1936 constitution

• Appearance of democracy
• Everyone can vote (even kulaks and priests because they thought the classes no longer existed)
• Guaranteed jobs (compared to great depression everywhere else)
• Freedom of press (in theory)

But...

• Can only vote for chosen candidates

Politburo under Stalin

1924 - met weekly
Bukharin, Stalin and Trotsky main members

1930 - met 9 times a year
Only surviving member of the group was Stalin - Everyone else knew not to challenge

The Show Trials

1936 - trial of the 16 - Targeted the left, Zinoviev and Kanenev

1937 - trial of the 17 - Targeted Trotskyites and wreckers

1938 - trial of the 21 - Targeted the right and Bukharin 

Causes of the great terror

Long term

• Economic problems - NEP not working, Five year plans controversial
• Stalin's paranoia
• Rivalries within the party
• Politburo opposition

Short term

• In the congress of victors in February 1934 Stalin second in the election for the central committee. Kirov came first and was urged to challenge Stalin
• Kirov was murdered by the NKVD and Stalin used this as justification for launching the terror. Stalin claimed it was part of a conspiracy that aimed to over through the communist government

General Secretary and Lenin Enrolment

1922 Lenin appointed Stalin general secretary

• Others didn't want the position
• Had access to information
• Control of day to day running
• Decided the agendas for meetings
• Had access to 26,000 files on members
• Had peer of patronage - could promote people into party positions
• Supervised Lenin Enrolment

Lenin Enrolment

• In 1923 to 1925 - 128,000 new members joined the communist party

Lenin's Government

The Sovnarkom

• An elected council of people's commissars that ruled Russia
• Lenin was the chairman
• Set up 26th October 1917

Poliburo

• Set up on 18th August 1917
• It was the top of the Bolshevik party and was set up to decide questions too urgent to be decided by the central committee
• The Poliburo sidelined the government
• For much of 1919-1991 it was effectively the Government

Nomeklatura

• Set up in 1923
• It was a list of jobs that were appointed by the communist party officials
• Meaning that you could only get the job if you were a communist

Treaty of Brest-litovst

• This ended Russia's involvement in the war
• Signed on March 3rd 1918
• Lenin had to sign it because he needed to concentrate on the civil war
• Russia had to concede a lot of land
• E.g. Russia lost 26% of railways

Constituent assembly

• It was meant to be an elected committee
• The elections were held in late 1917
• The Bolsheviks won 175 seats out of 707
• The social revolutionaries won 370
• At the first meeting on 18th January 1918 Lenin used the red guard to shut it down

The Civil War

• A number of parties that opposed the bolshevik rule grouped together - the whites
• They tried to overthrow the Bolsheviks (the reds) but failed
• It lasted from October 1917- March 1921
• It was because of the civil war that war communism was introduced
• Trotsky was a key player
• The greens didn't fight for either side - they just fought to protect their land

Other

• On December 1st all non-Bolshevik newspapers were banned
• On December 20th the Cheka was set up
• On December 27th baks were under Bolshevik control

How did Lenin use media and propaganda to control people?

Opera and ballet weren't sponsored or supported and galleries were looted and the art sold off

Probolshevik plays, arts and choirs were supported instead.

Practically no operas, ballets or symphonies were written but also very few light hearted apolitical works either

There were lots of

• Posters
• Statues e.g. Marx and Engels in october 1918
• Busts of Lenin
• Speeches
• Zinoviev wrote lenin's biography in 1918
• Procession especially on May Day to celebrate the october revolution - building on existing religious culture
• Concerts

Cinema
"Of all the arts, for us cinema is the most important" - Lenin

• Film of Lenin at the Kremlin
• Few cinemas were in operation and few peasants knew what a cinema was
• Agin-Trains took films around the country
• People preferred Charlie Chaplin to Soviet propaganda

Government by 1924

• More centralised
• Less debate
• Few making decisions
• more detached from the proletariat

