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102-669: In 1935, POUM was formed as a communist opposition to the Stalinist form of communism promoted by the Soviet Union , by the revolutionaries Andreu Nin and Joaquín Maurín . Nin was heavily influenced by the thinking of Leon Trotsky , particularly his permanent revolution thesis. It resulted from the merging of the Communist Party's Left Opposition (the Trotskyist Communist Left of Spain ) and

204-653: A Member of Parliament for the Labour Party . The ILP had begun organising volunteers in November 1936 following the return to Britain of Bob Edwards from delivering an ambulance sent by the ILP for the POUM militia. Though there had been five times the number of volunteers, the ILP would only accept unmarried men for its contingent and 25 men left Britain on 8 January as the vanguard of a larger force to be sent later. However,

306-512: A Vice-chairman of the Soviet Union as evidence that he intended Trotsky to be his successor as head of government. In his biography of Trotsky, British historian Isaac Deutscher writes that, faced with the evidence, "only the blind and the deaf could be unaware of the contrast between Stalinism and Leninism." Similarly, historian Moshe Lewin writes, "The Soviet regime underwent a long period of 'Stalinism,' which in its basic features

408-502: A Welshman married to a Spanish woman who joined up with his brother-in-law, Ramon. With these, and other, additions the ILP contingent numbered somewhere between thirty and thirty-five. They left the front, with the POUM militia, in mid-February 1937 to take part in the siege of Huesca , some 50 miles away. Eric Blair's background, prep school and Eton and his experience in Burma as police officer, are well known. The backgrounds of

510-472: A cult of personality he thought might later be used against him by the same people who praised him excessively, one of those being Khrushchev—a prominent user of the term during Stalin's life who was later responsible for de-Stalinization and the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw era. Some historians view Stalinism as a reflection of the ideologies of Leninism and Marxism , but some argue that it

612-468: A reformist social democracy rather than a form of revolutionary communism. Sheng Shicai , a Chinese warlord with Communist leanings, invited Soviet intervention and allowed Stalinist rule to extend to Xinjiang province in the 1930s. In 1937, Sheng conducted a purge similar to the Great Purge , imprisoning, torturing, and killing about 100,000 people, many of them Uyghurs . Cybernetics :

714-541: A "Unification Congress" in 1978. After this setback, the POUM decided not to participate in the 1979 elections . POUM branches in several cities became part of local coalitions and unification attempts with various far-left groups. In 1980, the POUM made its last electoral efforts, supporting Herri Batasuna in the Basque country and participating in the Left Bloc for National Liberation (BEAN - Unitat Popular) coalition in

816-436: A career as a gangster and robber , working to fund revolutionary activities, before eventually becoming General Secretary of the Soviet Union . Stalinism included the creation of a one man 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 , and subordination of

918-524: A discussion circle was formed. Whilst the discussion group centred on political issues the group was not solely concerned with such topics. A social secretary was also appointed to 'arrange concerts and entertainments' and a sports secretary was elected with a hasty football match organised between the ILPers and a team of Spanish militia-men. The training received at the Barracks was notoriously short and at

1020-521: A key factor in the Soviet famine of 1930–1933 ; some scholars believe that Holodomor , which started near the end of 1932, was when the famine turned into an instrument of genocide; the Ukrainian government now recognizes it as such. Some scholars dispute the intentionality of the famine. The Stalinist era was largely regressive on social issues. Despite a brief period of decriminalization under Lenin,

1122-605: A major part in the military side of the Spanish Civil War it was famously and controversially involved in the events surrounding the battles between rival Republican groups in Barcelona, known as the Barcelona May Days . The ILP contingent, although on leave in Barcelona, were split into groups during this fighting and none of the ILP contingent were drawn into the fighting in any extended way. However,

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1224-423: A more critical and ambivalent attitude towards his cult of personality. The cult of personality served to legitimate Stalin's authority, establish continuity with Lenin as his "discipline, student and mentee" in the view of his wider followers. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev , would later denounce the cult of personality around Stalin as contradictory to Leninist principles and party discourse. Stalin blamed

1326-399: A reactionary pseudoscience that appeared in the U.S.A. after World War II and also spread through other capitalist countries. Cybernetics clearly reflects one of the basic features of the bourgeois worldview—its inhumanity, striving to transform workers into an extension of the machine, into a tool of production, and an instrument of war. At the same time, for cybernetics an imperialistic utopia

1428-535: A small contingent to fight in the Spanish Civil War . The contingent fought alongside the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ) and included George Orwell , who subsequently wrote about his experiences in his personal account Homage to Catalonia . The main body of the ILP contingent consisting of about 25 men departed from England on 1 January 1937, under the leadership of Bob Edwards , later

