The Government of the Soviet Union (based on the 1936 constitution)

Stalin and power

Introduction

·      Stalin and Bukharin dominant, Bukharin still had significant support

·      1953 Stalin sole leader

·      Policies helped eliminate rivals but other factors important later

Ban on factions

·      Bukharin scared of being accused of factionalism so didn’t argue grain 1928

·      Stalin published disagreements

·      Stalin got Zinoviev and Kamenev to accuse Bukharin of factionalism (or the other way round???)

·      November 1929 expelled from the party

NEP

·      Capitalist economy elements. NEP men unpopular so Stain used it to discredit Bukharin

·      NEP not industrialise fast enough

·      Once Trotsky gone take charge of left

·      Used to bring in Five Year Plan

·      Also linked to faction ban Bukharin scared to speak out

Stalin

·      1941 Stalin chair of Sovnarkom

·      After war – divide and rule

Terror

·      Murder of Kirov – start most terror / purges

·      Show trials eliminated rivals

·      Lower level of party purges

·      Suspended during war

·      Restarted after war

·      Leningrad 1949

·      Mingrelian Affair 1951

·      Doctors plot 1953

·      Links to ban on factions? – had excuse to remove opposition

Second World War

·      Terror reduced

·      Stalin ‘war hero’

·      Propaganda

·      1941 Sovnarkom

·      Need for efficiency

·      State defense committee set up

·      All secured position

Conclusion

·      1921 increase domination, eliminate opposition and ideological orthodoxy

·      Use of terror crucial to maintain power

Was Stalin’s power total?

·      Stalin couldn’t know everything – he had to prioritise

·      Politburo didn’t just agree still some debate e.g. Ryutin was sent to10 years labour rather than execution after he denounced Stalin

Relationship between the Party and the State

·      The relationship was vague and never defined – Stalin used this to his advantage

·      Stalin was essentially in power from 1928 but he only became the chair f the Sovnarkom. The government was largely inneficiant in the 1930’s but war meant there was a need for strong, organised government. In order to better coordinate the two Stalin took leading positions in both the State and the Party

·      Mass terror was ended, Stalin allowed the State to gain power and he created the State Defense Committee (GKO) that was responcible for defense, military production and overseeing the economy

·      What Lenin had called commissars became ministers and the Politburo became the Council of Ministers and later the Presidium

Khrushchev's failures and achievements

Khrushchev's failures

• Failed economy

Foreign policy

• Height of Cold War - Cuban missile crisis, Berlin wall
• Khrushchev repeatedly backed down

Never publicly rejected or criticised Stalin

• Secret speech remained secret

Achievements

Ending of mass terror

• Sacked not murdered

More spread out/ democratic

• E.g. secret speech revised by central committee beforehand

Democratisation of the Party

Khrushchev

Reaction to problems

• Retreat
• Questions of history disciplined for publishing details about terror
• December 1957 - special commission set up and headed by Brezhnev to suppress anti-communism
• New Year's Eve 1957 - speech in which Khrushchev said that "all communists are Stalinists"

Anti-Party group

• June 1957 - Presidium voted to replace Khrushchev but only Central Committee could replace him and he had majority there so he survived
• Opponents sacked
• March 1958 - Khrushchev became Prime Minister

What does it show?

• Not willing to use terror
• Needed central committee to survive

Khrushchev's fall

• Plot in the presidium - accused of creating a dangerous foreign policy and failed economic policy
• Supported by the Central committee
• Khrushchev "retired due to ill health" - given a pension, guards, a luxury car

Problems with De-Stalinisation

Going too far

• Had to be careful not to alienate loyal Stalinists
• Delegates had heart attacks during speech
• People committing suicide after

Not far enough

• Hungary 1956 - rebellion crushed using Soviet troops
• Student demonstrations for multiparty democracy at Moscow State University in 1957 were crushed

Khrushchev's aims

Goals

• End Mass terror
• Continue Lenin's mission
• Rebuild the Party

Methods

• De-Stalinisation
• Democratisation and decentralisation
• Party reforms

Outcomes

• Instability

How far did Khrushchev's Government differ from Stalin's?

