Key Moments
Michael Malice | The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union | Lecture Two
Jordan PetersonKey Moments
The Soviet Union's economic policies, particularly collectivization, led to widespread famine and the deaths of millions, yet this was largely ignored or misrepresented by Western media.
Key Insights
Joseph Stalin, born Iosif Dzhugashvili, adopted the alias 'Stalin' meaning 'man of steel' and was known for orchestrating the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery which netted over 300,000 rubles for the Bolsheviks.
The Soviet Union officially declared its formation on December 30, 1922, comprising Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasus, with Moscow holding de facto control.
The First Five-Year Plan in 1928 marked a radical shift from Lenin's New Economic Policy, centralizing agriculture into large, state-run farms and labeling dissenting wealthy farmers as 'kulaks,' leading to their persecution, deportation (over 2 million in 1930-1931), or execution.
The Holodomor famine in Ukraine between 1932 and 1933, exacerbated by grain confiscation for export and stringent laws against 'stealing public property,' led to an estimated 4 million deaths in Ukraine alone.
Walter Duranty, a New York Times correspondent who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932, repeatedly downplayed or denied the severity of the Soviet famine, even stating in November 1932 that 'there is no actual starvation or famine' and that the population looked 'healthy and well-fed' during a visit to Ukraine.
The assassination of Sergei Kirov on December 1, 1934, was exploited by Stalin to launch a period of intense purges and show trials, where Old Bolsheviks and others confessed to fabricated conspiracies, often under duress or torture.
The Bolsheviks' early criminal activities and Stalin's ascent
The early Bolsheviks engaged in activities deemed criminal, such as 'expropriations,' which were essentially armed robberies of banks and mail trains to fund their party. Joseph Stalin, born Iosif Dzhugashvili, adopted the alias 'Stalin,' meaning 'man of steel.' He gained notoriety for his role in the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, which secured over 300,000 rubles for the Bolsheviks, a sum that also contributed to the deaths of others involved in the operation. By 1920, Stalin held significant influence within the party, editing 'Pravda' (Truth). While Leon Trotsky focused on ideology, Stalin worked behind the scenes as a politician, a strategy that would later prove detrimental to Trotsky and his allies. Stalin visited Lenin during his illness, offering support but also subtly guiding Lenin's views, particularly concerning suicide and the continuation of the struggle. This period highlights the ruthless pragmatism that characterized the rise of key Bolshevik figures.
Lenin's global vision versus Stalin's 'socialism in one country'
A fundamental ideological difference existed between Lenin and Stalin regarding the nature of communism. For Lenin, communism was a global movement aiming for a worldwide revolution to establish a paradise on Earth. In contrast, Stalin championed the concept of 'socialism in one country,' believing it was a more feasible and effective path forward. The Soviet Union was formally established on December 30, 1922, incorporating Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasus. Although each republic was granted autonomy on paper, Moscow's control was paramount and steadily increased. During Lenin's recovery, Stalin, alongside Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, effectively governed the USSR. Stalin's control over Lenin's access and correspondence meant Lenin was, in essence, Stalin's prisoner. After Lenin's death on January 21, 1924, the Soviet Union faced a critical juncture. Stalin, through political maneuvering, managed to oust Trotsky and his supporters, culminating in Trotsky's expulsion from the Communist Party in 1927 and his exile from the Soviet Union in early 1928. Trotsky continued to criticize Stalin's regime internationally, a significant embarrassment to the Soviet leadership.
The devastating impact of collectivization and the First Five-Year Plan
The First Five-Year Plan, launched in 1928, represented a complete reversal of Lenin's New Economic Policy, enforcing extreme centralization and state planning. A core tenet of this plan was the collectivization of agricultural lands, transforming independent farmers into state laborers. The primary opposition came from 'kulaks,' a term that evolved to encompass anyone possessing sufficient food in times of scarcity. The government launched a class war against these perceived enemies, leading to the imprisonment, execution, or deportation of millions. Between 1930 and 1931 alone, over two million people were forcibly relocated. As the state demanded more grain, peasants revolted, abandoned fields, and slaughtered livestock. The central planning's assumption of continuous yearly production increases, ignoring factors like weather and disease, proved disastrous. In 1931, following a poor harvest, grain confiscations dropped significantly, leaving peasants with no seeds for the next season, thus perpetuating a cycle of famine. Alarmingly, much of the confiscated grain was exported to generate currency, rather than feed the starving populace. A 1932 decree classified anyone stealing public property as an 'enemy of the people,' punishable by death or lengthy imprisonment, starkly contrasting with calls for empathy in other societies.
