Russia Government 1917-85: Key Facts

Prior to 1918:

• Sovnarkom
• popular decrees (Peace, Land, Workers)
• Constituent Assembly - closed as 'posed threat to power of soviets'
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - unpopular

Impact of Civil War 1918-21:

• increasingly centralised
• one-party state
• moved from Petrograd to Moscow
• relied on nomenklatura
• established Politburo
• Cheka
• On Party Unity - bans factions

• arrests opponents (eg. Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamanev)
• 1921 - patronage system & approved list
• 1924 - Lenin enrolement (increase party members 128,000)

1930s:

• causes of purges (Congress of victors, Opposition, Kirov's murder, Economic problems)
• great terror - show trials & chistka

Power over Party & State:

• head of Politburo & Sovnarkom
• State Defence Committe
• manipulates people in Politburo & tests loyalty
• 1949 - Leningrad Affair

De-Stalinisation:

• 1956 - secret speech
• ends terror

Democratisation & Decentralisation:

• increases party size from 7mill --> 11mill (60% workers, 40% middle-class)
• replaces those in Presidium regularly
• splits party in half - one industrial, one agriculture

Anti-Party Group:

• Presidium vote to replace K
• need majority of Central Committee - K secure, makes himself Prime Minister 1958
• 1964 - plot to overthrow due to unpopular reforms

Restoration:

• divides key posts between his & Kosygin's supporters
• same person can't occupy 2 top jobs
• stability of cadres - no promotions/incentives
• end split in party

Political Stagnation 1970-85:

• gerontocracy
• no incentives to work hard
• rare sacking
• corruption

1982 - Andropov issues anti-corruption campaign