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RUSSIA, 1917-39

HBS revision notes

A) The Nature of Tsarist rule

In the early years of the c20th, Russia was ruled over by Tsars. Tsarist Russia was very traditional:

Political power:

● Autocracy meant that the Tsar had absolute power. He could make laws, appoint ministers
and decide on all polices completely on his own.
● The Tsars had traditionally relied on repression to deal with opposition. The secret police, the
Okhrana, were very efficient and street disturbances were broken up by the Cossacks.
● Repression meant that opposition groups also tended to be violent. Nicholas’s grandfather,
Alexander II, was killed by a bomb in 1881.

Society:

● In Russia there were extremes of wealth and poverty, far greater than in any other European
country. These were made worse by big increases in the populations of the two main cities, St
Petersburg and Moscow.
● The number of people living in these cities nearly doubled between 1880 and 1914. This led to
overcrowding, shortages of food and unrest. The opposition groups in Russia took advantage
of this situation. In 1917 events in Petrograd were all important.
● Russia was a very backward country. Only 2% of the population worked in industry, 80%
worked in agriculture, which was often very primitive, and there was 80% illiteracy.
● Many Russians distrusted Western ideas and preferred to use old-fashioned methods. This
included the army commanders who thought the bayonet was the most important weapon.

Political opposition:

● There were many opposition groups in Russia. The most powerful and the biggest was the
Socialist-Revolutionaries. They were strongest in the countryside, where they were supported
by many peasants.
● The Bolsheviks, part of the Social Democrats (the other part was the Mensheviks) were to be
the most significant. All of these groups used violence.

B) The Revolution of 1905:

What happened?

● On Bloody Sunday (22 January 1905) a peaceful march of 200,000 people made its way to
the Winter Palace, led by Father Gapon. It was demanding better working conditions.
● Guards panicked and fired on the crowd – 100s were killed.
● Following Bloody Sunday, there were strikes and a mutiny in the navy.

Why did these events occur?

● Russia was a deeply unequal society with the poor experiencing terrible conditions.
● Urbanisation was compounding the problems experienced by poor Russians.
● Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. This was deeply humiliating.
● Tsar Nicholas II was perceived as weak.

What were the consequences of the 1905 revolution?

● Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto. This promised:

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o Civil liberties for all people, including freedom from arrest and freedom of conscience,
speech, assembly and association
o The creation of a State Duma, which would have to agree to all laws
o Universal suffrage for the election of the Duma.

● However, the Manifesto had little impact as Nicholas ensured that Dumas had little power:

o Nicholas soon changed his mind; the Duma met in 1906 but was closed by Nicholas
after seventy-two days. Three more Dumas met in the next ten years, but each had
fewer powers and was elected on a narrower franchise.
o Nicholas retained the title of Autocrat and continued to appoint and dismiss ministers.
Laws continued to be promulgated by the government without reference to the Duma.
There was no apparent relaxation in the power of the Tsar's secret police the
Okhrana.
o In fact Nicholas had probably never intended to honour his promises. He had been
forced to agree to the Manifesto under threat of force. He deliberately omitted any
reference to the word 'constitution' and retained the word 'Autocrat'.

● Indeed, repression eventually followed the revolution. Nicholas appointed Peter Stolypin as
prime minister. Although he did introduce certain reforms, especially of education and
agriculture, he also executed more than 3,000 Russians.

C) Why did Tsar Nicholas become unpopular in the years leading up to 1914?

● Rasputin's influence grew from 1905, but became very important after the Tsar made himself
Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1915. Nicholas left Petrograd and never returned.
● Alexandra, Nicholas’s wife was stupid and short-sighted. She was unpopular in Russia
because she was German and was suspected of being a German spy after the outbreak of
war. She gave Nicholas a very misleading picture of events in Petrograd in 1916 and 1917.

D) The impact of the First World War

The First World War had a major impact upon the popularity of Nicholas II. Russia entered the war in
1914. The Russian army suffered a number of serious defeats.

Why did the Russian army experience defeats?

● The Russian generals believed that they could win the war against Germany easily. They did
not realise how powerful the German Army was. In 1914, for example, the Generals moved
their armies too rapidly into East Prussia, believing that the war would quickly be over.
● The Russian Army was poorly equipped and old-fashioned. Soldiers had no boots or winter
coats
● The Russians relied on the bayonet. They had few machine-guns and most of their soldiers
were untrained.
● Russian industry was not able to keep the army supplied. There were 6,000,000 men in the
army, but only 4,500,000 rifles. There were not enough steelworks or explosives factories.
Consequently, Soldiers went into action with no rifles. They were told to take them from
soldiers who had been killed.
● There were inadequate medical supplies. Thousands of casualties were left unattended.
18,000 were left on a Petrograd station for a week.
● To try to put things right, Nicholas appointed himself Commander-in-Chief in 1915. This meant
that he was now directly responsible, before he was able to blame his generals. As he had no
military experience, he was no use as a commander. He also left Petrograd never to return.
He had to rely on Alexandra for information. As law and order in Petrograd broke down,
Nicholas was out of touch with events.

What consequences did the war have for Russia?

● There were major economic problems:

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o The railway network was inadequate and soon broke down. There was plenty of food,
but not enough locomotives to pull the trains.
o What trains were available were diverted to carry food and munitions to the army.
o This led to severe shortages of food. The worst affected places were Petrograd and
Moscow. Food shortages led to inflation.
o In Petrograd prices rose by 300%, because the war meant that more and more people
flocked into the city to work in the munitions factories.

