1924–1928: Succeeding Lenin

Upon Lenin's death in January 1924,^[192] Stalin took charge of the funeral and was a pallbearer.^[193] To bolster his image as a devoted Leninist amid his growing personality cult, Stalin gave nine lectures at Sverdlov University on the Foundations of Leninism, later published in book form.^[194] At the 13th Party Congress in May 1924, Lenin's Testament was read only to the leaders of the provincial delegations.^[195] Embarrassed by its contents, Stalin offered his resignation as General Secretary; this act of humility saved him, and he was retained in the post.^[196]

As General Secretary, Stalin had a free hand in making appointments to his own staff, and implanted loyalists throughout the party.^[197] Favouring new members from proletarian backgrounds to "Old Bolsheviks", who tended to be middle-class university graduates,^[198] he ensured that he had loyalists dispersed across the regions.^[199] Stalin had much contact with young party functionaries,^[200] and the desire for promotion led many to seek his favour.^[201] Stalin also developed close relations with key figures in the secret police: Felix Dzerzhinsky, Genrikh Yagoda, and Vyacheslav Menzhinsky.^[202] His wife gave birth to a daughter, Svetlana, in February 1926.^[203]

In the wake of Lenin's death, a power struggle emerged to become his successor: alongside Stalin was Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, and Mikhail Tomsky.^[204] Stalin saw Trotsky—whom he personally despised^[205]—as the main obstacle to his dominance,^[206] and during Lenin's illness had formed an unofficial triumvirate (troika) with Kamanev and Zinoviev against him.^[207] Although Zinoviev was concerned about Stalin's growing power, he rallied behind him at the 13th Congress as a counterweight to Trotsky, who now led a faction known as the Left Opposition.^[208] Trotsky's supporters believed that the NEP conceded too much to capitalism, and they called Stalin a "rightist" for his support of the policy.^[209] Stalin built up a retinue of his supporters within the Central Committee^[210] as the Left Opposition were marginalised.^[211]

In late 1924, Stalin moved against Kamenev and Zinoviev, removing their supporters from key positions.^[212] In 1925, the two moved into open opposition to Stalin and Bukharin^[213] and launched an unsuccessful attack on their faction at the 14th Party Congress in December.^[214] Stalin accused Kamenev and Zinoviev of reintroducing factionalism, and thus instability.^[214] In mid-1926, Kamenev and Zinoviev joined with Trotsky to form the United Opposition against Stalin;^[215] in October the two agreed to stop factional activity under threat of expulsion, and later publicly recanted their views.^[216] The factionalist arguments continued, with Stalin threatening to resign in October and December 1926, and again in December 1927.^[217] In October 1927, Trotsky was removed from the Central Committee;^[218] he was later exiled to Kazakhstan in 1928 and deported from the country in 1929.^[219]

Stalin was now the supreme leader of the party and state.^[220] He entrusted the position of head of government to Vyacheslav Molotov; other important supporters on the Politburo were Voroshilov, Lazar Kaganovich, and Sergo Ordzhonikidze,^[221] with Stalin ensuring his allies ran state institutions.^[222] His growing influence was reflected in naming of locations after him; in June 1924 the Ukrainian city of Yuzovka became Stalino,^[223] and in April 1925, Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad.^[224] In 1926, Stalin published On Questions of Leninism,^[225] in which he argued for the concept of "socialism in one country", which was presented as an orthodox Leninist perspective despite clashing with established Bolshevik views that socialism could only be achieved globally through the process of world revolution.^[225] In 1927, there was some argument in the party over Soviet policy regarding China. Stalin had called for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, to ally itself with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists, viewing a CCP-KMT alliance as the best bulwark against Japanese imperial expansionism. Instead, the KMT repressed the CCP and a civil war broke out between the two sides.^[226]

1928–1932: First five-year plan

Economic policy

We have fallen behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years. We must close that gap in ten years. Either we do this or we'll be crushed.

This is what our obligations before the workers and peasants of the USSR dictate to us.

