Totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union. Stalinism - the totalitarian system of the USSR

By the end of the 30s. 20th century a totalitarian system took shape in the USSR. The socio-political structure of such a system is a totalitarian regime, which is characterized by the following main features:
— centralized management and management in the economic sphere;
—the recognition of the leading role of one party and the exercise of its dictatorship in the political sphere;
—the dominance of official ideology and the forced imposition of it on members of society in the spiritual sphere.
This assumed complete control over the whole society and each individual separately.
Some elements of the totalitarian regime took shape simultaneously with the establishment of Bolshevik power, but as an integral system, with all its inherent features, it was established in the late 30s.
The establishment of a totalitarian regime in the USSR is a direct consequence of the Marxist doctrine of building socialism. It contains the roots of totalitarianism.
According to many researchers, totalitarianism is born in conditions when there is a breakdown of traditional public structures and the usual economic, political, social, ideological, cultural ties between people are destroyed. As a result, people have uncertainty about the future. Under these conditions, a “savior” often appears in society (in the person of one person or party), who manages to come to power with the help of a put forward idea that is understandable and suits the majority of people. The clarity, simplicity and accessibility of the idea to the general public gives rise to the illusion of the possibility of its rapid implementation. Thus, totalitarianism is impossible without the support of its broad masses.
Let us consider how the totalitarian regime in the USSR specifically manifested itself, how it was formed in all spheres of society (economy, political system, ideology).
Economy. Established by the end of the 30s. the economy is now defined as directive: all links of production, all tasks and resources for their implementation have become the object of centralized regulations. Thus, the center got the opportunity to quickly mobilize material, financial, human resources, to concentrate them on those areas that were defined as key. This is exactly what the government was forced to do when pursuing a policy of forced industrialization. The choice of an accelerated strategy for the modernization of the economy at the turn of the 20-30s. led in conditions of extreme shortage of funds to the strengthening of centralized management, the predominance of administrative and economic methods. Reduced the possibility of using economic methods management.
Whatever the enthusiasm of the first builders of socialism, it had to be backed up by a “subsystem of fear”—powerful levers of non-economic coercion during industrialization and collectivization.
The introduction of the death penalty or ten years of hard labor for theft of collective farm property, including for children, from the age of 12 (1932); almost complete restriction of the freedom of movement of collective farmers with the introduction of a passport regime and a propiska system (1932-1933); the prosecution of workers and employees for three absenteeism per month (1938), the establishment of a mandatory minimum of workdays for collective farmers, and in case of non-compliance - administrative and criminal measures (1939) - such is a far from complete list of repressive measures to "stimulate" labor.
As a result of mass repressions, a significant part of the population moved beyond barbed wire(according to unofficial sources, up to 20% of all employed in the sphere of material production), and by the end of the 30s. the directive economy acquired a "camp" appearance.
The main means of managing the economy becomes an order, an order, a directive. Discipline, strict obedience to the command given "from above" acquired decisive importance.
Initiative, enterprise, self-activity were valuable only to the extent that they did not contradict the directive.
And then logic suggested that to achieve such a position in the economic mechanism, devoid of economic leverage, economic interest, the easiest way, relying on the political apparatus, state sanction, administrative coercion. This prompted the same forms of strict obedience to directives to prevail in the political system as well.
Politic system. In our country, the RCP(b)-VKP(b)-CPSU played the leading role in the political system of society. She usurped the monopoly of power. There was a transformation of the dictatorship of the proletariat into the dictatorship of the party, and during the period of Stalin's rule - into the dictatorship of its leader.
I. Stalin managed to achieve such a position not immediately. It was necessary to neutralize or minimize the influence of the old party guard, to enlist the support of the party majority of the rank and file members of the party in carrying out their policy. effective means solution to the tasks were periodically carried out purges of the party. As a result of a series of such purges from 1929 to 1936, 40% of its membership was expelled from the party. No less effective were the regular, so-called "Leninist appeals" to the party. If the purges made it possible to get rid of objectionable persons from whom opposition could be expected, then the “calls” made it possible to dilute the already thin layer old Bolsheviks through the influx of “recruits” inexperienced in politics into the party.
Despite the absolute growth in the size of the party, the proportion of workers in it, and not by profession, but by worldview, was declining. From the replenishment of workers in 1926-1929. 45% came from peasant families in the whole country. During the years of the first five-year plans, the working class was replenished even more intensively from the peasants. This trend was also observed in the party. The new workers who joined the party brought with them peasant psychology and culture. The educational level of this replenishment was also low. Even towards the end of the 30s. illiterates in the party amounted to 3% (the share of the country's illiterate population at that time was 20%). The educational level of the party elite was also low. In the 30s. more than 70% of secretaries of district committees and city committees of the party had only primary education, and among the secretaries of regional committees, regional committees and the Central Committee of the communist parties of the union republics, there were 40% of such secretaries. Because of this, not only many rank-and-file members of the party, but also a significant part of the party leadership did not understand the essence of the theoretical disputes going on in the "top" of the party. It opened last good opportunity for all sorts of manipulations in their own interests.
As I. Stalin's power strengthened, the remnants of inner-party democracy were curtailed. Party congresses began to be convened less and less, and the practice of appointment to elected party bodies is developing.
It cannot be said that no attempts were made to combat the growing power of I. Stalin. These were scattered speeches by a narrow circle of people, and they all failed. It is noteworthy that the opposition to the totalitarian regime, the opposition to the leader, has developed in the depths of the party itself. Many prominent party and state figures became victims of this struggle against the regime.
The group of S. Syrtsov and V. Lominadze opposed the Stalinist leadership (the former was the chairman of the Russian government, a candidate member of the Politburo; the latter was the head of the Transcaucasian party organization). She criticized the economic policy (high rates of industrialization, methods of collectivization), assessed the situation in the country as a crisis. Responsibility for this state of affairs was placed on the leader, they were going to oppose him at the plenum of the Central Committee. There was a traitor in the group who betrayed them. All were expelled from the party, relieved of their posts. The activity of S. Syrtsov - V. Lominadze was qualified as a "right-leftist" bloc in the party. The general secretary explained to those who were rightly perplexed: “If you go to the right, you will come to the left, if you go to the left, you will come to the right.” In 1937, S. Syrtsov was shot, and V. Lominadze, in order not to fall into the hands of the Chekists, shot himself.
A group of party members led by a well-known figure in the Moscow party organization M. Ryutin prepared a theoretical work "Stalin and the Crisis of the Proletarian Dictatorship" and a manifesto-appeal "To all a member of the party." They substantiated the need to make adjustments to the system of managing the national economy and to remove I. Stalin from power.
A group of old party members, major Soviet officials, also opposed the regime of personal power of I. Stalin: L. Smirnov, N. Eismont, V. Tolmachev. They demanded a revision of the industrialization program, the dissolution of collective farms, the subordination of the OGPU to party control, the creation of independent trade unions, and the removal of the general secretary from power. Like the previous one, this group was exposed, its members were repressed.
The oppositionists did not encroach on the fundamental principles of the policy of their own party, criticizing only the tactics of its implementation and demanding the return to power of "genuinely Bolshevik cadres", i.e., the old party guard.
A considerable contribution to the strengthening of the totalitarian regime was made by the decisions of the 17th Party Congress (1934). According to his decisions, sectoral departments were created in the party committees. They actually replaced the corresponding Soviet bodies. This congress and its decisions were the final defeat of the old Bolshevik guard. In fact, this was the last organized battle against Stalinism. Despite the defeat of all opposition groups, a significant part of the congress participants opposed the election of I. Stalin as a member of the Central Committee. The 17th Congress went down in history as the “Congress of the Executed”. Of the 139 members and candidate members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks elected at the 17th Congress, 98 people were arrested and shot, that is, 70% of the entire composition. The same fate befell the congress delegates: out of 1,961 delegates, 1,108 people were arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary crimes.
