The Case of the USSR Lucan way University of Toronto What explains authoritarian durability Revolutionary Regimes among the most durable forms of authoritarianism in the modern era Average tenure of Revolutionary Regimes since 1900 ID: 271786
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Slide1
The Durability of Revolutionary Regimes: The Case of the USSR
Lucan way, University of TorontoSlide2
What explains
authoritarian durability?
Revolutionary Regimes among the most durable forms of authoritarianism in the modern era
Average tenure of Revolutionary Regimes since 1900:
31 years
Average tenure of
non-Revolutionary
Regimes since
1900:
16 yearsSlide3
Revolutionary durability in the face of severe crisis
Large scale famine
(USSR, China, N Korea)
Severe
e
conomic downturn
(Zimbabwe in the 2000s. Cuba in the 1990s)
Severe external pressure
(Russia after 1917; Cuba, Iran, Vietnam)Slide4
revolutionary regime
Authoritarian regimes that emerge
out of sustained,
ideological
, and
violent struggle from below
, and whose establishment is accompanied by
mass mobilization
and significant efforts to
transform state structures
and the
existing social order
. Slide5
Revolutionary regimes since 1900Slide6
Revolutionary Regimes
C
lassic
S
ocial
R
evolutions:
China
, Cuba, Iran, Mexico,
Russia
Radical
national liberation
struggles:
Angola
, Mozambique, Vietnam, Zimbabwe Slide7
A theory of revolutionary durabilitySlide8
Cohesive Party
Blood + Ideas = Unity
A
rmed struggle creates “
military ethos
”
Ideological
Polarization
creates “us and them” ethos
Defection = treason
F
ear of
counter-
revolutionSlide9
Strong and Loyal of army
Coups greatest threat to authoritarian
regimes
Creation
of new armed services
from scratch
ties security services to ruling party
fewer coupsSlide10
Destruction of alternatives
Not just institutions but societal context
War facilitates destruction of alternative power centers:
old army, church, other parties
Increased room for errorSlide11
The USSR:
a Durable Authoritarian regime
74 years
Multiple and severe crises:
Early death of founding leader (1922-24)
Famines 1921, 1932-3
War with Germany
Cold WarSlide12
USSR and the Communist party-state
Invention of the authoritarian party state:
Samuel Huntington:
CPSU the “
ultimate organizational weapon and the chief Bolshevik contribution to modern politics
.”
Slide13
What is to be Done?
(1902)
Revolution to be created by small, disciplined,
vanguard party
Lenin and Soviet durabilitySlide14
Party racked by indiscipline before 1917
Focus on
intellectual debate
Obedience to Lenin “
the exception rather than the rule
”
Local autonomy of party cells
BUT:
Bolsheviks
not “Leninist”
before 1917Slide15
My theory:
Origins
of Soviet durability
Bolshevik
radicalism
polarization
and civil
war
Extremely Disciplined Party
Powerful and Loyal Security Services
Destruction of alternative centers of powerSlide16
Bolshevik Radicalism
Break with Mensheviks in 1903
Immediate seizure of power
by Socialist Parties
Nationalization of land,
end of private property
Acceptance/Embrace of
Red TerrorSlide17
Bolshevik Radicalism and civil war
October Revolution creates challenge
to
domestic
and
world
capitalist order
Domestic
: Old army/bureaucracy, land owning class
International
:
Russia “
a Socialist oasis
on the middle of the raging imperialist sea.”
Slide18
Civil war and party discipline
Civil war “
formative
education
”
for the party leadership; almost all top leaders until the 1950s active in civil war
(1)
life and death struggle
convinces local
party officials to
seek
greater subordination to the center;
(2
)
the infusion of
new tougher cadres
: “leather jacketed thugs” Slide19
Civil war and the security services
Initially
– standing army not envisioned in Socialist state
Cheka
(KGB) a product of “
hasty innovation
”
Brutality
of civil war + Marxist
class war
Normalization of extreme brutality
Cheka
fused with party
Lenin: “
A good Communist is also a good
Chekist
”
Cheka
high
esprit de
corpSlide20
Civil war and destruction of alternatives
Old Army
After war: coopted, dead or in exile
Monarchy/landowners
Other
sociailst
parties
(SRs, Mensheviks)
Motivates destruction of SRs, Mensheviks
Polarization
self limiting
of Menshevik/SR oppositionSlide21
Postwar Soviet state
Miraculous victory
Small party in 1917
world’s first Socialist state
Isolated Internationally
International
pariah
War
scare
Isolated from rest of population
Kronstadt
rebellion 1921Slide22
USSR after the Civil War
Limited
economic
transformation
No Central Planning
“real” social revolution 1929?Slide23
Core elements of soviet system
THE PARTY
Quasi-religious conception of party discipline – ban on factions 1921
First mover advantage and succession struggle
Leather jacketed thugs
Slide24
Core elements of soviet system
THE KGB
Effective
:
Cheka
a “
vast and effective apparatus”
Brutal
: names of
Cheka
change but prerogatives and power the same
Stomach for violence against political enemies
Loyal
: strong ties to party
No coup attempt until 1991
Slide25
Core elements of soviet system
NO RIVALS
No serious organized opposition
Anti Soviet forces
“
exhausted and prostrate or
pulverized”
Room for error by regime
Slide26
Durability in face of crisis
Party discipline and succession crisis 1922-1924
Trotsky
: “My party right or wrong .. I know one cannot be right against the party ... for history has not created other ways for the realization of what is right”
Others support Stalin for fear of counter-revolution
Famine 1921, 1932-33
WWIISlide27
Conclusion
Not leadership
Ideas and
Violence
and durability