Russia #1
1. Introduction
Get churchill quote on Russia - Enigma, wrapped in a conundrum, encased in a
riddle.
-Russia, the principle successor to the Soviet Union stands as an unpredictable
power. While its military and force projection capabilities have greatly shrunk
over the past 6 years, it is still not to be discounted as a force in international
relations. Continent disguised as a country.
- World’s largest territory
- Multi-ethnic state
2. History
- While Russia has changed a great deal over the past 5 years, there are some
factors that have remained relatively constant.
Geography - Despite the loss of the other republics following the dissolution
of the Soviet Union, Russia remains the world's largest country in terms of
physical space. With an overall area of 6.6 million square miles (76% of the
former Soviet Union), it is more than double the size of the second largest
country, it may be described as a continent posing as a country. Yet, this size
also contains certain problems for the Russians. Firstly, Russia is a multi-ethnic
state, with over 150 different nationalities, each of which seems to bear a
historical grudge against the Russians, the country faces a similar dilemma
to that encountered by the former Soviet Union - How does one forge a multi-ethnic
state from an area established by force? The problems that the state currently
faces in Chechnya are an example of this state of affairs. Most of the different
nationalities harbor strong resentment of the Russian leadership and the autocratic
manner in which it has ruled for centuries.
The autocratic government that was a staple of the Soviet Union since the time
of Stalin and his successors draws on a long history of Russian governmental
style.
Sources of Discontent in Late Czarist Times
By the close of the 19th century, Russia had seen a number of rebellions and
opposition to Tsarist rule was emanating from many quarters, why?
International Causes
- Napoleonic War and the visits to the West, bringing back of books, beginnings
of widespread feelings of the need for reform.
- Crimean War (1854-56) Russia entered a conflict with Turkey, England and France.
Eventually defeated this resulted in Bessarabia being ceded to Moldova and the
neutralization of the Black Sea area.
- War with Japan. 1905 Japanese destroyed the Russian Pacific fleet in a surprise
attack at Port Arthur and scored land victory at Mukden. The Soviet Baltic fleet,
which had made the long journey to the Pacific was destroyed at the Tsushima
Straights. The resulting Treaty of Portsmouth gave Japan control over the southern
Sakhalins as well as suzeirity over Manchuria and Port Arthur.
- WWI, contributed to the overall loss of esteem by the Tsars and the chaotic
attempts to unseat them, which eventually resulted in the bolshevik victory.
Russia suffered tremendous losses in WWI 12 m either killed, captured or wounded.
and their was tremendous opposition to the involvement of the government in
this war. Essentially Russia was fighting the first industrial war (the first
major conflict since the industrial revolution had spread beyond England) with
a pre-industrial economy. Tremendous drain on resources and manpower. Also,
this war would prove to be very trying for stable government, for the Tsarist
Government, which was having great difficulties, it would prove to be disasterous.
Domestic Causes
- Efforts at reform and Westernization had been going on for several centuries
- Peter the Great (1672-1725) and the building of the capital of St. Petersburg
in the early 1700s - also set up schools, brought the church under the control
of the state, reformed trade, industry and the army. Mention the beard tax.
- However, these efforts by Peter and his successors, while successful in limited
ways, did not bring Russia in line with the West - Sick Man of Europe. Mention
the idea of Pan-Slavism and the general mixed emotions about copying the West.
- One of the developments that should have changed Russia was the freeing of
the Serfs by Alexander II in 1861. However, this did not really change rural
life to that great of a degree. While the peasants were freed from personal
bondage, they were then obliged to pay for land which they considered to be
their own. The life of the peasant was very spartan in good years, in bad they
verged on starvation. The peasantry considered their problems to have been caused
by the vast holdings of land still in the possession of the noblity. They presumed
that if this land were redistributed, then their lives would improve. Probably
true, though I am not sure that this improvement would be all that the peasantry
hoped for. After the Emancipation act, the peasants owned three times the amount
of land that the nobility held. The real problems rested in backward technology
and poor access to markets.
Anyway, by the close of the 19th century, there were demands for reform emanating
from both urban and rural Russia. The belief was emerging that the system had
to be completely changed as the limited reforms within the system had yielded
little in the way of results. During this time we see the rise of the narodnikis
- which promoted the peasants as the symbol of all that was good and noble about
Russia and the Anarchists, who sought to remove the state in order to free the
people from all of its needless restrictions.
