The Impact of Stalin’s Leadership in the USSR, 1924–1941

1924

Death of Lenin.
Stalin publishes Foundations of Leninism.

1925

Trotsky dismissed as Commissar for War.
Stalin argues for ‘Socialism in One Country’.

1926

Zinoviev expelled from the Politburo.
Stalin attacks the United Opposition.

1927

Trotsky and Kamenev expelled from the Politburo.
Trotsky and Zinoviev expelled from the Party.
Party agrees to collectivisation.

1928

Grain requisitioned by the Urals-Siberian method.
Trotsky exiled to Central Asia.
Zinoviev and Kamenev denounce Trotsky.
Beginning of collectivisation.
Shakhty show trials.

1929

Trotsky exiled from the USSR.
Stalin attacks Bukharin and the Right.
First Five-Year Plan.
Bukharin sacked from the Politburo.
Stalin becomes head of the USSR.

1930

Campaign against the kulaks accelerates.

1932

The Great Famine.
Zinoviev and Kamenev exiled to Siberia.
Proclamation of Socialist Realism.

1933

One third of Party members are sacked.
Second Five-Year Plan.

1934

‘Congress of Victors’.
The GPU becomes the NKVD.
Peasants allowed to have private plots.
Murder of Kirov.

1935

Arrest of Zinoviev and Kamenev.
Moscow Metro is opened.
Stakhanovite programme begins.
Almost 10 per cent of Party members expelled.

1936

Stalin Constitution adopted.
Show trial and execution of Kamenev and Zinoviev.
Yezhov becomes head of the NKVD.
Announcement that USSR has achieved socialism.

1937

Further show trials, including Radek.
Purge of armed forces.
Tukhachevsky and other leading officers executed.

1938

Bukharin, Yagoda and Rykov tried and executed.
Beria becomes head of the NKVD.
Third Five-Year Plan.

1939

Stalin declares an end to the Terror.
The USSR occupies eastern Poland.

1940

Trotsky assassinated in Mexico.
Annexation of Baltic States.

1941

The USSR is invaded by Germany.