The Rise of Stalin and Soviet Transformation
The New Soviet State: Civil War and Economic Crisis
The nascent Soviet state faced immense challenges following the World War and the Russian Revolution. The devastating effects of war communism exacerbated the economic and human cost for the new communist regime. This dire internal situation was compounded by a disappointing international context for the Bolsheviks. Lenin and his followers had believed that the Russian Revolution would only succeed if it spread to more developed countries in Europe. However, their hopes for a global revolution soon faded. The failure of the Spartacist uprising in Germany and the Bela Kun regime in Hungary in 1919 made it clear that the Russian Soviet revolution would have to forge its own path without external allies.
The agricultural crisis of 1921 reached such intensity that it threatened the support of industrial workers and urban dwellers for Bolshevism. A segment of the peasantry, manifesting its opposition, resisted an exceptional economic model that offered them little in return for their agricultural products. Soviet leaders were compelled to retreat in favor of a market economy and private property. In March 1921, the New Economic Policy (NEP) was launched. The new guidelines allowed peasants to sell their produce to individuals or state agencies. Private trade was also generally permitted, albeit on a smaller scale for foreign trade. Although recovery never reached pre-war levels, the reduction in state spending and tax increases helped stabilize prices. The larger industrial enterprises remained in state hands, but managers were encouraged to follow classic capitalist management criteria, emphasizing economic efficiency.
The mechanisms of production, exchange, and distribution presented significant changes. Distribution became more egalitarian. However, small and large entrepreneurs, whether individuals or collectives, saw their ability to influence economic activities and profit from them reduced. The state gained more power in both the political and economic spheres. The economy became less open to the outside world, with reduced trade and no foreign investment. Under these conditions, industrialization took an unprecedented path.
The Succession of Lenin
A major problem in any dictatorship is the regular succession of power. Lenin was the only person whose authority was universally accepted within the communist leadership. After his death, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin, two very different candidates, clashed for control of the communist party and the Soviet state. Trotsky was a magnificent orator, an important intellectual, and an energetic organizer who had led the Red Army to victory in the civil war. Stalin, a Georgian, spoke Russian as a second language and was not particularly brilliant. However, he had always been loyal to Lenin and, since 1917, had been working on party organization. In 1922, the official party newspaper, Pravda (Truth), published a brief notice announcing Stalin’s appointment as General Secretary of the Communist Party. This seemingly bland and bureaucratic position became the center of power in the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.
Upon Lenin’s death, Stalin began to construct a veritable secular religion: Leninism. The city of St. Petersburg, or Petrograd, was renamed Leningrad, the city of Lenin. Relying on this link to the past, Stalin easily overcame his battle with Trotsky. He was better organized, more skilled at manipulating public opinion, and, above all, had the full support of the party apparatus. Trotsky, who had been deprived of his political and military positions in 1925, was finally expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929. By that date, Stalin had established his dictatorship.
The Dictatorship of Stalin
Stalin’s rule tested the social fabric of the Soviet Union. Secure in his control of the communist party apparatus, he plunged the country into an accelerated process of industrialization and forced collectivization of agriculture. The population had to endure immense sacrifices, which could only be imposed through the establishment of a brutal totalitarian dictatorship in which all opposition was eliminated. The political battle between Stalin and Trotsky had focused on two key points: (a) the validity of the New Economic Policy, and (b) whether the Soviet experiment could succeed without the revolution spreading to more developed European countries. For Trotsky, the NEP represented a step backward in the construction of socialism, while Stalin had aligned himself with more moderate party leaders and defended the NEP launched by Lenin in 1921. After expelling Trotsky from the party in 1927, Stalin abruptly changed sides: the NEP was outdated, and it was necessary to advance towards a forced, industrialized Marxist communist society. Distancing himself from Trotskyist theories of global revolution, Stalin proclaimed the possibility of building socialism in one country. All state machinery and the entire Soviet people had to submit to this goal.
The Five-Year Plans
For the communist leadership, influenced by Marxist thought, industrialization was paramount. The Soviet economy remained largely agricultural and rural. In 1927-1928, a deep agricultural crisis was exploited by Stalin to end the NEP, which, according to the party mainstream, did not allow for the desired rapid industrialization. A new phase in Soviet economic history began: accelerated industrialization through centralized planning. The planning of Soviet economic policy resulted in the First Five-Year Plan (1928-1932). The plan established state economic priorities, which superseded the decisions of firms and individuals. The priority was the rapid growth of heavy industries producing goods such as coal, oil, hydroelectric power, iron, and steel. This goal was based on a key element: the forced collectivization of farms. Through violence, private property disappeared from Soviet agriculture, replaced by large state-owned farms. Forced collectivization was accompanied by labor camps and the internal exile of millions of citizens. Millions of Soviet people died. The growth of heavy industry was very rapid. However, the results were less impressive in consumer durables industries (housing) or non-durable goods (footwear, clothing, etc.). The imbalance between heavy and light industry and agriculture was significant. Per capita consumption of the Soviet population, especially for the peasantry, was even lower in 1940 than in 1928. The acceleration of industrialization favored an increase in the production of armaments.
The negative effects of this economic growth model on the population’s welfare were supposedly offset by social spending on education, health, etc. The Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1937) set more realistic targets. In 1935, rationing was abolished. The deteriorating international political climate led to a major expansion of the armaments industry. Stalin’s purges affected much of the economic and business management cadres. By the end of the Second Five-Year Plan, an estimated 2.7 million people were in various labor camps under the control of the Gulag.
Stalinism: A Totalitarian Dictatorship
Stalin could never have implemented his economic program without maintaining tight control over Soviet society and the state. From the outset, his policy was based on the widespread use of terror against all real or perceived enemies. A characteristic of Stalinism is the importance of repression within the communist party itself. The party became a docile instrument of the dictator’s will through a series of purges that eliminated any opposition to the leader. Why did these waves of arbitrary terror occur within the communist party? Power in the USSR resided in the Communist Party, and this party was organized hierarchically and vertically. The Great Purges, also known as the Moscow Trials, began in 1934. In the following years, a wave of terror swept the USSR. The world watched in astonishment as a series of show trials unfolded, in which many old Bolshevik leaders confessed to the worst crimes. After being drugged, tortured, and intimidated, members of the old Bolshevik guard confessed that they had conspired against the revolution for years. By 1939, seventy percent of the members of the Central Committee had been purged. Ninety percent of the generals were executed. Stalin destroyed much of the party leadership.
Repression affected not only party members but all of Soviet society. 1937 became a symbol of Stalinist terror. During the purge system of 1937-1938, it is estimated that more than 1.7 million people were arrested. Over 700,000 Soviet citizens were executed. A veritable personality cult of the leader was instituted in the Soviet Union.