Peasants, enrich yourselves! A right opposition USSR TL.
The gulag archipelago
RousseauX
Donor
To pay for the import of industrial machinery the Soviets needed to generate more hard currency. To that end the liberators of humanity soon found themselves resorting to slavery.
The Soviet Union held vast stores of natural wealth such as gems, gold, and other precious metals. Those were highly valued commodities on the world market. However, they were often located in inhospitalible locations in places like Kolyma where few miners would voluntarily work in. [1] By the mid-1930s Soviet cities and mining towns were experience labor shortages, the state was not able to offer high enough wages to attract workers from the countryside where vast majority of Soviet population still lived.
At the same time, the arrests made against "class enemies" such as those opposed grain requisition had imprisoned hundreds of thousands. So the solution was to institute the GULAG (prison camp) system, where prisoners were used as slave labor to work some of the harshest and most dangerous jobs in the entire world. Seymon Berstein [5], a future Nobel laureate in literature who was sent to Kolyma, recalled that "the mosquitos swarmed over me as soon as we were dumped out of the train, they covered my hands, crawled up my sleeve and shirt until it felt like every inch of me was being biten. As soon as you killed a few, a hundred more would come."
Mortality rate in those camps were high initially, and remained high during their entire existence. However, they did decline as the Communist Party realized that the camps was an invaluable way of generating exports and hard currency for the state [2]. Therefore prisoner's lives should not be squander as it is a waste of resources. Conditions in camps were improved as a result, and the projects they slaved on were those that the Soviet economy needed the most instead of wasteful ones. [3]
While Inhumane, those measures did stabilize the current account balance [4] of the USSR. They permitted timely repayment of obligations and therefore allow the Soviets to continue the import of advanced industrial machinery. [6]
By 1936 as the world as a whole started to exit the great depression the Soviet economy has being greatly transformed from the war-torn agarian state it had being in 15 years ago. Right as the international situation became much more dangerous for Socialism.
[1] Labor shortages are much much worse otl due to much better conditions in rural areas: there isn't the incentive to move to cities that existed as the result of collectivization
[2] The need to preserve invaluable Labor means GULAG mortality rates are much lower than OTL
[3] Projects like Baltic-White Sea canal are not built ttl, or are built with machinery rather than prisoners
[4] balance of capital inflow/outflow
[5] That the Stalinist purge doesn't happen otl means Varlam Shalamov isn't sent to Kolyma ttl
[6] As per otl, Grain exports are exaggerated as the -only- way imports were paid for. The mining/export of precious metals were more important to pay for the imports of industrial machinery.
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The thing about grain is you max out capitalisation of gems mining rapidly. Whereas there’s a continuous series of dispossessable peasants in grain.
As far as the price of labour power and it’s capitalisation in gulag the argument here is absolutely correct. Higher base price of labour power due to successful agricultural resistance means reduced death toll as slave labourers are so expensive.
As far as the price of labour power and it’s capitalisation in gulag the argument here is absolutely correct. Higher base price of labour power due to successful agricultural resistance means reduced death toll as slave labourers are so expensive.
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ZenarchistI937
Monthly Donor
Interesting stuff! I just started my first timeline here on a similar premise but you've already taken it in a very different direction. Excited to see where you'll take it in the future!
RousseauX
Donor
Much weaker than Stalin, post-1957 Khruschev, late-Brezhnev or Gorbachev.
The best otl analogue is probably early-Brezhnev, when he was sharing power with Kosygin, Podgorny and Suslov.
Trotsky’s moment: The Spanish Civil War
RousseauX
Donor
In 1936 Spain elected a left wing popular Front government which resulted in a coup by right-wing generals such as Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco. The coup was half way successful: gaining control of key areas of the country but not Madrid itself. The result was a massive civil war between the left-wing "Republican" and right-wing “Nationalist” coalitions.
The initial Soviet reaction to the war was quite indifferent. Rhetorically Pravda supported the Republicans but the Politburo was still too focused on internal economic development to care much about Spain. Plus the Spanish Communist party was quite small and weak in the Popular front government, whereas Anarchists and non-Soviet aligned left-wing elements were dominant. Meaning the Soviets had limited incentive to get involved.
At a Politburo meeting discussing events in Spain, Bukharin expressed “Let the Bourgeois parties, Fascists and the Makhnovists [1] annihilate each other, this only buys us time to build Soviet power elsewhere”. Molotov concurred: “We are still dependent on the Capitalist powers for loans and technology, intervening so far west would provoke them and set back our industries. We must hide our strength and bid our time.” [2]
The Soviets might have simply sat out the war were it not for one man who refused to be swept from the pages of history: Leon Trotsky.
[1] Anarchists
[2] Taken from Deng Xiaoping's atitude towards foreign policy in the 1980s. With "Socialism in one country" as the guiding ideology, strengthening the Soviet state at home took precedent over spreading the revolution
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The POUM forces a Soviet intervention by inviting Leon to rant and rave in opposition to the FAI?
The POUM invites Leon in forcing the Soviet Union to intervene for the CP and FAI?
Leon rants and raves forcing the Soviet Union to intervene in support of the POUM?????
yours,
Sam R.