1530-414: A sniper. However, the reality of the contingent's activity was more mundane. It largely consisted of building roads from their dug-out to the nearest Spanish position and creating a dug-out for community purposes where they could meet to talk and receive instructions. In terms of military combat the contingent saw relatively little action. As Orwell later put it: Although the ILP contingent did not play

1632-498: A theory standing in sharp contrast to Trotsky's permanent revolution and all earlier socialistic theses. The revolution did not spread outside Russia as Lenin had assumed it soon would. The revolution had not succeeded even within other former territories of the Russian Empire ―such as Poland , Finland , Lithuania , Latvia , and Estonia . On the contrary, these countries had returned to capitalist bourgeois rule. He

1734-477: Is an unprincipled intriguer, who subordinates everything to the preservation of his own power. He changes his theory according to whom he needs to get rid of. Bukharin on Stalin's theoretical position, 1928. Despite this, by the autumn of 1924, Stalin's notion of socialism in Soviet Russia was initially considered next to blasphemy by other Politburo members , including Zinoviev and Kamenev to

1836-515: Is characteristic—replacing living, thinking man, fighting for his interests, by a machine, both in industry and in war. The instigators of a new world war use cybernetics in their dirty, practical affairs. "Cybernetics" in the Short Philosophical Dictionary , 1954 Under Stalin, repression was extended to academic scholarship, the natural sciences, and literary fields. In particular, Einstein's theory of relativity

1938-594: Is separate from the socialist ideals it stemmed from. After a political struggle that culminated in the defeat of the Bukharinists (the "Party's Right Tendency "), Stalinism was free to shape policy without opposition, ushering in an era of harsh totalitarianism that worked toward rapid industrialization regardless of the human cost. From 1917 to 1924, though often appearing united, Stalin, Vladimir Lenin , and Leon Trotsky had discernible ideological differences. In his dispute with Trotsky, Stalin de-emphasized

2040-500: Is that from 1930 to 1953, around 1.5 to 1.7 million perished in the gulag system. In February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev condemned the deportations as a violation of Leninism and reversed most of them, although it was not until 1991 that the Tatars, Meskhetians , and Volga Germans were allowed to return en masse to their homelands. At the start of the 1930s, Stalin launched a wave of radical economic policies that completely overhauled

2142-489: Is the 1938 publication, History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) , in which the history of the governing party was significantly altered and revised including the importance of the leading figures during the Bolshevik revolution. Retrospectively, Lenin's primary associates such as Zinoviev, Trotsky, Radek and Bukharin were presented as "vacillating", "opportunists" and "foreign spies" whereas Stalin

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2244-560: Is used to describe the period during which Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union while serving as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 to his death on 5 March 1953. It was a development of Leninism , and while Stalin avoided using the term "Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism", he allowed others to do so. Following Lenin's death, Stalin contributed to

2346-471: The Communist Party of Palestine , spent twenty five years in Stalin's prisons and concentrations camps after the purges in 1937. Shortly before, during, and immediately after World War II , Stalin conducted a series of deportations that profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. Separatism , resistance to Soviet rule, and collaboration with the invading Germans were the official reasons for

2448-593: The Great Purge and the Dekulakization campaign. Stalinism was also marked by militant atheism, mass anti-religious persecution , and ethnic cleansing through forced deportations . Some historians, such as Robert Service , have blamed Stalinist policies, particularly collectivization, for causing famines such as the Holodomor . Other historians and scholars disagree on Stalinism's role. Officially designed to accelerate development toward communism ,

2550-589: The Independent Labour Party as part of POUM militias; he recounted the experience in his book Homage to Catalonia . Likewise, the film Land and Freedom , directed by Ken Loach , tells of a group of POUM soldiers fighting in the war from the perspective of a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain who initially fought for the POUM before he later joined his CPGB comrades in the International Brigades . In particular,

2652-810: The Independent Labour Party in Britain, the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (PSOP) in France, and Poale Zion . Its youth wing was affiliated to the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations , through which it recruited the ILP Contingent in the Civil War. Foreign supporters of POUM during the Civil War included Lois Orr . During the Spanish transition to democracy ,

2754-527: The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , Stalin consolidated nearly absolute power in the 1930s with a Great Purge of the party that claimed to expel "opportunists" and "counter-revolutionary infiltrators". Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from the party; more severe measures ranged from banishment to the Gulag labor camps to execution after trials held by NKVD troikas . In

