The Rise of Russian Totalitarianism

During WWI the Russian Monarchy was overthrown and a communist government was installed. After a civil war, the Vladimir Illyich Lenin and his Bolsheviks (Russian Communists) reorganized Russia as a federation of republics – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR. The Bolsheviks then established an elaborate government hierarchy where power rested with the Communist Party. It was the only political party, and it was viewed as an elite group. An important party organization was the secret police. Its duty was to hunt down and eliminate enemies of the party and the state.

After Lenin’s death in 1924, a power struggle erupted between Communist leaders. The two principal figures were Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin. Trotsky believed that communism should spread from Russia to other parts of the world, and to help facilitate this goal, he created Communist International (Commintern). Stalin was much less dedicated to the world wide revolution; he felt that the Communists had enough to do in Russia itself. Stalin managed to emerge victorious because of his ability to outmaneuver his political rivals and his positions within the party that allowed him to control the party machinery. By 1928 Stalin had succeeded in purging all of his rivals and had emerged as the undisputed leader of the party and country.

Stalin wanted to transform the USSR from an agricultural state into a first rate industrial power. He brought the entire economy under state control and abolished all private ownership of land in favor of a system of collectivization. To accomplish this, he set up a system of five-year plans which set increased production goals for industry and agriculture.
To protest these new reforms, many people revolted. Stalin responded ruthlessly by using the secret police to kill large numbers of protesters and shipping many more off to gulags (prison camps) in frozen Siberia. Many of his reforms led to famine and the deaths of approximately 10 million people.

Stalin also consolidated his own personal power and his ruthless tactics increased opposition within his own party, as well as the army. In the 1930’s, he had many of his enemies arrested on trumped up or false charges and claimed that they were enemies of the state. Some fled, including Trotsky, who was eventually murdered with an ice axe in Mexico by Stalin’s agents. Other lesser leaders were shot or imprisoned in Siberian prison camps. In all, perhaps 800,000 party members died in the purges which decimated large parts of the army. He replaced the purged officials with people he trusted.

Despite Stalin’s ruthless policies and the dictatorial nature of his system, by the late 1930s a new generation had grown up under the Communist regime. Its members had no ties to the pre-Communist era of Russia and they were proud of the achievements of the Soviet Union. The third of Stalin’s “five year plans” began to show results for industrialization. Wages and the standard of living remained low, but many people found jobs in industry and were better off than they were before. Many women also secured employment and they were able to supplement their family’s income. Others had received technical, administrative, or scientific training and had found attractive jobs in industry, the government, the party, and other professions. This new intellectual elite felt a great loyalty to the Soviet system.

The dictatorship of Communist Party under Stalin’s iron leadership had become permanent. Using ruthless tactics to eliminate any opposition or challenges to his power, Stalin had transformed the Soviet Union into the industrial giant he had envisioned.