https://historyattallis.weebly.com/unit-1-russian-revolution-c1880-1929.

html
Content overview
Students should understand how and why the Bolsheviks were able to hold onto
power through the creation of a police state, flexibility in economic policy and the
military victories of the Red army. They should understand the salient features of the
new soviet state, the importance of an official ideology and the persecution of any
rivals and the dominance of three key institutions: the Party, the Red Army and the
secret police.

Students should understand

 how and why the Bolsheviks were able to hold onto power through the
creation of a police state, flexibility in economic policy and the military
victories of the Red army.
 the salient features of the new soviet state, the importance of an official
ideology and the persecution of any rivals
 the dominance of three key institutions: the Party, the Red Army and the
secret police.

Martin McCauley. The Soviet Union 1917-1991

Introduction

"The brilliant tactical success of the Bolsheviks on taking power in a developing country,
dominated by the peasantry, dimmed as the difficulties of transforming the country became
evident." Self interest, corruption and abuse of power did not disappear with the autocracy,
and embroiled in civil war the Bolsheviks resorted to coercion. The civil war left an indelible
imprint on Bolshevik thinking and practice since they realised that a party arranged along
military line could become a powerful force. Under War Communism socialism appeared to
be attainable but only for a short time. The New Economic Policy was a great retreat before
the great offensive of the late 1920's.

The October Revolution and the Problems of Ruling Russia

The Bolsheviks had to undertake the building of the foundations of a Socialist economy and
society using their own resources, knowing that it would be very difficult to persuade the
peasants, compromising 80% of the total population of 140 million, that model and collective
farms were economically more rational than small scale peasant household farms. On the
other hand the factory workers understood workers control to mean that enterprises would be
worked and controlled by them whereas Lenin only wanted them to have the right of
inspection. Furthermore extricating Russia from the First World War became an expensive
business and after that came civil war and intervention and with it an economic crisis. The
euphoria of victory gradually gave way to the sober realisation that there were no short cuts
to a better life for all, to justice, democracy and freedom on a national scale.

A revolution whose success was based on seizing and maintaining political power gradually
became one in which the needs of the economy, were paramount. The need to keep the
wheels of industry turning, the confrontation with the peasants, the need to build a Red Army
to win the civil war, all contributed to the death of democracy, and economic necessity meant
that all became dissatisfied. The idealism of the phrase "All power to the Soviets" which
would gather a republic, rapidly gave way to the dictatorship of the communist party. Factory
committees, trade unions, Soviets all fell victim to the overriding need to find an institution
which would implement Bolshevik policy, and the institution was the RSDLP or as it became
known at the 7th Congress in March 1918, the All-Russian Communist Party. The Bolsheviks,
when they took power in October 1917 presented to the 2nd Congress of Soviets and thus
transformed Russia into Soviet Russia. In less than a year power had slipped from the
Soviets into the safekeeping of the Communist Party. The revolution signalled not Soviet
democracy, but a dictatorship of the Communist Party.

The second Congress of Soviets of Workers and Soldiers Deputies convened on the 7th
November 1917 and the immediate demarche between on the one hand the Bolsheviks and
left SR's, and on the other Mensheviks and SR's, led to the withdrawal of the moderate
Socialists from the Congress. This left the former in the majority to proceed with business.
The Soviet immediately assumed State power and gave the floor for Lenin to speak, where
he announced his peace Decree and his Land Decree (based on drafted SR policy and
contrary to his April thesis). The new government called the Council of Peoples Commissars
(Sovnarkom) was elected with Lenin as Prime Minister, and the concluding act of the
Congress was to elect an all Russian Central Executive Committee (CEC) with the
Bolsheviks and left SR's occupying 90 of the 110 places. Thus the Bolsheviks had succeeded
in institutionalising their seizure of power through the Soviets, the CEC was the supreme
legislative body and Sovnarkom was responsible to it. Lenin and his followers dominated the
former and made up the latter. Henceforth all Socialist opposition would be outside these
Bolshevik dominated institutions, and would be labelled counter revolutionary.
Institutionalising their power had been relatively easy, making their writ effective throughout
the country was to prove vastly more difficult. The country side was becoming more chaotic,
supplies of food to urban areas more erratic and the army was melting away. Events in
Petrograd produced their own reaction throughout the country. It was only on the 15th of
November that the Bolsheviks gained controls of Moscow and within the next few weeks the
remainder of the main Russian cities. It took more time for the waves of revolution to reach
the villages but those near centres of industry and along main lines of communication were
quickly under red control.

The Mass Organisations

a) Factory Committees and Trade Unions

Lenin envisaged that after Soviet power had been implemented, the capitalist industrial
economy would remain and all of its activities would be co-ordinated from the centre to the
benefit of Soviet Russia. However this thinking was quite out of step with the aspirations of
Russian workers. The decree on workers control (which gave supervisory powers) of 27
November 1917 was a compromise and revealed the split in the CC of the Communist Party.

Debate about the future was heated but economic reality was cold and harsh. Output by 1917
in medium and large scale enterprises dropped to two thirds of that recorded in 1913 and in
1918 it plummeted to half. Between November 1917 and September 1918 38% of the states
large concerns had to shut down. Supply breakdowns, disruption of transport, raging inflation
and labour unrest took a heavy toll. Government policy contributed since after the revolution
the Bolsheviks cancelled all arms contracts which further disrupted an economy geared for
war. The 1917 harvest was only 13% less than the 1909-13 average, but the short fall of 13.3
million was concentrated in areas of Bolshevik strengths (the North and Centre), but critics
were becoming more influential in food surplus zones of the Ukraine, the North Caucasus and
West Siberia.

The period of State Capitalism ended on 28th June 1918 with the decree on the
nationalisation of industry which ushered in War Communism, the leap to socialism. Hence
between November 1917 and June 1918 the peasants and workers were treated quite
differently. The land decree had afforded the peasants all they had wanted from the
revolution, but the backbone of Bolshevik supporters amongst the urban proletariat were not
satisfied until June 1918.

Factory committees of skilled workers had evolved effective methods of expressing their
opposition to State capitalism, particularly occupying factories. Three quarters of the factories
rationalised by June 1918 were taken over by this method, particularly in the Urals and
Donets basin rather than in Moscow and St Petersburg. However when the decree on
workers control was eventually passed neither the factory committee's nor the Trade Unions
dominated the All Russian Council of Workers Control (ARCWC) and furthermore a central
body administering the whole economy was established in December 1917 called the
Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKH) in which ARCWC was merged.