Soviet Union and Spanish Civil War
RousseauX
Donor
Trotsky viciously attacked the Soviets not only for their non-involvement in Spain, but also their continued commercial ties to Germany and Italy. [1] Writing “We now see the Capitalist roaders in Moscow collaborating with Fascists to crush the Proletarian revolution in Spain. The blood of workers and peasants are on their hands.”
In the fall of 1936, Trotsky announced the creation of the fourth internationale as an alternative to the Comintern, declaring “The working class of the world will not abandon our Spanish comrades in their historic struggle against Fascism”. He lent his prestige and pen to the effort to recruit “international brigades” to join the fight.
The material results of those efforts were quite modest: Trotsky’s arrogance and tendency to insult others made him unpopular even among leftists who agreed with his ideals. Some have even claimed that Trotsky’s involvement might have hurt the Republican effort through adding to infighting more than helped it.
Still, in a few months time several hundred leftists with varying degrees of Trotskyite sympathies [2] were equipped, given basic training, and sent to Spain to join the fight. Trotsky boasted of this, in the words of one commentator, “as though five-hundred thousand rather than five-hundred men have arrived in Spain”. Trotsky soon proclaimed that this was evidence that the fourth internationale and not the Comintern was the “real'' leader of the Socialist movement.
The effect of this was to provoke an outsized reaction from the Soviet leadership. Trotsky’s propaganda effort made the Politburo seriously worry about the ideological legitimacy of Soviet Socialism. As Premier Rykov said in a Politburo meeting: “We cannot allow Trotsky to seize from us the leadership of the revolution: we must demonstrate to the world that the Soviet state has not abandoned the struggle”. The decision was therefore made to intervene in Spain.
Suggestions that Trotsky be simply “eliminated” by the NKVD was unanimously rejected with “The party would abhor shedding the blood of an old Bolshevik”. [3]
At the Defense Commissariat, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky saw a golden opportunity. He and his staff had been developing the doctrine called “Deep Battle” which foresaw the heavy use of armored force and manoeuvre formations to break enemy lines. Spain looked to be a battlefield in which his theories could be tested, possibly against Fascist German and Italian “volunteers”. He had a regiment of tankists and their equipment ready to be sent to Spain, if only this can be done covertly.
Spain was not the only place where the red army would soon be tested, as an old rival starts a new war on the other side of the world.
[1] Who are intervening in Spain as per otl
[2] Mostly left-wing German/Italian exiles
[3] Stalin was the -only- party leader willing to break that taboo otl
In the fall of 1936, Trotsky announced the creation of the fourth internationale as an alternative to the Comintern, declaring “The working class of the world will not abandon our Spanish comrades in their historic struggle against Fascism”. He lent his prestige and pen to the effort to recruit “international brigades” to join the fight.
The material results of those efforts were quite modest: Trotsky’s arrogance and tendency to insult others made him unpopular even among leftists who agreed with his ideals. Some have even claimed that Trotsky’s involvement might have hurt the Republican effort through adding to infighting more than helped it.
Still, in a few months time several hundred leftists with varying degrees of Trotskyite sympathies [2] were equipped, given basic training, and sent to Spain to join the fight. Trotsky boasted of this, in the words of one commentator, “as though five-hundred thousand rather than five-hundred men have arrived in Spain”. Trotsky soon proclaimed that this was evidence that the fourth internationale and not the Comintern was the “real'' leader of the Socialist movement.
The effect of this was to provoke an outsized reaction from the Soviet leadership. Trotsky’s propaganda effort made the Politburo seriously worry about the ideological legitimacy of Soviet Socialism. As Premier Rykov said in a Politburo meeting: “We cannot allow Trotsky to seize from us the leadership of the revolution: we must demonstrate to the world that the Soviet state has not abandoned the struggle”. The decision was therefore made to intervene in Spain.
Suggestions that Trotsky be simply “eliminated” by the NKVD was unanimously rejected with “The party would abhor shedding the blood of an old Bolshevik”. [3]
At the Defense Commissariat, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky saw a golden opportunity. He and his staff had been developing the doctrine called “Deep Battle” which foresaw the heavy use of armored force and manoeuvre formations to break enemy lines. Spain looked to be a battlefield in which his theories could be tested, possibly against Fascist German and Italian “volunteers”. He had a regiment of tankists and their equipment ready to be sent to Spain, if only this can be done covertly.
Spain was not the only place where the red army would soon be tested, as an old rival starts a new war on the other side of the world.
[1] Who are intervening in Spain as per otl
[2] Mostly left-wing German/Italian exiles
[3] Stalin was the -only- party leader willing to break that taboo otl
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What effect would a right communist USSR have on the 28 Bolsheviks and Mao, will it lead to moderation of their platform?
You don't need to, I'm just confused as to how you reached the conclusion of a lesser Red Scare ITTL
Factor in everything else they've engaged in, It shows those who care for it that the Soviet Government is less interested in the exporting communism and more in securing trade. Also shows that a communist fifth column cannot simply count on Soviet support.
It was my thought process too.
But they would still want to export communism.
Wouldn't they???
RousseauX
Donor
The 28 has already being pushed out of power. They bore the blame for the military defeats the CCP suffered as per otl.
Whatever the ideology is: left or right, Mao does not tolerate challenges to his personal power within the party.
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