2856-696: The Right Opposition (the Workers and Peasants' Bloc ). This alliance was against the wishes of Trotsky, with whom the Communist Left of Spain broke. In his writings on the Spanish Revolution , Trotsky would elaborate on his overall criticisms of the POUM such as their abandonment of the Left Opposition program in favour of reformism to retain tactical advantage among other political tendencies. The party grew larger than

2958-550: The bourgeois state ) must become stronger before it can wither away. In Stalin's view, counter-revolutionary elements will attempt to derail the transition to full communism , and the state must be powerful enough to defeat them. For this reason, communist regimes influenced by Stalin are totalitarian . Other leftists, such as anarcho-communists , have criticized the party-state of the Stalin-era Soviet Union, accusing it of being bureaucratic and calling it

3060-498: The death penalty was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935. After that, several trials, known as the Moscow Trials , were held, but the procedures were replicated throughout the country. Article 58 of the legal code, which listed prohibited anti-Soviet activities as a counter-revolutionary crime, was applied most broadly. Many alleged anti-Soviet pretexts were used to brand individuals as "enemies of

3162-477: The kulaks for inciting reactionary violence against the people during the implementation of agricultural collectivization . In response, the state, under Stalin's leadership, initiated a violent campaign against them. This kind of campaign was later known as classicide , though several international legislatures have passed resolutions declaring the campaign a genocide. Some historians dispute that these social-class actions constitute genocide. As head of

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3264-591: The 'Counter-Revolution in Spain'. ILP General Secretary Fenner Brockway argued that the Communists were on the wrong side of the barricades and were now 'committed to the defence of property', suggesting that the Communist Parties not only in Spain, but everywhere, had ceased to be revolutionary parties. The Communist Party responded by accusing the ILP of 'taking part in the fascist rising'. On 16 June,

3366-642: The 1920s but these groups were later rigorously repressed during the Stalinist era. Socialist realism was imposed in artistic production and other creative industries such as music , film along with sports were subject to extreme levels of political control. Historical falsification of political events such as the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty became a distinctive element of Stalin's regime. A notable example

3468-580: The 1930s and 1940s, the Soviet leadership sent NKVD squads into other countries to murder defectors and opponents of the Soviet regime. Victims of such plots included Trotsky, Yevhen Konovalets , Ignace Poretsky , Rudolf Klement, Alexander Kutepov , Evgeny Miller , and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ) leadership in Catalonia (e.g., Andréu Nin Pérez ). Joseph Berger-Barzilai , co-founder of

3570-434: The 1930s, Stalin became increasingly worried about Leningrad party head Sergei Kirov 's growing popularity. At the 1934 Party Congress , where the vote for the new Central Committee was held, Kirov received only three negative votes (the fewest of any candidate), while Stalin received over 100. After Kirov's assassination, which Stalin may have orchestrated, Stalin invented a detailed scheme to implicate opposition leaders in

3672-466: The 1934 Criminal Code re-criminalized homosexuality. Abortion was made illegal again in 1936 after controversial debate among citizens, and women's issues were largely ignored. Stalin considered the political and economic system under his rule to be Marxism–Leninism , which he considered the only legitimate successor of Marxism and Leninism . The historiography of Stalin is diverse, with many different aspects of continuity and discontinuity between

3774-777: The Catalan parliamentary election, but the party was disintegrating. La Batalla ceased publication in May 1980, marking the end of the POUM as an organized party, though it was never officially dissolved. As a last remnant, the Valencia branch remained active until 1981. Former members of the POUM formed the Fundación Andreu Nin (Andreu Nin Foundation) to preserve the heritage of their party and ideological current. British author George Orwell fought alongside members of

3876-470: The Central Asian republics. By some estimates, up to 43% of the resettled population died of diseases and malnutrition. According to official Soviet estimates, more than 14 million people passed through the gulags from 1929 to 1953, with a further 7 to 8 million deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union (including entire nationalities in several cases). The emergent scholarly consensus

3978-711: The Century to Andreu Nin and other slain leaders of the POUM. Discussion of POUM in Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (Collier edition, p. 247). In William Herrick 's novel "Hermanos!", the American communist protagonist comes to Spain in order to fight Fascism, but gets diverted into hunting down members of POUM. The POUM activists which the protagonist tortures and executes are depicted very sympathetically, shown bravely defiant and sticking to their positions to

4080-530: The Communist Party to remove Stalin from his post as its General Secretary .Trotsky also argued that he and Lenin had intended to lift the ban on the opposition parties such as the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries as soon as the economic and social conditions of Soviet Russia had improved. Lenin's Testament , the document containing this order, was suppressed after Lenin's death. Various historians have cited Lenin's proposal to appoint Trotsky as

