Stalin's Dictatorship and Totalitarian Rule

Dictatorship and Totalitarian Regime Questions[]

Why was Stalin able to establish his dictatorship in Russia? (June 2011)

Why, by 1939, had Stalin been able to impose totalitarian rule on the Soviet Union? (June 2006)

These are the two possible questions and to be honest, they're fairly similar. I would say the main difference is where you end your essay: I would argue Stalin achieved a dictatorship before he achieved totalitarian rule. The two are slightly different; he is in sole control as opposed to he has absolute control over everything. They look similar but if you can understand the difference it may stop you from making mistakes. Either that or I'm rambling on about rubbish here... one day a Russian dude decided he hates everyone and wants to be rich. now hes dead

Nevertheless, Stewie broke the question down for us.

Main Points:[]

Power
Control of Party Machine
Great Purges
Propaganda/Cult of Personality
Collectivisation/5 Year Plan
Terror

____ means end of point reffered in the bullet points at the start of the first few sections.

Control of Party Machine[]

General secretary (from 1922)
Battle for leadership
Cult of Leninism

Appointed members at all levels

Confident in having the majority at congress

Controlled party agenda

Member of Ogburo and Secretariat

____

Lenin's death gave him the opportunity

Lenin's testament - did he plan on removing Stalin earlier?

Ban on factions (1921) (this is important as you will see in a later note)

Battle for leadership

tricked Trotsky (funeral)

dodges testament

Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin are effectively a triumvirate - critisised Trotsky, easily outvoted

1924 Zinoviev and Kamenev attack Left, Stalin remains int he background, Left tears itself appart

1925 "Socialism in one country", Stalin allies with Bukharin and Right, Zinoviev and Kamenev attack Stalin, due to control of party they posed little threat, 1926 they joined with Trotsky to form the "United Opposition", could now be accused of factionalism (Ban on Factions 1921).

1928 Stalin turned on NEP and Right, took up Trotsky's policies and outvoted Right

December 1929, 50th Birthday, undisputed leader of USSR. Due to powerful base of supporters and enemies' mistakes

"not yet realising what power was accumulating therein" - Hosking (the other leaders in regard to Stalin's post as General Secretary)

"it seemed to Trotsky almost a bad joke that Stalin...should be his rival" - Deutscher

"He changes his theories according to whom he needs to get rid of next" - Bukharin

"voted with the majority" - Deutscher. He also changed his policies without fickily, was without hesitation to change opinion, unlike the others.

"In six years Stalin outmanouvered a series of opponents" - Conquest

"a circular flow of power" - Daniels (in regard to the people that Stalin appointed owing him patronage/loyalty)

____

Stalin pursued policies which the general party membership wanted

Portrayed outwardly as a man of the party, moved behind the scenes

Loyal follower of Lenin

Lenin enrolment (1925/26) - ensured majority of supporters

"without personal grudge and rancour, as a detatched Leninist, a guardian of the doctrine" - Deutscher

Lenin's heir

Sole infallible interpreter of the party ideology

Cult of Leninism - Cult of Personailty

Great Purges (1934-38, peaked in 1938)[]

Use
Result

Growing signs of opposition

1934, 17th Party COngress, 292 votes against Stalin, 3 against Kirov

December 1934 Kirov murdered (you may want to mention the close relationship with Stalin yet killed ruthlessly to keep power)

excuse for starting purges

Engulfed all sections of population, notably the armed forces

First Phase: 1932-33, 20% of the party expelled nonviolently

Zinoviev and Kamenev arrested, trialed in 1935, executed in 1936

Yezhovschina - mass terror 1937-38

Had figures for killing people like industry = quotas

Party members, state officials, members of the armed forces, industrial workers

July 1937 Politburo passed resolution condemning "Anti-Soviet Elements" - artsists, writers, managers, musicians, administrators

1937 Armed Forces

At the end Stalin emerged as dictator of the USSR

70% of Central Comittee elected at the 17th Party Congress arrested and shot

1108/1966 delegates of the Congress shot (the ones that voted for Kirov)

This shows grudge, revenge in eliminating past and future opponents

35,000 officiers in army

Many managers at all levels

4/5 reginal party secretaries lost posts, by 1935, 10,000 arrested in Leningrad alone

Yagoda arrested in 1937, 23,000 NKVD men perished by the end of the 1930s

This shows paranoia

Volgonov - 16.5million imprisoned - official historian

Conquest - 7-8 million

"Trotskyism"

Lenin used purges in the name of the revolution, lest they be overthrown vs. Stalin used them while in power, to secure control.

