Lecture IV: STALINISM AS A STATE SYSTEM

1. Lecture IV:STALINISM AS A STATE SYSTEM In the framework of the course �Crucial Issues of Russian Political History from the early XXth century up the present time� Sergey Verigin, Ass. Prof. Petrozavodsk State University

2. Contents list: I. Fight for power in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin�s death. Stalin�s victory. II. Regime of Stalin�s personal power. 1930s.

3. I. Fight for power in the Bolshevik Party after Lenin�s death. Stalin�s victory.Historical views of Stalin�s times. Scientific analysis of Stalin's activity in Russian historiography began only during perestroika, at the end of 1980s. In first works dedicated to this problem, an assessment of Stalin, given at the XX Congress of the Communist Party (1956), was restored.� The essence of it was that together with positive moments of Stalin's policy, negative facts also took place, for example, Stalin's role in organizing mass repressions. Then assessments of Stalin's activity similar to foreign ones (for example, made in works of Koen, Konkwest, Deutcher, Boffa, Vert and other) were given in the Soviets works of Aphanasyev, Gephter, Tsipko and others. A negative assessment of Stalin was consequently transferred to the period of his ruling, which was called Stalinism, totalitarianism of his administrative-command system.

4. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin(1879-1953)

5. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin(1879-1953) Stalin's real surname is Dzhugashvili. He was born in Georgia and in 1888 was given to a local church school. He excelled there and received a scholarship which gave him a possibility to enter Tbilisi Theological Seminary in 1894 as a devour believer in Russian Orthodox maxims. But in 1899 when he was just about to graduate he left Seminary and started revolutionary activities. In 1903-04 Stalin was in Siberian exile for staging demonstrations in Georgia. In 1903, when Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party split into Bolsheviks and Menshevike he joined the former. Before the Revolution of 1917 he was several times arrested by imperial police and sent to exile, but always managed to escape from there, the last time right after the October revolution. Although Stalin did not play a major role in the Octover revolt, he was included into the Bolshevik government as commissar of national affairs. Stalin was successful in the party struggle followed Lenin's death and by 1930 seized the power in the Soviet Union getting rid of all his opponents and competitors. The years of Stalin's rule, especially 1937-38, cost the USSR thousands of lives. Stalin's mistakes in military preparations resulted in the heavy situation the Soviet Union found itself in the first two years of the Great Patriotic War. After the war Stalin was about to continue mass purges and only his death in 1953 stopped them.

6. Were there alternatives to Stalin? In this discussion some Soviet historians acknowledged that Stalin's cult had been a natural consequence of socialism as a one-party system. There were a great deal of discussions if there had been any alternative to Stalinism in the Soviet society development. Some historians (for example, Latsis, Kozlov, Bord'ygov and others) tried to part Stalinism and Leninism, and to find out real alternatives to Stalinism in the USSR history of 1920s.

7. Were there alternatives to Stalin? The possible continuation of a new economic policy (NEP) was considered to be another way out. Other historians (Klyachkin, Koginov and others) proved that there had been no alternatives to Stalinism in Russian history. The reasons of Stalin's victory were explained differently: by a difficult international situation, Lenin�s mistakes (he didn't manage to stop Stalin). An opinion that Stalin was only Marx's and Lenin's student and he had realised their ideas in practice also explained the situation. That is, Stalinism was considered to be a continuation of Marxism.

8. Heterogeneity of the Communist party The period of 1920s began for Soviet Russia with a severe social-political crisis not only in the society (we mentioned in previous lectures about people's dissatisfaction with "military communism policy"), but in the Communist (Bolsheviks) Party as well. There were a lot of different fractions and groups. In 1921 a resolution "About the Party's unity" aimed against Bolsheviks Party's split was passed at the X Congress of the Russian Communist Party - RCP(b)".

9. Heterogeneity of the Communist party When Lenin was alive this resolution was seldom used for the struggle against differently minded in the party. It didn't mean a cease in the discussions about country's and party's development. For example, in 1924-1925 Trotsky�s book "October's Lessons" concerning economic problems was discussed in the party.

10. Lev Trotskij

11. Preconditions for Stalinism In the second half of 1920s Stalin used the resolution "About Party's unity" in party internal struggle. The result was the exclusion of Trotsky and his supporters, his comrades Kamenev, Zinovyev and then other Stalin's opponents, Bukharin and Rykov from the Bolshevik Party.� The political regime was tough when Lenin was alive in the beginning of 1920s. In 1922 the Central Political Administrative Board (GPU - according to the Russian abbreviation) so was formed instead of VCiK. Its aim was to struggle against counterrevolution. The same year an entry of " counterrevolutionary crime" was included into the Criminal Code. Any action aimed at the overthrow of the Soviet Power was considered criminal.�

12. Preconditions for Stalinism In 1922 some 47 famous socialist-revolutionaries were convicted according this article. This process had become the first important political process in the Soviet period. In the autumn of this year some 160 famous workers of culture and science disagreed with Bolshevik policy were deported. Such famous philosophers as Berdyaev, Bulgakov, Frank were among then. At the beginning of 1920s a political process over Mensheviks leaders of the party took place. Most of them were subjected to repression. So, in 1922 Bolsheviks annihilated political opposition and one party system was formed. It had existed till the end of 1980s. Almost everything in the country now depended on a situation in the ruling Communist Party.

