The USSR in the 20s and 30s briefly. Foreign policy of the USSR on the eve of the war

Foreign policy of the USSR in the 20s. identified two contradictory principles. The first principle recognized the need to break out of foreign policy isolation, strengthen the country’s position in the international arena, and establish mutually beneficial trade and economic relations with other states. The second principle followed the traditional Bolshevism doctrine of world communist revolution and demanded that we support the revolutionary movement in other countries as actively as possible. The implementation of the first principle was carried out primarily by the bodies of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, the second - by the structures of the Third International (Comintern, created in 1919).

In the first direction in the 20s. a lot has been achieved. In 1920, Russia signed peace treaties with Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland (countries that were part of the Russian Empire before the revolution). Since 1921, the conclusion of trade and economic agreements with England, Germany, Norway, Italy, etc. began. In 1922, for the first time in the post-revolutionary years, Soviet Russia took part in an international conference in Genoa. The main issue on which the struggle unfolded was related to the settlement of Russia's debts to European countries. The Genoa Conference did not bring any results, but during its days Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo on the restoration of diplomatic relations and trade cooperation. From that moment on, Soviet-German relations acquired a special character: Germany, which lost the First World War and, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, was reduced to the position of a second-class European country, needed allies. Russia, in turn, received serious support in its struggle to overcome international isolation.

The years 1924-1925 were turning points in this sense. The USSR was recognized by Great Britain, France, Italy, Austria, Norway, Sweden, China, etc. Trade, economic and military-technical relations continued to develop most intensively until 1933 with Germany, as well as with the USA (although the USA officially recognized the USSR only in 1933).

The course towards peaceful coexistence (this term, it is believed, was first used by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin) coexisted with attempts to ignite the fire of the world revolution, to destabilize the situation in the very countries with which mutually beneficial relations were established with such difficulty. There are many examples. In 1923, the Comintern allocated significant funds to support revolutionary uprisings in Germany and Bulgaria. In 1921 - 1927 The USSR most directly participated in the creation of the Communist Party of China and in the development of the Chinese revolution (even to the point of sending military advisers to the country led by Marshal V.K. Blucher). In 1926, trade unions provided financial assistance to striking English miners, which provoked a crisis in Soviet-British relations and their rupture (1927). Significant adjustments to the activities of the Comintern were made in 1928. In the leadership of the CPSU (b), J.V. Stalin’s point of view on building socialism in a single country prevailed. She assigned a subordinate role to the world revolution. From now on, the activities of the Comintern were strictly subordinated to the main foreign policy line pursued by the USSR.

In 1933, the international situation changed. The National Socialists, led by A. Hitler, came to power in Germany. Germany set a course for scrapping the Versailles system, military construction, and preparing for war in Europe. The USSR was faced with a choice: either remain faithful to its traditionally friendly policy towards Germany, or look for ways to isolate Germany, which did not hide its aggressive aspirations. Until 1939, Soviet foreign policy was generally anti-German in nature and was aimed at creating a system of collective security in Europe (admission of the USSR to the League of Nations in 1934, the conclusion of a mutual assistance agreement with France and Czechoslovakia in 1935, support for anti-fascist forces in Spain in 1936-1939). The Comintern pursued a consistent anti-fascist policy during these years.

However, the military threat from Germany continued to grow. England, France, and the USA showed puzzling passivity. A policy of appeasement of the aggressor was carried out, the pinnacle of which was the agreement signed in October 1938 in Munich by England, France, Germany and Italy, which actually recognized Germany’s annexation of part of Czechoslovakia. In March

1939 Germany captured all of Czechoslovakia. The last attempt was made to organize an effective, effective anti-Hitler coalition: the USSR in April 1939 proposed that England and France conclude an agreement on a military alliance and mutual assistance in case of aggression. Negotiations began, but both Western countries and the USSR did not show much activity in them, secretly counting on the possibility of an alliance with Germany. *

Meanwhile, an extremely difficult situation was developing on the eastern borders of the USSR. Japan captured Manchuria (1931), signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany (1936), and provoked serious border clashes at Lake Khasan (1938) and the Khalkhin Gol River (1939).

August 23, 1939 Foreign ministers of the USSR and Germany V. M. Molotov and I. Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact and secret protocols to it in Moscow. On September 28, a Soviet-German friendship and border treaty was concluded. Secret protocols and treaties established zones of Soviet and German influence in Europe. The zone of influence of the USSR included Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, Bessarabia. The assessment of these documents causes controversy among historians. Many are inclined to believe that the signing of the non-aggression pact was a necessary measure aimed at delaying the involvement of the USSR, not prepared for war, in a military conflict with Germany, while pushing back the borders and overcoming the deadlock in relations with France and England. The secret protocols and the agreement of September 28, 1939 are assessed, as a rule, negatively, although they also have supporters.

September 1, 1939 Hitler attacked Poland. The Second World War began. Two weeks later, the USSR sent troops into Western Ukraine and Belarus, in November demanded that Finland cede the territory of the Karelian Isthmus in exchange for other territories and, having received a refusal, began military operations (a peace treaty with Finland was concluded in March 1940, the USSR received the Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg, but suffered significant losses). In 1940, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Bessarabia became part of the USSR.

In 1940, Hitler gave the order to develop a plan for the invasion of the USSR (“Plan Barbarossa”). In December, Directive No. 21 was adopted, approving this plan. There were only a few months left before the start of the Great Patriotic War. Meanwhile, the USSR continued to strictly comply with all agreements with Germany, including on the supply of strategic materials, weapons and food.