Also in the latter part of the 19th century, the first Russian Marxist Study
Group was formed in 1883 by Georgi Plekhanov. Shortly after forming this group,
Plekhanov, fearing the long arm of the Okhrana, fled to Switzerland. Later he
would be joined in Switzerland by Lenin (1900), who ventured to the Land of
Chocolate after being released from Siberia (where he had served 5 years). Marxism
provided a useful explanation for why none of the previous movement had succeeded,
the objective conditions for reform had yet to be realized, yet, as we soon
shall see, Lenin did not view this as an insurmountable obstacle to the creation
of revolution in Russia.
Anyway, at the Second Party Congress in 1903 in Brussels, a split occured within
the Russian marxists between Lenin's group (the bolsheviks) and that supported
by Plekhanov (the mensheviks - minority). The split came over the means about
which to bring Communism to Russia. The mensheviks were more interested in first
bringing capitalism to Russia, they followed Marx's analysis directly and presumed
that capitalism would be necessary to allow Russia to achieve communism as the
vestiges of peasant farming remained into the 20th century and industry had
not really developed. In 1913, only 1.4% of the population were industrial workers,
hardly an ideal situation for a revolution based on the will of the proleatariat.
Not only was there a very small proletariat, but the population was largely
rural - only 14.6% urban at the start of WWI.
- Lenin and his differences with Marxist thought
1. Imperialism
2. Organization of the Communist Party
- Marx presumed that the Communist revolutions would first occur in the most
industrialized countries - Germany, England - that the rapacious nature of capitalism
would cause the workers so much misery that they would spontaneously rebel.
He saw history as a series of stages.
- Primative Communism, Empire, Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism.
- One must go through each of these stages in order to reach the end, as class
conflict in each stage would cause the next.Therefore, it is important to remember
that according to Marx, the revolution would not only be a spontaneous rising,
but that its emergence was inevitable.
- Lenin was more of an activist than Marx, and he was also interested in seeing
a revolution in Russia in his lifetime.
- Also, Tried to answer the question of why Marxism had not come to pass.
- Lenin and the Toilers of the East
- Weak Links of Capitalism
- While the Russian Marxists squabbled in Europe, the events in Russia were
becoming more dire.
Loss of legitimacy by the Tsar (1905-1917)
- Bloody Sunday (Jan. 9, 1905) - 200 killed - forever challenged image of Tsar
as “little father”. Series of strikes (introduction of worker’s
councils) and demands by the intellectuals for the creation of a parliament
and the observance of civil rights.
In the October Manifesto, Nicholas II promised that civil rights would be observed
and created a parliament - the Duma, thereby meeting two of the intellectuals
demands. Having appeased the intellectuals and the liberals, he then turned
the army and the police on the workers, crushing the emrgent Soviets.
The Duma, or parliament was initially promised wide responsibility - "without
its consent no law can take effect". The Duma was usually ignored by the
Tsar, and he dissolved it on several occasions, until a body equal to his conservative
tastes was elected.
The attention paid to civil rights was rather fleeting, by November of 1917,
a commission had still not been put in place to draft a Russian constitution.
There was also some limited attention paid to land reform, by 1915 almost 14
million peasants owned the land that they farmed. This was to be very relevant
when Stalin tried to collectivize this land in the early 1930s.
Anyway, the events of Bloody Sunday would forever hamper the image of the Tsar.
While he had succeeded in supressing the rebellion, this would only delay the
inevitable.
Earlier I mentioned the problems that the Russians experienced in World War
I. In 1915, Nicholas decided to go to the front as a personal inspiration to
his troops. He left his wife, Alexandra in charge of the government of Russia.
This would prove to be a serious mistake. At that time Alexandra was under the
sway of a Siberian Monk named Rasputin. Rasputin had charmed her by allegedly
curing the heir of his hemophilia through hynosis. Rasputin claimed to be a
holy visionary with near supernatural powers and he became Alexandra's closest
advisor. Under his bidding, she dismissed virtually all of her most capable
ministers and there were wild rumors circulating about his corruption and sexual
peccadillios. Rasputin was eventually murdered by a group of outraged nobles
in 1916.
By 1917 the Tsar had lost virtually all of his legitimacy, there was virtually
no social group left that supported him. The peasants had the usual panopoly
of grievances, the army was disturbed by the beating that they were taking in
World War I and questioned the costs of such a war. The workers remember their
brief flirtation with self rule in 1905 and the way that the Tsar crushed it.
And the nobles were horrified by the abuses that they saw taking place in the
imperial court. On March 8, 1917 (mention the use of the Julian calender - difference
of about 13 days) protests broke out in Petrograd (mention that the name had
been changed from St. Petersbug in 1914 as an anti-German gesture). The troops,
including the previously loyal cossacks, refused to intervene and the protests
spread throughout the country. A furious Nicholas demanded the resignation of
the Duma. They refused to give it and he ended up abdicating the throne in mid
march. He was banished to Siberia where he and his family (save Anastasia) were
later executed on Lenin's orders.
