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THE STALINIST DICTATORSHIP AND REACTION, 1941-1946 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Stalin met his Politburo immediately and demanded the destruction of the German airforce
        
        But he didn't inform the country of German invasion
        
        On 23rd June, Stalin created the Stavka (Supreme Military Command) but on the 20th July Stalin assumes overall command of the military
        
        He inspired people to fight for their culture and for Russia, not communism
        
        After the disastrous opening to the war Stalin left the military commanders to plan campaigns and let the generals do their work
    - - Although there was no outright opposition to Stalins authority not all Russians were supportive
        
        Many however, welcomed the germans and were willing to help them (known as Hilfswillige)
        
        Stalin issued order 227 so any retreating soldier were shot on sight and this happened to 150,000
  - - - Sep 1941 - Beginning of the siege of Leningrad
        
        November 1941 - The Battle for Moscow
        
        December 1941 - Zhukov's counter-offensive
        
        Sep 1942 - Beginning of the siege of Stalingrad
        
        Feb 1943 - End of siege of Stalingrad
        
        July 1943 - Battle of Kursk
        
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  - - - Stalin dissolved the Volga German autonomous republic in August 1941 and sent its people to the east
        
        He also relied on the deportation of suspect ethnic groups
        
        Lots of soldiers also joined the party and there were 3.6m new members during the war
        
        WW2 grew support for the communist system
    - - Germany occupied 63% of Russia's coal, 68% of iron, 45% of railways, etc...
        
        A scorched earth policy meant they destroyed most things before being taken over
        
        However, the centralised economy helped during wartime and munitions manufacture was 76% of all production
        
        3500 industrial enterprises were made during wartime
        
        By 1943, industrial and weapon output exceeded Germany
        
        Aid from the West also helped and women and children helped with grain output to feed the population
        
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    - - The announcement of German invasion saw recruitment stations flood of those ready to fight for the motherland
        
        All men aged 16-55 and women 16-45 were to devote themselves to the war effort
        
        Working day was increased to 12 hours and average working week was 70-77 hours
        
        Absences from work were punishable by death
        
        There were also major food shortages and over 1/4 of the USSR's 25 million deaths were caused by starvation
        
        Labour camps (gulags) were also maximised and they had a 25% death rate
        
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        Churches were also used again with priests blessing soldiers and adding to the patriotism
        
        War also brought about the reaffirmation of family tradition and women were expected to raise large families
  - - - Stalin's reputation soared and he turned into a national superhero
        
        However, it made Stalin more paranoid and he executed anyone who helped the Germans and he interrogated a lot of the population
    - - War helped increase the popularity of a 'nationalist' government
        
        It also showed Stalin how his system had worked and the S.U was now regarded as a dominant military power
    - - At the end of the year 25 million people in the Western provinces had nothing but wooden huts to live in
        
        They also had new hope for change post war
        
        After being allied with the West, Western books, films, music and made its way into the USSR
- - - - Increased party membership under wartime had made the party highly unreliable
        
        Therefore, the military hierarchy was also downgraded and Stalin took the role of Minister of Defence
        
        Although the Central committee elected a new Politburo Secretariat and Orgburo, Stalin held the reins as head of Government and party
        
        The Politburo was then reduced to an advisory body
        
        Although party membership fell back there were still 7 million members by 1952
        
        The new members were selectively recruited and were accepting of the party as a way of life
        
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      - Cultural High Stalinism
        
        The increased influence of the West due to the war meant a new movement of stressed conformity to socialist ideals
        
        A lot of work and art was destroyed due to it being "anti-soviet"
        
        The study of maths, physics and chemistry was also governed by marxist principles
        
        Any sign of Western influence was blocked and anything from the west was unobtainable
  - - - Although terror wasn't as great as it was in the 1930's tens of thousands of arrests were still made and 12 million wartime survivors ended up in labour camps
    - - Stalin removed all traitors and old bolsheviks from history e.g cutting from photos
        
        In 1949, Stalin took a stand against the 'Leningrad party' leading to arrest and secret executions
        
        He also reverted to his Anti-Semitic views with the planned death of the Israeli ambassador
        
        9 of Zhdanov's doctors were blamed for his death and Stalin also passed this blame on the Jews
- - - - 1953 Mar - Stalin dies, Malenkov takes leadership as chairman of council of ministers + general secretary of party, but a week later is replaced as general secretary by Krushchev
        
        1953 June - Beria arrested
        
        1953 Dec - Beria executed
        
        1954 - Khrushchev launches his virgin lands scheme
        
        1955 Feb - Malenkov replaced by Bulganin as chairman of council of ministers
        
        1957 June - Anti-party group tries to oust Khrushchev, but fails and is purged
        
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  - - - Khrushchev immediately started appointing his own Proteges but Beria was seen as the most anxious leader to move away from Stalinist policies. Beria advocated the release of dangerous political prisoners and the popularity of his ideas and his power raised alarms at the top
        
        Beria was then arrested in June 1953 and secretly tried and executed in December 1953
        
        Leadership was divided on Foreign Policy, Industrial + Agricultural policies and role of the party...
        
