One-party political system in the USSR. Establishment of a one-party system
1.Formation of a one-party political system…………………3
2.Political struggle in the leadership of the Bolshevik Party in the 1920s. The formation of the regime of personal power of I.V. Stalin………………8
3.The political system of the USSR at the end of the 1920s………………………18
Formation of a one-party political system.
In 1922, a trial took place over a group of Socialist Revolutionaries accused of plotting against Soviet power, counter-revolutionary propaganda, complicity with the White Guards and foreign interventionists. The court found them guilty of all charges. The Socialist Revolutionary movement was finally over. In 1923, an irreconcilable struggle began with the Mensheviks, who still had some influence in society. The task was set to “finally smash the Menshevik Party, completely discredit it before the working class.” This task was completed in a short time. The Mensheviks were also socialists, and the world socialist movement had a negative attitude towards the persecution of Menshevism. Therefore, the Bolsheviks did not risk holding a show trial against them. They launched a powerful campaign to “expose” their recent party comrades. As a result, the Mensheviks began to be perceived in society as bearers of an extremely hostile, anti-people ideology. The Menshevik party quickly lost supporters and eventually disintegrated, ceasing to exist. By 1924, a one-party political system was finally established in the country, in which the RCP (b) received undivided power.
In the years Civil War The Bolshevik Party actually performed the functions of state bodies. A “dictatorship of the party” had emerged, as was recognized at the XII Congress of the RCP(b). This was dictated by the military situation in the country. During the war, a new party body was also formed in 1919 - Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), a close circle of Bolshevik leaders who made the main decisions. The situation did not change after the Civil War: the Politburo became the main political center of the country, determining the path of development of the Soviet state.
The secretariat of the Central Committee helped Lenin manage party work. Under Lenin, it was a technical body created for purely apparatus work. But in 1922 Lenin became seriously ill. A position was needed for the head of the secretariat, who could conduct business in the absence of the leader. And to raise authority new position, came up with a spectacular name for her - general secretary. Stalin was appointed to this minor position. But Stalin managed to arrange the work in such a way that the secretariat became the main governing body in the party, and the position Secretary General- the main post.
This is how not only the main structures of the party appeared, but also its role in the state took shape. Throughout Soviet history the Communist Party will exercise the actual leadership of the country, and the post of party leader will always be the highest post in the USSR.
In January 1923, Lenin dictated a “Letter to the Congress,” in which he proposed removing Stalin from the post of General Secretary. The leader warned that Stalin’s character traits such as intolerance and rudeness were incompatible with the post of Secretary General. The letter was read out at the XIII Congress of the RCP(b) in May 1924, after Lenin's death. But the delegates decided to leave Stalin as general secretary, citing the difficult situation within the party and the threat of its split from Trotsky. Thus, the Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) determined the path along which the country would go. Under the leadership of Stalin, the political system of the Soviet state would be formed, which would remain virtually unchanged throughout the existence of the USSR.
Stalin, relying on individual statements of Lenin, put forward a new ideological position that socialism could be built “in one particular country.” Trotsky, a staunch supporter of the world revolution, sharply opposed this attitude. An irreconcilable struggle broke out in the party.
There was another reason for the conflict. In 1923, Trotsky criticized the order that had developed in the RCP (b). He stated that the party was divided into two parts - into functionaries elected from above, and into the party masses, on which nothing in the party depends. This was an attack against Stalin, who led the party apparatus. Trotsky categorically objected to Stalin's growing influence in the RCP(b).
Stalin, in turn, sharply condemned Trotsky for not believing in the possibility of building socialism in the USSR.
In 1926, the XV Conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted Stalin’s thesis. Trotsky was defeated.
Another cause of the conflict was the party's policy in the village. Kamenev and Zinoviev spoke out against the “village NEP”. They teamed up with Trotsky and decided to act as a single bloc. In 1927, the opposition bloc tried to organize a protest demonstration. The attempt failed, and Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev were expelled from the party. In 1928, Trotsky was exiled to Alma-Ata, and in 1929 he was expelled from the country.
A new political conflict broke out in 1927 due to the food crisis.
According to Stalin, small peasant farming is unable to satisfy the growing needs of the country, and large kulak producers are sabotaging grain procurements. He advocated the massive industrialization of the country and fundamental reforms in the countryside, which should result in the emergence of large collective farms (kolkhozes).
Bukharin became Stalin's opponent. The cause of the grain procurement crisis, in his opinion, was the mistakes of the country's leadership. He advocated the preservation of NEP in the countryside and spoke out against the creation of large collective farms, believing that individual peasant farms would remain the basis of the agricultural sector for a long time.
Stalin accused Bukharin and all NEP adherents of “right deviation.” Society supported Stalin. Meetings and rallies were held throughout the country exposing the views of Bukharin, Rykov and their supporters. Massive and merciless criticism of the “right-wingers” was organized in the press. In 1929, Bukharin was removed from the Politburo, Rykov was removed from the post of chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. About 150 thousand people were expelled from the party for “right-wing deviations.”
The implementation of the political lessons of Kronstadt, as well as the economic ones, began at the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b). Among the decisions of the congress was not only the resolution on replacing the surplus appropriation system with a tax in kind, but also the strictly secret, although no less significant for the future fate of the country, the resolution “On Party Unity.” It prohibited the creation in the RCP (b) of factions or groups that had a point of view different from the party leadership and defended it at all levels and various methods(all-party discussions were very popular at that time).
