World Studies CP

19.5

Stalin and Dictatorship in the Soviet Union

Setting the stage

• 1861 Serfdom is ended by Alexander II

• 1917 Communist take over

• 1918 Communist kill Czar Nicholas II and his family

• Many communist thought that they had ended centuries of oppression under czarist rules

• But did they……

Russia under Lenin

• 1922 communist leaders renamed Russia– Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) – 15 political republics joined in a federal union

War Communism

• Between 1918 and 1921 Lenin followed this policy

• The policy nationalized Russian industries

• Did little to improve economy

• The policy had won the civil war, but now the USSR was near economic collapse and social disorder

Lenin responds with

• New Economic Policy (NEP) The major industries – heavy industry, communications, transportation, and the credit system$$, would stay under government control

• NEP did allow for some free enterprise– This allowed for a new class of small

businessmen called the Nepmen

Think about this

In America how do we decide how many tractors to make?

In a Communist nation how do they decide?

How did NEP combine these practices

Collective Farms

• During the revolution, farmlands of the wealthy had been sized and divided among the peasants.

• Now the government tried to persuades peasant to form collective farms.

• Land was pooled into large farms on which people worked as a group and shared modern farm machinery

Positive and Negatives

• In what ways did collective farming make sense?

• In what ways did collective farming NOT work?

Women’s Role

• 1917 USSR declares that women should receive equal pay for equal work

• Women were granted time off from work to take care of newborn babies

• Divorce was now easier

• But.. Few women held position of authority within the Communist Party

Education

• Soviet leaders wanted to increase literacy rates and teach socialist doctrine (hey! Why do these two things go together?)

• Educators had limited success… no money

• Higher education was emphasized, but elementary schools were ignored

• 1925 Soviet students average less then 3 years in school!!!

Reforms under Lenin

• Nationalized industries

• Collectivized farms

• Gave women more rights

• Emphasized education

1924 Lenin dies

• Power struggle within the communist Party

• Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin

• Trotsky leader of the Red Army during revolution

• Stalin was the leader of the Communist party

Trotsky believed..

• Strict Marxist

• Revolution should take place among workers all over the world

• Stalin believed that socialism in one country and argued that after socialism succeeded in the USSR other countries would have their own revolution

By 1928

• Stalin was in control

• Trotsky was kicked out of the USSR

• Killed in Mexico on Stalin’s orders

1928

• Stalin ended the New Economy Policy and returned to a command economy

• Command economy is when the government controlled all economic decisions

• Government control of the economy to be permanent

1928

• First five year plan for economic growth

• Ambitious agricultural, industrial and social goals for the next 5 years

• Stalin intended the five year plan to turn the USSR into a modern industrialized society

Collective farming

• 90% of all farmland was now collective farms

• Those who resisted were punished or killed

• The Five year plan decreased agricultural production

• Resulted in famine and crop failure

Millions

• I said millions died of starvation. About 10 million

• WHY? How?

Despite the deaths

• The economy grew under the Five year Plan

• The second Five year Plan went into effect in 1933

• Wanted to produce more consumer goods as a reward for hard work

• Production of consumer goods decreased

• People were disappointed

Black market

• Just because the goods are not available, doesn’t mean there isn’t a need for them

• Side note: Russian mob

Keeping Control

• Before communism the Czars used secret police and spies to maintain their rule

• Two areas– Religion and Art

Soviet Officials

• Discouraged religious worship

• Seized property of the Orthodox Church

• Churches and Jewish houses of worship were destroyed

• Priests, ministers, and rabbis imprisoned

• Religious instruction outlawed in schools

• Art was censored

Politburo

• Political Bureau of the communist Party

• Had the real power

Purge

• Large scale elimination

• Gulags

• From 1934-1947 Russian were sent to labor camps or gulags

• Located in Siberia

Comintern

• Lenin founded to spread communism

• Revolution throughout the world

• Overthrow democracies by urging workers in other countries to rebel