Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin was a man of strange fate. He did not strive for power, but unexpectedly for everyone he suddenly found himself at its heights.
We still do not know the real Stolypin. His name turned out to be firmly connected with one of the few implemented reforms, which, strictly speaking, he was not the author of, although it was part of the system of transformations he had conceived. The reform, not the most successful of this series, and its fate also turned out to be strange. At first, she was mercilessly reviled, without understanding her, and more recently, they began to praise her, without bothering to figure it out. And yet the name of Stolypin is strongly associated with the repressions that marked the end of the first Russian revolution and the beginning of the subsequent period known as the years of the “Stolypin reaction”. Unfortunately, in pursuing a policy of repression, he saw his duty, his cross, an indispensable condition for the implementation of the reform program. They greatly weighed down his conscience, but he, holding back his humanity, followed them harshly and adamantly, noticing too late that it was probably time to stop. And with that he went down in history. Although it is unfair to reduce his activities only to repression. Because it was not his fault that he succeeded in the repressions, and the reforms failed. In the drama of Russian history at the beginning of the 20th century, he was assigned a prominent, and at the same time, an unenviable role. In the course of the drama, he tried to escape from this role, took a few steps and found himself unable to overcome the fetters of intertwined circumstances, narrow interests and misunderstandings.
He really was not understood either in life or after death. Neither his companions nor his enemies understood him. And at the same time, he was not too complicated, inaccessible to understanding by a person and a politician. The thing was that his actions, always definite and purposeful, hit very many people, from different classes and social groups, and caused a surge of negative emotions. In such circumstances it was difficult to count on an objective assessment.
Our time has taken from the depths national history, many names and facts previously known only to a certain circle of specialists. They also remembered Stolypin, and again he suffered a strange fate. A flurry of fussy reverence and enthusiastic emotions swirled around his name. Referring to him at random, even those with whom he would not enter into any alliance are in a hurry to write him down as an ally. However, such enthusiasm does not add to knowledge, and Stolypin remains incomprehensible to this day.
The noble family of the Stolypins has been known since the end of the 16th century. generational painting is carried out with Grigory Stolypin. Over time, the family branched out strongly, owning numerous estates in different lands.
Peter's father, Arkady Dmitrievich, was married twice. From the first marriage there was a son Dmitry, about whom little is known. Married to Natalya Mikhailova, sons Mikhail, Peter and Alexander and daughter Maria were born. Mikhail Arkadyevich, an ensign of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, was killed in a duel by Prince Shakhovsky on September 7, 1882. Natalya Mikhailovna died in 1889. 10 years before her husband. The sons Peter and Alexander inherited the estate and the family coat of arms: “In the shield, which has a red field in the upper half and blue in the lower half, a single-headed silver eagle is depicted holding a dangling snake in its right paw, and in its left a silver horseshoe with a golden cross. The shield is crowned with a nobleman's helmet and a crown with three ostrich feathers. The insignia on the shield is red and blue, lined with gold. The shield is held by two unicorns. Under the shield is the motto: "Deo spes tea" (I hope in God). The eagle in heraldry is a symbol of power and dominance, as well as perseverance and insight.
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin was born on April 2, 1862 in Dresdin, where his mother went to visit relatives. He spent his childhood and early life mainly in Lithuania. We bought a house in Vilna when it was time for the children to study. He graduated from the Vilna gymnasium. In 1881 he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin married early, being almost the only married student at the university. Olga Borisovna, his wife, used to be the bride of his older brother, who was killed in a duel. Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin also shot with the murderer of his brother, having been wounded in his right hand, which has not functioned well since then.
Father-in-law of Stolypin B.A. Neidgardt, honorary guardian of the Moscow Presence of the Council of Institutions of Empress Maria, was the father of a large family. Subsequently, the Neidhardt plan played a big role in Stolypin's career. Young spouses dreamed of a son, and girls were born one after another. In 1885 Maria was born, in 1891 - Natalia, in 1892 - Elena, in 1895 - Olga, in 1897 - Alexandra, in 1903 - the long-awaited son named Arkady was born.
Outwardly, Stolypin strongly resembled his father. He was also tall, fit and agile. But his habits and way of life were in many ways different. He did not smoke (even though he had written his thesis on tobacco), hardly drank alcohol, and rarely played cards. He and his father were also separated by the lack of an ear for music, but Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin loved literature and painting, differing, however, in somewhat old-fashioned, purely noble tastes.
In the literature of those years, the rebellious generation that formed in the 60s was often contrasted with the law-abiding generation of the 80s. Stolypin was a typical "eighties" He never had misunderstandings with the police. In 1884, even before graduating from the university, he was enrolled in the service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After this, however, he received a six-month vacation, during which he, apparently, completed his thesis. Returning to the service, Stolypin applied for a transfer to the Ministry of State Property. 1887-1889 Stolypin sat in the Department of Agriculture and Rural Industry in the modest position of assistant clerk, having the rank of secretary. However, as it turned out, the modest official had good connections at the top. In 1888 he received the court knowledge of the chamber junker. In the Ministry of State Property, Stolypin's position was routine, and in 1889 he again moved to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was appointed novena district and marshal of the nobility. Little is known about his activities in this position. Recalling those years, he wrote that he “served himself simply, fulfilled his duties and was not wiser,” but at the same time tried not to be an extra. Nevertheless, the main spell of Stolypin in those years was the management in Kolnoberge, to which the Petrovsky and Olgino farms adjoined. Stolypin managed to turn his estate into an exemplary farm with multi-field crop rotation and developed animal husbandry. However, he was not entirely satisfied with the economic results of his affairs. In the Kovno province, Stolypin had another estate, on the border with Germany. Russian roads have always been bad, and therefore the most convenient way to this estate ran through Prussia. It is with exemplary German farms.
In 1899, Stolypin was appointed Noveno provincial marshal of the nobility. One of his first deeds in this post was the creation of the Kovno Society of Agriculture. Its organizational meeting took place on October 8, 1900. P.A. became the chairman unanimously. Stolypin. Among a hundred and a few members of society, representatives of the Russian, Polish and German aristocracy brilliantly stood out. In essence, it was a meeting of the most influential landlords in the province.
In the summer of 1902 P. A. was appointed governor of Grodno. Stolypin spent only 10 months in Grodno. At this time, local committees for the needs of the agricultural industry were created in all provinces. Chairing the meetings of the Grodno Committee, Stolypin outlined his views on peasant question.
July 16, 1902 opening the meeting of the committee, he listed those factors that he considered promising for the rise of agriculture. Among them, he put in the first place the destruction of the stripedness of peasant lands and the resettlement of peasants on farms. At the same time, the governor emphasized that one should not cling to “established, centuries-honored methods of land use rights, since these methods lead to the preservation of at least, for example, a three-field system of economy ... because. they will be expressed, in the end, in economic collapse and the complete ruin of the country.
These remarkably penetrating words were followed by another tirade, which, as it seemed to Stolypin, was logically connected with the previous one.
“To make the moment of the expected reform dependent on the good will of the peasants, to expect that with the rise mental development population, which will come no one knows when, burning questions will be resolved by themselves, this means postponing for an indefinite period of time the implementation of those measures without which neither an increase in the profitability of land, nor the calm possession of landed property are inconceivable. In other words, the people are dark, they do not understand their own benefit, and therefore their life should be improved without asking their opinion about it. This conviction Stolypin carried through his entire state activity.
In 1903 was appointed governor of Saratov. Realizing what a shock modern war is, Stolypin further prevented Russia from being drawn into new war. He spent a lot of work on the formation of a Red Cross detachment in Saratov to be sent to Far East.
In May 1904 Peasant unrest began in the Saratov province - a phenomenon that the new governor had not yet encountered. In Tsaritsyn, a prison riot awaited him. Revolutionary songs were heard from the prison.
The frightened authorities were afraid to let the governor into the center of unrest. For two days Stolypin dealt with the situation in the prison and talked with the prisoners. In the end, the politicals promised "not to sing and to behave reasonably." The case ended with the imprisonment of two criminals in the punishment cell. Stolypin acted aggressively and unceremoniously against the peasants. Speaking at rural meetings, the governor used a lot of swear words, threatened Siberia, hard labor and Cossacks, severely suppressed objections. General searches and arrests were carried out, all independent peasant organizations (artels, agricultural societies) were dispersed. The events in the countryside forced Stolypin to think again about the existence of "some kind of fundamental disorder in peasant life." In accordance with his family traditions, he saw the reasons for this "disorder" in the "all-consuming influence on the entire way of rural peasant life of communal ownership of land, the communal system." The Russian peasant, Stolypin argued, cannot in any way get rid of the desire “to equalize everyone, bring everything to the same level, and since the mass cannot be raised to the level of the most capable, most intelligent and active, the best elements must be reduced to understanding, to the aspiration of the worst.” , the inert majority".
It is unlikely that in the unexpected rise of P.A. Stolypin was played by his “most subservient reports”, because other governors also proposed various measures to resolve the agrarian issue.