4182-605: The Lenin–Stalin relationship (during the Khrushchev Thaw and later) was that the overly autocratic Stalin had distorted the Leninism of the wise dedushka Lenin. But Volkogonov also lamented that this view eventually dissolved for those like him who had the scales fall from their eyes immediately before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union . After researching the biographies in the Soviet archives, he came to

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4284-625: The PCE, which remained fiercely loyal to the Comintern. Moreover, these divisions, which included accusations of Trotskyism (and even fascism ) by the communists, resulted in actual fighting between their supporters; most notably, in 1937, a primarily communist coalition of government forces attacked the POUM during the Barcelona May Days . While the larger Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour, CNT) supported

4386-600: The POUM and the Stalin-backed communists in Barcelona; the title of the newspaper article is Red Vendetta in Barcelona and mentions the purges against the POUM by Stalinist communists "well armed by Russia". Stalinism Stalinism ( Russian : Сталинизм , Stalinizm ) is the totalitarian 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

4488-586: The POUM at first, the moderate leadership of the CNT dropped its support after it joined the government. Radical elements within the anarchist movement however fought side by side in the streets of Barcelona during the May Days and were isolated as well, like the Friends of Durruti . The POUM, along with the purely Trotskyist Seccion Bolshevik-Leninista, became isolated, and both organizations were driven underground. Nin

4590-454: The POUM was legalized in 1977. This led to a split in the party, with one faction opposing formal legalization, calling for a boycott of the 1977 general election and demanding the immediate restoration of the republic. The legalized party participated in the election as part of the Front for Workers' Unity (FUT), a coalition of parties and organisations to the left of the PCE which won 0.22% of

4692-413: The POUM was made illegal, accused of collaborating with the enemy. Its leaders were arrested and Andreu Nin murdered. ILP leader John McNair arrived in Barcelona on 18 June with money and documents to organise the evacuation of the ILP contingent and was promptly arrested as a "POUM agent" but was released when he had proven his identity. He then went into hiding with Orwell and Cottman and managed to leave

4794-605: The Politburo, was in itself a crucial factor in Stalin's rise to power". Cinematic productions served to foster the cult of personality around Stalin with adherents to the party line receiving Stalin prizes . Although, film directors and their assistants were still liable to mass arrests during the Great Terror. Censorship of films contributed to a mythologizing of history as seen with the films First Cavalry Army (1941) and Defence of Tsaritsyn (1942) in which Stalin

4896-672: The Popular Front government, but they were resisted by the more centrist factions. George Orwell , who fought alongside the POUM in the civil war, reports that its membership was roughly 10,000 in July 1936, 70,000 in December 1936, and 40,000 in June 1937, although he notes that the numbers are from POUM sources and are probably exaggerated. The POUM's independent communist position, including opposition to Stalin, caused huge ruptures with

4998-418: The Soviet Union, transforming a peasant society into an industrial state with a literate population and a remarkable scientific superstructure." Robert Conquest disputes that conclusion, writing, "Russia had already been fourth to fifth among industrial economies before World War I", and that Russian industrial advances could have been achieved without collectivization, famine, or terror. According to Conquest,

5100-566: The Stalin era. Soviet scientists were forced to denounce any work that contradicted Lysenko. Over 3,000 biologists were imprisoned, fired, or executed for attempting to oppose Lysenkoism and genetic research was effectively destroyed until the death of Stalin in 1953. Due to the ideological influence of Lysenkoism , crop yields in the USSR declined. Orthodoxy was enforced in the cultural sphere . Prior to Stalin's rule, literary, religious and national representatives had some level of autonomy in

5202-532: The United States, 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. Stalinism

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5304-547: The West, and Stalin and the majority of the Communist Party felt the NEP not only to be compromising communist ideals but also not delivering satisfactory economic performance or creating the envisaged socialist society. According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick , the scholarly consensus was that Stalin appropriated the position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation . Trotsky maintained that

5406-562: The ambulance with Edwards and who, because of his experience in artillery, had stayed on; Doran; Harry Thomas of London and Arthur Chambers, who died in 1938 after transferring to a CNT unit. Few others, apart from Harry Webb, the stretcher-bearer and O'Hara, who had some training in first aid, had either military or medical experience. Arriving at the Lenin Barracks in Barcelona , where they were initially stationed, on 10 January,

5508-978: The archives, contends that, before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the archives for historical research, "our understanding of the scale and the nature of Soviet repression has been extremely poor" and that some specialists who wish to maintain earlier high estimates of the Stalinist death toll are "finding it difficult to adapt to the new circumstances when the archives are open and when there are plenty of irrefutable data" and instead "hang on to their old Sovietological methods with round-about calculations based on odd statements from emigres and other informants who are supposed to have superior knowledge." Stalin personally signed 357 proscription lists in 1937 and 1938 that condemned 40,000 people to execution, about 90% of whom are confirmed to have been shot. While reviewing one such list, he reportedly muttered to no one in particular: "Who's going to remember all this riff-raff in ten or twenty years? No one. Who remembers

