User:Andrew Halford/sandbox



= The 1930's in Soviet Russia. = The 1930’s were challenging times for the Soviet Union. It was a time characterized by a great fear of foreign intervention and an even greater fear of internal betrayal. While the communist party was torn apart by arrests and executions; Soviet culture became a series of heavily regulated cultural orthodoxies. People made increasing use of agricultural machinery, and were becoming more industrialized which by this time played an important role in the Soviet economy. Globally speaking, one of the most significant events of the era was a famous treaty that wasn’t meant to be the short lived Nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. Once this treaty was broken it propelled the two nations into a major, catastrophic war.

Foreign Policy
It has been described that the main priorities of Soviet Foreign Policy during the 1930's under Stalin were to keep the Soviet Union from becoming entangled in what would become World War II, position itself to align with the victors in that war, prevent any battles from being fought on Soviet lands, expand the Soviet Union, and spread Communism to other countries. Much of the hopes for improvement within Soviet society rest on the back of domestic issues during the 1930's. An era of improvement took place in the realm of industrialization after Stalin's announcement that the Soviet Union was far behind other powers and would be "crushed" if those improvements were not made in a short amount of time. That same year the relationship between the Germans and the Soviets took a turn for the worse as the Soviet Union signed non aggression treaties with the three European countries of Poland, France, and Italy.

With Hitler's rise to the head of state in Germany in 1933, Stalin hoped for a cooperative relationship with the German Chancellor initially. Those hopes were dashed in 1934 as the nonaggression pact was signed between Poland and Germany, as Stalin was himself attempting to put in place a defensive system with Poland and France. The Soviets, then sought to repair their relationship with other Western powers when they joined the League of Nations in 1934. In 1936, Germany, Japan, and Italy signed the Anti-Comintern Pact and Germany began a nearly half decade plan to prepare for war with the Soviet Union. In 1937 a group of Soviet diplomats went to negotiate the prospect of better relations and the hopes for a trade agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union, when the group returned home unsuccessful the failed diplomats were either killed or put in prison. When Britain and France left the Soviets out of the Munich Agreement of 1938, Stalin felt a great sense of doubt towards the Western European powers. However, with an impending force building in Germany, Stalin knew he must either align with France and Britain or forge an agreement with Hitler.

Stalin chose to negotiate with Hitler and on August 23, 1939, the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, or sometimes called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, moved from the negotiation stage to an official pact as it was signed in Moscow. One of the agreements in that pledge was for Poland to remain a partition between Germany and the Soviet Union. Not long after signing the Nonaggression pact, Hitler and the Nazi's broke the deal by invading Poland. In response Stalin sent the Red Army into the Soviet allotted portion of Poland in order to defend an impending attack on the Soviet homeland from the west. Hoping to gain naval installations in Finland, Stalin forced the issue after refusal by the leaders in Helsinki. The Red Army was deployed to Finland in late 1939 but were defeated while suffering 200,000 casualties. The 1930's came to a close with war on its way. One goal of Soviet Foreign Policy during the 1930's was to avoid the impending World War II fought by Soviets on Soviet land. They may have accomplished that goal for the 1930's, but with war already in Europe and the Nazis at the Soviet's door, the same cannot be said for the 1940's.

The Purges
The purges of the thirties found their origins in the twenties. Ideological disagreements between prominent communist party members Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky became a bitter power struggle for the future of the Soviet Union. Stalin had Trotsky purged from the communist party and exiled. This process would become more violent throughout the thirties, and punishments would not stop with expulsion from the communist party or deportation from the Soviet Union. Fearing Trotsky’s influence, Stalin held numerous public show trials, such as the Shakhty and Menshevik trials, while less prominent people were tried in secrecy. Stalin’s court produced trumped up evidence that certain party officials and government officers were economic saboteurs, conspiring to murder Stalin, or affiliated in some way with Trotsky or German intelligence. During the late twenties and early thirties, when Stalin hunted political enemies, he did it with the pretense of legality.