It is still not entirely clear what springs pushed Stolypin, a relatively young and little-known governor in the capital, to a key post in the Russian administration. His candidacy was first discussed in October 1905. at the meeting of S.Yu. Witte with public figures.
Chief Prosecutor of the Synod Prince A.D. Obolensky, a relative of Stolypin, proposed him for the post of Minister of the Interior, trying to break the deadlock in the negotiations. But Witte did not want to see anyone else in this post, except P.N. Durnovo, while public figures knew little about Stolypin.
The question about him arose for the second time in April 1906, when the Witte government was resigning. Researchers believe that Stolypin owed much of his appointment to his brother-in-law D.B. Neidgardt, removed from the post of Odessa mayor (in connection with the Jewish pogrom), but retained influence at court. A particularly active role in the nomination of Stolypin was played by the manager of the office of His Majesty, Prince N.D. Obolensky. Apparently, D.F. also said his weighty word. Trepov. Occupying the post of Deputy Minister of the Interior, he became famous for the fact that in October 1905. issued the order "Do not give blank volleys, do not spare cartridges." When he was transferred to the more modest position of palace commandant, he suddenly gained enormous influence with the king.
“Having achieved power without difficulty and struggle, by the power of luck and family ties alone, Stolypin throughout his short but brilliant career felt the guardian hand of providence over him,” recalled S.E. Kryzhanovsky. Indeed, Stolypin was immediately lucky in his new post. A conflict broke out between the government and the Duma, and Stolypin managed to distinguish himself favorably against the background of other ministers. Through the mediation of Kryzhanovsky, Stolypin established covert contacts with the Chairman of the Duma, S.A. Muromtsev. Stolypin met with the leader of the Cadets P.N. Mironov. In liberal circles, the impression was that Stolypin favored this option, which involved the creation of a Duma ministry with Stolypin retaining his portfolio.
In May 1906 The first congress of authorized noble societies gathered. It was convened with the assistance of the government, whose representatives participated in the meetings. At the congress, a permanent council of the united nobility was elected. During private negotiations with Stolypin, he promised support to the government on the terms:
1. Dissolution of the Duma
2. The introduction of "quick judgments"
3. Termination of negotiations with liberal figures on their ascension to the government
4. Changing the electoral law
The Duma was dissolved on July 8, 1906. The agreement between the government and representatives of the local nobility was gradually implemented, and there was a certain consolidation of counter-revolutionary forces, which was greatly facilitated by the Minister of the Interior.
This was noticed at the top, where Trepov continued his combinations. The dissolution of the Duma was a new challenge to public opinion. Stolypin became Chairman of the Council of Ministers, retaining the post of Minister of the Interior.
After the dissolution of the Duma and the Vyborg Appeal, relations with the Cadets were completely ruined, and Stolypin tried to lean on the liberals to the right of the Cadets.
Nevertheless, not wanting to interrupt the negotiations, Zemstvo leaders put forward a number of conditions for their entry into the government. Stolypin replied that "now is not the time for words and programs, now we need deeds and work", that in the near future it is necessary to give "every large social group the satisfaction of their urgent needs and thereby win them over to the side of the government." The interlocutors objected that the government should not replace the Duma and legislate at its own discretion. Stolypin continued to insist that the public should have faith in the tsar and his government.
Dramatic events in August 1906 showed that the government still puts the fight against the revolutionary movement in the forefront. On August 12, a landau with two gendarme officers and a man in civilian clothes drove up to the ministerial dacha on Aptekarsky Island. They threw their briefcases, and the dacha was swept away by the explosion. Stolypin himself was not hurt. The assassination attempt on Stolypin further strengthened his prestige in ruling circles. At the suggestion of the Tsar, Stolypin moved with his entire family to Winter Palace more securely guarded.
Stolypin himself has changed a lot. When told that he seemed to think differently before, he replied: “Yes, that was before the Aptekarsky Island bomb, and now I have become a different person.” Indeed, from that time on, he suppressed in himself that humanity that he often showed, for example, in Saratov before the start of the revolution.
Most memoirists and historians do not consider Stolypin a "generator of ideas." Although we remember that he had fairly strong views regarding the community, cut farms, workers' insurance and public education. Once at the head of the government, he demanded from all departments those top-priority projects that had been developed, but lay idle, due to the bureaucratic habit of postponing any major business. As a result, Stolypin managed to draw up a more or less coherent program of moderate reforms. The reformist activity of the government, which had stalled after Witte's resignation, revived again. Unlike Durnovo and Goremykin, Stolypin sought not only to suppress the revolution with the help of repressions, but also to remove it from the agenda through reforms that had the goal of resolving the main issues raised by the revolution in the way that pleased the government and ruling circles.
In Western Europe there have been great efforts to consolidate holdings, but the open field system is still widespread among some of the most productive farms.” Meanwhile, Stolypin and his associates were becoming more and more convinced that farms and cuts were the only universal means capable of raising peasant agriculture from Poland to the Far East, from “Finnish cold ...
Historians paid considerable attention to Stolypin's agrarian reform. Let us agree with the opinion of I.D. Kovalchenko, who made the following conclusion about the Soviet historiography of the Stolypin agrarian reform: "Firstly, most often the Stolypin reform was considered as such, without taking into account the fact that in Russia bourgeois agrarian development followed two paths - the bourgeois-landlord and ...
It was in the years civil war the foundation was laid for the elimination class enemies, adherents of building states on a national basis, and counter-revolutionaries of all stripes. This period can be considered the birth of the soil for future Stalinist repressions. At the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1928, Stalin voiced the principle, guided by which millions of people would be killed and repressed. He envisaged an increase in the struggle between classes as the construction of a socialist society was completed.
Stalin's repressions began in the early twenties of the twentieth century, and lasted for about thirty years. They can certainly be called the centralized policy of the state. Thanks to the thoughtless machine created by Stalin from the internal affairs bodies and the NKVD, the repressions were systematized and put on stream. Sentencing for political reasons was generally carried out in accordance with Article 58 of the Code and its subparagraphs. Among them were accusations of espionage, sabotage, treason, terrorist intentions, counter-revolutionary sabotage and others.
Causes of Stalin's repressions.
There are still many opinions about this. According to some of them, the repressions were carried out to clean up the political space from the opponents of Stalin. Others adhere to a position based on the fact that the purpose of terror was to intimidate civil society and, as a result, to strengthen the regime of Soviet power. And someone is sure that repression was a way to raise the level of industrial development of the country with the help of free work force as convicts.
The initiators of the Stalinist repressions.
According to some testimonies of those times, it can be concluded that the perpetrators of the mass imprisonments were Stalin's closest associates, such as N. Yezhov and L. Beria, who had under their command unlimited state security and internal affairs structures. They deliberately conveyed to the leader biased information about the state of affairs in the state, for the unhindered implementation of repression. However, some historians are of the opinion that Stalin's personal initiative in carrying out large-scale purges and his possession of complete data on the scale of arrests.
In the thirties, a huge number of prisons and camps located in the north of the country for better management are combined into one structure - the Gulag. They are engaged in a wide range of construction work, as well as working in the extraction of minerals and precious metals.
More recently, thanks to the partially declassified archives of the NKVD of the USSR, a wide range of people began to know the true numbers of repressed citizens. They amounted to almost 4 million people, of which approximately 700 thousand were sentenced to capital punishment. Only a small part of the innocently convicted were subsequently acquitted of charges. Only after the death of Joseph Vissarionovich did rehabilitation gain tangible proportions. The activities of comrades Beria, Yezhov, Yagoda and many others were also revised. They were convicted.
The need for reforms for Russia was doubly obvious. First, it was objectively necessary to eliminate feudal vestiges that hindered the progressive development of the country (landlordism, autocratic system, class privileges, etc.). Secondly, it was necessary to calm public opinion and suppress revolutionary sentiment.
A significant step along this path was taken in 1906, when the Basic Laws were adopted. Russian Empire that have made changes to the competence of public authorities. The king retained his position as legislative head and executor! noah power. He had exclusive rights to change the fundamental laws of the state, represented the country in the international arena, had the right to dissolve the State Duma and appoint members of the State Council. However, now the powers of the emperor were somewhat limited. Legislative activity was now carried out in cooperation between the emperor, the State Council and the State Duma, without the consent of which the law could not be adopted. The tsar could issue decrees, but without the approval of the Duma they could not act. The State Duma was thus a legislative body formed by curial (estate), multi-stage, unequal elections.
There are two points of view regarding these changes. Some scholars believe that these changes marked the beginning of the transformation of the autocracy into a constitutional monarchy. Others call these; changes are decorative, formal, incapable of changing the order of things that existed before.
In 1906, P. A. Stolypin, former Governor of Grodno and later of Saratov, was appointed as the new Minister of the Interior and Chairman of the Council of Ministers. An imperious and resolute man, he set himself two groups of tasks: for the near future - to suppress revolutionary uprisings with a hard hand and prepare a draft of reforms; in the long term - to create conditions for the formation of middle strata in the city and countryside, which would make it possible to guarantee public peace and prosperity of the country.