The entire party nomenklatura lived under the fear of repression, its ranks were periodically "shaken up". This ruled out the possibility of consolidating a new layer of “nominees” and turned it into mere conductors of the party-state elite. In the course of 1937 alone, on average, the leadership of the krai, oblast, and republican party and soviet bodies was replaced 4-5 times.
Having grown numerically, the party subordinates the entire society to its total control. Party organizations are being created at all enterprises, on collective farms and state farms. Social organizations operated under strict party control: trade unions, Komsomol. The activities of the Soviet authorities became formal. Their share was the approval of the adopted party decisions. The working masses were alienated from power, because the democratic institutions of power proclaimed by the constitution did not work. The real power was held by the Soviet party and economic nomenklatura apparatus, which consisted mainly of party members. The dominant position of the party and at the same time the virtually powerless and irresponsible position of state economic bodies and public organizations- this is a feature of the current totalitarian regime. The essence and meaning of the system, at the center of which stood the party apparatus, was well expressed by I. Stalin, who declared at the XVIII Party Congress (1939): “Party cadres are the command staff of the party, and since our party is in power, they are the command the composition of the governing state bodies”. This is yet another explanation for the steady growth in the size of the party, since it was necessary to place its cadres everywhere to carry out party policy. All this deformed the political system of society, led it far away from the proclaimed ideas of democracy.
Ideology. The directive economy and the monopoly on power of the leading party bodies, and later on the leader, would have been impossible without massive ideological indoctrination of the broad masses of the people.
The total ideological impact of official propaganda created in people the feeling of being the master of their country. As a result, it was possible to maintain a high vitality, the enthusiasm of a significant part of the Soviet people of the 20-30s. The population was ready to make material, physical sacrifices for the sake of a bright socialist future, if not for themselves, then at least for their children. Contributed to this and visible changes in society: the emergence of previously inaccessible consumer goods; supply of equipment to the village; the opportunity to improve their social status through education, etc.
Official propaganda, thanks to the monopoly on the media, actively used the real and imaginary achievements of socialism, hushed up the negative aspects and thus skillfully influenced the psychology of people. This made it possible to develop socialist emulation on a broad front. The man of labor was sung about: the achievements of the Stakhanovites, Chkalovites, Papaninites. The grandiosity of the plans had a powerful stimulating effect on people, captivating them with the idea of socialist construction.
However, the sphere of ideology also needed a “subsystem of fear”. Absurd, at first glance, the Stalinist idea of the aggravation of the class struggle as we move towards socialism was designed to remove many questions in the minds of the masses: about the causes low level life, the expansion of repression, etc. It made it possible to direct the discontent of the people in search of "enemies of the people." In practice, this was reflected in such a phenomenon as "specialism" - the fight against "bourgeois specialists", in fact - with the scientific and technical intelligentsia.
Any judgments that did not fit into the framework of the official ideology were qualified as ideological sabotage, generated either by “remnants of capitalism” in the minds of people, or by the “pernicious influence” of the West. These phenomena were subject to decisive eradication, and their carriers were declared "enemies of the people." As a result, the development of certain branches of science (sociology, genetics) was interrupted. The social sciences were placed at the service of ideology. Entire trends and schools in philosophy and history were destroyed. With the direct participation of I. Stalin, the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks” was written, which contained the Stalinist version of the history of the Bolshevik party and country, far from the truth. Literature and art became the instruments of communist propaganda. To direct their activities in the right direction, the creative intelligentsia was united in various unions (writers, composers, artists). "Socialist realism" was proclaimed the dominant creative direction. At the same time, entire cultural layers that did not fit into the schemes of party ideologists were eliminated.
Thus, the whole society and each person individually was placed under total control. Any resistance was stopped. If at first the repressions unfolded under the banner of struggle against class-hostile elements—kulaks, NEPmen, bourgeois specialists—then from 1934 repressions swept over the party itself much more widely than before. The signal was the murder on December 1, 1934 of a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the head of the Leningrad party organization S. Kirov.
Under the influence of this, there is a tightening of legislation: no more than 10 days were allotted for investigation into cases of preparation and commission of terrorist acts. Cases were considered without a prosecutor and a lawyer. Appeals and pardons were not allowed. The sentence to capital punishment was carried out immediately. This ruled out an objective clarification of all the circumstances. A confession was enough to bring an accusation, which was sought by any means. This procedure was extended to cases of sabotage and sabotage. The maximum term of imprisonment for state crimes was increased from 10 to 25 years.
In 1934 - 1938. a number of open political trials were fabricated.
In 1936, a trial took place in the case of the “Anti-Soviet United Trotskyist-Zinoviev Center”. Prominent party figures, associates of V. Lenin G. Zinoviev and L. Kamenev passed along it. This center allegedly tried to overthrow the Soviet government, organized an assassination attempt on its members in order to restore capitalism in the USSR. Those involved in the case were accused of trying to undermine the economic power of the USSR, of wrecking, of deliberately disrupting state plans.
In 1937, a large group of Soviet military leaders headed by Marshal M. Tukhachevsky was sentenced to death.
In 1938, a trial took place in the case of the "Anti-Soviet Center-Right Bloc". Among the defendants were N. Bukharin, the chief ideologist of the party; A. Rykov, former head of the Soviet government; G. Yagoda, former chief of the main punitive organ of the Bolsheviks, the OGPU, and others. The charges were similar to those in the case of the “Anti-Soviet United Trotskyist-Zinoviev Center”. Similarly, the punishment - the process ended with the death sentence.
These open political trials took place under the sign of the Soviet people expressing loyalty to the leader and his entourage and demanding severe punishment for the defendants. This is the result of official propaganda.
Through terror, the best, freedom-loving part of the intelligentsia, capable of critically evaluating reality and the processes taking place in it, was eliminated. Prominent Russian scientists, agrarian economists A. Chayanov and N. Kondratyev and others were repressed and killed in the case of the so-called “Labour Peasant Party”. Among the repressed, the proportion of people with higher education was almost 3 times higher than the all-Union level.
What kind of society was built by the end of the 1930s?
By the end of the 30s. an integral social system has developed in the country, which some historians characterize as "state socialism". Socialism, because there was a socialization of production, the abolition of private property. State, because socialization was not real, but illusory: the functions of disposing of property and political power were carried out by the party-state apparatus, the nomenklatura and, to a certain extent, its leader. At the same time, "state socialism" in the USSR acquired a distinctly totalitarian character.
How close was society to the model of socialism developed by the classics of Marxism? Does it represent a deformation of the socialist idea or is it a logical consequence of its practical implementation? The ideal of socialism to which they aspired was not achieved. At the same time, it seems that the Soviet society of the late 30s. basically it was a natural result of the implementation of the theory of Marxism. However, to implement this idea big influence had a specific situation in the country and the world in the 20-30s, which necessitated the modernization of the economy, as well as centuries-old Russian traditions associated with the hypertrophied role of the state, its leader, with an egalitarian collectivist consciousness. In essence, the characteristic features of the “autocratic-state-feudal system” were reproduced: despotic power based on bureaucracy, determining the role of the state in social relations, “enslavement of estates”, complete domination of Marxist ideology, which replaced religion in the spiritual sphere.
The established totalitarian regime relied on broad support, because along with the horrors of repression, universal control over all spheres of human life, it made it possible to solve many social problems of people, albeit rather contradictory.
In a broad historical context, the formation of a totalitarian regime in our country, the system of "state socialism" fit into the painful, critical stage of global structural restructuring, the transition to a regulated market economy, that the world is experiencing. It was one of the "extreme", extreme options for social development. In the historical literature, he was called the "ultra-left" (in contrast to the "ultra-right" - fascist and in contrast to the neo-liberal "centrist" - North American and Western European).
Russia's choice of this development option was facilitated by the specific situation in the country and the world in the 1920s and 1930s, which necessitated accelerated industrialization and, consequently, the growing role of the state as a development factor. The choice of this path was also influenced by revolutionary (especially military-communist) and centuries-old Russian traditions associated with the hypertrophied role of the state, "anti-bourgeoisness" mass consciousness, the predominance of egalitarian-collectivist principles in it.

