Does Man Make History, Or Does History Make the Man

Yes, I know better than to use gender specific pronouns, but that was the question posed by LeRoy Musselman on the final exam for “20th Century Russian History” in 1975. I thought of the question because this is my birthday month and my birth year, 1953, was also the year of Joseph Stalin’s death. All of us have probably been thinking about Russia since its invasion of Ukraine three months ago, and this posting offers some insight into not-so-recent Russian history and how it relates to today’s events.

In 1917, Russia experienced two revolutions. In March, the first revolution culminated with the abdication of tsar Nicholas II and the end of the Romanov dynasty. Authority was assumed by a Provisional Government formed from the Duma, a weak parliamentary body that had been created under Nicholas in 1905 to forestall revolution. The Provisional Government envisioned a Constituent Assembly as its successor but was unsuccessful in establishing that body. The second revolution occurred in October.

The Provisional Government regarded itself as just that – provisional – and refused to take any substantive action addressing the issues of the state or its people, instead opting to defer to the soon to be created General Assembly. Meanwhile, Russia’s military effort in World War I disintegrated, discipline eroded, and desertions ensued. Unrest arose in agrarian areas as peasants began dividing the property of their landlords among themselves. Shortages of goods and high inflation occurred, and the borderlands embraced their own nationalism and sought autonomy. During this period, the Bolsheviks ensconced themselves with soviets - geographic organizations of workers, initially from the industrial sector and later spreading to other economic sectors. On November 6, the Bolsheviks began seizing areas of Petrograd (St. Petersburg), took control of Moscow a week later, and controlled most Russian cities within a month.

Several points regarding the period between the two revolutions are noteworthy. First, the Social Democratic Labor Party, which included Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Social Revolutionaries, embraced the Provisional Government but generally refused to participate in it. The Party viewed the government as an embodiment of capitalism, and under Karl Marx’ theory of economic evolution, capitalism must succeed feudalism, such as occurred under the Romanov Dynasty, before socialism could emerge. Thus, the Provisional Government was a necessary precursor to socialism. Second, the interim allowed numerous exiled revolutionaries to return to Russia, including Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin. Finally, during this period, Lenin issued his “April Thesis” which laid the groundwork for the October Revolution by labelling the war as imperialist and the highest stage of capitalism and also demanding that the Bolsheviks begin opposing the Provisional Government and instead, support the soviets. Also, the April Thesis sought to rebrand the Social Democrats as Communists.

Some revolutions are initially successful but ultimately fail because there is no body to assume the responsibility of governing in the aftermath. Before the revolution, Vladimir Lenin devoted considerable effort to how the party should behave once it had attained power, and he possessed the organizational skills to prolong the revolution’s gains. (This gives some indication as to how I answered Mr. Musselman’s exam question in 1975.)

At the time of the revolution, the authority to govern was derived from the soviets, and the soviets were structured as the instruments through which the Communist Party governed the country. The soviets assembled as numbered congresses (Congress of Soviets), which elected a Central Executive Committee, which elected a Council of People’s Commissars (cabinet) headed by a Chairman (often referred to as Premier). Vladimir Lenin became the first chairman in 1917, serving until his death in 1924.

This governmental organization roughly paralleled the party’s structure already in place. Since before the revolution (1912), the Bolsheviks had employed a Central Committee, elected by the party congresses to make broad policy decisions between congresses. This body continued after 1917. However, by 1919, the Central Committee had become unwieldy due to its size, and the Eighth Congress of the Party created a Politburo with a smaller size and a more frequent meeting schedule. Over time, the Politburo became the party’s central decision-making body. The Politburo, as well as the Party, was headed by a First Secretary (later General Secretary). In 1922, Joseph Stalin became the initial First Secretary, retaining that designation until his death in 1953.

After Lenin’s death, the post of Chairman was assumed first by Alexy Rykov (1924-30) and then by Vyacheslav Molotov (1930-41).  Stalin succeeded Molotov in 1941, becoming the first person to simultaneously lead the Party and government. The only other individual to hold both posts was Nikita Krushchev, who became the Party’s First Secretary upon Stalin’s death and became Premier of the Soviet Union in 1958 (see Lagniappe).

Krushchev was a “completely uneducated coal miner” from the Ukraine, who rose through the Party’s ranks by demonstrating Party management skills and gaining a reputation in agricultural policy. Under Krushchev’s rule, the Soviet exorcism of Stalin commenced, including the removal of Stalin’s body from the mausoleum in Red Square. In addition, Krushchev enhanced Soviet prestige with the launch of Sputniks I and II, assistance for Egypt’s construction of the Aswan Dam, and periods of détente with the West – Krushchev was the first head of a Communist state to visit the U.S., and he oversaw the installation of the White House/Kremlin hotline. These periods of détente were interspersed with periods of conflict including his dispatching Soviet troops to quash the Hungarian uprising in 1956, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

I was in the third grade at A.C. Steere Elementary School during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and remember preparing for a potential Soviet attack by storing gallon jugs of water in my school locker and performing air raid drills by diving under my desk. Barksdale Air Force Base, across the Red River from Shreveport, went to DEFCON 2 (war is imminent) during this time. Fortunately for the world, President Kennedy initiated a blockade of Cuba and issued an ultimatum to the Soviets to withdraw the missiles. By acceding, Krushchev initiated the end of his rule. His final two years in power were marked by disagreements and increasing tension with the Communist Chinese and poor agricultural harvests. In October 1964, the Party had enough, and the Politburo removed Krushchev and replaced him with Leonid Brezhnev as Party Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

I know I took a long time getting here, but the Poliburo’s replacement of Krushchev is this posting’s primary point. Say what you will about the shortcomings of the Soviet system, there was a mechanism for removing a head of state.

And of course, this history lesson evokes several musical reminders. If you have a fondness for “bad” music from the 1980s, maybe you remember After the Fire’s only hit. In 1982, the British band released Der Kommissar, which had originally been released by the Austrian singer Falco in German.

Lagniappe: In addition to Stalin assuming the dual posts of First Secretary and Premier, the border republics were also consolidated in 1922, giving birth to the Soviet Union, or USSR. And if you want more music, another British band had a song with USSR in its title.