Stalinism (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what Stalinism, its history and its characteristics were. In addition, how it arose and how was its end.

Stalin assumed the leadership of the USSR in 1924 and established a totalitarian regime that lasted until 1953.

What was Stalinism?

Stalinism It was an ideology and a communist political system that implemented the Soviet leader Iosif Stalin in the Soviet Union (USSR) between 1924 and 1953.

Stalin came to power after the death of Vladimir Lenin and, after marginalizing his political opponents (like León Trotsky), he established in 1929 A totalitarian dictatorship that concentrated power in the leader, promoted repression of all political opposition and promoted the state centralization of the economy with the aim of building “socialism in a single country.”

The term “Stalinism” was coined by Lazar Kaganovich, a politician very close to the Soviet leader, but Stalin did not identify as a Stalinist but called his “Marxist-Leninist” doctrine.

Anyway, the term Stalinism was since then used to differentiate Stalin’s ideas from other communist leaders (such as Leon Trotsky and Trotskyism) and to name the totalitarian regime promoted by Stalin in the Soviet Union and in the countries of the communist bloc until 1953 (the year of his death).

Stalinism characteristics

The Stalinist regime had the following characteristics:

It was a totalitarian political and economic regime based on the interpretation of Iosif Stalin of Marxism.
Promoted the motto of “Socialism in a single country”that is, the construction of socialism within the borders of the Soviet Union through an accelerated industrialization policy. This model was contrasted with the proposal of Trotskyism that raised the “permanent revolution”, that is, the extension of the revolution to the industrialized countries of Europe to avoid Soviet isolation.
Constituted a state with absolute power that monopolized the agricultural land, prohibited private property, nationalized banks, companies, services, and restricted rights and freedoms.
Formed a centralized economy based on heavy industry (coal, oil, steel, etc.) and the forced collectivization of agriculture (expropriation of land and mandatory work in farms under state control). Economic planning was organized through five -year plans and reached high levels of industrialization, although it caused many sufferings to peasant populations.
He exercised strong control of the media to censor what did not want it to be made public and spread the official propaganda.
Imposed the cult of Stalin’s personalitypresented as the legitimate heir of Lenin, and as the only one capable of interpreting the Marxist dogma and as the undisputed Soviet leader (called “father” or “benefactor”).
Systematically repressed those who opposed the regime OA the official ideology Anyone who was considered a threat. This included permanent surveillance (through organs such as the NKVD) and the complaint, deportation to forced labor fields (known as Gulag) and the execution of citizens and members of the Communist Party and the Soviet State (commonly called purges).

The origin of Stalinism

The Russian revolution

Stalin aligned from the beginning with Lenin’s Bolsheviks and participated in the October Revolution.

After the February revolution and the October Revolution (both occurred in 1917), the Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin was consolidated after repressing its opponents and beating in the Russian civil war (1918-1921) against the White Army (made up of Russian counterrevolutionaries and troops of the foreign armies that sought to stop the propagation of communism).

In 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed, also called Soviet Union. That same year, Stalin was appointed general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russialater called Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The new Soviet state

Russia arising from the civil war was a shattered and hungry country. The agricultural crisis of 1921 endangers the support of industrial workers and the inhabitants of the cities to Bolshevism. Besides, Certain sectors of the peasantry opposed “war communism”the economic model established by the Bolshevik government that was based on forced grain requisitions and state control of the economy.

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The government responded to claims with an important turn in economic policy: of the “war communism” was passed to the NEP (new economic policy), that is, The controlled liberalization of the economy, which promoted a state and private mixed system (Favorable market and private property) and allowed economic recovery.

The new economic guidelines authorized peasants to sell their production to individuals OA state agencies. Private trade was also allowed, usually retail. Foreign trade was recovered, although it did not reach the prewar levels.

The reduction of state spending and tax increase also contributed to prices stabilization. The largest industrial companies remained in the State’s possession, but their managers were encouraged to manage them following some capitalist criteria. The main banks continued to state.