The Provisional Government
The term provisional government is somewhat of a misnomer as when the Tsar abdicated,
two bodies emerged to take control of the government of Russia. The Duma established
a provisional government which was supposed to sit until a Constituent assembly
could emerge, which had been elected by all of the people. The other body was
a Soviet (council) convened by the workers and the soldiers of the Petrograd
garrison - the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
Why Two? Neither side was really strong enough to oust the other. One of the
first acts by the provisional government was to abolish the Tsarist police and
security services, and therefore was left with no elements of coercion left.
Also lacking popular support it had to tolerate the Soviets, at least in urban
Russia.
- Guchov (Minister of War)
“The Provisional government does not possess any real power; and its directives
are only carried out to the extent that it is permitted by the Soviet of Workers’
and Soldiers’ Deputies, which enjoys all of the elements of real power,
since the troops, the railroads, the post and the telegraph are all in its hands.”
The Soviets, for their part, had to tolerate the Provisional government because
its presence inspired the loyalty of the senior army officers, gained international
recognition, and reduced the chances of counter-revolution by forces still with
vestiges of loyalty to the Tsar, also the leadership of the CPSU was still not
in Petrograd - Trotsky rushed to the scene, but Lenin was still in Transit -
he did not arrive until April (mention how it was that Lenin reached Russia,
flush with German $ to foment disorder and advocate a separate peace). In short,
they were consolidating their strength.
Provisional government was more or less untenable from the outset. The continuing
existence of the war, and any efforts to achieve a separate peace with Germany
and Austro-Hungaria would have been the equivalent of surrender. This did not
allow the PG to carry out any of the expected reforms - land redistribution
with many of the peasants in Europe, industrial reorganization with the needs
for war materials, increased political influence by the soldiers (they wished
to elect their own commitees and participate in the administration of their
own units) could not occur under the demands of war. As we have seen, when a
country attempts a massive internal organization, it usually attempts to secure
a tranquil international environment before beginning. The difficulties of peacetime
reform are multiplied by the complications of war.
- Peasants became increasingly suspicious of the provisional government as the
process of land reform lagged. They began the process of land reform on their
own, seizing the territory of the large land owners. They also balked at ponying
up their grain at set prices and throughout the summer and fall of 1917, the
supply of grain fell as peasants refused to sell their grain at these fixed
prices - which by necessity lagged behind the inflation of the time.
- Backward nature of Russian Farming allowed this - produce own products.
- In the cities, the running of the councils proved to be impractical with large
numbers of the workers participating in the decision making process. Power gravitated
to the smaller executive councils, leaving the workers to believe that the new
system simply replaced the rulers with other rulers, still leaving them mute
in the deicision making process. The bolsheviks became in control of the factory
committees after Lenin’s return in April and assisted in the creation
of Red Guards - armed workers units who were to patrol the factory floors and
maintain order in the industrial areas. Vigilante justice toward those deemed
harsh, led to chaos in the factories.
- Soldiers - Order No. 1 had been passed in the Petrograd garrison and soon
spread to other units. The soldiers were to elect their own representatives
to Councils. In combat, the officers were to be obeyed but this did not extend
to offtime and the councils were to control the issuance of weapons. In practice
this sometimes resulted in the election and dismissal of officers.
General Disenchantment about the War
Problems with morale
Bolsheviks stirring up trouble, seeking separate peace.
- In July a failed offensive against the Germans occured. Some units balked
at the orders, others engaged and then quickly withdrew. Massive rebellion among
the soldiers, abandonment of positions and the murder of officers who attempted
to preserve some sense of order. Massive desertion, soldiers retained their
weapons and returned home to take part in land redistribution.
- Following the failure of the offensive the Bolsheivks attempted a coup by
encouraging the workers to rise up against the provisional government, however
this proved to be a failure and the
leaders dispersed - Lenin heading for Finland and Trotsky thrown in jail.
- However, in August General Kornilov (Commander in Chief of the Army) called
back troops from the front with the intention of crushing the Soviets and arresting
the bolsheviks. The Prime Minister Kerensky declared Kornilov to be under arrest
and the railwaymen and the soldiers turned against Kornilov. Coup failed. Hosking
suggests that Kerensky was in on the coup from the beginning, but when he realized
that it could not succeed, he did a devil’s deal with the Bolsheviks and
gave them increased power in exchange for their support.