13. Lenin�s last days In April 1922 Stalin was appointed as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). He began to select personnel and to post them. The selected personnel were devoted to Stalin.� Gradually, Lenin became aware of Stalin's danger to the future of the country and party. But he was seriously ill and since the end of 1922 he couldn't participate in country's governing. And at that very time Stalin began to put his plans into reality.� In 1922-1923, at the end of his life, Lenin, who was seriously ill and had no ability to rule the country, wrote his last articles and letters, which were later called "political will". Lenin wrote in those articles about future plans concerning the building of socialism in Russia: strengthening of the ruling party unity, strengthening of the Workers and Peasants Union, etc. He emphasized the necessity to win peasants over to the Soviet power.� But Communist party leaders couldn't understand the profundity of Lenin's ideas. They paid too much attention to the struggle for power. Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev, Zinovyev, and Bukharin thought that each of them could replace Lenin. Their main aim was to defeat their political opponents . They hid Lenin's "Letter to the Congress", in which Lenin characterized every political leader, from the society.

14. Lenin's last days: Vladimir Lenin and his wife Nadezhda Krupskaja.

15. Anti-Trotsky coalition On the eve of Lenin's death, the Thirteenth Party Conference published, on Stalin's motion, the decision empowering the Central Committee to expel Party members for factionalism. At the moment the leader died a new sanctity enveloped his every word and deed, including this decision, in which Lenin had taken part. Simultaneously decreed a new recruiting campaign, nominally with a view to strengthening the actual worker element in Party ranks. Actually Stalin, as general secretary, was able to bolster his own influence by guiding the Party machinery in selecting new members. In a few short weeks nearly a quarter of a million men and women were admitted in the new "Lenin enrollment."

16. Anti-Trotsky coalition At the time of the XIII Party Congress in May 1924, the economic situation was improving sufficiently to enable the triumvirs (Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev) to call their critics to account. Zinoviev openly attacked Trotsky and demanded that he retract his "errors." As Stalin had only shortly before opposed Zinoviev's demand for Trotsky's arrest, he found it wise to remain in the background. The Congress was unmoved. It promptly took steps to discipline the Russian Troskyites, as well as dissidents in the other parties of the Comintern.

17. Anti-Trotsky coalition �Permanent Revolution� After the XIII Congress, as far as could be seen the chief antagonists were Trotsky on the one hand and Zinoviev and Kamenev on the other. Trotsky restated his old theory of "permanent revolution," with its emphasis on the world leadership of the proletariat and its implicit challenge to the Leninist position on the role of the poor peasantry in building socialism. "October," said Trotsky, was the crucial stage in the history of the Party. "October" meant to him the time when Lenin adopted Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution--at least in the sense of rapid passage from the bourgeois to the socialist stage.

18. Anti-Trotsky coalition "Socialism in one country� Stalin offered his theory of "Socialism in one country.� In January 1925 the Central Committee removed Trotsky from the War Commissariat, even though he remained in uneasy possession of a seat on the Politburo. This was the decisive blow. Although he was still not completely crushed, Trotsky receded to the background. Although Trotsky was defeated, Zinoviev and Kamenev soon discovered that the victory was not theirs. In March 1925 the Fourteenth Conference of the Party accepted Stalin's theory of "socialism in one country," while Zinoviev and Kamenev paid little attention. Soon afterward Stalin was able to break up the triumvirate. Too late Zinoviev and Kamenev attacked Stalin's new theory. By the middle of 1925 he had found new allies in Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomsky, who accepted "socialism in one country."

19. Stalin vs. Kamenev and Zinovyev Rykov had become Lenin's successor as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. Tomsky was the leader of the Soviet trade-unions. Bukharin, the "Left" Communist of 1918, was now, like Rykov and Tomsky, on the "right" and the leader of those who felt that the NEP was a success, and while indeed socialism might be built in Russia. Zinoviev and Kamenev, on the contrary, were profoundly uneasy about the continuation of the NEP, but they had been abruptly thrust into the minority. Zinoviev and Kamenev tardily recognized Stalin as the man from whom they had most to fear and carefully prepared an attack on him for the XIV Party Congress, to be held in December 1925. However, the plan completely miscarried. As reconstituted just after the Congress, the Politburo had three new full members: Molotov, Voroshilov, and Kalinin, all loyal of Stalin's. Stalin also added several supporters to the list of candidate members of the Politburo.

20. Lenin, Zinov�ev and Kamenev

21. Anti-Stalin coalition In 1926 old opponents (Trotsky and his supporters) united with Zinov'�v and Kamenev in their struggle against Stalin. A united opposition tried to win the majority of the party over its side and to organise illegal structures. But there was no unity among the opposition members. Being supported by obedient party members, Stalin managed to expel opposition leaders from the party and to send his main opponent, Trotsky, from Moscow.� In his struggle against opposition Stalin broadly used the resolution "About Party's Unity", which prohibited factions and forced the minority to obey the majority. More often Stalin was supported by OGPU bodies (that is the State Political Administrative Board bodies). Stalin used this body in the struggle against his opponents.

22. Zinov�ev , Kamenev and Bukharin