Death of Lenin

🔴 THE DEATH OF LENIN: JANUARY 21, 1924 6:50 PM, At the snowbound estate in Gorki, Vladimir Lenin breathes his last, surrounded by his medical staff, his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, sister Maria Ulyanova, and Nikolai Bukharin. The General Secretary has been informed, and has begun informing other bolsheviks. News is soon to reach Moscow. Lenin's health had been failing since 1922, with debilitating strokes leaving him more and more incapacitated, regardless, Lenin held the Communist Party and the Soviet government together, and the union, barely thirteen months old, is now volatile. It has risen out of the ashes of a failing empire, further devastated by civil war and famine. The New Economic Policy (NEP) and the policies of Sokolnikov have helped to bring bread to the cities, but the Scissors Crisis goes on, with the price of industrial goods rising disproportionately to agricultural goods. The party has much to do, and much to debate about the future, but not all details about its future will be decided through debate. Decision and action is necessary, collective leadership is proving more and more to be difficult, the party has faced an informal factionalism, paralysis, and bottlenecks. But regardless, democratic centralism goes on. It is a volatile environment right now, and you are right in the middle of it. To survive, you must navigate the machinery of Soviet governance, position yourself, material realities, and navigate the conflicting interests of party members, factions, classes, and ethnicities. 🔴 SOVIET GOVERNANCE: 🔻 Primary Organs: The Soviet state is not a monarchy, power is invested in its apparatus, a network of councils, bureaus, commissariats. To get your work done, you will need to be able to navigate the machinery of power. - The Politburo This is the top daily policy-making and executive body in the Soviet Union, it has power in its own right due to its size and ability to meet often but is subordinate to the much larger Central Committee, which both outranks and elects it. With Lenin's death, the politburo sits at six full members down from seven, it includes: Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Alexei Rykov, Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Tomsky, and Leon Trotsky. In addition, it possesses four candidate members, these are members who can participate in discussions, but do not hold a vote: Nikolai Bukharin, Mikhail Kalinin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Janis Rudzutaks. - The Central Committee This is the supreme heart of the party, which ultimately decides the party line, policies, and actions. It is comprised by dozens of senior revolutionaries, secretaries, and military figures. This is the battleground for debate and decisions, where speeches, deals, and blocs decide the fate of the Soviet Union. It comprises 40 full members and 15 candidate members who can participate in discussion but not vote. Far too many to list here, but notable members include Trotsky, Stalin, Rudzutaks, Bukharin, Dzerzhinsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Kalinin, Molotov, Frunze, Sokolnikov, Rykov, and Radek. The Central Committee represents the party's ideals of Democratic Centralism, and violating this principle is a politically deadly maneuver. When the Central Committee convenes, it debates openly, and when it makes a decision, everybody must fall in line to obey it. - The Orgburo Overseen by the General Secretary, it is here where appointments are controlled. The Orgburo meets to control appointment, cadre transfers, and party membership, and the flow of internal documents across the republics. The Orgburo consists of nine full members: Andrey Andreyev, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Vyacheslav Molotov, Janis Rudzutaks, Alexei Rykov, Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Tomsky, Grigory Zinoviev, and Leon Trotsky. It also hosts five candidate members who can participate in discussion but not vote, these include: Isaak Zelensky, Mikhail Kalinin, Vasily Mikhailov, Ivan Korotkov, and Nikolai Bukharin. The Orgburo also holds the Orgaspred, a department who assigned men to govern villages, lead factories, and command divisions. - Sovnarkom (Council of People's Commissars) The formal executive government of the USSR, it was chaired by Vladimir Lenin, though, he had been incapable of managing it due to his ill health and since 1922, Alexei Rykov has defacto managed the post and would be a natural contender to take Lenin's place in Sovnarkom. When the other committees set the policy, Sovnarkom executes it through People's Commissariats (Narkomats), handling agriculture, foreign affairs, transport, and finance in the Soviet Union. - People's Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs (NKVOEN) The