Who Did Stalin Compete With To Control Russia

A woman is flanked by portraits of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Russian Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin as the Russian Communist Party rallies to mark the centenary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. — A woman is flanked by portraits of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Russian Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin as the Russian Communist Political party rallies to mark the centenary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

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The question of where Russia begins and ends—and who constitutes the Russian people—has preoccupied Russian thinkers for centuries. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 turned these concerns into a big "Russian question" that constitutes a world problem: What should be the relation of the new Russian country to its former purple possessions—now independent post-Soviet republics such every bit Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine—and to the Russian and Russian-speaking enclaves in those republics? How should mental maps of Russian ethnicity, culture and identity be reconciled with the political map of the Russian federation?

These questions aren't new. They first appeared on the political agenda in the grade of the Russian Revolution, which upended more than 300 years of tsarist rule and gave birth to the modernistic concept of Russian nationhood. How exactly to define that new, post-imperial state precipitated a heated showdown between the 2 political titans trying to midwife the procedure: Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.

At the time, Lenin was the revered architect and elderberry statesman of the Bolshevik revolution, while Stalin was an aggressive rising party leader. Theirs was a clash non only of political vision and statecraft, merely of personal insults and grudges. And while they hashed out the futurity of the nation, their battle would end not in resolution, but in Lenin'due south premature death.

The conflict betwixt the ii leaders came to a head in the final days of December 1922, when 2,000 delegates from all over the former Russian empire gathered in the chief hall of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow to create a new country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. That state would include Russia, which was endowed with its own territory and institutions, distinct from those of the Spousal relationship, and the already Soviet-ized republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia, which were formally independent of Russia.

Regional republics to Soviet Russia: You don't speak for us

The road to the formation of the Soviet Spousal relationship began in April of that year in Rapallo, Italy, when the Bolsheviks signed their first international treaty with a Western power: Moscow and Berlin agreed renounce postwar fiscal claims on each other and opened the way to merchandise and economic cooperation. Georgy Chicherin, the Soviet Russian commissar for foreign relations, signed the document on behalf of the Russian commonwealth, formed in July 1918. But he also attempted to sign on behalf of other Soviet republics, including Ukraine and Belarus, whose independence the Bolsheviks had been forced to recognize before overrunning them in 1919.

The strategy backfired.

According to the before agreement between Russian federation and the other Soviet republics, which was signed in the midst of revolution and ceremonious war, the Russian authorities had no correct to give orders to Ukrainian institutions without the Ukrainian government's approval. Meanwhile, the Georgian communists too cried foul, insisting on their rights as the members of an independent republic. Ultimately, this overstep of Soviet Russia'south authority triggered the negotiations that resulted in the formation of the USSR.

Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in Gorky, circa 1922.

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Stalin's solution didn't go over well, either

In Baronial 1922, Joseph Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, his correct-hand human being in the Caucasus (the region encompassing Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, formed a special committee to recommend a new model of relations between the communist Party'due south Central Committee, Russia and the republics. Stalin'due south proposal, which he called the "autonomization of the republics," was quite uncomplicated. The formally contained republics would be incorporated into the Russian Soviet Federation with rights of autonomy. The government bodies of the Russian Federation would become the central institutions of Soviet rule, exercising control over formally democratic republics.

The republics rebelled. The Georgians led the charge against Stalin's model, claiming the whole unification thought was premature. Ukrainians expressed a preference for the status quo. The Belarusians said they would mimic whatever model the Russians and the Ukrainians developed.

Stalin refused to budge and pushed ahead with his plan for autonomization—just to exist stopped in his tracks past Lenin, who sided with the Georgians and Ukrainians. As far as he was concerned, the inclusion of the republics into the Russian Federation, particularly against the will of their leaders, put the Russians in the position of imperial masters, undermining the thought of the voluntary union of nations—and making them piddling improve than the tsarist empire they had overthrown.

Lenin'southward broader concerns—about the worldwide unity of the working classes of all nationalities—colored his thinking near the futurity of the republics. In his mind, the survival of Soviet rule was closely linked with the success of world revolution, which depended on the rise of the working class in Germany, French republic and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, and and so on the nationalist movements in China, India and Western colonies in Asia. If the revolution was to triumph on a global scale, those peoples' desire for self-rule must exist satisfied.

Lenin stays house: All republics should have 'separate simply equal' status

Instead of enlarging the Russian federation, Lenin proposed creating a Wedlock of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia. The spousal relationship would found Russia and the existing formally independent republics as equals and develop all-Union government bodies separate from the Russian Federation's.

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Stalin, recognizing that an enlarged Russian federation would create a poor paradigm for the multinational communist state equally a community of equals, proposed simply to turn the Russian authorities bodies into all-Union ones. As he saw it, at that place was no need for another level of bureaucracy. Merely Lenin wouldn't dorsum downward: For him, the Spousal relationship was a matter of principle, not expediency. Some mode had to exist found to suit rising non-Russian nationalism. But Stalin'due south model proposed a return to the indigenous inequality of the past, which had already brought downward the Russian Empire—and might topple the Soviet state as well.

Stalin backed down. Lenin'south authority in the Bolshevik Political party was too great for him to question it openly. He agreed to adopt Lenin's ideas as the basis for the cosmos of the Union, which was officially declared at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets on Dec 30, 1922.

