Russians harness for a long time, but they go fast

Winston Churchill

The USSR (the union of Soviet socialist republics) this form of statehood replaced the Russian Empire. The country began to be ruled by the proletariat, which achieved this right by carrying out the October Revolution, which was nothing more than an armed coup within the country, bogged down in its internal and external problems. Not the last role in this state of affairs was played by Nicholas 2, who actually drove the country into a state of collapse.

Country Education

The formation of the USSR took place on November 7, 1917 in a new style. It was on this day that the October Revolution took place, which overthrew the Provisional Government and the fruits of the February Revolution, proclaiming the slogan that power should belong to the workers. This is how the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was formed. It is extremely difficult to unambiguously assess the Soviet period in the history of Russia, since it was very controversial. Without a doubt, we can say that at this time there were both positive and negative moments.

Capital Cities

Initially, the capital of the USSR was Petrograd, in which the revolution actually took place, which brought the Bolsheviks to power. At first, there was no question of moving the capital, since the new government was too weak, but later this decision was made. As a result, the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was moved to Moscow. This is quite symbolic, since the creation of the Empire was due to the transfer of the capital to Petrograd from Moscow.

The fact of the transfer of the capital to Moscow today is associated with the economy, politics, symbolism and much more. In fact, everything is much simpler. By moving the capital, the Bolsheviks saved themselves from other contenders for power in the conditions civil war.

Country leaders

The foundations of the power and prosperity of the USSR are connected with the fact that there was relative stability in the leadership in the country. There was a clear single line of the party, and leaders who had been at the head of the state for a long time. It is interesting that the closer the country came to collapse, the more often the General Secretaries changed. In the early 1980s, leapfrog began: Andropov, Ustinov, Chernenko, Gorbachev - the country did not have time to get used to one leader, when another appeared in his place.

The general list of leaders is as follows:

• Lenin. Leader of the world proletariat. One of the ideological inspirers and implementers of the October Revolution. Laid the foundations of the state.
• Stalin. One of the most controversial historical figures. With all the negativity that the liberal press pours on this person, the fact is that Stalin raised industry from its knees, Stalin prepared the USSR for war, Stalin began to actively develop a socialist state.
• Khrushchev. Gained power after the assassination of Stalin, developed the country and managed to adequately resist the United States in the Cold War.
• Brezhnev. The era of his reign is called the era of stagnation. Many mistakenly associate this with the economy, but there was no stagnation there - all indicators were growing. There was stagnation in the party, which was decaying.
• Andropov, Chernenko. They didn't really do anything, they pushed the country to collapse.
• Gorbachev. The first and last president of the USSR. Today they hang all the dogs on him, blaming him for the collapse Soviet Union, but his main fault was that he was afraid to take active steps against Yeltsin and his supporters, who actually staged a conspiracy and a coup d'état.

Another fact is also interesting - the best rulers were those who found the time of revolution and war. The same applies to party leaders. These people understood the value of the socialist state, the significance and complexity of its existence. As soon as people came to power who had not seen a war, much less a revolution, everything went to pieces.

Formation and achievements

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began its formation with the Red Terror. This is a sad page in the history of Russia, a huge number of people were killed by the Bolsheviks, who sought to strengthen their power. The leaders of the Bolshevik Party, realizing that they could only retain power by force, killed everyone who could somehow interfere with the formation of the new regime. It is outrageous that the Bolsheviks, as the first people's commissars and people's police, i.e. those people who were supposed to keep order were recruited by thieves, murderers, homeless people, etc. In a word, all those who were objectionable in the Russian Empire and tried in every possible way to take revenge on everyone who was somehow connected with it. The apogee of these atrocities was the murder of the royal family.

After the formation of the new system, the USSR, headed until 1924 Lenin V.I. got a new leader. They became Joseph Stalin. His control became possible after he won the power struggle with Trotsky. During the reign of Stalin, industry and agriculture began to develop at a tremendous pace. Knowing about the growing power of Nazi Germany, Stalin pays great attention to the development of the country's defense complex. In the period from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was involved in a bloody war with Germany, from which it emerged victorious. The Great Patriotic War cost the Soviet state millions of lives, but this was the only way to preserve the freedom and independence of the country. The post-war years were difficult for the country: hunger, poverty and rampant banditry. Stalin brought order to the country with a hard hand.

International Position

After Stalin's death and until the collapse of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics developed dynamically, overcoming a huge number of difficulties and obstacles. The USSR was involved in the US arms race, which continues to this day. It was this race that could become fatal for all mankind, since both countries were in constant confrontation as a result. This period of history is known as the Cold War. Only the prudence of the leadership of both countries managed to keep the planet from a new war. And this war, taking into account the fact that both nations were already nuclear at that time, could become fatal for the whole world.

The space program of the country stands apart from the entire development of the USSR. It was the Soviet citizen who first flew into space. It was Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. The United States responded to this manned space flight with its first manned flight to the moon. But the Soviet flight into space, unlike the American flight to the moon, does not raise so many questions, and experts have not the slightest doubt that this flight really took place.

Population of the country

Every decade the Soviet country showed population growth. And this despite the multimillion-dollar victims of the Second World War. The key to increasing the birth rate was the social guarantees of the state. The diagram below shows data on the population of the USSR as a whole and the RSFSR in particular.

You should also pay attention to the dynamics of urban development. The Soviet Union was becoming an industrial, industrial country, the population of which gradually moved from the countryside to the cities.

By the time the USSR was formed, there were 2 million-plus cities in Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg). By the time the country collapsed, there were already 12 such cities: Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa and Perm. The union republics also had cities with a million inhabitants: Kyiv, Tashkent, Baku, Kharkov, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Donetsk.

USSR map

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed in 1991, when the leaders of the Soviet republics announced their secession from the USSR in the white forest. Thus, all the Republics gained independence and self-sufficiency. The opinion of the Soviet people was not taken into account. The referendum, held just before the collapse of the USSR, showed that the vast majority of people declared that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics should be preserved. A handful of people, headed by the chairman of the Central Committee of the CPSU, MS Gorbachev, decided the fate of the country and the people. It was this decision that plunged Russia into the harsh reality of the "nineties". This is how the Russian Federation was born. Below is a map of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Economy

The economy of the USSR was unique. For the first time, a system was demonstrated to the world in which the focus was not on profit, but on public goods and rewarding employees. In general, the economy of the Soviet Union can be divided into 3 stages:

1. Before Stalin. We are not talking about any economy here - the revolution has just died down in the country, there is a war going on. No one seriously thought about economic development, the Bolsheviks held power.
2. Stalinist model of the economy. Stalin implemented a unique idea of ​​the economy, which made it possible to raise the USSR to the level of the leading countries of the world. The essence of his approach is total labor and the correct “pyramid of distribution of funds”. Proper distribution of funds - when workers receive no less than managers. Moreover, the basis of the salary was bonuses for achieving results and bonuses for innovation. The essence of such bonuses is as follows - 90% was received by the employee himself, and 10% was divided between the team, shop, and bosses. But the worker himself received the main money. Therefore, there was a desire to work.
3. After Stalin. After Stalin's death, Khrushchev reversed the pyramid of the economy, after which a recession began and a gradual drop in growth rates. Under Khrushchev and after him, an almost capitalist model was formed, when managers received much more workers, especially in the form of bonuses. Bonuses were now divided differently: 90% for the boss and 10% for everyone else.

The Soviet economy is unique because before the war it actually managed to rise from the ashes after the civil war and revolution, and this happened in just 10-12 years. Therefore, when today economists from different countries and journalists say that it is impossible to change the economy in 1 election term (5 years), they simply do not know history. Two Stalinist five-year plans turned the USSR into a modern power, which had a foundation for development. Moreover, the basis for all this was laid in 2-3 years of the first five-year plan.

I also suggest looking at the chart below, which presents data on the average annual growth of the economy as a percentage. Everything we talked about above is reflected in this diagram.

Union republics

The new period of the country's development was due to the fact that several republics existed within the framework of a single state of the USSR. Thus, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had the following composition: Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR, Armenian SSR, Turkmen SSR, Estonian SSR.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE USSR