By November 1917 the Bolsheviks were in a strong position in the country's leading industrial
Trade Unions, but they did not have a majority in the All-Russian Central Council of Trade
Unions in which unions spoke for the interests of their members as of paramount importance
over political parties. Lenin and Trotsky put the needs of the State first and this was bound to
lead to a clash with the unions sooner or later, since they also regarded that after the
revolution the chief functions of the unions were to instil discipline and raise labour
productivity. A formidable opponent was the railwaymens union, but it's executive Vikzhel,
was outmanoeuvred by the Bolsheviks who set up a pro-Bolshevik executive Vikzhedor. The
first All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions held in January 1918 claimed to represent 2.5
million men and women, and revealed the strength of the Bolsheviks. Meanwhile Mensheviks
were encouraging Trade Union independence, but Zinoviev argued successfully that such a
position was justified before the revolution but now the priority was organising production and
restoring the country's shattered economy. The Trade Unions were to play an active part in
all the State institutions regulating production, supervising workers control and registering and
allocating labour, but all these functions fell within the brief of VSNKH or economic
commissariats. The factory committees would be subject to Trade Union leadership. Before
the onset of civil war under State capitalism, Trade Unions were relatively successful in their
radical demands since the Bolsheviks did not dispose of sufficient power of the economic
bureaucracy to slow down their march to socialism. However this radicalism hastened the
onset of War Communism. The nationalisation and militarisation of the economy after June
1918 destroyed the last vestiges of independence the Trade Union movement had. Under
War Communism the interests of the State and revolution prevailed, and the libertarian labour
representatives of the early months turned almost overnight into disciplinarians.

b) The Soviets
The Bolsheviks were ill prepared for local government, and the multiplicity of practical
problems gradually fell within the competence of the Soviets of which there were
approximately 1200 by the end of 1917. Decision making thus passed from the party to the
Soviets at the end of 1917 and beginning of 1918, and the best Bolshevik party cadres went
to work in them since that was where power lay. The Soviets were headed by Yakov
Sverdlov who was also a key party official, but as with other mass organisations it was the
conditions of War Communism which brought out into the open the clash of interests between
local Soviets and the centre.

The very success of the Soviets helped to undermine them. The Bolsheviks began by
amalgamating Soviets and where ever possible transformed the Soviet into a workers,
soldiers and peasants Soviet. This served to concentrate Bolshevik activists in order to
increase their impact. The Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet quickly escaped
from the control of the general assembly of the Soviet and the same practice was followed by
other Soviets and again served to strengthen the Bolshevik control of local government as the
Soviets quickly became beaurocratised. They employed their own staff and the executive
committee had numerous commissions subject to them, and hence the Bolsheviks infiltrated
and centralised once more what had been the organs of revolutionary democracy. The
moderate Socialists often walked out when confronted with a blatant use of force or illegal
behaviour by the Bolsheviks, which left them with a majority of votes in almost all Soviets and
executives. The Soviet constitution of June 1918 placed power in the centre of the All-
Russian Congress of Soviets and the CEC and thus attempted to restrict and control the
activities of local Soviets. Under War Communism, harsh centralisation carried the day.

The Constituent Assembly

Sovnarkom was a provisional government until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.
Again the Bolsheviks were split over the question of conceding a coalition government, and
after Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov, Milyutin and Nogin resigned from the CEC over the issue,
Lenin began serious negotiations on the 19th of November with the left SR's on the terms for
their participation in a future coalition.
Elections to the Constituent Assembly decreed by the outgoing Provisional Government went
ahead on the 25th November, and the result was the SR party gained 370 seats, the
Bolsheviks 175, but since the assembly was not due to convene until January this gave the
Bolsheviks time to manoeuvre. The 2nd Congress of Soviets Peasants Deputies convened in
December and was of crucial importance. The SR party dominated the Congress but it was
split with left SR's supporting the Bolsheviks, and they were successful in dominating the new
Executive Committee. They were invited to nominate 108 members to the CEC, 100
members were added from the army and navy and 50 from the Trade Unions to increase
membership to 366. The CEC changed its name to the All Russian CEC of the Soviet of
Workers, Soldiers and Peasant Deputies.

Many Socialists had been appalled at the first Sovnarkom government, since they expected a
coalition of Socialist parties. The mounting political and economic tension forced Lenin's
hand, and he gave way to those Bolsheviks favouring coalition. However the left SR's who
came into government did not accept all of Lenin's policies, i.e they favoured revolutionary
war rather than peace terms with Germany, and after the signing of the Treaty of Brest
Litovsk the left SR's were soon out of the coalition. The first and only coalition government
the Soviet Union has ever known met for the first time on 25 December 1917. It gave the
impression that the Bolsheviks were sharing State power with other Socialists. The great SR
party was split, the Kadet party was proscribed on 11 December 1917 and Lenin began to
argue that the Constituent Assembly had been overtaken by events and that Soviet
democracy was superior to it. Lenin argued that any renunciation of the Soviet's power would
now threaten the revolution, and he dissolved the Assembly on 19 January 1918 the day after
it convened. Demonstrators were fired upon and the Constituent Assembly remained a
powerful symbol that served to focus the anti-Bolshevik opposition during the civil war.

The Brest-Litovsk Treaty

The Bolshevik CC was hopelessly split on the wisdom of concluding a unilateral peace with
imperial Germany. Lenin argued for the precedence of domestic matters in institutionalising
the revolution and immediate peace even at the expense of huge losses. Bukharin argued for
the pursuance of a revolutionary war to further the Socialist revolution everywhere, and that
peace would only serve to strengthen German imperialism. Peace negotiations began on
22nd December and after initial terms were not found, the Germans were advancing again
further into Soviet territory with no resistance in sight. Trotsky thus came down on Lenin's
side and on 23rd February the CC accepted severe peace conditions. The treaty was signed
on 3rd March and represented a terrible blow to the young Soviet State. It had to recognise
that Georgia, Finland and the Ukraine were independent but in the German zone of influence.
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia fell under more German control and losses to the Turks
and Romanians also formed part of the treaty. All this came to 32% of the arable land, 26% of
the railways, 33% of the factories, 75% of the iron and coal mines and 62 million citizens.
There was also a huge indemnity to pay. The Bolsheviks retained the Russian heartland, but
broke their tenuous links with the left SR's. Now the Bolsheviks were on their own, changed
their name to the All Russian Communist Party and moved their government to the Kremlin
fortress in Moscow, and was still a party riven with dissent.