Culture in the USSR in the 20s and 30s. With the victory of the October Revolution of 1917 and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, science and culture became “part of the general party cause”: their development was entirely subordinated to the general goals of socialist construction and carried out under the direct leadership of the party and state. As the one-party political system was established, the opposition was expelled, a totalitarian state was formed, the cultural sphere was nationalized, adjusted to a single ideological standard, and lost its creative independence. There was a process of formation of a culture characteristic of a totalitarian society - a culture placed under the control of the state, striving to guide the spiritual life of society, to educate its members in the spirit of the dominant ideology. What has been said, of course, does not mean that science and culture in the 20-30s. they did not know any ups, major achievements, or outstanding discoveries. The processes taking place in the spiritual sphere were complex and ambiguous. An indisputable achievement of the 20s. was the elimination of mass illiteracy. Millions of adults were trained in literacy schools (educational programs), and a network of reading rooms and libraries was created. The new education system was built on the principles of a unified labor school. First four-year primary education was compulsory, and then seventh-grade education. 20s - a bright page in the history of domestic pedagogy, a time of experiments and innovations (no-hour system, non-graded training, laboratory method, self-government, etc.). In the 30s The situation in school education has changed: traditional forms of education (lessons, subjects, grades, strict discipline) have been restored; the experience of the previous decade has been condemned as an “excess.” By the 20s. includes the creation of so-called workers' faculties, faculties for training specialists with higher education from among workers and peasants. Particular attention was paid to the training of teachers of social sciences for higher education (Institute of Red Professors). In the late 20s - 30s. A number of campaigns took place to expel professors and lecturers from universities and institutes who, in the opinion of the authorities, had not mastered Marxist teaching. Students, along with teachers, were also victims of repression (for example, in the late 1920s, an outstanding expert on Russian literature, Academician D. S. Likhachev, then a student at Leningrad University, was arrested and exiled to Solovki). The struggle for “ideological purity” predetermined the peculiarities of the development of the humanities. The fact that the authorities will not give the opportunity to continue research to scientists whose scientific views differ from Marxist ones was announced loudly and harshly: in 1922. a group of prominent philosophers, historians, economists, sociologists (P. A. Sorokin, N. A. Berdyaev, S. L. Frank, I. A. Ilyin, L. P. Karsavin, A. A. Kiesevetter, etc.) was expelled from the country. With the publication of the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”, a kind of “standard” appeared against which everything written and expressed was compared. In the 30s ideological pressure on humanities scholars was supplemented by direct repression (arrests, exiles, executions). Among the victims of repression were outstanding economists N.D. Kondratyev and A.V. Chayanov, philosopher P.A. Florensky and others. In the field of exact and natural sciences, the situation was somewhat different. Outstanding discoveries were made by V.I. Vernadsky, A.F. Ioffe, P.L. Kapitsa, N.I. Vavilov, S.V. Lebedev, N.D. Zelinsky, A.N. Tupolev, I.V. Kurchatov and others. The state, especially with the beginning of industrialization and in conditions of increasing military threat, invested significant funds in the development of exact and natural sciences and sought to increase the material standard of living of scientists. But the repressions of the 30s. natural scientists were not spared. The outstanding geneticist N. I. Vavilov was arrested and tortured in the camps, A. N. Tupolev, S. P. Korolev, V. P. Glushkoi and others worked in the “sharashkas” (design bureaus and laboratories created in places of detention) By the beginning of the 20s. Many outstanding writers, artists, musicians emigrated from the country (I. A. Bunin, A. I. Kuprin, K. D. Balmont, V. F. Khodasevich, M. Chagall, I. E. Repin, S. S. Prokofiev , S. V. Rachmaninov, F. I. Shalyapin, etc.). Many outstanding figures of Russian culture remained in Russia (A. A. Akhmatova, O. E. Mandelstam, M. M. Prishvin, N. S. Gumilev, who was executed in 1921, V. E. Meyerhold, etc.). Until the mid-20s. in art there was a spirit of creative search, attempts to find unusual, bright artistic forms and images. There were many creative associations that professed different views on the essence and purpose of art (Proletkult, the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers, the Serapion Brothers group, the Literary Center of Constructivism, the Left Front of the Arts, the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, the Society of Moscow Painters, etc. ). Since 1925, ideological pressure on cultural figures has intensified. By the mid-30s. The method of socialist realism (depicting reality not as it is, but as it should be from the point of view of the interests of the struggle for socialism) was declared a universally obligatory artistic method for Soviet art. Decisive events in this sense were the creation in 1934 of the Union of Soviet Writers and a number of ideological campaigns that condemned, for example, the music of D. D. Shostakovich. Creative unions have essentially become part of the party-state apparatus. The introduction of unified artistic canons was carried out, among other things, through repressive means. Mandelstam, Klyuev, Babel, Meyerhold, Pilnyak, Vasiliev and others died in the camps. The totalitarian system destroyed the freedom of creativity, spiritual search, artistic expression - consistently and methodically: “I, like a river, was turned by a harsh era. They changed my life” (A. A. Akhmatova). And yet, writers, artists, composers, theater and film workers created talented and even outstanding works during these years: “Quiet Don” by M. A. Sholokhov, “Destruction” by A. A. Fadeev, “The White Guard,” “ The Master and Margarita" by M. A. Bulgakov, "Requiem" by A. A. Akhmatova, "The Life of Klim Samgin" by M. Gorky, "The Country of Ant" by A. T. Tvardovsky, symphonic and chamber music by D. D. Shostakovich and S. S. Prokofiev, songs by I. O. Dunaevsky, theatrical performances at the Moscow Art Theater, Chamber Theater, Theater of Revolution, films by S. M. Eisenstein, V. I. Pudovkin, G. V. Alexandrov, etc.

USSR in the late 30s: internal development, foreign policy.

The nature of the society built in the USSR by the end of the 30s was determined by the processes that took place in the country in the post-revolutionary period:

The establishment of a totalitarian system that had its own political, economic, and spiritual foundations;

Carrying out accelerated industrialization, which ensured the formation of the foundations of an industrial society in the country, developed heavy industry at the cost of the ruin of agriculture, a decrease in the living standards of the population, the lag of light industry, etc.

