stalin's power over party and state

• Party-state relationship


  Change that emphasised Stalin's power
• Stalin became the most powerful man in the Communist Party


  1928
• Stalin became Chair of Sovnarkom - the most senior committee


  1941
• Change in Stalin's position

  • Reflected the need for an efficient government during wartime
  • Stalin's government in the 1930s had been grossly inefficient
  • Purging the senior levels of the state, the Party and the military had sabotaged the effectiveness of all aspects of the government
• How Stalin promoted effective government during the war

  1. Ended mass terror to help them work more efficiently

  2. Allowed state power to grow - done to let State Ministers make important decisions

  3. Changed the composition of the Politburo - Ministers joined and members given important jobs

  4. Created the State Defence Committee (GKO) - responsible for economic co-ordination and military production and defence
• Competition between party and state

  Stalin used the party-state relationship to his advantage by encouraging competition between the two organisations
• How Stalin encouraged competition

  1. Appointed rival personnel to key positions

  2. Shifted power from the Party to the state and back again
• Stalin did not use terror to the same extent after the war as he had in the 1930s
• Nonetheless, by purging hundreds of Party and state officials in his last years he inspired fear in thousands more
• Leningrad Affair


  Stalin launched a purge against the Leningrad Party as he was concerned Leningrad was developing independence from his powerbase in Moscow
• Leningrad Affair


  May have been part of the struggle to replace Stalin that emerged in the late 1940s
• In 1948, Stalin celebrated his 70s birthday, clearly his life was coming to an end
• Two of the main rivals for his position were Beria and Zhdanov
• The Leningrad Affair followed Zhdanov's death in 1949, and one explanation was that Beria encouraged Stalin to purge Leningrad because it contained a group of senior officials, rivals to Stalin
• How Stalin tested the loyalty of his allies

  1. Imprisoned or sacked the wives and daughters of senior figures in government

  2. Example: Stalin demanded the Politburo expel Molotov's wife from the Party, Molotov abstained but later apologised, in 1949 Stalin had Molotov's wife arrested and imprisoned