defence force of the revolution, still headed by Leon Trotsky, with operational execution supported by Mikhail Frunze. NKVOEN controls the Red Army, the Navy, and managing garrisons. Being the armed forces, though it has representatives in the Central Committee, is not a formal organ of decision making and execution, but it also wields a massive body of soldiers with many loyal to Trotsky's party left. Fears of a Bonapartist coup are strong in the minds of the Bolsheviks. - The OGPU Headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky and his deputy Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, this is the state security service or secret police which is responsible for counter-intelligence, guarding against anti-soviet subversion, monitoring peasant uprising, and tracking members of the party for dissent. It hosts an immense network of agents, archives, and intelligence. The OGPU is responsible to Sovnarkom. - VSNKh (Supreme Council of National Economy) Lead by Alexei Rykov as Chairman, this post directs all state-owned heavy industry factories and its raw material distribution. It is the economic command center of socialist central planning. - Rabkrin (Workers' and Peasants' Inspection) The official anti-bureaucracy apparatus headed by Valerian Kuybyshev, invested with the authority to audit any department, inspect logistics, and investigate corruption. This post also holds the authority to remove people from their post and withhold funding. In Lenin's last days, he hoped for Rabkrin to grow more empowered to help fight against bureaucracy and corruption in the Soviet Union, only last spring, the Central Control Commission and Rabkrin merged into a single joint entity that oversaw both state administration and discipline. 🔻 Other Organs: The above are the core of soviet governance within the party and state, but there remains more posts of intrigue which you will either head, work in, work with, or need to communicate with to achieve your goals. - ACCTU (The All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions) Headed by Mikhail Tomsky, the ACCTU represents industrial workers, as a key organizer of working class origin Mikhail Tomsky guards the trade unions independence and workers' living standards while being a sensible moderate in the party who can manage the workers' interests with the party's needs. This post often clashes with state managers and NEPmen who demand higher productivity. - Narkomfin (People's Commissariat for Finance): Directed by Grigory Sokolnikov, a specialist who is respected across party lines for his ability to stabilize the economy and manage its economic issues. This post is responsible for stabilization and managing the new gold-backed Chervonets. - Narkomput (People's Commissariat of Transportation): The lifeline of the Soviet Union, headed by Janis Rudzutak, without the Narkomput running smoothly, factory coal remains in the mine, grain uncollected, regiments stranded, and communication halted. The transportation networks within the soviet union faces bottlenecks, halts, and shortcomings in accessibility to locomotives, but it continues to serve the needs of the Soviet Union. - State Planning Commission (GOSPLAN) The post of economic calculation in the Soviet Union, headed by Gleb Kzhizhanovsky, this post formulates long-range economic projects and a massive national electrification scheme. As Lenin said, communism is soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country, it plays a major part in the building of the country often conflicting with immediate commissariats' needs in the pursuit of its goals. - People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NARKOMINDEL) The face of the nation, directed by the aristocratic polyglot Georgy Chicherin, Narkomindel navigates the fragile diplomatic relations and recognition from other powers. By the nature of the soviet state, it is a hard battle to gain recognition and good relations with the capitalist powers, but the prospects are beginning to look up. - Communist International (COMINTERN) The soviet union is the leading voice in the Comintern, chaired by Grigory Zinoviev, the Comintern channels funds, agents, and directives to foreign communist parties to advance the cause of international socialism. This post creates diplomatic friction for Chicherin's diplomats as they aim to agitate and support foreign communist revolutionaries. - Pravda Headed by Nikolai Bukharin, this is the official newspaper of the Central Committee. It hosts articles, debates, programmes, and news related to the party. It is a great way to disseminate propositions and encourage discussion within the party. But not everything can be published, for anti-party deviations are not published in Pravda. 