— Stalin, February 1931^[227]

The Soviet Union lagged far behind the industrial and agricultural development of the Western powers.^[228] Stalin's government feared attack from capitalist countries,^[229] and many communists, including in Komsomol, OGPU, and the Red Army, were eager to be rid of the NEP and its market-oriented approach.^[230] They had concerns about those who profited from the policy: affluent peasants known as "kulaks" and small business owners, or "NEPmen".^[231] At this point, Stalin turned against the NEP, which put him on a course to the "left" even of Trotsky or Zinoviev.^[232]

In early 1928, Stalin travelled to Novosibirsk, where he alleged that kulaks were hoarding grain and ordered them be arrested and their grain confiscated, with Stalin bringing much of the grain back to Moscow with him in February.^[233] At his command, grain procurement squads surfaced across West Siberia and the Urals, with violence breaking out between the squads and the peasantry.^[234] Stalin announced that kulaks and the "middle peasants" must be coerced into releasing their harvest.^[235] Bukharin and other Central Committee members were angered that they had not been consulted about the measure.^[236] In January 1930, the Politburo approved the "liquidation" of the kulak class, which was exiled to other parts of the country or concentration camps.^[237]^[238] By July 1930, over 320,000 households had been affected.^[237] According to Dmitri Volkogonov, de-kulakisation was "the first mass terror applied by Stalin in his own country."^[239]

Thumb — Aleksei Stakhanov with a fellow miner. Stalin's government initiated the Stakhanovite movement in order to encourage hard work.^[240]

In 1929, the Politburo announced the mass collectivisation of agriculture,^[241] establishing both kolkhoz collective farms and sovkhoz state farms.^[242] Although officially voluntary, many peasants joined the collectives out of fear they would face the fate of the kulaks.^[243] By 1932, about 62% of households involved in agriculture were part of collectives, and by 1936 this had risen to 90%.^[244] Many collectivised peasants resented the loss of their private farmland,^[245] and productivity slumped.^[246] Famine broke out in many areas,^[247] with the Politburo frequently being forced to dispatch emergency food relief.^[248] Armed peasant uprisings broke out in Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Southern Russia, and Central Asia, reaching their apex in March 1930; these were suppressed by the army.^[249] Stalin responded with an article insisting that collectivisation was voluntary and blaming violence on local officials.^[250] Although he and Stalin had been close for many years,^[251] Bukharin expressed concerns and regarded them as a return to Lenin's old "war communism" policy. By mid-1928, he was unable to rally sufficient support in the party to oppose the reforms;^[252] in November 1929, Stalin removed him from the Politburo.^[253]

Officially, the Soviet Union had replaced the "irrationality" and "wastefulness" of a market economy with a planned economy organised along a long-term and scientific framework; in reality, Soviet economics were based on ad hoc commandments issued often to make short-term targets.^[254] In 1928, the first five-year plan was launched by Stalin with a main focus on boosting Soviet heavy industry;^[255] it was finished a year ahead of schedule, in 1932.^[256] The country underwent a massive economic transformation:^[257] new mines were opened, new cities like Magnitogorsk constructed, and work on the White Sea–Baltic Canal began.^[257] Millions of peasants moved to the cities, and large debts were accrued purchasing foreign-made machinery.^[258]

Many major construction projects, including the White Sea–Baltic Canal and the Moscow Metro, were constructed largely through forced labour.^[259] The last elements of workers' control over industry were removed, with factory managers receiving privileges;^[260] Stalin defended wage disparity by pointing to Marx's argument that it was necessary during the lower stages of socialism.^[261] To promote intensification of labour, medals and awards as well as the Stakhanovite movement were introduced.^[240] Stalin argued that socialism was being established in the USSR while capitalism was crumbling during the Great Depression.^[262] His rhetoric reflected his utopian vision of the "new Soviet person" rising to unparallelled heights of human development.^[263]

Cultural and foreign policy

In 1928, Stalin declared that class war between the proletariat and their enemies would intensify as socialism developed.^[264] He warned of a "danger from the right", including from within the Communist Party.^[265] The first major show trial in the USSR was the Shakhty Trial of 1928, in which middle-class "industrial specialists" were convicted of sabotage.^[266] From 1929 to 1930, show trials were held to intimidate opposition;^[267] these included the Industrial Party Trial, Menshevik Trial, and Metro-Vickers Trial.^[268] Aware that the ethnic Russian majority may have concerns about being ruled by a Georgian,^[269] he promoted ethnic Russians throughout the state bureaucracy and made Russian compulsory in schools, albeit in tandem with local languages.^[270] Nationalist sentiment was suppressed.^[271] Conservative social policies were promoted to boost population growth; this included a focus on strong family units, re-criminalisation of homosexuality, restrictions on abortion and divorce, and abolition of the Zhenotdel women's department.^[272]