The assassination of the German ambassador, Von Mirbach, in Moscow on July 6 l918 was a
flashpoint in Bolshevik-left SR relations. The act was committed by a left SR and member of
the political police, the Cheka, Blyumkin, who hoped to renew hostilities. The Cheka had been
founded in December 1917 to fight counter-revolution and contained many left SR's, and thus
turned out to be unreliable to the Bolsheviks. However the revolt fizzled out, communist
retribution was swift removing left SR's from their offices and virtually putting an end to their
party. Other revolts broke out Eg in Yarolsavl, and in August Fanya Kaplan fired point blank
at Lenin hitting him twice. Lenin recognised a counter revolutionary threat and instructed the
head of the Cheka Feliks Dzerzhinsky to transform the Cheka into the sword and shield of the
revolution. Red Terror which dated from June 1918 thus was the answer to White Terror. The
Cheka freed from all legal constraints became a fearful organ of Bolshevik power with
provincial sections developing extreme forms of torture.
Sovnarkom and the CEC

Sovnarkom spoke in the name of the Soviet victory and was responsible to the CEC, to which
it had to submit decrees on politics and send representatives to be accountable to it. However
the Bolsheviks argued that the need to defend the revolution took precedence over all formal
arrangements, and as the CEC convened less frequently, Sovnarkom met almost daily. One
estimate is that of the 480 decrees promulgated during the first year of Soviet power only 68
had been forwarded to the CEC. The key role in this process was played by Yakov Sverdlov
chairman of the CEC from November 1917, who skilfully used his position as chairman to
strengthen the position of the Bolshevik party by increasing the power of the presidium and
restricting debate in the full CEC. Sverdlov was influential in preventing Bolshevik dissent in
the CEC when voting on the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty and he handled the IVth (March
1918) and the Vth Congress of Soviets with his usual skill to carry through Bolshevik policies.
The Vth Congress passed the first Soviet constitution that of the Russian Soviet Federated
Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Sverdlov increasingly dictated to the CEC and after accusing
Menshevik and SR's of counter revolutionary activities in June 1918 he removed them from
the CEC and provisional Soviet apparatus so that by the Vth Congress the CEC was
overwhelmingly Communist. Hence by July 1918 the Bolsheviks were in complete control of
the committee which headed the Soviets and which was theoretically responsible to them.

The Civil War

The communists were saved by the army, founded on 23 February 1918 the Workers and
Peasants Red Army was the creation of Trotsky against formidable obstacles. Despite the
reluctance of the party, Trotsky, now the Commissar of War, recruited 50,000 officers from
the old army to fight for the Reds. To ensure loyalty he placed a political commissar alongside
every military officer and made all commands invalid unless signed by both. The Bolsheviks
also swept aside the concept of elected commanders and an army run by soldiers
committees and reverted to orthodox command procedures. The most reliable units were
those of proletarian origin with the peasants more vulnerable to desertion although being told
by the Bolsheviks support us and keep your land, support the Whites and you bring back your
landlord. The Civil War consisted of a series of haphazard engagements on various fronts
with little coordination among the various White commanders. The Reds had the advantage
of controlling the Russian heartland whilst the Whites were scattered around the periphery
which posed organisational and logistical problems despite the support of interventionist
powers. The Whites were a hodgepodge of forces, SR's, Kadets and all those on the political
right so there was no agreed political and social programme.

The Bolsheviks did not seek civil war, they were forced to react to the attacks of the Whites
based in areas which had experienced little or no communist control, and by August 1918 had
forced the Reds to abandon Kazan, a strategic point for crossing the Volga and opening the
way forward to Moscow. Trotsky implemented ruthless tactics in order to turn the tide. After
the German collapse in the west the Bolsheviks could devote all their resources to the
struggle with the Whites but were confronted with interventionist armies from Britain,
America, Italy, Japan and France, but the troops hardly ever engaged with the Reds. The
turning point of the Civil War came in the autumn of 1919. White forces under General
Denikin had advanced to Orel, 300km South-West of Moscow. Kolchak was advancing on the
Eastern Front, Yudenich reached the suburbs of Petrograd on 22nd October. It was at this
point that Trotsky took personal command and a week later the Reds gained initiative and
successfully counter-attacked all three generals, so that the civil war was all but over.
Fighting dragged on but Kolchak's execution in February 1920 and Denikin's retreat to the
Crimea in March almost signalled the end. Intermittent fighting between the Poles and the
Russians flared up in May 1920 which the Reds contained eventually, but in the "miracle of
Vistula" which saw the defeat of the Red Army, the independence of Poland was secured for
two decades, and peace was signed at Riga in March 1921.

The Bolshevik regime was fashioned by the experience of civil war, which witnessed the
growing reliance of Lenin on Stalin, who was responsible for securing the grain supply from
the south for the north which was a food deficit zone. Stalin achieved his objectives with
ruthless policies, even depriving grain en route for the starving city of Baku in order to
safeguard the northern epicentre of Bolshevik power. Stalin also involved himself with military
matters, becoming Chief Commissar on the southern front in late summer 1918, and this
brought him into a deep and lasting conflict with the Commissar of War, Trotsky, who feared
his nurturing of the Tenth Army and his strategy for defending Tsaritsyn.

War Communism

The Communists won the civil war to secure political control, but they lost the economic war.
The lack of success in the economic sphere in the time of civil war shaped the Soviet regime.
Shortages, cold, hunger and disease are characteristics of the period 1918-20. War
Communism refers to the period from June 1918 which saw the large scale nationalisation of
industry to March 1921 when the New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced. During this
period the market economy was smashed and the black market proliferated, saving many
urban dwellers from starvation. Barter appeared on a large scale as money became
valueless. The whole Russian economy can be compared to a farm where the father directs
his son's labour and then decides what each shall get according to his need. "The Russian
Post Office did not charge for its services, the trams in Petrograd were free, factories
produced goods and passed them on to the next until the final product appeared."

The Bolsheviks were attempting to secure central control of economic processes in order to
impose their priorities, according highest preference to defense institutions, the
nationalisation and militarisation of almost all enterprises, the forcible requisition of food from
the peasants, the central allocation of labour, the raising of labour discipline and the rationing
of consumer goods. Resources were channelled into bottle-necks in the military economy
irrespective of cost. The chaos was inevitable, the dying capitalist mode of production gave
way to the communist one.

The large scale nationalisation of June 1918 saw all important enterprises placed under the
control of VSNKH, controlled by the Party. However, the most important good was food and
the Bolsheviks did not control its production. The land decree had confirmed the peasants
right to the land they had seized and ended payments to the landlord and mortgage arrears,
but it did not solve the problem of land shortage. The socialisation of the land on 9th February
1918 abolished all private ownership and made it the property of the whole nation and for
local Soviets to develop collective farms. This had very little impact and it was only in 1929
that peasants felt its full impact, and by 1919 4.6% of the land fund was in State farms and
only 1.7% in collective farms, with the richer peasants dominating the Soviets of Peasants
Deputies. Committees of the poor (Kombedy) were set up in June 1918 (122,000 came into
existence) in order to uncover surpluses and help Bolsheviks feed the towns. They failed
since the peasantry were more interested in helping themselves than the centre. Coercion
was used in the form of workers' detachments being sent to the countryside and they were
very successful during War Communism through the use and threat of the machine gun. The
price was heavy, however, since War Communism with its compulsory requisition called
Prodrazverstka cast a long shadow over the relations with the rural sector. "The honeymoon
with the peasant had not even lasted one harvest." The peasant responded by reducing
production, subdividing his farm and producing everything himself. In 1919 the cultivated area
was 16.5% less than 1917, in 1921 it was 40% less. In the euphoria of victory the proletarian
interest took precedence over peasant interest. There were 2.6 million workers in 1917 but
only 1.2 million in 1920. The black market expanded. In 1918-19 60% of city bread passed
through illegal channels. In provincial cities in April 1920 only 29% came from the official
system. The failure to feed the cities affected industrial discipline. During the first half of 1920
there were strikes in 77% of large and medium sized factories largely connected to the lack of
food. Working conditions deteriorated, with working day being increased to 10-11 hours,
mobilisation in 1919 meant that those left behind were not permitted to change jobs and
penalties for absenteeism were introduced in a repressive way in May 1920. The Bolsheviks
were forced to discipline the proletariat. The response was that Soviets in the countryside
increasingly refused to acknowledge the authority of the centre, in many cities Mensheviks
and SR's were voted onto Soviets, and some like Kazan and Kalvga declared themselves
autonomous. Something like 8 million people perished during the years 1918-20, due to
hunger and disease, the working class was decimated, the cities lost many of their
inhabitants. By early 1921 Lenin had changed his mind about the wisdom of abolishing
money and the direction of War Communism, and became more aware of the complexities of
agrarian issues. He became much more humanitarian and an advocate of co-operation rather
than coercion at the moment when reins of political leadership was slipping from his grasp.