Stolypin clearly understood that it was possible to suppress revolutionary uprisings only by decisive actions of the authorities. To combat revolutionary violence and terror, courts-martial who did not hesitate to approve the death sentences of persons suspected of terrorist activities. These courts for 1907-1909. more than 5,000 death sentences were handed down. More than 26 thousand people were sent to hard labor for political reasons. The authorities explained these harsh measures by the need to combat terrorism (in 1906-1907, as a result of terrorist attacks and revolutionary uprisings, 4,126 officials were killed and 4,552 wounded). Accusations of establishing a dictatorship rained down on Stolypin. However, the intended result was obtained - the wave of violence in the country began to decline.
On November 9, 1906, the tsar approved the decree proposed by Stolypin, which began the agrarian reform. Its main content was the destruction of the peasant community and the provision of the peasants themselves to decide their future fate. To eliminate the shortage of land among the peasants, Stolypin proposed to begin a large-scale resettlement of peasants in need of land in the eastern regions of the country, where there was no shortage of it. To support them, it was supposed to provide loans through the Peasant Bank and provide assistance in land management to new owners - owners of cuts and farms.
In addition to the agrarian reform, Stolypin developed projects social reform(it was supposed to somewhat alleviate the position of the workers), restructuring the education system (it was supposed to provide universal primary education within 15-20 years), adjusting the national policy (aimed at introducing zemstvo self-government in the western provinces, etc.).
However, he was not destined to fulfill his plan. In September 1911, he fell at the hands of a terrorist in Kyiv. Many of his undertakings ended with him.
The main reason for the failure to implement the entire plan of Stolypin's reforms was that for the tsar and the upper strata of society, Stolypin's activity was only a forced step necessary to calm the masses and stop revolutionary uprisings. The reformer himself believed that something else was more important for Russia - to create conditions under which the revolution would become impossible in the future. Therefore, the need for a strong, intelligent, strong-willed head of government, who is not afraid at times to go against the will of the tsar, disappeared immediately after the threat of revolution faded into the background. His physical death came later than the political one.
Stolypin's reforms had great importance. He managed to find a solution to the problem of the lack of land of the peasants, without encroaching on landownership as one of the types of private property. The resettlement policy also gave a certain result (although not as significant as expected). In a number of regions of the country, farmsteads showed themselves already a few years after they were created as efficient producers of marketable bread, on which Stolypin's calculation was based.
At the same time, the agrarian reform initially could not completely remove all the contradictions in the agrarian sector that existed by that time. It was only the first step on this path.
The national-state structure of the USSR in 1920–1940
USSR- a federal state that legally took shape in 1923 by signing the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR.
The system of national state structure USSR:
1) Union SSR;
2) equal (in the beginning - sovereign) republics.
Discussion of the project of unification of the Soviet republics(1922) was the first stage in the formation of the national-state structure of the USSR. Proposals on the form of government:
1) confederate (V. I. Lenin);
2) unitary (I. V. Stalin).
In August 1922, the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP formed a special commission from among its members to develop a possible form of unification. As such, it was recognized as a federal republic, uniting equal sovereign republics (USSR).
A special commission of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party prepared a draft Treaty on the Formation of the USSR. After a long discussion of the project, the "Basic Points of the Constitution" were adopted and in November 1922 sent to the republics for discussion.
The second stage in the formation of the national-state structure of the USSR was discussion of the draft Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and its signing. The Congresses of Soviets of the Soviet Republics adopted a decision on the formation of the USSR and elected their plenipotentiary delegates to the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR. On December 23-29, the last X All-Russian Congress of Soviets took place, which was attended by delegates of the republics of the First All-Union Congress. The 10th All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided on the creation of the USSR and the entry of the RSFSR into it.
On December 30, 1922, the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR opened. He finally decided to unite the Soviet socialist republics in the USSR. The First Congress of Soviets of the USSR approved the Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the USSR, which later served as the basis for the first Constitution of the USSR in 1924.
The agreement on the creation of the USSR was originally signed by the RSFSR, BSSR, ZSFSR, Ukrainian SSR.
The principle of the federal structure of the USSR: the openness of the Treaty on the creation of the USSR for the entry of new republics.
Subsequent development of the USSR- the third stage of the formation of its national-state structure. Initially, Bukhara and Khorezm were not Soviet republics, therefore they did not become part of the USSR. The Turkestan ASSR was part of the RSFSR as an autonomous republic. In September 1924, the Central Executive Committee of the Turkestan ASSR, V All-Bukhara and V All-Khorezm Kurultai of Soviets divided the republics into the Uzbek SSR (joined the USSR in 1925), the Turkmen SSR (in 1925), the Tajik ASSR (became part of the Ukrainian SSR in 1926 .), Kirghiz ASSR.
In the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, the entry of new republics was fixed: Azerbaijan, Armenian and Georgian.
It also transformed the Kazakh and Kyrgyz Republics from autonomous republics of the RSFSR into union ones.
July 21, 1940 The People's Seimas of Latvia and Lithuania and The State Duma Estonia proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power in the Baltics, and by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 7, 1940, the Latvian SSR, the Lithuanian SSR and the Estonian SSR became part of the USSR as equal subjects.
In 1940, the composition of the USSR (16 union republics) was finally formed: RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Turkmen SSR, Tajik SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Armenian SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Karelian-Finnish SSR , Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Estonian SSR and Moldavian SSR.
Lesson 28
The purpose of the lesson: get an idea of the essence of the Soviet model of totalitarianism, as well as find out the objective and subjective prerequisites for its emergence and rather long existence; to determine the origins of mass support for the totalitarian regime in the USSR and its consequences for the economic, political, and spiritual life of the country.
Basic knowledge: structural links of the Soviet model of totalitarianism; VKP(b) - the core of the totalitarian system; ideologization public life; the system of mass organizations; punitive system and mass repressions.
Basic concepts: totalitarianism; Cult of personality; repression; authoritarian way of thinking; opposition; political processes.
Working with a historical map: show on the map the areas of the formation of the camp system for the political opposition in the 30s.
Work with historical sources: the platform of the "Union of Marxist-Leninists" (M. N. Ryutin's group); Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR (December 5, 1936); materials of the February-March plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1937; court reports on political trials 1936-1938; "Memoirs" of N. S. Khrushchev (M., 1997. -S. 61-89); memoirs of P. A. Sudoplatov "Intelligence and the Kremlin" (M., 1996. - S. 59-74), etc.
Working with computer textbook materials: CD-2.
Main dates: December 1, 1934 - the assassination of S. M. Kirov, the adoption of a decree on the "simplification" of doing business for political reasons; December 5, 1936 - adoption of the Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR; 1937 - peak political repression in USSR.
Issues for discussion. Some historians believe that in the 30s. Stalin actually revived the order that existed in pre-revolutionary Russia. Do you agree with this point of view? What circumstances do you think facilitated and facilitated the manipulation mass consciousness Soviet society in the 30s? Is it possible to repeat something like this modern conditions? Why?
Along with the textbook material, students can be offered additional information about the Constitution of the USSR of 1936.
In February 1936, a commission was formed to draft a new Constitution of the USSR. It was already the third constitution of the country in less than 20 years. As conceived by the creators, it was to become a "great democratic and socialist document" that consolidates the victory of socialism in the USSR. Leading specialists of the country were involved in the development of the project. N. I. Bukharin and K. B. Radek played one of the main roles in its creation. The constitution was developed by a narrow circle of people, and its discussion cannot be considered democratic: not a single provision of the country's Basic Law was discussed publicly, as was the case with the previous draft. Nevertheless, more than 40 million people took part in the work of hundreds of thousands of meetings to discuss the finished project, who made about 170 thousand minor proposals and additions.
The constitution of "victorious socialism" was a highly controversial document. On the one hand, it contained, of course, progressive provisions that until that time had not been enshrined in similar documents in any country (in particular, the right to work, the right to rest, to receive education, to material support in old age, on the occasion of disability). However, on the other hand, these and other points were nothing more than a political declaration. The rights and freedoms of citizens to hold demonstrations and marches, for example, were not regulated by the relevant laws, as a result of which they could only be exercised on May 1 and November 7 during official celebrations. The result of the general employment of the population was the minimized wages for the majority of workers. Pensions and other social benefits were also minimal.
Articles about the inviolability of the person, the home and the secrecy of correspondence in the conditions of the mass terror that had begun, no one remembered. Article 126 of the Constitution secured the special status of the Communist Party in political system. For political opponents of the authorities, the Basic Law fixed the definition of “enemy of the people”. The most important “sin” of the Stalin-Bukharin Constitution was that neither in 1936 nor later was it fully implemented.