● The Tsar’s presence at the front damaged him politically. He appeared to be personally
responsible for the Russian defeats.

● The Tsar’s standing was also damaged by the actions of Rasputin and the Tsarina:
o The running of the country was left in the hands of the Tsarina. She refused to take
advice from middle-class members of the duma.
o Rasputin began to influence the Tsar through the Tsarina. He persuaded her to ask
her husband to dismiss ministers and change military tactics.
o The unpopularity of the Royal family and Rasputin was strongest in Petrograd. There
were many rumours that Rasputin was having an affair with the Tsarina.
o Rumours spread about the influence of Rasputin and his relationship with the Tsarina.
Eventually he was murdered in December 1916 by a group of Russian nobles
o The Tsarina was accused of being a German spy

▪ During the war more and more people had crowded into Petrograd to find work in the munitions
factories. They lived squashed together in working class districts near the city centre.

E) The February Revolution – 1917

What happened?

● By January 1917 there was increasing unrest in Petrograd; then on 22 February the
temperature improved by 20 degrees C.
● International Women’s Day was held on 23 February; there were parades and
demonstrations. This led to strikes and by 25 February half the workers were on strike.
● The Tsar was kept informed by his wife and Rodzianko, the Chairman of the Duma. The
Tsarina told him that all was well and that there were only minor disturbances.
● Rodzianko said that there was a serious crisis and that a new government must be formed.
The Tsar believed his wife. He thought that Rodzianko was just trying to use the situation to
become prime minister.
● By 27th and 28th February there were many demonstrations by workers and when troops were
sent to stop the unrest, the Garrison of Petrograd supported the strikers. There were 340,000
troops in the city but they were mostly recruits.
● When the Tsar tried to return on 1 March it was too late. He was forced to abdicate on 2 March
in favour of his brother, Michael. His brother abdicated on 3 March.
● In March 1917 a Provisional Government was formed by members of the Duma. The first
prime minister was Prince Lvov.

Why did these events happen?

● The war had led to social hardship and discontent.

● The Tsar had been damaged politically by the war.
● The Tsar was absent from Petrograd and unaware of the development of events.

F) The Provisional Government

What was the Provisional Government?

The Provisional Government was set up in March 1917. It promised to bring about reforms in Russia.
It was intended to be a temporary government and it promised elections to a new Constituent
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Assembly (a permanent Parliament) would take place soon. The prime minister was Prince Lvov. It
was composed of middle-class politicians and was initially supported by the Bolsheviks.

What weaknesses did the Provisional Government have?

● The Provisional Government was only ever intended to be a temporary government. It had not
been elected and so had no popular mandate.
● The members believed that they could take no major decisions until a proper government had
been elected, so they continued the war against Germany. This was an unpopular decision,
especially when there was a major defeat in June 1917 which resulted in more than 60,000
deaths.
● The Provisional Government had little authority outside of Petrograd and even inside the city it
had to contend with the Petrograd Soviet (see below)
● The Provisional Government made no attempt to introduce land reform, which many peasants
wanted. The Provisional Government did try to tackle the problems of shortages and inflation,
but, during the summer of 1917, rations in Petrograd fell.
● The Provisional Government was weakened by opposition from Lenin and also from Kornilov.

What was the Petrograd Soviet?

● The Petrograd Soviet was a council elected by the soldiers and workers of Petrograd, so it
had far more authority than the Provisional Government. It governed Petrograd and was
controlled at first by the Socialists-Revolutionaries.
● It issued Military Order Number One; this stated that orders from the Provisional Government
were only to be obeyed if they were approved by the Soviet.
● For the next eight months the Provisional Government always had to gain the approval of the
Soviet. This created chaos in Petrograd.

G) Lenin and the Bolsheviks in 1917

● In March 1917 Lenin was living in Switzerland. He was sent back to Russia by the Germans,
who hoped that he would create as much trouble as possible, which would undermine the
Russian war effort.
● Lenin returned to Petrograd in April 1917 and immediately published the ‘April Theses’. These
called for:
o an end to the war with Germany,
o the abolition of the Provisional Government and all power to the Soviets, all property
and land to be taken over by the state,
o all banks united into National Bank and put under the control of the Soviets, all
factories to come under the control of the Soviets,
o the army to be transformed into a national militia.

● Lenin believed that he could take advantage of the chaos caused by the February Revolution
to seize power in Russia.
● He was determined to stir up as much trouble as possible and to attract as much support by
making extravagant promises, which he had no intention of keeping, e.g. allowing peasants to
take land.
● The Bolsheviks first tried to seize power in Petrograd in May, but failed.
● In July they tried again. Soldiers and Bolsheviks took to the streets and tried to seize power.
This became known as the ‘July Days’.
● The Provisional Government was saved by the army. The Bolshevik leaders were all either
arrested and put in jail, or they fled to Finland.
● After the July Days, Prince Lvov resigned and Alexander Kerensky became prime minister. He
had been a Socialist-Revolutionary before becoming Minister for War in the Provisional
Government.