Carrying out complete collectivization, which turned the USSR into a country of collective farms and was accompanied by a significant decrease in agricultural production - the implementation of mass repressions, several waves of which (the most famous is the so-called great terror of August 1936 - late 1938) destroyed the leadership of the party, state, and army, causing irreparable damage science and culture. The exact number of victims of terror is still not known, but it is measured in millions of people in all social strata and groups of the population (see ticket No. 11);

Changing the social appearance of the country - a very rapid growth of the working class, a decrease in the number of the peasantry (by no less than 30%, despite the introduction of the passport system and the ban on collective farmers leaving the village without an employment contract with the enterprise), an increase in the number of party-state nomenklatura and a qualitative change in its composition (the death of old personnel, the predominance of young party members who emerged on the wave of terror, the increase in the number of prisoners, special settlers, and people in settlements.

Specific directions of the internal policy of the USSR in the late 30s. were determined by the aggravation of the international situation, the increase in the military threat, especially after September 1, 1939 (the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland, the outbreak of World War II).

Under these conditions, additional measures were taken aimed at strictly centralizing management and planning, strengthening labor discipline, accelerating the development of the defense industry, and strengthening the Red Army. These measures were also designed to overcome the crisis that was growing in the late 30s. (decrease in the pace of industrial development, staff turnover, lack of qualified labor):

Particular attention was paid to the development of the fuel and energy complex (construction of new hydroelectric power stations on the Volga, Kama, etc.; laying of coal mines and mines in Siberia, the Urals; development of the oil-bearing region between the Volga and the Urals);

The construction of so-called backup enterprises in the east of the country was accelerated (these enterprises duplicated those located in the European part of the USSR);

Railways, highways and transport hubs were built and modernized;

Expenditures on the defense industry and science were sharply increased, and serial production of new types of aircraft (Yak-1, MiG-3, etc.) began. samples of tanks (KB, T-34), Katyusha-type artillery mounts were created;

It was decided to switch to a seven-day working week and an eight-hour (from the spring of 1941 - eleven to twelve hour) working day, work books were introduced, unauthorized departure from the enterprise was prohibited, criminal liability was introduced for violation of labor discipline, production of low-quality products;

A vocational education system was created to train personnel for industry;

The size of the Red Army was significantly increased, the service life of privates and junior command personnel was increased, the conscription age was set at 18 years (previously - 21 years), the law “On universal military service” was adopted, the People's Commissariat of Defense was reorganized, the need for which was revealed by the unsuccessful winter for the USSR war with Finland 1939-1940

On the foreign policy of the USSR in the late 30s. To summarize, we note: the USSR was preparing to repel military aggression. But the first days and months of the Great Patriotic War showed that the country's leadership made serious military-strategic mistakes. The repressions decapitated the army and deprived it of experienced military leaders and officers. Documents show that at the beginning of the war, only 7% of officers had a higher military education. The military doctrine did not take into account the peculiarities of modern mechanized warfare and was based on the well-known ideological postulate of “transferring the war to enemy territory” and “victory with little bloodshed.” The direction of the main attack of the Nazi army was incorrectly determined. The General Staff rightly believed that the main direction would be the Smolensk-Moscow direction, J.V. Stalin was confident that the Nazis would deliver the main blow to Ukraine. Stalin stubbornly refused to believe intelligence information about an impending German attack. The tragically high cost of these mistakes was determined in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War.

These old black and white photographs will tell you a little about how the citizens of the young Soviet state lived in the 20s and 30s.

Demonstration for collectivization. 1930s.

Pioneers of Leningrad, raised by alarm. 1937

Village Vilshanka. Kyiv region. Lunch during the harvest. 1936

Friendly trial of a malingerer in the Yasnaya Polyana agricultural artel, Kiev region. 1935

Dispossession of peasants, Donetsk region, p. Udachnoye, 1930s.

Members of a society for joint cultivation of land transport the storehouse of a dispossessed peasant to a common storeroom, Donetsk region, 1930s.

Uzbekistan. Construction of the Great Fergana Canal. Photographer M. Alpert. 1939

Mobile editorial office and printing house of the newspaper "Kolkhoznik". 1930

Collective farm meeting in the field. 1929

Collection of frozen potatoes, Donetsk region. 1930

Working with an orchestra during the construction of the White Sea Canal. Photo - "Working with the orchestra", Alexander Rodchenko. 1933

The eagles removed from the Kremlin are exhibited in the park named after. Gorky for viewing. 1935

All-Union Parade of Athletes on Red Square. 1937

Living pyramid. Photo by Alexander Rodchenko, 1936

GTO - Ready for work and defense. Photo by Alexander Rodchenko. 1936

Photo by I. Shagin. 1936

Medical examination. 1935

The first nursery in the village. “We’ll let mother go to the garden and go to the playground.” Photo - Arkadii Shaikhet, "The First Village Creche". 1928

Demonstration, Moscow, Krasnaya Presnya. 1928

Flood in Moscow, Bersenevskaya embankment. 1927

Flood in Leningrad. A wooden pavement destroyed by a flood on Nevsky Prospekt. 1924

A barge washed up on the embankment during a flood in Leningrad. 1924

Revolution Square, Moscow. Photo by A. Shaikhet

Lubyanka Square, 1930s. Moscow.

Trade tent "Makhorka". All-Union Agricultural Exhibition. Photo by B. Ignatovich.. 1939

Queue for kerosene and gasoline. 1930s

Funeral of V.V. Mayakovsky. 1930

Bells removed from churches, Zaporozhye. 1930s

The first cars of the USSR. The AMO-3 truck is the first USSR vehicle to roll off the production line. 1931

Moscow, Zubovsky Boulevard, 1930-1935.
ORUD is a structure in the system of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (Department for Traffic Regulation). In 1961, ORUD and traffic police were merged into one structure.

Queue at the Mausoleum. Around 1935

In March 1921, the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) proclaimed the transition from food appropriation to a fixed food tax. The new model of a “link” with the peasantry stimulated agricultural production, since surplus food remained in the hands of the peasants and could be sold. Thus, the restoration of market relations began. This decision was the first step towards the abolition of war communism and the transition to a course called the “new economic policy” (NEP).