This reflects paranoia and personality

Totalitarian view: 'top down', Stalin wrote the names of every person, he was in complete control of the purges

Revisionist view: 'les byt he masses', result of decisions, they gained a momentum of their own

Was Stalin in complete control?

____

Stalin removed past opposition

Carried out old grudges

Eliminated future threats (paranoia?)

Secured power

Propaganda/Cult of Personality[]

Almost God-like status

From 1935 it was only possible to speak of Stalin in glowing terms

Strong leader to take them through difficult times

Hid his dark side, cruelty and repression

"Stalin is the Lenin of today"

Image spread through collectivisation

By 1931 huge portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin were everywhere

History reinterpreted

Superior and apart

Indoctrinate those he was not controlling through executuion or arresting

He ctronolled through Terror, or the delusion of the Cult

Collectivisation / 5 Year Plans

[]

MTS (tractor stations in the collectives that had a propaganda office)

Communal buildings (communal halls in the collectives where they had talks etc)

50% collectivised by 1931

Dekulakisaton - deported / killed rebels

Got what he wanted

"The free peasant...constituted one of the main obstacles on the path to the absolute feudal power that Stalin wanted" - Saraskina

"Collectivisation would bring the peasants that much closer to socialism" - Hartfee

Allowed Stalin to control their lives and indoctinate them - dictator

He got the grain he wanted/needed - totalitarian

Famine of 1932, orginally estimated at 7million by Conquest, now said to be more like 10-15million

Unquestionably man-made famine that killed 10-15 million - total power and rule

____

Gosplan

control of economy and industry

told who to work where

Focussed whole country on singular aim: -Stalin ordered collectivisation, caused famine in order to industrialise - dictator

Total power, could make people do things, but could not ensure success

____

Question: do you think we need to explain collectivisation and the 5 year plans briefly first? I would say no but idk, one of the teachers may have said otherwise. Possibly just a quick line like "pooling all the land for efficient farming"

Terror[]

Used exiles for slave labour

could tell them what to do, work them to death

By 1931, 2million men and omen sent to Gulags

Eliminated rebels opposing power

Alternate way to ensure loyalty and control

Opposite to the Cult of Stalin and Propaganda

____

Basically Stalin controlled those he did not with propaganda with terror. They either followed him like oblivious sheep, or were shot. There is a really good music video which demonstrates this point. It was made by a band who make more aristic songs, the song is called 'Counting Bodies like Sheep to the Rythym of a war Drum' by A Perfect Circle, it's not about this dictator but if you watch from like 3:50 onwards you will get my idea.

Conclusion[]

Stalin's mentality and personlity were the key to his rise to power

thumb|link=

mentality - 100% focussed / dedicated to achieveing power

personality - ruthless / cunning

"Stalin had luck on his side" - McCauley

"was a triumph not of reason, but of organisation" - Carr

Totalitarian?

no opposition

population controlled it's own freedom

inititatives did exist at a local level that were not in accordance with the Party Line

Terror was a hysterical respone to the restrictions of the bureacracy - Arch Getty

"what Stalin set in motion had a dynamic of it's own" -Hoskins

Totalitarianism = suppressed on one hand, demonstrated mad chaos on the other

Lenin created the apparatus of a totalitarian state that Stalin inherited - the nation was already on it's way to totalitarianism under Lenin.

This is what I have so far. Please feel free to add or ask questions.

-James Bridgman