H) The Kornilov Revolt

What happened?
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● In August the army commander-in-chief, General Kornilov believed that Kerensky was about
to end the war. He ordered his arrest.
● Kornilov ordered the army to march on Petrograd and to seize power from Kerensky.
● As the army marched on Petrograd, Kerensky asked the Bolsheviks to save him. Lenin agreed
if they were let out of jail and given weapons.
● Bolsheviks were therefore released from prison and the Bolshevik Red Guard was allowed to
arm.
● Railway workers prevented Kornilov entering Petrograd and the coup failed. Kornilov was
arrested.

What were the consequences of the Kornilov revolt?

● Kerensky’s government appeared very weak.

● The Bolsheviks increased in strength. Many had been released from prison and were now
armed.
● The Bolsheviks could now be presented as saviours of Petrograd rather than as the rebels of
the July Days.
● The Army High Command lost Kornilov, its commander-in-chief, and morale sunk even lower.
● Lenin, in exile in Finland, began to make plans for his return to Russia.

I) The October Revolution

What happened?

● On 24th October, the Bolsheviks began to implement a plan to seize power in Petrograd.
● Key buildings, such as telegraph offices and railway stations, were captured. Road blocks
were set up on the city’s bridges and surrounding the Winter Palace.
● Kerensky escaped from Petrograd and sent repeated messages to the army appealing for
help, but only a few hundred assorted troops turned up, including some students, 140 women
and forty soldiers who had been crippled by wounds.
● The battleship Aurora sailed into Petrograd and fired warning shots. The members of the
Provisional Government were then placed under arrest.

Why were the Bolsheviks successful?

● The Provisional Government had little support. Kerensky had virtually no support in Russia.
There were 340,000 troops in the Petrograd garrison who stood idly by and refused to come to
Kerensky’s aid. Most of the garrison were raw recruits who did not want to fight. They believed
that the Bolsheviks would end the war. There were only a few thousand Bolsheviks and it took
them two days to win control of the Winter Palace. The Petrograd Garrison could easily have
stopped them, but it did not.

● Trotsky provided important leadership to the Bolsheviks:

o Leon Trotsky had been a Menshevik until September, but when he joined the
Bolsheviks he soon became Lenin's right hand man.
o In September Leon Trotsky became leader of the Military Committee of the Petrograd
Soviet and the Bolsheviks became the largest party in the Petrograd Soviet. Trotsky’s
position provided a useful screen for his preparations.
o Trotsky planned the events of 24-25 October, cutting telephone wires, seizing control
of the post office, railway stations and other key buildings and isolating the Winter
Palace, where the Provisional Government met.
o Trotsky used his position in the Military Committee to move army units loyal to the
Provisional Government out of Petrograd and ordered them to defend the city from an
advance by the Germans.

● Lenin also played an important role. He returned from exile and persuaded the Bolsheviks to
oppose the war. He provided the Bolsheviks with simple slogans such as ‘Peace, land and
bread’. He also created the Red Guard and brought German money. He also forced the
Bolsheviks to accept the idea of a seizure of power.
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● There was a lack of a credible alternative to the Bolsheviks. None of the other major parties
provided clear leadership during 1917.

I) The first decrees of Sovnarkom

The government that Lenin set up in November 1917 was called Sovnarkom.

● Sovnarkom immediately issued the Peace Decree and the Land Decree. The Peace Decree
declared that the war with Germany was over. The Land Decree declared that land belonged
to the peasants who farmed it.
● The CHEKA (secret police) was set up in December by the ‘Decree to set up the secret
police’.
● As a result of the ‘Decree on workers’ control’, all businesses were taken over and at first
workers were allowed to elect the managers.
● The ‘Decree on work’ imposed an eight-hour day and a 40-hour week for all industrial workers.
● The ‘Decree on titles’ abolished all titles and class distinctions.
● The ‘Decree on banking’ brought all banks under Sovnarkom’s control.
● The ‘Decree on the press’ banned all non-Bolshevik titles.
● The ‘Decree on marriage’ stated that couples could have non-religious weddings. Divorce was
also made easier.

J) The crushing of the Constituent Assembly:

The Provisional Government had arranged for elections to be held in November for a new kind of
parliament, the Constituent Assembly. The general election was held in November. The
Socialist-Revolutionaries gained the majority of votes. When the Constituent Assembly met on 5
January (18 January) 1918, it was crushed by Lenin. He argued that there was no need for the
Assembly since Russia was now in the hands of the Soviets.

K) The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

● Negotiations to end the war began in January. Trotsky was sent by Lenin to do a deal, but was
horrified at the German demands. Lenin ordered him to sign in March 1917/
● At the Treaty, Russia lost 25% of its population, 25% of its iron and wheat and had to pay 3 bn
gold roubles.

Why did Lenin accept the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

● He expected a revolution in Germany in which the workers would seize power and the lands
would be returned.
● He expected a civil war and would not be able to fight two enemies at the same time.
● He believed that Germany would soon be defeated and the land would be recovered.
● He had to keep his promise to end the war.

L) The Civil War

Why did Civil War break out in 1918?

