Stalinism in the USSR

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

1. Lenin's Death and Stalin's Rise to Power (1924-1929). After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin defeated his rivals within the party to become the USSR's sole leader by 1929.
2. Forced Collectivization and the Holodomor Famine (1929-1933). Collectivization launched in 1929 ended the NEP and produced a famine that killed millions between 1932 and 1933.
3. The Five-Year Plans and Forced Industrialization. The Five-Year Plans, launched in 1928, transformed the USSR into an industrial and military power at enormous human cost.
4. The Cult of Personality of Stalin. Stalin's image as the infallible "father of the peoples" pervaded Soviet life and endured until his death in 1953.
5. The Great Terror: The NKVD, the Moscow Trials, and the Gulag. Between 1936 and 1938 the NKVD used show trials, mass executions, and the Gulag to eliminate perceived enemies of the state.
6. The 1936 Constitution, Nationalities Policy, and Cultural Control. The 1936 Constitution proclaimed rights on paper while deportations of whole peoples and strict cultural controls defined Soviet life.
7. Soviet Foreign Policy, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and the Great Patriotic War. After failed collective-security talks in 1939, the USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact, then fought a devastating war from 1941.
8. Postwar Stalinism, the Doctors' Plot, and Stalin's Death. Postwar repression, a renewed antisemitic campaign, and Stalin's death in 1953 opened the way to Khrushchev's de-Stalinization.