Problems in 1953

• Stalin died - leaderless
• Cold War - tensions between USSR and USA
• Poor living conditions
• Shortages of consumer goods e.g. shoes
• People trying to leave
• Housing shortages
• Basic food not much variety
• Reduced population after war

How did he take power?

The contenders for power were

• Georgy Malenkov - he was said to be Stalin's choice of successor. After his death he became Premier of the Soviet Union, the leader of the Soviet Government
• Lavrentiy Beria - leader of Stalin's political police
• Nikita Khrushchev - he was a well liked member of the Politburo and on Stalin's death was appointed Secretary of the Central Committee

The Beria reforms set out to give more power to the Party and the State by restricting the power of the MVD

Beria's rivals were worried that he might use the MVD against them. So in June 1953 at a meeting of the Presidium Beria was arrested and executed. A plot organised by Malenkov and Khrushchev

From mid-1953 to the end of 1954 Khrushchev and Malenkov ruled as a dummvirate. Although they were working together there was still a struggle for power between them. 

Khrushchev used his position as Secretary of the general committee to introduce his supporters in the place of Stalinist Senior officials. Between 1953 and 1956 half of the regional Party secretaries had been replaced by Khrushchev and 44% of the Central committee

Next Khrushchev set out to weaken the State as it was Malenkov's power base. 

Overview of Art and Propaganda under Lenin

• Most Russians saw their first films on agit prop trains
• Experimentation was encouraged and it was a time of creativity
• Futurists - they believed in art for a practical purpose
• Equality reflected in art - artists worked in teams and orchestras did away with conductors, taking notes on how the music was arranged
• Proletkult idea of Alexander Bogdanov
• By 1920 400,000 members
• Bogdanov believed proletkult would move people towards communism
• Lenin shut down it's regional and central offices in 1921 and 1922 as it had been developing as an independent organisation
• Flowering of creativity from before revolution to 1920s
• More than 1000 ROSTA posters were created over a two year period
• Moscow Soviet was draped with the huge banner reading 'the proletariat has nothing to lose but it's chains'
• Even more important than these in Lenin's view were statues
• he provided a list of 66 names and personally unveiled a joint statue of Marx and Engels on the first anniversary of the revolution
• May day and anniversary of the October revolution were great rituals
• Lenin encouraged revolutionary celebrations but he wanted them to be controlled rather than spontaneous

Reenactment of the storming of the winter palace in November 1920

• Involved 10,000 people and included the winter palace
• It had fireworks and music
• More dramatic and damaging to the building than the actual events

Lenin's art and culture

Proletkult

• Aim was to define a unique proletarian culture that would inform and inspire revolutionary Russian Society
• This was to be a collective culture where the 'I' of bourgeois culture would give way to 'we'
• By 1920 there were around 84,000 members working in over 300 studios
• It was an independent organisation - free of communist control
• Flourished from 1917-1920 which was an achievement in the context of the civil war
• Lenin was suspicious of the organisation
• Lenin had it's regional and central offices shut down during 1921 and 1922
• The national congress of proletkult voted and voluntarily merged with the commissariat of education
• Dissenting artists who wanted to stay independent were criticised in the Soviet press

Painting and Sculpture

• Artists associated with the avant-garde collaborated with the government to make posters, sculptures and paintings to encourage support for the regime
• El Litsizky, a graphic designer and photographer created the poster 'beat the whites with the red wedge' in 1918 one of the most famous experimental posters of the civil war
• The poster also inspired sculpture in which a red wedge splits a block of white stone. The sculpture was unveiled in Moscow in October 1918 to celebrate the anniversary of the October Revolution
• 'Beat the whites with the red wedge' was one of over 100 agitprop posters produced during the civil war
• The Russian Telegraph agency (ROSTA) worked with artists to produce posters that were displayed in shop windows or on the side of agit prop trains

Revolutionary cinema

• Lenin believed that cinema was the most important art form of the 20th century and argued that it should be used to inspire support for the government

Dziga Vertov

• He rejected the Hollywood style, including the use of scripts, sets and actors
• He preferred to make 'cinema of fact'
• He used mirror, sped up film, ran film backwards and used montages to achieve experimental effects
• His most famous film 'A man with movie camera' (1929) was filmed in some of the Soviet Unions biggest cities and tells the story of a day in the life of a soviet city
• The Soviet newspaper Pravda described them as 'insane', 'puzzling' and 'laughable'