In any event, by the fall the provisional government was completely discredited,
it had failed to end the war, indeed its efforts to expand it, the July offensive,
turned into a rout. It also could not begin to draft a constitution or organize
a systematic redistribution of land with the war going on.
The Bolsheviks then expanded their control of the Petrograd Garrison and the
Kronstadt Naval Base (relevant for future times). They organized a Military
Revolutionary Committee led by the recently released Trotsky. This body was
created to defend the Soviets against either a repeat of the Kornilov Afffair,
or from further encroachments by the Germans - who at this point were at Riga.
The MRC called for the Soldiers not to accept any order which they themselves
did not approve. This, in essence emasculated the government.
Throughout the summer and the fall, Lenin had been urging the bolsheviks to
rise and attack the Winter Palace. This eventually occured on the night of November
5(October 23-24). The impetus came from an order given by Kerensky to close
down two of the bolshevik presses and to arrest some of the bolsheviks on the
crime of sedition. The MRC sprang to action to defend the presses and followed
Lenin’s advice that they should take the offensive. On November 7, the
Winter Palace was stormed and with only 6 killed the bolsheviks had taken power.
Bolshevik rule was expanded to the entire city. However, rather than have the
Soviets take control, the logical choice. Lenin proclaimed that the control
of the city rested in the hands of the MRC, the institution most completely
under the control of the bolsheviks. Pissed off the other movements who condemned
the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. Other opponents of the Provisional government
were poorly organized and ill equipped to win such a struggle. They participated
in the Soviets and the risings, presuming that if the provisional government
did lose power, that it would be the Soviets who would take over. Through the
creation of the MRC’s, bodies created to protect the Soviets, the bolsheviks
had created the means to replace them.
The bolsheviks, extended their control to most of the country through the next
couple of months. However, they still had to face the hurdle of the elections
to the constituent assmebly, which were to be held in late November. Lenin did
not believe that he could postpone an election which he and the bolsheviks had
been calling for and critizing the slow pace of the Provisional Government in
bringing to be. In the elections, the Bolsheviks attracted the second highest
number of votes - 9.8 million, but this was second to the Socialist Revolutionaries
total of 15.8 million. Once the results were in, Lenin spoke of it as ‘bourgeois
democratic type’, that must give way to a ‘democratic institution
of a higher order’. While the bolsheviks did allow the assembly to meet,
it was clear that this was only allowed under terms that they would dictate.
When the bolshevik motion to recognize the superiority of their government,
and this motion was rejected, and then the assembly went on to pass the first
ten articles of a basic land law, which would have replaced the bolshevik legislation.
The guards then told the Chairman to conclude the session. After this meeting,
the Constituent assembly was locked out of the hall and ended.
The other parties realized that the bolsheviks would have a great advantage
in any military conflict in the Capital and decided to rely on the popular support
enjoyed by the Socialist Revolutionaries and the moral appeal of the Constituent
Assembly. None expected bolshevism to last, they believed that capitulation
in the short term could help preserve their moral legitimacy in the long term.
Also, it might not be such a bad thing to let the Bolsheviks discredit themselves
through attempts to deal with Russia's insoluble problems of the time.
However, this proved to be a mistake and by the time that they realized that
the only way to supplant the bolsheviks was by force, While the serfs were formally
freed by the government in 1861, Russia was still largely a feudal society.
The vestiges of peasant farming remained into the 20th century and industry
had not really developed. In 1913, only 1.4% of the population were industrial
workers, hardly an ideal situation for a revolution based on the will of the
proleatariat. Not only was there a very small proletariat, but the population
was largely rural - only 14.6% urban at the start of WWI.
- Yet, Russia suffered tremendous losses in WWI 1.7 m, and their was tremendous
opposition to the involvement of the government in this war.
- Rasputin, the bolsheviks, order number one, etc.
- Out of this chaos came the October revolution of 1917, and out of the October
revolution the Bolsheviks came to power. Lenin was faced with the difficult
task of creating a Soviet state out of this uncertainty.
Lenin (1917 - 1924)
- Differences with Marx
1. Imperialism
2. Organization of the Communist Party
- Marx presumed that the Communist revolutions would first occur in the most
industrialized countries - Germany, England - that the rapacious nature of capitalism
would cause the workers so much misery that they would spontaneously rebel.
He saw history as a series of stages.
- Primative Communism, Empire, Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism.
- One must go through each of these stages in order to reach the end, as class
conflict in each stage would cause the next.Therefore, it is important to remember
that according to Marx, the revolution would not only be a spontaneous rising,
but that its emergence was inevitable.
- Lenin was more of an activist than Marx, and he was also interested in seeing
a revolution in Russia in his lifetime.
