Communist Government in the USSR, 1917-85
Lenin (1917-24)
Constituent Assembly (January 1918):
• Bolsheviks (175 seats, 9M votes), SRs (410 seats, 21M votes)
• Lenin scraps Constituent Assembly and uses All-Russian Congress of Soviets
• Bourgeois have no right to vote
• 1921: other parties are banned
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Quick end to WWI
• Hurts Russian pride – many want to fight against the Bolsheviks (the Whites)
The 10th Party Congress (March 1921)
• Focus on division within the party
• Party membership – 300k to 630k by 1921
• Lenin puts forward ‘one-party state’
• Ban on internal factions
• NEP decided on
The Russian Civil War (1918-21)
• Bolsheviks (Reds) vs. Anti-Bolsheviks (Whites)
• Reds win due to:
- Better organization
- More motivation
- Effective Red Army
- Banning of newspapers and other parties
- Closing of Constituent Assembly
- Creation of the secret police (Cheka)
• Creates a highly centralized state with power in Bolshevik hands
• Extensive use of terror established
Apparatus of the Government
• Lenin needs clear line of authority to make decisions
• Sovnarkom – elected by Central Committee – elected by the Congress of Soviets
• Congress of Soviets approve Sovnarkom laws and are local representatives
• The party uses the government’s influence to have their laws rubber-stamped
Party Control
• Early 1920s: power shifts from the government to the party
• Politburo met daily – elected by the Central Committee – elected by the Party
Congress (met yearly)
,Democratic Centralism
• Soviets represent workers at local level
• Take any concerns to higher levels – ‘interests of the people’
Stalin (1928-53)
General Secretary
• Access to 26k personal files on Party members
• Lenin enrolment (1923-25) – increased the amount of industrial workers in the Party
• Decides the agenda of party meetings
• Can appoint people to party oppositions and remove his opponents
Left Opponents
• Trotsky
• Kamenev
• Zinoviev
• Want ‘permanent revolution’ throughout the world
• 1926: expelled from the Party and the Politburo
• 1928: Kamenev and Zinoviev are readmitted after renouncing their previous views,
Trotsky was exiled from the Soviet Union
Right Opponents
• Bukharin
• Tomsky
• Rykov
• Want continuation of the NEP and ‘socialism in one country’
Purges of the 1930s: Opposition
• 1932: Ryutin (former Party Secretariat) publishes a highly critical document of Stalin
• Brutality used in collectivization – leads to peasant resistance
• Officials critical of unrealistic targets in Five-Year Plans
• ‘Congress of Victors’ – many members pressure Kirov to present criticisms to Stalin
Purges of the 1930s: Terror
• Secret police carried out surveillance, arrests and executions
• Gulags
• 1934: NKVD (secret police) dominates the whole police force
• Stalin’s power as General Secretary
• Chistka (purges of party members)
- Removal of officials who disagree with agricultural policies to speed up the
1st Five-Year Plan
- 1935: 22% Party removed
Purges of the 1930s: Murder of Sergey Kirov (December 1st 1934)
• Assassinated by Leonid Nikolayev
, - Felt his talents weren’t appreciated and thought Kirov was cheating with
his wife
• Rumours it was carried out on Stalin’s orders
Show Trials (1936-38)
• Trial of the Sixteen (August 1936) – left opponents (Kamenev & Zonviev) confess to
working with Trotsky and to crimes they didn’t do like Kirov’s murder
• Trial of the Seventeen (1937) – purge officials like Radek & Pyatakov accused of
sabotaging the soviet economy and working with Trotsky
• Trial of the Twenty-one (1938) – right opponents (Bukharin & Rykov) confess to
forming a Trskyite-Rightist Bloc. Tomsky killed himself before the trial
• Trials were shown to the public via radio and films
• Many tortured for confessions and then executed – acts as warnings to party members
Stalin’s overall control
• Only surviving member of the 1924 Politburo
• Politburo only meets 9 times a year
• Walked around meetings for intimidation
Soviet Constitution of 1936
• Seems highly democratic – civil rights and the vote given to every USSR citizen,
guaranteed employment (want to win over Allies to fight the Nazis)
• Lists restrictions on citizens
• Only candidates of the Communist Party up for election
Limits
• Politburo refuse to allow Ryutin to be executed in 1932 – sent to labour camp for 10
years
• Hurried re-drafting the 2nd Five-Year Plan
• Kirov secures more votes than Stalin to vote in the Central Committee
• People concerned at Stalin’s brutality
WWII (1941-45)
• State Defence Committee (GKO) for country’s administration
• Supreme Command (Stavka) co-ordinate military
• Use of terror was reduced
• Generals and ex-party officials released
• Propaganda to mobilize masses and present Stalin as symbol of unity
High Stalinism (1945-53)
• Focus on re-building the country
• Cult of personality gives illusion of power despites Stalin’s declining health
• New generation of Politburo (Malenkov, Beria)
• 1951: Mingrelian Affair – Stalin purges Beria’s allies in Georgia
• 1952: Politburo becomes Presidium and grows from 10 to 36 people. Members
brought in who aren’t necessarily on his side
