Stalin’s Russia: Totalitarian or Total-sham?

Stalin’s Russia:Totalitarian or Total-sham? Dr Matthew Harper OBE FSA

Creating Utopia Marxist theory was a scientific ideology which stressed the inevitable political advances towards Communism: • Must have the stage of socialism before Communism • A new class consciousness must be created. • The individual must subordinate to the state. • Capitalism would struggle to stop Communism.

Creating Utopia The theory had not been followed in the Soviet Union. Rival ideologies threatened Stalin: • Must remove all opposition to the ideology. • Create a monolithic ideology. • Eradicate dangerous ideologies such as Trotskyism. • Peasants may have a different version of Utopia, this must be changed.

Creating Utopia ‘Everything I do is against the Soviet Union’ - Hitler The state had to be united against outside threats: • International capitalism provided the threat as the opposite of Communism. • The aggressive Nazi Regime attempted to destroy the Soviet union. • State needs to be united and strong throughout these problems.

Creating Utopia Stalinism was a personal ideology: • Any opposition to the leader was rejected as ‘Factionalism’ • The Russians are a Tsarist people. • Nationalistic sense spills over onto the minorities in the state.

The Economy Marxism states that the economy drives forward the political systems of the world. If you can create the right economy you can create the government you want to.

Communism had to Look the Best • Russia is 50-100 years behind the west. • This must be made up in 15 years. • Five year plans will make up the difference. • In 1927 the first five year plan is launched to boost industry and build an urban proletariat.

Control and Subordination • Collectivisation was implemented to increase agricultural productivity. • It also allows the state to procure the grain to which they are entitled. • It becomes a capital punishment to steal state property. • Machine tractors stations are established to control the collectivised farms. • By 1939 90% of properties are in a collective.

Exportation • Russia exports grain to fund the rapid industrialisation. 5.06 million tonnes exported by 1931.

Illusion • Rationing was introduced in 1929 to be repealed with celebration in 1935 with Stalin saying ‘Life has become better’. • The man made famine in the 1930s kills 7 million in Ukraine. • Shakhty Trial 1928. 53 technicians are arrested and trialled for denying economic improvement.

Racism • Peasants resist collectivisation. • Kulaks get deported to Siberia. • 265,800 deported by 1932. • This brought a racial element. Marxist theory states you must destroy those who oppose communism and its ideals.

Overall • Crushing economic diversity removed Bukharin in 1927. • The Soviet Union is the only major country not affected by the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Private Gardens • Bolshevik officials in the countryside are assassinated by peasants. The Red army has to be deployed on several occasions. • To prevent the uprisings Stalin puts forward private plots in 1935. • By 1937 50% of vegetables and 70% of milk produced there. • Peasants claim public festivals to get out of working on collective farms. • Whilst this introduces diversity the private gardens cause more subordination towards the state. Double edged sword. • It is estimated that peasants spend more time on the collective plots than on private gardens. Not dedicated to ideology.

Stakhanovites • In 1935 a miner named Stakhanov mined 102 tonnes of coal in 6 hours. • People could become Stakhanovites and gain benefits. • Essentially capitalist.

Cultural Diversity • Cultural diversity was restricted in Stalin’s Russia to ensure that only the official party doctrine was communicated to the people. • Therefore the monolithic ideology of Stalinism could be established. • All radio stations were controlled by the state.

Newspapers • Pravda and Izvestiya were the two main party newspapers responsible for the party message. • ‘All geese are swans’ M. Mackillop

Socialist Realism • A new style had to be followed in all creative work. • The Union of Soviet writers was established in 1932, all work had to conform. • Artistic and intellectual freedom was destroyed, no precipitation of competing ideologies. • How the Steel was Tempered (1934) Adapted into a school text in 1935 and sells 5 million copies.

Cinema • Large groups of the population were illiterate. Cinema was needed to get the message through to them. • ’Of all the arts, cinema to us is the most important’ Lenin • American films end up more popular than Russian made films; Robin Hood replaces Potemkin in two weeks. Nationalist ideals of socialism in one country. • Cinema reorganised in 1930s to follow socialist realism. • Exile and death to those who make errors. • Foreign films are no longer imported. • Stalin must approve all film scripts. Monopoly over communication. • The Happy Guys (1934) a musical comedy that generated a ‘feel-good’ factor in the Russian population. • Alexander Nevsky (1938) produces a nationalist feeling over the ‘Teutonic-Knights’ of Germany. • By 1940 there are 20,000 cinemas in the Soviet Union.

Youth • Komosomol has 10.2 million members by 1940. • Compulsory primary education was introduced in 1930. • By 1940 there are 35 million in school. • At the time of the Bolshevik revolution there was a 25% literacy rate. • Press announces 90% in 1940, but being literate means you can write your name. • Poorly equipped: school of 250 to one textbook. • Shortage of pencils. • Pens but no ink. • Teachers are regarded as bourgeoisie by rural populations, therefore they are discriminated against. People don’t want to be teachers.