- Also, Tried to answer the question of why Marxism had not come to pass.
- Lenin and the Toilers of the East
- Weak Links of Capitalism
- Support for the Chinese
- Both Deng & Jiang Jinguo studied in the Soviet Union
- CCP & KMT alliance and the support of the Soviet Union
After assuming power the first task for the CPSU was to end the war - Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk in January of 1918.
- The second task was to defeat the elements of the Whites which were surviving
as well as the foreign powers which had intervened following the end of WWI.
US, Brit, Japan.
War Communism (1918-1921)
- The workers were told to take over the factories and peasants were told to
take the land. Means of production was to be socialized - ie put under state
control. This cheesed off the workers, who wished to have direct control over
their own enterprises, yet the state was to assume control during the dictatorship
of the proletariat. Important point - Lenin and the CPSU in their role as the
vanguard of the proleatariat were assuming ultimate control for the administration
of industry.
- Wars took a terrible toll on society, and the citizens were less than enchanted
with the idea of centralized rule by the CPSU.
- Kronstadt Rebellion (1921) - Naval Base in the Baltic, Sailors who had been
the most loyal bolsheviks rose against the new gov't. Suppressed by forces led
by Tukhachevsky (killed by Stalin in 1937).
- Industrial production was 1/7 of pre-war levels.
- Clearly, the gov't had to take some action.
The New Economic Policy (1921-1929)
- Bukharin
- Under NEP everything except for heavy industry, communication, finance and
transportation was returned to private hands. Introduction of "state capitalism"
in which the peasants were taxed by goods in kind, freeing of domestic trade,
admission of foreign capital, and the allowance of private entrepanuers.
- This was intended as a temporary measure to alleviate the economic problems
and it was assumed that the economy would be resocialized at a later date.
- January of 1924, after being incapacitated by a series of strokes Lenin finally
went to join Marx. This led to a struggle for leadership within the party between
Stalin and Trotsky, which would last for the next four years and which Stalin
would ultimately win. Three main areas of dispute between the two: (Note: While
Stalin may have seemed to favor these policies during his struggle with Trotsky,
he quickly changed his tune after assuming office)
1. Collective vs. Personal Leadership - While it is the idea of personal leadership
which has become most clearly identified with Stalin, during his struggle with
Trotsky, the other party leaders supported Stalin because they saw him as being
less of a dominant figure than Trotsky. He had been relatively quiet prior to
Lenin's death, though Lenin did see this potential and asked that his successor
be someone other than Uncle Joe - note suppressed. Anyway, there was a fear
among the other apparatchiks that if Trotsky were to take over that they would
be eclisped by his brilliance and would lose influence.
2. NEP - Trotsky was a true believer and wanted to see NEP immediatelly abolished.
Stalin supported the program as being the pragmatic solution to the problems
of the Soviet Union. As we shall see shortly, one of Stalin's first moves after
assuming unqualified power was to scrap NEP and to depose Bukharin.
3. Permanent Revolution vs. Socialism in One Country - Dealt with the role that
the Soviet State would assume in the future. Would it serve as a base for revolutions
in other countries or would it try and build a functional state. Stalin was
less sanguine about the possibility of other revolutions in the short term,
he sought to build a Soviet state which could function in the international
community. How can you have diplomatic relations with other countries if you
are actively seeking their overthrow? Stalin proved to be a pragmatist who was
willing to deal with the capitalists to further the cause of communism in the
Soviet Union. Marx would have been appalled.
- Problem emerges in the Soviet Union - How do you encourage the overthrow of
other governments while still maintaining diplomatic relations with these governments?
This would prove to be an incompatible aspect of Soviet foreign policy. Malik
the Soviet ambassador to London, used to complain quietly about being forced
to deal with the British Communist Party, claiming that this greatly hampered
his ability to deal with the British government.
- In 1924, Stalin introduced a directive that was intended to deal with this
problem. He stated that Soviet embassies would no longer serve as centers of
insurrection, the Soviet state would withdraw from this practice, and this function
would be carried out by the Communist International, or the Comintern. In practice
this was a very difficult distinction to make, as the Soviet State was dominated
by the party, the Comintern was dominated by the Soviet Union and responded
to its bidding.
Stalin (1924-1953)
- Four basic elements to understanding Stalin.
1. The Stalinist Economic Model - In 1929, NEP was abolished and the First Five
Year Plan was introduced. Under this model the development of heavy industry
takes precedence over any other goals. Resources are drawn away from consumption
and toward production - remember that the Soviet Union had to create a proletariat
and therefore resources were channelled toward the creation of large scale economic
enterprises. The dinosaurs that plague all former Communist Countries.