February Revolution
“The decay of imperial Russia began long ago. By the time of the revolution, the old regime had completely disintegrated, exhausted and exhausted. The war ended the process of decomposition. One cannot even say that the February Revolution overthrew the monarchy in Russia, the monarchy itself fell, no one defended it ... Bolshevism, long prepared by Lenin, turned out to be sole power which, on the one hand, could complete the decomposition of the old and, on the other hand, organize the new” (Nikolai Berdyaev).
October Revolution
After the February Revolution of 1917, the new revolutionary Provisional Government was unable to restore order in the country, which led to an increase in political chaos, as a result of which the Bolshevik Party under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, in alliance with the Left SRs and anarchists, seized power in Russia (October Revolution 1917). The Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies were proclaimed the supreme organ of power. Executive power was exercised by people's commissars. The reforms of the Soviet government consisted mainly in ending the war (Peace Decree) and transferring landowners' lands to peasants (Land Decree).
Civil War
The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the split in the revolutionary movement led to a civil war in which the opponents of the Bolsheviks ("Whites") fought against their supporters ("Reds") during 1918-1922. Not having received wide support, the white movement lost the war. The political power of the RCP(b) was established in the country, gradually merging with the centralized state apparatus.
During the revolution and civil war, the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were conquered by Poland, which restored its independence. Bessarabia was annexed by Romania. The Kars region was conquered by Turkey. Independent states (Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) were formed on the territories of the principalities of Finland, Kovno, Vilna, Suvalk, Livonia, Estland and Courland provinces that were previously part of Russia.
Formation of the USSR
The Bolshevik Party had different points of view on the principles of building a single multinational state.
The commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) put forward a plan of unification prepared by JV Stalin. V. I. Lenin subjected the autonomization plan to sharp criticism. He believed that the Soviet republics should unite into a single state union on the basis of equality and the preservation of their sovereign rights. Each republic should receive the right to freely secede from the union. The Central Committee of the RCP(b) approved the Leninist principles of the national-state structure.
On December 30, 1922, the RSFSR, together with Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR), Belarus (BSSR) and the republics of Transcaucasia (ZSFSR), formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Each of the republics was considered independent (formally).
Party Power Struggle
All organs state power in the USSR they were controlled by the Communist Party (until 1925 it was called the RCP (b), in 1925-1952 - the VKP (b), since 1952 - the CPSU). The supreme body of the party was the Central Committee (CC). The permanent bodies of the Central Committee were the Politburo (since 1952 - the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU), the Orgburo (existed until 1952) and the Secretariat. The most important of these was the Politburo. His decisions were perceived as obligatory for execution by all, both party and state bodies.
In this regard, the question of power in the country was reduced to the question of control over the Politburo. All members of the Politburo were formally equal, but until 1924 the most authoritative of them was V. I. Lenin, who chaired the meetings of the Politburo. However, from 1922 until his death in 1924, Lenin was seriously ill and, as a rule, could not take part in the work of the Politburo.
At the end of 1922, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), if you do not take into account the sick V. I. Lenin, consisted of 6 people - I. V. Stalin, L. D. Trotsky, G. E. Zinoviev, L. B. Kamenev, A. I. Rykov and M. P. Tomsky. From 1922 until December 1925, meetings of the Politburo were usually chaired by L. B. Kamenev. From 1925 to 1929, control of the Politburo was gradually concentrated in the hands of I. V. Stalin, who from 1922 to 1934 was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party.
Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev organized a “troika” based on opposition to Trotsky, whom they had been negative about since the civil war (frictions between Trotsky and Stalin began over the defense of Tsaritsyn and between Trotsky and Zinoviev over the defense of Petrograd, Kamenev supported almost everything Zinoviev). Tomsky, being the leader of the trade unions, had a negative attitude towards Trotsky from the time of the so-called. trade union discussions.
Trotsky began to resist. In October 1923, he sent a letter to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission (Central Control Commission) demanding the strengthening of democracy in the party. At the same time, his supporters sent the so-called Politburo to the Politburo. "Statement of the 46". The Troika then showed its power, mainly using the resources of the Central Committee apparatus led by Stalin (the apparatus of the Central Committee could influence the selection of candidates for delegates to party congresses and conferences). At the XIII Conference of the RCP(b), Trotsky's supporters were condemned. Stalin's influence greatly increased.
On January 21, 1924, Lenin died. The Troika united with Bukharin, A.I. Rykov, Tomsky and V.V. Kuibyshev, forming in the Politburo (which included a member of Rykov and a candidate member of Kuibyshev) the so-called. "seven". Later, at the August plenum of 1924, this "seven" even became an official body, although secret and extra-statutory.
The 13th Congress of the RCP(b) turned out to be difficult for Stalin. Before the start of the congress, Lenin's widow N. K. Krupskaya handed over the Letter to the Congress. It was announced at a meeting of the Council of Elders (a non-statutory body consisting of members of the Central Committee and leaders of local party organizations). Stalin announced his resignation at this meeting for the first time. Kamenev proposed to resolve the issue by voting. The majority voted in favor of keeping Stalin in the post of general secretary, only Trotsky's supporters voted against. Then the proposal was voted that the document should be read out at closed meetings of individual delegations, while no one had the right to take notes and at the meetings of the congress it was impossible to refer to the "Testament". Thus, the "Letter to the Congress" was not even mentioned in the materials of the congress. It was first announced by N. S. Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956. Later this fact was used by the opposition to criticize Stalin and the party (it was alleged that the Central Committee "concealed" Lenin's "testament"). Stalin himself (in connection with this letter he several times raised the question of his resignation before the plenum of the Central Committee) denied these accusations. Just two weeks after the congress, where Stalin's future victims Zinoviev and Kamenev used all their influence to keep him in office, Stalin opened fire on his own allies. First, he used a typo (“Nepmanovskaya” instead of “NEPovskaya” in a quote from Lenin by Kamenev:
... I read in the newspaper the report of one of the comrades at the XIII Congress (I think Kamenev), where it is written in black and white that the next slogan of our party is supposedly the transformation of "Nepman Russia" into socialist Russia. Moreover, - even worse - this strange slogan is attributed to none other than Lenin himself.
In the same report, Stalin accused Zinoviev, without naming him, of the principle of "party dictatorship", put forward at the XII Congress, and this thesis was recorded in the resolution of the congress and Stalin himself voted for it. The main allies of Stalin in the "seven" were Bukharin and Rykov.
A new split appeared in the Politburo in October 1925, when Zinoviev, Kamenev, G. Ya. Sokolnikov and Krupskaya presented a document that criticized the party line from a "left" point of view. (Zinoviev led the Leningrad communists, Kamenev the Moscow ones, and among the working class of large cities, who lived worse than before the First World War, there was strong dissatisfaction with low wages and rising prices for agricultural products, which led to the demand for pressure on the peasantry and especially on the kulaks ). "Seven" broke up. At that moment, Stalin began to unite with the "right" Bukharin-Rykov-Tomsky, who expressed the interests of the peasantry above all. In the inner-party struggle that had begun between the "rights" and "lefts", he provided them with the forces of the party apparatus, they (namely Bukharin) acted as theoreticians. The "new opposition" of Zinoviev and Kamenev was condemned at the Fourteenth Congress.
By that time, the theory of the victory of socialism in one country had arisen. This view was developed by Stalin in the pamphlet "On Questions of Leninism" (1926) and by Bukharin. They divided the question of the victory of socialism into two parts - the question of the complete victory of socialism, that is, the possibility of building socialism and the complete impossibility of restoring capitalism by internal forces, and the question of final victory, that is, the impossibility of restoration due to the intervention of the Western powers, which would be ruled out only by establishing a revolution in the West.
Trotsky, who did not believe in socialism in one country, joined Zinoviev and Kamenev. The so-called. United Opposition. It was finally defeated after a demonstration organized by Trotsky's supporters on November 7, 1927 in Leningrad.
In 1929, Stalin also got rid of his new associates: Bukharin - chairman of the Comintern, Rykov - chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Tomsky - leader of the trade unions. Thus, Stalin turned off from the political struggle all those who, in his opinion, could challenge his leadership in the country, so we can talk about the onset of Stalin's dictatorship during this period.
New economic policy
In 1922-1929, the state implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP), the economy became multistructural. After the death of Lenin, the internal political struggle intensifies. Joseph Stalin comes to power, establishing his personal dictatorship and destroying all his political rivals.
With the transition to the NEP, an impetus was given to the development of entrepreneurship. However, freedom of enterprise was allowed only to a certain extent. In industry, private entrepreneurs were mainly limited to the production of consumer goods, the extraction and processing of certain types of raw materials, and the manufacture of the simplest tools; in trade - mediation between small commodity producers and the sale of goods of private industry; in transport - the organization of local transportation of small consignments.
In order to prevent the concentration of private capital, the state used such an instrument as taxes. In the financial year 1924/1925, taxes absorbed from 35 to 52% of the total income of private traders. There were few medium and large private industrial enterprises in the first years of NEP. In 1923/1924, as part of the entire licensed industry (that is, industrial enterprises with at least 16 workers with a mechanical engine and at least 30 without an engine), private enterprises produced only 4.3% of output.
The vast majority of the country's population were peasants. They suffered from disproportions in the ratio of state-regulated prices for industrial and agricultural goods ("price scissors"). Peasants, despite the great need for industrial goods, could not purchase them because of too high prices. So, before the war, in order to pay the cost of a plow, a peasant had to sell 6 poods of wheat, and in 1923 - 24 poods; the cost of a haymaker during the same period increased from 125 poods of grain to 544 poods. In 1923, due to a decrease in procurement prices for the most important grain crops and an excessive increase in selling prices for industrial goods, difficulties arose with the sale of industrial goods.
By February 1924, it became clear that the peasants were refusing to hand over grain to the state for Soviet signs. On February 2, 1924, the II Congress of Soviets of the USSR decided to put into circulation a stable currency of the all-Union model. Decree of the Central Executive Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of February 5, 1924 announced the issue of state treasury bills of the USSR. From February 14, 1924, the printing of Soviet signs was stopped, and from March 25, their release into circulation.
Industrialization
The XIV Congress of the CPSU at the end of 1925 proclaimed a course towards the industrialization of the country. Since 1926, variants of the first five-year plan began to be developed in the USSR. People's Commissar of Finance of the USSR G. Ya. Sokolnikov and other specialists of his department (with whom economists N. D. Kondratiev and N. P. Makarov agreed) believed that the main task was to develop agriculture to the highest level. In their opinion, only on the basis of a strengthened and "prosperous" agriculture, capable of feeding the population to its full extent, conditions for the expansion of industry can appear.
One of the plans developed by specialists from the State Planning Committee of the USSR provided for the development of all industries that produce consumer goods, and those means of production, the need for which was of a mass nature. Economists of this trend argued that everywhere in the world intensive industrial development began precisely with these industries.
Industrialization, which, due to obvious necessity, began with the creation of the basic branches of heavy industry, could not yet provide the market with the goods needed for the countryside. The supply of the city through the normal exchange of goods was disrupted, the tax in kind was replaced by cash in 1924. A vicious circle arose: in order to restore the balance, it was necessary to accelerate industrialization, for this it was necessary to increase the influx of food, export products and labor from the countryside, and for this it was necessary to increase the production of bread, increase its marketability, create in the countryside a need for heavy industry products (machines ). The situation was complicated by the destruction during the revolution of the basis of commodity production of bread in pre-revolutionary Russia - large landlord farms, and a project was needed to create something to replace them.
The industrialization policy pursued by Stalin required large funds and equipment obtained from the export of wheat and other goods abroad. Large plans were set for the collective farms to hand over their agricultural products to the state. The sharp drop in the standard of living of the peasants and the famine of 1932-33, according to historians, were the result of these grain procurement campaigns.
The cardinal question is the choice of the method of industrialization. The discussion about this was difficult and long, and its outcome predetermined the nature of the state and society. Lacking, unlike Russia at the beginning of the century, foreign loans as an important source of funds, the USSR could only industrialize at the expense of internal resources. An influential group (member of the Politburo N. I. Bukharin, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars A. I. Rykov and chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions M. P. Tomsky) defended the "sparing" option of gradual accumulation of funds through the continuation of the NEP. L. D. Trotsky - a forced version. JV Stalin at first stood on the point of view of Bukharin, but after Trotsky's expulsion from the Central Committee of the party at the end of 1927, he changed his position to a diametrically opposite one. This led to a decisive victory for the proponents of forced industrialization.
For the years 1928-1940, according to the CIA, the average annual growth of the gross national product in the USSR was 6.1%, which was inferior to Japan, was comparable to the corresponding indicator in Germany and was significantly higher than the growth in the most developed capitalist countries experiencing the "Great Depression" . As a result of industrialization, in terms of industrial production, the USSR came out on top in Europe and second in the world, overtaking England, Germany, France and second only to the United States. The share of the USSR in world industrial production reached almost 10%. A particularly sharp leap was achieved in the development of metallurgy, power engineering, machine tool building, and the chemical industry. In fact, a number of new industries emerged: aluminum, aviation, automotive, bearings, tractor and tank building. One of the most important results of industrialization was the overcoming of technical backwardness and the assertion of the economic independence of the USSR.
The question of how much these achievements contributed to the victory in the Great Patriotic War remains a matter of debate [source not specified 669 days. In Soviet times, the point of view was accepted that industrialization and pre-war rearmament played a decisive role. Critics draw attention to the fact that by the beginning of the winter of 1941, the territory was occupied, in which 42% of the population of the USSR lived before the war, 63% of coal was mined, 68% of cast iron was smelted, etc. As V. Lelchuk writes, “victory had forge not with the help of that powerful potential that was created during the years of accelerated industrialization. However, the numbers speak for themselves. Despite the fact that in 1943 the USSR produced only 8.5 million tons of steel (compared to 18.3 million tons in 1940), while the German industry this year produced more than 35 million tons (including those captured in Europe metallurgical plants), despite the enormous damage from the German invasion, the industry of the USSR was able to produce much more weapons than the German one. in 1942, the USSR surpassed Germany in the production of tanks by 3.9 times, combat aircraft by 1.9 times, guns of all types by 3.1 times. At the same time, the organization and technology of production were rapidly improved: in 1944, the cost of all types of military products was reduced by half compared to 1940. Record military production was achieved due to the fact that the entire new industry had a dual purpose. The raw-material base was prudently located beyond the Urals and Siberia, while pre-revolutionary industry turned out to be predominantly in the occupied territories. The evacuation of industry to the regions of the Urals, the Volga region, Siberia and Central Asia played a significant role. Only during first three months of the war, 1360 large (mainly military) enterprises were moved.
Despite rapid urbanization beginning in 1928, by the end of Stalin's life, the majority of the population still lived in countryside remote from large industrial centers. On the other hand, one of the results of industrialization was the formation of a party and labor elite. Given these circumstances, the change in living standards during 1928-1952. characterized by the following features:
The average standard of living in the country underwent significant fluctuations (especially associated with the first five-year plan and the war), but in 1938 and 1952 it was higher or almost the same as in 1928.
The greatest increase in the standard of living was among the party and labor elite.
The standard of living of the vast majority of rural residents (and thus the majority of the country's population), according to various estimates, has not improved or has deteriorated significantly.
Stalinist methods of industrialization, collectivization in the countryside, the elimination of the private trading system led to a significant reduction in the consumption fund and, as a result, in the standard of living throughout the country. The rapid growth of the urban population led to a deterioration in the housing situation; the strip of "seals" again passed, the workers who arrived from the village were settled in barracks. By the end of 1929, the card system was extended to almost all food products, and then to industrial products. However, even with cards it was impossible to get the necessary rations, and in 1931 additional "orders" were introduced. It was impossible to buy groceries without standing in huge queues.
According to the data of the Smolensk Party Archive, in 1929 in Smolensk a worker received 600 g of bread a day, family members - 300 each, fat - from 200 g to a liter vegetable oil per month, 1 kilogram of sugar per month; a worker received 30-36 meters of chintz per year. In the future, the situation (until 1935) only worsened. The GPU noted acute discontent among the workers.
Collectivization
From the beginning of the 1930s, the collectivization of agriculture was carried out - the unification of all peasant farms into centralized collective farms. To a large extent, the elimination of property rights to land was a consequence of the solution of the "class question". In addition, according to the then prevailing economic views, large collective farms could work more efficiently due to the use of technology and the division of labor.
Collectivization was a catastrophe for agriculture: according to official data, gross grain harvests fell from 733.3 million centners in 1928 to 696.7 million centners in 1931-32. The grain yield in 1932 was 5.7 centners per hectare against 8.2 centners per hectare in 1913. Gross agricultural output in 1928 was 124% compared with 1913, in 1929-121%, in 1930-117%, in 1931-114%, in 1932-107%, in 1933-101% Livestock production in 1933 was 65% of the 1913 level. But at the expense of the peasants, the collection of marketable grain, which was so necessary for the country for industrialization, increased by 20%.
After the disruption of grain procurements in 1927, when emergency measures had to be taken ( fixed prices, market closures, and even repression), and the even more disastrous grain procurement campaign of 1928-1929. The issue had to be resolved urgently. Extraordinary measures during procurement in 1929, already perceived as something completely abnormal, caused about 1,300 riots. In 1929 bread cards were introduced in all cities (in 1928 - in some cities).
The way to create farming through the stratification of the peasantry was incompatible with the Soviet project for ideological reasons. A course was taken for collectivization. This also presupposed the liquidation of the kulaks "as a class".
Cards for bread, cereals and pasta were abolished from January 1, 1935, and for other (including non-food) goods from January 1, 1936. This was accompanied by an increase in wages in the industrial sector and an even greater increase in state ration prices for all types of goods. Commenting on the cancellation of the cards, Stalin said what later became catchphrase: "Life has become better, life has become happier".
Overall, per capita consumption rose by 22% between 1928 and 1938. However, this growth was greatest among the group of the party and labor elite and did not affect the vast majority of the rural population, or more than half of the country's population.
Terror and repression
In the 1920s, political repressions continued against the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who did not renounce their beliefs. Also, former nobles were subjected to repressions on real and false charges.
After the beginning of the forced collectivization of agriculture and accelerated industrialization in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the establishment, according to some historians, of Stalin's dictatorship and the completion of the creation of an authoritarian regime in the USSR during this period, political repressions became massive.
The repressions that continued until Stalin's death reached a particular bitterness during the period of the Great Terror of 1937-1938, also called the Yezhovshchina. During this period, hundreds of thousands of people were shot and sent to Gulag camps on false charges of political crimes.
The foreign policy of the USSR in the 1930s
After Hitler came to power, Stalin drastically changed the traditional Soviet policy: if earlier it was aimed at an alliance with Germany against the Versailles system, and along the line of the Comintern - at fighting the Social Democrats as the main enemy (the theory of "social fascism" - Stalin's personal attitude ), now it consisted in creating a system of "collective security" as part of the USSR and the former countries of the Entente against Germany and an alliance of communists with all leftist forces against fascism ("popular front" tactics). France and England feared the USSR and hoped to "appease" Hitler, which was manifested in the history of the "Munich Pact" and later in the failure of negotiations between the USSR and England, France on military cooperation against Germany. Immediately after Munich, in the autumn of 1938, Stalin made allusions to Germany about the desirability of improving mutual relations on the trade side. On October 1, 1938, Poland in an ultimatum demanded that the Czech Republic transfer to it the Teszyn region, the subject of territorial disputes between it and Czechoslovakia in 1918-1920. And in March 1939, Germany occupied the remaining part of Czechoslovakia. On March 10, 1939, Stalin makes a report at the 18th Party Congress, in which he formulates the goals of Soviet policy as follows:
"one. Continue to pursue a policy of peace and strengthen business ties with all countries.
2. ... Do not let our country be drawn into conflicts by provocateurs of war, who are accustomed to rake in the heat with the wrong hands.
This was noted by the German embassy as a hint of Moscow's unwillingness to act as allies of England and France. In May, Litvinov, a Jew and an ardent supporter of the "collective security" course, was removed from the post of head of the NKID and replaced by Molotov. In the leadership of Germany, this was also regarded as a favorable sign.
By that time, the international situation was sharply aggravated due to Germany's claims to Poland, England and France this time showed their readiness to go to war with Germany, trying to attract the USSR to the alliance. In the summer of 1939, Stalin, while maintaining negotiations on an alliance with Britain and France, began negotiations with Germany in parallel. As historians note, Stalin's allusions towards Germany intensified as relations between Germany and Poland deteriorated and strengthened between Britain, Poland and Japan. From this it is concluded that Stalin's policy was not so much pro-German as anti-British and anti-Polish; Stalin was categorically not satisfied with the old status quo, but he, in his own words, did not believe in the possibility of a complete victory for Germany and the establishment of its hegemony in Europe.
On August 23, 1939, a non-aggression pact was signed between the USSR and Germany.
The foreign policy of the USSR in 1939-1940
Division of spheres of interest in Eastern Europe under the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union.
Left - assumed, right - actual. Territories ceded and ceded to the USSR are shown in orange-brown, ceded to the Reich in blue, occupied by Germany (Warsaw General Government and Bohemia and Moravia protectorate)
On the night of September 17, 1939, the USSR launched a Polish campaign in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus (including the Bialystok region), which were part of Poland, as well as the Vilna region, which, according to the secret additional protocol to the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, were classified as sphere of interests of the USSR. On September 28, 1939, the USSR concluded a Treaty of Friendship and Borders with Germany, which fixed, roughly along the "Curzon Line", "the border between mutual state interests on the territory of the former Polish state." In October 1939, Western Ukraine became part of the Ukrainian SSR, Western Belarus became part of the BSSR, and the Vilna Territory was transferred to Lithuania.
In late September - early October 1939, agreements were concluded with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which, according to the secret additional protocol to the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, were assigned to the sphere of interests of the USSR, agreements were concluded, according to which Soviet military bases.
On October 5, 1939, the USSR also offered Finland, which, according to the secret additional protocol to the Non-Aggression Treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union, was assigned to the sphere of interests of the USSR, to consider the possibility of concluding a mutual assistance pact with the USSR. Negotiations began on October 11, but Finland rejected the proposals of the USSR both for the pact and for the lease and exchange of territories. On November 30, 1939 the USSR started the war with Finland. This war ended on March 12, 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty, which fixed a number of territorial concessions from Finland. However, the originally intended goal - the complete defeat of Finland - was not achieved, and the losses of the Soviet troops were too great in comparison with the plans, which assumed an easy and quick victory with small forces. The prestige of the Red Army as a strong enemy was undermined. This made a strong impression on Germany in particular and pushed Hitler to the idea of ​​attacking the USSR.
In most states, as well as in the USSR before the war, they underestimated the Finnish army, and most importantly, the power of the Mannerheim Line fortifications, and believed that it could not offer serious resistance. Therefore, the "long fuss" with Finland was taken as an indicator of the weakness and unpreparedness of the Red Army for war.
On June 14, 1940, the Soviet government delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania, and on June 16 to Latvia and Estonia. In basic terms, the meaning of the ultimatums coincided - these states were required to bring governments friendly to the USSR to power and allow additional contingents of troops into the territory of these countries. The conditions were accepted. On June 15, Soviet troops entered Lithuania, and on June 17 they entered Estonia and Latvia. The new governments lifted bans on communist parties and called snap parliamentary elections. In the elections in all three states, the pro-communist Blocks (Unions) of the working people won - the only electoral lists admitted to the elections. The newly elected parliaments already on July 21-22 proclaimed the creation of the Estonian SSR, the Latvian SSR and the Lithuanian SSR and adopted the Declaration on joining the USSR. On August 3-6, 1940, in accordance with the decisions, these republics were admitted to the Soviet Union.
After the start of German aggression against the USSR in the summer of 1941, the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of the Baltic states with the Soviet regime became the reason for their armed attacks on Soviet troops, which contributed to the advance of the Germans to Leningrad.
On June 26, 1940, the USSR demanded that Romania transfer Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to it. Romania agreed to this ultimatum and on June 28, 1940, Soviet troops entered the territory of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. On August 2, 1940, at the 7th session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Law on the Formation of the Union Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted. The Moldavian SSR included: the city of Chisinau, 6 out of 9 counties of Bessarabia (Belti, Bendery, Cahul, Kishinev, Orhei, Soroca), as well as the city of Tiraspol and 6 out of 14 districts of the former Moldavian ASSR (Grigoriopol, Dubossary, Kamensky, Rybnitsa, Slobodzeya, Tiraspol). The remaining regions of the MASSR, as well as the Akkerman, Izmail and Khotinsky counties of Bessarabia, were ceded to the Ukrainian SSR. Northern Bukovina also became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
The Great Patriotic War
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, violating the provisions of the non-aggression pact. The Great Patriotic War began. Initially, Germany and its allies were able to achieve great success and capture vast territories, but they were never able to capture Moscow, as a result of which the war became protracted. During the turning point battles at Stalingrad and Kursk, Soviet troops went on the offensive and defeated the German army, victoriously ending the war in May 1945 with the capture of Berlin. In 1944, Tuva became part of the USSR, and in 1945, as a result of the war with Japan, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were annexed. During the hostilities and as a result of the occupation, the total demographic losses in the USSR amounted to 26.6 million people.
post-war period
After the war in the countries of Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany), communist parties friendly to the USSR came to power. The role of the United States in the world has increased. Relations between the USSR and the West sharply worsened. A NATO military bloc emerged, in opposition to which the Warsaw Pact organization was formed.
In 1945, under an agreement with Czechoslovakia, the USSR was transferred to Transcarpathia. Under an agreement with Poland, the Soviet-Polish border was changed and some territories (in particular, the Bialystok region) were transferred to Poland. An agreement was also concluded on the exchange of population between Poland and the USSR: persons of Polish and Jewish nationality, former citizens of pre-war Poland and living in the USSR, received the right to travel to Poland, and persons of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Ruthenian and Lithuanian nationalities living in Poland , had to move to the USSR. As of October 31, 1946, about 518 thousand people moved from Poland to the USSR, and about 1,090 thousand people moved from the USSR to Poland. (according to other sources, 1,526 thousand people)
After the war and the famine of 1946, in 1947 the card system was abolished, although many goods remained in short supply, in particular, in 1947 there was again a famine. In addition, on the eve of the abolition of cards, prices for rations were raised. This allowed in 1948-1953. lower prices repeatedly. Price cuts have improved living standards somewhat Soviet people. In 1952, the cost of bread was 39% of the price of the end of 1947, milk - 72%, meat - 42%, sugar - 49%, butter - 37%. As noted at the 19th Congress of the CPSU, at the same time the price of bread rose by 28% in the USA, by 90% in England, and in France more than doubled; the cost of meat in the US increased by 26%, in England - by 35%, in France - by 88%. If in 1948 real wages were on average 20% lower than the pre-war level, then in 1952 they already exceeded the pre-war level by 25% and almost reached the level of 1928. However, among the peasantry, even in 1952, real incomes remained at 40% below 1928 level
USSR in 1953-1991
In 1953, the "leader" of the USSR I. V. Stalin died. After three years of struggle for power among the leadership of the CPSU, some liberalization of the country's policy and the rehabilitation of a number of victims of the Stalinist terror followed. The Khrushchev thaw has come.
Khrushchev thaw
The starting point of the thaw was Stalin's death in 1953. At the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956, Nikita Khrushchev delivered a speech in which Stalin's personality cult and Stalin's repressions were criticized. In general, Khrushchev's course was supported at the top of the party and corresponded to its interests, since earlier even the most prominent party functionaries, if they fell into disgrace, could fear for their lives. In the foreign policy of the USSR, a course towards "peaceful coexistence" with the capitalist world was proclaimed. Khrushchev also began rapprochement with Yugoslavia.
The era of stagnation
In 1964, N. S. Khrushchev was removed from power. Attempts at economic reforms followed, but the so-called Age of Stagnation soon began. There were no more mass repressions in the USSR, thousands of those dissatisfied with the policies of the CPSU or the Soviet way of life were repressed (without applying the death penalty to them).
According to World Bank estimates, funding for education in the USSR in 1970 was 7% of GDP.
perestroika
In 1985, Gorbachev announced the beginning of perestroika. Elections were held in 1989 people's deputies USSR, in 1990 - elections of people's deputies of the RSFSR.
The collapse of the USSR
Attempts to reform the Soviet system led to a deepening crisis in the country. In the political arena, this crisis was expressed as a confrontation between the President of the USSR Gorbachev and the President of the RSFSR Yeltsin. Yeltsin actively promoted the slogan about the need for the sovereignty of the RSFSR.
The collapse of the USSR took place against the backdrop of the beginning of a general economic, foreign policy and demographic crisis. In 1989, for the first time, the beginning of the economic crisis in the USSR was officially announced (growth of the economy is replaced by a fall).
A number of interethnic conflicts flare up on the territory of the USSR, the most acute of which is the Karabakh conflict, since 1988 there have been mass pogroms of both Armenians and Azerbaijanis. In 1989, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR announces the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijan SSR begins a blockade. In April 1991, a war actually begins between the two Soviet republics.
Completion of the collapse and liquidation of the power structures of the USSR
The authorities of the USSR as a subject of international law ceased to exist on December 25-26, 1991. Russia declared itself the successor of the USSR's membership in international institutions, assumed the debts and assets of the USSR, and declared itself the owner of all the USSR's property abroad. According to data provided by the Russian Federation, at the end of 1991, the liabilities of the former Soviet Union were estimated at $93.7 billion, and assets at $110.1 billion. Vnesheconombank's deposits amounted to about $700 million. The so-called "zero option", according to which the Russian Federation became the legal successor of the former Soviet Union in terms of external debt and assets, including foreign property, was not ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which claimed the right to dispose of the property of the USSR.
On December 25, President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev announced the termination of his activities as President of the USSR "for reasons of principle", signed a decree resigning as the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Armed Forces and transferred control of strategic nuclear weapons to President of Russia B. Yeltsin.
On December 26, the session of the upper chamber of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which retained the quorum - the Council of the Republics (formed by the Law of the USSR of 05.09.1991 N 2392-1), - from which at that time only representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were not recalled, adopted under the chairmanship of A. Alimzhanov, declaration No. 142-N on the demise of the USSR, as well as a number of other documents (decree on the dismissal of judges of the Supreme and Higher Arbitration Courts of the USSR and the Board of the USSR Prosecutor's Office, resolutions on the dismissal of the Chairman of the State Bank V. V. Gerashchenko and his first deputy V. N. Kulikov December 26, 1991 is considered the day the USSR ceased to exist, although some institutions and organizations of the USSR (for example, the USSR State Standard, the State Committee for Public Education, the Committee for the Protection of the State Border) still continued to function during 1992 year, and the USSR Constitutional Supervision Committee was not officially dissolved at all .
After the collapse of the USSR, Russia and the "near abroad" constitute the so-called. post-Soviet space.