The isolation of constitutional provisions from real political practice was fully manifested already in 1936. In the very days when the Constitution of “victorious socialism” was being adopted, a plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was convened in Moscow, at which plans were made to further “strengthen pest control ”, among which the “creator” of the Constitution N. I. Bukharin himself was named. At the March trial of 1938, another “father” of the Basic Law, K. B. Radek, found himself in the dock with him.
Students can be offered material summarized in a table on the national policy of the USSR in the 30s.
| The main directions of national policy in the 30s. |
| Strengthening the unitary state |
| Development in the union republics of monocultural agriculture and extractive industries |
| Introduction of the Slavic alphabet in the national republics |
| The tendency towards Russification of the peoples of the USSR |
| Use of the national wealth of Russia in the interests of strengthening the imperial power of the Union |
| Formation of autonomous republics, creation of autonomous regions, formation of national districts, creation of national regions |
| Minimization of the political and economic rights of the union and autonomous republics under the Constitution of 1936 |
| "Levelling" of national cultures and "muting" of national identity under the guise of "fight against nationalism" |
As control and verification questions and tasks on this topic, the following can be offered:
First level. What is a totalitarian regime? What is a totalitarian state? What role did the CPSU(b) play in the Soviet totalitarian system? What processes took place within the party itself? Give examples that testify to the assignment of state functions by the highest party bodies. What facts testify to the ideologization of public life in the country? Explain what the policy was iron curtain". For what purpose was it introduced? What is the purpose of creating mass public organizations? Why do you think Stalin needed a system mass repression?
Second level. What factors contributed to the establishment of a totalitarian regime in the USSR? What feature of the totalitarian system do you consider the main one and why? What are the reasons for the intensification of political repression in the 1930s? What place did the system of mass terror occupy in the totalitarian Stalinist state? What was the role of open show trials? What do you think prompted the defendants to admit non-existent guilt? What, in your opinion, is the socio-political meaning of the establishment of Stalin's personality cult? What circumstances do you think contributed to the formation of Stalin's personality cult? What is the inconsistency, duality of the Constitution of 1936? What is the purpose of adopting a new Constitution? What changes in national policy were enshrined in the 1936 Constitution? What were the reasons for the intensification of nation-state construction in the 1930s? In what direction did it evolve national policy Stalinist leadership in the 30s?
Third level. What are the socio-psychological consequences of the repressive system that prevailed in the country? Is it possible to agree with the opinion that these consequences have not been eliminated in society so far? Justify your answer. Name the people who opposed the Stalinist regime. What position did they occupy in the Stalinist social hierarchy? What features of the regime did they criticize the most, and what ideas did they not doubt? Why did not a powerful popular anti-Stalinist movement develop in the country? What is the fundamental difference between the "Red Terror" of the Civil War and the "Great Terror" of the 1930s?
Homework assignment.§ 26, questions and assignments to it. Tasks 2, 3, 5 of workbook(Issue 2, pp. 11-15).
. All
1. In 1929, a radical change occurred in the economic development of the USSR - The leadership of the USSR refused to continue the NEP policy and returned to administrative-command methods in the economy. Began industrialization And collectivization. All economy Topic: Industrialization in the USSR. First five-year plans
ica country has become tough centralized and became The beginning of the "radical change" was preceded by heated discussions about the fate of the NEP and further economic policy in the leadership of the Bolshevik Party ica country has become tough centralized and became develop according to the plan ("five-year plans"). The beginning of the "radical change" was preceded by heated discussions about the fate of the NEP and further economic policy in the leadership of the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet state. They became especially acute during the NEP crisis of 1926-1929.
Formed two different approaches to further economic development:
- N.I. Bukharin(he was supported by Rykov and Tomsky): continue the NEP and gradually achieve improvement in all spheres of life;
- I.V. Stalin: urgently stop the NEP, concentrate the efforts of the entire state on one thing, first of all, heavy industry.
The point of view of I.V. Stalin regarding stakes on the development of heavy industry justified by the fact that:
- heavy industry(metallurgy, mechanical engineering, resource-extracting industries) make the country industrial And reduce the gap with developed countries;
- heavy industry will become economic foundation of a powerful socialist state and "pull along" the rest of the economy;
Heavy industry will foundation of the military-industrial complex, which was extremely important due to the fact that Russia was in a hostile imperialist environment.
Later, on January 30, 1931, in his speech at the First All-Union Conference of Workers industrial enterprises I.V. Stalin says: "We are behind advanced countries 50 - 100 years, we must cover this distance in 10 years. Either we do it or we get crushed."
2. After heated discussions, the point of view of I.V. Stalin. In 1929, the NEP was terminated and a course was set for industrialization. Since the centralized development of heavy industry was incompatible with small-scale and handicraft agricultural production, At the same time, a course was taken towards the collectivization of agriculture.
The turning point in economic policy has led to significant changes in the leadership of the country:
- A.I. Rykov, who replaced V.I. Lenin as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (government) of the USSR and was his official successor, in 1930 he was removed from the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars;
Simultaneously the entire Bukharin group was removed from their posts, including N. Bukharin himself and I. Tomsky, which were announced "right deviators";
- in 1929 L. Trotsky was expelled from the USSR;
- in 1930, the new Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars becomes V.M. Molotov is a staunch supporter and key ally of I.V. Stalin at that time;
- "the year of the great turning point" (1929) is considered the time of the final victory in the 5-year struggle for power in the USSR I.V. Stalin and his group.
3. Features of economic policy,which the Soviet leadership began to carry out in 1929 after the collapse of the NEP.
- over-centralization of the entire economic life of the country;
Carrying out economic development according to 5 year plans, called the "five-year plan".
Overcentralization of the economy consisted in:
- liquidation of trusts, the private sector of the economy, other attributes of NEP;
Creation a powerful and extensive administrative-command system - chiefs, branch commissariats, various committees;
transformation Gosplan created back in 1921 as a coordinating body, to one of the "headquarters" of the economy, which determined all economic life;
- the transformation of the VKP(b) party itself into an administrative body for managing the economy, into the main supporting structure of the entire administrative-command system.
Gosplan, the party, the Council of People's Commissars, and numerous other bodies every 5 years, 5-year plans were developed, which described in detail what needed to be done (built), in what time frame and how to implement these projects. In the period 1928 - 1941, which went down in history as "period of the first five years" in the USSR were held three five-year plans:
The first five-year plan (began even before the "great turning point"): 1928 - 1932;
Second Five-Year Plan: 1933 - 1937;
Third Five-Year Plan: 1938 - 1941.
- (in the post-war period, eight more five-year plans and one seven-year plan were held in the USSR).
4. Main task First Five-Year Plan (1928-1932) was laying the foundation for Soviet heavy industry. During this period:
Was more than 1500 industrial enterprises have been built;
Including the main "giants" of Soviet industry - Ural-mash, Zaporizhstal, Rostselmash, Kharkov Tractor Plant (KhTZ), Stalingrad Tractor Plant, Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant (future GAZ), Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ), Magnitogorsk steel plant, Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel Works;
Were power plants, railways, canals were built(Dneproges, Turksib, Belomor-Baltic Canal), other infrastructure facilities.
Such industrial construction boom in record time was not observed during the development of capitalism in tsarist Russia, nor in the Soviet post-war era. Despite the enormous difficulties, the need to often build by hand, everyday inconveniences, the tasks of the First Five-Year Plan were fulfilled, and five years completed in 4 years and 3 months. Both the result itself and the fact that it was achieved by almost free labor became a sensation for the whole world. In fact This mission was accomplished thanks to:
- selfless labor of millions of Soviet workers, under the hypnosis of the strongest ideological impact;
- round-the-clock work, seven days a week, party and business leaders;
- transfer of forces and means from other branches - agriculture and light industry, their desolation, famine;
use covert forced labor.
5. The use of covert forced labor has become essential additional resource Bolsheviks during the accelerated industrialization.
This resource has been received by creating in the USSR a large army of prisoners, And use of their free labor in the construction of facilities:
At the beginning of industrialization, on June 27, 1929, the Politburo adopted the decision to deploy a network of correctional camps;
- V 1930 - the Main Directorate of Camps at the OPTU - GULAG was created;
As of May 1, 1930, there were approximately 271,000 prisoners in the USSR, housed in approximately 300 NKVD and OGPU camps;
By March 1, 1940, the number of camps of all kinds doubled and they contained about 1 million 700 thousand people;
About 40% of all prisoners were convicted on political charges;
- the state deliberately pursued a policy of condemning large masses of people for minor reasons(for example, being late for work, stealing spikelets, anti-Soviet statements, etc.) and then using them as free labor at industrial construction sites;
During 1929 - 1941 Thus more than 20 million people passed through the Gulag system (every eighth inhabitant of the USSR), who were sent to the construction sites of factories, railways and channels (about half of the objects of the first five-year plans were built by prisoners).
Another forced administrative measure in order to maintain the emergency mode of operation of the Soviet economy was introduction since 1929 of a rationing system for food.
The main task of the Second Five-Year Plan (1933 - 1937) was to achieve maximum labor efficiency at newly built enterprises. This task, as well as the tasks of the First Five-Year Plan, was solved by using non-economic methods of stimulation.