Consequences of the Civil war on the people

• 10 million died - at least 1 million in combat
• Reds - 2 million
• Whites - 500,000
• Pogroms - 300,000
• At least 3 million died of hunger, disease and colds

Timeline - 1960s

1960

• U2 plane (Gary Powers) - Tensions build

1961

• Bay of pigs
• Yuri Gagarin - first man in space - Russia ahead in the space race

1962

• Cuban missile crisis
• Khrushchev backs down - seen as weak - unpopular
• November - division of party into two parts - industrial and agricultural

1964

• Khrushchev out of power
• November - CC Plenum - annulled Khrushchev's reforms

Timeline - 1950s

1953

• Stalin dies
• Beria reforms
• Beria killed off
• Malenkov and Krushchev rule as duumvirate
• Korean war ended
• Malenkov realises agriculture needs more investment
• Krushchev starts gaining power as Malenkov gets weaker

1954

• Virgin land scheme

1955

• Khrushchev takes power but doesn't kill Malenkov
• Most prison camps were closed
• Khrushchev begins to cut military spending

1956

• February - secret speech
• 1956 Reform

1957

• Sputnik launched
• February - 105 local councils given control of economic planning
• June - Presidium voted to replace Khrushchev but only the central committee had the power to get rid of him and they were still on his side
• World youth festival
• On New Years eve he gives a speech saying "all communists are Stalinists"

1958

• Khrushchev takes the title of Premier - officially in power
• 1958 Reform
• Record crops

1959

• Seven year plan
• Khrushchev goes to America
• Khrushchev said to Eisenhower "we will bury you"

Timeline - 1940s

1940

• Stalin overthrows governments of the baltic
• Trotsky killed

1941

• Germany invades Russia - operation Barberosa
• Stalin chair of the Sovnarkom
• Operation Typhoon - Germans try to capture Moscow

1942

• Battle of Stalingrad - 2 million die

1943

• Tehran conference - allies plan ahead

1945

• Soviets reach Berlin - end of WW2
• Yolta - allies meet up
• Potstans - allies meet up

1947-1949

• Communism in eastern Europe

1949

• Atomic bomb
• Beginning of arms race
• Cold war - "war of words"

Timeline - 1930s

1931

• Enforced collectivisation

1932

• Famine (1932-34)

1933

• Second five year plan (January - December 1937)

1934

• Congress of victors - Stalin got less votes than Kirov
• Kirov murdered
• NKVD
• Great terror begins
• Gulags set up (forced labour camps)

1936

• Trial of the 16 - Zinoviev, Kamenev and the left

1937

• Trial of the 17 - Trotskyites and wreckers
• Order number 00447 - NKVD list of 250,000 people to kill
• Lots of targets - systematic purges
• Height of purges
• Killing red army

1938

• Trial of the 21 - Bukharin and the right
• Stalin showing no mercy (threatened to kill Bukharin's wife and new born baby)
• Yezhov resigns replaced by Beria as head of the NKVD

1939

• Outbreak of WW2 - Nazi Soviet pact - Red army attacks Finland

Timeline - 1920s

1920

• Peasants rebellion

1921

• March - Civil War ends
• War communism abandoned
• Economic meltdown and famine
• NEP introduced
• Ban on factions

1922

• Creation of the USSR
• Cheka replaced by GPU

1923

• Nomeklatura
• Truumvirate - Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin

1924

• Death of Lenin
• Power vacuum - everyone fighting for power

1925

• Duumvirate

1928

• First five year plan (lasts 4 years)

1929

• Mass collectivisation - liquidation of the Kulaks
• End of NEP
• Stalin gives speech - says it is the beginning of Stalin's Russia - criticizes Lenin

Timeline - 1910s

1917

• February revolution
• March - Provisional government formed (Aprill Thesis)
• October revolution/ the revolution
• Sovnarkom early decrees - Abolition of class distinctions - Abolition of the justice system
• Politburo set up
• Cheka set up

1918

• November the Civil War begins????
• March - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• June - the introduction of war communism