scholarly journals L. D. Trotsky’s “The Lessons of October” and the Struggles at the Highest Level: Viewpoint of the Population in 1920s

2019 ◽  
pp. 467-479
Author(s):  
Michail V. Bryantsev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Committee ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
The People ◽  
Arbitrary Rule ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Information Materials

The article analyses the aftermath of the publication of Trotsky's “The Lessons of October” in autumn of 1924, which produced much controversy in the camp of his opponents. Kamenev, Stalin, and his others smote Trotsky and posed the question “Leninism or Trotskyism?” to antithesize Lenin and Trotsky. The controversy was in the focus of attention of Soviet citizens, who showed “great interest” in this “literary discussion.” The issue remained center-stage in late 1924 - early 1925. The analysis of information materials demonstrates controversial attitudes of the population to the struggle. Many championed Trotsky. Having no way to find out more about Trotsky's views and mistrusting official publications, people often gave preference to rumors, which reflected not facts, but their wishes. Many saw in Trotsky their defender from the arbitrary rule, who acted in the interest of the people and suffered for his views. Many, party members also, demanded to allow Trotsky to express his opinions outside the framework of propaganda. At the same time, the “The Lessons of October” fed the negative image of Trotsky, already in formation. Quite noticeable role was played by the official propaganda trying to paint Trotsky as a traitor to the interests of the Soviet state. Not understanding the mechanism of the internal conflicts which after Lenin's death were tearing the RCP(B) apart, the population was swept by the Central Committee propaganda. Party propagandists cast Trotsky as a detractor of the party and Lenin himself. The campaign launched against Trotsky and his “The Lessons of October” bore its fruit. The authorities presented Trotsky as a Menshevik and unscrupulous enemy of the Soviet power. Information materials of early 1925 show not only a slump in Trotsky’s popularity, but also a growing bias against him.

scholarly journals "Release 10 Billion": On the Issue of Financing Soviet Holidays and Anniversaries

2020 ◽  
pp. 529-539
Author(s):  
Elena V. Barysheva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Red Army

The article, based on the materials of the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History and the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, explores the history of financing Soviet state holidays, beginning with the first anniversaries of the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks, realizing the importance of public holidays as an effective tool for legitimizing Soviet power and promoting new spiritual values, allocated significant amounts for their organization even during the economically difficult period of the Civil War. In the early years of the Soviet power, the decoration of cities and demonstrations was rather ascetic, and the money allocated for the holidays was to be used to maintain the authority among the Red Army soldiers. Later, the decoration of cities for the festivities on November 7 and May 1 became more varied. Preparation began in advance, decoration of cities and columns of workers was paid for by the city and district party organizations and by the trade unions. In 1925, among the anniversaries that were planned on a grand scale, was the 20th anniversary of the 1905 Revolution. The article shows how the issue of its financing was resolved. Subsequently, the economic support of festive events, primarily on November 7 and May 1, was assigned to the enterprises. At the same time, the question of expediency of such significant expenses on decorating cities, holiday stands, and columns of workers has been repeatedly raised not only by the holiday organizers, but also by the demonstrations participants. They said that some institutions and senior executives got carried away by enthusiasm for anniversaries, ceremonies, and banquets. The Decree of the Politburo of the Central Committee “On Anniversaries” (1928) peremptorily prohibited organization of anniversaries and celebrations without special permission. In 1938, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On Prevention of Spending Unnecessary Funds in Celebrating May 1, 1938” finally determined the procedure and sources of financing of the Soviet state holidays. This Decision became the basis for all subsequent decisions on financing holiday events.

The Aleksandrov Story

1949 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Percy E. Corbett
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Active Member ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
The People ◽  
Party Members ◽  
The University

In the Autumn of 1946, Georgi Aleksandrov, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Moscow and Chief of the Administration of Propaganda and Agitation in the Central Committee of the Communist Party, was one of Moscow's success stories. Only thirty-eight years old, he had already reached the top rung of the academic ladder. He was, besides, a key figure in that liaison of politics and science upon which the Soviet Government leans so heavily in mobilizing the creative energies of its population for the magnification of the State. In his post as Chief of Propaganda and Agitation for the Communist Party, Aleksandrov was responsible, under Andrei Zhdanov of the Politburo, for the fanatical indoctrination of party-workers and party-members and for spreading the gospel of Marx-Leninism through the broad massesof the people. He was an active member of the editorial board of Bolshevik, long a principal intellectual weapon of the party and government. When Culture and Life was inaugurated as special organ of Zhdanov's savage campaign to purge every branch of art and learning of elements not wholly imbued with aggressive Marx-Leninism, it was foreordained that Aleksandrov should be the moving spirit in the new publication. The Academy of Social Sciences, established in 1946 as the highest agency of political instruction, began its career under his leadership.