LEADERS OF THE USSR

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (real name Ulyanov; April 10 (22), 1870, Simbirsk - January 21, 1924, Gorki estate, Moscow province) - Russian and Soviet political and statesman, revolutionary, founder of the Bolshevik Party, one of the organizers and leaders of the October Revolution of 1917 year, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (government) of the RSFSR and the USSR. Philosopher, Marxist, publicist, founder of Marxism-Leninism, ideologist and creator of the Third (Communist) International, founder of the Soviet state. Scope of major scientific works- philosophy and economics.

Theorist of Marxism, who creatively developed it in new historical conditions, organizer and leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the international communist movement, founder of the Soviet state.

Born on April 10 (22), 1870 in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk). Father, Ilya Nikolayevich, worked his way up from a secondary school teacher to the director of public schools in the Samara province, received a noble title (died in 1886). Mother, Maria Alexandrovna Blank, the daughter of a doctor, received only a home education, but she could speak several foreign languages, played the piano, and read a lot. Vladimir was the third of six children. There was a friendly atmosphere in the family; parents encouraged the curiosity of children and treated them with respect.

In subsequent years, he lived in Samara under police supervision, earned money by private lessons, and in 1891 managed to pass state exams externally for the full course of the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. In 1892-1893 he worked as an assistant to a barrister in Samara, where at the same time he created a Marxist circle, translated the Manifesto of the Communist Party of Karl Marx and began to write himself, arguing with populists

Having moved to St. Petersburg in August 1893, he worked as a lawyer and gradually became one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg Marxists. Sent abroad, he met the recognized leader of the Russian Marxists, Georgy Plekhanov. After returning to Russia, Ulyanov in 1895 united the St. Petersburg Marxist circles into a single "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class". In December of that year, he was arrested by the police. He spent more than a year in prison and was sent for three years to Eastern Siberia under open police supervision. There, in the village of Shushenskoye, in July 1898 he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, whom he knew from the St. Petersburg revolutionary underground.

While in exile, he continued his theoretical and organizational revolutionary activities. In 1897 he published The Development of Capitalism in Russia, where he tried to challenge the Narodniks' views on socio-economic relations in the country and thereby prove that a bourgeois revolution was brewing in Russia. He got acquainted with the works of the leading theoretician of German social democracy, Karl Kautsky, and they made a great impression on him. From Kautsky he borrowed the idea of ​​organizing the Russian Marxist movement in the form of a centralized party of a "new type" that would bring consciousness into the "dark" and "immature" working masses. The controversy with those Social Democrats who, from his point of view, underestimated the role of the party, became a constant theme in Ulyanov's articles. He also had a fierce polemic with the "economists" - a trend that argued that the Social Democrats should focus on economic, not political struggle.

After the end of his exile, he went abroad in January 1900 (for the next five years he lived in Munich, London and Geneva). There, together with Plekhanov, his associates Vera Zasulich and Pavel Axelrod, as well as his friend Yuli Martov, Ulyanov began to publish social democratic newspaper Iskra. From 1901 he began to use the pseudonym "Lenin" and from then on was known in the party under this name. In 1902 he outlined his organizational views in the pamphlet What Is to Be Done? He proposed to restructure the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), formed in 1898, like a besieged fortress, turning it into a rigid and centralized organization headed by professional revolutionaries - leaders whose decisions would be binding on ordinary members. This approach met with objections from a significant number of party activists, including Yuli Martov. At the second congress of the RSDLP in Brussels and London in 1903, the party split into two currents: the "Bolsheviks" (supporters of Lenin's organizational principles) and the "Mensheviks" (their opponents). Lenin became the recognized leader of the Bolshevik faction of the party.

During the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, Lenin managed to return to Russia for a while. He oriented his supporters towards active participation in the bourgeois-democratic revolution in order to try to win hegemony in it and achieve the establishment of a "revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry." On this issue, detailed in Lenin's Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, he sharply disagreed with the majority of the Mensheviks, who were oriented towards an alliance led by bourgeois-liberal circles.

The defeat of the revolution forced Lenin to emigrate again. From abroad, he continued to lead the activities of the Bolshevik current, insisting on a combination of illegal and legal activities, participation in elections to the State Duma and in the work of this body. On this basis, Lenin broke with a group of Bolsheviks led by Alexander Bogdanov, who called for a boycott of the Duma. Against his new opponents, Lenin released the polemical work Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (1909), accusing them of revising Marxist philosophy. In the early 1910s, disagreements within the RSDLP became extremely aggravated. In contrast to the "otzovists" (supporters of the boycott of the Duma), the Mensheviks - "liquidators" (adherents of legal work) and the group of Leon Trotsky, who advocated the preservation of the unity of the party ranks, Lenin forced the transformation of his current in 1912 into an independent political party, the RSDLP (b), with its own printed organ - the newspaper "Pravda".

After the outbreak of World War I, Lenin was deported to Switzerland. He was extremely sensitive to the support of the war and the idea of ​​"defending the fatherland" by the Social Democratic parties, especially the German one, which he used to consider exemplary. Under the new conditions, Lenin entered into an alliance with the left, internationalist wing of the international socialist movement. As a result of two international conferences of socialists (in Zimmerwald and Kienthal), a bloc of left currents arose. Lenin called for an end to the war in a revolutionary way, turning "the imperialist war into a civil war." In his book Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), he argued that capitalist society had entered its highest and last "imperialist" phase and found itself on the verge of a socialist revolution.

Having learned about the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia, Lenin, who was in Switzerland, immediately opposed the support of the Provisional Government by the Bolsheviks in Letters from afar. He sought to return to revolutionary Russia as soon as possible, but the governments of the Entente countries refused to let him through their territory. At the same time, the German authorities were ready to exchange German prisoners of war for Russian political emigrants, hoping that the arrival of opponents of the continuation of the war would weaken the positions of the Entente supporters in Russia. On March 27 (April 9), 1917, 32 emigrants left Switzerland for Russia, including 19 Bolsheviks (including Lenin, Krupskaya, Grigory Zinoviev, Inessa Armand, and others).

On April 4, the day after his arrival in Petrograd, Lenin delivered the so-called April Theses. He demanded to fight against the Provisional Government, for the establishment of the power of the Soviets and an immediate transition to the socialist revolution. Lenin's radical position met with rejection not only among the Mensheviks, who accused him of "anarchism", but also within the Bolshevik party itself, where such leaders as Lev Kamenev and Joseph Stalin opposed the new course. But Lenin correctly calculated the balance of forces. He believed that the revolution was carried out by the masses themselves, who were far more radical than any political parties, and that only those politicians who could use the revolutionary upsurge could succeed. Therefore, he oriented the Bolsheviks to the use of popular left-radical slogans that were born among the people - the demands of "power of the Soviets", "workers' control", "socialization of the land". The Bolsheviks also gained immense popularity from the fact that they did not hesitate to seek Russia's exit from the already boring war.

As the masses became radicalized, the influence of the Bolsheviks grew. In June 1917, speaking at the first All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin announced the desire of his party to come to power. But she did not yet have the strength to use one of the many crises experienced by the Provisional Government. After a massive armed demonstration in Petrograd on 4 July organized by Bolsheviks and anarchists, the authorities accused the Bolshevik leaders of treason and cooperation with Germany. Some party leaders were arrested, while Lenin and Zinoviev went into hiding at the Razliv station near Petrograd and then in Finland. In the underground, Lenin systematized his ideas about the state (State and Revolution) and the tasks of the Bolshevik Party after coming to power. On the one hand, he propagated the "withering away of the state" through the system of "power of the Soviets", on the other hand, he called for the dictatorship of the party over the irresponsible masses, which should lead the construction of socialism. For the immediate period after the seizure of power, according to Lenin, it should have been limited to establishing state control over a number of key industries and banks, as well as carrying out land reform.

After the defeat of General Lavr Kornilov's military mutiny, Lenin decided in September 1917 that the moment had come for a coup. He appealed to the leadership of the party with calls to "take power." Some of the Bolshevik leaders initially resisted Lenin's demands, but he managed to contact supporters of the uprising. In early October, he moved to Petrograd and continued his agitation for immediate action. In the end, the leaders of the Bolsheviks heeded this call. Preparations began for an armed uprising, in which not only the Bolsheviks took part, but also other leftist forces - the Left Social Revolutionaries, maximalists and anarchists. On October 24-26, 1917, during the uprising in Petrograd, the power of the Provisional Government fell. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets elected Lenin chairman of the new government - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK).

An experienced tactician, Lenin was forced to reckon with the demands of the revolutionary rank and file and agree to social transformations much more radical than his pre-revolutionary plans. The Council of People's Commissars recognized the peasant "socialization of the land", issued a decree on the introduction of workers' control in production, and recognized the expropriation of enterprises from entrepreneurs carried out by workers. But already in the first months of the revolution, Lenin took steps to subordinate the Bolshevik power to the mass workers' and peasants' movement. The system of workers' control was subordinated to the state structure of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, and the workers' factory committees were subordinated to trade unions controlled by the Bolsheviks.

In the winter and spring of 1918, Lenin took decisive steps to consolidate the power of the Bolshevik Party, the reason was the military situation of the country. Lenin insisted on making peace with Germany (Brest Peace) and Austria-Hungary, despite the most difficult conditions put forward by the German command. Not only the right-wing opposition, which was set up in support of the Entente, opposed it, but also the left forces - the Left Social Revolutionaries, maximalists, anarchists, and even a significant part of the Bolsheviks themselves. However, Lenin used all his organizational skills and influence in the party to push for an unpopular decision.

Under the pretext of strengthening the new government, the leader of the Bolsheviks demanded the introduction of unity of command in management, the most severe discipline in production, the rejection of any elements of self-government, the introduction of harsh penalties for violating labor discipline (articles Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power, On Left Childishness and Petty-Bourgeoisism).

In the spring of 1918, Lenin's government began a struggle against the opposition by closing down the anarchist and socialist workers' organizations. The confrontation intensified during the civil war, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and anarchists, in turn, attacked the leaders of the Bolshevik regime; On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on Lenin's life. On September 25, 1919, a group of "underground anarchists" and Left Social Revolutionaries blew up the building of the Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party, but Lenin, contrary to their expectations, was not there. During the war years, Lenin made a direct bet on government terror, believing that without it he would not be able to defeat the political opponents of Bolshevism. Not only "class enemies" were arrested, but also workers who did not show sufficient zeal in their work or did not obey the orders of the authorities. In the villages, special "food detachments" confiscated food and grain in such quantities that the villagers could hardly feed themselves, and some simply starved.

At the cost of these unpopular measures, Lenin's government managed to defeat the White armies, but in 1921 it encountered a gigantic wave of peasant discontent and an uprising of the sailors of Kronstadt. The participants in this "third revolution" stood for Soviet power without the Bolsheviks. Lenin managed to suppress the uprising, but he was forced to change his political course. He abandoned "war communism" and introduced a "new economic policy", while the strategic goal of the Bolshevik leader remained the same: to turn Russia into a powerful industrial power. Without this, in his opinion, it was impossible to think about creating socialism in Russia. But now he intended to rely not on state dictatorship in the economy, but on the widespread attraction of foreign and private capital while maintaining key positions for the state. In the political field, Lenin believed, on the contrary, it was necessary to strengthen the omnipotence of the Bolshevik Party and its leadership. To this end, at the 10th Party Congress, at the insistence of Lenin, a decision was made to ban internal factions.