The Party and the State

When a revolutionary party throws off it's clandestine garb and becomes a ruling party it must
of necessity include in it's ranks administrators, specialists, managers and so on, in short
those people against whom the revolution was made in the first place. At the 8th party
Congress in March 1919 complaints were voiced that local communists were fusing with top
Soviet officials to form a new privileged stratum using party membership to secure extra
rations, preference in housing and jobs. The Congress decided to throw its doors open to
workers and re-register everyone. In the context of civil war this cleansing of the Party
reduced membership to about 150,000 in August 1919. However by the 9th Congress
membership climbed to 611,978 and at the 10th Congress in March 1921 it was 732,521. The
social composition of the party was changing and resulted in the reduction of the proportion of
workers which was 60.2% in 1917 to 41% in 1921. The proportion of white collar workers was
almost constant, with peasant percentages increasing from 7.5% in 1917 to 28.2% in 1921.

Control of the party began to slip away from Lenin in late 1922, especially since his
domination was secured by Sverdlov who believed in the need for a centralized party and his
control of the CEC of the Soviets and the CC of the Party. Indeed Sverdlov head of the
Soviets and Lenin head of Sovnarkom formed the core of central Soviet government.
Sverdlov's overwork lead to his premature death in March 1919, a shattering personal blow to
Lenin, and the organisational question became critical in spring 1919. A political Bureau
(Politburo) was set up at the 8th Congress in March 1919 which was to deal with urgent
matters and give a full account of its activities to the CC. From 1919 to 1921 it became more
necessary due to the increasing size of the CC. An organisational Bureau (Orgburo) was set
up in January 1919 which was junior to the Politburo. The Secretariat of CC was also
expanded, since Sverdlov was succeeded by Kretinsky and at the 9th Congress in March
1920 Preobrazhensky and Serebryakov were added and it became independent of the
Orgburo. Each of the Secretaries was responsible for a group of CC departments and in 1921
it was stated that in absence of objection the Secretariats decision is to be regarded as a
decision of the Orgburo.

The outcome of these administrative changes was that the creatures of the CC usurped the
power of the CC, and when in April 1922 Stalin became Secretary General of the Party he
was the only member of the CC and its three offshoots, appointing loyal supporters to himself
throughout the party apparatus.

All the while the State was becoming stronger. Sovnarkom's responsibilities at the end of
1920 when the Council of Labour and Defence (STO) set up in 1918 to provision the army,
was transformed into a People's Commissariat. Other centripetal tendencies affected the
Soviets. As of 1919 VSNKH intervened locally without reference to Soviets, and the army and
police were independent of local control. This centralisation caused increasing problems, and
in April 1919 a decree established a People's Commissariat for State control with Stalin as
the Commissar, and it was renamed the Workers and Peasants Inspectorate (Rabkrin) in
1920.

The Nationalities.

Marx argued "A nation that oppresses another can never be free", and Lenin strove to find a
formula that would attract non-Russians to the Bolshevik cause. National self determination
was his answer, which meant they should choose if they wished to share the common destiny
of Soviet Russia or become independent. Lenin's views were vehemently opposed by
Bolsheviks such as Pyatakov, but the formers view prevailed. Two pieces of legislation
touched upon the problem, "The declaration of the rights of the people of Russia" November
1917 afforded the wish of any nation to secede and establish its own independent State. "The
Declaration of the rights of the Toiling and Exploited People" January 1918 stated that all
nationalities had the right to determine the basis on which they wished to participate in the
federal government and in the federal Soviet institutions. Bolshevik nationality policy was
expressed through the People's Commissariat for Nationalities (Narkomnats) headed by
Stalin, and made up of sections each devoted to a particular nation of which there were 19 in
1918, their heads forming the Board of Narkomnats.

In 1920 Narkomnats was transformed into a type of parliament, but it gradually lost its
significance and in 1924 it was abolished when representation was elevated to Union level.
The Bolsheviks had expected that the aftermath would see a serge towards joining the
federation but were taken back by the number who wanted to secede; and Poland, Finland
and the Ukraine were recognised as independent by December 1917. Lenin argued that it
was only after the Bourgeois revolution had succeeded did the right to decide pass to the
workers. However the 8th Party Congress of March 1919 conferred the right of decision on
the Party, and the Socialist Republics set up in Finland, the Baltic states and the Ukraine
signed treaties of friendship with the Russian Soviet in 1918-1919. The war against Poland
was a turning point. In July 1920 Lenin agreed to push into Poland, but the Poles saw the
Russians merely as invaders rather than liberators. The defeat of the Red army ended the
prospects of physically aiding revolution in Central Europe, but convinced Lenin that his
concept had been correct although it meant that Soviet Russia was alone. The interests of
the Soviet State would have to be afforded more weight in the future when implementing
nationality policy.

Securing the Frontiers

By 1921 the Bolsheviks had to admit that the international revolutionary flood had ebbed.
Revolutions had failed in both western and eastern Europe. Balked in the west and in the
East Moscow's priority was now to secure its own national frontiers. The Soviet State
developed two faces, one looking outward and promoting revolutions, the other looking
inward and consolidating the Bolshevik position. Chicherin who took over Foreign Affairs from
Trotsky in March 1918 took a more traditional view of State interests, and began to act
independently of the Comintern. Treaties were signed with Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and
Finland in 1920 and Poland, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey in 1921. A trade treaty was signed
with Britain in March 1921, but relations with countries in the Far East were not regulated until
1924-25.

Critical choices.