Questions for self-control

1. What was the basis of disagreements in the leadership of the country by the end of the 20s. on the problem of building socialism in the USSR?
2. What were the reasons, intentions and results of forced industrialization in the USSR?
3. To whom and why was complete collectivization necessary in the USSR? Did she achieve her goals?
4. How can one explain that the labor enthusiasm of the builders of socialism and the fight against "pests" and "enemies of the people" went in parallel?
5. Describe the mechanism and main manifestations of the totalitarian regime in the USSR, which took shape in the late 30s.

Literature

Werth N. History of the Soviet state. 1900 - 1991. - M., 1992.
Power and society in the USSR: the policy of repression (20-40s). - M., 1999.
Geller M., Nekrich A. Utopia in power. - M., 2000.
Industrialization Soviet Union. New documents. New facts. New approaches. In 2 hours. Part 1. - M., 1997; Part 2. - M., 1999.
Story political repression and resistance to unfreedom in the USSR. - M., 2002.
History of Russia: Textbook. T. 2. - M., 2000.
Malia M. Soviet tragedy: The history of socialism in Russia. 1917 - 1991. - M., 2002.
Russia and the World: Educational book on history. Part 2. - M., 2000.
The tragedy of the Soviet village. Collectivization and dispossession. In 5 vols. T. 1 - 4. - M., 1999 - 2002.
Shchetinov Yu. History of Russia. XX century: Textbook. - M., 1998.