Having introduced unanimity in its ranks, the Bolshevik leadership took on its political opponents outside the ranks of the RCP (b).
In December 1921, at the proposal of the Chairman of the Cheka F. E. Dzerzhinsky, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) decided to hold an open trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries. The trial of the Social Revolutionaries took place in June-August 1922. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee tribunal accused those arrested of different time by the Cheka authorities of prominent figures of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in organizing conspiracies to overthrow Soviet power, in aiding the White Guards and foreign interventionists, as well as in counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation. And this despite the fact that the Bolsheviks themselves began to practically implement the economic and economic demands put forward by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks back in 1919-1920, dressing them in the clothes of the “new economic policy.” Twelve defendants were sentenced to death. But after protests from the world community, the execution was postponed and made dependent on the behavior of the party members who remained free. Naturally, after the trial, the Socialist Revolutionary Party was doomed. In June 1923, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) developed a secret instruction “On measures to combat the Mensheviks,” which set the task of “uprooting Menshevik ties in the working class, completely disorganizing and smash the Menshevik Party, completely discredit it before the working class.” The Bolsheviks did not dare to hold the same “show” trial against the Mensheviks as against the Socialist Revolutionaries, given the negative reaction of the world socialist movement. However, the Bolsheviks launched a powerful campaign to defame their recent party comrades. The word "Menshevik" long years became one of the most negative ideological concepts. In 1923, the collapse of the Menshevik party began.
Political opposition outside the Bolshevik Party ceased to exist. A one-party political system was finally established in the country.
The beginning of the formation of a one-party political system
In January 1918 ᴦ. The III All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies took place. He supported the Bolsheviks. The congress approved the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People", approved the draft law on the socialization of the land, proclaimed the federal principle of government of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and instructed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to develop the main provisions of the country's Constitution.
July 10, 1918 ᴦ. The V Congress of Soviets approved the first Constitution of the RSFSR. The Constitution proclaimed the proletarian character of the Soviet state, the federal principle of the state structure of the RSFSR and the course towards building socialism. Representatives of the former exploiting classes, clergy, officers and police agents were deprived of the right to vote. The advantage of workers over peasants was introduced in the norms of representation in elections to government bodies (1 worker’s vote was equal to 5 peasant votes). The elections were not universal, not direct, not secret and not equal. The Constitution established the system of central and local authorities.
The Constitution declared the introduction of political freedoms (speech, press, meetings, rallies, processions). However, in practice this had no real confirmation. Moreover, the first Soviet Constitution did not provide for the possibility of participation of the propertied classes and their parties in the political struggle.
Until October 1918 ᴦ. IN AND. Lenin expressed his firm belief that the masses, through the Soviets, were capable of governing the state. But very soon it turned out that practice diverged from the forecast. In 1919 ᴦ. IN AND. Lenin: ʼʼBecause of Russian specifics, ᴛ.ᴇ. lack of culture, the masses cannot rule the state at all. “The dictatorship of the proletariat” in our country from the very beginning began to mean the power of a narrow layer of the Communist Party. Elections to the Soviets were held more and more formally; selected candidates were appointed in advance to deputy positions. In practice, “Soviet power” and “Bolshevik power” increasingly merged. A one-party political system began to take shape in the RSFSR.
Economic transformations.
During the short period of its stay in power, the provisional government could not solve the main socio-economic, political and national problems of the country. All these unresolved problems now faced the Soviet government.
Before coming to power, the Bolsheviks imagined a socialist economy as an economy without private property, a directive one, where the state should take control of all goods and distribute them to the population as they are extremely important.
For this reason, immediately after October 1917 ᴦ. The Bolsheviks began to pursue a policy of destroying private property. Already from November 1917 ᴦ. The authorities organized a “Red Guard attack on capital.” A number of large enterprises and industries were nationalized. Further, decrees were adopted on the nationalization of banks, railway transport, and a monopoly on foreign trade was introduced. The beginning of the creation of the public sector in the economy was laid. In December 1917 ᴦ. was created to lead the public sector in the economy High Council National Economy (VSNKh). The transition of enterprises to state control laid the foundations of “state socialism.”
In the spring of 1918 ᴦ. The implementation of the Decree on Land began. The peasants were to receive 150 million dessiatines of land that belonged to the landowners, the bourgeoisie, the church, and monasteries free of charge. The 3 billion debt of peasants to banks was cancelled. The implementation of the Decree on Land was welcomed by the poor peasants. The land was divided equally between all groups of peasants, and individual small-scale farming of peasants was preserved. Landownership in the country was destroyed, and along with it the class of landowners ceased to exist.
The agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks caused social tension in the countryside, as the Soviet government supported the poor. This caused discontent among the wealthy peasant kulaks. The fists began to hold back the marketable (for sale) bread. There was a threat of famine in the cities. In this regard, the Council of People's Commissars switched to a policy of harsh pressure on the villages. In May 1918 ᴦ. A food dictatorship was introduced. This meant banning the grain trade and confiscating food supplies from wealthy peasants. Food detachments (food detachments) were sent to the village. Οʜᴎ relied on the help of the committees of the poor (kombeda), created in June 1918 ᴦ. instead of local councils. The “black redistribution” of land dealt a blow to large farms of landowners, wealthy peasants (otrubniks, farmers), ᴛ.ᴇ. were destroyed positive sides agrarian reform P.A. Stolypin. Equal distribution led to a drop in labor productivity and marketability Agriculture, to a worse use of land.