Hunger in the cities was especially severe in the winter of 1920-21, exacerbating production
problems and party divisions. At the ninth party Congress Lenin conceded the involvement of
non-communist specialists in management of production and a reduction in the role of
workers in decision making. One man management was introduced and membership of the
party and Trade Union committees were to be filled from above rather than elected from
below. The effect was the rise of opposition in the form of workers opposition(WO) led by
Shlyapnikov and Democratic Centralists(DCs) who argued in favour of democracy within the
party and deplored the progressive centralisation of party decision making. The situation was
feulled by Trotsky's proposal for the militarisation of labour in transport to solve its chronic
difficulties which caused widespread dissent in the party. Furthermore early 1921 saw events
which had a lasting impact on the nature of the Soviet regime, the revolts of Tambov and
Kronstadt, the introduction of NEP and the reshaping of the Party at the Xth Party Congress
in March 1921.

The peasants of the Tambov region on the Volga refused to provide the grain demanded by
the State and engaged in stopping convoys, the Bolsheviks wary of applying to much force
lest a general peasant uprising was provoked. The sailors of Kronstadt situated on an island
in the gulf of Finland also revolted and formed a Provisional Revolutionary Committee. These
revolts sparked off more violence, everyone identified as a communist in Saratov was
massacred, and peasants and soldiers called for Soviets without communists. The Bolshevik
response to the Kronstadt sailors was military repression, but it cost the Red Army 10,000
lives and took them from the seventh to the eighteenth of March, so rebels were dealt with
savagely. On 15th March 1921 the 10th party Congress stopped the grain requisitions and
restored the peasants right to dispose of surplus as he wished but imposed a progressive tax.
Trade was again legal, NEP had been launched. It helped to bring the Kronstadt revolt to a
close and removed the danger of a general peasant revolt, although the idea had been muted
since February 1920 and should not be seen just as a response to Tambov and Kronstadt,
although the former served to convince Lenin of the need of a NEP. The peasantry were
overjoyed by the change in direction of policy but the proletarian element of the Party was
profoundly unhappy, and this was accentuated by the reduction of powers in decision making.
However Lenin insisted that the commanding heights of the economy remain in State hands
and that the foreign trade monopoly be left intact.

The Xth Party Congress was also faced with the problem of deciding the role of the Trade
Unions within the Soviet State. Since the CC was split on the issue, the question was taken
to the Party at large and different perspectives drawn up as platforms in January 1921. On
the question of militarisation of labour Trotsky, Bukharin and Dzerzhinsky were ranged
against Lenin, Stalin and Zinoviev, and the WO's and DC's were also expressing their own
platforms. Lenin's platform carried the day as the party closed ranks. Two important
resolutions were passed. The first, "On the Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation in our Party"
outlawed the views of the WO as incompatible with Party membership. The system of
platforms was denounced by Zinoviev who argued that it amounted to increasing
factionalism, henceforth the formation of platforms was forbidden by the resolution "On the
Unity of the Party." Once a decision was taken after discussion, complete obedience was
demanded, infringement bringing expulsion from the Party and even from the CC if two thirds
of colleagues voted for removal. These resolutions had momentous consequences since the
only body that could hold the State together by 1921 was the Party, and since it was riven
with dissent, the result was that "decision making was restricted to a handful of men and their
decisions had to be imposed on a reluctant party membership."

The ban on factionalism was needed to impose NEP on the Party. If communists could not
now voice opposition to the leadership, then the Bolsheviks feared that the Mensheviks and
SR's had to be silenced as well. The Mensheviks and right SR's had been banned in June
1918 for associating with 'notorious counter revolutionaries'. The ban was lifted in November
1918, but on the eve of the introduction of NEP something like 2,000 Mensheviks and the
entire CC were apparently arrested. Many were later released and forced to go into
emigration.

The Key Decision Making Body

When the capital moved to Moscow in March 1918, Sovnarkom had established itself as the
chief decision making body in the Soviet Union. Never the less by 1921-22 the Politburo had
become the chief decision making body despite the resistance of Lenin and Trotsky. Thus the
party bureaucracy eroded the governments power. This was achieved because Lenin was
willing to take over the existing structure of government, and the areas of competence
assigned to commissariats was quite traditional which facilitated the continuity of the old
society inside the new. Sovnarkom was following in the footsteps of the Tsarist bureaucracy.

Sovnarkom never evolved into a cabinet system of government since Lenin was against such
a development. What became more increasingly a problem was to define which work came
within the competence of the government and which belonged to the Politburo. Lenin and
Trotsky believed that the party was the supreme centre of authority and that a commissar
could go over the head of Sovnarkom and appeal to the CC, but they did not believe that the
party should get too involved in administration. The party held the reins of power but it was
the responsibility of the government to run the country.

Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev took a different view and supported the rise of the party
bureaucracy. The party increasingly used its preoragtive to make appointments not only in
the party, but in the government and mass organisations as well. Between April 1920 and
February 1921 the party appointed 1,715 persons to Sovnarkom positions in Moscow and
filled 202 Key Trade Union posts, with little attention being played by Lenin.
Just as Sovnarkom was influenced by Tsarist practises, so the Party bureaucracy in turn
gradually acquired more traditional Russian attitudes to administration. Had Sovnarkom
developed into a cabinet system of government it would have been able to compete more
effectively with the Politburo. When Lenin fell ill, members of Sovnarkom passed important
items to the Politburo for decisions, and many Commissars increasingly sent their deputies.
This development inevitably affected the standing of Sovnarkom and was accentuated by the
actions of the Secretariat under Stalin, who was creating a formidable Party machine. Lenin
had misjudged the situation totally.

The Comintern

The Ist Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) began in the Kremlin in March
1919, but delegates were few because of the difficulties imposed by Civil War. The IInd
Congress met in July 1920 and was much more representative of left wing opinion with the 41
countries being represented. The Congress adopted the 21 conditions of admission which
instructed Communist Party's to be set up in other countries and to be modelled on the
Russian Party. Opposition to Social Democracy should be practised. The effect was to
nurture dissident groups to the Communists and the Comintern. The German SPD refused to
join, and the KPD revealed their weakness in March 1921. Many Socialists refused to join the
French Communist Party PCF founded in December 1920, and the situation was similar in
Italy. The upshot was the split between Communists and Socialists, which made the left so
weakened and divided that it was unable to effectively to resist the rise of Fascism in Europe
in the 1920's and 30's.

Chapter Two. The New Economic Policy.

Introduction

If War Communism was a leap into Socialism the NEP was a leap out of Socialism, and
legitimised small scale commodity production and the acceptance of the market. The
commanding heights of the economy i.e. large scale industry (energy, machine building,
essential services), remained in Bolshevik hands. At first they paid a tax in kind but with the
stabilisation of the currency in 1923 this could be paid in money. Soviet Russia was back to a
money economy and the economic planning of State industry now had to be within the
constraints of the market. The Party leadership accepted NEP in 1921 as a necessary evil
but by 1924 a majority favoured its continuance, although it was seen to favour the peasant
and capitalism and was associated with the right.