        Malenkov backed Molotov's 'new course' policy which wanted to change the collective farm policy by reducing peasant taxes + increasing consumer goods. However, Khrushchev launched his own Virgin lands scheme in early 1954 which was very succesful
        
        Malenkov then found himself isolated and in 1955 he stepped down and was replaced by Nikolai Bulganin
        
        Khrushchev + Bulganin entered a joint leadership, despite Bulganin attempting to unseat him in 1957 on a visit to Finland
        
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  - - - Those accused in the doctors plot were released, Beria + the gulag system had been attacked and a cultural 'thaw' was underway
        
        Most of the Presidium supported this but many did not, so Khrushchev delivered a speech entitled "On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences". In this speech he attacked Stalin, accusing him of responsibility for purges, terror, torture, etc. He also accused Stalin of betraying Leninist principles. He also claimed Malenkov + Molotov were his accomplices and blamed Stalin for Kirov's murder. The speech was met with applause and overall it justified continuity with single party leadership but distanced itself from Stalin's leadership
  - - - Under Stalin, party + government institutions were powerless but after Stalin's death they had a renewed importance
        
        Khrushchev helped to restore the position of the party to which it had enjoyed in the 1920's under Lenin
        
        However, Khrushchev had two other goals in Democratisation (more responsibility to the people) and decentralisation (more initiative to localities). To do this Stalin introduced...
        
        1962 splitting of party into urban and rural sections
        
        membership expansion from 7m in 1956 to 11m in 1964, bringing in more working-class members
        
        Khrushchev visited villages + towns
        
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- - - - The war had destroyed 70% of the USSR's industrial capacity and massively damaged the workforce
        
        Stalin then refused USSR territories accepting US Marshall Aid and introduced...
        
        Cominform - the communist information bureau, established 1947 to disseminate propaganda and establish soviet control over all parties
        
        Comecon - The council for Mutual Economic Assistance, established in 1949 to coordinate the economic growth of countries inside the soviet bloc
        
        Gosplan coordinated two more 5 year plans...
        
        Fourth 5 year plan, 1646-50
        
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    - - Khrushchev made efforts to steer away from Stalin's methods with industrial planning and decentralisation
        
        Under the Stalinist system, the system as very complex and different ministers set different targets and there were too little administrators to make it function. Targets also provided a disincentive as when they were hit they were often raised. On top of this, targets were usually assessed through weight meaning heavy goods were favoured
        
        In 1957, Khrushchev took a step towards decentralisation by abolishing sixty Moscow ministries + dividing the USSR into 105 economic regions, each with its own economic council (sovnarkhoz). Also launced the 6th five year plan in 1956
        
        In the 7 year plan of 1959, there was an emphasis on standards of living with a new 40 hour working week and 40% wage rise promised by 1965. In this, 7 year plan there was also a slight shift from old heavy industries to modern industries. There was vast expansion of chemical industries, more consumer goods, more cheap air transport, electrified railway and space advancements
        
        OUTPUT RESULTS (1955-->1965)
        
        Coal (m tons) - 391-->578
        
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  - - - The scorched earth war policy had destroyed western regions and only 1/3 of farms were operational. 2/3 of the the agricultural labour workforce had gone. The 1945 harvest produced 60% of pre-war harvests. The two post-war 5 year plans tried to promtote revival
        
        The Fourth 5 year plan, 1946-50 aimed to force the kolkhozes to deliver agricultural products + revive the wheat fields of Ukraine. There were high quotas + high taxes on private land and tree plantations + canals to make land more useable. As a result they procured 70% of the 1946 harvest and output of the Kolkhozes increased, but not to 1930's level. However, incentives remained low, almost half came from private plots and it lagged behind industry
        
        The Fifth 5 year plan, 1951-55 continued the fourth 5 year plan but also plus Khrushchev's "Virgin Lands" and build "agrocities" from 1953. As a result, agriculture progressed however it was still behind industry and nowhere near 1940 levels
        
        Livestock Levels, 1929-->1950
        
        Horses - 34.6m-->15.3m
        
        Sheep/Goats - 147m-->121.5m
        
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    - - Khrushchev considered himself an agricultural expert with his peasant backround
        
        He disagreed with Stalin's methods and invested heavily in agriculture and placed the job of implementing reforms at the hands of local party organisations
        
        Khrushchev raised the price paid for state grain, reduced taxes + quotas, allowed collectives to set own targets, increase in number of farms connected to electricity grid, 1962 chemical fertiliser campaign, increase in farming machinery and encouragement to merge collectives to create larger farms. The Virgin lands scheme involved ploughing new farmland im Western Siberia and North Kazakhstan and by 1959, 39.5m hectares had been ploughed for wheat. He also suggested agrocities (huge collective farms/towns)
        
