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