The October revolution placed power in the hands of the Soviets, but it soon slipped away.
Power passed to the Party, and it became responsible for building up local and central
government. The lamentable level of education of the average Party worker opened the
floodgates to former Tsarist bureaucrats in the building of the Soviet State, and the
dictatorship of the proletariat became the dictatorship of the Party and in particular the
leadership elite. As the centripetal tendencies increased it became the norm to appoint a
secretary from above and this expanded to take in non Party posts as well. The conditions of
civil war had forged this behaviour, and the advent of NEP increased it through the agency of
the organisational bureau (Orgburo). Lenin had invested Sovnarkom with great authority, but
gradually it became the custom to discuss more and more government business in the
Politburo. Lenin's 3 strokes in 1922 and semi-paralysis and loss of speech by 1923
accelerated this tendency. By 1922 the Politburo and the CC with its Secretariat constituted
the brain of Soviet Russia, every key decision and major appointment was made there. Stalin
became Secretary General of the CC at the XIth Congress in April 1922, he was already
Commissar for the Nationalities and Commissar for Workers and Peasant's Inspectorate
(Rabkrin). He was the only person who was a member of the Politburo, the Orgburo, the
Secretariat and the Sovnarkom. A sign of his growing power is illustrated by the fact that the
number of official subordinates to the CC Secretariat was 15,325 in 1922. By late 1922 Lenin
endorsed the small minority who saw the Secretary General's accumulation of offices as
potentially dangerous for the Party. However with his health deteriorating a successor would
soon be needed at a time when the Party was assuming more power over the government.
The 3 most probable were Trotsky, Zinoviev and Stalin, which left 3 other members of the
Politburo whose support would decide who succeeded Lenin. Had Lenin died after his first
stroke, it was virtually clear that Trotsky would have succeeded him. However Zinoviev and
Stalin now had time to devise their own strategies, time which Stalin used effectively to
cement his position in the government and Party. He chose to challenge Lenin on 2 main
fronts, foreign trade and nationalities, areas where Lenin had decided views.

The Foreign Trade Monopoly

Lenin held the view that all trade with foreign businessmen should be conducted through the
Commissariat of Foreign Trade, and not directly with Russian industry and agriculture.
Trotsky argued on expanding the role of the State planning Commission, Gosplan, but
basically was on Lenin's side. Opponents argued that a relaxation or abolition of this role be
adopted, and was supported by agricultural and industrial interests. The CC watered down
the monopoly in October 1922 due to Lenin's absence and illness, and these were supported
by Stalin. Trotsky was sent to negotiate at the CC on Lenin's behalf and it capitulated in
December 1922. However the effect was that an alliance came into being with the objective
of keeping Trotsky out of contention for the leadership, amongst whom Zinoviev, Kamenev
and Stalin were key figures.

The Georgian Affair.

Initially Soviet Russia consisted of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR)
then the Ukraine and Belorussia were added and as a result of military action Azerbaigzhan,
Armenia and Georgia in 1920/21, raising the number of Soviet republics to six. Stalin as
Commissar for Nationalities was responsible for the autonomous regions, whose relationships
remained unclear. To all intents and purposes these areas had no autonomy and were
administered from Moscow.

The question of the relationship of the three Transcaucasian republics to the RSFSR became
acute, and the best way was considered to merge them in a Transcaucasian Federation,
although this was likely to offend the national conciousness of the Georgians in particular.
The Communist Party of Georgia, a constituent part of the Russian CP was duty bound to
follow the directives of Moscow. In order to co-ordinate the activities of the three CP's, a
Caucasian Bureau (Karburo) of the RCP was established headed by Ordzhonikidze. Despite
protests of the Georgian CC a Federal Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic of
Transcaucasia was set up in March 1922, but relations with the RSFSR led to a sharp
disagreement between Lenin and Stalin. In August 1922 Orgburo drafted proposals to
regulate relations between the RSFSR and the other five republics, and the resulting plan
(drawn up by Stalin) recommended incorporation of the five republics in the RSFSR, and
directly ruling them from Moscow. Only the CP's of Azerbaigzhan and Armenia concurred,
Belorussia preferred the existing system, the Ukrainians were divided but the Georgians were
totally opposed.

Lenin reacted by proposing that a Union of the Soviet Republics be established with a new
Federal Executive Committee of the Union of Soviet Republics and a new Federal
Sovnarkom to which the Russian government would be subject. Stalin dismissed Lenin's
views in September 1922, but the CC ratified Lenin's view in October 1922. The Georgians
continued to protest against the existence of the Transcaucasian Federation and wished to
join the new USSR as a separate republic and nine of the eleven members of the CC of the
CP of Georgia resigned. The problem touched the very core of Lenin's nationality policy and
his thinking about the CP. On the one hand, he wished some genuine autonomy for the
republics but at the same time subjected the CP's of the Republics to the Russian CP. Since
the Party had precedence all real autonomy vanished and hence revealed the contradiction
and weaknessess of Lenin's nationality policy. Stalin's view prevailed. The USSR came into
existence in December 1922 when the 1st Congress of Soviets passed the Treaty of Union,
it's constitution ratified in January 1924. Georgia entered as part of the Transcaucasian
Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (TSFSR) and Stalin's nationality policy with it's emphasis
on strict control from Moscow prevailed.

The Great Debate

The 1920's was a period of extraordinary economic and social experimentation, particularly
during the era of War Communism. However NEP conceded the legitimate existence of
private and public sectors of the economy, in other words a mixed economy. The
commanding heights of the economy (heavy industry, banking, energy, fuel, transport and
communications) remained in State hands. Small-scale enterprises and shops were
privatised. Foreign investors were invited to invest and set up business in Soviet Russia.
Wholesale and retail trade were also privatised, as was agriculture.

NEP was a gamble, but Lenin struck it lucky. It's beginning were inauspicious. The 1921
harvest was a disappointment with the people leaving the towns and hundreds of thousands
of peasants in the Volga region starving to death. However by about 1926 State and small-
scale production and agricultural output was back to the average level achieved over the
years 1909-13. This was achieved through the annulling of Russia's foreign debts, and the
expansion of trade with the developed world, with oil being exported and machines imported.
From 1922 State enterprises were forced to balance their books in the market economy and
achieve profits where possible. The State sector did not produce enough goods and it's prices
were high, which resulted in a sharp decline in the purchasing power of agricultural goods
which was known as the scissors crises. The Bolsheviks feared that peasants would withdraw
from the market until prices dropped so by 1924 they had forced down prices by combating
monopolistic practices.

A major concern for the government was keeping bread prices down in the towns, particularly
since there were over one million unemployed by 1928. The Bolshevik policy of depressing
prices paid by the State for peasant grain resulted in the peasant marketing less grain, which
led to the grain crisis of the late 1920's. The percentage of the harvest which left the
countryside dropped from 20% to 10% between 1913 and 1927. Meat and milk products
brought good returns and prices were uncontrolled, so the peasants fed more grain to
livestock and produced more home brewed alcohol, in adjusting to changes in the relative
terms of trade. This resulted in the emergence of an agricultural elite since in 1926-27 about
11% of farms accounted for 56% of net off-farm sales of grain in European Russia.

