1. The Soviet Union 1921, Red Army victorious, Communism secured
Transportation, communication, banks, mines, factories, businesses all nationalized
Famine, drought, and govt requisition of food led to ~5M deaths
Industrial output bare min levels
March 1921, Lenin offers solution

2. Lenin’s New Economic Policy
Modified version of old capitalism system
peasants could sell produce
if business >20 ppl it could be privately owned
1922, creation of USSR
One-party state strengthening
Party bureaucrats were new social elite
access to better food, jobs, housing
Lenin Died from strokes in 1924

4. Struggle for Power post-Lenin
Politburo leaders fought for power
Left led by Trotsky, wanted to end NEP and push industrialization, spread Communism internationally
Right wanted socialist state and continue NEP
personal rivalry b/w Trotsky and Stalin
Stalin used position to gain loyalty and control of Communist party
Trotsky ousted in 1927
By 1929 Stalin had eliminated all the Old Bolsheviks and established his dictatorship
Stalin’s nickname at one time was comrade card index cause he was such a good organizer...he was the party general secretary but that actually gave him a lot of power cause he made all the regional, district, city, and town appointments

5. The Stalinist Era:
1928 launched 5 yr econ plan:
transform SU from agricultural to industrial nation
emphasized max production of armaments, capital goods (instead of consumer goods)
succeeded in quadrupling heavy machinery prod and doubling oil production
steel: 4-->18M tons/year
coal: 36-->128M tons/yr

6. The Stalinist Era, 1929-1939 Social costs of industrialization:
hardly any provisions for absorbing flood of labor force in cities
wages and housing declined
workers did not have much freedom of movement
govt propaganda to inspire and pacify workers
your sacrifice is for the greater good of the state
agricultural collectivization: 10M households by 1930
1934, 26M fam farms collectivized into 250k farms
No private farms, millions will die of starvation...some as a means of forcing them to comply with collectivization, others because they couldn’t be sustained by the collective farms, esp in ukraine

7. The Stalinist Era,
The Holodomor (Terror Famine) was worst in Ukraine where kulaks (land-owning peasants) most resisted collectivization
No private farms, millions will die of starvation...some as a means of forcing them to comply with collectivization, others because they couldn’t be sustained by the collective farms, esp in ukraine

8. The Stalinist Era, 1929-1939 Political costs of industrialization:
party bureaucracy strengthened via purges
resisters sent to forced gulags
labor camps in Siberia
, opposition tried and sentenced to death
anyone could be purged: army officers, diplomats, union officials, party members, intellectuals, ordinary czn, esp if denounced
abt 8M were arrested and more than a few million died in Siberian camps
An old woman sent to siberian work came for saying if ppl prayed they would work better

11. The Stalinist Era,
Surprise, surprise, Stalin also had an agenda for women
Birthrates had been declining
early 1920s social legislation allowed divorce/abortion
Abortion illegal, fines for repeat divorces
Homosexuality-->criminal activity
Motherhood praised, large family=patriotic duty
Despite all of that, no birthrate increase of consequence

12. The Stalinist Era, 1929-1939 Some positive changes:
program created to enable workers, peasants, and young Communists to get higher edu, esp in engineering...why?
pro adult literacy: part-time schools created
people started seeing education as necessary for a better job and social mobility
He wanted smart leaders to push SU even further

13. The Stalinist Era, 1929-1939 monstrous, paranoid, brutal, sadistic
Stalin’s Cult of Personality:
monstrous, paranoid, brutal, sadistic
a son and wife committed suicide
one year’s worth of purges killed abt 1M and sent many millions to gulags
whole ethnic groups were targeted
Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians
the “Great Terror” of Stalin’s initial reign est his complete control over Soviet life
He would even have pics doctored to cut ppl out that were his enemies

14. edited pictures to reflect who was out of favor/executed for whatever reason