The History Faculty

Stalin is famous above all for a remarkable programme of economic development – the establishment of a ‘command-administrative system’ that set targets for the transformation of the USSR’s economy in the form of five-year plans. This economic revolution also carried profound consequences for Soviet society. This talk outlines how Stalin’s changes ripped social ties apart in both the urban and rural environments. The purpose of culture, it is argued, was to try and put society back together again, whether by building families, resorting to traditional schooling, by being more tolerant of religion, or by combining socialist realism with popular entertainment.

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Causes, Course, Consequences: In 1905 Russia became famous as a centre of Revolution. The eyes of Europe were focused upon modern forms of discontent, especially the mass strike, in an old political order. This talk covers the beginnings, development and end of this remarkable period in late imperial Russia history. Was this an opportunity for Tsarism to reform itself, or was 1905 simply a foretaste of what was to come in 1917?

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Survival and Consolidation: When the Bolsheviks declared a new government in October 1917 many a commentator, including many Bolsheviks, thought that it could not survive as a one-party regime. It would have either to give way to the Constituent Assembly or to transform itself into a broad coalition of socialists of all types. This talk examines why of all the attempted communist revolutions in Europe of this time (Germany, Hungary, Slovakia etc.) only the Bolshevik regime in Russia survived. It also asks whether the price paid for survival – the consolidation of a one-party dictatorship meant that the ideal of socialism was lost.

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This podcast explores the variety of approaches to the question of Stalin’s power. It considers the relative importance of a/ Stalin’s control of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party; b/ he opinion of both of the Party elite and rank and file, and c/ Soviet political culture in the 1920s. Dr. Harris briefly discusses the findings of his own research in the archives of the Central Committee Secretariat.

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In this podcast Dr. Harris explains why all Bolsheviks agreed on the need to overcome economic backwardness. He explores why Soviet industrialisation took the form it did in the late 1920s, and then explores a fascinating paradox: How the Soviet planned economy in the 1930s was at once both a spectacular success and a catastrophic failure.

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