Russia 1917-91: Lenin to Yeltsin

Russia 1917-91: Lenin to Yeltsin

1. 1.1) Communist government in the USSR (1917-85)

   • 1917-24 ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMUNIST GOV.
     • February Revolution 1917
       • Tsar abdicted - he rufused the Duma
       • Led by demoralised soldiers of WW1 & other people
       • Dual gov. created - Petrograd Soviets & Prov. gov.
     • October Revolution 1917
       • Led by Bolsheviks - Trotsky used MRC and Red Guards
       • The takeover of Provisional Government
       • Bolsheviks seized power & arrested Prov. gov.
     • Bolsherviks gained majority in All-Russia Soviet (Oct 1917)
       • 3 Decrees were passed whilst Bolsheviks had majority
         • 1) Decree on Land - private land was given to peasants
         • 2) Peace Decree - ended war with Germany and Austria-Hungary
         • 3) Set up organisation of new gov.
           • At top was Sovnarkom - Council of People's Commissars
             • Lenin was chairman of Sovnarkom
     • PROBLEMS FACING LENIN
       • July Days - Bolshevik members arrested
         • Lenin was accused of being a spy and fled
       • After Oct. Rev, Lenin did not cancel Constituent Assembly - too vulnerable
         • CA showed Bolsheviks only had 1/4 support of Russian electorate
     • CREATION OF USSR (1922)
       • Contained aspiration of owrldwide revolution
         • Lenin created the world's first totalitarian dictatorship
   • 1928-53 STALIN'S RUSSIA
     • Stalin became General Secretary in 1922
       • Struggle for power was between members of the Politburo
     • After Lenin's death in 1924, he never appointed a successor
       • MIGHTY POWER STRUGGLE 1924-29
         • TRIUMVIRATE (1923) was formed to keep Trotsky out of power
           • Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin
           • Triumvirate split (1925) - Z & K formed New Opposition and S & B joined as Duumvirate
         • LEFT OPPOSITION - LED BY TROTSKY, proposed alternative policies to Triumvirate
     • 1930s PURGES
       • Stalin used terror to rid of his opponents in the Party
         • Murder of Kirov was used to purge Zinoviev and Kamenev
           • There were rumours of an affair - Nikolayev's wife and Kirov
           • NKVD members taught Nikolayev how to use a pistol
       • The Chistka (secret police) were used to remove officials who ignored orders from Party leadership in Moscow
         • By 1935, 22% of Party had been removed
       • SHOW TRIALS (1936-38)
         • Trial of the Sixteen (1936) - involved Left leaders like Zinoviev and Kamenev, accused of working as agents for Trotsky
           • They confessed to crimes and murder of Kirov (under pressure of NKVD)
         • Trial of the Seventeen (1937) - purge of Party officials like Karl Radek and Georgy Pyatakov
           • Accused of wrecking and sabotaging Soviet economy, working under Trotsky - critisising Five-Year Plans
         • Trial of the Twenty-One (1938) - Purge of Right, Tomsky committed suicide before brought to trial
           • Bukharin and Rykov accused of forming a 'Trotskyite-Rightist Bloc' which they confessed to
           • No hard evidence for links with Trotsky but Bukharin's article 'Notes of an Economist' made clear of his criticisms of Stalin's economic policies
       • PURGES OF RED ARMY (1937-38)
         • 3/5 marshals were purged
         • 14/16 army commanders and 35,000 officers were either shot or imprisoned
         • Armed forces were critical of demoralising impact of collectivisation on peasantry who made up for bulk of soldiers
       • PURGE OF SECRET POLICE
         • 1936 - Yezhov purged over 3000 members of NKVD
           • Yezhov was arrested in 1938 - Stalin thought there was too much terror
   • 1953-85 KHRUSHCHEV/BREZHNEV

2. 1.2) Industrial and agricultural change (1917-85)

