Stalin's Russia

Stalin's Russia

1. Great Terror

   • Show trials to rid old Bolsheviks
     • Those who knew Lenin's testament
     • Acted as a deterrent
   • Zinoviev and kamenev and Bukharin shot
   • Tortured Trotsky's former allies
   • Purge of army
   • 10% of adult males sent to Gulags
   • 5% of women arrested
   • 1937-38 1.5 million people executed
   • Stalin blamed Yezhov and Beria
   • Purge of Jews
   • Prisoniers of war returned to country of origin
     • Acted as spies
   • Purge of red army
     • Due to defeats
   • 1000 Leningrad party members sacked
   • Stalin convinced that his Doctor was against him
     • Arrested him and 30 top Doctors
   • 1941 Purge of military intelligence
   • Those sympathetic to Germans exiled
   • Ethnic groups exiled to Siberia
   • Showed Stalin's paranoia

2. 5 Year Plans

   • Declared ahead of schedule
   • Emphasis on heavy industry
   • Plans drawn up by GOSPLAN
   • Huge industrial centres constructed
   • First 5 year plan
     • October 1928-32
     • Heavy industry at consumer expense
     • Economy grew 14% per year
     • Education reform
     • Improved living standards
     • Harsh labour discipline
     • Poor quality goods
   • Second 5 year plan
     • 1933-38
     • Emphasis on communications and electricity
     • Wage increase
     • Agricultural reforms
     • Peasants allowed small private farming lots
     • Lying about figures
     • Social inequalities
     • Outlawed private shoe production
   • Third 5 year plan
     • 1938-41
     • Emphasis on rearmment and economy
     • International passports
     • Chaotically planned
       • So used terror
     • Resources for defence

3. Collectivisation

   • Machine tractor stations hired and maintained machinery
     • MTS
     • Had political department to spy on peasants to ensure order
   • Collective farms had to deliver quotas of grain
     • Unrealistic targets
     • Sold to towns
     • Became largest cereal exporter
   • 50-100 Households put together
   • Tools, land and animals combined on farms
   • Stalin planned to merge collective farms - Kolkhoz
   • Kulaks and families shot or exiled to Siberia
   • Collectivisation stops March 1930
   • Collectivisation resumed 1931
   • 10 million deaths to famines
   • Workers got no wages
     • Given work days
   • Profits divided up according to number of workdays
   • State provided tractors and fertilisers to modernise production
   • Punishment for sabotage and failings to meet targets
   • Dekulakisation 1929
     • Peasants can use their own resources
   • Disregarded human suffering

4. Propaganda and Arts

   • Paintings, novels and history books used to glorify Stalin
   • Stalin's role in early communist days emphasised
   • Portraits present Stalin as God like
     • Like Tsars
   • Stalin showed like Lenin
   • Erased Trotsky for party history
     • His role in October revolution
     • Photos altered
   • Communists purged were removed from Soviet art/history
   • Socialist realist paintings
   • Music joyous and positive
     • 3 Songs about Lenin
   • New Soviet art
     • Party/national spirit
     • New thinking
   • Film under control of Politburo
     • Pre censored film scripts
   • State control over literature and art
   • Stalin's childhood home becomes a shrine
   • Stalin's image reassured people through first 5 year plan purges
   • Stalin's cult focused on achievements of the regime
   • Stalin kept his personal life very private
   • Stalin portrayed alongside Lenin

5. Domestic

   • Education
     • Emphasis on teaching history of great Russians
     • Party and trade unions offered grants and scholarships
     • Communist party children favoured
     • Teaching influenced by 5 year plan methods
     • Traditional teaching and disciplinary methods
     • Emphasis on strict discipline
     • Children taught to respect their parents and Soviets
   • Family
     • Financial rewards for women with large families
     • Abortions led to 2 years imprisonment
     • Women responsible for household
     • Married party members given spacious accomodation
     • 1937 91% men married, 82% women married
     • 1934 Campaign promoting sexual abstinence
     • Medical virginity checks on young women
     • 1936 Divorce made more complex and expensive
     • Soviets punished men who had deserted their wives
     • No contraception available
     • Decline in birth rate
     • 1936 Incest, bigamy, adultery and homosexuality recriminalised
     • 1936 Wedding rings reintroduced
   • Work
     • 3-13 million women employed