The results did not wait. The production levels of the agricultural and industrial sectors in 1927 or 1928 had once again been like those of prewar. However, despite a certain return to the market economy, the State concentrated power in the political and economic spheres, so private entrepreneurs had important limitations. Besides, The economy had decreased its opening abroad (less trade and no foreign investment).

Lenin’s succession

Lenin was the only person whose authority was unanimously accepted in the communist direction of the Bolshevik Russia. However, after suffering an attack in 1918, his health began to deteriorate and, between 1922 and 1923, his health worse. Lenin died in January 1924 and, from then on, Leon Trotsky and Iosif Stalin faced each other for the control of the Communist Party and the Soviet State.

Trotsky stood out as a speaker, intellectual and organizer, and had made the Red Army victorious in the Russian civil war. Stalin was Georgian and his oratory in Russian, his second language, was not especially brilliant. However, he had always been faithful to Lenin and, since 1917, he had dedicated himself to organizational work in the party.

In 1922, Stalin was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of Russia. That position, in a purely bureaucratic principle, was converted by Stalin himself in the center of power in the Soviet Union, a characteristic that he maintained until his dissolution in 1991.

During Lenin’s disease, Stalin was accumulating power. At Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin tried to Marginar Trotsky and formed a triumvirate with two other Soviet leaders, Grigori Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, whom he later also faced.

Both, Stalin began to build a kind of political “religion”: Lenin’s cult. The best example of this cult was the fact that the city of St. Petersburg (also called Petrograd) changed its name to Leningrad (“Lenin’s city“).

The fight for succession between the Bolsheviks leaders was won by Stalinwhich was supported by the party apparatus. Trotsky, who had been deprived of his political and military positions in 1925, was finally expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929. For that date, Stalin had established his dictatorship.

The Stalinist regime

Differences between Stalinism and Trotskyism

The political battle between Stalin and Trotsky had focused on two key points:

Economic policy, specifically the position before the NEP established in 1921 by Lenin.
Disagreement around lto the possibility that Soviet socialism triumphs in the Soviet Union without the revolution extending to the most developed European countries.

For Trotsky, the NEP had meant a “step back” in the construction of socialism. Meanwhile, Stalin had initially aligned with the most moderate leaders of the party and defended the NEP. However, after expelling Trotsky from the party in 1927, Stalin changed his mind: he considered that the NEP was overcome and had to move quickly towards an industrialized communist society.

In line with this idea of accelerated industrialization, Stalin He also faced Trotskyist theories that raised the need for a “permanent revolution” that extended socialism to the industrialized countries of Europe to avoid the international isolation of the Soviet Union, which was still a mostly peasant country.

In 1925, Stalin imposed his idea of ”socialism in a single country”which consisted of having all the machinery of the Soviet state and the effort of its entire population, towards the objective of Industrialize the Soviet Union through the state centralization of the entire economy. According to this thesis, the entire Soviet population (urban and peasant) had to undergo that objective that, if achieved, would allow competing with Western industrial powers.

Quinquenal plans and industrialization

Industrialization was the basis of Stalinist socialism. It consisted of the reconditioning of old factories and in the development of a strong heavy industry to obtain raw materials (such as coal, oil, iron and steel).

The industrial impulse in turn promoted the increase in large -scale agricultural production with mechanized farmsthat were held by the State through the expropriation of lands of the peasants. Agricultural production was subject to the industrial objectives of the State, which It caused severe famine and the migration of peasant population to the cities or their forced integration in the state farms.

Economic Planning of Stalinism It was organized in plans with five -year deadlines, known as five -year plans. The first five -year plan worked between 1928 and 1932 and promoted an accelerated growth of heavy industry. Other areas of the industry, aimed at the consumption of the population, had less priority, so the living conditions of the rural and urban population in general did not improve.

Over the years, Stalin’s economic policy managed to make the Soviet Union one of the main world powersto the point that contributed to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II (1939-1945) and world hegemony with the United States was played during the Cold War. However, he submitted the population (mainly peasant) to great sacrifices. Millions of people died from famine and repression, especially in Ukraine.

Stalinist totalitarianism

Stalinism - Stalin — Stalinism was characterized by promoting the cult of the leader.