In 1935, the Stakhanov movement began in the USSR. The Donetsk miner is considered to be the founder of this movement. Alexey Stakhanov, which in one work shift, he mined coal 14.7 times more than the daily norm. This case was widely covered in all Soviet newspapers. Following Stakhanov began a whole series of similar labor feats, which were also covered by the press. In different parts of the country, workers, miners, and other advanced workers appeared one after another, who fulfilled 10, 15, 20 or more norms per day and competed with each other. These cases have developed into stakhanovist movement, which has become ubiquitous. Many workers worked selflessly, wanting to be like Stakhanov and the Stakhanovists, who were popular at that time.
Despite the fact that the feat of Stakhanov was falsified (Stakhanov overfulfilled the plan by 2.5 times, and not 14, and the result of the work of a whole team of several people was filed as the result of the "labor feat" of one A. Stakhanov), the Stakhanovite movement became a powerful stimulus for hard work. In addition to this, they used other non-economic incentives - socialist competition, passing red banner, etc. Along with this, they took administrative and punitive measures to maintain discipline and quality of work:
In 1933 was introduced criminal liability for the release of low-quality products;
Along with this, it introduces criminal liability for being late for work.
Like the First, the Second Five-Year Plan was completed. Its main result was rapid growth of industrial production in the country.
7. In 1938, the Third Five-Year Plan began in the USSR. One of its main goals become construction of enterprises of the military-industrial complex And production of military products:
- military enterprises of various profiles are being built throughout the country(often the data of the enterprise were secret or "camouflaged" as civilians, for example, a tank plant - for a tractor plant, etc.);
Established production of military aircraft, tanks, other types of weapons.
The usual course of the Third Five-Year Plan was interrupted on June 22, 1941, by the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany and its allies on the USSR.
8. Despite this, in 1929 - 1941, during the first three five-year plans of industrialization economy USSR achieved impressive results:
For the first time in history, the USSR took first place in Europe and second place in the world (after the USA) in terms of the level (quantity) of industrial production;
- The USSR became one of the four most industrialized countries in the world(together with the USA, Germany and Great Britain), which could independently produce industrial products any complexity;
- the foundations of one of the strongest military-industrial complex in the world were laid, without which the USSR (agrarian Russia) would hardly have been competitive in the war against Nazi Germany and a coalition of its allies;
These results were achieved in record time.
9. At the same time The price for such a rapid industrial breakthrough was:
- the decline of agriculture and light industry;
- extremely low and primitive standard of living for the vast majority of Soviet citizens(as a result of the fall of the light industry that produces household goods, more than 10 years of almost free labor);
- mass famine in some areas as a result of the undermining of agriculture (the famine of 1933 in the Ukraine and the Volga region);
- mass "Stalinist repressions", as a result of which millions of citizens on petty charges were imprisoned and turned into "Slaves of the construction sites of socialism."
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Repressions of the 30s. Causes, scales, consequences. Were they inevitable
mass repression intelligentsia Holodomor
It was when I smiled
Only the dead, happy with peace.
And swayed with an unnecessary pendant
Near the prisons of their Leningrad.
And when, mad with torment,
There were already condemned regiments,
And a short parting song
Locomotive whistles sang,
The death stars were above us
And innocent Rus' writhed
Under the bloody boots
And under the tires of black marus.
A. Akhmatova "Requiem"
"History is the witness of centuries, the torch of truth, the soul of memory, the mentor of life." Cicero.
Throughout the millennial path of development of the Russian state, each century is marked by its own special milestones - aggressive and liberation warriors, unrest and uprisings, periods of economic and cultural growth and decline, spiritual quests and their influence.
However, it is the 20th century that stands out as the most striking and tragic, when the turning point events and moments in the history of Russia and the world took place incredibly quickly, the fall of age-old foundations and moral norms, unprecedented scientific and industrial progress, abrupt change state system, its forms and the emergence of completely new ones.
A galaxy of the brightest personalities - the greatest scientists and deceivers, revolutionaries and dictators, great generals and terrifying inquisitors. In an uncompromising struggle, theories of social and economic development and political programs, all kinds of models for the organization of Russian and world society collided.
Much has been mixed up in the kaleidoscope of events, something has been tried and discarded, something has been destroyed and irretrievably lost, something has been accepted and elevated to the rank of an absolute.
The destinies of people and the destinies of states were crushed and sacrificed to the ambitions and vanity of individuals. But this century was also marked by the manifestation of unprecedented courage and sacrifice of individuals and entire nations. Loss of spirituality and acquisition of new ideals.
The need to know, feel, evaluate, passing through oneself, the history of this century, is due to the need to anticipate and prevent the possibility of repeating the terrible pages of Russian history, but at the same time not discarding all the positive and important things that one can really be proud of.
As a thinking person, it is first of all important for me to understand the role and influence of an individual on certain historical processes. What factors and how influence the formation of the personality and the influence of the personality itself on the world. It is important to understand the shortcomings modern society, as well as to answer the most important philosophical question What is the price human life Without an answer to which, in my opinion, it is impossible to build a moral, highly spiritual and progressive modern society.
It is no coincidence that I chose the theme of the repressions of the 30s. In my opinion, the most troubled and terrible period of time in the whole Russian history. The horror was not only in the number of victims, but also in the complete break and degradation of the human personality as a whole.
To answer the question about the causes of the mass repressions that took place, one should pay attention to the sequence of events of previous years.
If we return to the days of the great October revolution and the subsequent civil war, it becomes clear that it was these events that served as the starting point of mass terror and extermination, which swept over a vast territory and stretched for long years. The methods by which the Bolsheviks seized and retained power, permissiveness and impunity, made it possible in the future to move from mass terror to the total destruction of all those who were objectionable using the most inhumane means and methods.
After the death of V. Lenin and the physical elimination of political opponents (Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries), the Bolshevik Party gradually began to turn into a state structure with a complete rejection of democracy. A group of old Bolsheviks headed by Trotsky came out against the line of combining the functions of the party and the Soviet, in particular economic work. Speaking as a spokesman for the mood of the working masses, Trotsky and the opposition were supporters of the socialist sector of the economy and directive planning. However, the opposition to the triumvirate of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev ended in his defeat and a round of political purges. Which led to the destruction of the old Bolshevik guard and the strengthening of Stalin's position as the sole leader of the party and the country.
The lack of experience in managing a huge state with an economy undermined by revolution and terror, an overgrown nominklatura and bureaucratic apparatus, and low literacy of members of the ruling party led the country to a severe economic and economic crisis. In this connection, as a temporary measure of relaxation, the NEP is introduced. The confiscated factories and plants are partially returned, small traders and entrepreneurs appear, the peasants get the opportunity to sell the surplus of their products. However, the discontent of the working class, which does not feel any improvement in its own well-being, is gradually growing.
A new opposition is emerging in the party apparatus, the center of which is industrial Leningrad, where the stratification of society was more acutely felt.
Zinoviev and Kamenev launched a campaign against the majority in the Politburo. They criticized the then economic course, bureaucracy in the apparatus and the growing role of the state party nomenklatura with its leader Stalin at the head. The rejection of the idea of world revolution and integration into the world economic economy was also blamed on Stalin. However, the skillful manipulation and growing influence of Stalin led to a crushing defeat for Kamenev, Zinoviev and their supporters in December 1925. At the Congress of the AUCPB. Which led to the defeat of the Leningrad party organization and new mass purges in the party as a whole. In later years internal party struggle constantly escalates. The opposition, consisting of the united Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev and a number of old Bolsheviks, trying to resist Stalin and the unquestioningly subordinate nomenklatura apparatus selected by him, suffered a complete defeat. The whole of 1927 was marked by a campaign to discredit the oppositionists and expel them from the party ranks. The aggravation of the diplomatic relations of the USSR with a number of countries (England, Poland, China, etc.) made it possible to create the image of an accomplice and a spy, which made it possible to slander and condemn anyone who disagreed with the supreme leadership. As a result, at the Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus, after the failure to publish its program of economic reforms and democratization of the party, Trotsky, Kamenev and 93 prominent oppositionists were expelled from the party. Relying on his henchmen and nominees: V. M. Molotov, M. I. Kalinin, L. M. Kaganovich, S. Ordzhonikidze, S. M. Kirov, A. I. Mikoyan, A. A. Andreev and others. Stalin first, he pushed aside Lenin’s closest associates in the October Revolution and the Civil War (L. D. Trotsky, L. B. Kamenev, G. E. Zinoviev, N. I. Bukharin, A. I. Rykov, M. P. Tomsky and others. ) and then deprived of party and state positions.
In 1928, Bukharin said: “Stalin is an unprincipled intriguer who subordinates everything to the preservation of his power. this moment should be removed. Stalin is not interested in anything other than maintaining his power. Stalin's secretary Boris Bazhanov, who fled from the USSR, spoke about the same thing: "The passion is all-consuming, absolute, in which he is entirely - a thirst for power. Manic passion... the passion of an Asian satrap of distant times. He serves only her, he is always busy with her, only in her he sees the purpose of life. "This purge was of great importance.