The food dictatorship did not justify itself and failed because... instead of the planned 144 million poods of grain, only 13 were collected, and also led to peasant protests against the Bolshevik power
Social transformations.
Democratic changes were carried out in social sphere. The Soviet government finally destroyed the class system and abolished pre-revolutionary ranks and titles. Installed free education and medical care. Women had equal rights with men. The Decree on Marriage and Family introduced the institution of civil marriage. The Decree on the 8-hour working day and a labor code were adopted, which prohibited the exploitation of child labor, guaranteed a system of labor protection for women and adolescents, and payment of unemployment and sickness benefits. Freedom of conscience was proclaimed. The church was separated from the state and from the education system. Most of the church property was confiscated.
National politics The Soviet state was determined by the "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia", adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on November 2, 1917. It proclaimed the equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia, their right to self-determination and the formation of independent states. (See Additional textbook material 1 and 2) In December 1917 ᴦ. The Soviet government recognized the independence of Ukraine and Finland in August 1918. - Poland, in December - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, in February 1919 ᴦ. - Belarus. Self-determination of peoples was becoming a reality. National movements were led by intellectuals, entrepreneurs, clergy, bourgeois and moderate parties, which nominated outstanding political leaders. The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic also declared its independence; after its collapse (in June), the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian bourgeois republics arose.
In May 1918 ᴦ. The nationalist government of the North Caucasus ("Union of United Highlanders of the Caucasus"), which arose before the October events, declared the independence of the North Caucasus state and its separation from Russia. In September 1919 ᴦ. An independent "North Caucasian Emirate" was created in Nagorno-Chechnya. In the autumn of 1918 ᴦ. Polish statehood was restored from the lands that were part of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia.
The First Soviet Constitution of the RSFSR (adopted on July 10, 1918) established the principle of unitarity of the new state, but the peoples of Russia received the right to regional autonomy. The peoples of the Russian state could realize their national interests within the framework of autonomy.
In 1918 ᴦ. the first national regional associations were: the Turkestan Soviet Republic, the Labor Commune of the Volga Germans, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Taurida (Crimea). In March 1919 ᴦ. The Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Republic was proclaimed, and in 1920 ᴦ. Tatar and Kyrgyzstan became autonomous republics. Kalmyk, Mari, Votsk, Karachay-Cherkess, and Chuvash joined the autonomous regions. Karelia became the Labor Commune. In 1921-1922, the Kazakh, Mountain, Dagestan, Crimean Autonomous Republics, Komi-Zyryan, Kabardin, Mongol-Buryat, Oirot, Circassian, and Chechen Autonomous Regions were created.
The right to autonomy was deprived of the Cossacks, who were formed over several centuries at the expense of the Russian, Ukrainian, Kalmyk, Bashkir, Yakut and other peoples of Russia and lived compactly. In this case, the central government showed concern towards the Cossacks as a “socially dangerous element.” The interests of the Russian population were also not taken into account.
At the same time, in its practical activities, the Bolshevik leadership sought to overcome the further collapse of Russia. Using local party organizations, it contributed to the establishment of Soviet power in national regions, provided financial and financial assistance Soviet Baltic republics.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
November 26, 1917 ᴦ. The Bolsheviks adopted the “Decree on Peace,” which, among other things, called on the peoples and governments of the warring countries to conclude a democratic peace without annexations and indemnities. At that time, the Soviet state did not recognize any state in the world. Only Germany was on the verge of defeat and responded to the Peace Decree.
On December 2, an armistice was signed with Germany. After that in ᴦ. Peace negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk (now Brest). The Soviet delegation proposed concluding peace without annexations and indemnities. Germany sought to take advantage of the weakness and isolation of the Soviet government. January 1, 1918 ᴦ. Germany presented Russia with a harsh ultimatum: demanding to transfer to it a huge territory - Poland, part of the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus - with an area of 150 thousand square meters. km.
In the Bolshevik state, the ultimatum caused sharp disagreements. Thus, a minority of members of the Central Committee, together with V.I. Lenin insisted on unconditional acceptance of German conditions, because The Bolsheviks did not have the strength to continue the war. But the majority of members of the Central Committee believed that it was impossible to sign peace on such humiliating terms, since this would postpone the world revolution indefinitely. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs L.D. Trotsky and his supporters advocated refusing to sign peace during the negotiations, proposing to do this only after German troops went on the offensive and there was a direct threat of the death of Soviet power. They proposed the following formula for Brest-Litovsk: “Neither peace, nor war.” N.I. Bukharin and his supporters (referred to as “left communists”) believed that the Soviet state, having concluded a separate peace with Germany, would become an “accomplice” of German imperialism. They demanded to stop negotiations and declare revolutionary war on international imperialism and provoke a revolutionary crisis in Europe.
The Bolsheviks decided to delay peace negotiations. L.D. Trotsky in February 1918. came up with the famous formula: “We are not signing peace, we are not waging war, but we are disbanding the army.” In response, on February 18, German troops went on the offensive along the entire front.
A direct threat to the Soviet state arose. The Bolsheviks accepted the terms of the German ultimatum, but the Germans tightened their demands. Now they wanted to tear away a territory of 750 thousand square meters from Russia. km. With a population of 50 million people: the entire Baltic region, Belarus and part of Transcaucasia (Ardagan, Kars, Batum) in favor of Turkey. future destiny The territories torn away from Russia, according to the peace treaty, will be “determined” by Germany. Russia had to pay an indemnity of 3 billion rubles. (the amount could be increased by Germany unilaterally), stop revolutionary propaganda in Central European countries.