To meet their economic objectives, Stalin’s policy was based on political persecution and violence Against their real or assumptions enemies, such as the Trotskyists, the peasants contrary to the collectivization, the supporters of the NEP or any person considered “socially dangerous” or contrary to Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.

A specific characteristic of Stalinism was repression within the Communist Party itself. Stalin promoted a series of “Purgas” that consisted of accusing Soviet officials of being opponents or traitors and condemn them to the penalty of execution or deportation to forced labor fields (known as Gulag). This permanent surveillance system made the party an instrument subject to Stalin’s will.

The most critical period took place between 1936 and 1938 and was known as the great purge. This began with the processes of Moscow, some trials against officials and members of the Communist Party following the murder in 1934 of Serguéi Kírov, head of the party in Leningrad and one of Stalin’s trusted men.

The officials accused of planning the murder of Kírov (among which were Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev) were imprisoned and subjected to a simulation of judgment in which they were forced to confess. Finally, they were sentenced to death and executed. This procedure was repeated with other members of the party, especially with leaders of the “old Bolshevik guard” (militants of extensive career in the party), accused of being traitors or trotskyists and sentenced to prison or executed.

During the years of the great purge around one million government officials, the party and the red army were executed and deported. By 1939, 70 % of the members of the Central Committee of the party and 9 % of the Red Army generals had been purged.

Shortly after the great purge there was the murder of Trotsky in Mexico in 1940at the hands of a Spanish communist named Ramón Mercader who acted as an agent of the NKVD (Soviet organism of internal affairs and secret police).

Soviet society under Stalinism

The Soviet Society that was configured in the thirties was a society placed at the service of the economic objectives of the State and of the communist ideology. Although urbanization grew, the population remained mostly rural. The peasantry lived in very difficult conditions (only 10 % of collective farms had electricity) and had to endure a strong pressure from government agents in the context of forced collectivization.

In cities, the growing working class suffered the consequences of the planning and forced industrialization policy. To meet the objectives of the five -year plans, working conditions harden greatly. In many industries, the working hours extended considerably.

Although the 1936 Constitution proclaimed that the Soviet Union was a class without classes, The social structure of Stalinism located above the working classes to the bureaucracy of the Communist Party. This was formed by approximately fourteen million people who concentrated the management of the State and the economy. This new social class received salaries between four and twenty times higher than the workers and had supplementary rations of widest foods and apartments than the rest of the Soviet citizens.

Education under Stalinism was mandatory, public and free. On the other hand, some laws in favor of the rights of women who had achieved in the twenties were abandoned and returned to a traditional family model based on the teaching of discipline and hard work. In 1936, abortion declared illegal and new obstacles were put to divorce.

Finally, The idea of an international revolution of the beginnings of the Russian revolution was definitely replaced by Russian patriotism. The Red Army ceased to be seen as the instrument of the revolution and became the defender of the country and the Soviet regime.

The decisive participation of the Soviet Union in World War II (1939-1945) against Nazi Germany, which then led to the beginning of the Cold War, received in the Soviet Union the name of Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

The end of Stalinism

In 1950 Stalin began to have health problemswith memory failures and exhaustion. During the last years of his government, fearful that someone tried to kill him, increased internal repressionespecially against a group of doctors, most of Jewish origin, accused of planning a conspiracy (which after Stalin’s death was revealed false).

Stalin died on March 5, 1953. From then on, he assumed the leadership of the Soviet Union Nikita Jrushchov, who soon dictated an amnesty for the political prisoners of the Stalinist regime and began a de -stating process, in which the crimes committed by Stalin were denounced.

According to some calculations, The Stalinist regime caused the death of twenty million people As a consequence of executions, internment in forced labor fields, forced collectivization and hunger.

Continue with:

History of the Soviet Union
Treaty of San Francisco (1951)
Origins of the Cold War

References

Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Stalinism. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
Fitzpatrick, S. (2005). The Russian revolution. 21st century.
Hingley, RF (2023). Joseph Stalin. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
Saborido, J. (2009). History of the Soviet Union. I emecé.
Service, R. (2018). Stalin A biography. 21st century.