Thus, by the year 30, power was completely concentrated in the hands of one person - Stalin. To a certain extent, his victory was due to the system of autocratic oligarchic rule both in the days of Tsarist Russia and in the USSR. It is also true that Stalin put forward more understandable ideas that met the needs of the majority in the council of the AUCPB. The idea of building socialism in a single state was proclaimed. There was a fusion of the party and state apparatus, all posts were placed completely controlled and managed by puppets clearly following the orders of one person. The seizure and retention of power, the desire for absolute domination by I. V. Stalin is one of the reasons for the mass repressions.
In fact, this process has been gaining momentum over the past 20 years. The inhuman policy of the Bolsheviks began with the Red Terror during the Civil War. When mass executions of hostages from the civilian population were carried out without trial or investigation. In retaliation for insubordination, the Cossacks were almost completely exterminated. Intentional famine, which led to huge casualties among the peasantry. The most brutal suppression of mass uprisings throughout the country, resisting surplus appropriation and robbery. The destruction of the church and its ministers is one of the institutions of moral values. Construction of a network of concentration camps for employees to destroy intimidation and slave labor.
By the end of the 20s. despite some stabilization of the economy, the growth of industrialization is insufficient. Just as fearful of a return to capitalist values among the rising peasantry, which would mean a threat to the power of the Bolsheviks, Stalin decides to abandon the NEP and force the peasants to grow into socialism. The pretext was Stalin's assertion that the free market and the NEP hold back the accelerated industrialization of the country, as they make the state dependent on the private owner. In reality, two tasks were set - the complete enslavement of the peasantry - forever and accelerated industrialization. Its essence was formulated by I. V. Stalin in a speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on November 19, 1928: “The rapid pace of industrialization is dictated by the external and internal conditions of our development. In technical terms, we are considerably behind the advanced capitalist countries, therefore “we must catch up and overtake these countries ... in technical and economic terms. Either we achieve it, or we will be overwhelmed.”
In the summer of 1929, despite adopted law about the five-year plan, the hype began around its target figures. Counter plans were unconditionally accepted, as if there were already material support for them. In response to the slogan "Five-year plan in four years!" Stalin called for it to be completed in three years. Tasks for heavy industry (in metallurgy, mechanical engineering, etc.) were sharply increased. At the same time, a campaign began to develop mass socialist competition in factories, factories, transport, and construction. For several months, the entire press, headed by Pravda, party, trade union, and Komsomol organs, intensively propagated various labor initiatives, many of which were taken up by the workers. Such forms of competition as the movement of shock workers, the movement for the adoption of counter plans, the "continuity", the movement to "catch up and overtake" the capitalist countries in terms of output and labor productivity, etc., became widespread. Socialist competition was proclaimed one of the main conditions for fulfilling the tasks of the five-year plan. It revived the revolutionary-romantic mood of the masses, the confidence that with the help of an assault, a swoop, an impulse, everything can be done.
A cascade of arbitrary, unsupported financial measures, carried out in the form of resolutions, orders, orders, literally tormented the country.
That is, one of the reasons for the repressions was illiterate economic management, unjustified and inappropriate storming against the backdrop of abnormal, hysterical public enthusiasm, which led to the fact that the rate of industrialization growth required by the Bolsheviks could be achieved only through violent measures, free slave labor and complete subordination.
Which brings us to another reason for the repression of a total change in human consciousness and moral values in general.
In fact, no one from the top of the party, from Lenin to Stalin, was ever interested in and did not take into account the needs and rights of an individual person. Proclaiming really advanced slogans and promises for that time, in fact, everything came down to ordinary populism in the struggle for power. The path to the utopian idea of universal equality and prosperity was sent by the corpses of millions of people. Communist and socialist ideas were distorted depending on the requirements of the political situation or personal ambitions. Immoral, unprincipled people came to power, striving to achieve their selfish goals at any cost. And for this they needed to create people of a new formation, people capable of killing and torturing on orders without any moral regret or repentance, capable of hypocrisy and lying - opportunists. And, accordingly, to destroy any dissent and spirituality. First of all, all religious institutions, regardless of confession, were subjected to terror. The most valuable works of art and architecture were destroyed and sold. The largest figures of science and culture were shot or exiled to camps. At the most everyday level, people were driven to a bestial state by hunger, cold, lack of rights. All this gave rise to the moral degradation of cannibalism, waves of homeless children, sexual promiscuity, the collapse of family values, slander and betrayal. After the civil war, the repressive authorities began to form an extensive network of informers. Whistleblowing has become commonplace, even among members of the same family.
As a result, there are three main components - political, economic and moral historical processes that happened in the 20s and 30s. were shaping the appearance and essence of the new Soviet state.
Let us consider the specific scale of the tragedy unfolding in these years.
In the early 1930s, the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary parties were finally done away with. Almost all opponents after high-profile trials were either shot or exiled to prisons and camps. In the political sphere, a monopoly of the Communist Party was established. It also seized a monopoly of power. In fact, the country was ruled not by the authorities, but by the highest party bodies, which approved the main economic, social and political tasks of the country. The local party structures made the main decisions for the regions and managed them - in accordance with the instructions of the leader and the Politburo.
Stalin's personality cult was established. The wide celebration of the fiftieth anniversary (December 21, 1929) of I.V. , which had no analogue in the entire history of Russia, either before or after. The system of sycophancy extended to other bosses as well, until they suffered the sad fate of being repressed by their own authorities. Everything was renamed or renamed again - cities, streets, steamboats, theaters, factories, collective farms, mountain peaks.
In 1933 was conquered highest point USSR - Stalin Peak in the Pamirs.
In 1931, Stalin, in a letter to the editors of the magazine " proletarian revolution» "On some questions of the history of Bolshevism" announces that only "hopeless bureaucrats" can search for documents; in history, it is not the sources that are important, but the correct attitude. Since then, Stalin's dictate in the field of ideology has become indisputable.
They began to exalt him as the "father of peoples", the leader of the world proletariat, the keeper of Lenin's precepts, the "teacher of the universe." Many literary and artistic panegyrics in his honor were initiated and directed by Stalin himself. At the same time, he deeply despised the people who “adored” him, often calling him a flock of sheep.
Marxism-Leninism became the official state ideology. In accordance with this, the education system in the country was changed, educational plans and content training courses. The works of the ideological opponents of the Bolsheviks have been removed from libraries. Soviet people from birth received the "correct" ideological education. A significant role was played humanities(philosophy, linguistics, political economy, philology, etc.) designed, according to Stalin, to form a new worldview of people.
In means mass media and strict censorship was introduced in the arts. With their help, as well as extensive networks of "political education" bodies and grassroots party cells, an atmosphere of spy mania, anger, and intolerance towards any manifestation of dissent is being whipped up in the country. Any dissent was prosecuted as the gravest crime.
A powerful punitive system has been created - the OGPU, the NKVD, a huge network of prisons and concentration camps united in common system GULAG.
On January 17, 1930, an article by People's Commissar of Justice N.V. Krylenko was published on the pages of Pravda, which, in particular, stated: “Based on the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on May 29, 1929, imprisonment for terms of less than a year is no longer practiced. It is proposed to develop the system of forced labor to the maximum extent. A number of measures have been taken to use the labor of persons sentenced to more than 3 years in socially necessary work in special camps in remote areas.
In the winter of 1930, there were more than 400,000 prisoners in the USSR. By 1933, using free slave labor, the White Sea-Baltic Canal was dug and built by hand. Hundreds of thousands of people died from starvation, unbearable labor and inhuman conditions of existence. In 1930 - 1940. at least 500,000 people died in the Gulag. With the help of the labor of prisoners, they mastered Natural resources KomiSSR, Kolyma, Taimyr. On March 1, 1940, the GULAG consisted of 53 camps, 425 correctional labor colonies (CITs), 50 juvenile colonies; in total - 1,668,200 prisoners.
In addition, in January 1932, there were 1.4 million deported "kulaks" and members of their families in special settlements. A minority of them were engaged agriculture, most worked in the forestry and mining industries. Labor settlements of the NKVD were established in accordance with the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of August 16, 1931, 174s), April 20, 1933 (No. 775/146s) and August 21, 1933.
(1796/393s). The GULAG was responsible for supervision, organization, household services and the labor use of evicted kulaks.
By the spring of 1935, 445 thousand special settlers (including family members) worked in 1271 non-statutory agricultural artels (the difference from the usual one, in particular, was that the board was headed by a commandant); 640 thousand - in industry. For 1930-1937 Special settlers uprooted 183,416 hectares and cleared 58,800 hectares of shrubs and small forests. In Narym and the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, swamps were drained on an area of 2988 hectares; in the arid regions of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, 12,857 hectares of land have been irrigated. 243,161 hectares of virgin lands were also raised and developed. Forces of special settlers laid dirt roads in roadless areas. By January 1, 1938, their total length was 7294 km. Since 1932, the removal of restrictions and the granting of civil rights to special settlers began, affecting a narrow circle of people. In September 1938, non-statutory artels were transferred to the general charter of an agricultural artel. By the beginning of 1941, there were 930,221 people in the places of settlements.