The human cost of famine and state control
The plight of the population was dire, with food shortages worsening significantly. The introduction of internal passport systems in 1932, mirroring Tsarist policies, restricted movement and was used to control populations fleeing famine-stricken areas. Historian S.J. Taylor describes the brutal treatment of those being deported, with their belongings often used as bribes for peasant cooperation, and kulak children left to beg. Those sent to Siberia faced extreme conditions, forced to build shelters in sub-zero temperatures, while others endured forced labor with minimal rations. Cities enforced strict residency permits, expelling any 'deprived' individuals. In Ukraine, during the brutal winter of 1932-1933, authorities confiscated all edible items, meticulously searching homes for any hidden food. Activists were instructed to catch people unaware, seizing food even from dinner tables or pots on stoves. The very bodies of the starving served as evidence of their 'crime' of hiding food, fostering an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and reporting. Peasants failing to meet grain quotas faced fines equivalent to five times the deficit. Confiscations involved house-to-house searches, seizure of cooking implements, and the brutalization of those found with food. Propaganda vilified the kulaks as selfish and subhuman, shifting blame for the widespread hunger. Personal accounts reveal extreme suffering, such as a young girl dying from hunger and an assault by a shopkeeper, met with indifference from those in line, who feared being labeled 'enemies of the people' for showing compassion.
Western media complicity and the denial of truth
Despite the unfolding tragedy, Western media largely failed to accurately report on the Soviet Union's atrocities. Walter Duranty, The New York Times' Moscow correspondent and a Pulitzer Prize winner, consistently downplayed or denied the famine. His reports, often influenced by Soviet censorship and a desire to maintain access, painted a picture of a struggling but progressing nation, not one facing mass starvation. In November 1932, Duranty declared, 'there is no actual starvation or famine' and described the population as 'healthy and well-fed' after a tour of Ukraine. He dismissed reports of famine as exaggerations by foreign observers and attributed food shortages to the implementation of new agricultural methods. When The Times of London reported on the atrocities, Duranty launched a lengthy attack, misrepresenting facts and accusing the reporting of being a deliberate distortion. This complicity allowed the Soviet regime to conceal the true extent of the Holodomor, a man-made famine that historians estimate killed around 4 million in Ukraine and over a million elsewhere in the USSR. The Soviet media, meanwhile, reported crop surpluses.
Gareth Jones and Malcolm Muggeridge: Voices of dissent
In contrast to Duranty's narrative, a few journalists bravely sought and reported the truth. Gareth Jones, a young British journalist and former secretary to the UK Prime Minister, defied Soviet restrictions. In March 1933, he disembarked from a train before reaching Kharkiv, Ukraine, and traveled through the countryside on foot. He witnessed firsthand the mass starvation, with peasants reporting not having eaten bread for over two months. After leaving the USSR, Jones held a press conference exposing the Soviet regime's lies and published his findings. Malcolm Muggeridge, whose father co-founded the Fabian Society, also provided damning eyewitness accounts, smuggling his reports out in diplomatic bags. The work of Jones and Muggeridge directly contradicted Duranty's claims. Duranty responded with a 13-page article in The New York Times, titled 'The Russians Are Hungry, But They Are Not Starving,' arguing that deaths were due to disease and that major cities had food, and that foreign observers' findings did not warrant predictions of catastrophe. Historians widely acknowledge the Holodomor, the man-made famine, resulted in approximately 4 million deaths in Ukraine alone.
Stalin's purges and the manipulation of justice
The assassination of Sergei Kirov on December 1, 1934, served as a catalyst for Stalin's Great Purge. While the official narrative blamed Leonid Nikolayev, rumors within the secret police implicated Stalin himself. Regardless of his direct involvement, Stalin ruthlessly exploited the event to unleash unprecedented terror. Old Bolsheviks like Kamenev and Zinoviev, who had initially cooperated with Stalin, were tried in 1936 and accused of conspiring with Trotsky to overthrow the government, even claiming collaboration with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Their confessions, often given with unnerving calm, raised more questions than they answered about the pressures and methods used to extract them. The purges targeted various groups, including former political exiles and prisoners of the Tsarist katorga (labor camps), men who had once posed the greatest threat to the Tsar now viewed similarly by Stalin. The scale of these investigations was immense, comparable to scrutinizing millions of Americans' personal histories and affiliations, with neighbors and colleagues compelled to accuse them. Stalin's consolidation of power was fueled by these orchestrated confessions, creating a cycle of increasing repression justified by the supposed intensification of class struggle.
