The Stalin Era
Who is Stalin? He was born in 1879 in the Russian state of Georgia birth name was Iosif Vissariovich Dzhugasvili he was the son of a serf and a cobbler; he grew up very poor in spite of pretty much being a thug, he did very well in school Young Stalin
His willingness to be a thug for the Bolshevik revolutionaries was really what helped him rise through the party ranks. he organized strikes and at least once organized a major bank robbery so he could pass the money on to Lenin
Trotsky When the Reds won the Civil War in 1921, Lenin was in charge of the country. Leon Trotsky was second in command. Industry had been nationalized, and production and distribution centralized.
Starting in 1922, Lenin suffered a series of strokes. He died in 1924
When Lenin died, there was some question as to who was going to come to power in the USSR Lenin wanted Leon Trotsky, his right hand man to rule. Josef Stalin, General Secretary of the Central Committee, wanted the job. Will it be Trotsky? Or Stalin?
Lenin wrote: Comrade Stalin, having become general secretary, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution. "Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a general secretary. "That is why I suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc.. "This circumstance may appear to be a negligible detail. But I think... it is not a detail, or it is a detail which can assume decisive importance."
Stalin convinces party leaders Lenin wanted him to come to power and that Trotsky cannot be trusted. Stalin attempts to have Trotsky assassinated Trotsky flees to Mexico Stalin s assassins find him and murder him (and his whole family) in the mid 1930s
Stalin created a totalitarian state Eliminated his enemies Used secret police to terrorize and insure obedience ordered mass-scale deportations and executions extended state control over every aspect of Soviet life Beloved Stalin is People s Happiness
Economy Replaced NEP with a command economy managed from the top Created Five Year Plans goals to transform Russia into a major industrial power forced collectivization of farms
Stalin believed that collective farms (kulkoz) would be more productive than peasant agriculture First collectivization was voluntary Then mandatory
Number of farm animals (meat and work) fell by 50% Negative Consequences of Collectivization Hundreds of thousands of kulaks (prosperous farmers) were killed or exiled to SIberia for resisting collectivization
Holodomor: The Hunger Plague Many kulaks killed their animals rather than contribute them to collective farms Not enough draft animals, not enough tractors = not enough grain production Drought hit in 1932, and that pushed grain-producing areas (especially the Ukraine) over the edge there was mass famine
Was the Holodomor a genocide? Some say yes; Stalin intended to wipe out the Ukranian population Some say no; it was an unintended consequence of the Five Year Plans Either way, the famine likely could have been prevented if Stalin hadn t continued to divert all the food resources to the Five Year Plan
Industrial Growth
There s a lot of evidence that supports the idea that the USSR experienced massive industrial growth under Stalin s Five Year Plans for example...
Dnieper Hydroelectric Station Built in the Ukraine in 1927 When it came online in 1932, it was one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the world
Moscow Metro World s second-most heavily used metro system First line opened in 1936
Magnitogorsk Founded in 1929 Giant steelworks factory Played a major role in WWII steel production Still a major player in steel production
Workers in labor camps As evidenced, all of this growth came with a huge cost Stalin rabidly attacked anyone he suspected of being against him or his government The Purges and Gulag, which we will discuss later, were responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people.