5610-839: The autocratic system in the Communist Party . They also note that Lenin put a ban on factions within the Russian Communist Party and introduced the one-party state in 1921—a move that enabled Stalin to get rid of his rivals easily after Lenin's death and cite Felix Dzerzhinsky , who, during the Bolshevik struggle against opponents in the Russian Civil War , exclaimed: "We stand for organized terror—this should be frankly stated." Opponents of this view include revisionist historians and many post–Cold War and otherwise dissident Soviet historians, including Roy Medvedev , who argues that although "one could list

5712-476: The bitter end - eventually causing the protagonist to undergo a crisis of conscience, break with the Party and become a dissident himself. Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love (Signet edition, p. 50) states that Rosa Klebb infiltrated the POUM and may have murdered Andrés Nin Pérez. In Margaret Atwood 's prize-winning novel, The Blind Assassin , a fictional newspaper account details the actual battles between

5814-484: The day after the contingent left, the British government announced that it would prosecute anyone going to fight in Spain and the ILP did not try to recruit any more volunteers. On arriving in Barcelona , they had two weeks of very basic training, and were joined by Bob Smillie, grandson of the well-known Scottish socialist and miners' leader of the same name . Smillie had been in Barcelona working with John McNair as

5916-408: The deportations. Individual circumstances of those spending time in German-occupied territories were not examined. After the brief Nazi occupation of the Caucasus , the entire population of five of the small highland peoples and the Crimean Tatars —more than a million people in total—were deported without notice or any opportunity to take their possessions. As a result of Stalin's lack of trust in

6018-401: The desertion of Nationalists. The main descriptions of fighting against the Nationalists which appears both in Homage to Catalonia and in the New Leader , concerned a night attack in which some of the contingent took part resulting in injuries to Reg Hiddlestone, Paddy Thomas and Douglas Thompson. Injuries were also sustained at other times, Blair himself was famously shot through the throat by

6120-575: The disproportions and imbalances which became characteristic of Stalinist planning in the 1930s such as the underdeveloped consumer base along with the priority focus on heavy industry were due to a number of avoidable problems. He argued that the industrial drive had been enacted under more severe circumstances, several years later and in a less rational manner than originally conceived by the Left Opposition. Fredric Jameson has said that "Stalinism was…a success and fulfilled its historic mission, socially as well as economically" given that it "modernized

6222-444: The end of January the ILP contingent, as the British section of the POUM militia, began their journey, stopping off at Lerida , where they were visited by the ILP's representative in Spain, John McNair, before leaving for the area surrounding Huesca on the Aragon Front on 2 February. At the front, the contingent took over three advanced posts, about 100 yards distant from the others, joined by communication trenches . The outposts, on

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6324-516: The film goes on to deal with his disillusionment with the Soviet Union 's policies in the war while he was fighting with the International Brigades, after which he decided to return to his POUM comrades shortly before the POUM's June 1937 suppression. The POUM is briefly mentioned in Joe Haldeman 's science fiction novel The Forever War as a militia where "(y)ou obeyed an order only after it had been explained in detail; you could refuse if it didn't make sense." Victor Serge dedicates Midnight in

6426-409: The front, the initial group of twenty-five was sent to the front at Monte Oscuro, within sight of Zaragoza , some 12 miles to the south west, where they joined by a number of others who had arrived at the front a few weeks earlier, including Eric Blair, not yet using his pen name George Orwell ; an Australian, Harvey Buttonshaw; US Revolutionary Workers League member Wolf Kupinski ; and Bob Williams,

6528-436: The high-profile executions in this period. Many military leaders were convicted of treason, and a large-scale purge of Red Army officers followed. The repression of many formerly high-ranking revolutionaries and party members led Trotsky to claim that a "river of blood" separated Stalin's regime from Lenin's. In August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico, where he had lived in exile since January 1937. This eliminated

6630-424: The idea of " permanent revolution "—by presenting the latter as a defeatist with little faith in Russian workers' abilities to construct socialism. The term Stalinism came into prominence during the mid-1930s when Lazar Kaganovich , a Soviet politician and associate of Stalin, reportedly declared: "Let's replace Long Live Leninism with Long Live Stalinism!" Stalin dismissed this as excessive and contributing to