Fabricated confessions and the erosion of reality
The show trials of the 1930s were characterized by increasingly implausible confessions and meticulously fabricated evidence. For instance, Eduard Hölzmann testified about arranging a meeting with Trotsky's son in Copenhagen, a city where the alleged hotel had been demolished years prior. This blatant fabrication highlights the regime's disregard for truth. Pyotr Grigorenko, a prominent Bolshevik, was compelled to confess to meeting Trotsky in Norway, a claim disproven by Norwegian press reports indicating no flights landed near Oslo during the alleged meeting period. Trotsky himself pointed out the inconsistencies, yet Grigorenko and 12 others were executed. Lenin's 'Testament,' a document critical of Stalin and urging his removal as General Secretary, was suppressed in Russia but published in Western newspapers. When Ivan Smirnov, aware of the Testament's truth, was put on trial, the prosecution used his imprisonment as evidence of his communication with Trotskyists, citing a discovered cipher. The absurdity of this 'evidence' was lost on the regime, which operated under a logic where questioning the party line itself was a capital offense. This created a system where loyalty trumped competence, leading to the persecution of experts, including meteorologists, linguists promoting pseudoscientific theories like Nikolai Marr's, bacteriologists, and astronomers whose work contradicted Marxist ideology. The Lysenko affair, which rejected Mendelian genetics in favor of a Lamarckian, environmentally deterministic view, led to global ridicule and false claims of scientific breakthroughs.
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Common Questions
Joseph Stalin, born Iosif Jughashvili in Georgia, adopted the pseudonym 'Stalin' meaning 'man of steel'. Before seizing power, the Bolsheviks engaged in 'expropriations,' which were essentially armed robberies to fund their activities, including a notable bank heist in Tiflis in 1907.
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Mentioned in this video
Born Iosif Jughashvili, he became a prominent figure in the Bolshevik Party and later the leader of the Soviet Union. His name means 'man of steel'.
Another of the three rulers of the Soviet Union after Lenin, he initially supported Trotsky against Stalin but was later purged.
A historian who documented the Soviet activists' methods of confiscating food, including searching homes multiple times and taking cooking utensils.
The assassin of Sergei Kirov in 1934, whose act was exploited by Stalin to initiate a widespread purge.
The leader of the Bolshevik party and the first head of Soviet Russia. His real name was Vladimir Ulyanov. He advocated for a global communist revolution.
One of the three rulers of the Soviet Union after Lenin's incapacitation, he later sided with Trotsky against Stalin but was eventually purged.
An anarchist who urged hungry workers to eat bread in America, contrasting with the Soviet Union's justification of starvation for executions.
Came to power in Germany in November 1932. Duranty claimed there was no real famine in the USSR around this time.
Publisher of The New York Times, he made the decision not to grant Walter Duranty a pension, despite Duranty's repeated lies.
A Bolshevik leader who was seen as a potential successor to Stalin. His assassination in 1934 was used by Stalin to launch the Great Purge.
A man who knew the truth about Lenin's testament and was later put on trial and executed by Stalin for allegedly conspiring with Trotsky, despite being imprisoned at the time.
A close associate of Lenin, he was instrumental in developing Bolshevik ideology. He later became an opponent of Stalin and was exiled from the Soviet Union.
A British journalist who investigated the Soviet famine independently and exposed the truth, contradicting Walter Duranty's reports. He was assassinated shortly after.
An old Bolshevik who testified during the 1936 trials, claiming to have arranged a meeting with Trotsky's son in Copenhagen, a claim later debunked.
Promoted theories rejecting Mendelian genetics in favor of Lamarckian inheritance, leading to the ridicule of Soviet biology.
Author whose novel '1984' satirized Stalin's use of Trotsky as a scapegoat for Soviet failures, similar to the character Emmanuel Goldstein.
A historian who described the harsh treatment of deportees, including stripping of possessions and abandonment in harsh conditions.
An occultist and magician whom Walter Duranty knew in his youth. Known for the phrase 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.'
A linguist whose pseudoscientific theories about language evolution were promoted as proletarian science, leading to the persecution of academics who disagreed.
New York Times correspondent in Moscow, known for his favorable reporting on the Soviet Union, including downplaying the Holodomor and winning a Pulitzer Prize.
A journalist and grandson of a Fabian Society founder, he used a diplomatic bag to smuggle his reports out of the Soviet Union, corroborating Gareth Jones' findings.
A renowned composer whose opera was condemned by Stalin, leading to the persecution of many in the artistic community.
The country where Joseph Stalin was born in 1878.
Referred to as the 'breadbasket of Europe,' Ukraine was heavily impacted by Soviet grain seizures and the resulting famine.
Allegedly conspired with Trotsky to restore capitalism in Russia, according to confessions during the Great Purge trials.
Allegedly conspired with Trotsky to restore capitalism in Russia, according to confessions during the Great Purge trials.
A faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party that seized power in the October Revolution. They engaged in secret and criminal activities, including bank robberies, to fund their party.
An academy offering lectures on existential philosophy and humanities, aiming to make students wiser, more eloquent, and more engaged.
The Soviet secret police, whose execution numbers were downplayed by Walter Duranty, who compared fearing them to fearing the US Department of Justice.
A prominent newspaper whose Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, downplayed the severity of the Soviet famine, earning him a Pulitzer Prize.
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