USSR EE 1924-2000 Unit

Introductory Essay

This unit covers Stalin and the post Stalin Soviet leaders until Boris Yeltsin after the fall of the USSR. These 75 years cover a huge range of material and ideologies. The foreign policy issues will already be covered in the Cold War unit, so the emphasis here is on domestic policies for each leader. Also, the Eastern European area is covered, from Interwar through after the fall of the Soviet Bloc. This unit is prep for a Paper Three question and is of interest to HL students, although SL students will find this useful as well (for Paper Two questions about Cold War).

This section deals with the consolidation of the Soviet state from 1924 and the methods applied to ensure
its survival, growth and expansion inside and outside the borders of the Soviet Union. Bolshevik rule under Lenin, the rise and nature of the rule of Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and the policies and practice of Sovietization (post-1945) in Central and Eastern Europe are areas for examination. East–West relations
post-1945 in relation to Soviet aims and leadership should also be considered.

• Stalin (1924-53): power struggle; collectivization and industrialization; Five Year Plans; constitution;
cult of personality; purges; impact on society; foreign relations to 1941
• The Great Patriotic War: breakdown of wartime alliance; Cold War; policies towards Germany: Berlin;
Eastern European satellite states; Warsaw Pact
• Khrushchev (1955-64): struggle for power after Stalin’s death; destalinization; peaceful coexistence;
domestic policies: economic and agricultural; foreign relations: Hungary, Berlin, Cuba, China
• Brezhnev: domestic and foreign policies
• Case study of one Sovietized/satellite state: establishment of Soviet control; the nature of the single-
party state; domestic policies; opposition and dissent (suitable examples could be East Germany,
Czechoslovakia, Poland but all relevant states are valid)
• Transformation of Soviet Union: political developments and change (1982-2000)

Some generalizations can be made about this era: It was clear to many advance planners in the West that the USSR, as was expressed in the Post Stalin context, was not a sustainable system once Khrushchev failed to make many reform inroads against the deeply entrenched Soviet Bureaucracy. The Soviets had lost touch with the revoutionary spirit of the Bolshevik Revolution earlier in the century. Mao sererely criticised the post Stalin leadership and it was a main factor in the Sino-Soviet Split. It was Richard Nixon who saw the utility in wedging into the middle of the 'communist bloc' earlier US analysts had so feared, and which was a major driver in the Cold War Origins phase. Brezhnev's minor attempts at reform were not enough to reverse the 'bureaucratic ossification' that began to strangle the Soviet system by the 1970s. By the time Gorbachev came on the scene, the USSR was a ship truly adrift. Major historiographic debates rage throughout this unit... most prevelant is Gorbachev's influence on the collapse of the Soviet system.

Syllabus readings

Please ask Mr. Faught for the URL containing the readings.

Websites