Rise of Stalin and the Russian Revolution: 1917-1940
Stalin’s USSR
The Government of Lenin (War Communism)
The new government faced a civil war that lasted three years. A fraction of the Tsarist army organized the White Army to rise up in arms.
The Bolsheviks created the Red Army, led by Leon Trotsky. In 1922, the USSR was created to be governed by a parliament and a single party called the CPSU, which controlled political life. It was a totalitarian system that was justified by the dictatorship of the proletariat.
When the civil war ended, Lenin decided to return to private ownership in land distribution and for farmers.
Succession to Power
Lenin died in 1924. Different proposals faced Stalin and Trotsky. Trotsky spoke of exporting the revolution to other countries, while Stalin proposed the construction of socialism in one country.
Stalin became General Secretary of the CPSU in 1927 and became the leader of the USSR. Trotsky was exiled and, in 1940, was assassinated on Stalin’s orders.
Stalinism
Stalinist politics imposed a collectivist society and economy with the objective of increasing Soviet industrial power. To achieve this, these guidelines were followed:
- Private ownership was prohibited.
- Priority was given to industrialization.
- The economy was directed by the state.
The result was rapid industrialization. Stalin established a dictatorship in which the Communist Party controlled everything, and anyone suspected of opposing Stalin was accused of being an enemy. The repression affected the whole of society, including the Communist Party.
The Russian Revolution
In the early twentieth century, the empire of the Tsars still had a monarchical absolutism. The Tsar held absolute power, ruled by decree, was not subject to any constitution, and did not have to respond to a legislature. A loyal bureaucracy and a powerful army secured control of the empire, and the Orthodox Church was one of the ideological pillars of the regime.
Agriculture was the main economic activity. In some areas of the empire, a process of industrialization had begun, driven by foreign capital, and there was a numerous proletariat who worked in factories for little money. Marxism had spread, and in 1898, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was founded. In 1912, it split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, wanted to bring about a social revolution.
The February Revolution
World War I created conditions for revolution in Russia. Military disasters occurred, and there was a decline in agricultural production due to the mobilization of peasants. As a result of this, hunger and discomfort spread among workers and peasants, all of which discredited Tsar Nicholas II.
Due to this, the population organized into Soviets and demanded the abdication of the Tsar.
The Fall of Tsarism
In February 1917, a revolution erupted in St. Petersburg that brought about the fall of the Tsarist regime. Power shifted to a provisional government led by Kerensky. Russia became a republic.
The October Revolution
The Bolsheviks sought to bring about socialism. On October 25, the Soviets were driven to revolt, and the Bolsheviks took power, destroying the provisional government. Lenin formed a worker’s government. The new government established the first revolutionary measures:
- Land was expropriated to be distributed among the peasants.
- Factories came under the control of workers’ committees.
- The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed with Germany, in which Russia lost territories.