On the international plane, Lenin proclaimed a line towards "world revolution". For its preparation, an international association of communist parties was created - the Communist International (1919). It arose and operated under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party. Lenin ruthlessly broke with his former allies in the struggle against the world war - the Dutch and German left communists Anton Pannekoek, Hermann Gorter and others, writing a pamphlet against them, Childhood Disease of Leftism in Communism (1920). He dictated to foreign communists the tactics of a "united front" with the Social Democrats, participation in elections and cooperation in mass reformist organizations in the hope of seizing leadership in them.

May 25, 1922 Lenin suffered a stroke and partial paralysis; for several months he underwent treatment outside of Moscow and was able to return to the capital only in October. However, in December 1922, after a new hemorrhage, he had to leave his office in the Kremlin.

In the last period of his stay in power, Lenin was increasingly worried about the "bureaucratic degeneration" of the regime and the party. He felt that power would soon slip out of the hands of a narrow circle of professional revolutionaries - his comrades-in-arms and pass to the party and state apparatus, which the Bolshevik leaders themselves created to implement their decisions. Recognizing in the general secretary of the party, Joseph Stalin, the leader of these apparatus circles, Lenin tried to strike at the Stalin faction. In late 1922 - early 1923, he dictated and sent out a number of letters and articles that went down in history as "Lenin's political testament". Accusing Stalin and his supporters of "great-power chauvinism", the collapse of the work of state and party control inspections and "rude" methods of work, Lenin tried to remove Stalin from the post of General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party and neutralize the apparatchiks by introducing new, still "nebureaucratized" into the Central Committee members of professional workers. In March 1922, Lenin presided over the work of the 11th Congress of the RCP(b), the last party congress at which he spoke. In May 1922 he fell seriously ill, but returned to work in early October. Leading German specialists in nervous diseases were called in for treatment. Lenin's chief physician from December 1922 until his death in 1924 was Otfried Förster. Lenin's last public speech took place on November 20, 1922, at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet. On December 16, 1922, his health deteriorated sharply again, and in May 1923, due to illness, he moved to the Gorki estate near Moscow. Lenin was in Moscow for the last time on October 18-19, 1923.

In January 1924, Lenin's health suddenly deteriorated sharply; On January 21, 1924, at 6:50 p.m., he died.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin

Stalin (real name - Dzhugashvili) Iosif Vissarionovich, one of the leading figures of the Communist Party, the Soviet state, the international communist and workers' movement, a prominent theorist and propagandist of Marxism-Leninism

Soviet state, political, party and military figure. People's Commissar for Nationalities of the RSFSR (1917-1923), People's Commissar of State Control of the RSFSR (1919-1920), People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate of the RSFSR (1920-1922); General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) (1922-1925), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1925-1934), Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1934-1952), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1952-1953); head of the Soviet government - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (1941-1946), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1946-1953); Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR (1941-1947), Chairman State Committee Defense (1941-1945), People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR (1941-1946), People's Commissar of the Armed Forces of the USSR (1946-1947). Marshal of the Soviet Union (since 1943), Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (since 1945). Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1939). Member of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (1925-1943). Hero of Socialist Labor (since 1939), Hero of the Soviet Union (since 1945).

During the period when Stalin was in power, there were: forced industrialization of the USSR, victory in the Great Patriotic War, mass labor and front-line heroism, the transformation of the USSR into a superpower with significant scientific, military and industrial potential, the strengthening of the geopolitical influence of the Soviet Union in the world; as well as forced collectivization, famine in 1932-1933 on part of the territory of the USSR, the establishment of a dictatorial regime, mass repressions, deportations of peoples, numerous casualties (including as a result of wars and German occupation), the division of the world community into two warring camps, the establishment socialist system in Eastern Europe and East Asia, the start of the Cold War. Russian and world public opinion about the role of Stalin in the above events is extremely polarized.

Born in the family of a handicraft shoemaker. In 1894 he graduated from the Gori Theological School and entered the Tbilisi Orthodox Seminary. Under the influence of Russian Marxists who lived in Transcaucasia, he joined the revolutionary movement; in an illegal circle he studied the works of K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov. Since 1898 a member of the CPSU. Being a member of the social democratic group Mesame-dasi, he propagated Marxist ideas among the workers of the Tbilisi railway. workshops. In 1899 he was expelled from the seminary for revolutionary activity, went underground, and became a professional revolutionary. He was a member of the Tbilisi, Caucasian Union and Baku committees of the RSDLP, participated in the publication of the newspapers Brdzola (Struggle), Proletariatis Brdzola (Struggle of the proletariat), Baku Proletarian, Gudok, Baku Worker, was an active participant in the Revolution of 1905-07 in Transcaucasia. Since the creation of the RSDLP, he supported Lenin's ideas of strengthening the revolutionary Marxist party, defended the Bolshevik strategy and tactics of the class struggle of the proletariat, was a staunch supporter of Bolshevism, and exposed the opportunistic line of the Mensheviks and anarchists in the revolution. Delegate of the 1st Conference of the RSDLP in Tammerfors (1905), the 4th (1906) and 5th (1907) Congresses of the RSDLP.

During the period of underground revolutionary activity, he was repeatedly arrested and exiled. In January 1912, at a meeting of the Central Committee elected by the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP, he was co-opted in absentia into the Central Committee and introduced to the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee. In 1912-13, while working in St. Petersburg, he actively contributed to the newspapers Zvezda and Pravda. Member of the Krakow (1912) meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP with party workers. At this time, Stalin wrote the work "Marxism and the national question", in which he highlighted the Leninist principles for resolving the national question, criticized the opportunist program of "cultural-national autonomy". The work was positively evaluated by V. I. Lenin (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 24, p. 223). In February 1913, Stalin was again arrested and exiled to the Turukhansk region.

After the overthrow of the autocracy, Stalin returned to Petrograd on March 12 (25), 1917, was introduced to the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) and to the editorial board of Pravda, took an active part in expanding the work of the party in the new conditions. Stalin supported the Leninist course of developing the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist one. At the 7th (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP (b) he was elected a member of the Central Committee (since that time he has been elected a member of the Central Committee of the party at all congresses up to the 19th inclusive). At the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (b), on behalf of the Central Committee, he delivered a political report of the Central Committee and a report on the political situation.

As a member of the Central Committee, Stalin actively participated in the preparation and conduct of the Great October Socialist Revolution: he was a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, the Military Revolutionary Center - the party body for leading the armed uprising, in the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. At the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 8), 1917, he was elected to the first Soviet government as People's Commissar for Nationalities (1917-22); simultaneously in 1919-22 he headed the People's Commissariat of State Control, reorganized in 1920 into the People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection (RKI).

In 1922, Stalin participated in the creation of the USSR. Stalin considered it necessary not to have a union of republics, but rather a unitary state with autonomous national associations. This plan was rejected by Lenin and his associates.

On December 30, 1922, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, a decision was made to unite the Soviet republics into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - the USSR. Speaking at the congress, Stalin said:

“Today is a turning point in the history of Soviet power. He places milestones between the old, already passed period, when the Soviet republics, although they acted together, but went apart, preoccupied primarily with the question of their existence, and the new, already opened period, when the separate existence of the Soviet republics is put to an end, when the republics unite into a single union a state for the successful struggle against economic disruption, when the Soviet government is no longer thinking only about existence, but also about developing into a serious international force that can influence the international situation, can change it in the interests of the working people "

The key issue around which a stormy controversy unfolded was the possibility of building socialism in one single country. Trotsky, in the spirit of his concept of permanent revolution, argued that in "backward Russia" the building of socialism was impossible and that only a revolution in the West could save the Russian revolution, which must be pushed with all its might.

Stalin very accurately defined the true nature of such views: contempt for the Russian people, "disbelief in the strength and ability of the Russian proletariat - such is the subsoil of the theory of permanent revolution." The victorious Russian proletariat, he said, cannot "mark time" on the spot, cannot engage in "pushing water" in anticipation of victory and help from the proletariat of the West. Stalin gave the party, the people a clear and definite goal: "We are 50-100 years behind the advanced countries. We must run this distance in ten years. Either we do it or we will be crushed."

Trotsky considered himself the main contender for leadership in the country after Lenin, and underestimated Stalin as a competitor. Soon, other oppositionists, not only the Trotskyists, sent a similar so-called to the Politburo. "Statement of the 46". The Troika then showed its power, mainly using the resources of the apparatus led by Stalin.

At the XIII Congress of the RCP (b) all oppositionists were condemned. Stalin's influence greatly increased. The main allies of Stalin in the "seven" were Bukharin and Rykov.

A new split appeared in the Politburo in October 1925, when Zinoviev, Kamenev, G.Ya. living worse than before the First World War, there was strong dissatisfaction with low wages and rising prices for agricultural products, which led to the demand for pressure on the peasantry and especially on the kulaks). "Seven" broke up. At that moment, Stalin began to unite with the "right" Bukharin-Rykov-Tomsky, who expressed the interests of the peasantry above all. In the inner-party struggle that had begun between the "rights" and "lefts", he provided them with the forces of the party apparatus, they (namely Bukharin) acted as theoreticians. The "new opposition" of Zinoviev and Kamenev was condemned at the XIV Congress

By that time, "the theory of the victory of socialism in one country" had arisen. This view was developed by Stalin in the pamphlet "On Questions of Leninism" (1926) and by Bukharin. They divided the question of the victory of socialism into two parts - the question of the complete victory of socialism, that is, the possibility of building socialism and the complete impossibility of restoring capitalism by internal forces, and the question of final victory, that is, the impossibility of restoration due to the intervention of the Western powers, which would be ruled out only by establishing a revolution in the West.

Trotsky, who did not believe in socialism in one country, joined Zinoviev and Kamenev. The so-called. United Opposition. Having strengthened himself as a leader, in 1929 Stalin accused Bukharin and his allies of a “right deviation” and began to actually implement (in extreme forms at the same time) the program of the “left” to curtail the NEP and accelerate industrialization through the exploitation of the countryside. At the same time, the 50th anniversary of Stalin is widely celebrated (whose date of birth was then changed, according to Stalin's critics - in order to somewhat smooth out the "excesses" of collectivization by celebrating the round anniversary and to demonstrate in the USSR and abroad who is the true and beloved by all the people master countries).

Modern researchers believe that the most important economic decisions in the 20s were made after open, wide and sharp public discussions, through open democratic voting at the plenums of the Central Committee and congresses of the Communist Party

After the disruption of grain procurements in 1927, when extraordinary measures had to be taken (fixed prices, closing markets and even repressions), and the disruption of the grain procurement campaign of 1928-1929, the issue had to be resolved urgently. The way to create farming through the stratification of the peasantry was incompatible with the Soviet project for ideological reasons. A course was taken for collectivization. This also meant the liquidation of the kulaks. On January 5, 1930, I. V. Stalin signs the main document of the collectivization of agriculture in the USSR - the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the rate of collectivization and measures of state assistance to collective farm construction”. In accordance with the decree, in particular, it was planned to carry out collectivization in the North Caucasus, the Lower and Middle Volga by the autumn of 1930, and no later than the spring of 1931. The document also stated: “In accordance with the growing pace of collectivization, it is necessary to further intensify work on the construction of factories producing tractors, combines and other tractor, trailer equipment, so that the deadlines given by the Supreme Council of National Economy for completing the construction of new factories, in no way case were not delayed."

On February 13, 1930, Stalin was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner of Labor for "services on the front of socialist construction."

On March 2, 1930, Pravda published an article by I.V. Stalin “Dizziness from Success. On the Issues of the Collective-Farm Movement”, in which he, in particular, accused the “zealous socializers” of “decomposing and discrediting” the collective-farm movement and condemned their actions, “pouring water on the mill of our class enemies”. Until March 14, 1930, Stalin was working on the text of the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the fight against distortions of the party line in the collective farm movement,” which was published in the Pravda newspaper on March 15. This decree allowed the dissolution of collective farms that were not organized on a voluntary basis. The result of the decision was that by May 1930, cases of dissolution of collective farms affected more than half of all peasant farms.

An important issue of the time was also the choice of the method of industrialization. The discussion about this was difficult and long, and its outcome predetermined the nature of the state and society. Not having, unlike Russia at the beginning of the century, foreign loans as an important source of funds, the USSR could only industrialize at the expense of internal resources.

An influential group (member of the Politburo N. I. Bukharin, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars A. I. Rykov and chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions M. P. Tomsky) defended the "sparing" option of gradual accumulation of funds through the continuation of the NEP. L. D. Trotsky - a forced version. JV Stalin at first stood on the point of view of Bukharin, but after Trotsky's expulsion from the Central Committee of the party at the end of 1927, he changed his position to a diametrically opposite one. This led to a decisive victory for the proponents of forced industrialization. And after the start of the world economic crisis in 1929, the foreign trade situation deteriorated sharply, which completely destroyed the possibility of the survival of the NEP project.

For the years 1928-1940, according to the CIA, the average annual growth of the gross national product in the USSR was 6.1%, which was inferior to Japan, was comparable to the corresponding indicator in Germany and was significantly higher than the growth in the most developed capitalist countries experiencing the "Great Depression" . As a result of industrialization, in terms of industrial production, the USSR came out on top in Europe and second in the world, overtaking England, Germany, France and second only to the United States. The share of the USSR in world industrial production reached almost 10%. A particularly sharp leap was achieved in the development of metallurgy, power engineering, machine tool building, and the chemical industry. In fact, a number of new industries emerged: aluminum, aviation, automotive, bearings, tractor and tank building. One of the most important results of industrialization was the overcoming of technical backwardness and the assertion of the economic independence of the USSR.

Portrait from the report "On the Shortcomings of Party Work and Measures to Eliminate Trotskyists and Other Double Dealers", 1937

Stalin was one of the main initiators of the implementation of the General Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow, which resulted in massive construction in the center and on the outskirts of Moscow. In the second half of the 1930s, many significant objects were also being built throughout the USSR. Stalin was interested in everything in the country, including construction. His former bodyguard Rybin recalls: I. Stalin personally inspected the necessary streets, entering the yards, where mostly shacks that breathed incense leaned sideways, and a lot of mossy sheds on chicken legs huddled. The first time he did it was during the day. Immediately a crowd gathered, which did not allow to move at all, and then ran after the car. I had to reschedule my appointments for the night. But even then, passers-by recognized the leader and accompanied him with a long tail.

As a result of long preparations, the master plan for the reconstruction of Moscow was approved. This is how Gorky Street, Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street, Kutuzovsky Prospekt and other beautiful highways appeared. During another trip along Mokhovaya, Stalin said to the driver Mitryukhin:

We need to build a new Lomonosov University so that students study in one place, and not wander around the city.

Among the construction projects begun under Stalin was the Moscow Metro. It was under Stalin that the first metro in the USSR was built. During the construction process, on the personal order of Stalin, the Sovetskaya metro station was adapted for the underground command post of the Moscow Civil Defense Headquarters. In addition to the civil metro, complex secret complexes were built, including the so-called Metro-2, which Stalin himself used. In November 1941, a solemn meeting on the occasion of the anniversary of the October Revolution was held in the metro at the Mayakovskaya station. Stalin arrived by train along with guards, and he did not leave the building of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command on Myasnitskaya, but went down from the basement into a special tunnel that led to the subway.

Cards for bread, cereals and pasta were abolished from January 1, 1935, and for other (including non-food) goods from January 1, 1936. This was accompanied by an increase in wages in the industrial sector and an even greater increase in state ration prices for all types of goods. Commenting on the cancellation of the cards, Stalin uttered the catchphrase that later became: "Life has become better, life has become more fun."

Overall, per capita consumption increased by 22% between 1928 and 1938. Cards were reintroduced in July 1941. After the war and famine (drought) of 1946, they were abolished in 1947, although many goods remained the shortage, in particular, in 1947 was hunger again. In addition, on the eve of the abolition of cards, prices for rations were raised. The restoration of the economy allowed in 1948-1953. lower prices repeatedly. Price cuts significantly increased the standard of living of the Soviet people. In 1952, the cost of bread was 39% of the price of the end of 1947, milk - 72%, meat - 42%, sugar - 49%, butter - 37%. As noted at the 19th Congress of the CPSU, at the same time the price of bread rose by 28% in the USA, by 90% in England, and in France more than doubled; the cost of meat in the US increased by 26%, in England - by 35%, in France - by 88%. If in 1948 real wages were on average 20% below the pre-war level, then in 1952 they already exceeded the pre-war level by 25%.

Since 1941, Stalin has been chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. During the Great Patriotic War, Stalin served as Chairman of the State Defense Committee, People's Commissar for Defense and Supreme Commander of all the Armed Forces of the USSR.

During the Battle of Moscow in 1941, after the announcement of Moscow in a state of siege, Stalin remained in the capital. On November 6, 1941, Stalin spoke at a solemn meeting held at the Mayakovskaya metro station, which was dedicated to the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution. The next day, November 7, 1941, at the direction of Stalin, a traditional military parade was held on Red Square.