Lenin falls from view, merely battles from his bed

Only by the fourth dimension the Congress was called to order, Lenin disappeared from sight. The 52-yr-erstwhile leader of the Bolsheviks, who had fought tooth and nail for the cosmos of the Union, stayed put in his Kremlin apartment, a brusque walk from the Bolshoi Theatre, where the Congress was property its sessions. It was a walk he couldn't brand. Eight days earlier, on Dec 12, he had suffered a major stroke and lost control of his correct hand and leg.

The stroke occurred afterward Lenin's heated chat with Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the caput of the secret police and a client of Stalin's in the party leadership. Dzerzhinsky headed the committee that exonerated another supporter of Stalin's, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who had been sent to the Caucasus to crush local opposition to Stalin's "autonomization" model and had beaten up a Georgian dissenter. Although Stalin and many of his supporters, such as Ordzhonikidze and Dzerzhinsky, were not-Russians (Stalin and Ordzonikidze hailed originally from Georgia, Dzerzhinsky from Poland), Lenin accused them of Russian chauvinism.

But the stroke prevented him from taking whatever decisive steps against them. Two days later, a commission of political party officials, led by Stalin, placed strict limitations on Lenin'due south activities, effectively isolating him. They said the restrictions were designed to prevent the worsening of Lenin's wellness. Only they also served a political purpose.

Barred from attending the congress and not trusting Stalin to fully implement his line, the paralyzed Lenin resolved to dictate his thoughts on the nationality question in a document to be passed on to the party leadership. Titled "On the Question of Nationalities or 'Autonomization,'" it took the form of a alphabetic character and was completed the next twenty-four hours, Dec 31. In information technology, he attacked Stalin'south policies on the subject and criticized the rights provided to the republics by the Marriage treaty, deeming them inadequate to stop the rise of Great Russian nationalism, which he referred every bit "great-power chauvinism." To Lenin, Russified non-Russians like Stalin and Ordzhonikidze were some of the worst offenders.

In Lenin'south view, Great Russian nationalists posed the main threat to the unity of state—not the regional nationalists, whom he hoped to suit by giving them local autonomy inside the context of the Union. Lenin was prepared to supersede the Union he had originally proposed with a looser clan in which the centralized powers might exist limited to defence and international relations alone. He felt that the republics' right of secession, guaranteed by the Union treaty, might be an bereft counterweight to Russian nationalism, and proposed that at the next congress the Wedlock could be reformed to leave the center only with the aforementioned functions.

Stalin visiting Lenin in Gorky in 1923. Lenin, who was in semi-retirement after suffering his second stroke, died the following year, making way for Stalin to succeed him as leader of the Soviet Union. — Stalin visiting Lenin in Gorky in 1923. Lenin, who was in semi-retirement after suffering his second stroke, died the following year, making fashion for Stalin to succeed him as leader of the Soviet Wedlock.

Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in Gorky, circa 1922.

As Stalin presses his advantage, Lenin dies

Stalin did his best to isolate Lenin from the rest of the leadership and go along his terminal messages secret. He even came into conflict with Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, whom he defendant of passing political news on to Lenin, thereby threatening Lenin's peace of mind—and ultimately his wellness. Stalin insulted Krupskaia at one point by telling her, "We shall see what sort of married woman of Lenin you lot are," apparently hinting at Lenin'south past extramarital ties. When Lenin heard of it, he became furious and demanded an amends. Stalin wrote back saying he apologized, but did non know what Lenin wanted of him—he had just been protecting the leader from unnecessary stress.

Lenin's stress level conspicuously increased when he learned that Stalin was stuffing the Chamber of Nationalities of the newly created Union parliament with his Russian supporters. Enraged, Lenin tried to enlist his fellow revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky'southward support in his struggle confronting Stalin, but his call for aid went unanswered. Lenin's notation of encouragement to Georgian Bolsheviks, dictated on March half dozen, 1923, turned out to exist his last text ever. The side by side mean solar day, he suffered his tertiary stroke, which left him permanently paralyzed. He died on January 21, 1924.

The result: a compromise

Ultimately, the Soviet Wedlock, created in the midst of a battle between Lenin and Stalin, became a compromise between two visions and approaches. Stalin had to accept the federalist structure of the new state, just never gave up his "autonomization" scheme, which found its incarnation in the truthful backbone of Soviet rule—the Bolshevik Party. The Union was fully controlled from Moscow, and the republics' parties had no more rights than regional party organizations in Russian federation. Russian institutions and identity dominated, forming the footing for much of the Wedlock's. The Russian University of Sciences, for example, would become an all-Union trunk.

Lenin didn't become his way on the creating a loose spousal relationship of the republics united only in armed forces and foreign-policy terms. Merely he won on the issue of the structure of the Union—the collection of discreet republics—a victory that, ironically, would ultimately take greater consequences for the Russians than for the others. Lenin'due south victory helped endow the Russians with a territory, institutions, population and identity singled-out from those of the Marriage as a whole. In the country envisioned by Stalin, the Russians would have connected to share all those features with the empire, now renamed a Union. In Lenin's state, they had no choice but to start acquiring an identity separate from the imperial one. Almost past default, Lenin became the father of the modern Russian nation, while the Soviet Union became its cradle.

Serhii Plokhy is the professor of history at Harvard University and the director of the university'due south Ukrainian Research Institute. He is the writer of numerous books, most recently, Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation and Chernobyl: The History of the Nuclear Catastrophe.

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