The USSR had its own characteristics. This system implied, first of all, the omnipotence of one ruling party, repressive methods. Signs of totalitarianism were also manifested in the desire for absolute nationalization of the economy, as well as in the suppression of individual freedoms.

As the main factors that determined the formation of this political system in the country, historians call socio-cultural, political and economic.

Accelerated economic development provoked a tightening political power in the state. The forced strategy assumed a significant and sharp weakening (if not absolute destruction) of the commodity-money levers of the economy against the backdrop of the complete predominance of the administrative and economic structure. Disciplines in economic activity devoid of mechanisms could easily be achieved by relying on state sanction, political apparatus, and administrative coercion.

In the political system, preference was also given to forms of unquestioning obedience to directives. Totalitarianism in the USSR also developed against the background of a rather low level of material well-being of the country's population. To overcome economic backwardness and accelerate industrialization, the enthusiasm of the advanced strata alone was not enough. In this case, "inspiration" had to be reinforced by other factors of an organizational and political nature, regulation of consumption and labor measures (severe penalties for theft of property, being late, absenteeism, etc.). Of course, totalitarianism in the USSR, using these measures, did not contribute to democratization.

important in establishing a centralized state system also had a distinct political culture. The obedience of the majority of citizens to the authorities was combined with a disdainful attitude towards the law. This type of political culture was expressed within the Bolshevik Party, which was formed mainly by "people from the people."

Totalitarianism in the USSR developed without encountering resistance. First of all, the new one was adopted within the very apparatus of power. In the complex of cultural, political and economic factors, by the 1930s, a new mode Stalinist dictatorship.

The main functions of regulation and management were taken over by emergency, punitive bodies. At the same time, the role of the party apparatus began to strengthen, which received the authority to deal with the economic and public administration. The highest leadership was endowed with unlimited freedom, and ordinary communists were obliged to strictly obey the control centers.

Totalitarianism in the USSR assumed, together with the executive committees in the agricultural, industrial, cultural, scientific sphere, the functioning of party committees, whose role in reality was decisive.

The penetration of power into the economy and other spheres of life from that moment became characteristic feature USSR.

As a result, with the establishment of the system, a certain pyramid was formed, at the top of which was Stalin as Secretary General Central Committee of the CPSU (b).

Along with the assertion of power, the power structures of the country, repressive bodies, rose and strengthened. So, by 1929, so-called "troikas" were formed in each district, carrying out extrajudicial proceedings and passing their sentences.

In this way, the Stalinist regime strengthened a repressive system, which, according to some modern historians, pursued three main goals:

Elimination by identifying and punishing enemies.
Suppression of the beginnings of separatist, departmental, opposition and other sentiments while ensuring the absolute power of the center.
The actual elimination of functionaries, "decomposed" from the uncontrolled power they had.

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In 1918 - 1930s. a totalitarian political regime was established in the USSR.

A totalitarian political regime is a system of state power based on the complete political, economic, ideological subordination of the entire society and the individual to power; total state control over all spheres of life; actual non-observance of human rights and freedoms.
The foundations of the totalitarian regime in the RSFSR and the USSR were laid back in 1918 - 1922 when:

the dictatorship of the proletariat was proclaimed;
during civil war all political opposition to Bolshevism was liquidated;
there was a political, economic and military subordination of society to the state ("war communism").

The concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry was only a slogan. In fact, by 1922 (the moment the civil war ended and the USSR was formed), the dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party was established in the country:

neither the proletariat nor, moreover, the peasantry determined state policy (in addition, in 1920-1921, a series of workers' and peasants' uprisings against the Bolsheviks took place in Russia, which were brutally suppressed by them);
the system of soviets headed by the All-Russian (All-Union) Congress of Soviets, declared the supreme power in the country, was completely controlled by the Bolsheviks and was a screen for "workers' and peasants' democracy";
the "exploiting classes" (not workers or peasants) were deprived of their rights under the Constitution;
Bolsheviks from political party turned into a managerial apparatus; a new influential class, not specified in the Constitution, began to form - the nomenklatura;
under the conditions of a one-party system and state ownership of the nationalized means of production, the nomenklatura became the new owner of plants, factories, goods; a de facto new ruling class standing above the workers and peasants.

The emerging totalitarianism of the 1920s had one important feature- the absolute power of the Bolsheviks over society and the state was established, but within the monopoly ruling party of the Bolsheviks, relative democracy still existed (disputes, discussions, equal treatment of each other).

In the second half of the 1920s - 1930s. there was a second stage in the establishment of a totalitarian system - the destruction of democracy within the victorious Bolshevik Party, its subordination to one person - I.V. Stalin.
Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin-Dzhugashvili (1878 - 1953) - a professional revolutionary, a poet in his youth, a clergyman by education, was imprisoned 7 times, made 4 escapes.
The rise of Stalin in the party began after October revolution and civil war. Stalin led the defense of Tsaritsyn during the Civil War, was People's Commissar for Nationalities in the first Bolshevik government, played an important role in preparing the first Constitution of the RSFSR and building the statehood of the RSFSR and the USSR.
I.V. Stalin in the first half of the 1920s. distinguished by the absolute loyalty of V.I. Lenin, personal modesty and inconspicuousness, high professionalism in the performance of painstaking routine organizational work.
Thanks to these qualities, I.V. Stalin was promoted to a new position in the party - General Secretary. This post was created in 1922 and was conceived as a technical (not political) post to organize the work of the party apparatus. However, having taken this position, I.V. Stalin gradually turned it into the center of power in the country.