Stalin desired a "cultural revolution",^[273] entailing both the creation of a culture for the "masses" and the wider dissemination of previously elite culture.^[274] He oversaw a proliferation of schools, newspapers, and libraries, as well as advancement of literacy and numeracy.^[275] Socialist realism was promoted throughout the arts,^[276] while Stalin wooed prominent writers, namely Maxim Gorky, Mikhail Sholokhov, and Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy.^[277] He expressed patronage for scientists whose research fit within his preconceived interpretation of Marxism; for instance, he endorsed the research of agrobiologist Trofim Lysenko despite the fact that it was rejected by the majority of Lysenko's scientific peers as pseudo-scientific.^[278] The government's anti-religious campaign was re-intensified,^[279] with increased funding given to the League of Militant Atheists.^[271] Priests, imams, and Buddhist monks faced persecution.^[267] Religious buildings were demolished, most notably Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, destroyed in 1931 to make way for the Palace of the Soviets.^[280] Religion retained an influence over the population; in the 1937 census, 57% of respondents were willing to admit to being religious.^[281]

Throughout the 1920s, Stalin placed a priority on foreign policy.^[282] He personally met with a range of Western visitors, including George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells, both of whom were impressed with him.^[283] Through the Communist International, Stalin's government exerted a strong influence over Marxist parties elsewhere;^[284] he left the running of the organisation to Bukharin before his ousting.^[285] At its 6th Congress in July 1928, Stalin informed delegates that the main threat to socialism came from non-Marxist socialists and social democrats, whom he called "social fascists";^[286] Stalin recognised that in many countries, these groups were Marxist–Leninists' main rivals for working-class support.^[287] This focus on opposing rival leftists concerned Bukharin, who regarded the growth of fascism and the far right across Europe as a greater threat.^[285]

In 1929, Stalin's son Yakov unsuccessfully attempted suicide, shooting himself in the chest and narrowly missing his heart; his failure earned the contempt of Stalin, who is reported to have brushed off the attempt by saying "He can't even shoot straight."^[288]^[289] His relationship with Nadezhda was strained amid their arguments and her mental health problems.^[290] In November 1932, after a group dinner in the Kremlin in which Stalin flirted with other women, Nadezhda shot herself in the heart.^[291] Publicly, the cause of death was given as appendicitis; Stalin also concealed the real cause of death from his children.^[292] Stalin's friends noted that he underwent a significant change following her suicide, becoming emotionally harder.^[293]

1932–1939: Major crises

Famine of 1932–1933

Within the Soviet Union, civic disgruntlement against Stalin's government was widespread.^[294] Social unrest in urban areas led Stalin to ease some economic policies in 1932.^[295] In May 1932, he introduced kolkhoz markets where peasants could trade surplus produce.^[296] However, penal sanctions became harsher; a decree in August 1932 made the theft of a handful of grain a capital offence.^[297] The second five-year plan reduced production quotas from the first, focusing more on improving living conditions^[295] through housing and consumer goods.^[295] Emphasis on armament production increased after Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in 1933.^[298]

The Soviet Union experienced a major famine which peaked in the winter of 1932–1933,^[299] with 5–7 million deaths.^[300] The worst affected areas were Ukraine (where the famine was called the Holodomor), Southern Russia, Kazakhstan and the North Caucasus.^[301] In the case of Ukraine, historians debate whether the famine was intentional, with the purpose of eliminating a potential independence movement;^[302] no documents show Stalin explicitly ordered starvation.^[303] Poor weather led to bad harvests in 1931 and 1932,^[304] compounded by years of declining productivity.^[300] Rapid industrialisation policies, neglect of crop rotation, and failure to build reserve grain stocks exacerbated the crisis.^[305] Stalin blamed hostile elements and saboteurs among the peasants.^[306] The government provided limited food aid to famine-stricken areas, prioritising urban workers;^[307] for Stalin, Soviet industrialisation was more valuable than peasant lives.^[308] Grain exports declined heavily.^[309] Stalin did not acknowledge his policies' role in the famine,^[297] which was concealed from foreign observers.^[310]

Ideological and foreign affairs

In 1936, Stalin oversaw the adoption of a new constitution with expansive democratic features; it was designed as propaganda, as all power rested in his hands.^[311] He declared that "socialism, the first phase of communism, has been achieved".^[311] In 1938, the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) was released;^[312] commonly known as the "Short Course", it became the central text of Stalinism.^[313] Authorised Stalin biographies were also published,^[314] though Stalin preferred to be viewed as the embodiment of the Communist Party, rather than have his life story explored.^[315]

