History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917–1927)

Main article: Russian Civil War

Prior to the revolution, the Bolshevik doctrine of democratic centralism argued that only a tightly knit and secretive organization could successfully overthrow the government; after the revolution, they argued that only such an organization could prevail against foreign and domestic enemies. Fighting the civil war would actually force the party to put these principles into practice.

Arguing that the revolution needed not a mere parliamentary organization but a party of action which would function as a scientific body of direction, a vanguard of activists, and a central control organ, the Tenth Party Congress banned factions within the party, initially intending it only to be a temporary measure after the shock of the Kronstadt rebellion. It was also argued that the party should be an elite body of professional revolutionaries dedicating their lives to the cause and carrying out their decisions with iron discipline, thus moving toward putting loyal party activists in charge of new and old political institutions, army units, factories, hospitals, universities, and food suppliers. Against this backdrop, the nomenklatura system (a class of people who were granted key positions only with approval of the party) would evolve and become standard practice.

In theory, this system was to be democratic since all leading party organs would be elected from below, but also centralized since lower bodies would be accountable to higher organizations. In practice, "democratic centralism" was centralist, with decisions of higher organs binding on lower ones, and the composition of lower bodies largely determined by the members of higher ones. Over time, party cadres would grow increasingly careerist and professional. Party membership required exams, special courses, special camps, schools, and nominations by three existing members.

In December 1917, the

During the Russian civil war the Jewish communities of Ukraine, and to a lesser extent Belarus, suffered the worst

The Soviet government was able gradually to consolidate its hold on central Russia first and then to fight its enemies successfully. The Allied intervention and the Polish invasion allowed the Bolsheviks to play the nationalist card. Worsening economic conditions, however, created mass social turmoil. This came to a head after the final defeat of organised White military forces in the autumn of 1920 with mass peasant insurgencies, such as the Tambov Rebellion. They were brutally suppressed.^[5]

Polish–Soviet War

The frontiers between Poland, which had established an

Some of the leading Bolsheviks who came to power in 1917 had been pamphleteers or editors, including Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Bukharin, and Zinoviev. Lenin set up the daily newspaper Pravda in January 1912. Before it was suppressed by the government in 1914 it was a "singularly effective propaganda and educational instrument which enabled the Bolsheviks to gain control of the Petersburg labour movement and to build up a mass base for their organization."^[8] Under Lenin, the Bolsheviks (Communists) controlled all of the media After 1917. The major national newspapers were Izvestia (the voice of the government),^[9] and especially Pravda (the voice of the party).^[10] Pravda acquired the first and best printing equipment for illustrations.^[11] The leading newspapers developed a specialized rhetorical vocabulary designed to enhance the totalitarian structure of society, with total truth emanating from the top, and all sorts of mischievous errors stemming from clumsy bureaucrats at lower levels, or from devious traitors and spies working on behalf of capitalism.^[12]

The Communist leadership was rooted in printed propaganda. Taking over a nation where 90% could not read, they made schools and literacy a high priority in order to optimize printed journalism and propaganda through newspapers and magazines, as well as posters that reached the illiterate older generations.^[13][14]

The

Radio was not neglected—it was a major new technology, and was used for political speeches. Soviet authorities realized that the "ham" operator was highly individualistic and encouraged private initiative– too much so for the totalitarian regime. Criminal penalties were imposed but the working solution was to avoid broadcasting over the air. Instead radio programs were transmitted by copper wire, using a hub and spoke system, to loudspeakers in approved listening stations, such as the "Red" corner of a factory.^[15]

The Soviet style involved citizens listening to party leaders, using in-person speeches, radio talks or printed speeches. There was little role for the journalist to summarize or interpret the text; there was no commentary or background or discussion. No one questioned or challenged the leadership. There were no press conferences and little in the way of broadcast news.^[16][17]

Foreign correspondents were strictly prevented from any access beyond official spokesmen. The result was a rosy depiction of Soviet life in the Western media before Khrushchev exposed Stalin's horrors in the 1950s.^[18] The most famous exemplar was Walter Duranty of the New York Times.^[19][20][21]

War Communism

During the Civil War (1917–21), the Bolsheviks adopted

Main article: New Economic Policy

At the Tenth Party Congress, it was decided to end War Communism and institute the New Economic Policy (NEP), in which the state allowed a limited market to exist. Small private businesses were allowed and restrictions on political activity were somewhat eased.^[26]

However, the key shift involved the status of

The slower recovery of industry would pose some problems for the peasantry, who accounted for 80% of the population. Since agriculture was relatively more productive, relative price indexes for industrial goods were higher than those of agricultural products. The outcome of this was what Trotsky deemed the "Scissors Crisis" because of the scissors-like shape of the graph representing shifts in relative price indexes. Simply put, peasants would have to produce more grain to purchase consumer goods from the urban areas. As a result, some peasants withheld agricultural surpluses in anticipation of higher prices, thus contributing to mild shortages in the cities. This, of course, is speculative market behavior, which was frowned upon by many Communist Party cadres, who considered it to be exploitative of urban consumers.

