rylan’s Reviews > The Russian Revolution from Lenin to Stalin 1917-1929 > Status Update

Relations with both the east and the west were bleak. However, under the direction of Litvinov, the latter was repaired with appearances in Geneva. With the Americans in particular, they were strengthened via the employment of their engineers to support the industrialization efforts. A digression on the Comintern's Bolshevization follows, before the chapter ends with a recounting of the Sino-Soviet conflict of 1929.

Maybe the most opinionated chapter in this entire work, if we're looking at the title 'Patterns of Dictatorship' alone. Here, the focus is solely on the internal politics of the CPSU, specifically the rise and fall of the 'Right Opposition'. There are several paragraphs delineating between the rule under Lenin versus Stalin, before this segment ends on drawing a lineage in statecraft from Peter the Great to Stalin.

As the first five year plan is rolled out, the question of what to do with the peasant came back to the forefront. Amidst increasingly high expectations of grain yields, collectivization was demanded and unleashed across the Soviet Union. This was done through the spread of the tractor, the development of both Kolkhozy & Sovkhozy, and the 'liquidation of the kulaks as a class'. Carr treats this episode as a tragedy.

The first five-year plan finally comes to fruition, but not without some difficulty. This chapter begins with a recounting of Gosplan's various drafts, and the ensuing conflicts with Narkomzem, Narkomfin, & Vesenkha. It is made evident that the drama with the latter in particular is behind the lofty estimates and the ambitious projects they serve such as the Dneprostroi. With the plan's initiation, NEP is fully dead.

Industrialization's governmental aspects are examined. Following up on his previous musings on party and state fusing into one, Carr takes a look at how the management and trade unions converged onto one perspective shared with the bureaucracy at large. Some economic digressing on wages and prices occur before the chapter wraps up with Bukharin's submission to Stalin and the completion of the first five year plan.

An appropriately-named chapter, as the troubles surrounding agricultural policy in the midst of political and economic strife presented a major dilemma to the planners. Conciliations towards the kulaks and mass industrialization increasingly clashed, but eventually the latter won out. Amidst cries of 'war communism's return' and a defiant peasantry, the dvor and mir began to see their replacement by the kolkhozy.

Following their crushing defeat, Kamenev and Zinoviev join forces with Trotsky. However, a 'lack of internal cohesion and mutual confidence' was quickly seized upon, and the would-be troika was soundly crushed. The 'united opposition' and its affiliates were made to kow-tow to a party line of near-absolute fealty, before being censored and dispersed across the country. Carr muses that party and state have become one.

Gosplan takes the stage in this chapter on the advent of economic planning. Underscoring its gradual growth in prominence within the bureaucracy is another of the many intra-party divides, with one school of thought being 'genetic' and the other being 'teleological'. This conflict was especially elucidated as the planners found themselves opposed by Narkomzem, Narkomfin, and the paradigm of market economy under NEP.

Seems like I forgot to give my summary on the 10th chapter after I first read it.

When this chapter's title refers to The East, it is primarily referring to a China mired in its 'warlord era'. Some lip service is given to other parts of Asia; a congress in Baku, some drama with Japan. Other than that, much attention is paid towards the USSR's relationship with the KMT (both under Sun & Chiang) and the nascent CCP.

Amidst all the domestic turmoil surrounding Lenin's passing and Stalin's rise, foreign relations with the West went through similar trouble. The contradictions within the British labour movement result in a notable degeneration of Anglo-Soviet relations. Conversely, Germany maintained its good relationship with the USSR, even in light of the Locarno treaty that allowed for its admission into the League of Nations.