Essay On Russian History From Berenson's Book And Stalin And Khrushchev's Speeches.

Bloody Sunday of 1905

Section I – Briefly identify in two or three sentences five of the individuals or terms below from chapters 10 and 14 of Edward Berenson's Europe in the Modern World, Volume II. 

Bloody Sunday of 1905 The Socialist Reolutionaries

Alexander Kerensky The Kornilov Affair

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918 The Cheka

The New Economic Policy The Great Purge

Solidarity Trade Union Movement Perestroika

The Velvet Revolution Boris Yelsin

Commonwealth of Independent States

Section II – Answer each of the five questions below in a brief paragraph of five of six sentences based on Joseph Stalin's Speech on The Tasks of Business Executives of 1931 found at  https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/02/04.htm 

1. What according to Stalin were the reasons why Soviet industry grew “only” 25% in 1930 rather than the 31-32% that his economic plan expected for in that year?  

2. Stalin made the claim that the Soviet economy did not suffer from the problems of capitalism. What reasons does he given in support of this claim?

3. Stalin claimed that the “objective conditions” for rapid growth existed in the Soviet Union but what reasons did he give for why the growth targets of his economic plan were not being fully realized?

4. Identify some of the requirements and skills that Stalin claims managers must master to fully implement the expected targets for economic growth?

5. Stalin claimed in this speech  that “we are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years or we will go under,” and that “those who fall behind get beaten.” Is there any truth for this claim or was it in your view merely Stalin's way of justifying the ruthlessness by which he imposed a policy of rapid industrialization on the Soviet Union? (10pt. question)

Section III – Answer each of the questions below in five of six sentences based on Parts I, II and III of Stalin's Results of the First Five Year Plan of 1933 found at https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1933/01/07.htm

6. Stalin pointed out in his 1933 speech on The Results of the First Five-Year Plan that the Western media were at first deeply hostile to Soviet economic policy. How did this media respond to the results of that policy by 1933?

7. Identify some to the goals of the Five Year Plan as described by Stalin in Part II of his 1933 speech on the subject. 

8. Stalin identified what he considered the key goals of agricultural policy and of military policy. What were they?

9. What was the role of heavy industry (steel, mining, etc.) in Stalin's over-all plan for Soviet industrialization?

10. What does Stalin claim were the successes in promoting new industries of the Five Year Plan by 1933 and how does he say this compared with other countries by that year?

11. In Part III of this speech Stalin acknowledges that the Soviet Union was not producing sufficient consumer goods (clothes, shoes, etc.) for its people. How does he justify this failure?

12. Identify some to the goals Stalin set out for the Second Five Year Plan that was about to be launched after 1933.

Section IV – Answer both of the questions below in five or six sentences based on Nikita Khrushchev speech of 1956 outlining Stalin's abuse of power and repression found at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1956khrushchev-secret1.asp

13. In 1956 the new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claimed that Stalin's concentration of power in his own hands and the “cult of the individual” that was created to justify his power violated the norms of Communist leadership. How did he attempt to prove such a claim?

14. Khrushchev also pointed out that Stalin accused many people of being so-called “enemies of the people.” What according to Khrushchev were the consequences of this labeling of individuals?

Section V – Answer both of the questions below based on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's 2009 interview about the end of European Communism found at https://www.thenation.com/article/gorbachev-1989/

15. Many people have argued that the collapse of European Communism in the late 1980s-early 1990s was brought about by outside pressure such as U.S. pressure  during the cold war, religious opposition mobilized by the election of John Paul II as the first Catholic Pope from a Communist country in 1978, or the military and financial costs to the Soviet Union during its intervention in the Afghanistan civil war of the 1980s? What is Gorbachev's response to these claims that external rather than internal issues led to the fall of European Communism?

16. Gorbachev is extremely critical of Boris Yeltsin, his successor as President of Russia after the end of the Communist Regime. Why is he so hostile to his successor?

Bloody Sunday of 1905 is referred to the event in which the soldiers of the Russian Imperial Guard started fire on the unarmed demonstrators who were led by Father Georgy Gapon. At that time, the team of the demonstrators were marching towards the Winter Palace for presenting a petition to Tsar Nicholas II, the then Russian Emperor.

Alexander Kerensky was a revolutionist and lawyer who became a key political figure with his involvement in the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the February Revolution of 1917, Kerensky served a number of different roles in the newly formed Russian Government.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1918 is marked as the point that ended the participation of Russia in World War I. The treaty was signed between the Russian Bolshevik Government and the Central Powers that consisted of Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, German Empire and Bulgaria.

The Velvet Revolution is referred to the event in 1989, in which there was a non violent transition of power in to the then Czechoslovakia, a sovereign nation in Europe (now divided into Czech Republic and Slovakia). The revolution ended one party rule in the country and started an era of parliamentary republic in the country.