A series of groups began to fight against the Bolsheviks in 1918:

● The Czech Legion. 50,000 Czech soldiers, who were prisoners-of-war in Russia, seized
control of the Trans-Siberian railway in 1918. They began to attack the Reds.
● The Whites. This was a ‘catch all’ term for those who opposed the Bolsheviks. They had
some military support from ex-tsarist officers and were in a position to fight the Bolsheviks.
Indeed, the Bolsheviks were surrounded by ‘White’ forces; Kolchak in the east, Denikin in the
south and Yudenich in the north-west.
● The Greens Poles, Ukrainians, Tartars and many nationalities joined in to win freedom from
Russian control.
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● Foreign powers. Britain, France and the US all intervened. They supported the Whites in
protest at a number of actions which had been taken by Lenin:
o Lenin had withdrawn from the war against Germany and signed the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk.
o The Bolsheviks had cancelled payments on all loans given by the Allies to Russia.
o Britain, France and the US feared the spread of Communism to their countries.

Why did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War?

● Their opponents, the Whites, were divided and never worked together. They were fighting for
different purposes. Some wanted to restore the Tsar, Ukrainians wanted independence, army
officers wanted to continue the war against Germany.
● The total forces of the Whites numbered about 250,000. The Red Army eventually had
2,000,000 men.
● The Bolsheviks controlled the centre and the railway network. They had most of the industry.
They were able to keep the Red Army supplied much more effectively.
● Trotsky recruited many officers from the Imperial Russian Army and made them join the Red
Army. These provided the organisation and discipline that the Red Army needed. Each unit
had a Commissar, who reported to the Bolshevik Party, in case the officers did not obey
orders. The Red Army was, therefore, better trained and better supplied.
● At first the western Allies sent men and aid to the Whites, but this was never sufficient to turn
events their way and the Allies pulled out in 1919.
● The Whites were often more brutal than the Bolsheviks. To most Russians the Reds were a
slightly better bet.
● Trotsky was a good organiser and travelled around the battlefields urging the Red forces to
fight. He had a war train to take him from front to front. Most of the fighting took place along
railway lines.
● Lenin introduced War Communism in 1918 to take supplies from the peasants and give them
to the Army. The army took priority for all industrial production.
● The death of the Tsar weakened support for the whites, especially amongst those who had
wanted his restoration.

M) War Communism

What was War Communism?

● The Bolsheviks attempted to abolish all private trading, put control of all distribution and labour
in the hands of the state, nationalise all large scale industry and replace money with a form of
rationing controlled by the state.
● In May 1918 Lenin introduced the grain monopoly; this stated that all surplus grain would now
become the property of the state. Food brigades were set up that roamed the countryside
terrorising villages and searching for hoards of food. Anyone suspected of concealing food
could be shot on sight.
● From the spring of 1918 the Bolsheviks begun to appoint managers to run factories. All
factories became state property.
● Whatever was produced was taken by the state and the workers were given rations in return.
● Workers were also controlled by being prevented from moving from one job to another without
approval
● War Communism was imposed by the CHEKA through the Red Terror. At least 50,000
Russians were murdered in the years from 1918 to 1921.

What were the effects of War Communism?

● The most serious result was a major famine in which 5,000,000 people died. This was brought
on as peasants refused to hand over food and simply destroyed it instead.
● Many tried to evade state control by bringing food into the big cities and selling in. Patrols
were put on railway stations to try to catch these 'bagmen' as they were called.
● In some provinces, particularly Tambov, there were uprisings against the Bolsheviks.
● More and more resources had to be diverted to keeping order, when they would have been
better used fighting the Civil War.
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● The Kronstadt Rebellion (see below) was the final straw that convinced Lenin that the system
was not working.

N) The Kronstadt Mutiny

● Even when the Civil War ended, the situation did not improve. Eventually there was a mutiny
at the naval base of Kronstadt in February 1921. Until then the sailors at Kronstadt had been
loyal to the Bolsheviks
● The sailors claimed that the Bolsheviks had betrayed the revolution. They demanded new
elections, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the release of political prisoners..
● Trotsky ordered the Red Army to attack the base and crush the rebellion, but it made Lenin
realise that things had gone too far too quickly.

O) The New Economic Policy

● The New Economic Policy was introduced into Russia in 1921. It marked a reversal of the
policy of War Communism that Lenin had begun in 1918.
● The New Economic Policy (NEP) signalled the failure of Lenin's plan.

How did the New Economic Policy change Russia?

● The buying and selling of goods was allowed once more. Although peasants still had to give a
fixed amount of grain to the government, they were allowed to sell any surplus. Soon markets
developed and private trade reappeared.
● People were allowed to own small businesses with up to 25 employees. This encouraged
private enterprise, especially in agriculture. This led to the emergence of the Kulaks and
NEPmen (those who gained from the limited capitalism allowed under the NEP).
● People were allowed to make a profit and then pay taxes, instead of having goods confiscated
by the state.
● Key industries, such as coal and steel, still remained under government control.
● Between 1921 and 1928 the Russian economy began to recover, food production rose.

Why did Lenin introduce the NEP?

▪ The period from 1913 to 1921 saw a collapse of the Russian economy.

Industrial output in millions of tonnes/kilowatts

1913 1921

Coal 29 9
Oil 9.2 3.8
Iron 4.2 0.1
Steel 4.3 0.2
Sugar 1.3 0.05
Electricity 2039 520

● The collapse was brought about by the effects of seven years of warfare, first of all against the
Germans and then during the Civil War. There had been widespread destruction in European
Russia in particular.
● During the Civil war both sides had destroyed factories and farms to prevent them falling into
enemy hands.
● War Communism had brought about a severe famine. 5,000,000 people had died in the years
1918 to 1920, when peasants all over Russia either refused to hand over food supplies or
destroyed them.
● In 1920, there was a series of local rebellions sparked off by seizures of food. The most
serious was that in Tambov Province, which began in August 1920 and lasted for nearly a
year. The rebels destroyed bridges and roads and fought a guerrilla war against the Red
Army.
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● In February 1921, sailors in the naval base at Kronstadt rebelled and had to be crushed by the
Red Army led by Trotsky.
● This was even more significant for Lenin as the Kronstadt sailors had played a key role in the
events of 1917 and had been loyal supporters of the Bolsheviks.