There was no military threat to Germany from Russia at that time. The fact is that the theoretical justification for the extreme importance of the destruction of Russia by Germany was prepared for the leadership of the Reich back in 1915 - 1916. The program of German expansion to the east at the expense of Russia had become integral by that time integral part political thinking of the German elite. By putting forward the “robbery” conditions of the peace treaty, the German Reich began the first stage of destroying the independent Russian state.
March 3, 1918 ᴦ. The Russian delegation, without discussion, signed an agreement to end the state of war with Kaiser Germany and its allies.
Only the complete victory of the Entente countries over Germany could save the independent Soviet state.
November Revolution in Germany 1918 ᴦ. led to the collapse of the Kaiser's Germany. November 11, 1919 ᴦ. German troops capitulated on the Western Front. This allowed Moscow to annul the Brest-Litovsk Treaty on the same day and return most territories lost along it. German troops left the territory of Ukraine. Soviet power was established in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The prerequisites for preserving Russian statehood were restored. (The “robber” nature of the Brest-Litovsk peace dictatorship largely determined the harshness of the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which most Germans perceived as a national humiliation, although the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty were much more civilized than the conditions of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty).
Question 45. Civil war and the policy of war communism
War communism (policy of war communism) - the name of internal policy Soviet Russia, carried out during the Civil War of 1918-1921.
The essence of war communism was to prepare the country for a new, communist society, and the new authorities were oriented towards this. War communism was characterized by the following features:
· extreme degree of centralization of management of the entire economy;
· nationalization of industry (from small to large);
· ban on private trade and curtailment of commodity-money relations;
· state monopolization of many sectors of agriculture;
· militarization of labor (orientation towards the military industry);
· total equalization, when everyone received an equal amount of benefits and goods.
It was on the basis of these principles that it was planned to build a new state, where there are no rich and poor, where everyone is equal and everyone receives exactly what is extremely important for a normal life. Scholars believe that the introduction of new policies was extremely important in order not only to survive the Civil War, but also to quickly rebuild the country into a new type of society.
The beginning of the formation of a one-party political system - concept and types. Classification and features of the category “The beginning of the formation of a one-party political system” 2017, 2018.
The course towards establishing a one-party political system (a system in which a single and, therefore, ruling party is preserved) was fully consistent with the theoretical ideas about the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The government, relying on direct violence and systematically using it against “hostile classes,” did not even allow the thought of the possibility of political rivalry and opposition from other parties. Equally intolerant for this system was the existence of dissent and alternative groups within the ruling party. In the 20s The formation of the one-party system was completed. NEP, in economic sphere which allowed elements of the market, private initiative, and entrepreneurship, in the political sphere it retained and even tightened military-communist intolerance towards “enemies and hesitators.”
The Bolshevik Party has become the main link government structure. The most important government decisions were first discussed in the circle of party leaders - the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), which in 1921 included V.I. Lenin, G.E., Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev, I.V. Stalin, L.D. Trotsky, etc. Then they were approved by the Central Committee of the RCP (b), and only after that all issues were enshrined in state decisions, i.e. Soviet authorities. All leading government posts were occupied by party leaders: V.I. Lenin - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; M.I. Kalinin - Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee; I.V. Stalin - People's Commissar for Nationalities, etc.
By 1923, the remnants of the multi-party system were eliminated. The trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, accused of organizing conspiracies against the Soviet government and the leaders of the Communist Party, took place in 1922, putting an end to more than twenty years of the history of the party. In 1923, the hunted and intimidated Mensheviks announced their self-dissolution. The Bund ceased to exist. These were left-wing, socialist parties; monarchical and liberal parties were liquidated in the first years after the October Revolution of 1917.
Political opponents outside the ranks of the Communist Party were dealt with. All that remained was to achieve unity within the party. After the end of the Civil War, V.I. Lenin considered the question of party unity to be key, “a matter of life and death.” X Congress of the RCP(b) in 1921 At his insistence, he adopted the famous resolution “On Party Unity,” which prohibited any factional activity. In no less famous recent works of 1922-1923. the seriously ill leader called on his heirs to preserve the unity of the party “like the apple of his eye”: he saw the split in its ranks as the main threat.
Meanwhile, the internal party struggle, which intensified during Lenin’s lifetime, flared up with renewed vigor after his death (January 1924). Its driving forces were, on the one hand, disagreements about what direction and how to move forward (what to do with the NEP; what policy to pursue in the countryside; how to develop industry; where to get money to modernize the economy, etc.), and personal rivalry in an irreconcilable battle for absolute power - on the other.
The main stages of the internal party struggle in the 20s.
- 1923--1924 -- “triumvirate” (I.V. Stalin, G.E. Zinoviev and L.B. Kamenev) against L.D. Trotsky. Ideological content: Trotsky demands to stop retreating before the petty-bourgeois element, to “tighten the screws,” to tighten the command leadership of the economy, and accuses the party leaders of degeneration. Result: victory of the “triumvirate”, personal strengthening of Stalin.
- 1925 -- Stalin, N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov, M.P. Tomsky and others against the “new opposition” of Zinoviev and Kamenev. Ideological content: Stalin puts forward the thesis about “the possibility of building socialism in a single country”; the opposition defends the old slogan of “world revolution” and criticizes the authoritarian methods of party leadership. Result: victory for Stalin, rapprochement of the “new opposition” with Trotsky.