After the death of V.I. Lenin January 21, 1924 in the party and the state begins a 5-year period of struggle between the key associates of V.I. Lenin for becoming his successor. The main contenders for the highest power in the party and the state were at least six people:

Leon Trotsky;
Nikolai Bukharin;
Grigory Zinoviev;
Joseph Stalin;
Mikhail Frunze;
Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Each of them was a close associate of Lenin, had services to the party, supporters. However, none of them could immediately rise above the others.
Because of this, in 1924 the nominal successor V.I. Lenin - the head of the Soviet government - was the little-known business executive Alexei Rykov, who suited everyone, and between the main contenders, with the appearance of a collective leadership, a struggle began. The struggle took place through the creation of temporary alliances against the leading contender, and then the formation of new ones, in particular:

the Stalin-Kamenev-Zinoviev alliance against Trotsky;
the alliance of Stalin and Bukharin against Zinoviev;
alliance of Stalin and his group against Bukharin and his group.

After the death of V.I. Lenina I.V. Stalin was not considered the leading contender and was not even one of the three main candidates for the legacy of V.I. Lenin, which was L. Trotsky, G. Zinoviev and N. Bukharin.
The most obvious and dangerous contender for power in the USSR after the death of V.I. Lenin was Leon Trotsky.
Leon Trotsky (Bronstein) during the years of the Civil War was a brilliant military leader, actually led the country after the assassination attempt on V.I. Lenin in 1918. However, most members of the party feared Trotsky for his radicalism, cruelty, desire to make the revolution an ongoing world process and to control peaceful life with the help of military methods. Therefore, the entire top of the CPSU (b) came out as a united front against Trotsky, for the sake of which the irreconcilable rivals Zinoviev, Stalin and Bukharin united. Trotsky was removed from the leadership of the Red Army (his "horse") and sent to peaceful construction (which he was less capable of). He soon lost his former influence in the party.
Grigory Zinoviev (Apfelbaum) was an example of a "margarine communist". He was very popular with the "Nepman" part of the party apparatus. Zinoviev stood for the semi-bourgeois type of power of the Bolsheviks and threw out to the communists the slogan "Get rich!", imputed later to Bukharin. If Trotsky's coming to power threatened to turn the USSR into a single military labor camp, then Zinoviev's coming to power could lead to the bourgeois disintegration of the party from within. In addition, Zinoviev did not have the moral right to lead the Bolshevik Party - on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution, he publicly issued the date and plan of the uprising, which almost thwarted the revolution. The entire anti-bourgeois, "solid communist" part of the party apparatus, led by Bukharin (editor-in-chief of Pravda) and Stalin (general secretary of the Central Committee), united against Zinoviev. Through the efforts of the coalition, Zinoviev was compromised and removed from the influential post of head of the Petrograd party organization.
Along with the political annihilation of Trotsky and Zinoviev in 1926, two other dangerous contenders, M. Frunze and F. Dzerzhinsky, were physically destroyed.

Mikhail Frunze (1877 - 1926) - a man externally and internally very similar to Stalin, a hero of the civil war, who had Bonapartist ambitions and enjoyed great authority, died in the prime of life in 1926 during an operation to remove an appendicitis performed by Stalin's doctors;
Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877 - 1926) - the most authoritative party leader, one of the founders of the Soviet state and a close associate of Lenin, who enjoyed unquestioned authority in the special services, was considered a "dark horse" in the struggle for power, also died unexpectedly in 1926 during treatment. The decisive struggle for power took place in 1927-1929. between I. Stalin and N. Bukharin.

Nikolai Bukharin was Stalin's most dangerous rival at the final stage of the struggle and a promising contender for the role of leader of the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet state:

Bukharin did not have the radicalism of Trotsky and the petty-bourgeoisness of Zinoviev, he was considered a Leninist, ideologically it was difficult to find fault with him;
after the death of V.I. Lenin Bukharin occupied the niche of Lenin - the main ideologist of the party;
IN AND. Lenin, on the eve of his death, characterized Bukharin as the "darling of the party," while Stalin was criticized for his rudeness and harshness;
since 1917, Bukharin was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Pravda, the main political mouthpiece of the Bolsheviks, he could really form the opinion of the party, which he succeeded for a long time;
he was the youngest of the candidates - in 1928 he was 40 years old;
the most dangerous thing for Stalin is that Bukharin’s (and not Stalin’s) nominees occupied key positions in the country (the head of the Soviet government A. Rykov, other members of the top leadership - Tomsky, Pyatakov, Radek, Chicherin and others belonged to the "Bukharin group", and Bukharin in years of NEP pursued its policy through them);
in addition, Bukharin, like Stalin, had the ability to intrigue, strove for power, together with Stalin skillfully removed common rivals (Trotsky, Zinoviev, etc.) from the path, participated in the beginning repressions against dissidents (the entire "Industrial Party" ).

However, Bukharin's "Achilles' heel" was that he and his group were personified with the NEP, and the NEP in 1928-1929. stalled and dissatisfaction with this policy grew in the party. This situation was taken advantage of by Stalin, who, taking advantage of the still existing intra-party democracy, began an active struggle against the NEP, and, at the same time, against Bukharin and his group. As a result, the personal struggle of Stalin and Bukharin for power was transferred to the plane of disputes over the economic development of the country. In this struggle, Stalin and his group won, who convinced the party of the need to stop the NEP and begin industrialization and collectivization. In 1929 - 1930. with the help of the remaining democratic mechanisms in the party and skillful intrigues, the "Bukharin group" was removed from power, and key posts in the state were taken by Stalin's nominees.