P) The struggle for power

Who was Stalin?

● Joseph Djugashvili was born in 1879 in Georgia in southern Russia. At some point in the
years from 1907 to 1914, he changed his name from Djugashvili to Stalin. This meant ‘man of
steel’.
● In 1917 Stalin was editor of Pravda, the Bolshevik newspaper, but otherwise played no special
part in the events of 1917.
● In 1918 he was appointed Commissar for Nationalities in November after the Bolsheviks had
seized power. In 1919 he became a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee, the
equivalent of the Cabinet.
● In 1922, the post of General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party became vacant. No one was
prepared to take his place. The other Bolshevik leaders regarded it as a boring and unexciting
job. Eventually the post was offered to Stalin, who accepted it immediately.

Why did Stalin become general secretary?

● The first reason was that it immediately promoted him to one of the most important posts in
the Bolshevik Party and Russia. In effect Joseph Stalin became the third most important man
in Russia.
● The second reason was that the post of General Secretary gave him opportunities that he
would never have got anywhere else.
● As General Secretary Stalin got to hear about everything that was happening in Russia. He
heard about every post that became vacant, about every meeting that was held, about every
decision taken.
● He set about making sure that every post was filled by someone loyal to him, every meeting
considered his point of view, every decision went his way.
● Over the next two years Stalin steadily built up a network of people who he could trust all over
Russia.

Q) Why did Stalin and not Trotsky become leader of the Soviet Union in 1928?

Stalin improved his position in the immediate aftermath of Lenin’s death in key ways:

He ensured the suppression of Lenin’s political testament. On 25 December 1922 Lenin

drew up a Political Testament, in which he summarised the good and bad points of all of the
leading Bolsheviks. He then stated that Trotsky should succeed him when he died. Twelve
days later Lenin added a further section to the Testament, in which he advised the other
leaders to get rid of Stalin. He then gave the document to his wife with instructions to hand it
to the Central Committee after his death. In his Political Testament, Lenin named Trotsky as
his successor and recommended that Stalin should be dismissed from the post of General
Secretary of the Party. The Testament was handed to the Central Committee in May 1924, by
Lenin's widow, but the other Bolshevik leaders decided to keep the Testament secret. They did
not want Trotsky to succeed Lenin. Key figures such as Kamenev and Zinoviev were also
criticised in the Political Testament and so were keen to see it remain private.

He made effective use of Lenin’s funeral. Stalin presented himself as chief mourner at
Lenin’s funeral.

These developments allowed Stalin to assume a great deal of power in the years following Lenin’s
death. By 1925, therefore, the Soviet Union was ruled by a committee of Kamenev, Zinoviev and
Stalin. Trotsky was forced to resign as Commissar of War.
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● Stalin soon began to conspire with the right wing in the Communist Party, Bukharin and Rykov,
so that he could get rid of Kamenev and Zinoviev who were on the left of the party.
● He attacked the plans of the left wing to bring about rapid industrialisation in Russia and sided
with the supporters of NEP.
● But once he had got rid of the left wing, Stalin then turned on Bukharin and Rykov and in 1928
emerged as the sole ruler of the Soviet Union.
● All of his opponents found that he had so much support in the party that opposition was
useless. He then introduced much greater plans for industrialisation than the left wing had
ever thought of.

Why did Stalin ultimately win the battle for leadership?

His strengths:

● He held the key role of General Secretary.

● He built up an image of someone who had been close to Lenin.
● He played rivals off one another. For example, he knew that Kamenev and Zinoviev feared
Trotsky and used their support to remove him. He then allied himself with Bukharin and the
right wing of the party to removed Kamenev and Zinoviev.
● He promoted ‘Socialism in one country’, the idea that the Soviet Union did not need to work to
convert the rest of the world to Communism. This was popular because it suggested that the
Soviet Union should concentrate on securing Communism at home before it supported
revolutions abroad.

Trotsky’s weaknesses:

● Trotsky was seen by many party members as an outsider because he was Jewish and
because, between 1903 and 1917, he had been a Menshevik.
● He made a series of tactical mistakes such as resigning his position as Commander of the
Red Guard.
● Trotsky promoted world revolution.

R) The Purges of the 1930s

What were the purges?

● In the 1930s, Stalin began to get rid of anyone who he suspected of opposing him. These
attempts became known as the Purges.
● At first the purges concentrated upon technical experts, who Stalin blamed for the failures of
the First Five Year Plan. They were accused of sabotage and there was a series of trials in
1930-1
● In 1932 more than 800,000 members of the party were expelled, but the real purges began
with the murder of Sergei Kirov in December 1934. Kirov was the Communist Party leader in
Leningrad and he may well have been murdered on Stalin’s orders because he had become
too popular.
● The purges lasted from 1934 to 1938; at least 7,000,000 people disappeared.
● One form which the purges took were show trials (see below).
● The Secret Police (called the NKVD after 1934) were central to the purges. Stalin expanded
the Secret Police and gave it increased powers with the ‘Decree against terrorist acts’. They
were sent out in the middle of the night and nicknamed ‘black ravens’.
● The Secret Police was assisted by an army of informers.
● Victims of the purges were sent to the labour camps(gulags), which were set up in Siberia,
and forced to do hard manual work. By 1938, there were around seven million people in the
gulags.