In March, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved the regulations on the tax in kind. Its size became half the size of the previous allocation. In May, the Bolsheviks had to legalize free trade, and with it the entire complex of commodity-money relations. In July, the Council of People's Commissars restored fees for rail and water transportation of goods and passengers, and in August - for postal services, telegraph services, utilities, etc.

Throughout March - May 1921, the Bolsheviks gave in to almost all the economic demands of the popular uprisings. After this, the peasants stopped supporting the armed struggle, and the rebellion was suppressed. Hundreds of enterprises in the light and food industries and most of trade passed into private hands. At the same time, the state continued to hold the key heights of the economy - most of the heavy industry and transport. However, state-owned enterprises also switched to market relations. They united into self-sustaining trusts, which were supposed to sell their products on the market. In reality, command management of the trusts was maintained, and their losses were compensated for by subsidies. At the same time, corruption flourished and funds were transferred from state-owned enterprises to the private sector. It turned out that taxes collected primarily from peasants paid for the incompetence of the state bureaucracy and the enterprise of the new capitalists - the Nepmen.

The NEP became the first system of state regulation of the industrial-agrarian economy in peacetime (before that, such regulation in Europe was introduced only in times of war).

However, all political power remained in the hands of the leadership of the RCP (b), which gave it the opportunity at any time to resume a policy close to war communism.

Despite the instability and temporary nature of the NEP system, it consolidated the most important socio-economic result of the revolution - the peasantry received the land at full disposal, which was enshrined in May 1922 by the Basic Law on Labor Land Use.

The dominance of the Bolshevik bureaucracy did not make it possible to competently manage state property. Control over the ruling party by the people and the opposition was excluded.

In the summer of 1921, as a result of drought and the devastation of the Civil War, famine broke out in the Volga region. 36 million people starved, several million died. The typhus and cholera epidemics that began during the Civil War grew.

At this time, Patriarch Tikhon, elected to this post after the restoration of the patriarchate in 1917, used his international connections to help the famine-stricken. The church leadership was hostile towards the new government. Back in February 1918, the church was separated from the state, but after the Civil War, the communists were not going to let church life take its course. The growth of the authority of the church was dangerous for the Bolsheviks, who sought monopoly control over sentiment.

At the beginning of 1922, a campaign was launched in the Soviet press demanding that gold belonging to the church be transferred for the purchase of food. Some of this gold consisted of priceless works of art and relics. The Bolsheviks negotiated with Tikhon about a voluntary donation of part of the gold to the authorities. However, on February 26, 1922, without waiting for the outcome of the negotiations, the government issued a decree on the confiscation of church valuables. Masses of believers came out to defend their shrines. Blood was shed in the clashes. Priests whom the authorities accused of bloodshed were arrested and put on trial; 732 people were put on trial, many were executed. In total, by 1923, up to 10 thousand priests were repressed, up to 2 thousand were shot. The blow of the authorities shook the very foundations of the church. Some priests, led by A.I. Vvedensky and A.A. Granovsky, opposed Tikhon and demanded to support the ideas of revolution and Christian socialism, and to come to an agreement with the Bolsheviks. The new movement, called renovationism, was an attempt to reform Orthodoxy and modernize its rituals and traditions. However, the ideas of Christian socialism essentially turned the church into a political movement. In fact, it acted with the support of atheistic authorities who sought to split the church. In June 1923, Tikhon condemned “any encroachment on Soviet power, no matter where it comes from.” After this, the attitude of the authorities towards the church became somewhat more tolerant. Some parishes did not recognize coexistence with the new government. Believers argued fiercely over the place of the church in the new society. Despite numerous schisms and repressions by the authorities, church life was preserved, and Orthodoxy continued to have a strong influence on the worldview of the population. In Muslim regions the influence of religion was even stronger.

Patriarch Tikhon died in 1925. The election of a new patriarch did not take place. In 1927, Metropolitan Sergius called on the priests to be loyal to the authorities established in Russia.

The communist regime increased pressure on the intellectual life of society. Since 1921, the autonomy of higher educational institutions was eliminated. In 1922, Glavlit was created to ensure political censorship.

Arrests of prominent cultural and scientific figures were carried out in large cities. In August 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree “On the administrative expulsion of persons recognized as socially dangerous.” In the fall, 160 “particularly active counter-revolutionary elements” were expelled from the country, including philosophers N. O. Lossky, N. A. Berdyaev, S. N. Bulgakov, S. L. Frank, L. P. Karsavin, historians A. A. Kizevetter, S. P. Melgunov, sociologist P. A. Sorokin, anarchist ideologist G. P. Maksimov.

In total, more than 1 million residents of the former Russian Empire ended up in emigration as a result of the Civil War. Despite the difficult living conditions of most emigrants, they created a “second Russia”, which continued the cultural and political tradition of the beginning of the century. They argued about the causes of the catastrophe that happened to them and the country, settled old political scores, tried to comprehend and justify themselves. It was a fertile environment for publishing activity - in 1924, more than 1 thousand titles of publications in Russian were published in Germany. Then the excitement began to subside. Until the 30s. White emigration hoped for a quick return to their homeland and a change of power by force.

A more severe punishment than deportation awaited the leaders of the opposition parties remaining in the country. Under the NEP, the communists feared that the growth of bourgeois elements would lead to a strengthening of the opposition. Therefore, while the regime's position was stable, the communist leadership decided to crush the opposition parties.

In December 1921, the Central Committee of the RCP(b) decided to completely liquidate the Socialist Revolutionary Party. At the beginning of 1922, it was decided to organize several “exemplary loud educational processes” in order to create a negative opinion in society about the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.

In May 1922, V.I. Lenin wrote to the People's Commissar of Justice D.I. Kursky regarding the draft introductory law to the criminal code: “In my opinion, it is necessary to expand the use of execution (with replacement by deportation abroad) ... to all types of activities of the Mensheviks, s.-r. and so on.".

