IB History of the Americas

3 Nov. Test: Sneaky Stalin

Outline:
1. How Stalin stole (I mean, attained) power
2. Domestic Policy (ie., economics and torture)
3. Purges (ie., torture)
4. Foreign policy
5. Anecdotes

NOTE: This guide is, like, totally unbiased.

NOTE 2: Stalin, don’t take this personally. I’m Lenin and all, but you
knows I loves you.

1. Stalin stole power from Lenin because he was evil.

This is all the power Stalin had:

Commissar of National(al)alities
Head of Orburo (party organization)
Politburo (decision-making body)
Because the National Congress has no power
Secretary General of Comm. Party

The power that “other” people had?

Trotsky=Commissar of War
Controlled Red Army
Kamenev=Head of Moscow Party
Zenoviev=Head of Leningrad Party
Buhkarin=Dialectic theorist
Rykov=Not important enough

Those guys are the Thucydides intellectuals.

S.General is created just for Stalin: he gets to appoint all new members
(just like the Prez of USA gets to appoint new judges… but Stalin’s in
charge of everybody in the party. Yeah.)

Stalin is the doer. Every revolution must have a doer. (See Anecdote
#1)

Lenin, meanwhile, is dying (from strokes that Stalin may or may not
have encouraged by possibly maybe telling doctors to give him blood
thinners…) and writes his Testament. (as in “last will and”.)
 In it, he says that Stalin’s crude (and a jerk) and should never be
the leader of the Party, because he encourages strife and factionalism.
He also says Trotsky’s arrogant, but that’s small potatoes.
Basically Lenin’s scared of a split. And what do we soon have???

A SPLIT!

Lenin dies. People argue.

W Left Bolsheviks Right Bolsheviks
ho?
Eg. Trotsky, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky
Kamenev
Beli ANTI-NEP! PRO-NEP
ef
W Slow, un-Marxist Democratic centralism:
hy? “coddles peasants” Obey Lenin!
Mix of socialism with Coaxes peasants to
ugly capitalism follow socialism, thus
necessary
Beli PRO-Comintern ANTI-Comintern
ef
W Doctrine of Permanent Wasteful: focus on
hy? Revolution (Trotsky) “socialism in one
country” (Stalin said that
and Buk. Supported it)
Etc. Supported Wanted limited
collectivization but provocation of revolution
said NEP was slowing (huh?)
that down.

And where is Stalin? Why, in the middle, of course?

Basically: 1924.
Stalin sends Trotsky away, Lenin dies, Trotsky’s gone. People condemn
him for it.
Trotsky is easily expelled from Party, then exiled, etc. Insta-scapegoat!
It helped that he used to be a Menshevik.
Oh, and by the way? Trotsky was betrayed by his own fellow
leftists (Kamenev and Zinoviev). Who were subsequently betrayed by
Stalin because of their Anti-NEP arguments.

1926: The three Lefties join again and form “United Opposition,”
vocally denouncing Stalin and NEP.
Which means they can be (And are) tried for factionalism. But
that’s a purge, so see Section 3.
Meanwhile:
2. Domestic Policy, or Collectivization Hits the Fan
The Plan (Five Year, that is)
(They were 5 YPS because every 5 yrs they were reset)
1. Collectivize agriculture and industry
2. Eliminate Kulaks (middle-class peasants)
3. Nationalize land and animals
4. Increase grain production by moving east (for resources and
avoidance of westerners)
They move past Urals, which is good because then grain is
protected from Hitler.
5. Mechanize agriculture (turn farms into factories)
Precedent: Spain (see anecdote #2)

Stalin is selling all the grain to other countries to get money (to
replace the wimpy Rubel). So people are starving and still trying to
make stuff from nothing.

Institutionalizing famine.

Gosplan (quota system) means a PLANNED ECONOMY

Quantity > Quality
People lie or make shoddy stuff to save themselves… because if
they don’t meet their quotas…
They go to the GULAGS!
Slave labor camps, mostly in Siberia, where people were sent for
the smallest reasons. Millions of people (as in 20,000,000) died here.

Bullington says the 5YPs were a partial success because they

expanded the industrial base (superficially) but not the agricultural
one.

3. Purges
But first, the USSR political system:
Secretly in charge: Party Pretending to be in
charge: Govt
In order of decreasing President
power: Supreme Soviets
Sec’y General (Stalin)
Politburo a) Soviet of Union
“Central Committee” b) Soviet of Nationalities
(it pretends to elect
members, which is
Stalin’s doing)
 Communist Party

Now, the Purges. Also called Stalin’s Red Terror.

Essentially:
Early 1920’s: Lenin’s Radish Purges (rooting out fake Bolshies)
1926 or so: Trotsky and co.
1928: Shakty Purges (engineers accused of sabotage)
1936-1939: Show Trials
Non-Russians tried:
1. Francis Gary Powers, the u2 guy
2. Mathias Russ: German teenager
3. Someone else?

The Show Trials were Stalin’s Purges

First: Assassination of Sergei Kirov, a “hero”
Bullington says Stalin ordered this assassination.

Then: NKVD (KGB) gets lots of power

10 days to confess or die
Star Chamber: No defense, just torture, confession, and
execution

Thousands of people were “purged” in every city. Why?

1. Removal of rivals
2. Labor for Gulags (5YPs)
3. Shift blame for economic failure
4. Give jobs to young commies

4. Foreign Policy, of Stalin and Others

1937: Axis Treaty (Tripartate Agreement)
Between Germany and Italy
Politburo legalizes torture

Previously:
1917-18: Diplomatic isolation
1919: Zinioviev does stuff w/Comintern
1922: T. of Rapallo w/Germany
 They recognize one another
1923-27: USSR sends commissar to organize Chinese Nationalists
And Jiang Jieshi (Kai Shek), who hates Communists, takes over—
Shanghai Massacre
1924: UK recognizes USSR
1933: US recognizes USSR
FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy
1934: USSR joins League of Nations
1931-32: Manchuria crisis (Japanese invade, Russians panic)
1935: Soviet-Franco-Czech agreement
1936-39: Spanish Civil War
Only Mexico gets involved… not really related to USSR…

1937-38: USSR fights Finland for land—they start to lose, because

1937-38: Military Purge
2/3 of senior officers killed for “sabotage” and “fascism”

1939: Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression pact

Bullington says Stalin always knew Hitler would attack. He just
didn’t think it’d be in 1941.

5. Anecdotes:
1. Che, Chibas, Castro, and Batista
Basically, Castro heard Chibas, a revolutionary, kill himself on the
radio and was inspired to harass Batista. Che didn’t do that. He was a
café guy.
2. Spain vs. Stalin parallel
Spain was gold-crazy, so it did all kinds of exportation and had to
buy food from other people. Dumb!
Stalin did the same thing, selling all his people’s food for money.
He also destroyed the middle class, just like Spain did with the Moors.

3. Nixon=Bullington’s Favorite President! Why?

1. He Ended Vietnam War.
2. He Completed Détente.
3. He sold grain to the USSR.

WHEREAS: Jimmy Carter, in 1979, tried to starve the Russians

into submission. Um, hello, Nuclear War, Jim?

That’s it for the guide. Please read that IB handout (the big one) that
Bullington keeps referencing, for further aid.
Good luck!