In 1935, the forced labor sector numbered approximately 2 million 85 thousand people: 1 million 85 thousand in special settlements, 1 million in the Gulag; as of January 1, 1941, about 1,930,000 people in the Gulag, 930,221 people living in settlements, worked in conditions close to those usual in the country.
After the Shakhty case, which took place at the end of the 20s, the fight against "pests" from among the scientific, technical and creative intelligentsia began.
In the spring of 1930, an open political trial took place in Ukraine in the case of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, headed by the largest Ukrainian scientist, vice-president of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) S. O. Efremov. In addition to him, there were over 40 people in the dock.
In the same year, it was announced that another counter-revolutionary organization had been uncovered - the Labor Peasant Party, which was allegedly headed by economists N. D. Kondratiev, A. V. Chayanov, L. N. Yurovsky, agronomist A. G. Doyarenko and some other. In the autumn of 1930, a report appeared about the discovery by the OGPU of a sabotage and espionage organization in the sphere of supplying the population with the most important foodstuffs, especially meat, fish and vegetables. According to the OGPU, the organization was headed by the former landowner Professor A. V. Ryazantsev and the former landowner General E. S. Karatygin, as well as other former nobles and industrialists, Cadets and Mensheviks, who “sneaked” into leading economic positions. As reported in the press, they managed to upset the food supply system of many cities and workers' settlements, organize famine in a number of regions of the country, they were blamed for raising prices for meat and meat products, etc. Unlike other similar trials, the verdict in this The case was extremely harsh - all those involved (46 people) were shot by order of a closed court.
November 25-December 7, 1930, an open trial took place in Moscow over a group of authoritative technical specialists accused of sabotage and counter-revolutionary activities - the trial of the Industrial Party. Eight people were brought to trial: L. K. Ramzin, director of the Thermal Engineering Institute, a specialist in the field of heat engineering and boiler building; specialists in the field technical sciences and planning: V. A. Larichev, I. A. Kalinnikov, N. F. Charnevsky, A. A. Fedotov, S. V. Kupriyanov, V. I. Ochkin, K. V. Sitnin. At trial, all the defendants pleaded guilty.
Political processes of the late 20's - early 30's. served as a pretext for mass repressions against the old ("bourgeois") intelligentsia, whose representatives worked in various people's commissariats, educational institutions, in the Academy of Sciences, in museums, cooperative organizations, in the army. The punitive organs dealt the main blow in 1928-1932. according to the technical intelligentsia - "specialists". Prisons at that time were called by wits "rest houses for engineers and technicians"
Between 1928 and 1939 carried out both physical and moral destruction of the intelligentsia, the eradication of its moral foundations and principles. During these years, the following were repressed, ended up in camps or shot: writers - S. Klychkov, O. Mendelstam, Babel, Pilnyak, Artem Vesely, director V. Meyerhold, theologian and learned priest P. Florensky, scientists of such a scale as S. Korolev, A Tupolev, B. Stechkin, etc. During this period, the directors and chief engineers of the largest enterprises and mines were destroyed.
Stalin responded to the financial difficulties of 1929 by ordering the execution of several dozen employees of financial departments, from leading economists to ordinary cashiers;
In November 1929, Stalin's article "The Year of the Great Change" was published, in which it was stated that it had already been possible to organize a "radical change in the depths of the peasantry itself" in favor of the collective farms. At the end of December of the same year, at the All-Union Conference of Marxist Agrarians, he announced that "one of the decisive turns" had taken place in the policy of the party and the state: "... from the policy of limiting the exploitative tendencies of the kulaks, we switched to the policy of liquidating the kulaks as a class"; it is necessary to "break the kulaks", "strike the kulaks... so that they can no longer rise to their feet..."
The policy of "eliminating the kulaks as a class on the basis of complete collectivization" was announced by a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of January 5, 1930. Up to 30,000 Bolsheviks are sent to the villages. Robbed wealthy peasants and their families are deprived of their rights and property and relocated to uninhabited, unsettled territories unsuitable for agricultural activities. In total, during collectivization, 2.1 million people were deported to remote areas and approximately the same number within their regions. Of the total, about 4 million - 1.8 million died.
These are only adults, children were not taken into account, and almost all of them died.
In 1932, when internal passports were introduced, peasants did not receive them, which deprives them of the right to change both their place of residence and work. Practically returns and consolidates in the country serfdom the peasants become slaves. To suppress the numerous peasant revolts that arose during collectivization, conditions were artificially created for the onset of famine. In 1932-33. on the territory of Ukraine, the Volga region, North Caucasus, the southern Urals, central Russia and Kazakhstan, the famine raged. About 6.5 million people died of starvation.
A new round of repressions against the church began.
An "anti-religious five-year plan" is announced, setting as its goal by May 1, 1937. the destruction of all temples and "the very concept of God". In the early 1930s, there was a campaign of "ceremonial" dropping of bells from churches. Many priceless bells, cast by Russian craftsmen over half a millennium, perished. In the villages, churches were massively closed, they were turned into collective farm warehouses or clubs.
The greatest monuments were destroyed Christian culture(Temple of Christ
Savior, Chudov Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin). The priests were sent into exile along with the kulaks. Decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of April 8, 1929. and the later instruction of the NKVD not only deprived the church of any legal rights, but also almost completely deprived the opportunity to engage in any spiritual and propaganda activities. In the period 1929 to 1934, almost 40,000 people (clergy and monasticism) were repressed, 5,000 were killed. A union of militant atheists was created (1925 - 1943)
As a result of the anti-church policy, by the beginning of the Second World War, only 4 ruling bishops remained free in the USSR, no more than 350 active churches, in which less than 500 priests served. Russian Orthodox Church, which was at the beginning of the 20th century. the largest Local Church of the Orthodox world, was almost completely destroyed.
The punitive system has acquired a solid legislative and organizational basis.
In 20 - 30 years. The OGPU created an agent-sabotage spy network to eliminate prominent figures of the white movement outside the borders of the USSR. In 1940, Trotsky, who emigrated to Mexico, was killed by the secret department of the NKVD on the orders of Stalin. The same fate befell many leaders of the white movement, the monarchist emigration. In 1932, a law was passed according to which even minor theft was punishable by execution.
On June 8, 1934, a law was passed on the introduction death penalty for treason. Relatives of the traitor also fell under this law, who determined their punishment from exile to a concentration camp.
In December 1934, the first secretary of the Leningrad Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, S. M. Kirov, was killed in Leningrad. This was the reason for a new wave of repression. A few hours after the assassination, a law was passed on the "simplified procedure" for dealing with cases of terrorist acts and organizations. He introduced accelerated consideration of cases without a prosecutor and a lawyer. All cases were to be considered within 10 days. Requests for pardon were prohibited. Death sentences were carried out immediately after they were announced.
In 1935, a government decree was issued that lowered the age of criminal responsibility. Now children from the age of 12 were subjected to criminal prosecution on an equal basis with adults. For them, all measures of criminal punishment were introduced - up to the death penalty.
In 1936 demonstrations began in Moscow. trials over Stalin's main opponents. The first was the trial of the leaders of the inner-party opposition - Zinoviev, Kamenev and their associates. They were accused of killing Kirov, trying to kill Stalin and other party leaders, trying to overthrow Soviet power. According to the verdict of the court, they were shot.
From February 23 to March 5, 1937, the infamous Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks took place, at which on March 3, I.V. intensification of the class struggle.
He declared: “... the more we move forward, the more we have successes, the more the remnants of the defeated exploiting classes will become embittered, the sooner they will go to sharper forms of struggle, the more they will harm the Soviet state, the more they will grab for the most desperate means of struggle as the last means of the doomed."
The main enemies of the Soviet state were declared the Trotskyists, who, according to Stalin, turned into "...an unprincipled and unprincipled gang of wreckers, saboteurs, spies, assassins, employed by some intelligence agencies." He called "in the fight against modern Trotskyism" to use ... "not the old methods, not the methods of discussion, but new methods, methods of uprooting and defeat"
In fact, this was a task clearly formulated before the NKVD of the USSR to destroy the "enemies of the people." In his closing remarks at the Plenum on March 5, 1937, Stalin, relying on the results of the party discussion in 1927, even named a specific number of "enemies" - 30 thousand Trotskyists, Zinovievists and any other "riff-raff: rightists and so on."
