Questions on Daniels for week 8
Rakovsky on the Bureaucracy (two documents written in 1928 and 1930 by a member of the Trotskyist opposition in exile)
In these two documents ("Letter on the Causes of Degeneration..." and "Circular of the Bolshevik-Leninist Opposition"), how did the exiled oppositionists explain the causes of the party's degeneration"?
Did the exiled oppositionists think that Stalin was building socialism? Explain.
What kind of social hierarchy did the oppositions think Stalin had created?
Trotsky on the New Soviet Society (from The Revolution Betrayed, 1937)
How did Trotsky in 1937 define the nature of the Soviet economy?
Who did Trotsky think "ran" the USSR? Explain.
Did Trotsky think that the USSR was building a more egalitarian society? Explain.
What did Trotsky mean when he compared Stalin to Bonaparte (to Napoleon III, Louis Napoleon, who ruled France as Emperor from 1851 to 1870)?
Did Trotsky compare Stalinism to fascism? Explain!
Stalin on the Sanctity of Leninism (letter, 1931)
In this letter criticizing a historian and an entire historical journal for making "liberal" errors, Stalin talks about what it takes to be a "real Bolshevik." What does he say makes a "real Bolshevik"?
The Kirov Affair
Please note that Daniels presents this selection from "The Letter of an Old Bolshevik" as being the work of Bukharin, who allegedly passed it along to the Menshevik Boris Nikolaevsky. There are some very serious questions about who actually wrote the "letter"; several historians have pointed out that the author could not possibly have been Bukharin, and that the letter might well be a "fake." Most historians agree that Kirov was not nearly so "liberal" as he is portrayed in the letter, for instance. In any case, do not assume that these are actually Bukharin's own words...
According to the author of this letter, was Kirov a threat to Stalin? Why?
On what issues does the author say Kirov differed from Stalin? Explain.
According to the letter, who was more popular at the 1934 party congress, Stalin or Kirov?
According to the letter, was the Great Terror spontaneous or carefully planned?
According to the letter, what was the purpose of the Kirov murder and the Terror?
The Great Purge (Stalin, "On the Inadequacies..." March 1937 speech)
What "three basic facts" did Stalin present to the central Committee on 3 March 1937? Explain.
Did Stalin say that the party's leaders were immune from Trotskyism? Explain.
According to Stalin, why were there still wreckers and spies, and who did they actually serve?
What did Stalin accuse the Trotskyists, etc., of wanting to do?
Were all of the "wreckers" and "enemies" members of the old bourgeoisie? Who might now be working for the cause of the "enemies" and why?
For Stalin, why was it so very important that the party accept his theory that class struggle increases as you move closer to socialism? How did Stalin want to end this threat?
The Gulag (report of an imprisoned Trotskyist, first published in the 1960s)
Based upon the account of "MB," were some of the people arrested in the 1930s really Trotskyists?
How did MB and his fellow Trotskyist prisoners interpret Stalin's purges?
Based upon the demands made by MB's group, what were conditions in the Gulag like in 1936?
Did conditions grow better or worse in 1937? Explain.
What happened to the Trotskyists in the camps in winter 1937-spring 1938?
The Moscow Trials (from the official court proceedings, 1938)
The Indictment:
What was Trotsky accused of in the indictment read at the 1938 trial of Bukharin, etc.? what were the other "oppositionists" accused of?
The Pleas:
How did Bukharin, Rykov, Iagoda, and Rakovsky plea? How did Krestnitsky plea?
Vyshinsky's Summation:
What specific charges were leveled against the "Trotskyites" and the "Rightists/Bukharinites"?
How did Vyshinsky describe Stalin?
Bukharin's Last Plea:
Read this carefully, then look back at Bukharin's "last testament" in the Suny book. What was Bukharin trying to do in this "last plea"? Does he really admit to being guilty? Of what?
Purges and Torture (1939 telegram from Stalin)
What did Stalin say in January 1939 about the way "enemies of the people" should be interrogated?
The Plea of a Purge Victim (Eikhe to Stalin, October 1939)
Eikhe, a Stalinist, had been a candidate member of the Politburo before being arrested and condemned to death as an enemy of the people.
What crime did Eikhe actually confess to in this letter to Stalin?
Why had Eikhe earlier confessed to other crimes?
What is Eikhe actually asking Stalin to do in this letter?