The purges accelerated in force and in scope with the killing of politician Sergei Kirov in 1934. It is not known for certain whether Kirov was killed on Stalin’s orders, as scholars continue to debate this aspect of Soviet history. However, in the wake of Kirov’s death, Stalin’s mass party expulsions evolved into mass executions through the use of secret police and death squads, called the NKVD. The NKVD began moving hard against Trotsky supporters in the mid-thirties as well as those involved in the Ryutin Affair of 1933. Certain ambivalent communists that were aware of the existence of Ryutin’s document, but did nothing about it, were also later shot by the NKVD or sent to the Gulag. Using Kirov’s death as evidence of a conspiracy, Stalin managed to wipe out the older Bolsheviks who served under Lenin, most of whom he had replaced with loyal Stalinists. Thousands more were killed in purges of the Red Army leadership, and about half of all Red Army intelligence officers were shot during Stalin’s army purge, while other Soviet organizations were similarly impacted. Stalin’s NKVD went especially hard on the party officials in the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party, and many of them were shot as traitors.

By 1937, many people were being shot just to meet quotas, and all the earlier pretense of legality surrounding the purge was removed. NKVD order No. 00447 directed that the purges be expanded, effectively terrorizing masses of private citizens and ethnic minorities. Countless thousands of these people were shot, or sent to the Gulag labor camps. Due to the severity of the purges, experts on the subject suggests that the Soviet government was unable to function properly without ending the purge as many important functionaries were in exile or dead. There is evidence that some members of the NKVD may have lost faith in the validity of these purges, as they collected enough evidence to convict virtually everyone. An official communist party document from this time acknowledged that the purges had gone too far in January of 1938, though the political executions did not cease immediately. Party members who had been purged unjustly were allowed to be reinstated. Scholars estimate the collective death toll for Stalin’s purges at this time to have been approximately four in ten adult men in the Soviet Union. More purges would continue through WWII, ending with Stalin’s death in 1953.

Soviet Culture in the 1930's
Culture in Soviet Russia began to experience reform in the 1930's. Major aspects of Soviet Culture such as education, literature, and politics all began to change drastically. Education was no longer about academics. Schools were handed over to collective farms or enterprises, pupils and teachers abandoned formal learning and sought to learn through 'productive labor' or were mobilized to fulfill the the plan. Bourgeois academics were thrown out, and most universities were restructured to follow functional lines with narrow specialisms. The plan worked until 1936 due to high dropout rates and little technical expertise. Non-proletarians were now getting an education that promoted Russian Nationalism. In the wake of a newly reformed educational system, major changes were made to literature in Soviet Russia due to the political defeat of the "right". Yet, some writers were still linked to Stalin's opposition, Nikolai Bukharin. The All- Russian Union of Writers (AUW) did their best to keep politics out of their writing, which angered The All Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP).Their literary work primarily embodied the hegemony of the working-class values in fiction. In retaliation the RAPP launched a campaign against the AUW chairman Evgeny Zamyatin. It resulted in the defeat of the AUW, and they were replaced by the All-Russian Union of Soviet Writers. New writing reflected the absence of hierarchy and worshiped machinery. Andrei Zhandv, the guardian of Stalinist cultural orthodoxy, made Socialist Realism the guide for writers in 1934. Literature was to uplift readers so that they would become more efficient constructors of socialism. The Russian Intelligentsia or class of educated people in Russia adjusted to these reforms. If one hypothesizes something like a deal between the Russian Intelligentsia and the Stalinist Regime in the 1930's, it would presumably involve the intelligentsia's pledge of loyalty and service to the regime in exchange for privilege and social status for themselves and the regime's support for major traditional cultural institutions such as the Academy of Sciences; and an agreement that the two sides would cooperate in disseminating a popularized form of the intelligentsia's culture among the masses.

Stalinism Triumphant
After taking power following Lenin’s death Stalin worked incredibly hard to create and maintain an iron grip in the Soviet Union. A large portion of this was ensuring that his own officials were in positions of power. These people were mostly lower-class individuals that held firm and absolute loyalty to the Party and Stalin. Their loyalty made them quick to view all opposing opinions as treasonous and worthy of punishment. To get these individuals Stalin made education accessible to those of the lower-classes with the expectation that it would be used to the furtherment of Socialism. Once Stalin had his officials in office, he limited the distribution of knowledge. Everyone had different pieces of the puzzle, with more powerful officials holding more pieces, but no one other then Stalin had the final picture. As Stalin promoted and installed his officials he wiped out opposing opinions and rivals. Further, Stalin made his appearances scarce and the positive propaganda surrounding him pervasive. These actions made Stalin the hero of the people, as the incompetent and cruel officials were made to seem responsible for the tragedies befalling the people of the Soviet Union. The idea was portrayed that if Stalin knew about what was happening he would swoop in and save everyone.