A number of historians blame Stalin personally for the unpreparedness of the Soviet Union for war and huge losses, especially in the initial period of the war. Other historians take the opposite view.

On March 1, 1953, Stalin, lying on the floor in the small dining room of the Near Dacha (one of Stalin's residences), was discovered by security officer P. V. Lozgachev. On the morning of March 2, doctors arrived at the Near Dacha and diagnosed paralysis on the right side of the body. On March 5, at 21:50, Stalin died. Stalin's death was announced on March 5, 1953. According to the medical report, death was the result of a cerebral hemorrhage.

There are numerous conspiracy theories suggesting the unnaturalness of death and the involvement of Stalin's entourage in it. According to one of them (version of the Russian historian E. S. Radzinsky), L. P. Beria, N. S. Khrushchev and G. M. Malenkov contributed to his death without providing assistance. According to another, Stalin was poisoned by his closest associate Beria.

Stalin became the only Soviet leader for whom a memorial service was performed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov

Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov (December 26, 1901 (January 8, 1902) - January 14, 1988) - Soviet statesman and party leader, Stalin's ally. Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1939-1957), candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1941-1946), member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1946-1957), member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1939-1952), Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1939-1952) 1946, 1948-1953), deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 1-4 convocations. He oversaw a number of important branches of the defense industry, including the creation of a hydrogen bomb and the first nuclear power plant in the world. Actual leader of the Soviet state in 1953-1955.

Born in the family of a nobleman, a descendant of immigrants from Macedonia, Maximilian Malenkov, and a bourgeois, the daughter of a blacksmith Anastasia Shemyakina.

In 1919 he graduated from a classical gymnasium and was drafted into the Red Army, after joining the RCP (b) in April 1920, he was a political worker of a squadron, regiment, brigade, Eastern and Turkestan fronts. Studied electrical engineering at Moscow State Technical University. N. Bauman. In the 1920s, students were fascinated by the ideas of Trotskyism, while Malenkov opposed Trotskyism from the very beginning, and in 1925, as a student, he headed a commission to check students - repressions were carried out against Trotskyist students.

Since 1930 L.M. Kaganovich took him to him and appointed head. propaganda and mass department of the Moscow Committee of the CPSU (b). He led the purge of the opposition in the Moscow party organization. In 1934-39 head. department of leading party bodies of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). Heading this most important department of the Central Committee, Malenkov was only an executor of direct instructions from I.V. Stalin. In 1936 he carried out a massive campaign to check party documents. With his sanction in 1937-39, almost all the old communist cadres were repressed, he was (along with N.I. Yezhovs) one of the main leaders of the repressions; personally traveled to the regions to intensify the fight against "enemies of the people", attended interrogations, etc. In 1937, together with Yezhov, he traveled to Belarus, in the fall of 1937 - together with A.I. Mikoyan to Armenia, where almost the entire party apparatus was arrested. In 1937-58 he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in Jan. 1938 - Oct. 1946 Member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. In 1938, when Stalin offered Yezhov a deputy, he asked that Malenkov be appointed. Since 1939, a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. From 22.3.1939 beginning. Personnel Administration and Secretary of the Central Committee, from March 1939 to October. 1952 member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee.

During the Great Patriotic War, he was a member of the State Defense Committee (June 1941 - Sept. 1945). 21/2/1941 Malenkov became a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee. He often traveled to those sectors of the front where a critical situation was created. But his main task was to equip the Red Army with aircraft. In 1943-45 before. Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for the restoration of the economy in the liberated areas. On May 15, 1944, at the same time, deputy. prev. SNK USSR.

In the fall of 1944, at a meeting in the Kremlin where the "Jewish problem" was discussed, he advocated "increasing vigilance," after which the appointment of Jews to high positions became very difficult. On March 18, 1946, he was a member of the Politburo (since 1952 - the Presidium) of the Central Committee. During the new purge of party and military personnel undertaken by Stalin after the war, Malenkov was removed from his post on March 19, 1946. prev. Council of People's Commissars, and on May 6, 1946, was dismissed from the posts of secretary and chief personnel officer for the fact that "as the chief of the aviation industry and for the acceptance of aircraft over the Air Force, he is morally responsible for the outrages that have been revealed in the work of departments (the production and acceptance of low-quality aircraft), which he, knowing about these outrages, did not signal them to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks", and was transferred to the post of chairman. Committee on Special Equipment under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. However, Malenkov did not lose Stalin's confidence. In addition, L.P. Beria launched an active struggle on the return of Malenkov, and on 1/7/1946 he again became secretary of the Central Committee, on 2/8/1946 he regained the post of deputy. prev. Council of Ministers. In fact, he was the second person in the party, because, on the instructions of Stalin, he was responsible for the work of party organizations, which transferred millions of party functionaries to his submission. In 1948, after the death of A.A. Zhdanov, the leadership of the entire "ideological policy" of the Central Committee also passed to Malenkov. At the same time, Malenkov was entrusted with the supervision of agriculture.

In 1949-50, on behalf of the leader, he headed the organization of the so-called. "Leningrad business". Later, the Party Control Committee, after studying it, concluded: “In order to obtain fictitious testimony about the existence of an anti-party group in Leningrad, Malenkov personally supervised the investigation and took direct part in the interrogations. Illegal methods of investigation, painful torture, beatings and tortures were used against all those arrested. Actively participated in the "unwinding" of the case of the "Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee".

Since 1942, Malenkov was considered the second person in the party and the most likely heir to Stalin, and at the 19th Party Congress, the leader entrusted him with the Report. A. Avtorkhanov in the book "Technology of power" wrote: "The current CPSU is the brainchild of two people: Stalin and Malenkov. If Stalin is the chief designer, then Malenkov is its talented architect." After the congress, at the suggestion of Stalin, a "leading five" was created as part of the Presidium, which included Malenkov.

After the death of Stalin, Malenkov became one of the main contenders for the inheritance, and on 03/05/1953, having agreed with N.S. Khrushchev, Beria and others, took the most important post in the USSR - before. The Council of Ministers, which was occupied by Stalin before him, however, on March 14, 1953, he was forced to resign from the post of secretary of the Central Committee. In September 1953, Khrushchev handed over control of the party apparatus. He supported the rest in the fight against Beria, and then did not prevent the start of the process of de-Stalinization of society. But he could not keep the growth of Khrushchev's influence, he was forced to write a letter admitting his mistakes and responsibility for the state of agriculture, on February 9, 1955 he lost his post before. Council of Ministers and became only deputy. At the same time, he was given the post of Minister of Power Plants of the USSR. Such actions prompted Malenkov, teaming up with L.M. Kaganovich and V.M. Molotov to start a campaign against Khrushchev. At a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee, they opposed Khrushchev and received the support of the majority of members of the highest party body. They were joined by K.E. Voroshilov, N.A. Bulganin, M.G. Perrukhin, M.Z. Saburov, D.T. Shepilov. However, Khrushchev's supporters managed to quickly convene the Plenum of the Central Committee, at which the "anti-party group" was defeated.

06/29/1957 Malenkov was dismissed from work, removed from the Presidium of the Central Committee and from the Central Committee of the CPSU for belonging to the "anti-party group". Since 1957 director of a hydroelectric power station in the Ust-Kamena River, then a thermal power plant in Ekibastuz. In 1961 he retired, and in the same year the bureau of the Ekibastuz city committee of the CPSU expelled him from the party. From May 1920 he was married to Valentina Alekseevna Golubtsova, an employee of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the party.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1953 to 1964, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1958 to 1964. Hero of the Soviet Union, three times Hero of Socialist Labor.

Born on April 5 (17), 1894 in the village of Kalinovka, Kursk province, in a mining family. He received his primary education at a parochial school. From 1908 he worked as a mechanic, a boiler cleaner, was a member of trade unions, and participated in workers' strikes. During the Civil War he fought on the side of the Bolsheviks. In 1918 he joined the Communist Party.

In the early 1920s, he worked in the mines, studied at the working faculty of the Donetsk Industrial Institute. Later he was engaged in economic and party work in the Donbass and Kyiv. In the 1920s, the leader communist party L.M. Kaganovich was in Ukraine, and apparently Khrushchev made a favorable impression on him. Shortly after Kaganovich left for Moscow, Khrushchev was sent to study at the Industrial Academy. Since January 1931 he was at party work in Moscow, in 1935-1938 he was the first secretary of the Moscow regional and city committees of the party - the Moscow Committee and the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In January 1938 he was appointed first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. In the same year he became a candidate, and in 1939 - a member of the Politburo.

During the Great Patriotic War, N.S. Khrushchev is a member of the military councils of the Southwestern direction, the Southwestern, Stalingrad, Southern, Voronezh, 1st Ukrainian fronts. February 12, 1943 Khrushchev N.S. awarded the military rank of lieutenant general.

In 1944-47 - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (since 1946 - the Council of Ministers) of the Ukrainian SSR. Since 1947 - 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Since 1949 - Secretary of the Central Committee and 1st Secretary of the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Khrushchev's ascent to the pinnacle of power after the death of I.V. Stalin was accompanied by a request from him and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G.M. Malenkov to the commander of the troops of the Moscow region (renamed the district) air defense, Colonel General Moskalenko K.S. pick up a group of military men, which included Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov G.K. and Colonel General Batitsky P.F. The latter, on June 26, 1953, participate in the arrest at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union Beria L.P., who would later be accused of "anti-party and anti-state activities aimed at undermining the Soviet state" , will be deprived of all awards and titles and on December 23, 1953 they will be sentenced to death, and on the same day they will carry out the sentence.

In the future, holding the post of 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, N.S. Khrushchev in 1958-64 is also the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

The most striking event in Khrushchev's career was the 20th Congress of the CPSU, held in 1956. In a report at the congress, he put forward the thesis that the war between capitalism and communism is not "fatally inevitable." At a closed meeting, Khrushchev condemned Stalin, accusing him of mass extermination of people and an erroneous policy that almost ended in the liquidation of the USSR in the war with Nazi Germany. The result of this report was unrest in the countries of the Eastern bloc - Poland (October 1956) and Hungary (October and November 1956). These events undermined Khrushchev's position, especially after it became clear in December 1956 that the implementation of the five-year plan was being disrupted due to insufficient investment. However, at the beginning of 1957, Khrushchev succeeded in persuading the Central Committee to adopt a plan for the reorganization of industrial management at the regional level.

In June 1957, the Presidium (formerly the Politburo) of the Central Committee of the CPSU organized a conspiracy to remove Khrushchev from the post of first secretary of the party. After his return from Finland, he was invited to a meeting of the Presidium, which, by seven votes to four, demanded his resignation. Khrushchev convened a Plenum of the Central Committee, which overturned the decision of the Presidium and dismissed the "anti-Party group" of Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovich. (At the end of 1957, Khrushchev dismissed Marshal G.K. Zhukov, who supported him in difficult times.) He strengthened the Presidium with his supporters, and in March 1958 took over as chairman of the Council of Ministers, taking all the main levers of power into his own hands.

In 1957, after successfully testing an intercontinental ballistic missile and launching the first satellites into orbit, Khrushchev issued a statement demanding that Western countries "end the Cold War." His demands for a separate peace treaty with East Germany in November 1958, which would include the renewal of the blockade of West Berlin, led to an international crisis. In September 1959, President D. Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to visit the United States. After a tour of the country, Khrushchev negotiated with Eisenhower at Camp David. The international situation visibly warmed up after Khrushchev agreed to postpone the decision on the question of Berlin, and Eisenhower agreed to convene a top-level conference to consider this issue. The summit meeting was scheduled for May 16, 1960. However, on May 1, 1960, a US U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in the airspace over Sverdlovsk, and the meeting was disrupted.

The "soft" policy toward the United States involved Khrushchev in a covert, if tough, ideological discussion with the Chinese Communists, who condemned negotiations with Eisenhower and did not accept Khrushchev's version of "Leninism." In June 1960, Khrushchev issued a statement about the need for "further development" of Marxism-Leninism and for the theory to take into account the changed historical conditions. In November 1960, after a three-week discussion, a congress of representatives of the communist and workers' parties adopted a compromise solution that allowed Khrushchev to conduct diplomatic negotiations on disarmament and peaceful coexistence, while calling for an intensified struggle against capitalism by all means, except military ones.

In September 1960, Khrushchev visited the United States for the second time as head of the Soviet delegation to the UN General Assembly. During the assembly, he managed to hold large-scale negotiations with the heads of governments of a number of countries. His report to the Assembly contained calls for general disarmament, the immediate elimination of colonialism, and the admission of China to the UN. In June 1961, Khrushchev met with US President John F. Kennedy and again expressed his demands regarding Berlin. During the summer of 1961, Soviet foreign policy became increasingly tough, and in September the USSR broke a three-year moratorium on nuclear weapons testing by conducting a series of explosions.

In the fall of 1961, at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev attacked the communist leaders of Albania (who were not at the congress) for continuing to support the philosophy of "Stalinism". In doing so, he also had in mind the leaders of communist China. October 14, 1964 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU Khrushchev was relieved of his duties as 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was replaced by L.I. Brezhnev, who became the first secretary of the Communist Party, and A.N. Kosygin, who became chairman of the Council of Ministers.

After 1964, Khrushchev, while retaining his seat on the Central Committee, was essentially retired. He formally dissociated himself from the two-volume work Memoirs (1971, 1974) published in the USA under his name. Khrushchev died in Moscow on September 11, 1971.

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (December 19, 1906 (January 1, 1907) - November 10, 1982) - Soviet statesman and party leader. First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1964 (since 1966 General Secretary) and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1960-1964 and since 1977. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1976). Hero of Socialist Labor (1961) and four times Hero of the Soviet Union (1966, 1976, 1978, 1981). Laureate of the International Lenin Prize "For strengthening peace between peoples" (1973) and the Lenin Prize for Literature (1979). Under the name of L. I. Brezhnev, a trilogy was published: "Small Earth", "Renaissance" and "Virgin Land".

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906 in the family of a metallurgical worker in the village of Kamenskoye (now the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk). He began his working life at the age of fifteen. After graduating from the Kursk land management and reclamation technical school in 1927, he worked as a land surveyor in the Kokhanovsky district of the Orsha district of the Belarusian USSR. He joined the Komsomol in 1923, became a member of the CPSU in 1931. In 1935 he graduated from the metallurgical institute in Dneprodzerzhinsk, where he worked as an engineer at a metallurgical plant.

In 1928 he married. In March of the same year, he was transferred to the Urals, where he worked as a land surveyor, head of the district land department, deputy chairman of the Bisersky district executive committee of the Sverdlovsk region (1929-1930), deputy head of the Ural district land administration. In September 1930 he left and entered the Moscow Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Kalinin, and in the spring of 1931 he was transferred as a student to the evening faculty of the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute, and simultaneously with his studies he worked as a stoker-mechanic at the plant. Member of the CPSU (b) since October 24, 1931. In 1935-1936 he served in the army: cadet and political instructor of a tank company in the Far East. In 1936-1937 he was the director of the metallurgical technical school in Dneprodzerzhinsk. Since 1937, an engineer at the Dnieper Metallurgical Plant named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky. Since May 1937, deputy chairman of the Dneprodzerzhinsk city executive committee. Since 1937 at work in party bodies.

Since 1938, the head of the department of the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, since 1939, the secretary of the regional committee. According to some reports, engineer Brezhnev was appointed to the regional committee due to a shortage of personnel that followed the repression of the party leadership of the region.

Brigadier Commissar Brezhnev (far right) in 1942

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he takes part in the mobilization of the population into the Red Army, is engaged in the evacuation of industry, then in political positions in the army: deputy head of the political department of the Southern Front. As a brigade commissar, when the institute of military commissars was abolished in October 1942, instead of the expected general rank was promoted to colonel.
Rough work shuns. Military knowledge is very weak. He solves many issues as a business executive, and not as a political worker. People are not treated equally. Tends to have favorites.

From the characteristics in the personal file (1942)

From 1943 - head of the political department of the 18th army. Major General (1943).
The head of the political department of the 18th Army, Colonel Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, sailed forty times to Malaya Zemlya, and this was dangerous, since some ships on the way were blown up by mines and died from direct shells and air bombs. Once the seiner, on which Brezhnev was sailing, ran into a mine, the colonel was thrown into the sea ... sailors picked him up ...

S. A. Borzenko in the article “225 days of courage and courage” (“Pravda”, 1943),

“In repelling the German offensive, the head of the political department of the 18th Army, Colonel Comrade, took an active part. Brezhnev. The calculation of one machine gun (private Kadyrov, Abdurzakov, from the replenishment) was confused and did not open fire in a timely manner. Before a platoon of Germans, taking advantage of this, they crept up to our positions to throw a grenade. Tov. Brezhnev physically influenced the machine gunners and forced them to join the battle. Having suffered significant losses, the Germans retreated, leaving several wounded on the battlefield. By order of Comrade Brezhnev's crew conducted aimed fire at them until they destroyed it.