- 1926--1927 - Stalin, Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky and others. Against the “united opposition” of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky (“Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc”). Ideological content: the struggle continues around Stalin’s thesis about building socialism in a single country. The opposition demands to speed up the development of industry by “pumping” money out of the countryside. Result: victory for Stalin, removal of opposition leaders from leading positions in the party and state, exile, and then expulsion of Trotsky from the country.
- 1928--1929 -- Stalin against the “right opposition” (Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky). Ideological content: Stalin puts forward a course towards accelerated industrialization, carried out at the expense of the peasantry, talks about strengthening the class struggle; Bukharin and others develop a theory about “growing into” socialism, about civil peace and support for the peasantry. Result: victory for Stalin, defeat of the “right opposition”.
Thus, the internal party struggle in the 20s. ended with the personal victory of Stalin, who by 1929 seized absolute power in the party and state. Together with him, the policy of abandoning the NEP, accelerated industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and the establishment of a command economy won.
Social and political life of the USSR in the 1930s. was the life of a country that had already become totalitarian. A totalitarian society is a society in which the multi-party system has been eliminated and a one-party political system exists; the ruling party has merged with the state apparatus and subordinated it to itself; a single, universally binding ideology was established; There is no society independent from the control of the party and the state; all are public organizations. And all social relations are directly controlled by the state; a cult of the leader developed; there is an extensive police apparatus that carries out repression against citizens; civil rights, formally recognized, are in fact eliminated.
The economic basis of Soviet-type totalitarianism was a command-administrative system built on the nationalization of the means of production, directive planning and pricing, and the elimination of the foundations of the market. In the USSR, it was formed in the process of industrialization and collectivization.
The one-party political system was established in the USSR already in the 20s. The merging of the party apparatus with the state apparatus, the subordination of the party to the state, became a fact at the same time. In the 30s The CPSU(b), having gone through a number of sharp battles between its leaders in the struggle for power, was a single, strictly centralized, strictly subordinate, well-functioning mechanism. Discussions, discussions, elements of party democracy are irrevocably a thing of the past. The Communist Party was the only legal political organization. The councils, which were formally the main bodies of the dictatorship of the proletariat, acted under its control, all state decisions were made by the Politburo and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and only then formalized by government resolutions. Leading party figures occupied leading positions in the state. All personnel work was carried out through party bodies: not a single appointment could take place without the approval of party cells.
As for the Komsomol, trade unions, others public organizations, then they were nothing more than “transmission belts” from the party to the masses. Original “schools of communism” (trade unions for workers, the Komsomol for youth, a pioneer organization for children and adolescents, creative unions for the intelligentsia), they, in essence, played the role of representatives of the party in various strata of society, helping it lead all spheres of the country’s life.
The spiritual basis of the totalitarian society in the USSR was the official ideology, the postulates of which - understandable, simple - were introduced into the consciousness of people in the form of slogans, songs, poems, quotes from leaders, lectures on the study of the "Short Course of the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)": built in the USSR foundations of a socialist society; As we move towards socialism, the class struggle tends to intensify; “whoever is not with us is against us”; The USSR is a stronghold of the progressive public all over the world; "Stalin is Lenin today." The slightest deviation from these simple truths was punishable: “purges,” expulsion from the party, repressions were intended to preserve the ideological purity of citizens.
The cult of Stalin as the leader of society was perhaps the most important element of totalitarianism of the 30s. In the image of a wise, merciless to enemies, simple and accessible leader of the party and people, abstract calls took on flesh and blood, becoming extremely concrete and close. Songs, films, books, poems, newspaper and magazine publications inspired love, awe and respect bordering on fear. The entire pyramid of totalitarian power revolved around him; he was its undisputed, absolute leader.
In the 30s The previously established and significantly expanded repressive apparatus (NKVD, bodies of extrajudicial execution - “troikas”, Main Directorate of Camps - Gulag, etc.) was working at full speed. Since the late 20s. waves of repression came one after another: the “Shakhtinsky Case” (1928), the trial of the “Industrial Party” (1930), the “Case of the Academicians” (1930), repressions in connection with the murder of Kirov (1934), political trials of 1936-1939 . against former party leaders (G.E. Zinoviev, N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov, etc.), leaders of the Red Army (M.N. Tukhachevsky, V.K. Blucher, I.E. Yakir, etc. .) . The “Great Terror” claimed the lives of almost 1 million people who were executed; millions of people passed through the Gulag camps. Repression was the very instrument by which a totalitarian society dealt not only with real, but also with perceived opposition, instilling fear and obedience, a willingness to sacrifice friends and loved ones. They reminded a frightened society that a person, “weighed on the scales” of history, is light and insignificant, that his life has no value if society needs it. Terror had economic importance: Millions of prisoners worked on construction sites of the first five-year plans, contributing to the economic power of the country.
A very complex spiritual atmosphere has developed in society. On the one hand, many wanted to believe that life was getting better and more fun, that difficulties would pass, and that what they had done would remain forever - in the bright future that they were building for the next generations. Hence the enthusiasm, faith, hope for justice, pride from participating in what millions of people believed was a great cause. On the other hand, fear reigned, a feeling of one’s own insignificance, insecurity, and a readiness to unquestioningly carry out the commands given by someone was asserted. It is believed that precisely this—an inflated, tragically split perception of reality—is characteristic of totalitarianism, which requires, in the words of the philosopher, “an enthusiastic affirmation of something, a fanatical determination for the sake of nothing.”