Politics and Economy
In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin came up with an idea to create a five-year plan. This would become the first of many different five-year plans starting in October 1929. The plans were designed to help grow the economy and industry in the USSR. The first plan worked gaining a lead in Industry encouraging job openings and giving hope to the people of Soviet Union. The farmers struggled due to their inability to produce enough food for the country and the famine that hit the nation. The Soviet people were poorer in the 1930’s then the 1920’s based on the amount of food they did not have. Thousands of people were dying from starvation. Due to the Five-Year Plan, the industrialization of the Soviet Union took over the concern and the goods section was pushed to the side leaving them with no support. Things got so bad that they started an internal passport to stop the starving peasants from rushing to the cities to find food and shelter. The second five-year plan was revised to help support the farms and they achieved Collectivism by the year 1937. The tractor saved the farms making it possible to make quotas in a more advance timing. Wages increased during the 2nd Five-Year plan and helped the economy improve, but not as substantially as in the 1920’s. The labor fields of employment were improving and lending a more helping hand to advance the citizens in the jobs they worked.

The Purges
The purges of the thirties found their origins in the twenties.Ideological disagreements between prominent communist party members Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky became a bitter power struggle for the future of the Soviet Union. Stalin had Trotsky purged from the communist party and exiled (McCauley, xiv-xv). This process would become more violent throughout the thirties, and punishments would not stop with expulsion from the communist party or deportation from the Soviet Union. Fearing Trotsky’s influence, Stalin held numerous public show trials, such as the Shakhty and Menshevik trials, while less prominent people were tried in secrecy. Stalin’s court produced trumped up evidence that certain party officials and government officers were economic saboteurs, part of a conspiracy to murder Stalin, or affiliated in some way with Trotsky or German intelligence (McCauley, 48-49; Timascheff, 102). During the late twenties and early thirties, when Stalin hunted political enemies, he did it with the pretense of legality.

The purges accelerated in force and in scopewith the killing of politician Sergei Kirov in 1934. It is not known for certain whether Kirov was killed on Stalin’s orders, as scholars continue to debate this aspect of Soviet history. However, in the wake of Kirov’s death, Stalin’s mass party expulsions evolved into mass executions through the use of Stalin’s secret police and death squads, called the NKVD. The NKVD began moving hard against Trotsky supporters in the mid-thirties as well as those involved in the Ryutin Affair of 1933. Certain ambivalent communists that were aware of the existence of Ryutin’s document, but did nothing about it, were also later shot by the NKVD or sent to the Gulag(McCauley, 49). Using Kirov’s death as evidence of a conspiracy, Stalin managed to wipe out the older Bolsheviks who served under Lenin, most of whom he had replaced with loyal Stalinists (Timascheff, 101-102; McCauley, 31, 58). Thousands more were killed in purges of the Red Army leadership, and about half of all Red Army intelligence officers were shot during Stalin’s army purge, while other Soviet organizations were similarly impacted. Stalin’s NKVD went especially hard on the party officials in the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party, and many of them were shot as traitors (McCauley, 61; xvi).

By 1937, many people were being shot just to meet quotas, and all the earlier pretense of legality surrounding the purge was removed (McCauley, 53, 63). NKVD order No. 00447 directed that the purges be expanded, effectively terrorizing masses of private citizens and ethnic minorities. Countless thousands of these people were shot, or sent to the Gulag labor camps (McCauley, 63). Due to the severity of the purges, scholarship on the subject suggests that the Soviet government was unable to function properly without ending the purge as many important functionaries were in exile or dead (McCauley, 63). There is evidence that some members of the NKVD may have lost faith in the Purge, as they eventually collected enough evidence to convict everyone. An official communist party document from this time acknowledged that the purges had gone too far in January of 1938, though the political executions did not cease immediately (McCauley, 63). Party members who had been purged unjustly were allowed to be reinstated (Conquest, 24). Scholars estimate the collective death toll for Stalin’s purges at this time to have been approximately four in ten adult men in the Soviet Union (McCauley, 62). More purges would continue through WWII, ending with Stalin’s death in 1953.