6732-467: The industrial and agricultural face of the Soviet Union. This became known as the Great Turn as Russia turned away from the mixed-economic type New Economic Policy (NEP) and adopted a planned economy . Lenin implemented the NEP to ensure the survival of the socialist state following seven years of war ( World War I , 1914–1917, and the subsequent Civil War , 1917–1921) and rebuilt Soviet production to its 1913 levels. But Russia still lagged far behind

6834-659: The industrial successes were far less than claimed, and the Soviet-style industrialization was "an anti-innovative dead-end." Stephen Kotkin said those who argue collectivization was necessary are "dead wrong", writing that it "only seemed necessary within the straitjacket of Communist ideology and its repudiation of capitalism. And economically, collectivization failed to deliver." Kotkin further claimed that it decreased harvests instead of increasing them, as peasants tended to resist heavy taxes by producing fewer goods, caring only about their own subsistence. According to several Western historians, Stalinist agricultural policies were

6936-542: The intellectual left; Rykov , Bukharin , and Tomsky to the pragmatic right; and the powerful Trotsky, who belonged to no side but his own. None would even consider Stalin's concept a potential addition to communist ideology. Stalin's socialism in one country doctrine could not be imposed until he had come close to being the Soviet Union's autocratic ruler around 1929. Bukharin and the Right Opposition expressed their support for imposing Stalin's ideas, as Trotsky had been exiled, and Zinoviev and Kamenev had been expelled from

7038-507: 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. 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

7140-488: The last of Stalin's opponents among the former Party leadership. Mass operations of the NKVD also targeted "national contingents" (foreign ethnicities) such as Poles , ethnic Germans , and Koreans . A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested and 247,157 (110,000 Poles) were executed. Many Americans who had emigrated to the Soviet Union during the worst of the Great Depression were executed, while others were sent to prison camps or gulags. Concurrent with

7242-531: The latter imagery having gained ascendency during the Great Patrotic War and Cold War . Some scholars have argued that Stalin took an active involvement with the construction of the cult of personality with writers such as Isaac Deutscher and Erik van Ree noting that Stalin had absorbed elements from the cult of Tsars, Orthodox Christianity and highlighting specific acts such as Lenin's embalming . Yet, other scholars have drawn on primary accounts from Stalin's associates such as Molotov which suggested he took

7344-502: The loyalty of particular ethnicities, groups such as the Soviet Koreans , Volga Germans , Crimean Tatars, Chechens , and many Poles, were forcibly moved out of strategic areas and relocated to places in the central Soviet Union, especially Kazakhstan . By some estimates, hundreds of thousands of deportees may have died en route. It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949, nearly 3.3 million people were deported to Siberia and

7446-452: The murder, including Trotsky, Lev Kamenev , and Grigory Zinoviev . Thereafter, the investigations and trials expanded. Stalin passed a new law on "terrorist organizations and terrorist acts" that were to be investigated for no more than ten days, with no prosecution, defense attorneys, or appeals, followed by a sentence to be imposed "quickly." Stalin's Politburo also issued directives on quotas for mass arrests and executions. Under Stalin,

7548-679: The names now of the boyars Ivan the Terrible got rid of? No one." In addition, Stalin dispatched a contingent of NKVD operatives to Mongolia , established a Mongolian version of the NKVD troika , and unleashed a bloody purge in which tens of thousands were executed as "Japanese spies", as Mongolian ruler Khorloogiin Choibalsan closely followed Stalin's lead. Stalin had ordered for 100,000 Buddhist lamas in Mongolia to be liquidated but

7650-499: The nationwide vote. The election result led to a crisis for the POUM as well as for most parties to the left of the PCE, from which it was not able to recover. The POUM continued to exist as a small party with an office in Barcelona and a monthly newspaper, La Batalla , calling for cooperation among the various far-left parties, but an attempted merger with Communist Action and the Collective for Marxist Unification failed during

7752-589: 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. Rapid industrialization was accompanied by mass collectivization of agriculture and rapid urbanization , which converted many small villages into industrial cities . To accelerate industrialization's development, Stalin imported materials, ideas, expertise, and workers from western Europe and

7854-831: The official Communist Party of Spain (PCE) both nationally and in the communist hotbeds of Catalonia and the Valencian Country , where the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) represented the PCE. The POUM was highly critical of the popular front strategy advocated by Joseph Stalin and the Communist International (Comintern); nevertheless, it participated in the Spanish Popular Front initiated by Manuel Azaña , leader of Acción Republicana . The POUM attempted to implement some of its radical policies as part of