scholarly journals Humans as social beings - From "People first" to “People-centered"

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jialin Li
Keyword(s):  
Central Committee ◽  
Social Existence ◽  
The Road ◽  
The People ◽  
The Subject ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Party Members ◽  
People First ◽  
On The Road ◽  
General Secretary

Mr Ma perceived that humans gradually developed social existence through practical activities, strong social interactions, Mr Ma thought that society blending reality and existence could shape man into a generative social existence of sorts. Following that, humans might gain the ability to deconstruct the essence and connotation of society. The CPC owns the most Party members in the world and will insist on the road to socialist development and establish a "People first" scientific approach on development in accordance with the Marxist philosophy. The people-centered core connotation was successively proposed at the Third Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the CPC and the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China hosted by General Secretary President Xi , all of which regard people as the subject.

scholarly journals SOME METHODS OF PARTY-GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT IN THE USSR IN 1920-1934. (ON THE MATERIALS OF CUBAN)

2018 ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
I. G. Ivantsov
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Party Government ◽  
State Reform ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
Government Management ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Ruling Party

The Article is devoted to the secret correspondence of the CPSU (b), which began its existence in the early period of Soviet power. In the USSR, 1922-1923 were secretly carried out of the party and state reform, in which was installed dictatorship of the ruling party He. The old model of domination of individual Bolshevik leaders were eliminated. All power concentrated in the hands of a few of its leaders at the top. As further development, there is a simple and archaic system of government which is not bound to any laws or control of the company. Whoever was at the top, disposing of everything and governs all. The basis of the Soviet state was the hierarchy of party committees headed by the undersecretaries of 1992. In addition, after the entry of Stalin in the post of Secretary General of the relation of the Supreme party organs to the party apparatus on the ground began to carry secret correspondence between them was classified. Circle functionaries who were sent extracts of the minutes of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), the party committees and individual orders of the undersecretaries of the Central Committee and party committees, persons carrying out intra-party correspondence was strictly limited.

The State versus the People

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Rendle
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
State Control ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
The Military

This book provides the first detailed account of the role of revolutionary justice in the early Soviet state. Law has often been dismissed by historians as either unimportant after the October Revolution amid the violence and chaos of civil war or even, in the absence of written codes and independent judges, little more than another means of violence. This is particularly true of the most revolutionary aspect of the new justice system, revolutionary tribunals—courts inspired by the French Revolution and established to target counter-revolutionary enemies. This book paints a more complex picture. The Bolsheviks invested a great deal of effort and scarce resources into building an extensive system of tribunals that spread across the country, including into the military and the transport network. At their peak, hundreds of tribunals heard hundreds of thousands of cases every year. Not all ended in harsh sentences: some were dismissed through lack of evidence; others given a wide range of sentences; others still suspended sentences; and instances of early release and amnesty were common. This book, therefore, argues that law played a distinct and multifaceted role for the Bolsheviks. Tribunals stood at the intersection between law and violence, offering various advantages to the Bolsheviks, not least strengthening state control, providing a more effective means of educating the population on counter-revolution, and enabling a more flexible approach to the state’s enemies. All of this adds to our understanding of the early Soviet state and, ultimately, of how the Bolsheviks held on to power.

Development of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of the TASSR

1982 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
B. L. Jacobson ◽  
M. M. Gimadeev
Keyword(s):  
Central Committee ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Housing Problem ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Soviet People ◽  
The People ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Social Tasks ◽  
General Secretary

The XXVI Congress of the CPSU defined the current national economic problems of the 1980s and the XI Five-Year Plan. As the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Comrade LI Brezhnev noted, "our country has entered a new decade, making it the main task to ensure the further growth of the welfare of Soviet people." The program for improving the well-being of the people in the XI Five-Year Plan provides for the solution of the housing problem, improvement of working, living and recreation conditions. Caring for the health of Soviet people in the coming years remains one of the most important social tasks.

scholarly journals China's Dilemmas on the Road to Reforms Under Xi Jinping

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-149
Author(s):  
Juhan Värk
Keyword(s):  
Central Committee ◽  
Shadow Banking ◽  
Xi Jinping ◽  
Strategic Partner ◽  
Military Reform ◽  
The Road ◽  
National Leader ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
On The Road