Seeking better international relations, in 1934 the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations, from which it had previously been excluded.^[316] Stalin initiated confidential communications with Hitler in October 1933, shortly after the latter came to power.^[317] Stalin admired Hitler, particularly his manoeuvres to remove rivals within the Nazi Party in the Night of the Long Knives.^[318] Stalin nevertheless recognised the threat posed by fascism and sought to establish better links with the liberal democracies of Western Europe;^[319] in May 1935, the Soviets signed treaties of mutual assistance with France and Czechoslovakia.^[320] At the Communist International's 7th Congress in July–August 1935, the Soviet Union encouraged Marxist–Leninists to unite with other leftists as part of a popular front against fascism.^[321] In response, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact.^[322]

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, the Soviets sent military aid to the Republican faction, including 648 aircraft and 407 tanks, along with 3,000 Soviet troops and 42,000 members of the International Brigades.^[323] Stalin took a personal involvement in the Spanish situation.^[324] Germany and Italy backed the Nationalist faction, which was ultimately victorious in March 1939.^[325] With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, the Soviet Union and China signed a non-aggression pact.^[326] Stalin aided the Chinese as the KMT and the Communists suspended their civil war and formed his desired United Front against Japan.^[327]

Great Purge

Thumb — Exhumed mass grave of the Vinnytsia massacre, 1943

Stalin's approach to state repression was often contradictory.^[328] In May 1933, he released many convicted of minor offences, ordering the security services not to enact further mass arrests and deportations,^[329] and in September 1934, he launched a commission to investigate false imprisonments. That same month, he called for the execution of workers at the Stalin Metallurgical Factory accused of spying for Japan.^[328]^[329] After Sergei Kirov was murdered in December 1934, Stalin became increasingly concerned about assassination threats,^[330] and state repression intensified.^[331] Stalin issued a decree establishing NKVD troikas which could issue rapid and severe sentences without involving the courts.^[332] In 1935, he ordered the NKVD to expel suspected counterrevolutionaries from urban areas;^[298] over 11,000 were expelled from Leningrad alone in early 1935.^[298]

In 1936, Nikolai Yezhov became head of the NKVD,^[333] after which Stalin move to orchestrate the arrest and execution of his remaining opponents in the Communist Party in the Great Purge.^[334] The first Moscow Trial in August 1936 saw Kamenev and Zinoviev executed.^[335] The second trial took place in January 1937,^[336] and the third in March 1938, with Bukharin and Rykov executed.^[337] By late 1937, all remnants of collective leadership were gone from the Politburo, which was now effectively under Stalin's control.^[338] There were mass expulsions from the party,^[339] with Stalin also ordering foreign communist parties to purge anti-Stalinist elements.^[340] These purges replaced most of the party's old guard with younger officials loyal to Stalin.^[341] Party functionaries readily carried out their commands and sought to ingratiate themselves with Stalin, to avoid becoming victims.^[342] Such functionaries often carried out more arrests and executions than their quotas set by government.^[343]

Repressions intensified further from December 1936 until November 1938.^[345] In May 1937, Stalin ordered the arrest of much of the army's high command, and mass arrests in the military followed.^[346] By late 1937, purges extended beyond the party to the wider population.^[347] In July 1937, the Politburo ordered a purge of "anti-Soviet elements", targeting anti-Stalin Bolsheviks, former Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, priests, ex–White Army soldiers, and common criminals.^[348] Stalin initiated "national operations", the ethnic cleansing of non-Soviet ethnic groups — among them Poles, Germans, Latvians, Finns, Greeks, Koreans, and Chinese — through internal or external exile.^[349] More than 1.6 million people were arrested, 700,000 shot, and an unknown number died under torture.^[350] The NKVD also assassinated defectors and opponents abroad;^[351] in August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico, eliminating Stalin's last major opponent.^[352]

Stalin initiated all key decisions during the purge, and personally directed many operations.^[353] Historians debate his motives,^[350] noting his personal writings from the period were "unusually convoluted and incoherent", filled with claims about enemies encircling him.^[354] He feared a domestic fifth column in the event of war with Japan and Germany,^[355] particularly after right-wing forces overthrew the leftist Spanish government.^[356] The Great Purge ended when Yezhov was replaced by Lavrentiy Beria,^[357] a fellow Georgian completely loyal to Stalin.^[358] Yezhov himself was arrested in April 1939 and executed in 1940.^[359] The purge damaged the Soviet Union's reputation abroad, particularly among leftist sympathisers.^[360] As it wound down, Stalin sought to deflect his responsibility,^[361] blaming its "excesses" and "violations of law" on Yezhov.^[362]