The USSR Constitution adopted in 1936 can be considered a symbol of the era. It guaranteed citizens the entire range of democratic rights and freedoms. Another thing is that citizens were deprived of most of them. The USSR was characterized as a socialist state of workers and peasants. The Constitution noted that socialism had basically been built, and public socialist ownership of the means of production had been established. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies were recognized as the political basis of the USSR, and the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was assigned the role of the leading core of society. There was no principle of separation of powers.
Civil war in Russia: causes, course, results.
The beginning of the civil war is usually attributed to October 25, 1917. However, until mid-1918, the opposition to Bolshevism from the monarchical and bourgeois parties hoped to avoid the outbreak of civil war and decide their fate through peaceful means, mainly parliamentary. Until mid-1918, armed uprisings of individual units were observed under the leadership of military and political leaders ( Kerensky, Dukhonin, Krasnov). Since May 1918, white armies have been formed and resistance to Bolshevism has become organized. Foreign powers (USA, England, France, Japan) intervened in the course of the civil war, carrying out intervention and financial and technical assistance to the white armies. These countries sought to stop the spread of Bolshevism to their territories and return the money invested in the Russian economy.
Periodization of the Civil War:
4) Stage III February 1919 – spring 1920;
The formation of a one-party system in the country. 1918 – late 20s
We can talk about the formation of a one-party system in our country since July 1918, because the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, not participating in the government in October-November 1917 and March-July 1918, had seats in the Councils of all levels, the leadership of the People's Commissariats and the Cheka , with their significant participation, the first Constitution of the RSFSR and the most important laws of Soviet power were created. Some Mensheviks also actively collaborated in the Soviets at that time.
The suppression of pluralism began immediately after the October Revolution. By the decree “On the arrest of the leaders of the civil war against the revolution” of November 28, 1917, one party was banned - the Cadets. The strength of the cadets lay in their intellectual potential, connections with commercial, industrial and military circles, and support from the allies. But it was precisely this ban on the party that could not be undermined; most likely it was an act of revenge against the once most influential enemy.
The real rivals of the Bolsheviks in the struggle for the masses were the anarchists. They accepted Active participation in establishing and consolidating Soviet power, but posed a threat to the Bolsheviks with their demand for centralism. They expressed the spontaneous protest of the peasantry and urban lower classes against the state, from which they saw only taxes and the omnipotence of officials. In April 1918, the anarchists were dispersed. The pretext for their defeat was their undoubted connection with criminal elements, which gave the authorities a reason to call all anarchists, without exception, bandits. Some anarchists went underground, others joined the Bolshevik Party.
On the other hand, the right-wing Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries competed with the Bolsheviks, expressing the interests of more moderate layers of workers and peasants who longed for political and economic stabilization in order to improve their financial situation. The Bolsheviks relied on the further development of the class struggle, transferring it to the countryside, which further widened the gap between them and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries that formed in connection with the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace. As a result, in June the Mensheviks and Right Socialist Revolutionaries, and after July, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries were expelled from the Soviets. There were still maximalist Socialist-Revolutionaries in them, but due to their small numbers they did not play a significant role.
During the years of foreign military intervention and the civil war, depending on changes in the policy of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties in relation to the power of the Soviets, they were either allowed or prohibited again, moving to a semi-legal position. Attempts from both sides to achieve conditional cooperation did not gain momentum.
The course towards eradicating political pluralism and preventing a multi-party system was confirmed by the resolution of the XII All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b) in August 1922 “On anti-Soviet parties and movements”, which declared all anti-Bolshevik forces anti-Soviet, i.e. anti-state, although in reality most of them encroached not on the power of the Soviets, but on the power of the Bolsheviks in the Soviets. First of all, measures of ideological struggle had to be directed against them. Repression was not excluded, but officially had to play a subordinate role.
The process of the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, organized in the summer of 1922, was intended to play primarily a propaganda role. Conducted in the Column Hall of the House of Unions in Moscow in the presence of a large public, foreign observers and defenders, and widely covered in the press, the trial was intended to present the Socialist Revolutionaries as ruthless terrorists. After that it was easy Extraordinary Congress ordinary members of the AKP, who announced the self-dissolution of the party. Then the Georgian and Ukrainian Mensheviks announced their self-dissolution. In recent literature, facts about the role of the RCP(b) and the OGPU in the preparation and conduct of these congresses have been made public.
Thus, on a multi-party system in 1922-1923. the cross was finally put up. It seems that from this time we can date the completion of the process of forming a one-party system, the decisive step towards which was taken in 1918.
Formation of a one-party system. The first Soviet Constitution. Education of the RSFSR
| Parameter name | Meaning |
| Article topic: | Formation of a one-party system. The first Soviet Constitution. Education of the RSFSR |
| Rubric (thematic category) | Story |
ʼʼLeft Social Revolutionary rebellionʼʼ . The conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty changed the relations of the Bolsheviks with their partners in the government coalition - the Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Initially, they supported negotiations with Germany, but were not ready to conclude a separate peace, which, in their opinion, delayed the prospects for world revolution. At the IV (Extraordinary) All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Left Socialist Revolutionary faction voted against the ratification of the peace and recalled its people's commissars from the government. At the same time, it was stated that the party promises the Council of People’s Commissars “its assistance and support.” The break, however, was incomplete: the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries remained in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, were members of the boards of the People's Commissariats, and worked in other institutions. The Left Social Revolutionaries made up a third of the Cheka board and the same part of its detachments.
