ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the regime of Lenin, including its survival in the civil war and the implementation of political, social and economic changes. It deals with the succession to Lenin, the emergence of Stalin and the style of his dictatorship between 1929 and 1953. Stalin’s main interest was in domestic issues; he did not share Trotsky’s commitment to making the Soviet Union the centre of international revolutionary activity. The main connection was, however, with Germany, with whom the Soviet Union signed the Rapallo Agreement and the Treaty of Berlin. Relations between the Soviet Union and Germany deteriorated between 1939 and 1941, leading to Hitler launching Operation Barbarossa on the Soviet Union. The usual argument is that the Five Year Plans had built up the infrastructure which enabled Russia to outproduce Germany and to create new industrial centres in Siberia, beyond the reach of the German armies.
