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Government in the USSR - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Georgy Malenkov who was the head of the Soviet Government with his powerbase being the Soviet State
      - Beria who was the head of the Secret Police. His powerbase was the MVD
      - Khrushchev had the Party as his powerbase
  - - - Causes
        
        Partly to calm the fear of his rivals that he would use MVD against them just as Stalin had
      - There were several reform he made particularly to the Gulag
        
        Amnesty for non-political prisoners serving short sentences
        
        Would be extended to some counter revolutionaries
        
        A party commission was set up to investigate past execution and many communists were rehabilited on the basis of forced confession
        
        Gulag labour was no longer used as slave labour to build factories and mine resources which meant that the MVD lost lots of its economic power
      - This removed much of the power of the MVD
    - - He introduced two reforms to give the republics some more representations
      - All senior Party officials had to speak in the language of the republic they worked
      - All official publication have to available in the languages of the republics not just Russian
  - - - He appointed his own supporters and removed Stalin's supporters to gain power
      - Replace half of all regionals secretaries and 44% of the central committee
    - - Khrushchev began attacking the State bureaucracy to remove the power of Malenkov
      - The plan was to devolve power from the Soviet Government to the republican government
      - By mid 1954 he began restructuring by cutting the number of central Soviet Ministries from 55 to 25 and it meant that the amount of Soviet Industry controlled by the government dropped to 44% from 68%
      - This combined with the apparent success of the Virgin Lands Scheme led to Malenkov losing his position and an Ally of Khrushchev being appointed
  - - - Removeing the cult of personality
      - Ending the terror
    - - The First step in destalinisation was destroying the cult of Stalin
      - the Secret Speech was a speech that Khrushchev gave the 12th party congress in 1956 where he criticised the cult of personality
        
        He argued that Stalin had set himself up as a dictator and robbed the party of its leading role. he also said that without the wisdom of the party he had created great mistakes such as purging the Red army just prior to WW2
        
        K also revealed the fact of the brutal Terror and the extent of it
        
        Critically he did not critise communist ideology or the system that Stalin had set up such as collectivisation and central planning
    - - Other communist government followed suit for example in Hungary and Poland. Students and artists in Hungary used the opportunity to start a revolution and elected a prime minister but this was crushed by Soviet Troops sent in
      - Some leak to the public about Stalin led to some questioning the legitimacy of Communist rule and there were even some demonstrations but these were repressed
      - Khrushchev also backtracked and said the people were not ready for it and so radical de-Stalinisation came to an end
  - - - Increase the participation of workers in the government
      - Expansion of Party membership to 11 million in 1964. 60% of the party were workers
      - Introduced fixed terms for senior communists so they were regularly replaced
    - - abolished some of the central ministries that oversaw the economy devolving the power to 105 economic councils
      - Moved the ministry of Agriculture from Moscow to make it closer to the field
- - - - The top two jobs would not be occupied by the same people
      - They would divide key posts in the government roughly between the two of them
      - Party and state officials would keep their jobs for a long time to promote stability and prevent the possibility for patronage
  - - - As it was very unlikely to be fired or to be promoted many officials began using their positions to enrich themselves for example selling good on the black market
- - - - The populist uprising
      - Cause
        
        Economic chaos, military defeat and political mismanagement due to poor leadership from the Tsar in WW1
    - - A liberal system
      - Allowed freedom of expression, assembly and religion
      - Said it would begin democratic elections
      - Continued to fight the first world war
      - Lenin
        
        Wanted to end the first world war and redistribute land
        
        Message of Peace, Land and Bread became more popular as time went on.
  - - - Lenin seized power for the soviets that were local democratic councils that had emerged after the Feb Rev
      - These met as the All-Russian Congress of soviets in June and Lenin gave power to them after the Oct Rev
      - They elected the Sovnarkom to run the country day to day
      - Sovnarkom
        