In 1928 Stalin identified small scale agriculture under NEP as a major constraint on economic
growth. He complained that the amount of marketed grain was only half what it had been in
1913 although gross output was similar, and argued that small scale agricultural production
should be replaced by large scale production, and the surplus appropriated by the State. If
industrialisation was to get under way successfully, grain for the cities had to be guaranteed.
Stalin set gangs of enraged urban dwellers on the peasants and the "Urals-Siberian method"
proved very effective. The seeds of enforced collectivization had been sown. Another reason
why Stalin needed grain was to expand exports so as to be able to import industrial
equipment for the first Five Year Plan (FYP), but was constrained by private ownership of the
land by the peasantry. The Soviet Union was heading for violent confrontation in the
countryside, but Stalin was willing to sacrifice this in order to gain agricultural surplus.

The struggle for the succession

From 1922 to 1930 a relentless struggle for supremacy was waged by Politburo members,
who regularly forged and then abandoned alliances despite the apparent end of factionalism
in 1921. It testified to the disagreement within the Party in its highest echelons at a time when
the decision making had momentous consequences for the future. In particular there was
differences with regards to how long NEP should last, and could Socialism be achieved in
alliance with the peasantry. There was as many solutions to these problems as there were
members of the Politburo, but Stalin's special talents and political manoeuvering, infighting
and forming of tactical alliances, made him the supreme arbiter of the Soviet Unions destiny.
He flitted from faction to faction, but his overriding objective was to make his own position
unassailable.

i) Against Trotsky.
Lenin had invested his trust in Trotsky during his period of declining health in order to fight his
political battles. In so doing he condemned himself to ineffectiveness as Trotsky possessed
neither the ability nor the will power for political infighting. Three times in 1922 Trotsky
refused to become deputy head of Sovnarkom, and he continually failed to realise until late
that Stalin Zinoviev and Kamenev were working against him and only needed one more vote
in the Politburo to defeat him on any issue, which meant his general popularity availed him
nothing. Zinoviev and Kamenev had no objections to Stalin removing Trotsky's supporters
from the Party apparat and replacing them with his own men.

In one of several notes written between December 1922 and January 1923 (collectively
known as Lenin's Testament) Lenin expressed his anguish at developments in the Party and
government, and his doubts about Stalin. Lenin expressed his wish, particularly after Stalin's
handling of the Georgian affair. The Bolshevik leader was expecting his testament to be on
the agenda of the XII Party Congress in April 1923 but his wife only forwarded it to the
Politburo a few days before the XIII Party Congress in May 1924. However it was never
mentioned since Zinoviev argued that the common endeavours of the leadership in the
previous months had proved Lenin's fear groundless. Lenin had passed away on the 21st
January 1924. Trotsky's opponents had held together.

The passing of Lenin left a political void, and since his pre-eminence was not based on the
incumbency of any office, those who aspired to his mantle could not set their sights on
capturing a recognised position. They had to acquire some of Lenin's authority to flesh out
the bare bones of an office. In this sense Stalin's speech in January 1924 to the 2nd All Union
Congress of Soviets was stunningly successful drawing on his theological training.
Furthermore he defined Leninism in terms which the average member could grasp in his
"Foundations of Leninism" lectures at Sverdlov University in Moscow April 1924 and the
effect was that he began to strike a chord with the large number of new Party members. On
the other hand Trotsky missed Lenin's funeral (Stalin had informed him of the wrong date)
and in his "Lessons of October", published in October 1924, his opponents found enough
ammunition to riddle his reputation, and particularly Stalin. Stalin argued that Trotsky failed to
recognise Lenin's achievements, had not been a Bolshevik before 1917, and his
internationalism betrayed the achievements of Socialism in one country i.e Soviet Russia.

The triumvirate discovered that Bukharin was another ally against Trotsky. During the
scissors crisis of 1923, 46 prominent Bolsheviks chose to forward a memorandum to the CC
voicing sharp criticism of official policy. Gradually a left opposition emerged to which Trotsky
was linked because of his emphasis on the rapid expansion of industry. Thus when the
triumvirate raised agricultural and lowered industrial prices, confirming the continuity of NEP
against the left opposition, Bukharin became a natural ally to them.

In January 1925 Trotsky resigned his last great government office, Commissar of War.
Zinoviev and Kamanev realised by now that Stalin was the one who had gained most and
launched an attack on him at the 14th Congress in December 1925, losing by 559 votes to
65. Kamanev was demoted to candidate member of the Politburo whilst Stalin's men stepped
up to full membership.

ii) Against Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamanev.

So the three lame ducks came together and were referred to as the united left opposition.
One major issue at the centre of their battle with Stalin was the idea of Socialism in one
country. Trotsky and the left were emphatic on the key role of the international connection, as
did Zinoviev. Stalin approached the issue by making a distinction between building a
complete Socialist society and the final victory of Socialism in the Soviet Union. He argued
the country was able to do the first task but needed to defeat capitalist encirclement in order
to achieve final victory, and that this was a Leninist approach whereas Trotsky and the left
oppositions were not. Trotsky was accused of lacking faith in the Soviet working class and
Stalin's belief in the Soviet proletariat struck a responsive chord in the Party who enjoyed the
appeal of excessive national pride. Stalin also used covert anti-semitism to discredit Trotsky,
Zinoviev and Kamanev.
By the mid 1920's industry and agriculture were back to their pre 1913 production levels and
a debate ensured about the continuance of NEP. Trotsky and the left opposition wanted to
build Socialism and harboured deep seated suspicion of the Kulak (rich farmers). Stalin had
to argue that the private farmer posed no political threat to the regime. The formal demolition
of the left opposition took place at the 15th Party Congress in December 1927, although
Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamanev were expelled from the Politburo in 1926. Trotsky had been
outmanoeuvred for a number of reasons, he did not participate fully in political infighting, he
lacked rapport with Party comrades, he was often ill at crucial times, and he failed to grasp
the daily round of government business.

iii) The Foreign Policy Context.

In repudiating the debts of Imperial Russia, taking over foreign and industrial concerns and
publishing the secret treaties, the Bolshevik leaders broke all the unwritten laws of pre-1914
diplomatic and commercial relations, and furthermore the Comintern gave guidance to the
proletariat of other countries in an effort to further revolution. However stemming from Lenin's
belief that foreign trade was vital to the survival of his government, commercial and diplomatic
relations were sought avidly with the capitalist powers, despite the opposition of the Left
communists. They were politically outmanoeuvred in early 1918.