The new chairman of the Soviet government (Sovnarkom), instead of A.I. Rykov, became V.M. Molotov is the closest associate of Stalin at that time.
Outwardly, the coming of the Stalin group to power in 1929 was perceived as a victory for the former opposition and the transition of yesterday's leadership to the opposition, which was a normal phenomenon in the party. For the first years, Bukharin and his associates continued their usual way of life, retained a high position in the party, and already criticized Stalin as an opposition, hoping to return to power if his policy failed. In fact, the gradual establishment of the personal dictatorship of I.V. Stalin, curtailment of democratic mechanisms within the party.

After the dismissal of the "Bukharin group" in 1929, supporters of I.V. Stalin. Unlike representatives of the "Leninist guard", who were often educated and far from life intellectuals with noble roots, Stalin's nominees, as a rule, did not have a formal education, but possessed a strong practical intellect and an enormous capacity for work and purposefulness.

In a relatively short time (1929 - 1931) new type leaders brought by Stalin, ousted the Leninist guard from key positions in the party, Soviet and economic apparatus. A feature of the Stalinist personnel policy it was also that his future nominees, suitable in their data, were recruited from the very bottom of the social classes (the origin was carefully checked) and immediately promoted to the highest posts. It was during the Stalin era that most of the leaders of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras came to the fore. For example, A. Kosygin, in the midst of repressions from his student days, was elected chairman of the Lensoviet, and at the age of 35 he was appointed Allied People's Commissar, at 32 L. Beria and Sh. Rashidov became the leaders of Georgia and Uzbekistan, A. Gromyko became ambassador to the United States. As a rule, new nominees faithfully served I.V. Stalin (resistance to Stalin was provided by representatives of the "Leninist guard" and practically did not provide "Stalin's youth").
I.V. Stalin in the early 1930s, using the post of General Secretary, which gave the greatest opportunity to nominate cadres loyal to himself and not independent, gradually began to turn into the leader of the new Soviet nomenklatura. The new nomenklatura, still yesterday's workers and peasants, who suddenly became leaders, having been in leading positions, did not want to return "to the machine" for anything. The nomenklatura, for the most part, idolized I.V. Stalin, and became his main support in the struggle to further strengthen his power. Key associates of I.V. Stalin in the 1930s become like comrades loyal to him from the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary periods - V. Molotov, K. Voroshilov, JI. Kaganovich, S. Ordzhonikidze, and young nominees - G. Malenkov, L. Beria, N. Khrushchev, S. Kirov, A. Kosygin and others.

The last case of open opposition to JV Stalin and the last attempt to remove him from power was the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b), held in January - February 1934:.

I.V. Stalin was criticized for the distortions in the implementation of collectivization;
a significant part of the delegates to the congress voted against Stalin in the elections to the Central Committee of the party following the results of the congress;
this meant a vote of no confidence on the part of the party and the loss of I.V. Stalin the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks;
according to party traditions, S.M. Kirov - the head of the party organization of Leningrad, who received the largest number of votes in the elections (300 more than I.V. Stalin), as many delegates insisted;
however, S.M. Kirov - a nominee of I.V. Stalin, refused the post of General Secretary in favor of I.V. Stalin and did not take advantage of the situation;
the election results were rigged and Stalin remained as party leader.

After this event:

party congresses were no longer held regularly (the 18th congress took place only 5 years later - in 1939, and then the congresses of the Bolshevik party were not held for 13 years - until 1952);
since 1934, the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks began to lose its significance, and I.V. Stalin (from 1952) became one of the Secretaries of the Central Committee;
most of the delegates of the "rebellious" XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) were repressed.

On December 1, 1934, S.M. was killed in Smolny. Kirov. The killer died during the arrest, and the crime remained unsolved. The assassination of S. Kirov on December 1, 1934:

released I.V. Stalin from a growing competitor;
became the reason for the unfolding of mass political repressions in the country.

Political repressions in the USSR began to be carried out even from the end of the 1920s:

one of the first was the trial in the case of the Industrial Party, during which a number of economic leaders were accused of sabotage;
Another major trial was the trial of the "Ryutin group" - a group of party and Komsomol workers who openly criticized I.V. Stalin.

However, after the murder of S.M. Kirov repressions acquired a massive and widespread character.

the loudest process of the late 1930s. was the process against the Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc, during which the former main rivals I.V. Stalin for leadership in the party (JI. Trotsky and G. Zinoviev) were accused of being the center of subversive work in the USSR;
soon a nationwide trial took place over the "right deviators" and the Bukharinites;
the "Leningrad case" was also a high-profile trial, during which almost the entire top of the Leningrad party organization, the sober-minded and oppositional I.V., was condemned. Stalin;
mass repressions took place in the ranks of the Red Army - in 1937 - 1940. about 80% of the entire command staff was shot (in particular, 401 colonels out of 462; 3 marshals out of 5, etc.);
during these repressions, recent rivals of I.V. were convicted and shot as enemies of the people. Stalin in the struggle for power - Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, and others; prominent military leaders - Tukhachevsky, Blucher, Yegorov, Uborevich, Yakir - were physically destroyed;
in addition, many other associates of I. Stalin died mysteriously - G. Ordzhonikidze, V. Kuibyshev, M. Gorky, N. Alliluyeva (I. Stalin's wife);
in 1940 L. Trotsky was killed in Mexico.

Standard-bearers of repression on them initial stage two People's Commissars of Internal Affairs of the USSR became Genrikh Yagoda (People's Commissar in 1934 - 1936) and Nikolai Yezhov (People's Commissar in 1936 - 1938). The peak of repressions, called "Yezhovshchina". was associated with activities in 1936 - 1938. People's Commissar N. Yezhov. It was under Yezhov that repressions took on a mass and uncontrolled character. Hundreds and thousands of innocent people were arrested every day, many of whom died physically. Yezhov in the NKVD and the OGPU introduced painful and sadistic torture to which the arrested and their families were subjected. Subsequently, the people's commissars of internal affairs and the general commissars of state security, Yagoda and Yezhov, themselves became victims of the mechanism they created. They were removed from their posts and "exposed" as enemies of the people. G. Yagoda was shot in 1938, and N. Yezhov - in 1940.
Lavrenty Beria, who replaced them in 1938, continued their line, but more selectively. Repressions continued, but their mass character by the beginning of the 1940s. decreased.

