Stalin and the Modernisation of the USSR
History Coursework - Stalin and the Modernisation of the USSR1: Select and explain the most important stages in Stalin's rise topower as leader of the USSR.The battle for the leadership of the USSR began with Lenin's death.Four men were fighting for the position of leader: Trotsky, Zinoviev,Kamenev and Stalin. Stalin, who won this battle for leadership, usedmany different stages in his rise to power, the first being takingadvantage of Lenin's death.Trotsky was the young, popular party member who looked like a good betas leader of the USSR, and Stalin recognised this immediate threat tohis campaign. Trotsky was due to give an oration to Lenin at hisfuneral. When the time came around, Stalin told Trotsky a differentdate to the actual date. The result was Trotsky did not come, andStalin took the oration himself, making Trotsky seem disrespectful toLenin, and making Stalin look like a devotee to Lenin, calling himselfLenin's 'disciple'. This plot was particularly effective because itwas a very public event, and people cared, because Lenin was a verypopular leader, and therefore the public disapproved of Trotsky,because he seemed disrespectful of a great leader.Another important stage in Stalin's rise to power was his reaction toLenin's Testament. This was a document that Lenin had written justprior to his death, saying what he thought about the important partymembers, so that the public could make an informed decision about thenew leader of the USSR. Stalin saw that the testament criticised mostof the party members, but in particular him and Trotsky. Stalinpersuaded Trotsky that Lenin was really unimpressed with him, and toldhim that the public would react very badly to this, particularly afterhis missing Lenin's funeral. Trotsky agreed with him, and theyconvinced the rest of the party not to publish the Testament, this wasa particularly important stage as Stalin was criticised more than anyother candidate was so this would hurt Stalin's chances more thananyone else's.Another example of Stalin's rise to power was how he played hisopponents off each other. Trotsky, being the most popular possibleleader, was cast off by Stalin, who got in close with two
otherpossible leaders, Zinoviev and Kamenev. The three party members becameknown as the 'troika', and with the three of them working againstTrotsky, they destroyed his rank as commissar of war, pretty mucheliminating him from the race for leadership. Then, when Stalin hadsufficient strength, he broke with Zinoviev and Kamenev. RealisingStalin's great advantage over them, they retaliated by joining forceswith their former opponent, Trotsky, but Stalin was ready for this. Heintroduced his theory of 'socialism in one country', saying that theyshould build a socialist country in the USSR, regardless of their poorinternational position. This forced Trotsky into exile, and endedZinoviez's and Kamenev's ...
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otherpossible leaders, Zinoviev and Kamenev. The three party members becameknown as the 'troika', and with the three of them working againstTrotsky, they destroyed his rank as commissar of war, pretty mucheliminating him from the race for leadership. Then, when Stalin hadsufficient strength, he broke with Zinoviev and Kamenev. RealisingStalin's great advantage over them, they retaliated by joining forceswith their former opponent, Trotsky, but Stalin was ready for this. Heintroduced his theory of 'socialism in one country', saying that theyshould build a socialist country in the USSR, regardless of their poorinternational position. This forced Trotsky into exile, and endedZinoviez's and Kamenev's campaign. Soon, the party was experiencing alot less free debate, as Stalin continued to eliminate his opponents.In conclusion, Stalin used many different stages in his rise to power,the most significant probably being playing his opponents off of eachother. It was by doing this that he eliminated any opposition he mightencounter when battling for power, so he would become the leader bydefault, whereas the other stages simply increased his positive publicprofile. Destroying his opponents would also help when he launched thepurges, because with nobody in an important enough position to stophim, he would have a clear road to complete power.2: Explain the part played by the purges in Stalin's control of theSoviet Union.The part played by the purges in Stalin's control of the Soviet Unionwas important, but it was not the only one. Other aspects of Stalin'scontrol over the USSR include; Informers, prison camps, show trials,and the Cult of Personality.Informers were used by Stalin to hunt down people who might be apossible threat to his campaign, using members of the general public.He encouraged them to tell the police if they suspected anyone ofhindering the revolution, and normally these people were then eitherkilled or sent to prison camps.These prison camps were both a scare tactic and a way for Stalin tohelp economy. One major project worked on by prison camp labourers wasThe White Sea canal. Workers were forced to work throughout the year,and millions froze to death.Show trials were a way for Stalin to get rid of important partymembers publicly. They were basically an excuse for Stalin to get ridof them without seeming to the public that he was slaughtering peoplefor no real reason. He would accuse the members of crimes, and out ofthe court, tell them that if they confessed, their families would bespared. The people confessed, they were out of Stalin's way, andStalin was seen as a hero, getting rid of traitors.The Cult of Personality was a form of propaganda used by Stalin tomake him out to be better than he was. False stories about him werecirculated, huge statues were erected, and basically his publicprofile was being elevated.So the purges, while being important, was definitely not the only partplayed in Stalin's control of the USSR. However, the fact remains thatthe purges were still the most important