On August 7, the court sentenced 12 defendants to death, 10 received between two and 10 years in prison. However, the death penalty was replaced by imprisonment.

Other parties and movements were also subjected to repression: the Mensheviks, Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Maximalists and Anarchists. Some opposition structures, under pressure from the authorities, announced their dissolution, and those who disagreed with this were arrested. In May 1925, the last members of the AKP central bureau were taken into custody.

The Cheka in January 1922 was transformed into the Main Political Directorate - GPU (since 1923 - United GPU - OGPU). F. E. Dzerzhinsky remained its leader. The OGPU and its agencies fought against banditry, espionage, suppressed open counter-revolutionary actions, guarded borders, railways and waterways, and combated smuggling. The OGPU controlled the mood of the population and suppressed anti-Soviet propaganda, which sometimes included simple criticism of life in the USSR.

Extrajudicial repressions were canceled, and prepared cases were transferred to court. However, already in October 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee granted the GPU the right to extrajudicial execution, albeit with restrictions both in the scope and severity of punishment.

The OGPU was engaged not only in fulfilling its immediate duties, but also in solving urgent economic problems: the fight against devastation, epidemics, disruptions in transport, and child homelessness.

To develop the ideas of workers' control, a semi-public, semi-state organization was created in 1920 - the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection (RKI). It was assumed that workers and peasants, through participation in the activities of the RKI, gain experience in managing society. Representatives of the RKI worked in all government bodies. The grassroots structures of this commissariat were created at every enterprise and in rural areas. Basically, the inspection team consisted of workers delegated from enterprises for a four-month period.

In 1923, the joint decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars “On the reorganization of the people's commissariats of the workers' and peasants' inspection of the union republics” clarified the functions of the RKI: from now on they consisted of developing methods for the scientific organization of labor in the state apparatus and checking the effectiveness of its work. However, since the implementation of these tasks required knowledge of the mechanism of work of government bodies, the recruitment of workers in RKI was stopped, and its staff was sharply reduced. From an instrument of control from below, the RKI finally turned into a structure of party-state control from above.

In April 1921, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree “On attracting working women and peasant women to work in Soviet institutions.” According to it, a system was established when trainees had to come to work in Soviet institutions within two weeks. The main place of work for this time was reserved for them. Soon a similar decree was adopted regarding young people. Thus, preparations were underway to replace the old bureaucracy with new personnel.

In accordance with the decision of the XIII Congress of the RCP (b) held in May 1923, a course was taken to support public organizations. They appeared almost every day: “Left Front of the Arts”, “Art of the Commune”, Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians. Some of them - the Communist Youth League, the International Organization for Assistance to Fighters of the Revolution (MOPR), the "Down with Illiteracy" society, the Society for Assistance to Defense and Aviation Chemical Construction (OSOAVIAHIM) - had millions of members. At the same time, the Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University, created in 1804, the Russian Archaeological Society (1846), the Moscow Archaeological Society (1865), and others ceased to exist.

Rural gatherings remained the main form of self-government in the country. They persisted despite the Stolypin reform and the vicissitudes of the Civil War. Until 1927, gatherings and Bolshevik rural Soviets existed in parallel. Naturally, it was the gatherings that the peasants recognized as power. The authorities, of course, could not tolerate this. In accordance with the decisions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of March 14, 1927, the rural Soviets took control of the gatherings.

In 1925, the voting rights of peasants were somewhat expanded, their turnout increased from 35% to 50.8%, but the number of communists in the Soviets decreased. The Bolsheviks encouraged population activity only in a direction that was beneficial and safe for them.

In 1922 the famine ended. The year was fruitful, both the good weather and the interest of the peasants in work had an impact. State revenues were sufficient to carry out financial reform. In 1924, hard currency was introduced (the depreciated old money was abolished), and the tax in kind now took on a monetary form. Bread procurement in 1924 was relatively successful - the plan was 86% fulfilled. The overstocking crisis was overcome. Bread prices have stabilized.

The state, with the help of taxes, regulated the market economy, and with the help of command-administrative methods - the large industry that remained in its hands. The basis of the market sector of the Russian economy was peasant farming. In the city, private enterprises operated primarily in light industry: they employed 11% of workers and produced 45% of goods. The efficiency of private business was declining due to high taxes, which forced it into the sphere of trade. However, the external forms of bourgeoisism were very noticeable. Expensive restaurants began to open again, fashionably dressed people appeared on the streets, and light music sounded. People who became rich - Nepmen - could openly use their wealth, but many looked at them with hatred.

After the first successes of the NEP, the first difficulties emerged. The sales crisis of 1923–1924 showed that the NEP did not yet mean a real transition of industry to a market economy. Market relations have only just begun to break through the dominant command-administrative structures. Due to the low qualifications of the bureaucracy, the management of state property and regulation of the economy was unstable.

The 20th century became a period of global changes for Russia. By the beginning of 1921, Poland and Finland left its membership. Latvia, Estonia, Western Ukraine, Belarus and Bessarabia with a population of more than 32 million people. The population of Russia was 135 million; total losses since 1914 - 25 million people.

The level of industrial production decreased by 7 times compared to 1913, steel production fell to the level of Peter the Great's times. The country was in ruins, society was degraded, and its intellectual potential was declining.

The small but united party of communists emerged victorious in the struggle for power. However, victory turned out to be akin to defeat. Workers fled the cities, peasants took up arms, and the popularity of the authorities fell.

Despite the failure of the policy of “war communism” and the monstrous results of the unleashed terror, Lenin stubbornly insisted on its continuation.

A terrible famine began in the country, as a result of which 5.4 million people died.

The restoration of the economy, destroyed during the First World War and the Civil War, raised the question of the further development of the country before the Bolsheviks. It was clear to everyone that the country needed modernization, which would bring it out of economic backwardness. The question was how to accomplish this.