        Effectively the Russian Cabinet
        
        Lenin elected chairman and the cabinet was filled with revolutionaries who all supported him
    - - Decree on Land
        
        Gave the peasants the right to seize land from the nobility and the church
      - Decree of Peace
        
        Committed to withdrawing from WW1
      - Workers' Decrees
        
        Establish an eight hour maximum working day and a minimum wage
      - Decree on Workers' Control 1918
        
        Gave workers power to elect committees to run factories
      - Purpose
        
        Win popular support
        
        Withdrawing from ww1 gave time to rebuild the economy and new government
      - Decree on the Rights of the Peoples of Russia
        
        declared equality for all the different peoples in Russia
  - - - Many of the decrees were very popular and so there was support
      - Multiple parties allowed for democracy
      - Sovnarkom responsible to the Congress of Soviets that were made up of all parties like the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries
    - - Lenin refused to accept the results of the election in 1917 that had the bolsheviks as a minority in the constitutional assembly.
      - Lenin then closed the assembly after one day
    - - After giving away land in the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk, the Bolsheviks lost the soviet elections
      - He ignored the results and expelled the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries
      - After the start of the civil war, Lenin stopped elections
  - - - Tsarist Army Leaders
      - The Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks
      - Anarchists
      - Other countries fearing the spread of revolution and wanting land
    - - Centralistation
        
        Control of the economy was established with War communism
        
        Politburo was established to increase the speed of decisions as it as only between 5-7 people
        
        Sovnarkom now an approving body that approved the work of the politburo
      - The party state
        
        Lenin worked through the nomenklatura who were the local party party members rather than the soviets
        
        Therefore the soviets were bypassed due to a lack of trust
        
        The Nomenklatura were mostly members of the former educated middle class, many who had worked for the previous Tsarist government
    - - Lenin ended the democratic nature of the army with soldiers committee and replaced them with Tsarist Generals
      - There was outrage at these changes but the Red Army was successful
  - - - Tambov
        
        Peasants rose up against the Grain Requisitioning
      - Major strikes across the cities and in Petrograd, the Red Army shot at the protestors
      - Kronstadt
        
        Sailors rose up in protest of the response of the red army to protest
        
        Demanded
        
        Immediate free and fair elections
        
        release of all political prisoners
        
        a resotration of freedom of speech
        
        End to war communism
      - They were all brutally crushed
    - - The polticial parties had survived the civil war and so had played a part in the strikes
      - Lenin ordered the Cheka to destroy them in 1921 and they were ruthlessly arrested and put on trial
    - - Lenin moved to appease the people
      - Began the New Economic Policy
      - Ban on Factions
        
        Banned all that were forming factions in the party and threatened to kick them out if they continued
        
        Strengthened Lenin's position as opposition was harder to organise in the party
- - - - Zinoviev
        
        The front Runner in 1923 as he was closest to Lenin and had continually supported him
        
        Led the Triumvirate between himself, Kamenev and Stalin which kept Trotsky out of power
        
        Persuaded the Central Committee to ignore Lenin's Testament that had called for Stalin to be fired
        
        Used speeches to discredit Trotsky and his ideas by showing that he was not a Leniniist
      - Bukharin
        
        Most Prominent from 1925 to 1928
        
        Formed the Duumvirate with Stalin that gave them the majority in the politburo
        
        Was very close to Lenin and had been entrusted with important jobs
      - Trotsky
        
        Most famous as a revolutionary hero
        
        Right hand man for Lenin from 1917
        
        Disliked because he joined the Bolsheviks during 1917 and had disagreed with Lenin's Policies.
        