7956-550: The other members of the contingent were diverse. Members were recorded as coming from South Africa (Buck Parker ), the United States (Harry Milton, Wales , Belfast (Paddy O'Hara), Chorley , Larkhall , Glasgow (Charles Doran), Anglesey , Manchester , Bristol (Tom Coles), Dartford , Bingley , Twickenham and Golders Green . Four had fought in the First World War : Martin, who had gone to Spain driving

8058-425: The party. In a 1936 interview with journalist Roy W. Howard , Stalin articulated his rejection of world revolution and said, "We never had such plans and intentions" and "The export of revolution is nonsense". Traditional communist thought holds that the state will gradually " wither away " as the implementation of socialism reduces class distinction. But Stalin argued that the proletarian state (as opposed to

8160-438: The people "), which included political dissidents , non-Soviet nationalists, the bourgeoisie , better-off peasants (" kulaks "), and those of the working class who demonstrated " counter-revolutionary " sympathies. 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 . The most notorious examples were

8262-407: The people", starting the cycle of public persecution, often proceeding to interrogation, torture, and deportation, if not death. The Russian word troika thereby gained a new meaning: a quick, simplified trial by a committee of three subordinated to the NKVD troika—with sentencing carried out within 24 hours. Stalin's hand-picked executioner Vasili Blokhin was entrusted with carrying out some of

8364-660: The political leader Peljidiin Genden resisted the order. Under Stalinist influence in the Mongolian People's Republic , an estimated 17,000 monks were killed, official figures show. Stalinist forces also oversaw purges of anti-Stalinist elements among the Spanish Republican insurgents, including the Trotskyist allied POUM faction and anarchist groups, during the Spanish Civil War . During

8466-575: The purges, efforts were made to rewrite the history in Soviet textbooks and other propaganda materials. Notable people executed by NKVD were removed from the texts and photographs as though they had never existed. In light of revelations from Soviet archives, historians now estimate that nearly 700,000 people (353,074 in 1937 and 328,612 in 1938) were executed in the course of the terror, the great mass of them ordinary Soviet citizens: workers, peasants, homemakers, teachers, priests, musicians, soldiers, pensioners, ballerinas, and beggars. Scholars estimate

8568-504: The regimes Stalin and Lenin proposed. Some historians, such as Richard Pipes , consider Stalinism the natural consequence of Leninism: Stalin "faithfully implemented Lenin's domestic and foreign policy programs." Robert Service writes that "institutionally and ideologically Lenin laid the foundations for a Stalin [...] but the passage from Leninism to the worse terrors of Stalinism was not smooth and inevitable." Likewise, historian and Stalin biographer Edvard Radzinsky believes that Stalin

8670-537: The representative Youth section of the International Bureau for Revolutionary Socialist Unity . However, he became convinced that he would be of most service at the front and persuaded McNair to let him sign up when the ILP contingent came over. He later died in Valencia. The ILP contingent was attached to the POUM’s English-speaking contingent, as part of the centuria commanded by Georges Kopp . Once at

8772-411: The role of workers in advanced capitalist countries (e.g., he considered the U.S. working class "bourgeoisified" labor aristocracy ). All other October Revolution 1917 Bolshevik leaders regarded their revolution more or less as just the beginning, with Russia as the springboard on the road toward worldwide revolution. Stalin introduced the idea of socialism in one country by the autumn of 1924,

8874-461: The same conclusion as Radzinsky and Kotkin (that Lenin had built a culture of violent autocratic totalitarianism of which Stalinism was a logical extension). Proponents of continuity cite a variety of contributory factors, such as that Lenin, not Stalin, introduced the Red Terror with its hostage-taking and internment camps , and that Lenin developed the infamous Article 58 and established

8976-564: The significance of Barcelona for the ILP lay not so much in the events themselves as in the reaction to the situation. Immediately after the events the Communist press began to attack POUM, claiming they were solely responsible for the fighting and were in league with the fascists in doing so. These accusations were quickly published in the Daily Worker , appearing in the 11 May issue. The New Leader of 21 May carried extensive comment on

9078-524: The slope of the hills looking west, were about two hundred yards from the nearest Nationalist lines on the opposite slopes looking east. Bob Edwards, reporting in the New Leader , the ILP's weekly paper, was keen to stress the most 'exciting' aspects of the unit's work. He wrote about scouting within hearing distance along the Nationalist lines with Blair, of holding their position and dealing with

9180-516: The start. Other revisionist historians such as Orlando Figes , while critical of the Soviet era, acknowledge that Lenin actively sought to counter Stalin's growing influence, allying with Trotsky in 1922–23, opposing Stalin on foreign trade , and proposing party reforms including the democratization of the Central Committee and recruitment of 50-100 ordinary workers into the party's lower organs. Critics include anti-Stalinist communists such as Trotsky, who pointed out that Lenin attempted to persuade

