Notes from 2/11

• Russia used to be a part of the Soviet Union
• The Bolshevik Revolution occured in 1917
• from this revolution to 1990, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legitimate political party of the Soviet Union
• SU was controlled by communist party leadership, not elected officials.
• the party met every 5 years to choose leaders
• in 1917 the revolution brought Vladmir Lenin into power, he led the Bolsheviks
• Lenin's political philosophy followed that of Karl Marx: Marx was a German economist who witnessed the industrial revoliution in the mid 1800s. he was shocked by the dismal conditions of the working class or the "proleteriate." additionally, he was put off by the good life of the factory owners or "bourgeoise." Marx theorized that the proleteriate should rise up and overthrow the few factory workers. he called this the "revolution of the proleteriate."
• Lenin believed his Bolsheviks can mobilize the Russian peasant masses and they could have a proleteriate revolution. This doesn't connect because Marx theorized on bwhat he saw in a highly industrilized country. conversely, Russia had little to no industrilization.
• Lenin believes that the Bolshevik party led by himself and his small group of college educated friends could lead this revolution. He called this group the "Van Guard" of the revolution.
• Lenin and his friends thought they knew what was best for Russia more so than Russians themselves did.
• Democratic Centralism was an organizing function for the Bolsheviks. They discussed new policy throuroughly within their party. Then, once a decision was reached, everyone would stand by it. However, the Bolsheviks didn't follow this theory well.
• After getting power, Lenin ruled by prestige, experience, and ruthless supression of the opposition through a secret police
• Lenin's successor was Joseph Stalin.
• Stalin ruled through politics and brutal terror. He had a secret police and encouraged people to rat out their families, friends, and neighbors. People were terrorized.
• Stalin led what he called the "revolution from above." He forced the collectivization of agriculture, taking peasants off small farms and moving them to large state owned farms.
• He forced rapid industrilization of the SU as he was afraid that their country was falling behind others.
• He was credited with creating the foundations of the SU econ. and miliraty power which was key for the SU participation in WWII and the Cold War.
• This power came at the high price of life and suffering.
• the state was the driving force behind economic development with state control of all economic assets.
• By 1935, over 95% of sgricultural land had been taken away from peasants. Peasants were angry and thus they burned their crop land to express this.
• in the industrial sector, the state owned all areas. there was an emphasis on heavy industrial sectors like railray and military equipment. no emphasis on consumer goods. this would remain a problem in the SU econ. for many years.
• the SU system under Stalin was a Command Economy. A Command Econ. is an inefficiant system of central economic planning. the GOSPLAN sat in Moscow, set production targets. Managers had no say in these targets. Market forces had no effect on their econ., only govt. strategies. supply and demand didn't effect them. this was an inefficient system as central planners were out of touch.
• Stalin is credited for stimulating a mass migration from rural areas to the cities.
• results often fell short of production goals.
• the only political party fell under Stalin's control. SU becomes a dictatorship under Stalin. there were no challengers to Stalin's rule. There were secret police, and people often disappeared.
• SU econ. was highly inefficient.