Stalinism

This article is about the means of governing and policies implemented by Joseph Stalin. For the political philosophy developed by Stalin, see Marxism–Leninism. For other uses, see Stalinism (disambiguation).

Joseph Stalin, after whom Stalinism is named
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Stalinism (Russian: Сталинизм, Stalinizm) is the totalitarian[1][2][3] means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1924 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalin had previously made a career as a gangster and robber,[4] working to fund revolutionary activities, before eventually becoming General Secretary of the Soviet Union. Stalinism included the creation of a one man[5][6] totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism in one country (until 1939), forced collectivization of agriculture, intensification of class conflict, a cult of personality,[7][8] and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which Stalinism deemed the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.[9] After Stalin's death and the Khrushchev Thaw, a period of de-Stalinization began in the 1950s and 1960s, which caused the influence of Stalin's ideology to begin to wane in the USSR.

Stalin's regime forcibly purged society of what it saw as threats to itself and its brand of communism (so-called "enemies of the people"), which included political dissidents, non-Soviet nationalists, the bourgeoisie, better-off peasants ("kulaks"),[10] and those of the working class who demonstrated "counter-revolutionary" sympathies.[11] This resulted in mass repression of such people and their families, including mass arrests, show trials, executions, and imprisonment in forced labor camps known as gulags.[12] The most notorious examples were the Great Purge and the Dekulakization campaign. Stalinism was also marked by militant atheism, mass anti-religious persecution,[13][14] and ethnic cleansing through forced deportations.[15] Some historians, such as Robert Service, have blamed Stalinist policies, particularly collectivization, for causing famines such as the Holodomor.[13] Other historians and scholars disagree on Stalinism's role.[16]

Officially designed to accelerate development toward communism, the need for industrialization in the Soviet Union was emphasized because the Soviet Union had previously fallen behind economically compared to Western countries and also because socialist society needed industry to face the challenges posed by internal and external enemies of communism.[17] Rapid industrialization was accompanied by mass collectivization of agriculture and rapid urbanization, which converted many small villages into industrial cities.[18] To accelerate industrialization's development, Stalin imported materials, ideas, expertise, and workers from western Europe and the United States,[19] pragmatically setting up joint-venture contracts with major American private enterprises such as the Ford Motor Company, which, under state supervision, assisted in developing the basis of the industry of the Soviet economy from the late 1920s to the 1930s. After the American private enterprises had completed their tasks, Soviet state enterprises took over.

  1. ^ Kershaw, Ian; Lewin, Moshe (April 28, 1997). Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison. Cambridge University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0-521-56521-9.
  2. ^ Baratieri, Daniela; Edele, Mark; Finaldi, Giuseppe (October 8, 2013). Totalitarian Dictatorship: New Histories. Routledge. pp. 1–50. ISBN 978-1-135-04396-4.
  3. ^ Deutscher, Isaac (1967). Stalin: A Political Biography. Oxford University Press. p. ix. ISBN 978-0-14-020757-6.
  4. ^ Montefiore, Simon Sebag (May 27, 2010). Young Stalin. Orion. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-297-86384-7.
  5. ^ Krieger, Joel (2013). The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics. OUP USA. p. 414. ISBN 978-0-19-973859-5.
  6. ^ Gill, Graeme; Gill, Graeme J. (July 18, 2002). The Origins of the Stalinist Political System. Cambridge University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-521-52936-5.
  7. ^ Deutscher, Isaac (1961). Stalin: A Political Biography (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 7–9. ISBN 978-0-19-500273-7.
  8. ^ Plamper, Jan (January 17, 2012). The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16952-2.
  9. ^ Bottomore, Thomas (1991). A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-631-18082-1.
  10. ^ Kotkin 1997, p. 71, 81, 307.
  11. ^ Rossman, Jeffrey (2005). Worker Resistance Under Stalin: Class and Revolution on the Shop Floor. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-01926-1.
  12. ^ Pons, Silvo; Service, Robert, eds. (2012). A Dictionary of 20th Century Communism. Princeton University Press. p. 307. ISBN 978-0-691-15429-9.
  13. ^ a b Service, Robert (2007). Comrades!: A History of World Communism. Harvard University Press. pp. 3–6. ISBN 978-0-674-04699-3.
  14. ^ Greeley, Andrew, ed. (2009). Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium: A Sociological Profile. Routledge. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7658-0821-9.
  15. ^ Pons, Silvo; Service, Robert, eds. (2012). A Dictionary of 20th Century Communism. Princeton University Press. pp. 308–310. ISBN 978-0-691-15429-9.
  16. ^ Sawicky, Nicholas D. (December 20, 2013). The Holodomor: Genocide and National Identity (Education and Human Development Master's Theses). The College at Brockport: State University of New York. Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved October 6, 2020 – via Digital Commons. Scholars also disagree over what role the Soviet Union played in the tragedy. Some scholars point to Stalin as the mastermind behind the famine, due to his hatred of Ukrainians (Hosking, 1987). Others assert that Stalin did not actively cause the famine, but he knew about it and did nothing to stop it (Moore, 2012). Still other scholars argue that the famine was just an effect of the Soviet Union's push for rapid industrialization and a by-product of that was the destruction of the peasant way of life (Fischer, 1935). The final school of thought argues that the Holodomor was caused by factors beyond the control of the Soviet Union and Stalin took measures to reduce the effects of the famine on the Ukrainian people (Davies & Wheatcroft, 2006).
  17. ^ Kotkin 1997, p. 70-71.
  18. ^ Kotkin 1997, p. 70-79.
  19. ^ De Basily, N. (2017) [1938]. Russia Under Soviet Rule: Twenty Years of Bolshevik Experiment. Routledge Library Editions: Early Western Responses to Soviet Russia. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-61717-8. Retrieved November 3, 2017. ... vast sums were spent on importing foreign technical 'ideas' and on securing the services of alien experts. Foreign countries, again – American and Germany in particular – lent the U.S.S.R. active aid in drafting the plans for all the undertakings to be constructed. They supplied the Soviet Union with tens of thousands of engineers, mechanics, and supervisors. During the first Five-Year Plan, not a single plant was erected, nor was a new industry launched without the direct help of foreigners working on the spot. Without the importation of Western European and American objects, ideas, and men, the 'miracle in the East' would not have been realized, or, at least, not in so short a time.