aspect of Stalin's control,because all these things were really just aspects of the purges. Thepurges were just a way of getting Stalin's opponents out of the way,and all these things were the methods he used for doing so.Stalin targeted specific groups with the purges, including seniorparty leaders, the army, and anybody with foreign connections.Senior party leaders were purged because they were a direct threat toStalin. If they got wind of what he was doing, they would have thepower to stop him, or replace him with someone they felt lessdangerous.The army was targeted because if somebody tried to stop Stalin, thearmy would be the way to go. Most of the high-up officers were killedwith the excuse of treason, but really it was because they alonereally knew what they were doing when it came to stopping Stalin.People with foreign connections were targeted because they could tella lot of people outside the USSR what was going on, and those peoplecould use their armies to stop Stalin.So in conclusion, the purges did play a very important part inStalin's control of the USSR, because it got rid of all of Stalin'srivals and opposition, and without anyone to oppose him, Stalin couldget a tighter grip on the Soviet Union.3: How significant was Stalin's contribution to the modernisation ofthe USSR?Stalin had a very significant contribution to the modernisation of theUSSR. The problem was that Russia was 100 years behind most of theworld's superpowers, he gave himself 10 years to make up that gap. Histwo main contributions were collectivisation and industrialisation,which were extremely important both for Stalin to gain power and tohelp modernisation. Stalin needed collectivisation for money tomodernise the industry, because he couldn't get funding from othercountries, because nobody was willing to fund a Communist nation.Industrialisation was dominated by Stalin's Five-Year Plans.It was basically Stalin's plan to bring the USSR's economy up tospeed. Stalin wanted to raise food production of grain, cattle andpigs, and industrial production of coal and iron. He gave factoryowners targets to meet, and if they met them, rewards were given, butpunishments were given out for not meeting them. People who workedover their expected production rate were called Stakhanovites, afterAlexei Stakhanov, a miner who mined a huge amount in one go. But itwasn't just the workers who got into trouble if the figures weren'tmet; it was the factory owners who were blamed aswell. As a result,factory owners lied about figures, so the Five-Year Plans wereprobably not as successful as they seemed. But all production diddefinitely rise, if not as much as it might seem, so it could be seenas successful in terms of modernisation. Another aspect ofindustrialisation was Stalin's building extravagant and unnecessarymonuments and services, like the Metro in Moscow, or the new cityMagnitogarsk, built East of the Urals in the 1920's. These weren'tneeded, but it was Stalin's way of showing the world that his countrywas catching up with them.Collectivisation was Stalin's way of controlling the peasants. Heforced them to give up privately or communally owned land and put theminto kolkzovs (collective farms). Stalin introduced them because ontheir own, the peasants were not making enough to feed the SovietUnion, because they were keeping most of the grain and whatever theycouldn't eat they sold for possessions. Now, the peasants had to sellthe grain to the government for a fixed, low price. This way, Stalingot a lot more grain, because the peasants wanted to grow a lot to getenough money to live on. They were given all the free machinery theywanted, which they could borrow from stations.Stalin's idea of collectivisation was a lukewarm victory for Stalin.Peasants fiercely resisted it, preferring to slaughter their animals,feast, and then burn their homes rather than let the collectives haveit. 10 million peasants did this, and Stalin ordered for all of themto be put in forced labour camps, where 3 million died. But eventhough all the peasants rebelled against it, Stalin still succeeded incontrolling them, because he eventually had 89% of peasants in thecollectives, and that was what he wanted. But in 1932 there was a poorharvest, and as a result, a famine. But Stalin had wanted this tohappen. He was exporting all the food they did have, and was sellingit for war supplies, because he was intending to go to war with Japan.Now 7 million more died.Stalin's collectivisation act had failed if he had wanted to keep moreof his population alive, because it certainly killed millions of them,because all the peasants and kulaks rejected it. They burnt theirhomes, Stalin didn't get the produce, and he didn't have enough tofeed the nation, and his popularity certainly took a turn for theworse at this point. But Stalin wasn't bothered about any of this. Healready had power, and even if he wasn't popular, he had got enoughpower when he was popular that it would be almost impossible tooverthrow him. He didn't really need all the food, because he didn'tneed to feed all the peasants, and any food he did get from them, hesold abroad for funds to fight Japan.So Stalin's contribution to the modernisation of the USSR wassignificant, because while the collectivisation act was a success forhis control, it was certainly was not an asset to the USSR'smodernisation other than providing the funds for industrialisation,which was an asset. Production in steel, coal, and all the otherexports went up, and Stalin got more money to fund building up thecountries technology. This certainly modernised the USSR, but it waspretty much Stalin's only, if major, contribution. Stalin'ssignificance in USSR's history is large, though, because he was such aruthless leader, selling all the grain during a famine, which nobodyelse would have dared to do. Stalin was so extreme he was significant,but not in a good way, obviously. The good thing he did do wasmodernise the country, with new luxuries they could never affordbefore.