The contradictions between the left Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks sharply escalated in May - June 1918, after the adoption of decrees on a food dictatorship and committees. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries were against dictatorship in the food sector and against the outbreak of a civil war in the countryside. The party leaders were embarrassed that in official documents not only “kulaks” and “village bourgeoisie” appeared, but also “grain holders”. They feared, not without reason, that the decrees would hit not only the fist, to which no one objected, but also the middle, small peasantry; the document obliged every “owner of grain” to hand over it, and declared “everyone who had a surplus of grain and did not take it to dump points” as “enemies of the people”. The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries also reacted negatively to the creation of the Poor Committees, calling them “committees of idlers.”
June 14, 1918 ᴦ. With the votes of the Bolshevik faction (the left Socialist Revolutionaries abstained), the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries were expelled from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which was an actual coup, since only the congress had the right to do this. Following them, the fate of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party was decided, which by the summer of 1918 ᴦ. remained the most massive (it included at least 300 thousand people). The leadership of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries tried to achieve changes in Bolshevik policy at the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets (worked July 4-10, 1918 in Moscow). At the same time, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who had 30% of the votes of delegates at the congress, failed to do this. Then they resorted to a form of pressure popular in their party - political terror. This position was supported by the Party Central Committee.
On July 6, the left Socialist Revolutionary Ya. G. Blumkin shot and killed the German ambassador Mirbach. The speech was poorly prepared organizationally and did not have a clear plan. Only on the evening of July 6, in retrospect, the Left Socialist Revolutionary Central Committee approved Blumkin’s step. After the terrorist attack, he himself took refuge in a detachment of the Cheka, commanded by the left Socialist Revolutionary D.I. Popov. Dzerzhinsky, who came there with a demand to hand over the culprits, was detained, and after him about 30 more communists were isolated. Telegrams were sent by telegraph to various cities calling for an uprising against “German imperialism”.
The Bolsheviks used the speech of the Socialist Revolutionaries (in Soviet historiography it was called the “Left Socialist Revolutionary rebellion”) as a reason to crush the opposition. Some researchers, based on documents about the events of July 6-7, come to the conclusion that there was no rebellion as such: it was provoked by the Bolsheviks to defeat the party and eliminate its leaders. This is supported by the scale of the protest (in fact, only in Moscow, with less than 1,000 people participating on the Socialist Revolutionary side), as well as the efficiency of the Bolshevik leadership in taking tough retaliatory measures.
On the day of the mutiny, the Left Socialist Revolutionary faction at the V Congress was isolated, and its leader M.A. Spiridonova became a hostage. On the night of July 7, 4 thousand Latvian riflemen loyal to the Bolsheviks brought Popov’s detachment, which numbered 600 people, into obedience. 12 participants in the speech, led by Dzerzhinsky’s deputy V.A. Aleksandrovich, were shot. An echo of the Moscow events was the speech in Simbirsk by the commander Eastern Front left Socialist Revolutionary M.A. Muravyov, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ was also suppressed.
After July 6, the Bolsheviks did not allow the Left Socialist Revolutionary faction to participate further in the work of the V Congress. A split began in the party, affecting both the governing bodies and grassroots organizations. Some party members supported their Central Committee, others went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, and still others declared their independence. In a matter of days one of the most massive Russian parties ceased to exist as a single organization. The Bolsheviks declared that they would cooperate only with those Socialist Revolutionaries who did not support their Central Committee, after which a purge of local Soviets from disloyal left Socialist Revolutionaries began, which reduced their influence to almost zero. However, the existence of Soviet power on a two-party basis ended.
Constitution of 1918 ᴦ. At the Third Congress of Soviets, a decision was made to prepare a new Constitution that would legally consolidate the existing state structure. April 1, 1918 ᴦ. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee created a commission to write it. Its text was first submitted for discussion to the Central Committee of the party, and only then presented at the Congress of Soviets. Already in July 1918. The V Congress of Soviets adopted the Constitution of the RSFSR and finally consolidated the radical transformations carried out. Leading Bolshevik figures (V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, Yu.M. Steklov, I.V. Stalin, M.N. Pokrovsky) and left Socialist Revolutionaries (D.A. Magerovsky, A. I. Shreider) and specialists in the field of economics and law (D. P. Bogolepov, M. A. Reisner, I. I. Skortsov). The adopted constitution summarized the main, already adopted decrees of the Soviet government.
Its first section consisted of the “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People,” adopted by the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets. It proclaimed collective ownership of the means of production, the creation of a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, etc. The Constitution defined the goal of the Soviet state - “the destruction of all exploitation of man by man, the complete elimination of the division of society into classes... the establishment of a socialist organization of society....”
The basic state law of Soviet Russia produced an ambivalent impression. A number of its provisions were truly democratic: the constitution enshrined the transfer of basic means of production into the ownership of the people, the equality of nations, and federation as a form of government; declared fundamental freedoms and rights - freedom of unions, meetings, conscience, press (however, the reality was far from the declared provisions), equality of citizens regardless of their nationality and race. The separation of church from state and school from church was proclaimed.
With all of the above, the constitution was openly class-based.
