a detailed plan for essay question i have found for chapt 1 - communist government lenin - yeltsin
this got me an A* in th4e history exam, and nearly 100% in this paper
• To what extent did Stalin's power over the Party change between 1928 and 1953?
Intro
- Stalin’s power over the party mostly changed between 1928 ad 1953, as he used force and
political reforms to create an authoritarian regime where he had absolute control over the party
- Change of power over party = a changing in position, so that he did not have the fear of being
opposed
- When Stalin came to power in 1989, he did not have absolute control of the party, however by
1953 he did = shows a signi cant change in power
P1
- Stalin’s power over the party changed between 1928 and 1953 as he transformed the party
from an organisation in which there were a large number of people with authority, to an
organisation in which just Stalin had authority over
- This shows that his power over the party did change between 1928 and 53 as it was a
signi cant change in position from somewhat pluralist to having Stalin as the undisputed
leader
- this was done by packing the party with his own allies and people loyal to him, and out
manoeuvring political rivals
- Stalin initiated the Lenin Enrolment Scheme - allowed 500,000 people to join the party,
mostly poorly-educated and interested in having a job - they tended to support Stalin
personally, who was able to promote them within the party
- Stalin used his power of patronage as general secretary to appoint his supporters to party
positions
- He used this to pack the politburo with his cronies eg Molotov until it became dominated
by people loyal to Stalin. When it came to votes on party issues, Stalin could always
outvote his opponents
- The politburo met less and less as Stalin increased control - in the 1920s it meet weekly
but by mid 1930s, only around 9 times a year
- When it didn’t meet, stalin adopted the intimidating tactic of walking around - if people
said something wrong they were punished eg the head of air force said something about
poor quality of planes was shot
- Power became focused in subgroups outside the politburo which Stalin could extent
power over
- He accused his enemies - Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev, of plotting against the party and
forming a faction and branded his opponents enemies of Leninism
- This meant that by 1953, the party had gone from having high pro le individuals with their
own power bases to being completely loyal to Stalin singularly
- This shows change in party power
P2
- Stalin’s power over the party changed between 1928 and 1953 as he used terror to create a
party that was wholly obedient to him personally. This shows transformation as the party went
from individuals not facing much threat in 1929 t being scared of purges and imprisonement /
torture / exile / death if they opposed Stalin
- The purges of the 1930s were launched in response to opposition from the politburo, Stalin’s
own paranoid nature, and support within the party for those that weren’t Stalin (eg Kirov)
- The great terror was responsible for the deaths of around 10 million soviet citizens
- Kirov, a moderate, commanded some power in the party - He won more votes then Stalin at the
congress of victors 1934 where the new central committee was elected , argued for more
realistic targets and consumer goods in the FYPs. Many urged him to stand against Stalin as
general secretary of the party
- His murder in 1934 (believed to be on Stalin’s order, but no conclusive evidence of this) began
the great purge, which Stalin used to consolidate his power over the party by removing his
enemies or anyone who could be an enemy, and making sure that the party was too scared to
oppose him in the future
- 95% of those a ected by the terror in the party held senior positions or played important
economic roles
fi ff fi fi
, - Show Trials of 1936,7,8 - public trials that led to the deaths of Stalin’s rivals within the party
- Trial of 16: execution of Zinoviev and Kamenev and 14 of their supporters
- Trial of 17: execution of 17 of Trotsky supporters (killed w an ice pick in Mexico in 1940)
- Trial of 21: execution of Bukharin and closest supporters
- during the chistka there were sweeping purges at a local level - Stalin read lists and added
names or commenting that more needed be purged. A quota system was used where each
branch had its own target to meet.
- The fact that the great terror was launched at a time when party position (unlike under Lenin)
was secure, shows that Stalin’s purges were to increase his own control over the party
- Therefore there was a signi cant change in power over the party between 1928-53, as by 1953,
if members of the party did not t in with Stalin’s wishes or even seemed like they’d be
opposed, they’d be dealt with by terror
P3
- however it could be argued that Stalin’s power over the party did not change between 1928
and 1953
- This is as there were still limits to his power and so arguably he was not an authoritarian leader
by 1953
- The Politburo was not consistently Stalin’s stooges. When he set ambitious targets for the
second ve year pan, the politburo disagreed and Stalin accepted lower targets
- Limits from below: party members exerted pressure rom below - eg they implemented
collectivism overzealously , and there is evidence that local levels of purges were caused by
local pressure rather then Stalin
- During the war, Stalin’s control of the party was arguably not as strong as he relied on the
party for coordinating the country through war - reduced use of terror and freed prisoners to
help with the war e ort
- There is evidence that towards the end of his life, Stalin’s power over the party was
diminished as powerful individuals such as Beria and Malenkov gained power and joined the
politburo. The politburo was then expanded and Stalin’s closest allies were brought in who
had no ties to them as part of this - Stalin’s failure to remove his opponents and their
supporters shows some limit on his power over the party
- therefore it could be argued that Stalin’s power over the party did not change from 1928 to 53
as arguably he was not fully in control of the party by 1953
- however after the war, the party leadership moved quickly to reassert its authority rg built up
cult of personality, reversed concessions on control
- Therefore this argument is weaker as there was a huge fundamental shift from 1928 to 53 in the
way Stalin’s power over the party changed, as it he changed his power from being a leader of
the party in 1928 to being an essential dictatorship where people were too scared to oppose
him, and he could completely dominate the party
fi ff fi fi
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