- Resources were also be drawn from the countryside to build these monoliths,
agriculture was forcibly collectivized leading to a terrible famine in the Ukraine
in the 1930s.
- Stalin justified the brutality of these policies by stating that the USSR
was surrounded by states which would like nothing more than to see it destroyed.
"We have perhaps ten years before the capitalists invade" (march of
1931)
- Rigid central planning of the economy - Gosplan, which had been initially
created in 1921 as the state planning agency, took on an expanded role controlling
all of the inputs and outputs within the Soviet Economy - explain how Gosplan
worked.
- Character of the industries that were created - they were these enormous entities
who were given quotas - yet these were quotas of quantity rather than quality.
Led to incredible errors as time passed. Shoes were produced in one size and
one color - no market instincts to tell them otherwise.
2. Totalitarian System - Stalin as a former revolutionary who saw plots behind
every wall, was continually fearful of outside agents seeking to overthrow his
rule; and not only did he fear outside plotters but internal ones as well.
- Systemized Terror
- Rise in the role of the secret police, became the dominant force in the Soviet
Union. Operated against the party as well as against the common people - 4-10
m people in the Gulags. Stalin used this as a means of controlling his perceived
enemies and there were purges throughout the 1930s and anyone who could potentially
challenge Stalin's power found themselves under strong suspicion.
- Party Members
- The Army and Tukhashevsky
- In general, life in the Soviet Union was controlled by the state, the totality
of existence was state ordained. People saw their every action determined by
the State.
- How did Stalin keep control while upsetting so many people? Division of his
enemies, the general acceptance of the goal.
- See Koestler
3. Personality Cult - Where do you find your deities in a godless society. Within
the Soviet Union Stalin was presented as the personification of the system.
Constant rewriting of history so that he would seem to be infallible and the
accomplishments of his enemies would be wiped out. Stalin was promoted as the
personification of the Soviet state.
- Stalin assumed personal rule of the system and the party took a secondary
position to Stalin and the Secret Police - mention Beria and how the KGB came
to be more than an appendage of the CPSU, while formaly the party was preeminent,
in reality this was personal rule with the complicity of the Secret Police.
- Explain Gosplan
4. Socialism in One Country - Build up of the Soviet State. This was justified
under the need to protect the crucible of the revolution. This was also enhanced
by appeals to Russian nationalism, especially during the Second World War.
- Following the war communist gov'ts were established in all areas that the
Red Army had reached. Mention the role of the Red Army in Eastern Europe and
the fact that the Soviet Union was no longer alone - throughout Eastern Europe
- Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria
(Yugoslavia and China were special cases) Contrary to expected behavior, but
as Stalin saw it he had to secure his borders and would rather fight a war against
the West in Poland and Czechoslovakia than Russia.
- Communist leaders who were established owed their success almost entirely
to Moscow, local comms who might exercise some independant judgement were liquidated
after the war. Problems with independent comms of Mao and Tito.
Stalin and WWII
- Initially very suspicious of the West and rather trusting of Hitler. Believed
that the West was trying to play them off against each other and that they would
work against the Soviets at each turn. Mention the casualty figures of the Second
World War and exactly how much the Soviets lost.
- This led to his determination over E.E.
- Played Roosevelt like a harp - EE, NK.
- Alliance with the West was only meant as a temporal measure - aimed at defeating
the Nazis rather than crafting a future partnership. Stalin was far too suspicious
of the West - belief in the character of capitalists.
- Stalin died in 1953, party breathed a long sigh of relief, costs of his actions
were very evident, god knows how many dead or in prison due to the campaigns
of terror (20 million, including collectivization). Also, although the Soviets
had been victorious during the second world war this had come at a tremendous
cost (20 million) and those with long memories could not help but wonder how
the Soviet Army would have preformed had its officer corps not been decimated
by the purges of the late 1930s. Above all, the constant fear felt by all of
the CPSU officials - when would Stalin's attention turn to them. As such, there
was a certain amount of releif when Stalin passed on, and the leading contenders
for the leadership of the CPSU were reluctant to see any one human being assume
that much single power.
- The role that the KGB played also declined following Stalin's death, while
it would continue to be a pervasive force in Soviet society its role was returned
to a subordinate one to the party. Beria was isolated and purged at a party
meeting.