Since June 1945, the head of the political department of the 4th Ukrainian Front, then the Political Directorate of the Carpathian Military District, participated in the suppression of "Bandera".

Road to Power

After the war, Brezhnev owed his promotion to Khrushchev, about which he is carefully silent in his memoirs.

After working in Zaporozhye, Brezhnev, also on the recommendation of Khrushchev, was nominated for the post of first secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional party committee, and in 1950 for the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (6) of Moldova. At the XIX Party Congress in the fall of 1952, Brezhnev, as the leader of the Moldavian communists, was elected to the Central Committee of the CPSU. For a short time, he even entered the Presidium (as a candidate) and the Secretariat of the Central Committee, which were significantly expanded at the suggestion of Stalin. During the congress, Stalin saw Brezhnev for the first time. The old and sickly dictator drew attention to the large and well-dressed 46-year-old Brezhnev. Stalin was told that this was the party leader of the Moldavian SSR. “What a handsome Moldavian,” said Stalin. November 7, 1952 Brezhnev for the first time went up to the podium of the Mausoleum. Until March 1953, Brezhnev, like other members of the Presidium, was in Moscow and waited for them to be gathered for a meeting and assigned duties. In Moldova, he was already released from work. But Stalin never collected them.

After Stalin's death, the composition of the Presidium and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU was immediately reduced. Brezhnev was also withdrawn from the composition, but he did not return to Moldova, but was appointed head of the Political Directorate of the USSR Navy. He received the rank of lieutenant general and had to put on again military uniform. In the Central Committee, Brezhnev invariably supported Khrushchev.

In early 1954, Khrushchev sent him to Kazakhstan to lead the development of virgin lands. He returned to Moscow only in 1956, and after the XX Congress of the CPSU he again became one of the secretaries of the Central Committee and a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Brezhnev was supposed to control the development of heavy industry, later defense and aerospace, but Khrushchev personally decided all the main issues, and Brezhnev acted as a calm and devoted assistant. After the June Plenum of the Central Committee in 1957, Brezhnev became a member of the Presidium. Khrushchev appreciated his loyalty, but did not consider him a strong enough worker.

After the retirement of K. E. Voroshilov, Brezhnev became his successor as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In some Western biographies, this appointment is estimated almost as Brezhnev's defeat in the struggle for power. But in reality, Brezhnev was not an active participant in this struggle and was very pleased with the new appointment. He did not seek then the post of head of the party or government. He was quite satisfied with the role of the "third" person in the leadership. Back in 1956-1957. he managed to transfer to Moscow some of the people with whom he worked in Moldova and Ukraine. One of the first were Trapeznikov and Chernenko, who began to work in Brezhnev's personal secretariat. In the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, it was Chernenko who became the head of Brezhnev's office. In 1963, when F. Kozlov not only lost Khrushchev's favor, but also suffered a stroke, Khrushchev hesitated for a long time in choosing his new favorite. Ultimately, his choice fell on Brezhnev, who was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Khrushchev was in very good health and expected to remain in power for a long time to come. Meanwhile, Brezhnev himself was dissatisfied with this decision of Khrushchev, although moving to the Secretariat increased his real power and influence. He did not want to plunge into the extremely difficult and troublesome work of the secretary of the Central Committee. Brezhnev was not the organizer of Khrushchev's removal, although he knew about the impending action. Among its main organizers there was no agreement on many issues. In order not to deepen the differences that could derail the whole affair, they agreed to the election of Brezhnev, assuming that this would be a temporary solution. Leonid Ilyich gave his consent.

BREZHNEV'S VANITY

Even under Brezhnev's predecessor, Khrushchev, the tradition of presenting the highest awards of the Soviet Union to the tops of the party began in connection with the anniversary or holidays. Khrushchev, was awarded three gold medals Hammer and Sickle of the Hero of Socialist Labor and one gold star of the Hero of the USSR. Brezhnev continued the established tradition. As a political worker, Brezhnev did not take part in the largest and decisive battles of the Patriotic War. One of the most important episodes in the combat biography of the 18th Army was the capture and holding for 225 days of a bridgehead south of Novorossiysk in 1943, which was called Malaya Zemlya.

Among the people, Brezhnev's love for titles and awards and awards caused many jokes and anecdotes.

Governing body

Brezhnev was a consistent supporter of the policy of detente - in 1972 in Moscow he signed important agreements with US President R. Nixon; the next year he visited the US; in 1975 he was the main initiator of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the signing of the Helsinki Accords. In the USSR, 18 years of his tenure in power turned out to be the most calm and socially stable, housing construction was actively developing (almost 50 percent of the housing stock of the USSR was built), the population received free apartments, a system of free medical care developed, all types of education were free, developed aerospace, automotive, oil and gas and military industries. On the other hand, Brezhnev did not hesitate to suppress dissent both in the USSR and in other countries of the "socialist camp" - in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, in the GDR. In the 1970s, the defense capability of the USSR reached such a level that the Soviet armed forces alone could withstand the combined armies of the entire NATO bloc. The authority of the Soviet Union at that time was unusually high in the countries of the "third world", which, thanks to the military might of the USSR, which counterbalanced the policy of the Western powers, could not be afraid of NATO. However, having got involved in the arms race in the 1980s, especially in the fight against the Star Wars program, the Soviet Union began to spend prohibitively large funds for non-military purposes to the detriment of the civilian sectors of the economy. An acute shortage of consumer goods and foodstuffs began to be felt in the country, "food trains" from the provinces were pulled to the capital, on which residents of remote areas exported food from Moscow.

By the beginning of the 1970s. the party apparatus believed in Brezhnev, considering him as his protege and defender of the system. The party nomenklatura rejected any reforms and strove to maintain a regime that would provide it with power, stability and broad privileges. It was during the Brezhnev period that the party apparatus completely subjugated the state apparatus. The ministries and executive committees became mere executors of the decisions of party bodies. Non-party leaders have practically disappeared.

On January 22, 1969, during a solemn meeting of the crews of the Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 spacecraft, an unsuccessful attempt was made on L. I. Brezhnev. The junior lieutenant of the Soviet army Viktor Ilyin, dressed in someone else's police uniform, entered the Borovitsky Gate under the guise of a security guard and opened fire with two pistols at the car in which, as he assumed, the general secretary was supposed to go. In fact, cosmonauts Leonov, Nikolaev, Tereshkova and Beregovoy were in this car. The driver, Ilya Zharkov, was killed by shots and several people were injured before the escort motorcyclist knocked the shooter down. Brezhnev himself was driving in another car (and according to some sources, even by a different route) and was not injured.

Since the late 1970s, large-scale corruption began at all levels of government. A serious foreign policy mistake by Brezhnev was the introduction of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1980, during which significant economic and military resources were diverted to support the government of Afghanistan, and the USSR became involved in the internal political struggle of various clans of Afghan society. Around the same time, Brezhnev's health deteriorated sharply, he raised the question of his resignation several times, but his colleagues in the Politburo, primarily M.A. Suslov, driven by personal interests and the desire to remain in power, persuaded him not to retire. By the end of the 1980s, the Brezhnev personality cult was already observed in the country, comparable to the similar cult of Khrushchev. Surrounded by the praise of his aging colleagues, Brezhnev remained in power until his death. The system of "praising the leader" was preserved even after Brezhnev's death - under Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev.

During the reign of M.S. Gorbachev, the Brezhnev era was called "the years of stagnation." However, Gorbachev's "leadership" of the country turned out to be much more disastrous for her and eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Even at the age of 50 and even 60, Brezhnev lived without caring too much about his health. He did not give up all the pleasures that life can give and which are not always conducive to longevity.

The first serious health problems appeared with Brezhnev, apparently in 1969-1970. Doctors began to be constantly on duty next to him, and medical rooms were equipped in the places where he lived. At the beginning of 1976, what happened to Brezhnev is what is commonly called clinical death. However, he was brought back to life, although for two months he could not work, because his thinking and speech were impaired. Since then, a group of resuscitators armed with the necessary equipment has constantly been near Brezhnev. Although the state of health of our leaders is among the closely guarded state secrets, Brezhnev's progressive infirmity was obvious to all who could see him on their television screens. The American journalist Simon Head wrote: "Every time this obese figure dares to step outside the Kremlin walls, external world carefully looking for symptoms of deteriorating health. With the death of M. Suslov, another pillar of the Soviet regime, this eerie scrutiny can only intensify. During the November (1981) meetings with Helmut Schmidt, when Brezhnev almost fell while walking, he at times looked as if he could not last even a day.

In fact, he was slowly dying before the eyes of the whole world. In the past six years, he had several heart attacks and strokes, and resuscitators several times brought him out of a state of clinical death. The last time this happened was in April 1982 after an accident in Tashkent.

Even in the afternoon of November 7, 1982, during the parade and demonstration, Brezhnev stood for several hours in a row, despite the bad weather, on the podium of the Mausoleum, and foreign newspapers wrote that he looked even better than usual. The end came, however, after just three days. In the morning, during breakfast, Brezhnev went to his office to take something and did not return for a long time. The worried wife followed him out of the dining room and saw him lying on the carpet near the desk. The efforts of the doctors this time did not bring success, and four hours after Brezhnev's heart stopped, they announced his death. The next day, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet government officially informed the world about the death of L. I. Brezhnev.

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (June 2 (15), 1914 - February 9, 1984) - Soviet statesman and politician, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (1982-1984), Chairman of the KGB of the USSR (1967-1982), Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1983-1984 ).

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was born on June 15, 1914 in the town of Nagutskoye in the family of a railway superintendent. Before entering a technical school, and later at Petrozavodsk University, Andropov worked in many professions: he was a telegraph operator, turned a movie projector in cinemas, and even was a boatman in Rybinsk (this Volga city was later renamed Andropov, but in the 1990s years it was returned to its original name). After graduating from the University, Yuri Andropov was sent to Yaroslavl, where he headed the local Komsomol organization. In 1939 he joined the CPSU. The active work that the young worker developed along the party line was noted by senior "comrades-in-arms" in the party and was appreciated: already in 1940, Andropov was appointed head of the Komsomol in the newly created Karelian-Finnish Autonomous Republic.

Young Andropov becomes an active participant in the Komsomol movement. In 1936 he became the released secretary of the Komsomol organization of the technical school of water transport in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl region. Then he was nominated for the position of Komsomol organizer of the Rybinsk shipyard named after. Volodarsky.

Appointed as the head of the department of the city committee of the Komsomol of Rybinsk, then the head of the department of the regional committee of the Komsomol of the Yaroslavl region. Already in 1937, he was elected first secretary of the Yaroslavl regional committee of the Komsomol. He lived in Yaroslavl in the nomenclature house at Sovetskaya street, house 4.

In 1939 he joined the CPSU(b). In 1938-1940 he headed the regional Komsomol organization in Yaroslavl.

In June 1940, Yuri Andropov was sent as the head of the Komsomol to the newly formed Karelian-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic. Under the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, part of the territory of Finland was ceded to the USSR. In all the newly organized regions, the organizing bureau of the Komsomol was created.

At the first organizational plenum of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of the KFSSR, held on June 3, 1940, he was elected first secretary of the Central Committee. At the first congress of the Komsomol of the KFSSR, held in June 1940 in Petrozavodsk, Andropov made a report "On the tasks of the Komsomol in the new conditions."

Then, in 1940, in Petrozavodsk, Andropov met Tatyana Filippovna Lebedeva. He decides to divorce Engalycheva, after which he married Lebedeva.

After the start of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1941-1944, the Central Committee of the Komsomol of the republic, headed by Andropov, decided to form a partisan detachment "Komsomolets of Karelia" from Komsomol members.

N. Tikhonov, a Komsomol instructor under the commissar of the 1st partisan brigade, recalls:

In September 1942, the fifth plenum of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of the republic was held, in which partisans took part Karelian Front, representatives of the military units of the Soviet Army and border troops. I was instructed to speak at this plenum and report on the combat operations of Komsomol members and youth ... In the speech, a proposal was made to create a Komsomol youth partisan detachment ... After the plenum, a proposal to create a partisan detachment called "Komsomol member of Karelia" on behalf of the Central Committee of the Komsomol Yuri Andropov was introduced to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic, where it was supported.

P. Nezhelskaya, secretary of the Kalevalsk district committee of the Komsomol, wrote in her memoirs:

Yuri Vladimirovich demanded that we, the workers of the Komsomol Committee, accurately take into account and know which of the Komsomol members did not have time to evacuate and ended up in villages occupied by the enemy, whether it is possible to contact them. He gave the task to select a group of Komsomol members who speak Finnish, are literate, morally and physically strong. We have selected. Most of them were girls. As it became known later, those selected underwent special training for service in the army, in partisan detachments.

All tasks for the Komsomol workers going to the rear, Andropov composed himself. Having sent the underground on a mission, he received radio messages and answered them, signing the underground nickname "Mohicans".

In 1944 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In 1944, Yu. V. Andropov switched to party work: from that time on, he began to hold the post of second secretary of the Petrozavodsk city party committee.

After the Great Patriotic War, Andropov worked as the second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelian-Finnish SSR (1947-1951).

During this period, he studied at Petrozavodsk State University, later - at the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Path to power

The starting point of Andropov's brilliant state career was his transfer to Moscow in 1951, where he was recommended to the Secretariat of the Communist Party. In those years, the Secretariat was a forge of cadres of future major party workers. Then he was noticed by the main party ideologist, "gray eminence" Mikhail Suslov. From July 1954 to March 1957, Andropov was the USSR ambassador to Hungary and played one of the key roles during the establishment of the pro-Soviet regime and the deployment of Soviet troops in this country.

Upon his return from Hungary, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov began to move very successfully and dynamically up the party hierarchical ladder, and already in 1967 he was appointed head of the KGB (State Security Committee). Andropov's policy as head of the KGB was naturally in tune with the political regime of that time. In particular, it was Andropov's department that carried out the persecution of dissidents, among whom were such famous people like Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, Vishnevskaya, Rostropovich and others. They were deprived of Soviet citizenship and expelled from the country. But in addition to political persecution, the KGB during the leadership of Andropov was also engaged in its direct duties - it provided good national security THE USSR.

Governing body

In May 1982, Andropov was again elected Secretary of the Central Committee (from May 24 to November 12, 1982) and left the leadership of the KGB. Even then, many perceived this as the appointment of a successor to the decrepit Brezhnev. On November 12, 1982, Andropov was elected by the Plenum of the Central Committee as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Andropov strengthened his position by becoming Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 16, 1983.

Those who knew Andropov testify that intellectually he stood out against the general gray background of the Politburo of stagnant years, was a creative person, not without self-irony. In the circle of trusted people, he could afford relatively liberal arguments. Unlike Brezhnev, he was indifferent to flattery and luxury, did not tolerate bribery and embezzlement. It is clear, however, that in matters of principle the "intellectual from the KGB" adhered to a rigid conservative position.

In the first months of his reign, he proclaimed a course aimed at socio-economic transformation. However, all the changes largely came down to administrative measures, strengthening discipline among the workers of the party apparatus and in the workplace, exposing corruption in the inner circle of the ruling elite. In some cities of the USSR, law enforcement agencies began to apply measures, the rigidity of which in the 1980s seemed unusual to the population.

Under Andropov, mass production of licensed records of popular Western performers of those genres (rock, disco, synth-pop) that were previously considered ideologically unacceptable began - this was supposed to undermine the economic basis for speculation in records and magnetic recordings.

For some citizens, the short “Andropov era” aroused support. In many ways, he seemed better than Brezhnev. For the first time after many years of victorious reports, the new general secretary spoke frankly about the difficulties experienced by the country. In one of his first speeches, Andropov said: "I have no ready-made recipes." Andropov appeared in public with the only Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. Compared to the decorated Brezhnev, this seemed a great deal of modesty. Andropov spoke competently and clearly, which he won against the background of his tongue-tied predecessor

Political and economic system remained unchanged. And ideological control and repression against dissidents became tougher. In foreign policy, the confrontation with the West intensified. From June 1983 Andropov combined the post of general secretary of the party with the post of head of state - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. But he remained in the highest post for a little over a year. The last months of his life, Andropov was forced to rule the country from the hospital ward of the Kremlin clinic.

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, as head of state, intended to carry out a number of reforms, but poor health did not allow him to put his plans into practice. Already in the autumn of 1983, he was transferred to the hospital, where he was constantly until his death on February 9, 1984.

Andropov was formally in power for 15 months. He really wanted to reform the Soviet Union, albeit with rather tough measures, but he did not have time - he died. And the population remembers the time of Andropov's rule by toughening disciplinary responsibility at workplaces and mass checks of documents during the day to find out why a person is not at work during working hours, but walks along the street.

