Notes for Consolidation and maintenance: Stalin's nature and extent of the opposition - IB | RevisionDojo
Consolidation and maintenance: Stalin's nature and extent of the opposition Notes
Nature and extent of the opposition
As we have already seen, Stalin saw opposition everywhere, but that doesn’t mean opposition was real.
According to historians like Sheila Fitzpatrick and Robert Conquest, people in the USSR hated Stalin, but there were no channels for them to express themselves.
Stalin faced (or considered) opposition from within the party and from a particular group within the peasantry, the kulaks.
The opposition within the party was neutralized or eliminated during his rise to power and the Great Purge.
Note
See the section on Methods in the emergence to power and the one on Use of Terror.
Note
Who Were the Kulaks?
Kulak (originally): affluent peasants with more land/livestock in late Imperial Russia
Under Stalin: term became politicized, labeling peasants resisting grain requisition, hiring labor, or holding surplus
Portrayed as class enemies of socialism and the proletariat
Fitzpatrick: term was arbitrary, inconsistent, and a “floating signifier” to justify repression
Used to stigmatize a broad section of rural society
Peasant Resistance and Dekulakization
Widespread peasant resistance to collectivization, seen as a return to serfdom
Acts of protest: “kulak terror” (arson, sabotage, killing officials) and mass livestock slaughter
1929: Stalin called for “liquidation of the kulaks as a class”
Peak in Holodomor (1932–33): famine in Ukraine caused by collectivization and grain requisitions
3.5–5 million deaths in Ukraine; grain still exported abroad
Ukrainian famine seen as targeted and deliberate, unlike other regions
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What was the nature of opposition to Stalin?
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Note
Stalin's regime was characterized by a pervasive sense of paranoia and suspicion. Stalin saw opposition everywhere, even when it didn't exist. This paranoia led to a climate of fear and repression throughout the Soviet Union.
Stalin's suspicion extended to his closest allies and advisors
He believed that enemies were constantly plotting against him
This mindset justified his harsh measures against perceived threats
Analogy
Think of Stalin's paranoia like a person who constantly checks their locks and windows, convinced that someone is trying to break in, even when there's no evidence of a threat.
Example
During the Great Purge, even loyal Communist Party members were accused of being enemies of the state, showing how far Stalin's paranoia extended.
