Lenin vs Stalin

Class under Lenin

• encouraged communal living
• attempt to abolish private life to stop conformity
• October Revolution intended greater equality
• harsh labour conditions under War Communism.

Under Stalin:

• working conditions worsened
• seven-day working week and longer working hours.
• 1930s - bonuses to increase productivity, e.g. Stakhanovite movement and labour elite.
• countryside living deteriorated and overcrowding etc.

Women under Lenin:

• Communist Revolution promised greater opportunities for women, e.g. access to a job.
• help with child care.
• Divorce made easier and abortion legalised.

Under Stalin:

• traditional family
• women as mothers not workers
• divorce made more difficult
• financial incentives for large families.
• 43 per cent of workforce was women in 1940.

Young people under Lenin:

• Education crucial
• free schooling for all combining maths, english, russian language.
• universities had a vital role in indoctrinating the young.
• Komsomol formed in 1918

Under Stalin:

• junior section, the Pioneers in 1922
• by 1940, Komsomol had 10 million members
• 1941 - 90% under age of 50 were literate.

Religion under Lenin:

launched a campaign to weaken Orthodox church

seized its lands, schools taken over, monastries turned into prisons and hospitals, priests executed.

Under Stalin:

destruction of rural churches

confiscation of church items, e.g. bells and relics - caused huge opposition

By 1940 - 500 churches open, 1% of 1917.

Minorities under Lenin:

• promised self-determination
• major national minorities seperately represented in Communist party

Ubder Stalin:

• made it more centralised
• 1938, Russian had to be taught in all schools and became the sole language of the Red Army.

Soviet culture under Lenin:

• October revolution led to artistic freedom.
• Lenin encouraged 'it should serve the people'.

under Stalin:

• serve socially and politically
• 1930s -art had to conform to standards and if not, artists purged.
• soviet union of writers 1934, insisted 'socialist realism'
• had to be optimistic and uplifting.

Propaganda under Lenin:

• Both lenin and stalin appreciated the value
• used to win over the masses

Under Stalin:

• exploited posters, cinema and radio
• portrayed as the worthy successor
• hero and saviour figure
• communist party controlled the media
• lenin hadnt sought to be an icon, stalin had
• personification of the nation.

Under Lenin:

• thousands of anti-bolsheviks sent to labour camps
• civil war - cheka implemented a red terror to dstroy enemies of the people
• 1921 - ban on factions to curb criticism

under Stalin:

• exploited all the methods
• intensified terror
• elimitated potential opposition, including members of the central committee (Lenin had NEVER DONE)
• 1932 - increasing fear he could be betrayed - over a million party members arrested and excluded
• 1934 - systematic purges of senior members

• 1934 - Kirov killed. Trotskyite and Zinoviev-Kamenev factions. Those purged replaced with loyal Stalinists.
• 1936 - Zinoviev and Kamenev and 14 other bolsheviks shot after a show-trial
• 1937 - bolshevik leaders and most of high military command were shot
• 1938 - Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda (head of NKVD) were shot
• 1940 - Trotsky assassinated

From 1937-38 terror aimed at citizens - method of government

hundreds of thousands executed - one in eighteen arrested during the purges

deport national minorities - 100,000 Poles executed.

ended the terror in 1938

achieved his aims of eliminating rivals.

Stalin's rule:

key features established by Lenin - one-party rule, secret police, use of terror and show-trials

more fully developed

replaced old bolsheviks with 'nomenklatura' - Stalin's men.

limits to Stalin's power - those officials he dependend on to implement terror etc.

The Economy:

• transformation by 1941
• fast becoming an industrialised, urban society.
• heavy industry vastly developed and beat nazi Germany.
• production of consumer goods was neglected
• agriculture failed to recover from collectivisation - didnt produce as much in 1941 as it did under NEP.

Social life:

• 1941 - most peasants 'kolkhoz' rather than Siberia farms.
• millions of peasants in the cities, educated and benefitted from state welfare.
• food scarce and housing overcrowded
• 1930s - living conditions harsher
• stalinist society hierarchial - priveleged elite of military, government officials and some workers, e.g. stakhonovite.