Abstract
Molotov chaired the Central Committee commission that prepared for the XV Party Congress, December 1927.1 By the time that the Congress met there was growing anxiety about the grain collections. Stalin did not specifically admit this, but said that the rate of growth in agriculture was inadequate, and called for the ‘collective cultivation of the soil on the basis of a new and higher technique’.2 This marked a fundamental change in policy. Driven back to the forcible requisition of grain to solve the immediate crisis, Stalin committed himself to collectivisation and rapid industrialisation. The change in direction was an embarrassing volte face, although Stalin and his supporters tried to pretend it had always been their policy. It provoked widespread opposition in the party leadership, and the loyalty of his supporters, especially Molotov, was of key importance to Stalin.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Lewin, M., Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, pp. 200, 205.
Cf. Cohen, S. E, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography 1888–1938, London: 1974, p. 266.
Antonov-Osvyenko, A., The Time of Stalin: Portrait of a Tyranny, trans. Saunders, G., New York: 1980, p. 41. This story does not appear in the more recent Russian edition of the book, Antonov-Osvyenko, A., Portret Tirana, Moscow: 1994, nor is Stalin’s criticism apparent in XV s”ezd: sten. ot.
RGAS-PI, 82/2/136, 1; 17/3/666, 1; 668, 7. Chuev, Molotov, p. 451. For the policy see Carr and Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 1, pp. 53–4. Sotsialisticheskii Vestnik, no. 14, 23 July 1928, appears to be in error in saying that Molotov accompanied Stalin.
RGAS-PI, 82/2/136, 50–55. For the percentage of kulaks see Davies, R. W., The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia, vol. 1, The Socialist Offensive: The Collectivisation of Soviet Agriculture, 1929–1930, London: 1980, p. 26.
Tauger, M., ‘Stalin, Soviet Agriculture and Collectivisation’, Unpublished paper for XXIX conference of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution, January 2003, p. 29.
Carr and Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 1, pp. 168–70.
Ivnitskii, N. A. in Nesomov, A. N. et al., Problemy istochnikovediniya, vol. IV, Moscow: 1955, pp. 62–66, 82–7.
Molotov, V. M., ‘Partinaya liniya i khozyaistvennaya praktika’, Izvestiya., 5 August 1928.
Can and Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 1, pp. 621–2; Bourdiougov, G. A. ‘The Transformation of the Policy of Extraordinary Measures into a Permanent System of Government’, in Rosenfeldt, N. A. et al., eds, Mechanisms of Power in the Soviet Union, Basingstoke: 2000, p. 126.
RGAS-PI, 17/2/354, 18; Kislitsyn, S. A., Shakhtinskoie delo: nachalo stalinskikh repressii protiv nauchno-tekhnicheskoi intelligentsii, Rostov-on-Don: 1993, pp. 48–9, 52, 98.
Shimotomai, N., ‘The Defeat of the Right Opposition in the Moscow Party Organisation, 1928’, Japanese Slavic and East European Studies, vol. 4, 1983, p. 19.
Colton, T. J., Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis, Cambridge, MA: 1995, p. 198.
Quoted, Nebogin, O. B. and Samorodov, A. G., ‘Diskussii v Moskovskoi partiinoi organizatsii v 1928–1929 gg.’, Voprosy Istorii KPSS, no. 6, 1990, pp. 69.
Merridale, C., Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin: The Communist Party in the Capital 1925–1932, Basingstoke: 1990, p. 59.
Shimotomai, ‘The Defeat of the Right Opposition in the Moscow Party Organisation, 1928’, pp. 28–9.
Bessedovsky, G., Revelations of a Soviet Diplomat, Westport: 1977, pp. 177, 182–3. Cf. Duranty, Stalin and Co., p. 98.
Nebogin, and Samorodov, ‘Diskussii v Moskovskoi partiinoi organizatsii v 1928–1929 gg.’, pp. 85–6; Pravda, 4 December 1928.
Carr, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 2, pp. 97–8; Egorov, A. G. and Bogolyubov, K. M., eds, Kommunisticheskaya partiya Sovetskogo Soyuza v rezolyutsiyakh i resheniyakh s”ezdov, konferentsii i plenumov TsK, t. 4, 1926–1929, Moscow: 1984, p. 496; XVI konf.: sten. ot., p. 584.
Lazitch, B. and Drackovitch, M. M., Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern, Stanford: 1986, p. 321; RGAS-PI, 17/3/562,7; 583,4.
Ibid., p. 227.
McDermott, K. and Agnew, J, The Comintern: a History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin, Basingstoke: 1996, p. 78; Carr, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 3, pp. 193–5, 221, 227, 358, 447, 602–3; Lazitch and Drachkovitsh, Biographical Dictionary, p. 321.
Gomez, M., ‘From Mexico to Moscow II’, Survey, April 1965, pp. 119–21. On one occasion Gomez describes the VI Congress as ‘the Molotov Congress’, Ibid., p. 122.
Carr, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 3, pp. 451–2; Humbert-Droz, J., De Lenine a Staline: Dix Ans au Service de l’Internationale Communiste, 1921–1931, Neuchatel: 1971, pp. 341, 349–53, 356. Humbert-Droz, Swiss by birth was a member of the German party.
Carr, E. H., The Twilight of Comintern, London: 1982, pp. 10–11.
Ibid., p. 18; XVI s”ezd VKP(b) stenograficheskii otchet (hereinafter XVI s”ezd: sten. ot.) Moscow: 1931, pp. 407–8.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2005 Derek Watson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Watson, D. (2005). Stalin’s Lieutenant 1927–1929. In: Molotov. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230514522_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230514522_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-39109-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-51452-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)