Since July 5, 1937, the “troikas” (“Troikas”, as an extrajudicial body, were created on October 29, 1929 by an OGPU circular for preliminary consideration of investigative cases and a report at court hearings.) had the right to impose death sentences. The composition of the "troikas" included the head of the regional or regional UNKVD, regional or regional prosecutors, secretaries of regional committees, regional committees. The personal composition of the "troikas" was approved by the Politburo of the Central Committee. At a meeting of the Politburo, the control figures for the arrest and execution of enemies of the people were approved.
On July 30, 1937, Yezhov signed Order No. 00447 on the start of a massive repressive operation against the remnants of the hostile classes.
In less than two years, 1937-38, according to official figures, 1,575,259 people were arrested and 681,692 were shot.
All those subjected to punishment were divided into two categories. Those assigned to the 1st category of the “troika” were given orders - execution, to the 2nd category - imprisonment in camps for a period of 8 to 10 years. A long list of "contingents" subject to repression was identified: "former kulaks", "socially dangerous elements in rebel, fascist, terrorist and bandit formations", "members of anti-Soviet parties", "former whites, gendarmes, officials, punishers, bandits, gang accomplices, ferryers, re-emigrants", "the most hostile and active participants in the Cossack-White Guard rebel organizations, fascist, terrorist and spy-sabotage counter-revolutionary formations", "sectarian activists, churchmen", "criminals".
The punishing sword of the NKVD was supposed to hit numerous enemies, regardless of their location: those held “in custody, in prisons, camps, labor settlements and colonies”, who continued to “conduct active anti-Soviet subversive work there”, who lived in the countryside, city and worked “in collective farms, state farms, agricultural enterprises .... at industrial and commercial enterprises, transport, in Soviet institutions and in construction.
The repressive operation should begin on August 5, in the Uzbek, Turkmen, Tajik and Kirghiz SSRs - on August 10, in the Far East and Krasnoyarsk Territories and the East Siberian Region - on August 15, 1937 and end within four months. The order approved a specific number of persons subject to repression in the first and second categories for each republic, territory or region. In total, 268,950 people in the country "in a planned manner" were to be repressed in the first and second categories, including 10,000 people in the NKVD camps in the first category. These figures are "indicative". But the people's commissars of the republican NKVD and the heads of the regional and regional departments of the NKVD had the right to "independently exceed them." It was allowed to “reduce the numbers” and transfer “persons scheduled for repression in the first category to the second and vice versa ...”
However, execution norms were often overfulfilled due to local initiative.
So in the cipher telegram of the head of the UNKVD for the Omsk region G. F. Gorbach to N. I. Yezhov dated August 14, 1937, it was reported that on August 13, 5444 people were arrested in the 1st category. G. F. Gorbach asked to increase the "indicative" figure for the first category from 1,000 to 8,000 people. This document was shown to Stalin, who with his own hand imposed a resolution “To T. Yezhov, For increasing the limit to 8 thousand. I. Stalin. There was an increase in the "planned task" of the NKVD of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, which initially set a completely "insignificant" figure for the elimination of "enemies of the people" in the first category - 750 people. On August 20, I. V. Stalin and V. M. Molotov “corrected” the mistake by expanding the “limit” by 6,600 people. Thus, in 1937 the limits on the repressed were increased - twice as much.
On September 8, N. I. Yezhov reported in a special message to Stalin that in August 146,225 people were arrested, that is, the five-month plan was fulfilled by 54.37%. "Threes" condemned 31,530 people to execution and 13,669 people to imprisonment in camps and prisons. The "troikas" considered investigative cases in absentia, in an expedited manner.
For example:. The "troika" of the Krasnodar Territory in one day on November 20, 1937 considered 1252 criminal cases. If we assume that the “troika” worked without interruption for all 24 hours, then 1 minute was spent on one case. 15 seconds. The same "troika" on the day of November 1, 1938 passed 619 death sentences - 2.5 minutes were spent on one case.
Denunciation, especially against superiors, neighbors or colleagues, has become for many a means of promotion or improvement of living conditions.
In 1937, the second trial took place. Another group of leaders of the "Leninist Guard" was convicted. Most of the higher commanders Red Army led by Marshal Tukhachevsky. Most of the regimental commanders were killed, 40,000 commanders were repressed.
In 1938, the third trial took place. The “favorite of the party” Bukharin and the former head of the government Rykov were shot.
In the course of these trials, tens of thousands of people were repressed - relatives and acquaintances of the convicts, their colleagues, housemates.
The executions of the party elite were carried out under the direct supervision of the Politburo. 383 “hit lists” approved by Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich and others have been preserved in the archives. They included 44.5 thousand names, some of them are entitled “Wives of the enemies of the people”, “Children of the enemies of the people”.
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the resolution of July 5, 1937 "The Question of the NKVD". This ruling stated:
“1. Accept the proposal of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs to imprison in camps for 5-8 years all the wives of convicted traitors to the motherland, members of the Right-Trotskyist espionage and sabotage organizations, according to the list presented.
- 3. Establish henceforth a procedure according to which all wives of exposed traitors to the homeland of Right-Trotskyist spies are to be imprisoned in camps for at least 5-8 years.
- 4. All orphans under the age of 15 remaining after the conviction should be taken to state support ...
- 5. To propose to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs to place children in the existing network of orphanages and closed boarding schools of the People's Commissariat of Education of the republics ... ".
In pursuance of this resolution, the NKVD on August 15, 1937 issues order No. 00486 "On the operation to repress the wives and children of traitors to the motherland."
Women's camps for traitors to the motherland and orphanages of the NKVD were opened in the country.
On May 20, 1938, a special order of the NKVD demanded a tougher regime in orphanages for the children of executed parents. Many of them, like, for example, Yuri Kamenev, were killed upon reaching the age of 16 or even 14.
In 1937-1938. On the orders of Stalin and with the consent of Dmitrov and the executive committee of the Comintern, many prominent figures of the Comintern, including those of foreign origin, were killed and tortured to death in the camps.
The perpetrators of terror, Yagoda and Yezhov, and almost all of the original leadership of the Gulag were also liquidated. Of the 20 top officials of the NKVD who joined the party under tsarism, all were shot. Of the 20 who joined the party after the revolution, 15 were shot.
In total, according to official data, in the period from 1930 to 1953, 3.8 million people were repressed (shot or exiled). Of these, only in the 30s, more than 700 thousand people were sentenced to death.
The consequences of this decade are difficult to assess unambiguously, since it cannot be denied that it was during this time period that the largest state on the planet was formed, which became the Motherland of our great-grandfathers, grandfathers and parents.
Stalinist socialism was fundamentally different from everything that was in the world surrounding the USSR, both in political, economic and social terms.
The main thing is that state ownership was introduced for all means of production, which excluded the stratification of society into antagonistic classes, that is, there is no “exploitation of man by man”. Exploitation by the state is not considered, since the state is a workers' and peasants' state.
Thanks to the state monopoly:
Eliminated unemployment - the most pressing problem capitalist society that time. Create as many jobs as needed.
The capital market has been abolished - there is no stock exchange, no ups and downs of economic conjuncture. The Great Depression begins in the West at this time.
A fairly even distribution of income is being carried out - practically free housing, education, and medical care.
High social mobility of the population - young people are always dear to us.
High rates of industrialization - built a large number of enterprises, infrastructure, development of science.
However, the real cost of these achievements is enormous:
Low standard of living - a constant shortage of everything, low assortment and quality, is the result of the lack of market relations.
Complete defenselessness before the apparatus of power, violence - the complete alienation of property in order to maintain the system in a tough, predatory way.
"Active lack of freedom" - any member of society was not only completely isolated from the outside world, not only had to know the official propaganda, but also to accept Active participation in the social life she interprets to show her consciousness.
Daily life was hard and exhausting. The lack of housing led to an overpopulation of the existing communal apartments, which led to constant domestic conflicts and problems. Constant queues, shortages, lack of the most necessary things gave rise to theft at all levels. Being in constant fear forced people to excessively abuse alcohol and tobacco. The most difficult situation for women (low wages, hard work, harsh life), due to the ban on abortion, increased mortality.
All these components have become an integral feature of Soviet life.
This is just a general historical picture of that period of time. She is unable to convey the pain, horror, hopelessness and fear of every repression ground by the millstones.
No pain from the betrayal of comrades, no horror from the loss of a loved one, no hopelessness from eternal separation from relatives.
Each individual person is a whole world, a vast universe - destroyed and buried in the ruins of the terrible years of Stalinist terror.
Huge losses of human capital and massive spiritual degradation were the result of these years.
Was it possible to avoid reprisals?
In my opinion, the objective demands made by the world economy and the actions of the political forces that came to power during this period of time, with their utopian, radical views, could not but be accompanied by a huge wave of violence.
Without violence, the social model imposed on society in those years was not viable.
A huge number of objective and subjective reasons brought the Bolshevik Party and Stalin in particular to power. The role of his personality played a decisive role in the process of establishing the socialist model of the state, accompanied by the destruction of a whole generation of people.
Despite wars, revolutions, illiteracy and inhumanity of power, a person inside many survived, having managed to preserve the highest spiritual values and the ability, first of all, to think independently.