Who was purged?

● Bolshevik leaders who Stalin had forced out in 1925 to 1927. Managers of industries who did
not meet their targets for production.
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● Poets, writers, artists, musicians, anyone creative who might have ideas which Stalin did not
like. Millions of ordinary Soviet citizens, who often did not know what they had done to anger
Stalin.
● Scientists, engineers, experts of any kind who Stalin did not trust or understand. Only loyal
party officials, who accepted Stalin’s decision without question were safe.
● Army and Navy officers; every Admiral of the Soviet fleet, three of the five Marshals of the Red
Army, 90% of the generals and more than half of the officers of the Red Army

What were the Show Trials?

● The leading Bolsheviks were given ‘Show Trials’, where they forced to confess to ridiculous
crimes which they could not possibly have committed. They were accused of sabotage and
treason and of murdering Kirov.
● The aim of the Show Trials was to get rid of all the Old Bolsheviks who knew the truth about
Lenin and Stalin.
● They all confessed to the crimes that they were accused of, usually because they were told
that their families would be left alone if they did.
● The accused were also made to confess that Trotsky had led them in their conspiracies. This
served to destroy the reputation of Trotsky, who was now in exile.
● The results of the trials were announced to the world. Altogether, 35 of the leading Old
Bolsheviks were executed in 1936-8.

What effects did the Purges have?

● The Red Army lost almost all its experienced officers. In 1941 it stood no chance against the
German army.
● Science and technology suffered as new inventions were stopped. Stalin actually prevented
development in some areas by clinging to outdated ideas.
● Industry suffered because managers were unwilling to try anything new.
● Literature art and music were all stifled. Only Stalin's favourite form of art, Socialist Realism
was accepted. This showed workers striving to create the Soviet Union.
● By eliminating older figures, Stalin was able to promote younger men who owed their success
to him. This made them completely loyal. For example, Lavrenti Beria, who became the head
of the NKVD, Georgi Malenkov, who was expected to be Stalin’s successor.

S) Propaganda and censorship

● In the 1930s Stalin began to rewrite the history of Russia and the Soviet Union in the twentieth
century. He made out that he was much more important than he really had been before he
came to power.
● Textbooks and encyclopaedias were destroyed or altered. Children in school had to paste over
pages in their books with the new versions of what had happened.

Why did Stalin do this?

● He wanted to destroy the reputations of the other Bolshevik leaders. This would explain why
he had put them on trial and had them executed.
● He picked on Trotsky in particular, because Lenin had chosen him as his successor. He
accused him of treason and said that it he had done nothing to help Russia.
● Stalin claimed that he had had been responsible for the successes in the Civil War in 1918 to
1920.
● He wanted to make out that he had Lenin had been very close friends and that only he knew
what Lenin had intended to do in Russia. This would explain why Stalin had become the
leader and would make Russians accept him.
● He had made sure that Lenin’s body was preserved in a huge mausoleum in Red Square and
encouraged Soviet citizens to visit it.
● He wanted to build himself up to be all-powerful and stop anyone opposing his ideas. This
became known as the ‘Cult of Personality'. Stalin made out that he was a superman who
never made any mistakes.
 12

What was the Cult of Personality?

● Stalin created the impression that he was a genius at everything. He was described as the
‘wisest man of the twentieth century’, the ‘genius of the age’.
● The Soviet people were told that he was never wrong. This protected Stalin from any further
challenges.
● He expected love and worship, not respect and obedience. Stalin made sure that everyone
knew about his successes. Huge rallies were held in his honour.
● He used many forms of propaganda to pass on the news, but his favourite form was paintings
and sculptures. These appeared all over Russia.
● Stalin was shown meeting smiling people, opening factories and dams, and he always looked
rather taller and fitter than he actually was.

How was culture controlled by Stalin?

● Writers, artists, film-makers and even composers had to support the government by following
the policy of ‘socialist realism’. The arts had to be intelligible to an ordinary person and
anything abstract was frowned upon.
● Great composers such as Shostakovich and Prokofiev were ordered to write only music which
could be easily understood.
● The arts were also expected to give optimistic messages – they needed to convey that the
Soviet Union was a happy, fulfilling country for its citizens.

How did Stalin control religion?

Stalin continued the Bolshevik attack on religion:

● Christian leaders were imprisoned.

● More than 60,000 places of worship were closed down.
● The ‘League of the Godless’ smashed churches and burned religious pictures.
● Mosques and Muslims schools were closed.
● Jewish schools, libraries and synagogues were closed down.

However, in the 1937 census, about 50 million Soviet citizens said they had religious beliefs. Some
churches were allowed to stay open in the late 1930s.