9282-560: The theoretical debates within the Communist Party, namely by developing the idea of " Socialism in One Country ". This concept was intricately linked to factional struggles within the party, particularly against Trotsky. He first developed the idea in December 1924 and elaborated upon in his writings of 1925–26. Stalin's doctrine held that socialism could be completed in Russia but that its final victory could not be guaranteed because of

9384-628: The threat from capitalist intervention. For this reason, he retained the Leninist view that world revolution was still a necessity to ensure the ultimate victory of socialism. Although retaining the Marxist belief that the state would wither away as socialism transformed into pure communism, he believed that the Soviet state would remain until the final defeat of international capitalism. This concept synthesised Marxist and Leninist ideas with nationalist ideals, and served to discredit Trotsky—who promoted

9486-556: The total death toll for the Great Purge (1936–1938) including fatalities attributed to imprisonment to be roughly 700,000-1.2 million. Many of the executed were interred in mass graves , with some significant killing and burial sites being Bykivnia , Kurapaty , and Butovo . Some Western experts believe the evidence released from the Soviet archives is understated, incomplete or unreliable. Conversely, historian Stephen G. Wheatcroft , who spent much of his career researching

9588-407: The various measures carried out by Stalin that were actually a continuation of anti-democratic trends and measures implemented under Lenin…in so many ways, Stalin acted, not in line with Lenin's clear instructions, but in defiance of them." In doing so, some historians have tried to distance Stalinism from Leninism to undermine the totalitarian view that Stalin's methods were inherent in communism from

9690-427: The views of opponents through an array of employed historians alongside economists to justify policy manoeuvering and safeguarding its own set of material interests. He cited a range of historical documents such as private letters, telegrams, party speeches, meeting minutes , and suppressed texts such as Lenin's Testament . British historian Orlando Figes argued that "The urge to silence Trotsky, and all criticism of

9792-399: Was a genuine follower of Lenin, exactly as he claimed. Another Stalin biographer, Stephen Kotkin , wrote that "his violence was not the product of his subconscious but of the Bolshevik engagement with Marxist–Leninist ideology." Dmitri Volkogonov , who wrote biographies of both Lenin and Stalin, wrote that during the 1960s through 1980s, an official patriotic Soviet de-Stalinized view of

9894-499: Was depicted as the chief discipline during the revolution. However, in reality, Stalin was considered a relatively unknown figure with secondary importance at the time of the event. In his book, The Stalin School of Falsification , Leon Trotsky argued that the Stalinist faction routinely distorted political events, forged a theoretical basis for irreconcilable concepts such as the notion of "Socialism in One Country" and misrepresented

9996-587: Was detained and presumably tortured to death by NKVD agents in Alcalá de Henares , Nin and his party were consistently labeled as provocateurs in Stalinist propaganda . The POUM was a member of the London Bureau of socialist and centrist Marxist parties that rejected both the reformism of the Second International and the pro-Moscow orientation of the Comintern. Other members included

10098-1116: Was diametrically opposed to the recommendations of [Lenin's] testament". French historian Pierre Broue disputes the historical assessments of the early Soviet Union by modern historians such as Dmitri Volkogonov, which Broue argues falsely equate Leninism , Stalinism and Trotskyism to present the notion of ideological continuity and reinforce the position of counter-communism . ILP Contingent Central Europe Germany Italy Spain ( Spanish Civil War ) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States The British Independent Labour Party sent

10200-532: Was glorified as a central figure to the October Revolution . Conversely, the roles of other Soviet figures such as Lenin and Trotsky were diminished or misrepresented. In the aftermath of the succession struggle, in which Stalin had defeated both Left and Right Opposition , a cult of Stalin had materialised. From 1929 until 1953, there was a proliferation of architecture , statues , posters , banners and iconography featuring Stalin in which he

10302-474: Was increasingly identified with the state and seen as an emblem of Marxism. In July 1930, a state decree instructed 200 artists to prepare propaganda posters for the Five Year Plans and collectivsation measures. Historian Anita Pisch drew specific focus to the various manifestations of the personality cult in which Stalin was associated with the "Father", "Saviour" and "Warrior" cultural archetypes with

10404-503: Was subject to public denunciation, many of his ideas were rejected on ideological grounds and condemned as "bourgeois idealism" in the Stalin era. A policy of ideological repression impacted various disciplinary fields such as genetics , cybernetics , biology , linguistics , physics , sociology , psychology , pedology , mathematical logic , economics and statistics . Pseudoscientific theories of Trofim Lysenko were favoured over other scientific disciplines during

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