The introduction of NEP led to Soviet Russia rethinking its national security strategy. Since
the collapse of War Communism, the country could no longer afford a strong armed service.
The Red Army was run down from 5 million in 1920 to 562,000 in 1924, and this further
necessitated a less hostile view of the outside world. Greater emphasis was placed on threat
reductions measures such as propaganda, diplomacy, espionage and disarmament as
defense expenditure needed to operate within a budget under NEP. It took until 1923-24 to
achieve macro-economic stabilisation (balanced budget, light credit policy and stable
currency) and even then the military came off second best in budgetary allocations until the
late 1920's when it began to rise relentlessly.

Trade with the capitalist world was avidly sought too for various reasons; access to advanced
technology and capital goods, under the cover of commerce military and economic espionage
could be conducted, revolution could be promoted and commercial relations paved the way
for diplomatic relations. The first trade treaty was signed with Britain in 1921. In 1922 Russia
was able to break out of her diplomatic isolation by exchanging ambassadors with Germany
who was also isolated after the First World War. The two outcasts came together at Rapallo
in April 1922. The Soviet-German treaty led to an agreement in August 1922 which permitted
the Reichswehr to use bases in the Soviet Union for military training which neatly
circumvented the limitations of the Versailles Treaty that were placed on Germany. The
Soviet Union received compensation for the lease of bases, the training of personnel and
access to the results of German tests. Gradually cordial relationships developed between the
two countries, cemented by a common hostility to Poland. Both countries believed Poland
had acquired territory rightfully belonging to them and officers began to speak of creating a
common Soviet-German frontier as in 1914, but this cordial relationship came to an end in
1933 when Hitler decided to undermine Versailles.

Soviet relations with Britain and China were certainly not satisfactory. Relations with Britain
were coldly formal despite the trade treaty of 1921. However the British TUC voted into being
an Anglo-Russian committee in September 1925 which delighted the Soviet leaders. The
miserable failure of the British general strike in May 1926 dealt the committee a mortal blow
with it expiring in September 1927. In China the USSR collaborated with the Koumantang led
by Chang Kai Shek from 1925, and had trained Chinese officers in order to rid their country of
the war-lords, unite China and to expel foreign capitalists. Great hopes were placed on China,
but disaster struck when Chang's Koumantang turned their guns on local communists in
Shanghai in April 1927. The Russian policy lay in ruins, Bukharin and Stalin were blamed by
Trotsky and Zinoviev. Britain responded by breaking off diplomatic relations and cancelling
the 1921 trade treaty in May 1927, Canada followed suit and the Soviet envoy in Warsaw was
shot by a White Russian emigre in June 1927. Stalin responded by claiming that there was an
imminent threat of a new war against the Soviet Union instigated by Britain. The dramatic
statement had predictable consequences at home. Trotsky and Zinoviev were to be silenced
about Stalin betraying the revolution abroad and at home. He used the supposed threat of
war in his campaign against left communists, Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from CC
and then from the Party in November 1927.

iv) Against Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky.

At the XV Congress in December 1927 the rout of the left was complete and the Politburo
could feel satisfied. Stalin now turned his head toward the right opposition in the grand game
for the control of the Soviet Unions destiny. Stalin stole the ideas of the left since there was a
leftward shift particularly over the agricultural issue.

In 1927 the Kulaks owned 3.4% of all farms employing about 1 million labourers, and the
State now felt strong enough to challenge what it perceived as a powerful Kulak capitalist
class. The production crisis of 1926 left industrial prices high in the countryside. The
governments response was to cut the prices of goods but this exacerbated the situation by
alienating NEP men and resulting in the fall in price of grain by about 20% in 1926-27, and
the peasants withholding supplies. In January and February 1928 Stalin, some officials and
the police descended on the Urals and Siberia, they closed down markets, illegally seized
grain and arrested peasants in what became known as the Urals- Siberian method. The
operation was a success in terms of processing grain at minimal cost, and the right
reluctantly had to agree with it despite NEP because of food shortage in the towns.
Collectivization now began to be promoted against the idea of NEP, and Selsovet (the village
commune) which had become responsible for the communal budget in 1926 rather than the
mir, was charged with administering it on it's arrival in 1929.

The first five year plan (FYP) operated as of October 1928. In it industrial production was to
rise by 180% and agriculture by 55%. These were seen as unrealistic for industry, but
achievable for agriculture. However the market was to be phased out in agriculture since at
the XVth Party Congress December 1927 a resolution was adopted to transfer peasant farms
into collectives over a ten to fifteen year process. By the end of the plan the goal was to have
State and collective farms producing 15% of total agricultural output and entry was to be on a
voluntary basis.

Thus the support base of the right was gradually chipped away. A witch-hunt was conducted
against the right in the Comintern and Bukharin resigned as political secretary of the
Comintern in 1928. The right was now prostrate and the advocates of rapid industrialisation at
the expense of the peasant took over. Bukharin was expelled from the CC in November 1929,
Trotsky was not re-elected to the Politburo and with the political death of the right went the
demise of NEP. In December 1929 Stalin opted for collectivization "without limitations and the
liquidation of the kulaks as a class", and concomitant view that anyone who refused to join a
collective had to be an enemy of the Soviet regime.

Summary.
From the peasant point of view NEP had been a golden era. The land was theirs, the landlord
was gone and real income was higher than in 1913, despite government action against
Kulak's and the short supply of industrial goods. The flow from the countryside to the towns
slowed to a trickle, the peasants were eating better, since whereas 12 million tonnes of grain
was exported in 1913, less then 3 million were during the best years of NEP. There were
strong regional disparities however, and NEP agriculture represented a fat hen ready to be
plucked. The peasants were unable to resist the onslaught since they had no political power.

Political power was restricted to fewer and fewer hands during the 1920's. In 1917 the need
to defend the revolution led to the strengthening of the State with it's concomitant centripetal
tendencies. The Sovnarkom, Soviets and mass organisations suffered from a demise in
decision making, whilst this became more and more the prerogative of the CC and the
Politburo. Thus it was the Party which expanded it's apparatus and influence most rapidly
during NEP and this benefited the Secretariat most. Party membership increased rapidly from
472,000 in January 1924 to 1,535,362 in January 1929. The political police grew in
importance during NEP renamed the GPU in February 1922 it could investigate the orthodoxy
of the communist and non-communist, even the Politburo, and the skeleton of the coercive
system of the 1930's came into being. The death knell of NEP was probably the XVth
Congress which paved the way for the first FYP. However at the time the desire for planning
and the collectivization of agriculture were seen as necessary responses to the effects of
NEP rather than as revolutionary change in the economic policy.

The period also witnessed the rise of Stalin, who's opponents had little practical experience of
politics before 1917. Stalin was a moderate and methodical Party climber, and skilled at
building tactical alliances. He needed to reflect the aspirations of the Party and the Party
wanted Socialism. Stalin outmanoeuvred both the left and the right by the late 20's and
established his own predominance as Secretariat of the RCP, as Politburo members suffered
from the old blight of the Russian intelligentsia, personal animosity.

The end of NEP was the end an era, and witnessed the emergence of the cult of Stalinism as
the supreme director of the destiny of the USSR.