- However, this announcement was reflective of Stalin's policy of Socialism
in One Country - whereby the primary goal of the Soviet foreign policy would
be to preserve the safety of the Soviet Union, and not to continually seek insurrection
abroad. Stalin's logic behind this was that the Soviet Union was the crucible
of the revolution and as such, its preservation was the most essential priority
of Soviet Foreign policy. The CPSU should seek to build a prosperous state within
its borders to serve as an example for others to follow - to strengthen socialism
within one country. Stalin in 1947 ( at the 800th anniversary of Moscow): "Only
a country united in a single centralized state can count on being able to make
substantial cultural-economic progress and assert its independence." Treated
the Communist movement as he treated the Soviet state.
- This policy did not receive universal approval within the Soviet Union.
- Trotsky and Permanent Revolution. Key aspect of their struggle for leadership.
Dispute over China and the Shanghai Massacre.
- Their opinions
World War II
- Under Stalin the key area of focus was Europe. He became concerned about the
Nazi threat in the early 1930s.
- The Collectivization Drive and Germany - 10 Years
- Dissatisfaction with the West and the belief that Chamberlain was trying to
turn Hitler's attention Eastward. Some justification for this view.
- 1942 - Peace treaty w/ Japan. Germans peeved.
- Comintern dissolved in 1943 to appease the West
- Yalta (Feb. 1945). The Soviets agree to enter the pacific war three months
after the conclusion of the war in Europe.
Why did Roosevelt seek this?
- The Soviets do intervene, three months to the day after Germany surrendered
to them (May 8 - Aug.8) Of course this was also two days after the first atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. They took Kuriles, Sakhalin, Korea, took and
looted Manchuria.
-Some belief that Stalin knew of the Atomic bomb at Yalta, he did not seem surprised
when Roosevelt hinted that the United States had created a "new and special"
weapon. How did this figure into his thinking? Would the Soviets have intervened
if they did not believe that Japan was on the verge of collapse?
- Delays of D-Day and Stalin's anger.
- Result was that the Soviet Union achieved a great deal - industry from Manchuria
($858m to $2b) and the territories it had lost to Japan in the preceding 50
Years with very little cost.
Aftermath of WWII, the CCP comes to power in China based on their own merits.
- Golden Years of the Sino-Soviet Alliance from 1950-1957.
- Trouble when Khrushchev assumed power in the Soviet Union.
- Mao as Senior Theorist
- Cult of Personality
- After another power struggle Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the leader,
Main features
1. Secret Speech - At the 20th party congress, Khrushchev gave a speech in which
the crimes of Stalin were announced and condemned. This is particularily important
as prior to this time, he was heralded as a great leader and the person who
had industrialized the Soviet Union and led it to victory during WWII. While
the speech was technically a secret, party members were given copies so that
they could read it at local party meetings, therefore it was partially disseminated
to the people. Yet, positive feelings for Stalin are held by some, to this day.
- In the Speech, the crimes that Khruschev referred to were principally Stalin's
purges of the party and of the army; the millions of Ukranians who perished
during the collectivization drives were not mentioned, neither were the other
non-Russian peoples whom Stalin suppressed.
- Crisis of confidence in the West.
2. Improved Consumer Goods - An effort was made to increase the supply of consumer
goods to appease the population; rewards for the hardships of previous years.
Yet, this was not entirely effective; the system is not suited to the production
of consumer goods and the efforts to industrialize and surpass the West demanded
that this could only occur on a limited scale.
3. Opponents were exiled and not killed - This was one of the ramifications
of Stalin's rule, there was a strong reluctance to return to the bad old days
where disagreement was fatal. Instead of seeing their lives ended, the losers
of power struggles within the regime would only find their political careers
ended.
4. Allowed some dissent - Principally as a means of discrediting Stalin and
therefore legitimizing Khrushchev's choosing of alternative policies; emergence
of Solzhenitsyn and Medvedev, both of whom were later discredited by Brezhnev.
5. Peaceful Coexistence - Burial by progress. Rather ironic since it is K who
is rightly presumed to have brought the West and the Soviets to the brink of
war in 1962 with the Cuban missile crisis. However, in the 1956 speech, K stated
that war with the West was not inevitable. Failure to provide Chinese With nuclear
weapons in 1959; NTBT - 1963. Willing to work with the West in nuclear area,
assumption was that the superiority of the Soviet system would lead to its eventual
triumph and that military means would not be necessary - rendered too costly
by the creation of atomic weapons.
- Courting of the developing world.
6. Relaxation of Control over Satellites - In 1956, K said that the other Socialist
countries would be free to pursue their own paths of development. Led to a great
deal of uncertainty in EE. Hungary in 1956.