AbstractOn 15 November 2012, at the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping was elected the Party' general secretary, whereas he also became the chairman of the influential Central Military Commission. Too eager to wait to be inaugurated as President of the People' Republic of China in March 2013, the new national leader announced that in the following decade he is guided by the main objective of his predecessor Hu Jintao to double the prosperity of the people by the year 2020 and to keep the country' economy stable and growing fast. Unfortunately, it will be difficult for the new leader of China to implement his intentions, since, presumably, the country' new leadership will be from the older generation, hardliners, and, most importantly, politically conservative. But the difficulties lie in carrying out economic reforms because of rampant corruption and shadow banking in the central apparatus and in regions.According to the World Bank' analysis, China has become the world' largest economy. But the large expenditures to military reform and environmental protection are not sufficient for Xi Jinping to accomplish the goal to raise significantly the poor living standards of Chinese people. China has also faced difficulties in complying with the basic principles of its foreign policy, especially after the annexation of Crimea and its incorporation into the Russian Federation by China' strategic partner, Russia. In the past, China has carried out campaigns against “Americanization”, although with no tangible results. Thus, the leaders of today' China are faced with a number of dilemmas.

scholarly journals The General Intonation in the Performance of “Boris Godunov” of Vsevolod Meyerhold — Sergei Prokofiev

ICONI ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 36-48
Author(s):  
Ivan D. Porshnev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Sergei Prokofiev ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Centennial Anniversary ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Boris Godunov

The article dwells upon the process of the artistic cooperation between Vsevolod Meyerhold and Sergei Prokofi ev by the example of their collaborative work on Alexander Pushkin’s play “Boris Godunov.” The preparation for the actualization of the conception had started long before the main rehearsing period — in 1934, after the issuance of the edict of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the VKP(b) (Communist Party) “Concerning the Foundation of the All-Union Pushkin Committee in connection with the centennial anniversary of the death of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin.” The performance was supposed to have become the appropriate response to the festivities of the Pushkin jubilee, but it never got round to being performed at that time. The peculiarities of the interpretation of the drama in the dialogue of the two Masters are examined on the basis of the materials connected with the history of the creation of the performance and the music to it. Analysis is made of the semantic content of the musical numbers (“The Song of the Lonely Wanderer” and the “Songs of Loneliness”), which carry out the function of the through leit-motifs and indirectly characterize Boris Godunov and the Pretender, and also play an important role in the formation of the “general intonation” of the performance. The conclusion is arrived at that the “politically saturated” production of Vsevolod Meyerhold and Sergei Prokofi ev touched upon the prohibited “territory of meanings”: the denoted implication unwittingly projected itself on the personal fate of the ruler of the Soviet state.

Political Diversity at the Nineteenth Congress of the CPSU, October 1952

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Jonathan Harris
Keyword(s):  
State Agencies ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
Crucial Difference ◽  
Close Supervision ◽  
Economic Work ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThis essay argues that the definition of the USSR's political system as a “party-state,” ignores the crucial difference between the majority of the members of the CPSU who hold positions in the Soviet state and the minority who are full time party officials with no such position and who regard themselves as the natural leaders of the party as a whole. To highlight this distinction, this essay defines the party officials as the “inner party” and the party members who man the state as the “outer party” and focuses on the ongoing dispute among party officials over the most effective way to provide leadership of the Soviet state. This conflict is expressed indirectly in the published discussion of the relative importance of officials' “internal work” (personnel management, verification of fulfillment and ideological education) and their “economic work” the close supervision of state agencies' administration of the five year plans. The essay briefly summarizes Stalin's own formulations on the subject, the conflict between Malenkov and Zhdanov over this issue from 1939 to 1948, and the ongoing debate among officials after the reform of the departments of the Secretariat in 1948. The bulk of the essay analyzes the widely divergent views of officials' priorities presented at the Nineteenth Congress of the CPSU in October 1952. It concludes that Western scholars have generally underestimated the role of the Congress in the creation of the political oligarchy that ruled the USSR after 1953.

Preserving ‘Events that are Vanishing Like Smoke’: The Black Book as Community of Survivors and Writers 1943–1946

Zutot ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
Polly Zavadivker
Keyword(s):  
Black Book ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The People ◽  
The Creation

The Black Book (in Russian, Chernaia kniga) was an encyclopedic anthology compiled between 1943 and 1946 about Nazi crimes against Jews in occupied Soviet territory. This paper argues that the people who worked together to produce the book—editors and writers mainly based in Moscow, and survivors throughout Soviet territories—inadvertently created a community through the attempt to document the catastrophe. The creation of The Black Book allowed its compilers to express a sense of communal and familial responsibility, grieve for their losses, and demonstrate as Jews their loyalty to the Soviet state that had defeated the Nazis.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document