Stalin Era

Stalin Era

Lenin's death early in 1924 occasioned a bitter struggle for power. The principal antagonists were Trotsky and Joseph Stalin, then general secretary of the party, both of whom claimed to be the rightful executors of Lenin's policies. In contrast to Trotsky, who was primarily an intellectual, a theorist, and a gifted military leader, Stalin was a clever and determined organizer. Through his control of the party apparatus, Stalin succeeded in winning the support of a majority within the party and in consolidating his rule. In November 1927 a party referendum completely repudiated Trotsky's policies, expelled him from the party, and exiled him to Almaty. Two years later he was banished from the Soviet Union. In 1940 he was assassinated in Mexico, presumably by an agent of Stalin.

In 1929 Stalin was recognized as the supreme leader of the party and the country. He then began the series of purges that marked his 25 years of rule, turning first against his former allies in the struggle with the Trotskyists. These leaders, notably Nikolay I. Bukharin and Aleksey I. Rykov, were driven from the higher councils of the party.
Thereafter, Stalin relied solely on his control of the party and the police, and on colleagues he had elevated to power. Important among these were Vyacheslav M. Molotov, Valerian V. Kuybyshev, Grigory K. Ordzhonikidze, and Kliment Y. Voroshilov.

Union Constitution and Recognition

During the 1920s sweeping changes were made in governmental administration and marked improvements were achieved in the internal economy and foreign affairs of the country. Up to the end of 1923 the territory which was controlled by the Soviet government comprised the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the eastern halves of Belorussia and the Ukraine, and the Caucasus. A plan of federation was drawn up under Stalin's supervision, and in January 1924 a new constitution was put forward, reorganizing the areas under Soviet control into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The new state was initially composed of the Russian, Ukrainian, Transcaucasian, and Belorussian Soviet Socialist republics. Although a degree of local autonomy was granted to each republic, a tight control over foreign affairs, defence, and economic planning was kept by the central Soviet government.

In later years Transcaucasia was divided into the Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist republics; Kazakhstan and Central Asia were separated from the Russian SFSR; and Central Asia was divided into the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and Kirgiz Soviet Socialist republics.

By 1924 the major world powers, having initially attempted to isolate the Soviet government, had established diplomatic relations with it, and the Soviet Union was taking part in international conferences. The United States, the last major power withholding recognition, formally recognized the Soviet government in 1933, during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Economic Transformation

By 1927 the New Economic Policy devised by Lenin, under which a certain measure of capitalism was permitted, had brought about sufficient recovery to warrant an effort to renew the drive towards socialism in accordance with long-range Soviet objectives. Accordingly, a new period of planned economy began in 1928 with the inauguration of the first of the Stalin's Five-year plans. The basic aims of the Five-year plans were to convert the USSR from a backward agricultural country to a leading industrial power, to effect the complete collectivization of agriculture, and to transform the very nature of society.

The Great Purge

Politically, the mid-1930s were marked by a drastic purge from the Communist party and the government of all elements alleged to be in opposition to the policies of Stalin. The purge was touched off by the assassination in December 1934 of Sergey M. Kirov, a supporter of Stalin and member of the party. Between 1935 and 1939 Stalin had all those suspected of opposition removed from posts of authority; many were imprisoned, exiled to Siberia, or executed. Indeed, between 1934 and 1938 two-thirds of the members of the 1934 Central Committee were sentenced and executed. More than half of the high-ranking army officers were purged between 1936 and 1938.

In a series of spectacular trials held in Moscow between 1936 and 1938, several of the most prominent party leaders, including Grigory Y. Zinovyev, Bukharin, and Rykov, were accused, convicted, and executed for allegedly conspiring with Germany and Japan to overthrow the Soviet government. In a separate, secret trial, several commanders of the Red Army, including Marshal Mikhail N. Tukhachevsky, were convicted on similar charges and executed. The trials aroused worldwide condemnation of the Soviet system, which was seriously weakened by these great losses.

Foreign Affairs

In Moscow's view, international events in the 1930s increasingly endangered the security of the USSR. In the Far East, Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931, and friction gradually mounted between the Japanese occupation armies and the Soviet forces stationed along the Manchurian border. In 1938 the previously sporadic armed clashes developed into serious border warfare.

At the same time, Hitler's rise to power in Germany, with his policy of expansionism and anti-communism, resulted in an even graver threat to Soviet security. While seeking alliances with other powers, especially France and Britain, to counter these threats, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations in 1934. During the succeeding five years, the Soviet commissar for foreign affairs, Maksim M. Litvinov, repeatedly urged the members of the league to take concerted action against the successive aggressions of the Fascist powers. The Soviet Union sought also to obtain support for this action, which it called collective security, by encouraging the formation in foreign countries of so-called united-front, or popular-front, governments. The united-front policy called for collaboration of Communist, socialist, and centrist political groups to oppose Fascist movements.

In the summer of 1938 a grave crisis arose when the German government demanded the cession by Czechoslovakia of the Sudetenland, a border area with a large German minority. The Soviet Union announced its readiness to support the Czechs in resisting this demand and called upon France and Britain to offer similar aid. The French and British governments, instead, accepted Hitler's assurance that this demand embodied the final territorial acquisition sought by Germany. The result was the Munich Pact of September 1938, providing for the cession of the disputed areas to Germany. The signing of this pact signalled the failure of the Soviet collective-security policy. In March 1939 the Germans advanced eastwards from the Sudetenland into Czechoslovakia and quickly took full control.