        Unable to influence the direction of the party because he was always against ruling alliances
      - Stalin
        
        Had been a member of the Bolsheviks from the beginning in 1903
        
        Loyal to Lenin until 1922 when he could not fight back
        
        Lening held him in high regard
        
        Continually a member of the ruling politburo majority
    - - Ideological Orthodoxy
        
        As Stalin discredited the ideas of others like Trotsky, an ideolgoical orthodoxy was established
        
        Socialism in One country
        
        Suggested creating socialism in one country over waiting for a global revolution and the other members of the politburo were not leninists for wanting to wait
        
        Collectivisation and Industrialistation
        
        Collectivisation and Industrialisation: 1928 suggested an end to the NEP as Lenin was pragmatic so no need to continue what did not work and so Bukharin was not a leninist because of it
        
        Suggested making peasants work on state owned farms and using the profit to then industrialise
        
        Lenin had tolerated other ideas but Stalin wanted them removed and so had the others arrested and exiled because of it
      - Party Membership Changes 1924
        
        Stalin allowed more members of the communist party that were poorly educated people who were looking for well paid jobs
        
        They distrusted Bukharin and Trotsky as they were leading intellectuals and supported Stalin who could promote them
      - Patronage
        
        The principle of democratic centralism where the party members voted for delegates who then attended party congress and then elected the Central committee weakened
        
        Stalin began issuing an approved list of delegates in 1923 that the local parties were encoruaged to pick from
        
        by 1923 1/3 were from the list and it continued to increase which gave Stalin more control
        
        Stalin also had the power as general secretary to give powerful jobs to those that followed him
        
        He was also able to investigate and sack party members
        
        This gave him strong control over those who wanted to have well apid jobs
  - - - Kirov and the moderates
        
        This group led by Kirov had gained increasing power in the Politburo and Stalin was concerned about a potential threat
        
        They had defended an enemy of stalin so that he was sent to prison not executed
        
        They had argued for realistic targets during the 2nd FYP
        
        Kirov also received more votes than Stalin in the congress of victors
      - Economic Issues
        
        The problems of the economic policy were clear to some senior members
        
        By accusing the workers and managers for sabotaging the policy, Stalin was not blamed
        
        Also created a large slave labour force in the gulags
      - Kirov's murder
        
        Allowed Stalin to claim that there was a dangerous conspiracy and so justify the great terror
        
        Removed his main rival
    - - Show Trials
        
        Trial of the 16 1936
        
        Zinoviev, Kamenev were arrested and with 14 supporters were executed
        
        Trial of the 17 1937
        
        !7 of Trotsky's former supporters were executed and imprisoned
        
        Trial of the 21 1938
        
        Bukharin and his closest supporters were executed
        
        The Show trials were the most public part of the Great Terror where Stalin's rivals were finally all removed
      - Purge of the Army
        
        1937 8 generals were arrested and tried for plotting to overthrow the government.
        
        The generals had worked with Trostsk when he was head of the Red Army and so they were all executed
        
        37,000 officers were then purged
    - - Eliminated all of Stalin's rivals from the 1920s
      - Removed the whole generation that had known Lenin and so removed all those who could claim authority independant of Stalin
      - A generation emerged that were loyal to Stalin as a result of them being given the jobs
      - The NKVD became a powerful organisation
  - - - Stalin established himself as the Chair of Sovnarkom in 1941 which meant that he was both head of the State and Party
      - The reason for the change was to ensure that there was effective government particularly after wrecking havoc on the government during the terror
      - Stalin also allowed the State's power to grow by allowing State ministers to make decisions not party bosses
      - The politburo was increasingly filled with members of the state and members of the poltibro were given ministerial positions
      - He also created the State Defence Committee (GKO) that was responsible for economic co-ordination and military production and defence throughout the war
    - - After the war Stalin encouraged the party and state to compete
      - He appointed rivals to key positions in the party and state to ensure that they competed with each other and not him
      - He continually shifted power from the party to the state and back again to ensure that neither committees could rise to rival him.
    - - He would also continue to use terror to manipulate the government
      - The Leningrad Affair 1949
        
        Stalin purged the Leningrad party out of fear that they becoming too independent from Moscow.
        
        Demonstrates Stalin's paranoia