Lenin (1917-24)
Constituent Assembly (January 1918):
• Bolsheviks (175 seats, 9M votes), SRs (410 seats, 21M votes)
• Lenin scraps Constituent Assembly and uses All-Russian Congress of Soviets
• Bourgeois have no right to vote
• 1921: other parties are banned
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Quick end to WWI
• Hurts Russian pride – many want to fight against the Bolsheviks (the Whites)
The 10th Party Congress (March 1921)
• Focus on division within the party
• Party membership – 300k to 630k by 1921
• Lenin puts forward ‘one-party state’
• Ban on internal factions
• NEP decided on
The Russian Civil War (1918-21)
• Bolsheviks (Reds) vs. Anti-Bolsheviks (Whites)
• Reds win due to:
- Better organization
- More motivation
- Effective Red Army
- Banning of newspapers and other parties
- Closing of Constituent Assembly
- Creation of the secret police (Cheka)
• Creates a highly centralized state with power in Bolshevik hands
• Extensive use of terror established
Apparatus of the Government
• Lenin needs clear line of authority to make decisions
• Sovnarkom – elected by Central Committee – elected by the Congress of Soviets
• Congress of Soviets approve Sovnarkom laws and are local representatives
• The party uses the government’s influence to have their laws rubber-stamped
Party Control
• Early 1920s: power shifts from the government to the party
• Politburo met daily – elected by the Central Committee – elected by the Party
Congress (met yearly)
,Democratic Centralism
• Soviets represent workers at local level
• Take any concerns to higher levels – ‘interests of the people’
Stalin (1928-53)
General Secretary
• Access to 26k personal files on Party members
• Lenin enrolment (1923-25) – increased the amount of industrial workers in the Party
• Decides the agenda of party meetings
• Can appoint people to party oppositions and remove his opponents
Left Opponents
• Trotsky
• Kamenev
• Zinoviev
• Want ‘permanent revolution’ throughout the world
• 1926: expelled from the Party and the Politburo
• 1928: Kamenev and Zinoviev are readmitted after renouncing their previous views,
Trotsky was exiled from the Soviet Union
Right Opponents
• Bukharin
• Tomsky
• Rykov
• Want continuation of the NEP and ‘socialism in one country’
Purges of the 1930s: Opposition
• 1932: Ryutin (former Party Secretariat) publishes a highly critical document of Stalin
• Brutality used in collectivization – leads to peasant resistance
• Officials critical of unrealistic targets in Five-Year Plans
• ‘Congress of Victors’ – many members pressure Kirov to present criticisms to Stalin
Purges of the 1930s: Terror
• Secret police carried out surveillance, arrests and executions
• Gulags
• 1934: NKVD (secret police) dominates the whole police force
• Stalin’s power as General Secretary
• Chistka (purges of party members)
- Removal of officials who disagree with agricultural policies to speed up the
1st Five-Year Plan
- 1935: 22% Party removed
Purges of the 1930s: Murder of Sergey Kirov (December 1st 1934)
• Assassinated by Leonid Nikolayev
, - Felt his talents weren’t appreciated and thought Kirov was cheating with
his wife
• Rumours it was carried out on Stalin’s orders
Show Trials (1936-38)
• Trial of the Sixteen (August 1936) – left opponents (Kamenev & Zonviev) confess to
working with Trotsky and to crimes they didn’t do like Kirov’s murder
• Trial of the Seventeen (1937) – purge officials like Radek & Pyatakov accused of
sabotaging the soviet economy and working with Trotsky
• Trial of the Twenty-one (1938) – right opponents (Bukharin & Rykov) confess to
forming a Trskyite-Rightist Bloc. Tomsky killed himself before the trial
• Trials were shown to the public via radio and films
• Many tortured for confessions and then executed – acts as warnings to party members
Stalin’s overall control
• Only surviving member of the 1924 Politburo
• Politburo only meets 9 times a year
• Walked around meetings for intimidation
Soviet Constitution of 1936
• Seems highly democratic – civil rights and the vote given to every USSR citizen,
guaranteed employment (want to win over Allies to fight the Nazis)
• Lists restrictions on citizens
• Only candidates of the Communist Party up for election
Limits
• Politburo refuse to allow Ryutin to be executed in 1932 – sent to labour camp for 10
years
• Hurried re-drafting the 2nd Five-Year Plan
• Kirov secures more votes than Stalin to vote in the Central Committee
• People concerned at Stalin’s brutality
WWII (1941-45)
• State Defence Committee (GKO) for country’s administration
• Supreme Command (Stavka) co-ordinate military
• Use of terror was reduced
• Generals and ex-party officials released
• Propaganda to mobilize masses and present Stalin as symbol of unity
High Stalinism (1945-53)
• Focus on re-building the country
• Cult of personality gives illusion of power despites Stalin’s declining health
• New generation of Politburo (Malenkov, Beria)
• 1951: Mingrelian Affair – Stalin purges Beria’s allies in Georgia
• 1952: Politburo becomes Presidium and grows from 10 to 36 people. Members
brought in who aren’t necessarily on his side