Art under the NEP

• From 1918 to late 1920 Lenin was preoccupied with winning the war so there was relatively loose control of arts
• During this period Proletkult and Avant-varde artists flourished
• As the civil war came to an end Lenin started to enforce greater control of artistic expression
• Artists were forced to change their style and artistic institutions were attacked and in some cases closed
• E.g. Malevich sent his most radical paintings to Germany in 1927 and adopted a more conventional style at the end of his life
• The Petrograd institute of Artistic culture was forced to close in 1926 following a campaign against avant grade art in Pravda

Foreign Fashions

• From the mid-1920s the government was critical of the influence of American fashion and music on young people
• Fashion from the USA, particularly clothes associated with the flapper style and jazz were extremely popular with young people in the soviet cities
• Party leaders claimed that the new fashion and the rhythmic new music encouraged sexual promiscuity and drunkenness
• They were also concerned that young people would rather dance than attend lectures on revolutionary politics
• From the mid-1920s Communist party bosses were using OGPU to break up parties where jazz was played

Collective farms

• Larger farms merging together smaller peasant holders
• Pool labour and resources
• Improve efficiency
• Free up labour for industry
• Collect grain for workers and export and sellStalin makes up Marxism because wasn't specific
• Create "socialist agrotowns"

3 types

Toz (Least common)

• Peasants own land
• Share machinery
• Coop in harvesting

Sovkhov (Stalin preferred)

• Owned by state
• Peasants paid a regular wage

Kolkhoz

• Land joint owned
• Run by elected committee
• Land, tools, crops and livestock shared
• Peasants also had own plot of land for vegetables and animals if wanted to

Terror

• 25,000ers enforce collectivisation - return to Moscow with news of collapsing country side
• Took Kulaks' tools, machinery and animals
• Forced peasants to sign letters saying they wanted collectivisation
• Kulaks shot, sent to gulags or deported (approx. 10 million)

Propaganda

• Turn peasants against kulaks
• "dizzy with success"

1930s - Stalin realised workers need incentive

1932 - allowed peasants to sell in market

1934 - increased prices for state-procured wheat and rye

1940 - markets 19% of retail trade turnover - embarrassing for Party

The Show Trials - how to remember

1936 - Trial of the 16

• Targeted the left
• Kamenev and Zinoviev

1937 - Trial of the 17

• Trotskyites and wreckers

1938 - Trial of the 21

• Targeted the right
• Bukharin

Stalin's Government

How did the Politburo change?

1924

• Met weekly

1930

• Only surviving member of the group was Stalin
• Everyone else knew not to challenge
• Met only nine times a year

1936 Constitution

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

But...

• Can only vote for chosen candidates
• No need for political parties as there was no need

Causes of the Great Terror

Long term

• Economic problems - NEP not working - there were problems with Stalin's agricultural and industrial policies - 5yps controversial
• Paranoid about being overthrown
• Politburo opposition
• Rivalries within the party

Short term

• In the congress of victors in February 1934 Stalin came second in the election for the new central committee. Kirov came first and was urged to challenge Stalin which threatened Stalin's position
• Kirov's murder was the justification for launching the terror. Stalin claimed it was part of a conspiracy that aimed to overthrow the communist government

Did Stalin create a personal dictatorships?

1922 Lenin appointed Stalin general Secretary

• Others didn't want it
• Had access to information - control of 26,000 files on members
• Had power of the day to day running
• Decided agendas for meeting
• Supervised Lenin Enrolment in 1923 to 1925 (128,000 joined mostly poorly educated just want jobs)
• Power of patronage - could promote people into party positions
• Stalin understood how great an opportunity it could be

How Stalin came to power

Contenders to power

Gregory Zinoviev

• Lenin's closest friend
• He argued for Lenin's testament to be ignored and spoke against Trotsky

Nikolai Bukharin

• 1925 to 1928 most prominent in Soviet Government
• 1925 he formed an alliance with Stalin
• Claim to Leninism was that he was close to him and had supported Lenin
• Although it was well known disagreed sometimes
• Some thought he was too young to lead