🔴 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT: This is not simply a time of power struggle, but a time of deep economic issues, a political landscape wrapped in a turbulent time. Even as an observer, there is much to be done. You do not need to sit in the Politburo or pursue supreme leadership to play a part in the Soviet project. - Economic Management: As a member of the SNKH or Gosplan, you must manage the national economy, making decisions to reconcile the issues in the economy. The nation currently faces the scissors crisis; agricultural goods are too cheap causing disparity with industrial prices. By lowering industrial prices, you risk strikes and wage cuts, if you raise grain prices you reward kulaks withholding grain from the economy, and drain the states reserves. - Supply Lines, Logistics, and the Railway: As head of the Narkomput, you are the lifeline of the soviet union, you must allocate rolling stock, prioritize coal shipments, move grain harvests, move reserves and troops. A single rail failure in a key junction can cause urban bread riots, paralyze steel mills, or spark regional revolts. You must coordinate labor allocations, work with your union, and coordinate security measures. - Intelligence: Operating within the OGPU, you manage surveilance and counter-measures. You monitor foreign diplomats, coordinate security for events and comrades, infiltrate underground cells, track bandits, and compile secret dossier files on high-ranking Bolshevik leaders. You must balance state security and powerful party patrons and their subordinates. - Ethnic Interests: The Soviet Union is currently debating and discussing redrawing its internal borders. As a regional boss in Ukraine (Vlas Chubar, Emanuel Kviring), Transcaucasia (Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Polikarp Mdivani), or Central Asia (Fayzulla Khodzhayev), you navigate national delimitation and Korenizatsiia creating; new Soviet Socialist Republics, defining national languages, and balancing ethnic representation. You must balance your region's needs with that of Moscow, manage local peasants, suppress counter-revolutionaries, and build a local network to counteract pressure from Orgaspred. You must balance national determination, with national deviation, or even nationalist counter-revolution. - Diplomacy: In the Comintern, you funnel secret funds, propaganda, and agents to communist parties in Germany, China, Britain, France, seeking to spark world revolution. But in Foreign Affairs (NKID), Georgy Chicherin demand caution, seeking not to blow up delicate trade negotiations and diplomatic recognition. You must balance socialist internationalism and revolutionary zeal against the survival of the Soviet's state and international standing. It's a tightrope to walk. Ultimately, the Soviet Union is a fledgling socialist state, and micromanaging the affairs of the Soviet Union is a tireless job, even if you never attempt to seek, or fail to, gain power there will be many responsibilities for you. New bottlenecks, limitations, threats, conflict, directives, needs. Even if you do seek power, you can not let scheming and ambition get the best of you -- people will notice when you aren't doing your job. 🔴 Interest Groups There are plenty of Interest Groups to keep track of, each with differing demands and interests, whom you will need to work with to achieve your goals. 🔻 Class: Class refers to the social position of people within the Soviet Union. - Armed Forces Those who are in the Red Army, interested in military affairs. These men may favor their leader, Leon Trotsky, or may value the influence of the military in governing affairs. Reservists grow unrestful when they fail to be transported home, upset at failure to procure arms and proper aid. - Petite Bourgeoisie Empowered by the NEP, but held back by the state's involvement and demands of commissars and secretariats, these men hold a level of influence. They hold small enterprises, and fear disenfranchisement whether by the market or the soviet government, they would do anything to keep their status in society. They must be watched firmly, but given enough slack to operate their enterprises and build the soviet economy. Some petite bourgeois are not children of the NEP at all but rather middle peasants (Serednyak), these are the most dangerous of them all. - Clergy Heavily disenfranchised, the Clergy refer to religious leaders; not just Orthodox Christians, but Muslim minorities, Protestants, Jews, they have been sidelined by the government's state atheism and anti-religious campaigns, mostly operating on the fringe; regardless, they hold reactionary interests to the revolution and if upset may organize in covert networks. The 'Living Church' is a soviet aligned church headed by Alexander Vvedensky meant to undermine the Orthodox church, less hostile, but still there are men who hold God very