T) Education

● Propaganda and censorship were reinforced by education, which became compulsory for four
years in 1930. This was later extended to seven years.
● Students had to abide by strict discipline and wear uniform. Examinations were set every year
to ensure that progress was made.
● If students did not work satisfactorily, the pay of their parents could be reduced.
● All school subjects were designed to glorify Stalin. Only one history textbook (‘A short history
of the USSR’) was in use and that had apparently been written by Stalin himself.
● References to the Old Bolsheviks were removed and in their places were the names of
cronies of Stalin.
● In the mid-1930s, changes took place so quickly, that it was impossible to rewrite books as
people were disgraced and eliminated. School-children were given new versions of pages to
paste into books to cover up photographs of party officials who had been executed.
● Outside of school, Stalin also wanted some control over the young. Political youth groups
were set up. The youth groups were taught activities such as sports, camping and model
making.

U) The 1936 Constitution

In 1936, Stalin introduced a new constitution. This was intended to persuade Russians, and the
outside world, that the USSR was a ‘free society’. The constitution said:
 13

● The USSR was composed of 11 Socialist republics.

● The Communist party kept control of both central and local government.
● Candidates for election had to be approved by the Communist party.
● There was to be universal suffrage for those over the age of 18.
● There were to be civil liberites such as freedom of speech and from arbitrary arrest.

However, the Constitution made it clear that these freedoms were to be exercised only with the
approval of the Communist party. Moreover, the Communist party was the only party to be allowed to
exist in the Soviet Union. Real power lay with the party and there were no elections for positions in the
party.

V) Collectivisation

What was collectivisation?

● Collectivisation was part of the First Five Year Plan. It was an attempt to get rid of the
ownership of land by ordinary people and an attempt to solve the food problem in the Soviet
Union.
● Two types of Collective Farms were set up:
o Sovkhozes, or State Farms. All the land was owned by the state, all the produce went
to the state and workers were paid wages. The wages were paid whether the workers
worked well or badly. These farms proved very expensive and few were set up. A
typical sovkhoz was 3,600 hectares.
o Kolkhozes, or Collective Farms, where workers kept plots of land for themselves and
had to supply fixed amounts of food to the state at fixed prices. The workers kept what
was left for themselves. If there was nothing left they starved. 240,000 of these farms
were set up by 1940. Stalin wanted to make the best use of machinery; machine
tractor stations were set up which would serve the surrounding farms. A typical
kolkhoz contained about 80 peasant families who farmed around 500 hectares of
land.

Why was collectivisation introduced?

● There was a grain crisis in 1927. From 1926 onwards, the amount of grain being given by the
peasants to the state had fallen. By 1928, food rationing had to be introduced because
peasants had begun to hoard grain in an effort to force the price up.
● Collectivisation was also an attempt to destroy the Kulaks, who Stalin hated and feared. They
made profits and employed others, but they were also independent and resisted central
control.
● Stalin hoped that he would be able to sell wheat abroad to raise foreign exchange to buy new
technology. This would help finance industrialisation as part of the Five-Year Plans.
● Stalin also hoped that, as agriculture was modernised, peasants would be freed from the land
to work in the towns and cities.
● Collectivisation fitted in with Communist ideas. Stalin also hoped that collectivisation would
extend Communist control of the countryside.

Did Collectivisation work?

● Stalin’s attempt to set up Sovkhozes failed; he had to fall back on Kolkhozes.

● Most peasants could not use the machinery that was supplied. Many tractors did not work.
● The Kulaks resisted and destroyed crops and animals. 30 million cows, for example, were
slaughtered. Stalin responded with a policy of de-kulakisation in which as many as 10 million
people were rounded up. This led to a massive fall in grain production, from 73.3 million
tonnes in 1928 to 67.6 million in 1934. The impact on the countryside was worsened by the
government policy of seizing grain.
● As a result of the fall in production, there was famine in 1932-34, in which 5,000,000 people
died.
 14

● Inefficient farming methods persisted, with Soviet farmers producing less per head than those
in the USA.
● Stalin did secure control of the countryside. He was aided in doing this by secret police who
worked in tractor stations.

HOWEVER

● Life on the collective farms was not all bad. For example, there were hospitals and schools on
some collectives for the workers.
● By 1937, when Collectivisation was almost complete, wheat production was up by a third on
the 1928 figure.

W) Industrialisation

Why did Stalin want to industrialise the Soviet Union?

● Stalin believed that Soviet industry and agriculture was one hundred years behind the West.
He said that they must catch up in 10 years.
● Stalin distrusted the West. He knew that they had tried to intervene in the Russian Civil War
and he suspected that they were supporting Hitler against him during the 1930s.
● Stalin wanted to destroy the New Economic Policy, which Lenin had only intended to be
temporary.
● Stalin wanted to increase his control over the Soviet Union. The Five Year Plans would enable
him to do this.
● Stalin believed that, through central control of the Soviet economy, he could implement
Communist principles.

What were the Five-Year Plans?

From 1928 onwards, Stalin introduced a series of Five-year plans. These plans set production targets
for Soviet industry. Workers in each industry were told exactly how much they must produce. A state
planning agency was set up, GOSPLAN. It worked out targets for the production of all kind of goods. It
was based in Moscow and employed 500,000 people.

● The first five-year plan concentrated on heavy industry, such as coal, steel and iron. The ‘new
industries’, such as electricity, chemicals and rubber, were also targeted. Stalin was
encouraged by the apparent success of the plan and revised its targets twice.
● The second five-year plan did, at first, set targets for the production of consumer goods. It also
tried to avoid some of the mistakes made in the first plan, such as setting unrealistic targets.
However, as fears of invasion from the west increased, heavy industry again became the
priority and production of armaments trebled.
● The third five-year plan was launched in 1938 but abandoned in 1941 when Germany invaded
the Soviet Union.