By the end of the 1930s. in the USSR, a situation developed that became known as the "cult of personality" by I.V. Stalin. The "cult of personality" was:

creating the image of I. Stalin as a legendary and supernatural personality, to whom the whole country owes its prosperity ("the great leader of all times and peoples"),
erection of I.V. Stalin to the rank of the greatest thinkers along with K. Marx, F. Engels and V.I. Lenin;
total praise of I.V. Stalin, the complete absence of criticism;
absolute prohibition and persecution of any dissent;
the widespread dissemination of the image and name of Stalin;
persecution of religion.

In parallel with the "cult of personality" I.V. Stalin, the creation of an equally large-scale "personality cult" of V.I. Lenin:

the image of V.I. was created in many respects far from reality. Lenin as a brilliant and infallible communist "messiah";
images of Lenin in the form of hundreds of thousands of monuments, busts, portraits were distributed throughout the country;
the people were convinced that everything good and progressive became possible only after 1917 and only in the USSR, was the result of the genius V.I. Lenin;
I.V. Stalin was declared the only student of V.I. Lenin, who implements Lenin's ideas and is the successor of V.I. Lenin.

The cult of personality was supported by the most severe repressions (including criminal prosecution for "anti-Soviet propaganda", which could be any statement that did not coincide with the official point of view). Another way to maintain the cult, besides fear, was to educate the younger generation from childhood, to create an atmosphere of mass euphoria in the country with propaganda and an uncritical perception of reality.

Introduction

aim this abstract are the answers to the following questions:

1. What is a totalitarian regime and its characteristics.

2. Characteristics of a totalitarian society.

3. Features of the totalitarian regime in the USSR.

When writing this work, historical literature of both domestic and foreign authors is used.

The overwhelming majority of the country's population was illiterate, and huge masses of workers from the ruined peasants lived simply in poverty. All this led to the fact that primitive, simple and utopian ideas triumphed in society on the one hand, and on the other hand, the desire to achieve real values of social revenge. All these sentiments led to the formation of a totalitarian regime.

By the time of the rise of the totalitarian regime, the masses were poorly prepared politically, but were eager for social benefits and promotion to the public surface. The slogan of social justice was an abstract appeal, closer were calls for universal equality, social equalization, which as a result grew into a dictate of social exclusivity on the basis of a working, poor origin.

Proclaiming a break with the traditions of the past, promising to build a new world on its ruins, to bring peoples to prosperity and abundance, this regime, in fact, brought down terror and repressions on the USSR.

1. The concept of a totalitarian regime

The political regime is a set of methods, techniques, means of exercising political power. It characterizes a certain political climate that exists in a particular country at a certain period of its historical development.

The totalitarian regime is characterized by the absolute control of the state over all areas of human life, the complete subordination of a person to political power and the dominant ideology.

The concept of "totalitarianism" (from the Latin totalis) means the whole, whole, complete. It was introduced by the ideologue of Italian fascism G. Gityle at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1925, this concept was first heard in the Italian parliament. The leader of Italian fascism B. Mussolini introduced it into the political lexicon. From this moment, the formation of a totalitarian system in Italy begins, then in the USSR during the years of Stalinism and Nazi Germany from 1933.

The totalitarian regime of government is established in the following cases:

1. The seizure of power as a result of the coup.

2. Narrowing of the social support base of the authorities.

Under totalitarianism, the following changes occur:

1. The political system is structurally narrowed (due to the incomplete functioning of political institutions).

2. Repressive organs are growing (police, paramilitary organizations, prisons).

3. Militarization of society takes place, elections are held under the control of the army and the police.

4. Public control over the activities of the political system is reduced, public decisions are not taken into account by the authorities.

5. The pressure of the state on society is increasing (first on the opposition, and then on other strata).

6. In extreme cases, the operation of the constitution or its individual chapters, which guarantee human rights, is suspended, power is transferred to the dictator.

In each of the countries in which the political totalitarian regime arose and developed, it had its own characteristics. At the same time, there are common features that are characteristic of all forms of totalitarianism and reflect its essence:

1. High concentration of power, its penetration into all pores of society. In the totalitarian consciousness, the problem of "power and society" does not exist: power and society are thought of as a single inseparable whole. Quite different problems become topical, namely: the authorities and the people in the struggle against internal enemies, the authorities and the people - against a hostile external environment. Under the conditions of totalitarianism, the people, actually estranged from power, believe that power expresses interests deeper and more fully than they could do it.

2. One-party system is characteristic of totalitarian regimes. There is only one ruling party headed by a charismatic leader. The network of party cells of this party permeates all the production and organizational structures of society, directing their activities and exercising control.

3. The ideology of the entire life of society. The basis of the totalitarian ideology is the consideration of history as a natural movement towards specific purpose(world domination, building communism, etc.), which justifies all means. This ideology includes a series of myths (about the leadership of the working class, about the superiority of the Aryan race, etc.) that reflect the power of magical symbols. A totalitarian society is making the broadest efforts to indoctrinate the population.

4. Totalitarianism is characterized by a monopoly of power on information, complete control over the media. All information has a one-sided focus - the glorification of the existing system, its achievements. With the help of the mass media, the task of raising the enthusiasm of the masses to achieve the goals set by the totalitarian regime is being solved.