   • 1917-28 TOWARDS A COMMAND ECONOMY
     • War Communism 1918-21
       • Forced requisitioning of grain from peasants
         • Starvation occured - 1921 famine
         • Led to peasant uprisings all over Russia
           • Tambov uprising was very serious - Red Guards were used to fight off protestors
       • Resources given to bolshevik soldiers to fight Civil War
     • New Economic Policy (NEP) 1921
       • The NEP was introduced by Lenin to keep Communist regime alive
       • Markets were returned to Russian towns and cities
       • More goods were available
       • Food shortages and 1921 famine disappeared
       • Many Communists accused NEP of encouraging greed, independence and self-interest
         • The NEP sparked off the 'Scissors Crisis'
           • People payed more and more for manufactured goods whilst getting less for produce
           • Agricultural production rose, whilst agricultural prices fell
             • Industrial prices rose because of shortages
       • Peasants cultivated more land
   • INDUSTRY & AGRICULTURE DURING STALIN ERA
     • Five-Year Plans were introduced to break away from NEP
       • NEP abandoned (1928)
     • The Plans aimed to use most advanced technology applied with emphasis on heavy industry
     • First Five-Year Plan (1928-32)
       • New plants were built to impact production
       • First Plan was result of making more efficient use of existing factories
       • Magnitogorsk and Gorki (cities) were built from scratch
       • Slave labour was used to finish unfinished projects
         • Economic resources were located in Siberia (where no one worked)
           • Gulag population were used - example 'White Sea Canal project'
             • 180,000 prisoners employed, 1931-32 winter 10,000 died
     • Second (1933-37) and Third Five-Year Plans (1938-41)
       • 2nd Plan learnt from mistakes - coal production rose substantially
       • 3rd Plan focused heavily on defence industry
   • 1953-85 CHANGING PRIORITIES FOR INDUSTRY & AGRICULTURE

3. 1.3) Control of the people (1917-85)

   • Media, propaganda and religion
     • Newspapers - Pravda (truth) and Izvestiya (news) highlighted achievements of government + socialism
       • Magazines - aimed at specific groups of people such as farmers and soldiers
         • Radio - Helped get government's message across - they were government controlled
           • TV - Life in Soviet Union was presented as joyous, Capitalism had negative view
             • Results - Censorship + restiction of material was used a lot government relied on output that provided distraction from socialism reality
   • The secret police
     • Cheka was established in 1917
       • After Civil War - Cheka changed to OGPU (State's Political Administration) 1922
         • 1934 OGPU merged with NKVD so power and numbers increased
           • Yezhov introduced quotas for execultions - expanded numbers in gulags whcih increased deaths
     • Dzerzhinsky was leader of Cheka
       • Yagoda became head of SP in 1934
         • 1936 Yagoda was accused of incompetance in safeguarding Kirov - shot in 1938
           • Yezhov replaced Yagoda as head of NKVD in 1936
   • State and cultural change

4. 1.4) Social developments (1917-85)

   • Social security
     • Employment - after Civil War (1918-21) millions of Red Army soldiers were demobilised - went to cities to get jobs
       • Unemployment soared + reached over 1mil workers by 1926 - shortages in countryside caused peasant to also move to cities
         • There were wage differentials in NEP - continued use of arteli (groups of workers paid in groups)
     • Hired workers rose from 11.6mil in 1928 to 27mil in 1937
       • There was a labour shortage in 1932 - restrictions placed on trade unions, could no longer improve working conditions]
         • Due to fall in production in First Five Year Plan (1932-37), government used medals + honours to motivate workers
           • Passport system introduced in 1932 for food rations and changing jobs
             • Women were employed due to men fighting in WWII - slave labour was also used to make up for shortages
               • Gulag labour inmates rose from 1.5mil in 1945 to nearly 2.5mil in 1953
     • Work clothes provided for free, cheap food was available to workforce
       • State resorts organised by trade unions. sport facilities were available - workers were given 2 weeks paid holiday
         • Health care contained epidemics such as cholera (1921) - number of doctors fled Russia after 1917 Revolution
           • Government forced to increase training - 70,000 (1928) to 155,000 (1940) - progress was made to train more women
   • Role of women
     • Zhenotdel was set up by Bolsheviks to promote status of women
       • Bolsheviks made: divorce easier, abortion legalised, women did not need husband's permission to take a job/higher education
         • An equal pay law was passed in Dec 1917
     • Impact of Civil War (1918-21) - Over 70,000 women fought in Red Army (more jobs)
       • Many lost jobs however when men were demobilised - 1921-22 famine left many women homeless and destitute
     • Countryside - Zhenotdel was closed down in 1930 - claimed issues were solved
       • At least 50% of population were women - they shared jobs in industry and agriculture
         • Collectivisation - many men departed to cities to look for better jobs
           • WWII - the most able-bodied men were conscripted in armed forces - women made up for agri. loss
             • Imbalance of sexes after war - rural areas lacked abel-bodied men
     • Towns - Women had no choice but to work under 5 Year Plans, number of female workers rose from 3mil (1928) to over 13mil (1940)
       • 1929 - government reserved 20% higher education places for women
         • 'Wives of Soviet Elite' - those married to industrial managers/Party officials did not have to enter workforce
           • Initial wave of volunteers to join Red Army for WWII was turned away (1941) - gov. changed mind and 800,000 women served in armed forces (medical field/others)
     • Politics - women were under-presented even in Communist party - female delegates in party congressdid not exceed 10% before 1939
       • Alexandra Kollontai was 1st people's commissar - only 7 women were members of Central Committee before WWII