The Kornilov Affair is a widely known military coup d'état in Russia 1917 that was led by the then Commander-in-Chief of Russian Army, General Lavr Kornilov against the Russian Provisional Government headed by Aleksander Kerensky and the Petrograd Soviet of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies.

1. According to Stalin, the main reasons why Soviet Industry did not reach the targeted growth because of the following reasons.

• The industries lacked the ability to make use of the existing possibilities. While setting the target, there were a huge number of possibilities through which the industries could grow but they were not competent enough to utilize the same.
• The country had failed to manage the major resources like factories, mills and mines that are the most productive parts of the industries.

2. Stalin states that the Soviet Economy was free from the “incurable of capitalism”. The main reason he stated was that in the Russian Economy, the power belonged to the working class and the country was also conducting a very planned economy including balanced accumulation and distribution of resources among the different branches of the Russian economy.

3. The main reason Stalin provided regarding the country’s inability to reach the economic growth target is the lack of management expertise among the Bolsheviks. Stalin clearly announced that while they, the Bolsheviks, have a clear objective of reaching high economic growth, it is often not possible for them to manage various operations whereas they are many expertises in signing business papers.

4. Stalin claims that the managers must master the skills of business as well as technology. In addition to signing papers, the managers must also learn how to learn the business, its processes, gathering profits and other techniques that are instrumental towards the growth of national economy.

5. In my personal view, the statement of Stalin (“We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in 10 years or we will go under”) was not true. At that time, Russia was significantly developed in terms of industry, technology, economy and other fields. This is simply Stalin’s way of justifying the ruthlessness that he showed while developing the strategy for rapid industrialization in the Soviet Union. Moreover, Stalin may also been willing to motivate the country to emphasize further in the industrialization that will help the country to get far ahead of other advanced countries.

Alexander Kerensky

6. Media around the world all reacted very positively towards Stalin’s Five Year Plan. In each of the newspaper reports published, there were detailed praise of how the Five Year Plan has completely transformed Russia in spite of initial fears that the plan will fail eventually.

7. The main goals of the Five Years Plan designed by Stalin were as follows.

• To remove capitalism completely from the country
• To enhance the productions in the main resources like mills, mines and factories
• To execute complete industrialization of the nation
• To improve the managers’ skills regarding handling business and technology
• To reach an economic growth of 35%

8. The key goals of the agricultural policy included industrialization of agriculture and maximization of the output from agriculture in the nation.

The goal of the military policy was “to create all the necessary technical and economic prerequisites for increasing to the utmost the defence capacity of the country, enabling it to organize determined resistance to any attempt at military intervention from abroad, to any attempt at military attack from abroad.”

9. The heavy industry was the focal point of the Five Years Plan as Stalin believed it will be able support the entire plan by providing sufficient infrastructure, transport, assistance in agriculture and others. Stalin stated that the heavy industry would be the backbone of the Five Years Plan and future developments alike.

10. The successes in promoting new industries of the Five Year Plan by 1933, according to Stalin, included the nationalization of all the industries and the ability of the country to grow business to large heights. The country is also far ahead of other countries in terms of creations of new enterprises.

11. Stalin justifies the failure of producing sufficient consumer goods by stating that the heavy industries in the country were not sufficiently developed. The heavy industry needed to provide agriculture with sufficient technical resources that will increase the productivity that in turn will boost the productivity of the consumer goods.

12. For the Second Five Year Plan, Stalin mainly emphasized on the development of water, road and rail transport. He also focussed on improving the quality of the goods produced in the industries.

13. According to Khrushchev, Stalin completely ignored the norms of party life and trampled on the Leninist principle of collective party leadership. He also pointed out that during Stalin’s regime, 70% of elected candidates of the party’s central committee were arrested and shot.

14. As a consequence of labelling the individuals, the abject provocateur Beriya murdered thousands of communists and loyal Soviet people. Stalin himself chose the path of repression and physical annihilation as a part of demonstration of brute force.

15. Gorbachev claimed that the interference of external countries like America significantly played part in the fall of European Communism. While he was trying to construct a new architecture of communist system, the interference of external nations and also the growing dependency of European countries on the external countries led to the fall of the plan.

16. Gorbachev emphasized on long term success of the country and he particularly disliked the idea of Yeltsin to depend on external schemes and strategies as means for instant success. Gorbachev also highlighted that during Yeltsin’s time, Russian economy and industry completely fell through as he emphasized on imports from the external nations. Gorbachev himself had plans for a new Europe and new architecture of mutual security and he say that during Yeltsin’s time, all of these ideas failed miserably. Thus he has been so hostile towards Yeltsin.