The five-year plans also saw other changes:

● New industrial cities were constructed like Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk. These were built
from scratch beyond the Ural Mountains where they could be protected from invasion.. Many
of the workers here were people arrested in the Purges, who worked as slave labour.
● Young people from KOMSOMOL, the Young Communist League, volunteered to help with the
plans. 250,000 were sent every summer to help create the new industrial cities.
● Slave Labour was used to deliver the plans. These were people who had been arrested in the
Purges. Gulags, or Labour Camps, were set up in the north and in Siberia and the inmates
were worked to death in appalling conditions.

What were the consequences of the plans?

● The plans did increase industrial production by about 400% during the 1930s. In 1940 the
Soviet Union was the second industrial power in the world, only the USA produced more.
 15

● ‘Stakhanovites’ were created, after Alexei Stakhanov the coal miner. He was credited with
digging more than 100 tonnes of coal in a single shift and other miners were urged to follow
his example. This was simply a propaganda trick to get workers to work harder. However, his
record was soon beaten by another miner who dug more than 300 tonnes.
● Between 1929 and 1937, investment in education and training schemes led to the creation of
a skilled workforce.
● Women were encouraged to work as part of the plans. Facilities such as crèches were
provided to help them continue working. By 1940, 40% of workers were women.

HOWEVER

● Most targets were ridiculously high. They took no account of local conditions. The emphasis
was on quantity not quality. 50% of tractors in the first Five Year Plan did not work.
● Many peasants flocked into the cities in search of higher paid jobs in industry. They were
uneducated and could not do the work. Much machinery broke down as a result.
● Managers of factories tried to ‘cook the books’ rather than admit failure. No criticism of the
Plans was accepted.

X) How did life change for the peoples of the Soviet Union?

Improvements in conditions

▪ There was, in theory, no unemployment in the Soviet Union.

▪ Family benefits were brought in for workers – for example, there was a free health service for all.

▪ Sports and leisure were introduced and many factories had facilities for these.

▪ Industrial workers were given higher pay and rewarded with medals. Some social security
benefits were provided.

Problems

▪ A seven day week was introduced. Absence from work became a crime. Skilled workers were not
allowed to leave their jobs.
▪ An internal passport was introduced.

▪ As more people crowded into the cities to work in industry, living standards fell. Pay did not keep
up with rises in prices.
▪ After 1931 most people were paid by piecework, yet average income was probably about 50% of
that in 1928.
▪ There were often severe shortages, so queuing was a way of life. Fresh foods were often not
available.
▪ Most people ate meals in the communal canteens at their place of work rather than cook at
home.
▪ Housing was in short supply, because it was low on the Party’s priorities, and overcrowding
common.
▪ Most people lived in part of a flat sharing a kitchen and, if they were very lucky, a bathroom.

▪ Luxury goods were just not available, or were only available in special shops for Party
bureaucrats or managers.
▪ Family life came under great strain and by 1934 there were 37 divorces for every 100 marriages.
Abortion rates soared: in 1934, there were 154,000 abortions compared to only 57,000 live births.
 16

The effects of Stalin’s control

▪ Stalin used the secret police to force people to accept his changes.

▪ People who objected found themselves in slave labour camps, called Gulags. These were often
in Siberia or in Northern Russia, where the weather in winter was very cold.
▪ Here they worked with little food for ten years or more. Many died from exhaustion.

▪ Altogether at least 7,000,000 people disappeared in the Purges, perhaps twice or even three
times that number.

The impact of Stalin on non-Russian ethnic groups:

▪ Stalin distrusted national groups. His aim was to transform them from being Ukrainians or
Georgians into ‘Soviet citizens’. They were discouraged from speaking their own languages and
practising their own customs. They were often discriminated against with few holding top
positions in the army and government.
▪ Stalin forced some ethnic groups to move from their homelands to Siberia. Whole populations
were transported from southern Russia to the east.
▪ In 1936, the entire Korean community of 172,000 was moved to Uzbekistan and Kakakhastan.

Y) The position of women

Atfer the Revolution, divorce, marriage and abortion were made easier. However, by the mid-1930s,
the family was back in favour – there was concern about the number of broken homes.

The state tried to encourage families to stay together by:

● Paying child allowances for married couples.

● Making divorce much harder
● Restricting abortion

Women did continue to make progress in employment and some women took on jobs such as
engineering. They were, however, expected to combine full-time work with their other responsibilities.

Politically, women remained second-class and less that 20% of the Communist party was made up of
women.

Z) The Great Patriotic War (WW2)

Focus on reasons for the Russian victory in WW2. To what extent was it Stalin’s leadership or other
factors.
● Stalin didn’t believe or prepare for a German attack in 1941
● Operation Barbarossa in 1941 was the name of the German attack. It was within 12 miles of
capturing Moscow. Also surrounded Leningrad.
● USSR military had been weakened by purges of officers and generals in the 1930s
● Stalin used propaganda to create a greater sense of patriotism among population (e.g.
allowing some forms of open religious worship in the army)
● Other key battles include Stalingrad in 1942-43
● Tactics included ‘scorched earth’ and the death penalty for those showing cowardice or
refusing to advance against the enemy
● By 1945 the Soviet Union captured Berlin and won the war