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (September 11 (24), 1911 - March 10, 1985) - General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee from February 13, 1984, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from April 11, 1984 (deputy - from 1966). Member of the CPSU since 1931, CPSU Central Committee since 1971 (candidate since 1966), member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee since 1978 (candidate since 1977).

Born on September 11 (24), 1911 in a family of Russian peasants in Siberia. He joined the CPSU(b) in 1931 while serving in the Red Army.

In the early 1930s, Konstantin Chernenko served in Kazakhstan (the 49th border detachment of the Khorgos border outpost in the Taldy-Kurgan region), where he commanded a border detachment and participated in the liquidation of the Bekmuratov gang. During his service in the border troops, he joined the CPSU (b) and was elected secretary of the party organization of the border detachment. In Kazakhstan, as the writer N. Fetisov wrote, the "baptism of fire" of the future general secretary took place. The writer began to prepare a book about the service of a young warrior at the outposts of Khorgos and Narynkol - "Six Heroic Days".

Fetisov kept trying to clarify the details about the specific participation of Chernenko in the liquidation of the Bekmuratov gang, about the battle in the Chebortal gorge, about the life of the border detachment. He even wrote a letter about this to the Secretary General, asking Konstantin Ustinovich: “An interesting entertainment for the border guards of the Narynkol outpost was to admire the game of the favorites of the border guards - a goat, a dog and a cat. Do you remember this?"

In 1933-1941, he headed the department of propaganda and agitation at the Novoselkovsky and Uyarsky district committees of the party of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

In 1943-1945, Konstantin Chernenko was studying in Moscow, at the Higher School of Party Organizers. I didn't ask for the front. His activity during the war years was marked only by the medal "For Valiant Labor". For the next three years, Chernenko worked as the secretary of the regional committee for ideology in Penza region, then until 1956 he headed the department of propaganda and agitation in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova. It was here in the early 1950s that Chernenko met Brezhnev, then First Secretary. Business communication grew into a friendship that lasted until the end of life. With the help of Brezhnev, Chernenko made a unique party career, having gone from the bottom to the top of the pyramid of power, while not possessing any noticeable qualities of a leader.

In 1941-1943. Chernenko served as secretary of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Party Committee, but then left this post to study at the Higher School of Party Organizers under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in Moscow (1943-1945). Upon graduation, he was sent to Penza as secretary of the local regional committee (1945-1948). Chernenko continued his career in Moldova, becoming the head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova (1948-1956). At this time, he met L.I. Brezhnev, who later (1956) transferred Chernenko to Moscow as head of the mass agitation sector at the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Since 1950, Chernenko's career has been inextricably linked with Brezhnev's.

From May 1960 to July 1965, Chernenko was the head of the Secretariat of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, whose chairman in 1960-1964 was Brezhnev.

Personal life.

Chernenko's first wife was Faina Vasilievna. She was born in the Novoselovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The marriage with her did not work out, but during this period the son Albert was born. Albert Chernenko was the secretary of the Tomsk city committee of the CPSU for ideological work, the rector of the Novosibirsk Higher Party School. He defended his doctoral dissertation "Problems of historical causality" while at party work. In the last years of his life, he was deputy dean of the law faculty of Tomsk located in Novosibirsk. state university. Lived in Novosibirsk. He believed that he was closest to the theory of convergence - the combination of opposites, in particular capitalism and socialism. Albert Konstantinovich Chernenko has two sons: Vladimir and Dmitry.

The second wife - Anna Dmitrievna (nee Lyubimova) was born on September 3, 1913 in the Rostov region.

Graduated from the Saratov Institute of Agricultural Engineering. She was a course Komsomol organizer, a member of the faculty bureau, and a secretary of the Komsomol committee. In 1944 she married K. U. Chernenko. She protected her sick spouse from hunting trips with Brezhnev. Anna Dmitrievna was short, with a shy smile. From marriage with her, children appeared: Vladimir, Vera and Elena

The path to power and a short formal reign.

In 1956, Brezhnev was the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Chernenko was the assistant to the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and then the head. sector in the propaganda department.

In 1960-1964, Brezhnev - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, since 1964 - First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee (and since 1966 - General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee), Chernenko - candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee.

Since 1977, Brezhnev became the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Chernenko - a candidate member of the Politburo, and since 1978 - a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Rewarding himself, Brezhnev did not forget about his colleague: in 1976, Brezhnev was awarded the third, and Chernenko - the first Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor; in 1981, a fifth star appeared on Brezhnev's chest, and Chernenko's second.

During the reign of Brezhnev, Chernenko was the head of the general department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, through him passed a large number of documents and entire dossiers to the top of the party; by the very nature of his character, he was prone to subtle hardware work, but at the same time he was very knowledgeable.

Konstantin Ustinovich was a top-class "organizer". All regional leaders sought to get an appointment with him. Because they knew: if he turned to Chernenko, the issue would be resolved, and the necessary documentation would promptly go through all instances. - Fedor Morgun

He regularly shared information with Brezhnev and thus had the reputation of "Brezhnev's secretary". Colossal energy, zeal and modest knowledge were spent for years by Chernenko on an incomparable bureaucratic career. In clerical work, he found his calling. He was in charge of the mail addressed to the General Secretary; wrote preliminary answers. He prepared questions for the meetings of the Politburo and selected materials. Chernenko was aware of everything that was happening in the highest party echelon. He could tell Brezhnev in time about someone's upcoming anniversary or about the next award.

While for Brezhnev the daily routine of dealing with numerous documents was more than burdensome, for Chernenko it was a pleasure. Often decisions came from Konstantin Ustinovich, but were announced on behalf of the Secretary General. Over the years of joint work, he never let Brezhnev down, did not cause his displeasure, and even more so irritation for any reason. Never objected to him.

But not only diligence and punctuality Chernenko impressed Brezhnev. Konstantin Ustinovich skillfully flattered him and always found a reason for admiration and praise. Over time, he became irreplaceable for Brezhnev.

Twice Konstantin Ustinovich accompanied Brezhnev on trips abroad: in 1975 - to Helsinki, where the International Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe was taking place, and in 1979 - to negotiations in Vienna on disarmament issues.

Chernenko became Brezhnev's shadow, his closest adviser. Since the late 1970s, Chernenko has come to be seen as one of Brezhnev's possible successors, with links to conservative forces in his circle. By the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982, he was considered (both by Western political scientists and high-ranking party members) as one of two, along with Andropov, contenders for full power; Andropov won. After the death of Brezhnev, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU recommended Chernenko to propose to the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU Andropov's candidacy for the post of General Secretary. He did this on November 12, 1982 at the end of his speech at the Plenum (most of which was devoted to the characterization of Brezhnev), emphasizing, at the same time, the need for collective leadership; after that, Andropov was unanimously elected general secretary.

In February 1982, the Politburo approved the awarding of the Lenin and State Prizes for the "History of the Foreign Policy of the USSR, 1917-1980." in two volumes, as well as for a multi-volume book on international conferences during the Second World War. Among the laureates awarded the Lenin Prize was Chernenko, who did not participate in any way in the creation of these scientific works. But the Lenin laureate was considered very prestigious, and Konstantin Ustinovich received it, as well as the third title of Hero, on his seventy-third birthday.

The quick illness and death of Andropov and the difficulties regarding the outcome of further intra-party struggle made Chernenko, almost inevitably, the new head of the party and state.

Andropov's reforms, aimed at fighting corruption and reducing privileges in the highest sphere of the party apparatus, provoked a negative reaction from party officials. In an attempt to revive the Brezhnev era, the aging Politburo, whose seven members died of advanced age between 1982-1984, leaned towards Chernenko, who was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee on February 13, 1984 after Andropov's death. April 11, 1984.

When the 73-year-old Chernenko received the highest position in the Soviet state, he no longer had either the physical or spiritual strength to lead the country.

His rapidly deteriorating health did not allow him to exercise real control over the country. His frequent absences due to illness drew a line under the opinion that his election to the highest party and state posts was only a temporary measure. He died on March 10, 1985 in Moscow.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

(March 2, 1931, Privolnoye, North Caucasian Territory) - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (March 11, 1985 - August 23, 1991), the first and last President of the USSR (March 15, 1990 - December 25, 1991). Head of the Gorbachev Foundation. Since 1993, co-founder of CJSC "New Daily Newspaper" (see. " New Newspaper"). He has a number of awards and honorary titles, the most famous of which is the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. Head of the Soviet state from March 11, 1985 to December 25, 1991. Gorbachev's activities as head of the CPSU and the state are associated with a large-scale attempt to reform in the USSR - Perestroika, which ended in the collapse of the world socialist system and the collapse of the USSR, as well as the end of the Cold War. Russian public opinion about Gorbachev's role in these events is extremely polarized.

Born on March 2, 1931 in the village of Privolnoye, Krasnogvardeisky District, Stavropol Territory, into a peasant family. At the age of 16 (1947), he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for high grain harvest on a combine. In 1950, after graduating from school with a silver medal, he entered the law faculty of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. Actively participated in the activities of the Komsomol organization of the university, in 1952 he joined the CPSU.

After graduating from university in 1955, he was sent to Stavropol to the regional prosecutor's office. He worked as deputy head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Stavropol regional committee of the Komsomol, first secretary of the Stavropol city committee of the Komsomol, then second and first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol (1955-1962).

In 1962 Gorbachev went to work in party bodies. Khrushchev's reforms were going on in the country at that time. The organs of the party leadership were divided into industrial and rural. New management structures appeared - territorial production departments. The party career of M.S. Gorbachev began with the post of party organizer of the Stavropol Territorial Production Agricultural Administration (three rural districts). In 1967 he graduated (in absentia) from the Stavropol Agricultural Institute.

In December 1962, Gorbachev was appointed head of the department of organizational and party work of the Stavropol rural regional committee of the CPSU. Since September 1966 Gorbachev - the first secretary of the Stavropol city party committee, in August 1968 he was elected second, and in April 1970 - the first secretary of the Stavropol regional committee of the CPSU. In 1971 MS Gorbachev became a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

In November 1978, Gorbachev became Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for the agro-industrial complex, in 1979 - a candidate member, in 1980 - a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. In March 1985 Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party.

In 1971-1992 he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In November 1978 he was elected Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. From 1979 to 1980 - candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In the early 80s. made a number of foreign visits, during which he met Margaret Thatcher and became friends with Alexander Yakovlev, who then headed the Soviet embassy in Canada. Participated in the work of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU to resolve important state issues. From October 1980 to June 1992 - Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, from December 1989 to June 1990 - Chairman of the Russian Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee, from March 1985 to August 1991 - General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

Governing body

At the pinnacle of power, Gorbachev carried out numerous reforms and campaigns, which later led to a market economy, the destruction of the monopoly power of the CPSU and the collapse of the USSR. The assessment of Gorbachev's activity is contradictory.

Conservative politicians criticized him for economic ruin, the collapse of the Union and other consequences of perestroika.

Radical politicians criticized him for the inconsistency of reforms and his attempt to preserve the old administrative-command system and socialism.

Many Soviet, post-Soviet and foreign politicians and journalists welcomed Gorbachev's reforms, democracy and glasnost, the end of the Cold War, and the unification of Germany.

In 1986-1987, hoping to awaken the initiative of the "masses", Gorbachev and his supporters set a course for the development of glasnost and the "democratization" of all aspects of public life. Glasnost in the Bolshevik Party was traditionally understood not as freedom of speech, but as freedom of "constructive" (loyal) criticism and self-criticism. However, during the years of perestroika, the idea of ​​glasnost through the efforts of progressive journalists and radical supporters of reforms, in particular, A.N. Yakovlev, secretary and member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, was developed precisely in freedom of speech. XIX Party Conference of the CPSU (June 1988) adopted a resolution "On Glasnost". In March 1990, the "Press Law" was adopted, achieving a certain level of media independence from party control.

In March 1989, the first relatively free elections of people's deputies in the history of the USSR were held, the results of which caused a shock in the party apparatus. In many regions, secretaries of party committees failed in the elections. Many intellectuals came to the deputies who critically assessed the role of the CPSU in society. The Congress of People's Deputies in May of the same year demonstrated a tough confrontation between various trends both in society and in the parliamentary environment. At this congress, Gorbachev was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Gorbachev's actions caused a wave of growing criticism. Some criticized him for slowness and inconsistency in the implementation of reforms, others for haste; everyone noted the inconsistency of his policy. So, laws were adopted on the development of cooperation and almost immediately - on the fight against "speculation"; laws on the democratization of enterprise management and, at the same time, on the strengthening of central planning; laws on the reform of the political system and free elections, and immediately on "strengthening the role of the party," and so on.

Attempts to reform were resisted by the party-Soviet system itself - the Leninist-Stalinist model of socialism. The power of the general secretary was not absolute and largely depended on the "disposition" of forces in the Politburo of the Central Committee. Least of all, Gorbachev's power was limited in international affairs. With the support of E. A. Shevardnadze (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and A. N. Yakovlev, Gorbachev acted assertively and effectively. Beginning in 1985 (after a 6 and a half year break), meetings were held annually between the head of the USSR and US Presidents R. Reagan, and then George W. Bush, presidents and prime ministers of other countries. In 1989, at the initiative of Gorbachev, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany took place. The signing by Gorbachev in 1990 in Paris, together with the heads of state and government of other European countries, as well as the United States and Canada, of the "Charter for a New Europe" put an end to the Cold War period of the late 1940s and late 1990s.

However, in domestic politics, especially in the economy, there are signs of a serious crisis. The shortage of food and consumer goods has increased. Since 1989, the process of disintegration of the political system of the Soviet Union has been in full swing. Attempts to stop this process by force (in Tbilisi, Baku, Vilnius, Riga) led to directly opposite results, strengthening centrifugal tendencies. The democratic leaders of the Interregional Deputy Group (B.N. Yeltsin, A.D. Sakharov and others) gathered thousands of rallies in their support. In the first half of 1990, almost all union republics declared their state sovereignty (RSFSR - June 12, 1990).

Under Gorbachev, the external debt of the Soviet Union reached a record high. Debts were taken by Gorbachev at high interest rates - more than 8% per annum - from different countries. With the debts made by Gorbachev, Russia was able to pay off only 15 years after his resignation. In parallel, the gold reserves of the USSR decreased tenfold: from more than 2,000 tons to 200. It was officially stated that all these huge funds were spent on the purchase of consumer goods. Approximate data are as follows: 1985, external debt - $31.3 billion; 1991, external debt - 70.3 billion dollars (for comparison, the total amount of Russian external debt as of October 1, 2008 - 540.5 billion dollars, including the state external debt in foreign currency - about 40 billion dollars, or 8 % of GDP - for more details, see the article Russia's External Debt). The peak of the Russian public debt came in 1998 (146.4% of GDP).

After the signing of the Belovezhskaya Accords (bypassing Gorbachev's objections), and the actual denunciation of the union treaty, on December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as head of state. From January 1992 to the present - President of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Research (Gorbachev Foundation). At the same time, from March 1993 to 1996 - President, and since 1996 - Chairman of the Board of the International Green Cross.

Years of existence of the USSR - 1922-1991. However, the history of the world's largest state began with the February Revolution, or more precisely, with the crisis tsarist Russia. Since the beginning of the 20th century, opposition moods have been wandering in the country, which now and then resulted in bloodshed.

The words spoken by Pushkin in the thirties of the XIX century were applicable in the past, do not lose their relevance today. Russian rebellion is always merciless. Especially when it leads to the overthrow of the old regime. Let us recall the most important and tragic events that took place during the years of the existence of the USSR.

background

In 1916 royal family was discredited by scandals around an odious personality, the secret of which has not been fully solved to date. We are talking about Grigory Rasputin. Nicholas II made several mistakes, the first in the year of his coronation. But we will not talk about this today, but recall the events that preceded the creation of the Soviet state.

So the first World War in full swing. Rumors are circulating in Petersburg. Rumor has it that the empress divorces her husband, goes to a monastery, and from time to time is engaged in espionage. Formed opposition to the Russian Tsar. Its participants, among whom were the closest relatives of the king, demanded the removal of Rasputin from government.

While the princes were arguing with the king, a revolution was being prepared that was supposed to change the course of world history. Armed rallies continued for several days in February. They ended with a coup d'état. A Provisional Government was formed, which did not last long.

Then there was the October Revolution, the Civil War. Historians divide the years of the existence of the USSR into several periods. During the first, which lasted until 1953, a former revolutionary was in power, known in narrow circles under the nickname Koba.

Stalin years (1922-1941)

By the end of 1922, six politicians were in power: Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Rykov, Kamenev, Tomsky. But one person should govern the state. A struggle began between the former revolutionaries.