Industrialization

Goals of industrialization in the USSR:

1) ensuring the dominance of state forms of economy; 2) achieving economic independence; 3) creation of a powerful military-industrial complex.

Thanks to the labor heroism and moral upsurge that reigned in society, the task of industrialization was solved.

Collectivization- the process of uniting peasant farms into collective farms

But in the end, collectivization brought the country to a crisis.

15. NEP, Lenin.

Fatherland in the 1920s.

1) in 1921, a crisis of the Bolshevik Party emerged as the peasants openly expressed dissatisfaction with the policies of War Communism. By spring, 200 thousand peasants oppose the Soviet government. The most famous detachment is the Antonov movement. Peak of discontent March 21 - uprising in Kronstadt

2) the government quickly realized the danger and drew conclusions. Lenin's work "lessons of Kronstadt" 2 lessons: "only an agreement with the peasants can save the revolution in Russia before the world revolution comes"; Lenin formulates the basic principles of the rejection of war communism and the transition to the NEP.

Lesson 2: “the need to intensify the fight against all opposition forces”

Thus, the beginning of the 20s began with opposite lines of development of the country: in the areas of economics, the rejection of war communism and the transition to NEP; in politics - maintaining the dictatorial nature of the Bolshevik rule.

3)2nd lesson of Kronstadt: the Cheka is sharply strengthening. With 22g GPU. This is an apparatus of violence that is developing and penetrating into all government spheres. In the 20s, the budget of the GPU was second only to the military department and spending on public education. Salary: 1925 worker per month 55 rubles, Wed. composition of the Red Army up to 140 rubles, employee in the GPU 780 rubles. The authorities paid special attention to culture and education, trying to idealize this sphere..... 1922, on Lenin’s initiative, about 200 opposition-minded scientists and cultural figures (philosophical steamship) are expelled from the country in 22, the purge of books “harmful” for the socialist education of the masses begins .

Pros: 1919 decree on the elimination of illiterates. 23g society gave illiteracy, led by Kalinin. Result - by the end of the 20s, 40% could read and write versus 27% in 13

4) Intra-party struggle. I widely practice dictatorial methods in relations with segments of the population

Since 1920, there has been a discussion in the party: Trotsky: predatokgos apparatus; 2nd point of view: transfer the function of managing the national economy to trade unions; 3rd point: it is necessary to return harsh criticism within the ranks of the party and the party leadership with councils and all organizations should be expressed in the form of general decrees, and not detailed Regulations. Lenin condemned all 3 points of view. At his insistence, factional activity was prohibited, that is, the possibility of any collective expression of opinions on certain political platforms. By fighting dissent in the party, Lenin tried to prevent its complete bureaucratization.

The New Economic Policy aimed at restoring the national economy and the subsequent transition to socialism. The main content of the NEP is the replacement of surplus appropriation with a tax in kind in the countryside (up to 70% of grain was confiscated during surplus appropriation, and about 30% with a tax in kind), the use of the market and various forms of ownership, attracting foreign capital in the form of concessions, carrying out a monetary reform (1922-1924), in as a result of which the ruble became a convertible currency.

16. 20-30 years

Russia in 20-30 years.

Stalin's struggle with opponents:

Stage 1 - Stalin Kamenev against Trotsky

Stage 2 - Stalin Bukharin against Kamnev Zinoviev and Trotsky: Kamnev Zinoviev Trotsky accused the party leadership of a pro-peasant system. They were defeated in the fight against Stalin

Stage 3 - Stalin against Bukharin: Stalin for the administrative command method of managing the peasants, Bukharin for certain market relations between city and countryside. Bukharin is defeated.

1929 was the year of a great turning point: the collapse of NEP, the process of collectivization and the formation of the cult of Stalin.

The Bolsheviks were unable to establish the process of democracy in their own party

Change in the qualitative composition of the party: in the 20s the party membership reached 2 million. The Lenin Guard (10 thousand) was diluted by the illiterate mass of peasants.

Education USSR

Prerequisites: reunification of the country within the framework of the Russian Empire for the successful solution of economic and defensive tasks, economic and historical ties between peoples

Merging options: autonomization of Stalin and federation of Lenin

General: - unity;

Within the framework of the socialist Soviet state

Differences: - about the role of the center in a union state

On the rights of union republics

Stalin on the entry of the republics into the RSFSR, Lenin - on the basis of equality of all “independent” Soviet republics and respect for their sovereign rights

December 29, 1922 . The Union Treaty was signed (RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belarusian SSR, Transcaucasian Federation: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan)

December 30, 1922 I congress The Soviets of the USSR adopted the declaration and treaty on the formation of the USSR

1924 – completion of the process of creating a new union state of the USSR

January 31, 1924 . – adoption of the Constitution of the USSR (at the II All-Union Congress of Soviets) – the possibility of each republic to secede from the USSR, the principle of indivisibility of the territories of republics

New authorities: two chambers of the Central Executive Committee (from two chambers: the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities), 10 People's Commissariats, OGPU, State Planning Committee, etc.

Soviet foreign policy in the 20-30s

At the beginning of 20 Peace treaties with Finland Poland Lithuania Latvia Estonia

In 21 With Turkey Iran Afghanistan

Agreement on friendship with Mongolia where the Soviet troops were located.

At the conference in Genoa, the Soviet delegation declared the inevitability of the peaceful coexistence of the two systems and expressed its readiness to recognize part of the debts of Tsarist Russia in exchange for compensation for the damage of the intervention and the provision of loans to Russia. The West rejects the proposal.

In the same year (22), an agreement was signed with Germany in Rapallo on the renunciation of mutual claims and diplomatic conditions were established

In 24, a period of de facto recognition of the Soviet Union began: diplomatic relations were established with more than 20 countries; the US was not recognized among the great powers of the USSR.

Roosevelt's hobby was collecting stamps.

