Summary Russia and its Rulers 1855–1964 full notes on Stalin with questions
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Russian and its rulers (Y318)
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OCR
This is a summary of notes on Stalin's role as general secretary of the USSR from . It contains notes on Stalin's impact on the economy, society, minorities, workers, the political structure, and Russia's international standing. It also contains notes on Stalin's takeover of Europe after WW2.
The death of Lenin in 1924 resulted in a power struggle with the party over how Russia would be governed. By 1927, Stalin had gained leadership of the Soviet Union
through skillful manipulation of individuals and factions. He quickly promoted a refined version of Marxism-Leninism. There were two parts to Marxism-Leninism-
Stalinism:
1. The ‘base’ of society could only be permanently changed by utilizing a particular type of ‘superstructure’. He went on to implement this through a command
economy centered on Five-Year Plans and collectivization
2. The superstructure had to be highly personalized under the total control of one individual. This would prevent damaging infighting. Disagreement would be labelled
bourgeois and dealt with quickly. The use of propaganda, centering on the cult of personality, and repression would enforce Stalin’s ideology.
Historians have explained this shift from a Lenin-style dictatorship to totalitarianism in a number of different ways:
Stalin’s ideology provided a practical solution to the Soviet Union’s problems through the implementation of FIVE YEAR PLANS and collectivization.
Stalin manipulated Marxism-Leninism to serve his own megalomania, as shown by his repressive policies, and the imposition of the cult of personality.
Stalin was continuing the work of Lenin, who had already made the most significant and decisive reinterpretation of Marxism by establishing the Party Central
Committee and other institutions designed to control the superstructure. Lenin had used the Cheka to deal with opposition and stabilize central control of the
economy.
Stalin and Collectivization:
The Soviet Union was founded on the idea of the smychka (collaboration in society between urban workers and peasantry) and it is why the Soviet Union’s flag contained a
hammer and sickle. In 1929, Stalin introduced a major change to how agriculture had been organized under the NEP. Under collectivization, peasants were forced to give up
their privately owned land and form it into large-scale, state-controlled farms. They would collaborate to produce as much food as possible to feed themselves and the
growing urban proletariat.
Lenin urged a gradual approach to collectivization to be taken, which would result in the creation of ‘civilized cooperatives’ – before Stalin emerged as leader of Russia, only
about 3% of peasant farmers were working on a collective. The famine of 1927-8 prompted Stalin to push for mass collectivization.
In 1928, Stalin travelled to the Urals and Western Siberia and supervised the forced seizure of grain.
Why did Stalin want Collectivization?
1. It was necessary in order to modernize the Soviet Union’s inefficient and outdated farming system. Most farms in the 1920s were small and divided into strips,
similar to English farming in the Middle Ages. Machinery such as tractors and combine harvesters were rarely used, and chemical fertilizers to boost crop
production were almost unknown.
2. Ideologically, Stalin believed that the peasants were not really supporters of communism, so he wanted to change the way farming was organized to ensure they
followed true communist methods.
, 3. Stalin wanted to extend Communist control over the countryside.
4. In 1929 the Soviet Union was over 22 million square kms
5. 75% of the Russian population were employed on the land in 1928
6. ‘Socialism in the countryside’
7. The grain procurement crisis of 1927-28 – the government found that it could not buy enough grains to feed the urban workers. This was because some farmers were
withholding their grain from the market in order to push up prices.
The types of Collectivized farms:
Kolkhozes = These were private collective farms that would allow farming based on much larger units. This would require the peasants to give up their privately run
smallholdings to create larger farms. There losses were not covered by the state.
- By 1940, 240,000 kolkhozees had been created across Russia (most peasants worked on the collective farms)
- After 1935, peasants were given a small area of land to farm for themselves, on which they could also keep a limited number of farm animals.
Sovkhozes = Described by McCauley as a “factories without a roof”. They were established in areas where peasants were seen as workers and paid a fixed wage. If a
sovkhoze made a loss it was covered by the state whereas any loss made by the kolkhozee had to be made good by the peasants themselves. Sovkhozes tended to be larger
than kolkhozees.
Mechanical and Tractor Systems (MTS):
MTSs were set up to rent out farm machinery to groups of collective farms. The stations had several weaknesses:
By 1940 there was one MTS for every 40 collective farms
Never enough tractors to meet demand
Machinery was often unreliable because tractors were badly built and maintained.
Mechanics tended to be peasants who lacked the necessary skills
Expensive so farms were put off – traditional farming methods such as harvesting by hand and using horse drawn lough continued to be used.
MTSs became hated by many peasants as the officials running them were responsible for ensuring the collective farms handed over their grain quotas.
Each MTS had a political department whose job was to spread communist propaganda and spy on peasants.
Why was the implementation of Collectivization difficult?
The government liked to show the installation of collective farms as a voluntary process. They claimed that party officials would go into the villages and tell the peasants
about the advantages of joining a collective farm. A vote would be held in which villagers would willingly agree to combine their farms. However, this approach rarely
worked as most peasants had no wish to collectivize. Wild rumors said that collectivization would lead to the sharing of wives and beds. A mixture of poorer peasants,
Komsomols and politically aware workers were recruited to seek out wealthier peasants and denounce them as kulaks. This helped to create a sense of fear within a
community, which subsequently made it much easier to encourage others to sign up to the collective programme.
Instead of forming collective farms, most peasants rebelled, forcing Stalin to send in the army and secret police to violently enforce the policy:
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