriculture which was desperate

  • vicious circle - more each country spends the other competes
  • to go to war with each other would be mutual destruction
• Command Economy : 


  • Catch up with west in 10 years
  • They’re in terrible housing and no good etc got worse
  • Result of planning system - target became important and sacrificed everything else - ludicrous
  • Focus is on heavy industry
• Agriculture needs reform
• the system :

  • de Tocqueville - moat dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform
  • problem is how far do we reconstruct
  • people with privelage at the top pick it apart so wont part with comforts and benefits
  • Anybody with connection to Stalin who was involved enabled it so warrants critics
• whoever follows is never going to win due to stalins system
• set up for failure