- Khrushchev also promoted a series of developmental schemes - Virgin Lands
- farming in central Asia, which turned out to be miserable failures. Another
factor that relates to the Soviet experience is that although he emphasized
collective leadership, he increasingly attempted to gain power for himself and
to marginalize other leaders. His successors all attempted the same thing. Largely
because it seems a simpler war of running a country - easier to accomplish goals.
Yet, in the case of Khrushchev, this led to serious unease among the other highly
ranking members of the CPSU. This couple with his disasters in foreign affairs
- see Cuba and China (explain the Sino-Soviet dispute and the effects on Communism,
also mention Tito) - led to his being deposed in 1964.
Brezhnev (1964-82)
- Similar to the aftermath of the deaths of Lenin and Stalin, the fall of Khrushchev
led to a struggle for leadership within the
CPSU. Brezhnev emerged as the most powerful element.
Three Achievements of Brezhnev
1. The USSR gained status and recognition as a global power, with global interests
and presence and also gained recognition as the political and military equal
of the United States. While it may be difficult to fathom given the events of
the last several years, by the end of the 1960s the Soviet Union was considered
to be, and treated as the equal of the United States.
- Confirmed by SALT I
2. Established a series of client states in Africa (Angola, Mozambique), Asia
(Vietnam), Central America (Nicaragua), Middle East (Syria). This gave the Soviets
global reach and turned them into something more than a European power.
3. Shifted the strategic balance in their favor. More a question of achieving
gains relative to the United States during a time in which the US was either
bogged down in Vietnam or recovering from the damage that conflict had done
to the American psyche.
Problems
The problem was that the Soviet Union could not afford the cost of keeping pace
with the United States. The amount of money that it actually invested in national
defense exceeded any Western estimates. Heavy investment in the military of
the Soviet Union. Accounted for between 25 and 40% of GNP during this time (4-8%
in West). All of tech and scientists were channelled toward this area, seen
as essential. Effort made to Finlandize Western Europe. Mention the Brezhnev
doctrine and how it scared the Chinese.
The costs of the proxy wars and supporting its client states were an unwelcome
drain on a Soviet economy that was experiencing great difficulty during the
Brezhnev Era. The SU was attempting to compete with the United States without
possessing the resources to accomplish this. All of the sattelites were costing
it a great deal of $ - Cuba, Nicaragua, Africa, etc. Soviets did not have wealthy
allies to bear any of the burden and was forced to be the banker for the developing
world.
- Became particularily true when Reagan upped the ante.
- Afghanistan - Invasion of 1979. Proved to be their Vietnam. Unable to secure
a victory even though they used the most brutal measures imaginable.
Two Other Soviet Problems of this Time
1. Economic Malaise - Decline in Soviet income and productivity
relative to the West. Initial gains which occured under industrialization proved
to be impossible to sustain. Explain the problems of the Soviet factories and
the limited incentives to work in a society where consumer goods were scarce.
"We pretended to work and they pretended to pay us". From the early
1970s, Soviet industrial production declined, not only relative to the west
but absolutely. This questioned the very core of Marxism - that time was on
their side.
- Not only was their economic malaise, but a sense of ideological malaise also
set in. The utopia was no closer in the mid 1970s than in 1917, perhaps even
further away. How then could the continued disparities between western and soviet
lifestyles be justified.
- Loss of fervor - While the role of the Secret police had been reduced under
Khrushchev it continued to be pervasive, and the Party continued to control
all forms of media and to define what thought it found acceptable. Led the intellectuals
to question the validity of the system - production of samizdat - home publications
critical of the regime and the birth of the pet dissidents of the Soviet Union
- Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov. The continually poor economic conditions and the diet
of lies they had been fed since the inception of the regime; history being rewritten
on a constant basis led to cynicism among the general population. Mention that
this was not complete.
- All of these contributed to a sense of malaise and a loss of purpose among
the population. A mood of grudging acceptance in the face of an abscence of
alternatives.
2. Corruption - This loss of purpose was not confined to the
general population and the intellectuals. Became evident within the party as
well. Privelege of access led to the idea of exchange; what could you do for
me in exchange for this favor. Problem that existed from the establishment of
the CPSU and the assumption of special status for its members. Party members
became increasingly corrupt - began at the top, mention Brezhnev's son and daughter's
boyfriend. Tell joke about Brezhnev's mother coming to visit
This corruption spread to the people as a whole. Ballet tickets in exchange
for special meat, etc. Shopkeepers would sell all of the useful product before
the doors would open.
Interregnums of Andropov (82-84) and Chernenko (84-85). Former was Head of the
KGB and an early advocate of reform - Gorbachev’s patron within the CP,
latter was the last of the true believers - ideologue. Neither held power long
enough to achieve any serious changes, neither was able to fully accumulate
power.