Neither Kamenev, nor Zinoviev, nor Tomsky felt sympathy for Trotsky. Stalin especially did not like the people's commissar for military affairs. Dzhugashvili had a negative attitude towards him since the time of the Civil War. They say he did not like the education, the erudition that used to read the French classics in the original at political meetings. But, of course, that's not the point. In the political struggle there is no place for simple human likes and dislikes. The clash between the revolutionaries ended in Stalin's victory. In subsequent years, he methodically eliminated his other associates.

The Stalin years were marked by repressions. First there was forced collectivization, then arrests. How many people in this terrible time turned into camp dust, how many were shot? Hundreds of thousands of people. The peak of Stalin's repressions came in 1937-1938.

The Great Patriotic War

During the years of the existence of the USSR, there were many tragic events. In 1941, the war began, which claimed about 25 million lives. These losses are incomparable. Before Yuri Levitan announced on the radio about the attack of the German armed forces on no one believed that there was a ruler in the world who was not afraid to direct his aggression towards the USSR.

WWII historians divide into three periods. The first begins on June 22, 1941 and ends with the battle for Moscow, in which the Germans were defeated. The second one ends with the Battle of Stalingrad. The third period is the expulsion of enemy troops from the USSR, the liberation from the occupation European countries and the surrender of Germany.

Stalinism (1945-1953)

Was not ready for war. When it started, it turned out that many military leaders were shot, and those who were alive were far away, in camps. They were immediately released, brought back to normal and sent to the front. The war is over. Several years passed, and a new wave of repressions began, now among the highest command personnel.

Major military leaders close to Marshal Zhukov were arrested. Among them are Lieutenant General Telegin and Air Marshal Novikov. Zhukov himself was slightly harassed, but not particularly touched. His authority was too great. For the victims of the last wave of repressions, for those who survived in the camps, the year was the happiest day. The “leader” died, and with him the camps for political prisoners went down in history.

Thaw

In 1956, Khrushchev debunked Stalin's personality cult. He was supported at the top of the party. After all, over the years, even the most prominent political figure could at any moment be in disgrace, which means being shot or sent to a camp. During the existence of the USSR, the years of the thaw were marked by the softening of the totalitarian regime. People went to bed and were not afraid that in the middle of the night they would be picked up by state security officers and taken to Lubyanka, where they would have to confess to espionage, an attempt to assassinate Stalin, and other fictitious crimes. But denunciations and provocations still took place.

During the years of the thaw, the word "chekist" had a pronounced negative connotation. In fact, distrust of the special services originated much earlier, back in the thirties. But the term "chekist" lost official approval after the report made by Khrushchev in 1956.

The era of stagnation

This is not a historical term, but a propaganda-literary cliché. It appeared after Gorbachev's speech, in which he noted the emergence of stagnant phenomena in the economy and social life. The era of stagnation conditionally begins with the coming to power of Brezhnev and ends with the beginning of perestroika. One of the main problems of this period was the growing shortage of goods. In the world of culture, censorship rules. During the years of stagnation, the first terrorist acts took place in the USSR. During this period, there are several high-profile cases of hijacking passenger aircraft.

Afghan war

In 1979, a war broke out that lasted ten years. Over the years, more than thirteen thousand Soviet soldiers died. But these data were made public only in 1989. The biggest losses came in 1984. Soviet dissidents actively opposed the Afghan war. Andrei Sakharov was sent into exile for his pacifist speeches. The burial of zinc coffins was a secret matter. At least until 1987. On the grave of a soldier it was impossible to indicate that he died in Afghanistan. The official date for the end of the war is February 15, 1989.

The last years of the existence of the USSR (1985-1991)

This period in the history of the Soviet Union is called perestroika. The last years of the existence of the USSR (1985-1991) can be briefly characterized as follows: a sharp change in ideology, political and economic life.

In May 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, who by that time had held the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU for just over two months, uttered a significant phrase: "It's time for all of us, comrades, to reorganize." Hence the term. Perestroika was actively talked about in the media, and a dangerous desire for change arose in the minds of ordinary citizens. Historians divide the last years of the existence of the USSR into four stages:

1. 1985-1987. The beginning of the reform of the economic system.
2. 1987-1989. An attempt to rebuild the system in the spirit of socialism.
3. 1989-1991. Destabilization of the situation in the country.
4. September-December 1991. The end of perestroika, the collapse of the USSR.

The enumeration of the events that took place from 1989 to 1991 will be a chronicle of the collapse of the USSR.

Acceleration of socio-economic development

Gorbachev announced the need to reform the system at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in April 1985. This meant the active use of the achievements of scientific and technological progress, a change in the planning procedure. Democratization, glasnost and the socialist market have not yet been discussed. Although today the term "perestroika" is associated with freedom of speech, which was first talked about a few years before the demise of the USSR.

The years of Gorbachev's rule, especially at the first stage, were marked by the hopes of Soviet citizens for change, for long-awaited changes for the better. Gradually, however, the inhabitants of a vast country began to become disillusioned with politician who was destined to become the last general secretary. The anti-alcohol campaign drew particular criticism.

No alcohol law

History shows that attempts to wean the citizens of our country from drinking alcohol do not bear any fruit. The first anti-alcohol campaign was carried out by the Bolsheviks back in 1917. The second attempt was made eight years later. They tried to fight against drunkenness and alcoholism in the early seventies, and in a very peculiar way: they banned the production of alcoholic beverages, but expanded the production of wines.

The alcohol campaign of the eighties was called "Gorbachev's", although Ligachev and Solomentsev became the initiators. This time, the authorities tackled the issue of drunkenness more radically. The production of alcoholic beverages was significantly reduced, a huge number of stores were closed, and prices for vodka were raised more than once. But Soviet citizens did not give up so easily. Some purchased alcohol at an inflated price. Others were engaged in the preparation of drinks according to dubious recipes (V. Erofeev spoke about such a method of combating dry law in his book “Moscow - Petushki”), and still others used the simplest method, that is, they drank cologne, which could be purchased at any department store.

Gorbachev's popularity, meanwhile, was declining. Not only due to the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. He was verbose, while his speeches were of little substance. At every official meeting he appeared with his wife, who caused particular irritation among the Soviet people. Finally, perestroika did not bring the long-awaited changes into the lives of Soviet citizens.

Democratic socialism

By the end of 1986, Gorbachev and his aides realized that the situation in the country could not be changed so easily. And they decided to reform the system in a different direction, namely in the spirit of democratic socialism. This decision was facilitated by a blow to the economy caused by many factors, including the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, in some regions of the Soviet Union, separatist sentiments began to appear, interethnic clashes broke out.

Destabilization in the country

In what year did the USSR end its existence? In 1991 At the final stage of "perestroika" there was a sharp destabilization of the situation. Economic difficulties have developed into a large-scale crisis. There was a catastrophic collapse in the living standards of Soviet citizens. They learned about unemployment. The shelves in the stores were empty, if something suddenly appeared on them, endless lines instantly formed. Irritation and dissatisfaction with the authorities grew among the masses.

The collapse of the USSR

In what year the Soviet Union ceased to exist, we figured it out. The official date is December 26, 1991. On this day, Mikhail Gorbachev announced that he would cease his activities as president. With the collapse of the huge state, 15 former republics of the USSR gained independence. There are a lot of reasons that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is the economic crisis, and the degradation of the ruling elites, and national conflicts, and even the anti-alcohol campaign.

Let's summarize. Above are the main events that took place during the existence of the USSR. From what year to what year was this state present on the world map? From 1922 to 1991. The collapse of the USSR was perceived by the population in different ways. Someone rejoiced at the abolition of censorship, the opportunity to engage in entrepreneurial activities. The events that took place in 1991 shocked someone. After all, it was a tragic collapse of the ideals on which more than one generation grew up.

Chronology

• 1921, February - March The uprising of soldiers and sailors in Kronstadt. Strikes in Petrograd.
• 1921, March Adoption by the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b) of the decision on the transition to a new economic policy.
• December 1922 Founding of the USSR
• 1924, January Adoption of the Constitution of the USSR at the II All-Union Congress of Soviets.
• 1925, December XIV Congress of the RCP (b). Adoption of a course towards the industrialization of the national economy of the USSR.
• 1927, December XV Congress of the RCP (b). The course towards the collectivization of agriculture in the USSR.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics- that existed from 1922 to 1991 in Europe and Asia. The USSR occupied 1/6 of the inhabited land and was the largest country in the world in terms of area on the territory that by 1917 was occupied by Russian empire without Finland, part of the Polish Kingdom and some other territories (the lands of Kars, now Turkey), but with Galicia, Transcarpathia, part of Prussia, Northern Bukovina, South Sakhalin and the Kuriles.

According to the 1977 Constitution, The USSR was proclaimed a single union multinational and socialist state.

Formation of the USSR

On December 18, 1922, the Plenum of the Central Committee adopted the draft Union Treaty, and on December 30, 1922, the First Congress of Soviets was convened. At the Congress of Soviets, a report on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was made by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party I.V. Stalin, reading the text of the Declaration and the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR.

The USSR included the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR (Ukraine), the BSSR (Belarus) and the ZSFSR (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). The heads of delegations of the republics present at the congress signed the Treaty and the Declaration. The creation of the Union was legally formalized. The delegates elected new composition Central Executive Committee of the USSR.

Declaration on the formation of the USSR. Title page

On January 31, 1924, the II Congress of Soviets approved the Constitution of the USSR. Allied people's commissariats were created, which were in charge of foreign policy, defense, transport, communications, and planning. In addition, the issues of the borders of the USSR and the republics, admission to the Union were subject to the jurisdiction of the supreme authorities. In solving other issues, the republics were sovereign.

Meeting of the Council of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. 1927

During the 1920-1930s. the USSR included: Kazakh SSR, Turkmen SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR. From the ZSFSR (Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), the Georgian SSR, the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR separated and formed independent republics within the USSR. The Moldavian Autonomous Republic, which was part of Ukraine, received the status of a union one. In 1939, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were included in the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR. In 1940 Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined the USSR.

The collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which united 15 republics, occurred in 1991.

Education of the USSR. The development of the union state (1922-1940)

Prerequisites for the formation of the USSR

Before the young state, torn apart by the consequences of the civil war, the problem of creating a unified administrative-territorial system became acute. At that time, the share of the RSFSR accounted for 92% of the country's area, the population of which later amounted to 70% of the newly formed USSR. The remaining 8% were divided between the republics of the Soviets: Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Federation, which united Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in 1922. Also in the east of the country, the Far Eastern Republic was created, which was controlled from Chita. Central Asia at that time consisted of two people's republics - Khorezm and Bukhara.

In order to strengthen the centralization of management and the concentration of resources on the fronts of the civil war, the RSFSR, Belarus and Ukraine united in an alliance in June 1919. This made it possible to unite the armed forces, with the introduction of a centralized command (the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR and the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army). Representatives were delegated from each republic to the composition of state authorities. The agreement also provided for the reassignment of some republican branches of industry, transport and finance to the corresponding people's commissariats of the RSFSR. This state new formation went down in history under the name "contractual federation". Its peculiarity was that the Russian governing bodies got the opportunity to function as the only representatives of the supreme power of the state. At the same time, the communist parties of the republics became part of the RCP (b) only as regional party organizations.
The emergence and growth of confrontation.
All this soon led to disagreements between the republics and the control center in Moscow. After all, having delegated their main powers, the republics lost the opportunity to make decisions independently. At the same time, the independence of the republics in the sphere of governance was officially declared.
Uncertainty in determining the boundaries of the powers of the center and the republics gave rise to conflicts and confusion. Sometimes state authorities looked ridiculous, trying to bring to a common denominator the people, about whose traditions and culture they knew nothing. So, for example, the need for the existence of a subject for the study of the Koran in the schools of Turkestan gave rise in October 1922 to a sharp confrontation between the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the People's Commissariat for Nationalities.
Creation of a commission on relations between the RSFSR and the independent republics.
The decisions of the central authorities in the sphere of the economy did not find proper understanding among the republican authorities and often led to sabotage. In August 1922, in order to radically reverse the current situation, the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) considered the issue "On the relationship between the RSFSR and the independent republics", creating a commission, which included republican representatives. VV Kuibyshev was appointed chairman of the commission.
The commission instructed I. V. Stalin to develop a project for the "autonomization" of the republics. In the presented decision, it was proposed to include Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia into the RSFSR, with the rights of republican autonomy. The draft was sent by the Republican Party Central Committee for consideration. However, this was done only in order to obtain a formal approval of the decision. Given the significant infringement of the rights of the republics provided for by this decision, I. V. Stalin insisted on not applying the usual practice of publishing the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) if it was adopted. But he demanded to oblige the republican Central Committees of the parties to strictly implement it.
Creation by V.I. Lenin of the concept of the state on the basis of the Federation.
Ignoring the independence and self-government of the subjects of the country, with the simultaneous tightening of the role of the central authorities, were perceived by Lenin as a violation of the principle of proletarian internationalism. In September 1922, he proposed the idea of ​​creating a state on the principles of federation. Initially, such a name was proposed - the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia, later it was changed to the USSR. Joining the union was supposed to be a conscious choice of each sovereign republic, based on the principle of equality and independence, under the general authorities of the federation. V. I. Lenin believed that a multinational state must be built based on the principles of good neighborliness, parity, openness, respect and mutual assistance.

"Georgian conflict". Strengthening separatism.
At the same time, in some republics, there is a tilt towards the isolation of autonomies, and separatist sentiments are intensifying. For example, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia flatly refused to remain a part of the Transcaucasian Federation, demanding that the republic be admitted to the union as an independent entity. Furious polemics on this issue between representatives of the Central Committee of the Party of Georgia and the chairman of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee G.K. Ordzhonikidze ended in mutual insults and even assault on the part of Ordzhonikidze. The result of the policy of strict centralization on the part of the central authorities was the voluntary resignation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia in full force.
To investigate this conflict in Moscow, a commission was created, whose chairman was F. E. Dzerzhinsky. The commission took the side of G. K. Ordzhonikidze and subjected the Central Committee of Georgia to severe criticism. This fact outraged V. I. Lenin. He repeatedly tried to condemn the perpetrators of the clash in order to exclude the possibility of infringing on the independence of the republics. However, the progressing illness and civil strife in the Central Committee of the country's party did not allow him to complete the job.

Year of formation of the USSR

Officially date of formation of the USSR This is December 30, 1922. On this day, at the first Congress of Soviets, the Declaration on the Creation of the USSR and the Union Treaty were signed. The Union included the RSFSR, the Ukrainian and Belarusian socialist republics, as well as the Transcaucasian Federation. The Declaration formulated the reasons and determined the principles for the unification of the republics. The treaty delimited the functions of the republican and central authorities. The state bodies of the Union were entrusted with foreign policy and trade, means of communication, communications, as well as issues of organizing and controlling finance and defense.
Everything else belonged to the sphere of government of the republics.
The All-Union Congress of Soviets was proclaimed the supreme body of the state. In the period between congresses, the leading role was assigned to the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, organized on the principle of bicameralism - the Union Council and the Council of Nationalities. M. I. Kalinin was elected chairman of the CEC, co-chairs - G. I. Petrovsky, N. N. Narimanov, A. G. Chervyakov. The government of the Union (Council of People's Commissars of the USSR) was headed by V. I. Lenin.

Financial and economic development
The unification of the republics into the Union made it possible to accumulate and direct all resources to eliminate the consequences of the civil war. This contributed to the development of the economy, cultural relations and made it possible to begin to get rid of distortions in the development of individual republics. A characteristic feature of the formation of a nationally oriented state was the efforts of the government in matters of the harmonious development of the republics. It is for this that from the territory of the RSFSR to the republics Central Asia and Transcaucasia, some industries were moved to provide them with highly qualified labor resources. Financing was carried out to provide the regions with communications, electricity, water resources for irrigation in agriculture. The budgets of the other republics received subsidies from the state.
Social and cultural significance
The principle of building a multinational state based on uniform standards had a positive impact on the development in the republics of such spheres of life as culture, education and healthcare. In the 1920s and 1930s, schools were built everywhere in the republics, theaters opened, mass media and literature developed. For some peoples, scientists have developed a written language. In health care, emphasis is placed on the development of a system of medical institutions. For example, if in 1917 there were 12 clinics and only 32 doctors in the entire North Caucasus, then in 1939 there were 335 doctors in Dagestan alone. At the same time, 14% of them were from the original nationality.

Reasons for the formation of the USSR

It happened not only thanks to the initiative of the leadership of the Communist Party. For many centuries, the prerequisites were formed for the unification of peoples into a single state. The harmony of the association has deep historical, economic, military-political and cultural roots. The former Russian Empire united 185 nationalities and nationalities. All of them went through a common historical path. During this time, a system of economic and economic ties has developed. They defended their freedom, absorbed the best of each other's cultural heritage. And, of course, they did not feel hostility towards each other.
It is worth considering that at that time the entire territory of the country was surrounded by hostile states. This also influenced the unification of peoples to no lesser extent.

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