Trotsky

• Most famous besides Lenin
• Known as revolutionary hero thanks to the october revolution
• 1917 he was Lenin's right hand man
• But not popular in the communist party
• - He had opposed Lenin (between 1903-1917)
• - Some thought he only joined the party to gain power
• - Had had disagreements with Lenin

Stalin

• Stalin could prove he was loyal
• - He had joined the party at the beginning
• - Had been royal right up until 1922
• In 1922 Lenin was too ill to fight back
• - His disloyalty was kept a secret from majority

Stalin removed opposition by

• He said his opponents were enemies of Lenin and set up his own ideological orthodoxy
• Demanding apologies from Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev to the party for losing votes
• Accused Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev of forming a faction (which had been banned) and plotting against Lenin

The party's support

Stalin introduced "Lenin Enrolment" in 1924

• From May 1924 128,000 were allowed ti join the communist party
• Stalin justified it by saying the party needed new working class members
• These new members were on the whole ill-educated
• They supported Stalin because he had the power to promote
• Had the result by 1928 recruits less interested in ideas or goals and more about their careers
• Had control of party members because had power to promote or sack

Industrialisation - Stalin

• Stalin aimed to overtake capitalism in 10 years because he feared otherwise they would be destroyed
• The First 5 year plan set production targets for iron, steel, coal and oil - these targets were ludicrous and unrealistic

Magnitogorsk

• Iron rich fields
• Became a iron mine and industrial town
• City was disorganised not much food or coal to keep warm and nowhere proper to stay
• Dangerous - many accidents
• People came with enthusiasm
• No technical education - some had never seen a lightbulb
• Optimism that tomorrow would be better
• By 1936 4,000 tons of pig iron was produced every day                 
• Repairs left undone
• Machinery pushed to unsafety
• If made a mistake were classed as a saboteur
• 35,000 kulaks in Magnitogorsk 1936-7 were accused for simple errors and killed
• People would say "if only Stalin knew"

How successful were the plans?

• Brutal but did industrialise and make them ready for war     

The way that Government gained control of the Media

Control of the Media

• Decree on Press in November 1917 which meant that the government could shut down any counter-revolutionary newspapers
• Only the government could publish adverts
• Petrograd telegraph Agency in November 1917 had control of electric communication
• Revolutionary tribunal of the Press January 1918 that censored the press
• All-Russia Telegraph Agency which distributed images

Cult of Lenin

• Propaganda centred around Lenin was produced
• Lenin didn't approve of all of the pictures
• After an assassination attempt he was seen as more than a man by some
• This continued with statues and posters being made
• During 1919 and 1920 Lenin was depicted as a man of the people

• In the first years event-garde artists produced pro-revolutionary posters
• In 1922 Dzerzhinsky introduced Glavlit which monitored a more organised censorship regime
• - Got rid of "bad" books

Commissariat of Popular enlightenment

• Tried to recruit poets, artists, musicians and teachers
• Teachers for example shared enthusiasm for literacy and numeracy for all
• But teachers only paid and given rations if they conformed
• Artists would also be given money, rations etc if they cooperated it was this that brought them into line rather than censorship
• Supported Proletkult - art by the proletariat

• 1926 onwards clamp down on American culture
• Only one radio station
• Put loud speakers in public places

Proletkult

• 1920 - 84,000 people involved in 300 studios
• Bukharin promoted through Pravda
• Lenin wasn't keen - liked art of the past - did't like self expressive art
• Gorn (meaning furnace) - magazine 

Glavlit

• A way of getting intellectuals on side
• Set up by Dzerhinsky (Cheka)
• Mayakovsk - a futurist poet that wrote eulogies for factories (part of Glavlit)
• Yesenin - Wrote about virtues of peasantry but drank and smoked cigars in 1921 wrote confessions of a hooligan - In 1925 committed suicide

Agit-prop

• Agitational Propaganda
• Agit-trains, agit-steamships
• Speeches at every stop on journey
• Department of Agitational Propaganda set up in 1920 to manage the agitprop

Self improvement of workers

• Literacy, numeracy, punctuality
• Lenin thought it was essential to help understand propaganda
• Consiouness
• Hygiene
• Common good over self