Women • 1936 constitution guaranteed social and political rights. • Women’s section of part shut down in 1930, politics is the male sphere. • 1936, abortion becomes illegal to increase birth rate. • Mother becomes symbol of stability. • Women with 10 children become ‘mother heroine of the Soviet Union’. • Sexual freedom of the 1920s disappears, contraception is banned. • Homosexuality is made illegal in 1934. • Women become cheap labour, 13 million in workforce by 1940.

Nationalism • Statues of local heroes pulled down. • Celebrate Russian heroes, Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. • Sense for the nationalistic greatness of Socialism in one country.

Religion ‘Religion is the opium of the masses’ – Karl Marx • Lenin had thought the same. In the 1918 he began to murder members of the Orthodox Church: the Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev was mutilated, castrated and then shot. • Nuns and Monks are forced to drink a communion of boiling lead from a Communion Chalice or were drowned in holes in the ice. • CHEKA shoot anyone who refuses to work due to a public holiday. • In 1922 80,000 Orthodox churches are stripped of gold, silver and jewels.

Monolithic Ideology • The NEP brought some religious tolerance. However, with five year plans industrialisation become the new secular religion: • ‘The works of Marx, Engels and Lenin became holy.’- Kopelev. • Stalin was committed to destroying organised religion and beliefs: only one true ideology for people to believe.

Religion • Collective farms used churches as grain stores. • Catholic Church was attacked in Ukraine. • Churches destroyed in 1930s. Cathedral of Moscow destroyed for the palace of the Soviets. Only 87 of Moscow’s 500 Orthodox churches stayed open. • Anti-religious propaganda. • Children were indoctrinated with a vicious contempt for priests.

Religion • Anti-religious museums are set up in churches. • In 1929 a law was passed banning religious activity outside churches. • Congregations had to be licensed to meet. • ‘The League of the Godless’ (1925) had 1 million members by 1929 • 10,000 out of 12,000 mosques were closed. • Muslim leaders accused of working with Kulaks so dealt with accordingly… • 1937-1939: 102,000 Orthodox priests are executed. • 1939: 12 churches remain open. • 2 out of 163 bishops survive.

However • April 1931, British diplomat ‘Bullard’ notes that Leningrad churches are packed for the Russian Easter. People still want religion. • 57% of Russians say in the 1937 census that they have a religion. • In 1941 Stalin reopened churches to unify people for the Nazi invasion.

Political Diversity • Stalin’s role could be threatened. Therefore he needed to stabilise himself. • Trotsky ‘Either the revolution destroys the peasantry, or the peasantry destroy the revolution.’

The 1936 Constitution • Personal freedom increased. • But central party power increased. • The party’s interests came before any personal or group interests. • Announces the foundations of Socialism had been achieved.

Politics

The NKVD • 681,192 political executions take place. • Quotas are set: 72,500 arrested and 177,500 to be executed. • Everyone must act in the best interests of the party. • Oppositionists must be destroyed. • 1 in 3 Leningrad citizens are executed.

The Show Trials • Stalin removes all opposition from Lenin’s time. • He becomes the sole interpreter of Marxist ideology. • All new party associates are young and have been brought up almost entirely on the basis of the new Soviet Ideology. • Everyone should be permanently vigilant.

Limitations • Gulags accounted for 10-15% of Soviet GNP by 1939. The economy relied on purging. • Individuals took the opportunity to gain benefits. • Bukharin is destroyed by his rivals for Stalin’s patronage. • Argued that it is not the act of destroying rivalry but rather altering the true image of truth and reality. • Russia had been intolerant of political diversity anyway. There had been little democracy in the country.

The Cult of Stalin ‘The Russian people is really a tsaristic people. It needs a tsar.’ – Stalin

The Cult • There was a psychological need for a leader in Russia. • A Russian peasants home would contain a cross and an icon of the tsar. • Russian peasantry could transfer their allegiance to the new ‘Little father’ of Stalin.

Lenin • Stalin deified Lenin. • Stalin linked himself directly to Lenin and became the sole interpreter of Marxist theory in Russia. • ‘The Lenin of Today’.

Belief • People wanted to be like one another and take part in the same mass activities. • Once people had submitted to Stalin they would find it hard to reject him, all the worship would be meaningless.

Propaganda • Gigantic busts of Stalin and portraits on every corner. • Speeches were peppered with glorification to Stalin. • His 50th birthday in 1929 is an example.

Benefit • Stalin benefited from the cult. • He could impose his views without having to argue his case. • This suited him psychologically as he was unable to accept criticism. • Ryutin had the death penalty imposed on him in 1932 when he tried to oppose Stalin.

Understanding • It is easier to follow an individual rather than a set of ideas. • It was not easy to explain rationale to the uneducated masses. • Example, the Nazi Soviet Pact is signed and then the Germans invaded 22 months later.

Grateful • Millions were grateful to comrade Stalin. • ‘Life is more joyous’ – Pravda • Living standards improved. • Each success of the state reinforced the genius of Stalin.

Limitations • Stalin hated his cult. • It embarrassed him. • People wanted to believe in him, they felt grateful. It is therefore a sign of loss of control. He could not stop people from believing in him.

Stalin’s Russia: Totalitarian or Total-sham?