1928 The USSR joins the Briand-Kelok Pact, which proclaimed the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy.

Mid-30s relations between Germany, Italy and Japan come to the fore

In 1933, the USSR proposed creating a collective security system

1934 - USSR joins the League of Nations

1935 agreement with France and Czechoslovakia on mutual military assistance in case of aggression. Negotiations began with fascist Germany in order to push Germany to the west. The task of England and France is to push Germany to the east (towards the USSR), therefore England and France pursued a policy of appeasing Germany.

1938 Munich. The governments of England and France agree with Germany to tear away the Suddeties from the Czech Republic. In March, Germany captured all of Czechoslavakia. 1939 in Moscow negotiations between the USSR, England and France: a unified position in relation to Germany was not developed. On August 23, Molotov and the Rebentrops signed a non-aggression pact and a secret addition to it on the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. September 1, 1939 Germany attacks Poland - the beginning of the Second World War. In September 39, Western Ukraine and Belarus joined the USSR. The Baltic countries are included in the USSR. The same applies to non-rabies and North Korea.

In November 1939, the USSR demanded that Finland exchange territory. The Finns owe part of the territories in the Leningrad region, and we owe them in the north in the area of ​​the Kola Peninsula. Finland refuses. The USSR NKVD provokes the outbreak of war and the war with the Finns begins. After this, the USSR withdraws part of the territories. The USSR is expelled from the League of Nations. In March 1940, Hitler occupied all countries of Western Europe except England. The USSR stood in the way of Hitler's world domination. Stalin won this war game, preventing the creation of a single anti-German bloc

USSR in the 20-30s. XX century.

Parameter name	Meaning
Article topic:	USSR in the 20-30s. XX century.
Rubric (thematic category)	Policy

Lecture 9

Stalin's doctrine of the victory of socialism in one country provided for the elimination of multi-structure and market relations, even in the reduced form in which they existed under the NEP, as well as accelerated industrialization, forced collectivization in agriculture, strengthening and tightening of the administrative-command system based on the regime personal power of the party leader, the use of forced labor and other delights of “socialism”.

The restoration of the national economy had not yet been completed in the country when in December 1925. At the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a course towards industrialization was proclaimed. The implementation of this course predetermined the collapse of the NEP by the end of the 20s.

Forced course to industrialization immediately caused difficulties with grain procurements. This was due to the fact that peasants could not buy the goods they needed with the proceeds from the sale of agricultural products. As a result, at the turn of 1927-1928. Cities and the army were under threat of famine. Attempts by the authorities to take grain by force ended in peasant unrest. Stalin, without hesitation, decides to dismantle the mechanism of the market economy and replace it with a command one. And dismantling must begin from the village, destroying the kulaks and creating collective farms. The position of Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky, who proposed to debug the mechanism of market relations between city and countryside, provide assistance to individual peasant farming, establish flexible prices, and develop light industry, was called the “right deviation.”

In the meantime, a policy of forced collectivization was being pursued in the village. Between 3.5 and 15 million people fell victim to it. The famine of 1933 in the weakened countryside claimed over 5 million people. Millions of “dispossessed” people also died from hunger, cold and overwork. Agriculture, having now become an integral part of the directive economy, turned out to be unable to provide the population with bread for many years.

It is important to note that the Soviet directive economy was characterized by powerful levers of non-economic coercion: the passport regime, judicial liability for unauthorized dismissal from enterprises and institutions, for absenteeism and tardiness. By the end of the 30s, the directive economy acquired a “camp” appearance. There were about 15 million people in prison, ᴛ.ᴇ. approximately 20% of all employees in material production sectors. Camps and colonies provided about half of the gold and chromium-nickel ore mined in the USSR, at least 1/3 of platinum and timber, and 1/5 of capital work. Prisoners built entire cities, such as Magadan, Angarsk, Norilsk, Taishet, the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow-Volga Canal, thousands of kilometers of railways.

Sources of funds for industrialization were sought exclusively within the country. Οʜᴎ mainly consisted of:

1) from the income of light industry and, mainly, agriculture;

2) from income from the monopoly of foreign trade in grain, timber, furs, gold, priceless treasuries of Russian museums, and partly in other goods; The latest technological equipment was purchased abroad using the foreign currency raised. According to estimates, during this period at least 40% of US mechanical engineering products were purchased by Soviet foreign trade organizations. The Gorky Automobile Plant was almost completely equipped with American conveyor lines;

3) from significant taxes on nepmans; it was essentially confiscatory taxation, which led to complete phasing out by 1933ᴦ. private sector in industry and trade;

4) from funds received by limiting the consumption of urban and rural populations; as a result, the standard of living of workers and employees fell by 2-3 times;

5) the source of resources for industrialization was the spiritual energy of the working people. This was clearly reflected in the mass “socialist competition”: in the shock movement (from 1929 ᴦ.) and the Stakhanov movement (from 1935 ᴦ.). A powerful incentive for many people was the idea that in a short period of time, at the cost of gruelingly difficult conditions, it was possible to create the best, ᴛ.ᴇ. socialist society.

Despite the deprivations, difficulties and difficult living conditions, the working people of the USSR showed great enthusiasm in implementing industrialization plans. During the period from 1928 to 1941, about 9 thousand large industrial enterprises came into operation; for the first time, the production of aircraft, trucks and cars, tractors, combines, and various types of equipment for heavy industry was launched, primarily to increase the country's military power. At the same time, it is extremely important to note that industrialization has had little impact on other sectors of the economy. Manual labor still predominated in construction and agriculture. Light industry and infrastructure have not received proper development.

The administrative-command system that emerged in the 1930s was symbolized by despotic power based on bureaucracy, determining the role of the state in social relations, and the dominance of ideology performing the functions of religion.

Summing up its achievements, the Communist Party in December 1936 adopted a new Constitution, called the Constitution of “victorious socialism.”

The USSR developed an integral system that can be defined as state socialism. But socialization turned out to be illusory, because all the fullness of political power ended up in the hands of a new class - the party bureaucracy and Stalin personally.