In the meantime, the party took constructive steps to offset the crisis, attempting to bring down prices for manufactured goods and stabilize inflation, by imposing price controls on essential industrial goods and breaking-up the trusts in order to increase economic efficiency.

Death of Lenin and the fate of the NEP

Following Lenin's third stroke, a

Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin became concerned about Stalin's increasing power and proposed that the Orgburo which Stalin headed be abolished and that Zinoviev and Trotsky be added to the party secretariat thus diminishing Stalin's role as general secretary. Stalin reacted furiously and the Orgburo was retained but Bukharin, Trotsky and Zinoviev were added to the body.

Due to growing political differences with Trotsky and his Left Opposition in the fall of 1923, the troika of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev reunited. At the Twelfth Party Congress in 1923, Trotsky failed to use Lenin's Testament as a tool against Stalin for fear of endangering the stability of the party.

Lenin died in January 1924 and in May his Testament was read aloud at the Central Committee but Zinoviev and Kamenev argued that Lenin's objections had proven groundless and that Stalin should remain General Secretary. The Central Committee decided not to publish the testament.

Meanwhile, the campaign against Trotsky intensified and he was removed from the position of

In 1925, the Soviet Union occupied the island of Urtatagai, which was considered Afghan territory at the time, due to the island being used as a base to start border raids by the Basmachi movement. In 1926 the Soviet Union withdrew from the island after the Kingdom of Afghanistan agreed to restrain the Basmachi.^[27]

With the resignation of Trotsky as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, the unity of the troika began to unravel. Zinoviev and Kamenev again began to fear Stalin's power and felt that their positions were threatened. Stalin moved to form an alliance with Bukharin and his allies on the right of the party who supported the

Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed a

Stalin now moved against Bukharin by appropriating Trotsky's criticisms of his right wing policies and he promoted a new general line of the party favoring collectivization of the peasantry and rapid industrialization, forcing Bukharin and his supporters into the Right Opposition.

At the Central Committee meeting held in July 1928, Bukharin and his supporters argued that Stalin's new policies would cause a breach with the peasantry. Bukharin also alluded to Lenin's Testament. While he had support from the party organization in Moscow and the leadership of several commissariats, Stalin's control of the secretariat was decisive in that it allowed Stalin to manipulate elections to party posts throughout the country, giving him control over a large section of the Central Committee. The Right Opposition was defeated and Bukharin attempted to form an alliance with Kamenev and Zinoviev but it was too late.

Nationalities

The Russian Empire comprised a multitude of nationalities, languages, ethnic groups and religions. The spirit of nationalism, so strong in 19th century Europe, was significant in Russia, Ukraine, and Finland especially before 1900. Much later the spirit of nationalism appeared in central Asia, especially among the Muslim population.^[28] The Bolsheviks made use of the slogan "Self-determination" to fight imperialism and to build support among non-Russian nationalities.^[29] Lenin's position was that after the revolution all nationalities would be free to choose, either to become part of Soviet Russia or become independent.^[30] Left-wing Bolsheviks, most notably Georgy Pyatakov, derided nationalism as a false consciousness that was much less important than class conflict, and would disappear with the victory of socialism.

Lenin's views prevailed, and were supported by Stalin, who became the Party's specialist on nationalities. The "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia", issued 15 November 1917, left the new Soviet state with undefined boundaries, and invited of other nations to join in. The "Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited People", issued in January 1918, announced that all nationalities would have the right to determine on what basis they would participate in the federal government of the new state. A new agency was set up, the People's Commissariat for Nationalities (NARKOMNATS) based in Moscow. It operated from 1918 to 1924 and had responsibility for 22 percent of the entire Soviet population. It was led by Stalin and settled boundary disputes as it set up autonomous regions for non-Russian peoples. It established newspapers in the local languages and fostered literacy. It took a paternalistic view toward "backward" or "primitive peoples". Soviet anthropology and ethnography specialized in understanding these people.^[31] Evkom was the Jewish Commissariat;^[32] Muskom was the Muslim Commissariat.^[33][34][35]

See also

• Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
• History of Russia
• Timeline of Russian history
• Historiography in the Soviet Union
• Leninism
• Politics of the Soviet Union
• Political repression in the Soviet Union

References