Stalinism Established

Abstract

Anyone surveying the Soviet scene in 1927 would have seen a society in which there was little direct evidence of the Stalinism that was to come. The principal axis of the economy was still the operation of market principles with private enterprise, particularly in agriculture, operating alongside those ‘commanding heights’ which were under direct state control. Cultural life remained vigorous, and although there were clear restrictions on what could be published and performed, the boundaries of this were much wider and more relaxed than they had been either during War Communism or than they were to become. Notions of class struggle and of the construction of socialism were not overpowering themes, while the emphasis was upon reconciliation with all social forces, including ideologically suspect groups like the intelligentsia and the so-called ‘bourgeois specialists’. The more relaxed cultural sphere reflected this sense of compromise, and resulted in a ferment of ideas, of cultural variety and pluralism. Socially, NEP witnessed the re-emergence of stratification along traditional lines. In the countryside, some farmers were able to build up their economic bases and to establish a position of economic leadership in the villages. These were later to be labelled kulaks. In the towns too, differentiated incomes led to stratification, with owners of capital once again being higher on the ladder than those they employed to work in their factories and workshops. Certainly some avenues for upward mobility had opened up for the workers and peasants under the new regime, particularly through the revitalisation of industry, the expansion of the bureaucracy and the growth of the party, but these remained restricted. In political terms, while the avenues for public politics had been closed, the mould of elite politics within the party had not yet been set. Open opposition had been eliminated, and politics remained oligarchical in form. The continued operation of a sense of collectivism, albeit with Stalin emerging as the most important figure, contrasts sharply with the personal dictatorship that was to characterise Stalinism.