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The dictatorship of the proletariat and the poor peasantry was established in the form of Soviet power. The right to private property, personal inviolability, and housing was not secured. The Constitution did not contain the concept of “human and civil rights” at all. J.V. Stalin wrote that “the Soviet constitution appeared not as an agreement with the bourgeoisie, but as a consequence of the revolution.” For this reason, it did not contain guarantees and rights of citizens from the state. The protection of the working class, according to the Bolsheviks, had to be carried out not from the state, but with its help. “Exploiting elements” - private traders, clergy, former police officers, people using hired labor - were deprived of voting rights. The election procedure gave advantages to workers over peasants: at congresses of councils, 1 worker deputy was elected from 25 thousand voters, and 1 peasant deputy - from 125 thousand. The elections were multi-level (only city and village councils were directly elected by the population).
The sections dealing with issues of power proclaimed the omnipotence of the councils, giving them the right of executive and legislative power. The unification of these two branches of government became one of the principles of management organization. This was emphasized by the fact that there was no certainty in the division of functions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars (the supreme executive and legislative powers). It was also proclaimed that the Soviet Republic would be established on the basis of a union of free nations as a federation of Soviet national republics. Disputes about the form of government accompanied the work of the commission, but in the end a federal structure was recognized as more preferable. The federation was seen as a “temporary form of state on the way to complete unity.”
The short development time and a lot of controversial issues led to the fact that the constitution had many gaps and shortcomings. For example, having proclaimed a federal structure, it did not contain the most important feature of a federation - an agreement between individual entities (national republics), and did not define their competence. Also, the constitution avoided such an important issue as the structure of the judicial system. The court was not singled out as a special state body, independent and subordinate only to the law. The basic law also addressed a host of other significant issues: for example, the place and role of workers’ organizations (parties, trade unions, cooperation) in the political system.
The adoption of the Soviet Constitution legislatively completed the first stage in the development of the socio-political foundations of Soviet power, a centralized unitary state “dictatorship of the proletariat”.
Education of the RSFSR. The creation of the Soviet state was actually formalized at the Second Congress of Soviets on October 25, 1917. Having declared itself the supreme body of power, the Congress formed the bodies of central power and administration - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars. The Congress, however, did not have the right to declare Russia a “republic of Soviets,” since the question of the state structure could only be resolved by the Constituent Assembly, and after the October Revolution the Bolsheviks confirmed its early convening and all its prerogatives. For this reason, the name “Soviet Russia” itself was not developed immediately, but in the autumn-winter of 1917. gave rise to confusion in the name of the state. In the “Decree on Peace” the name “Russia” is retained, in the “Decree on Land” the name “Russia” is already present. Russian stateʼʼ, and in the bulk of documents from November-December 1917 ᴦ. – ʼʼRussian Republicʼʼ or ʼʼRussiaʼʼ. For the first time in an official document, Russia was called a “Soviet Republic” in the decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly.
The Second Congress of Soviets did not change the territory of Russia, but created legal opportunities for this, since national question was reflected in the decisions of the Congress: it assured that the peoples of Russia would be granted the right to self-determination. In the first months of its existence, the Soviet Republic was a unitary state. It was divided into administrative-territorial units, headed by local authorities. At the same time, from the very beginning of the existence of the Russian Soviet Republic, two interrelated trends appeared: a tendency to change borders in the direction of reducing the territory and a tendency to change the form of state unity of Soviet Russia in the direction of its complexity. The objective basis for the emergence of such trends was the multinationality of Russia and the right of nations to self-determination declared by the Bolsheviks. On the issue of the form of government, the Bolsheviks for a long time stood on the principles of a unitary state, which was enshrined in their political program. The main argument against federation before the October Revolution was the fear that such a form would interfere with economic construction. Moreover, in 1917 ᴦ. The Bolsheviks had to reconsider their views. One of the most important reasons was the extreme importance of seizing the slogan of cultural-national autonomy from the hands of national movements. Recognition of Ukraine's independence in December 1917. and the establishment of allied relations with it became the first practical step towards federation.
The fundamental change in the form of government of the Russian Soviet Republic was recorded by the acts of the Third Congress of Soviets, and first of all by the “Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People.” The Declaration determined the form of government and regulated the social system Russian Federation, determined the most general principles of state building. Moreover, the “Declaration” became a “small constitution”, since it reflected all the most significant constitutional issues. Constitution of 1918 ᴦ. finally consolidated the position of the RSFSR as a state form of dictatorship of the proletariat.
The first members of the Russian Federation in 1918. steel Turkestan Soviet Republic, Terek, Kuban-Black Sea, North Caucasus. It is characteristic that they were all autonomous republics, that is, they were not full members of the federation. During the Civil War, only one autonomy remained within the RSFSR - the Turkestan Soviet Socialist Republic. As the territory of Russia was liberated from the White Guard formations and intervention troops, new ones were formed. Along with the autonomous republics (ASSR - autonomous Soviet socialist republics), other associations also arose: autonomous regions (AO - for example, Chuvash Autonomous Okrug) and autonomous labor communes (Volga Germans).
Characteristic feature Russian Federation in 1917-1922. was the direct entry of autonomous units into its composition. All autonomous republics, autonomous regions and autonomous communes have established direct legal relations with the federation as a whole. None of them were part of any province, region or region. When organizing autonomies, they tried to be guided by the national-territorial principle (allocation of territories compactly populated by individual people). The principle was opposed to the idea of national-cultural autonomy, which, of course, was not entirely consistent with national interests. In 1922 ᴦ. The RSFSR as a sovereign state along with three other socialist republics (Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Republic) became part of the USSR.
Formation of a one-party system. The first Soviet Constitution. Education of the RSFSR - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Formation of a one-party system. The first Soviet Constitution. Formation of the RSFSR" 2017, 2018.