        As a result production of meat increased from 5.2m tons to 9.1m tons between 1952-61. In this same time milk also increased from 36m tons to 63m tons
        
        However, the new measures failed to encourage peasants to contribute to communal farming with private farming providing 50% of their income despite private plots only covering 3% of the total cultivated area. On top of this, the state continued to pay low prices for products which reduced ouput and the use of machinary was poor as farmers didn't know how to work or repair tractors. On top of this, the virgin land scheme didn't take the climate into account in those areas and they produced poor harvests. The USSR was forced to import some grain from North America
  - - - Neither the Fifth or Fourth 5 year plans really improved standards of living for the Russian People
        
        Peasants lived on an income 20% less than in industrial worker
        
        In towns, Diets were poor and housing + consumer goods were in short supply
        
        The working day remained at 12 hours (wartime level)
        
        Women were expected to makeup for the war dead
        
        By 1950, household consumption was only 10% higher than in 1928 and there was a 90% depreciation of the Rouble
        
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  - - - The post war years saw censorship grow tighter, increased suffering for ethnic minorities and cultural expression was non existent due to Stalin's paranoia
    - - De-Stalinisation brought about a cultural thaw and restrictions were lifted
        
        Khrushchev also utilised tourism with "intourist" to demonstrate the USSR's acheivements
        
        Greater contact with the western world brought a new sense of excitement with new music, arts, etc
        
        However, this brought about hooliganism, particularly in university where vandalism and protests began
    - - Artists and writers didn't enjoy complete freedom
        
        Khrushchev's own tastes were conservative and he disliked modernism in literature + art
        
        Artists + writers always tested the boundaries of what was permitted
    - - Khrushchev revived the socialist campaign against the churches, both orthodox as well as other faiths such as Islam
        
        Atheism was introduced in school, in 1961 children were banned from Church services and it was forbidden for parents to teach religion to their kids
        
        Mass closure of monasteries and churches (22,000 churches,1959, ---> 8000, 1965)
        
        Pilgrimages were also banned
    - - Khrushchev made no move towards greater freedom for minorities, despite himself being Ukrainian
        
        He wanted a single common language
        
        He was also strongly against Jews having their own schools and refused to allow Jews to emigrate to Israel after WW2
- - - - Some writers evaded soviet censorship by publishing aboard e.g Dr Zhivago
        
        Others duplicated material by hand and would circle copies via personal contacts (Samizdat)
        
        Literature also spread through underground societies e.g The Youngest Society of Geniuses
        
        In June 1958, a monument of a poet who criticised the Stalinist system was unveiled
        
        Number of 'dissident' magazines e.g Syntaxis and in 1961, over 130,000 people were identified as anti-social and were prevented from obtaining employment
    - - Musicians made illegal recordings known as Magnitizdat and passed them about
        
        Major soviet nonconformist artists include Oleg Vassiliev and Ilya Kabakov
        
        Unlike dissident writers, artists were able to escape persecution
  - - - Khrushchev got himself + Bulganin the top jobs in Feb 1955, but the Hardliners disliked his attack on Stalin and tried to oust Khrushchev in 1957. Khrushchev survived with the expulsion of the 'anti-party- group from the Presidium and eventually dismissing Zhukov
    - - Treatment was less harsh than Stalins day, with politicians being demoted rather than shot e.g Molotov + Malenkov
        
        At a lower level treatment was also improved and the political prison population was reduced. By 1955, 250,000 appeals from political prisoners had been viewed but only 4% released. However, after a few months, in total around 2 million were released from Gulags + Prisons. By 1957, only 2% of prison population were political prisoners
        
        However, the better treatment bred further dissent with a violent demonstrations in Stalin's hometown in Match 1956, after Khrushchev's destalinisation speech
  - - - On 13th Oct 1964, Khrushchev was called from holiday to an emergency meeting of the Presidium where members voiced there concerns and a day later Khrushchev was forced to resign and it was announced to the media it was down to "Advanced age and ill health". but weeks later, the Pravda denounced Khrushchev for his "hare-brained schemes, hasty decisions, half-baked conclusions, bossiness"
    - - Industry
        
        Decision to promote consumer goods offended those who thought he was ignoring heavy industry
      - Military
        
        Offended military by wanting to reduce expenditure on weapons
      - Foreign policy
        
        Disapproval of how he handed Cuban Missile Crisis and blamed for poor relations with China
      - Style of Rule/ Personal
        
        Accused of meddling in manners with no expertise, failing to take advice, his own 'personality cult', nepotism (promoting son in law)
      - Decentralisation
        
        Offended regional party secretaries by dividing up their responsibilites
      - Agriculture
        
        Failure of Virgin Lands Scheme + the shortfall in food supplies, forcing USSR to import from USA and Canada