5. Monopoly of the state on the use of all means of conducting armed struggle. The army, police, and all other power structures are exclusively subordinate to the center of political power.

6. The existence of a well-developed system of universal control over people's behavior, a system of violence. For these purposes, labor and concentration camps, ghettos are being created, where hard labor is used, people are tortured, their will to resist is suppressed, and innocent people are massacred. In the USSR, a whole network of camps was created - the Gulag. Before 1941 it included 53 concentration camps, 425 labor camps and 50 juvenile camps. Over the years of the existence of these camps, more than 40 million people died in them. In a totalitarian society, a carefully designed repressive apparatus operates. With its help, fear for personal freedom and family members, suspicion and denunciations are instilled, anonymous letters are encouraged. This is done so that dissent and opposition do not arise in the country. With the help of law enforcement and punitive bodies, the state controls the life and behavior of the population.

7. As a common thing for totalitarian regimes, it should be noted that they function in accordance with the principle - "everything is prohibited, except for what is ordered by the authorities." Guided by these principles, society carries out the education of man. Totalitarianism needs a modest personality in everything: in desires, in clothes, in behavior. The desire is cultivated not to stand out, to be like everyone else. The manifestation of individuality, originality in judgments is suppressed; denunciation, servility, hypocrisy are widespread.

In economics, totalitarianism means the nationalization of economic life, the economic lack of freedom of the individual. The individual has no self-interest in production. There is an alienation of a person from the results of his work, and, as a result, deprivation of his initiative. The state establishes centralized, planned management of the economy.

F. Hayek in his book "The Road to Slavery", written in 1944, makes a special emphasis on this aspect of totalitarianism. He comes to the conclusion that political freedom is nothing without economic freedom. Control over the most important resources of society, both tangible and intangible, will lie with those in whose hands control over economic power is concentrated. The idea of central planning is that not a person, but society solves economic problems, and, consequently, society (more precisely, its individual representatives) judges the relative value of certain goals. Where the only employer is the state or private enterprises controlled by the regime, there can be no question of free political, intellectual or any other will of the people.

In the political sphere, all power belongs to a special group of people that the people cannot control. The Bolsheviks, who set themselves the goal of overthrowing the existing system, were forced from the very beginning to act as a conspiratorial party. This secrecy, intellectual, ideological and political closeness remained its essential characteristic even after the conquest of power. Society and the state under totalitarianism are absorbed by one dominant party, the highest bodies of this party and the highest bodies of state power merge. In fact, the party is turning into a decisive pivotal element of the state structure. An obligatory element of such a structure is a ban on opposition parties and movements.

A characteristic feature of all totalitarian regimes is also that power is not based on laws and constitutions. Almost all human rights were guaranteed in the Stalinist constitution, which were practically not implemented in practice. It is no coincidence that the first speeches of dissidents in the USSR were held under the slogans for the observance of the constitution.

Violent methods of electing certain persons to state authorities are also symptomatic. Suffice it to recall such a curious fact: the announcement on television of the results of the vote was approved by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU two days before the elections.

The spiritual sphere is dominated by one ideology and worldview. As a rule, these are utopian theories that realize the eternal dream of people about a more perfect and happy social order, which are based on the idea of achieving fundamental harmony between people. The totalitarian regime uses a mythologized version of one such ideology as the only possible worldview, which turns into a kind of state religion. This monopoly on ideology permeates the entire hierarchy of power relations from top to bottom - from the head of state and party to the lowest levels of power and cells of society. In the USSR, Marxism became such an ideology, in North Korea - the ideas of "puche", etc. In a totalitarian regime, without exception, all resources (material, human, and intellectual) are directed towards achieving one universal goal: a thousand-year-old Reich, a communist kingdom of universal happiness, etc.

This ideology turned into a religion gave birth to another phenomenon of totalitarianism: the cult of personality. Like all religions, these ideologies have their own scriptures, their prophets and God-men (in the person of leaders, Fuhrers, Duce, etc.). Thus, almost a theocratic government is obtained, where the high priest-ideologist is at the same time the supreme ruler.

It can be concluded that the totalitarian regime decomposes from within over time. Especially from the political elite there are people who become in opposition to the regime. With the emergence of dissent from the regime, first narrow groups of dissidents are alienated, then broad sections of the population. The destruction of totalitarianism is completed by the withdrawal from strict control in the economic sphere. Thus, totalitarianism is replaced by authoritarianism.

Prerequisites

The foundations of the totalitarian regime of the USSR were laid back in 1918 - 1922 ... when:

The "dictatorship of the proletariat" was proclaimed;

In the course of the civil war, all political opposition to Bolshevism was liquidated;

There was a political, economic and military subordination of society to the state (“war communism”).

The concept of "dictatorship of the proletariat" and the poorest peasantry was just a slogan. In fact, by 1922 (the moment the civil war ended and the USSR was formed), the dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party was established in the country

The totalitarian regime in the USSR had its own characteristics. This system implied, first of all, the omnipotence of one ruling party, repressive methods. Signs of totalitarianism were also manifested in the desire for absolute nationalization of the economy, as well as in the suppression of individual freedoms.

Stage 1 - the Bolsheviks became the monopoly ruling party

2nd stage - the establishment of a totalitarian system - the destruction of relative democracy within the victorious Bolshevik Party, its subordination to one person - I.V. Stalin.

The 3rd stage can be called the 5-year struggle for power after the death of Lenin (1924), which was eventually won by Stalin.

Effects

The Stalinist regime enforced a repressive system that, according to some contemporary historians, had three main goals:

Eliminate social tensions by identifying and punishing enemies.

Suppression of the beginnings of separatist, departmental, opposition and other sentiments while ensuring the absolute power of the center.

The actual elimination of functionaries, "decomposed" from the uncontrolled power they had.

Stalinism

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