All members of society were deprived of economic and political freedom. The political regime showed itself to be unprecedentedly cruel. Everyone who stood in the way of the final establishment of the regime of Stalin’s personal power was destroyed. Behind the facade of the decorative power of the Soviets was hidden the structure of a regime of personal dictatorship, which relied on party organs and state security organs that acted under the personal leadership of Stalin. The nomenklatura was periodically shaken up, which excluded the possibility of its consolidation on an anti-Stalinist basis.

The existing totalitarian system in the USSR could not do without a brutal dictator. I. Stalin was better suited for this role than others. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks since April 1922 was characterized by the absence of any principles, hypocrisy, rancor, cunning, deceit, cruelty, and the ability to wait for his victims. Stalin's personal negative qualities left a deep imprint on the entire process of development of the USSR.

The formation of the image of a charismatic leader began after the Bolsheviks came to power and especially after the death of Lenin. He was called a genius, his name was assigned to cities, streets, factories, schools, his portraits and monuments appeared everywhere (Tula), replacing icons. “Lenin lived, Lenin is alive, Lenin will live!” Well, why not “Christ is risen!”

Why was the cult of Lenin created? Maybe it’s better to forget him, making way for new leaders? In this cult, the highest interests of the Communist Party and the state were highlighted, a new basis was created for legitimizing the regime, but this time Stalinist one.

The deification of the leaders imparted “holiness” to the regime. The system, which was largely based on violence, acquired a spiritual basis. The new leaders made their way to power easier by appearing as disciples, followers, and completers of Lenin’s work.

Mass repressions against one’s own people are criminal and inhumane. The cult of Stalin's personality was formed in conditions of great terror, fear and unbridled propaganda of the greatness of the leader, his insight and wisdom.

An orgy began in the country, accompanied by party purges, denunciations, widespread repentance, and demands for death sentences for imaginary “enemies of the people.”

This madness reached its climax during three successive show trials in Moscow. In August 1936 over Zinoviev and Kamenev, in January - February 1937 over Pyatakov and Radek, in March 1938 over Bukharin, Rykov, Krestinsky. Well-known government and political figures were accused of having connections with Trotsky, of creating a center for the purpose of assassinating Stalin and other leaders, as well as of having connections with foreign intelligence services.

All defendants were sentenced to death. Arrests and executions affected not only Stalin’s opponents, but also broad sections of the population. The reprisal against the military on the eve of the war was the most serious crime against the country and people. Stalin's terror cost the country, according to incomplete data, 15-20 million lives.

In the USSR, an anti-market state of a totalitarian type was built, which exercised brutal control over the economy, politics, and ideology. A state that exercised ideological control over all media, repressed opposition and dissent, and eliminated constitutional freedoms.

Essentially, the characteristic features of the autocratic-state-serf type of feudalism were reproduced.

Foreign policy of the USSR after the end of the civil war, it was formed under the influence of two goals: cooperation with capitalist countries and adherence to the principle of proletarian internationalism (helping the foreign proletariat with money, gold, weapons).

In the 1920s, the authority and influence of the Soviet Union in the international arena noticeably strengthened. This was facilitated by the objective needs of the world economy, which was very interested in the Russian sales market and in Russia’s natural resources. Unfulfilled hopes for a world revolution, as well as interest in Western technologies, pushed the USSR onto the path of peaceful coexistence.

With signing at the end of 1920-1921. world treaties with Finland, the Baltic republics, and Poland, Soviet Russia emerges from international isolation. In 1921 ᴦ. Diplomatic relations were established with Turkey, Iraq, and Afghanistan. An important event was the signing in 1922. agreement with Germany on the renunciation of mutual claims in Ropallo.

The agreement, two months after it was signed by Foreign Ministers W. Rathenau and G. Chicherin, opened the way for a secret military agreement. It provided for the study of Soviet military leaders in classes of the German General Staff in exchange for Soviet help in reviving the German military machine, bypassing the prohibitions of Versailles.

In 1924 ᴦ. followed by a streak of diplomatic recognition of the USSR from England, Italy, France, Japan, and China.

At the end of the 20s, Stalin concluded that Europe was clearly entering a period of new revolutionary upsurge. The Comintern, on the instructions of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), demanded that the communist parties deliver their main blow to social democracy, which Stalin called “the moderate wing of fascism.” On this wave, the Nazis came to power in Germany.

In the mid-1930s, the problem of relations with the states of the aggressive-fascist bloc - Germany, Italy and Japan - came to the fore in international affairs. In 1933 ᴦ. The Soviet government proposed creating a system of collective security, using for this purpose the League of Nations, which the USSR joined in 1934.

The following year, the Soviet Union concludes treaties with France and Czechoslovakia on mutual assistance in the event of aggression against the contracting parties. But until recently, we knew practically nothing about the second, unspoken line of Moscow’s foreign policy activity. It was carried out through Stalin's especially trusted representatives. In particular, certain political agreements with Germany in order to divert the fire of the flaring war from the borders of the USSR. England and France followed the same policy when they embarked on the path of appeasing the aggressor (Munich agreements of 1938).

At the turn of 1938-1939. in Berlin they are moving towards further expansion. The plan was to capture Poland and later move against England and France. In relation to the USSR, the Nazis are taking a course, in Hitler’s words, towards “staging a new Rapallo stage,” intending to turn the USSR into their temporary “ally” and thereby neutralize it for the time being. Moscow readily responded to these steps of Berlin. Negotiations with England and France that took place in Moscow in May–August 1939 revealed the rigid and uncompromising positions of the parties and sharp distrust. With a different balance of forces, capabilities and will, the contracting parties would have been able to achieve the formation of an anti-fascist front. But this did not happen, and humanity later paid a high price for its uncompromising attitude.

USSR in the 20-30s. XX century. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "USSR in the 20-30s of the XX century." 2017, 2018.