Stalinism Takes Hold

1
Stalinism Takes Hold
2

• 1929
• The start of the Great Depression
• The start of collectivization in the USSR
• In both cases heavy statist response to the
  failures of the market economy
• The rise of Stalin General Secretary since 1922,
  concentration of power in the 1920s, the growth
  of personality cult in the 1930s
• The rise of Hitler leadership of the Nazis since
  1923, increasing political influence in the
  1920s, appointment as Reichskanzler in 1933

3

• 2 forms of totalitarianism communist and fascist
• Similarities
• Expansion of state power over society and economy
• Abolition of political pluralism suppression of
  civil society
• A one-party system, with The Party functioning
  as the core institution of the state
• Concentration of power in the hands of The
  Leader cult of his personality
• A massive secret police apparatus
• Tight control of information intensive use of
  mass media and culture for political
  indoctrination
• Militarization of economy and society
• A mobilized society

4

• Differences
• Germany
• to prevent a revolution, save capitalism
• to overcome the Depression
• to reverse the results of WWI
• private property, market institutions remain
• civil society is not completely suppressed
• USSR
• to preserve Communist Party rule
• to defend the country from hostile environment
• to achieve rapid modernization
• to foster world revolution
• private property banned, the market is replaced
  by the administrative command system
• civil society is fully suppressed

5

• The Contradictions of NEP
• State-society relations in flux a stable model
  not yet found
• Society developing rapidly, the state needs to
  evolve accordingly
• The ruling party feeling societal pressures
• Ideological and power struggles in the Party the
  issue of restoration of capitalism
• Conflicts between the market economy and the
  state
• Divisions in society the city vs. the country,
  rich vs. poor, ethnopolitics

6

• 2 basic options facing the leadership in the late
  1920s
• EVOLUTIONARY To continue NEP and learn to govern
  in a framework of civil peace and mixed economy
• OR
• REVOLUTIONARY To resolve the existing
  contradictions by force foster a new civil war
  in the name of rapid development

7

• Why the revolutionary option was chosen
• A technical issue how much force is needed to
  manage the mixed economy
• Most Communists saw NEP as a return to
  capitalism the impact of the Great Depression
• Legacy of the Civil War and War Communism
• Fear of war real and imagined
• Fear of losing power in a peasant-dominated
  country
• Stalins own political interests defeat
  potential rivals

8

• The Logic of Stalinism
• 1928 the grain procurement crisis decision to
  squeeze the peasantry
• 1929 the maximalist version of the First
  Five-Year Plan adopted forced collectivization
  starts Bukharin and his supporters (The Right
  Deviationists) lose power
• Disorganization of the economy peasant unrest
  and resistance
• Escalation of repressions
• Successes of socialism stimulate the class
  struggle
• The Party is purged again and again to make it
  Stalins obedient machine
• The growing role of secret police (including
  economic)
• Creation of a system of mind control
• Full-scale totalitarianism the omnipotent state