Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1921-1939)
Multinational USSR
How was the USSR ruled? Officially, a Federation with widely dispersed powers. In fact, highly centralized through the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). All leading government officials were communists.
Who ruled the USSR? Lenin’s creation Lenin (died in 1924) Led to power struggle: Josef Stalin Leon Trotsky Lev Kamenev Grigor Zinoviev Nikolai Bukharin
New Economic Policy (NEP), 1921-28 State-owned large businesses Private small and medium-sized businesses Some free trade Peasants left alone to feed cities (N. Bukharin) Tax-in-kind Little use of violence NEPmen
NEP, 1921-1928 National communist awakening Indigenization (korenizatsiia) National in form, socialist in content Proletarian cultural flowering Dziga Vertov’s Man with Movie Camera (1929)
Stalin won (by 1928) Why? Not brilliant Ruthless: used extreme measures Patronage Will to win Appealed to non-intellectuals
The Great Turn, 1928-> Move to Planned Economy First Five-Year Plan, 1928-1932 Focus on Heavy Industry Sacrificed consumer goods Quotas for everything Quantity over quality Stakhanovites as role models
31 August 1935: mined 102 tons of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes (14 times his quota). Aleksey G. Stakhanov, 1906-1977
The Great Turn (cont.) Collectivization, 1929-1935 1927: voluntary 1929: forced Main goal: control of food Requisitions Peasants resisted (1600 large-scale revolts) “Kulaks” De-kulakization (1.5 million removed)
The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. The slogan reads: "We kolkhoz farmers are liquidating the kulaks as a class, on the basis of complete collectivisation."
The Great Famine, 1932-33 Causes: 3-6 million starved to death Requisitions for cities and export De-kulakization Poor collective farm management Livestock slaughtered Bad weather 3-6 million starved to death Mostly in Ukraine
The Terror, 1934-39 Sergei Kirov, 1886-1934 Strong Stalinist Leader of CPSU in Leningrad 17th CPSU Congress, February 1934 December 1, 1934: assassinated by a communist Sparked Terror
Show Trials, 1936-38 Stalin, Alexei Rykov, Lev Kamenev, and Grigory Zinoviev
Many Bolsheviks leaders wiped out of history May 1920 Lenin photo retouched to remove Kamenev and Trotsky
Great Terror widens to army June 1937: Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevskii, and three army commanders shot. 3 of 5 Marshals shot 15 of 16 army commanders 60 of 67 corps commanders 70 percent of division commanders
Great Terror widens to citizens, 1937-1938 “kulak operations” By Nov. 1938: 767,397 sentenced by troikas 386,798 put to death Remainder to GULAG system “mass operations” Poles, Germans, Latvians, Koreans, Chinese 335,513 sentences 247,157 to death
Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, 1892-1940 Bolsheviks’ Muslim Worked for Stalin at NarKomNats. 1923 arrested, put on “trial,” and released. “Sultangalievism” 1928 arrested, sentenced to death. Commuted to 10 years in Solovki labor camp. Released 1934. Arrested 1937. Executed 1940.
Evgeniia Ginzburg Journey into the Whirlwind Loyal, dedicated communist 1937: arrested “Trotskyist” Conveyor belt GULAG Magadan 1955: released
Consequences Eight million arrested How many killed? 681,692 people were executed during 1937–38 Memorial society released list of 1,345,796 victims Gradually, greatly undermined CPSU’s authority and legitimacy