History revision 1

• Strengths of Trotsky


  • He could rival Lenin on intelligence and on his writings on Marxist theory, and was a good orator, able to manipulate and rouse crowds, making him particularly popular with the younger, more radical elements of the party
  • He had made a massive contribution between 1917 and 1924, including planning the October Revolution, and leading the Red Army, which played a crucial role in the Civil War victory
• Weaknesses of Stalin


  • There was no real evidence for him playing a key role in the October Revolution or the Civil War
  • In his Last Testament, Lenin wrote that Stalin should not become leader, and Stalin's Russian was very poor; he had a thick accent of his native Georgia
• Of industrialisation


  • Industrialisation was organised into a series of three Five-Year Plans between 1928 and 1941
  • There was a change in the location of industry, which began to grow in the previously barren eastern regions of Russia, including Siberia
  • The process of industrialisation was overseen by 'Gosplan' (The State Planning Authority)
  • Working conditions severely deteriorated
• Collectivisation


  The end of small farms owned by individual peasants, and the pooling of their fields, tools, and animals to work together on a kolkhoz – a collective farm
• Under Lenin, marriage and divorce had been made easy, and abortion had been legalised
• Kulaks


  Slightly richer peasants, whom Stalin believed to be hoarding food for their own consumption
• De-kulakisation


  1. Deployment of squads made up of party members and secret police (OGPU) to arrest and send kulaks to labour camps

  2. Approximately 25% of the kulak population died as a result of ill-treatment
• Food production fell


  Due to the refusal of peasants to hand over their land and the transition period in which the kolkhoz farms were set up
• Huge shortage of grain


  Yet Stalin continued to increase exports, leading to famine
• Six million people died of starvation by 1933, leading to even more opposition to collectivisation
• Marriage and divorce


  Made easy under Lenin, but created large numbers of broken homes and homeless children
• Changes under Stalin in the 1930s

  1. Abortion restricted

  2. Divorce made more difficult to obtain

  3. Child allowances introduced for married couples
• Women's employment


  • Some took on jobs which had once only been done by men, such as engineering
  • Life remained hard, expected to work full time and raise a family
• Politically, women remained second-class citizens, less than twenty per cent of the Communist Party was made up of women, and very few women rose to prestigious position in the government
• This was an improvement on many European countries, such as Germany, where women had no involvement at all in politics
• Stalin was concerned that his enemies were plotting to overthrow him


  He wanted to eliminate any opponents who could potentially form an alternative government
• Stalin claimed Kirov's murder was part of a conspiracy against him and the Party, and used it as an excuse to begin the Great Purge
• Stalin's fear of a conspiracy


  Extended to some sort of persecution complex, he feared that everyone was plotting against him
• The purges


  Provided mass forced labour for Stalin's industrial projects
• Failure to achieve targets under the Five-Year Plans


  Could be blamed on industrial sabotage rather than faults in the plan
• Stalin wished to purge the kulaks, as they were the main source of opposition to his policy of collectivisation
• The purges of the 1930s


  • No one was immune, victims included those who criticised or opposed Stalin's economic plans, and Party members who were a potential threat to his position
  • Implemented by the secret police (NKVD), under the leadership of Yezhov
  • Many of those purged ended up in labour camps known as gulags
• The 'decree against terrorist acts'


  Enabled police to arrest people without charge or trial, and execute them on the spot
• The gulags


  • Set up by the secret police in Siberia and the Arctic north
  • Inmates were forced to do hard, manual work on government construction projects
  • Living conditions were appalling, and about thirteen million people died as a result of cold, hunger, and ill-treatment
• The 'Show Trials'


  1. Began in 1936, Stalin purged the Communist Party of anyone who might try to overthrow him

  2. Accused were forced to confess to a range of crimes, and were then executed
• The accused were often tortured, or had their families threatened

  To make them confess
• The confessions


  Appeared to justify Stalin's Great Purge, by demonstrating that there was a plot to overthrow him
• The Show Trials


  Portrayed Stalin as a strong and ruthless leader, who would crush any opposition
• Impact of the purges on the Soviet Union


  • Stalin had total control over the USSR, by 1940 he had arrested and executed almost every key Bolshevik from the 1917 Revolution, as well as over half of the Central Committee
  • Undermined the progress of Stalin's policies of industrialisation and collectivisation, many able scientists, administrators, and engineers were arrested, executed, or imprisoned
  • Purging of the kulaks created much opposition to collectivisation, leading to a fall in agricultural production
  • Weakened the armed forces, 50% of army officers were executed, including senior figures
• Cult of personality


  Glorification of the leader and almost deifying them, developed by Stalin using propaganda
• Stalin's propaganda programme


  1. Poems, plays, streets and cities named after him

  2. Huge parades, films, statues, and paintings showing him as a great leader

  3. Artists, writers, and film directors instructed to produce works in praise of Stalin and his achievements

  4. Strict censorship and 'social realism' policy for creative works

  5. Rewriting history to glorify Stalin's role and remove opponents
• The widespread propaganda campaign was directed particularly at children
• Stalin's purges


  Heavily affected the Red Army, 50% of officers were executed
• The Russians were unprepared for the German invasion


  Due to the shock of the attack and Stalin's lack of response
• The German advance


  Severely handicapped by the extreme Soviet weather during the winter of 1941-42
• Stalin's response to the German invasion


  1. Introduced a 'scorched earth' policy

  2. Replaced useless army leaders with more able men

  3. Appealed to patriotism

  4. Used effective tactics like guerrilla warfare

  5. Moved factories east of the Ural Mountains
• Hitler's mistakes


  Launching Operation Barbarossa too late in the year, and sacrificing too many soldiers trying to hold on to Stalingrad
• The USSR's powerful industry was crucial to its success, Stalin's policy of rapid industrialisation had made it the second largest industrial nation by 1940
• From November 1941, the US government began giving aid to the USSR, in the form of over a billion dollars' worth of supplies, which greatly helped the USSR to defeat the Germans
• Stalin's position was strengthened by the victory in the Second World War, yet he kept up his purges and harsh policies