HIST 236 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Left Opposition, Mensheviks, Kolkhoz
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The Breakdown of the NEP
The NEP increasingly came under strain after 1925
People were unhappy about unemployment, low wages, high
prices and the fallout from utopian family policy
○
-
The Bolsheviks were bitterly divided into "Right" and "Left"
factions on the issue of industrialization
The Right Opposition favoured a more gradual approach; the
Left Opposition favoured a faster and more aggressive
approach
Left is associated with Trotsky and more radical
communists
§
○
-
There were lots of homeless and orphaned children due to WWII
and the Civil War
-
Two sectored economy (state and private sector)
Private sector prices are unregulated
○
Phased out rationing after 1921 and wages were insufficient
○
-
NEP was supposed to be transitional and it was a question of when
they were going to dismantle the NEP
-
Stalin in Charge
Stalin consolidated his position as leader of the Soviet Unions as
the NEP unraveled
Lenin died in 1924 without naming an official heir
○
-
Stalin skilfully maneuvered the inter-Party conflicts that emerged
after Lenin's death
As General Secretary of the Communist Party, he oversaw
appointments and knew everyone's secrets and positions on
key Party debates
○
-
By the early 1930s, Stalin was firmly in charge of the Soviet system
-
At the last possible minute Trotsky becomes a Bolshevik, before he
was a Menshevik
-
People did not think that Stalin was a natural successor, Trotsky
was seen to be a good speaker and showed up to all of the events
-
Party decides to ban opposition
-
A New Tsar?
Stalin was not technically the leader of the Soviet Union, that was
Mikhail Kalinin, but everyone knew he was in charge
-
Despite the presence of formal state structures and decision-
making processes, Stalin ruled the government through the
Politburo whose decisions had the force of law
An advisory organ within the Communist Party
○
-
Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party
-
A "cult of personality" soon emerged around Stalin, who was
portrayed as a wise and benevolent "uncle" figure
-
Stalin is depicted everywhere and to be seen as a trusted friend by
Lenin
-
Stalin is talked about in the same terms that Nicholas II wanted to
be talked about
"Little father who takes care of the people and have the best
interests in mind"
○
-
Rapid Industrialization and the First Five Year Plan
Stalin dismantled the NEP by 1928 and oversaw the "Great Break"
rapid industrialization and collectivization
-
The First Five Year Plan took place in 1927-32
-
Workers were expected to engage in shock work, storming,
Stakhanovism
-
Problems were attributed to wreckers and saboteurs, not shoddy
work and the breakneck pace of industrialization
Try to bring down Russian industry from the inside - people
were recruited by the former owners to sabotage the
factories
○
-
Shelia Fitzpatrick: Stalin pushed for the creation of new Soviet
cadres; those who moved up and owed their loyalty to him
-
Industrializing looks good on paper, incentives to make the
numbers look good but in reality there is a lot of bad work or
accidents
-
Have to be suspicious of workers because they may not be
committed to communism, they may be committed to sabotage
-
The Soviet Union does not have its own skilled workers
Middle class people who had an education fled the country
and they are left with peasants who are farming with
wooden tools so the peasants were not skilled and therefore
it was difficult to meet quotas
○
-
Put a lot of emphasis on education - wanted to train own people
who were loyal and made sure plans were implemented and raise
quality of the work in these factories
-
Krushchev and Breshnev were trained during this time period (got
an education and were able to move into a position of authority in
politics)
-
Collectivization
Rationing had to be brought back in 1923 because of severe food
shortages
Stalin was convinced the peasantry was holding grain from
the state
○
This led to the return of expropriation
○
-
In 1929-1932, the government launched the full-scale
collectivization of agriculture to gain control over the food supply
Tools, livestock and property were declared to belong to the
collective farm
○
-
Technically, peasants voluntarily joined the kolkhoz; in reality, the
process involved coercion and violence
-
Many peasants saw collectivization as a second serfdom
-
Presented to peasants that this was about modernization
They would make more money and it would be more
efficient
○
-
Send out activists to the countryside to get collective farmers to
sign up for the kolkhoz
Rather than joining and handing over livestock, many people
just kill their livestock and destroy their tools
○
This looks like most peasants to serfdom
○
-
The Victory of Socialism of a Great Retreat
In 1934, at the Congress of Victors, Stalin declared that socialism
had been fully achieved
-
The Soviet Union supposedly entered a new period of stability
Stalin declared that life had become happier, more joyous
(1935)
○
-
Stalin's critics saw the second half of the mid-1930s as a retreat
from the revolution's fundamental aims (social and economic
equality, the end of poverty, world revolution, etc.)
Trotsky called this period in history the "Thermidor"
○
Nicholas Timasheff called it the "Great Retreat)
○
-
Move towards more conservative values (1935 and onwards)
-
The Return to Hierarchies
The 1930s saw the return of social and workplace hierarchies
-
Moshe Lewis: as a result of rapid industrialization, Russia turned
into a "country of vagrants" and a "quicksand society"
To cement the quicksand, the Stalinist state threw out
egalitarianism and brought back the values of discipline,
loyalty and careerism
○
-
Elites' loyalty to Stalin and Stalinism was often rewarded with
material priveledges not open to ordinary workers
-
A Return to Conservative Gender and Family Policies
By the Stalin era, there was great dissatisfaction with utopian
family policy (especially among women)
-
If in the 1920s, the family was supposed to wither away in the
1930s, the family had to be strengthened
Abortion was re-criminalized in 1936 and divorce was made
harder to obtain
○
-
David L. Hoffman: the Stalinist government was pronatalist,
encouraging people to have more children to resolve the country's
demographic crisis and prepare for anticipated war
-
Women start to criticize the state of affairs - stuck with double
burden of raising children and working in a factory
-
Trying to stabilize the society
-
Lecture 19 -Stalin and the Great Break
Monday, March 12, 2018
10:37 AM
Document Summary
Lecture 19 - stalin and the great break. The nep increasingly came under strain after 1925. People were unhappy about unemployment, low wages, high prices and the fallout from utopian family policy. The bolsheviks were bitterly divided into right and left factions on the issue of industrialization. The right opposition favoured a more gradual approach; the. Left opposition favoured a faster and more aggressive approach. Left is associated with trotsky and more radical communists. There were lots of homeless and orphaned children due to wwii and the civil war. Phased out rationing after 1921 and wages were insufficient. Nep was supposed to be transitional and it was a question of when they were going to dismantle the nep. Stalin consolidated his position as leader of the soviet unions as the nep unraveled. Lenin died in 1924 without naming an official heir. Stalin skilfully maneuvered the inter-party conflicts that emerged after lenin"s death.