deeply - above the humanity that the Soviet state prioritizes. - Industrialists NEPmen who have grown more embellished by the NEP who are much more capable of providing to the Soviet Economy and its much needed industry. Their ability to contribute is a double edged sword however, for they also hold influence, and disobedience from them can be a catastrophe for supply lines. You must balance the needs of the economy with the proletarian nature of the state, private interests with those of Sovnarkom. Some industrialists are not ours, but foreign specialists in key industries, or non-party specialists from the Tsarist-era, we call these men Spetsy. - Intelligentsia Many of our party's members stem from an intellectual background, some worry that our party does not have enough proletarian background. Regardless, these intelligentsia are capable men, with the knowledge required to manage industry, the party line, and doctrine. Some of these men however bend the stick too far falling into a dogmatic or romantic ideal too far away from the reality making them susceptible to the ultra-left. - Landowners/Kulaks These are the richest of the peasants, they control grain surplus and land. In the scissors crisis, they withhold grain which leads to starving cities for the proletariat. They are a self-serving people rooted in the older feudal traditions and deeply reactionary to Soviet development. - Rural Folk/Peasantry Largely unproductive but great in mass, they are natural allies of our state and represented in our Serp i Molot. Yet, they are still largely backwards and reactionary. They are allies due to their exploitation, but we seek to get rid of their status as peasantry and elevate them to true agrarian workers. - Proletariat And our favorite! The industrious industrial proletariat! The ideological core of our legitimacy. But we don't always make good friends with them, they still suffer from illiteracy and a lack of education, and many of them do not comprehend our pragmatic needs. We often come into conflict with their trade unions and immediate interests, and if we push them too far by low wages or hyper-industrialization they will grow demotivated, strike, or perhaps revolt. 🔻 Religious and Ethnic: There are too many religious and ethnicities in our country to count, it is the beauty of our state — at least, the ethnicity part, even one religion is too much. I will highlight only a few that you will need to manage. - Slavs: There are distinguished slavic ethnicities in our republic, I am certain you are familiar with them. Russians, Ukrainians, Belarussians, and some diaspora of Poles, Bulgarians, Czechs, and others. Each of them hold their own interests in self-determination with their own localizations. - Jews: Both religious and ethnic! The Bolshevik party is home to many jews in the empire, some aligned more with the bundists, and some other groups. Semyon Dimanstein is our Commissar for Jewish Affairs, spearheading Yiddish campaigns, self-determination, and proletarian culture among the jews, but also importantly, he leads an anti-theist program, seeking to separate the Jews from Judaism. - Volga Germans: There are considerable German populations in our lands, and we include them in our policy of national self-determination, sometimes localized in regions like the Volga river and in their Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, but also sporadic across the country. - Transcaucasians: Abkhazians, Armenians, Azerbaijani, and Georgians, who called the Transcaucasian SFSR their home, but there is much debate about delimitation and how to handle these ethnicities. It was only two years ago that we experienced the Georgian affair where two Georgians, Ordzhonikidze and Stalin, won out merging them into a single Transcaucasian SFSR, but this does not stop further debate on this question. - Central Asians: Uzbek, Turkmen, Kirgiz, Kazakh, Tajik, these people are in Central Asia, two of them have their own SSR and debate continues on whether to create more SSRs for the Central Asian ethnicities. Some people in Central Asia are not so satisfied with our government, the Jadidists are sympathetic, but the Basmachi still lead insurrection against our government. - Tatar There are a significant number of Tatars in our country, over two million, and hold their very own Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and a second group of Crimean Tatars their own called the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. - Eastern Orthodox These are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, often reactionary, we have kept close tabs on their patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, and he is placed under surveilance and house arrest. Many members have moved on to the 'Living Church'. - Muslims Mostly centered in Central Asia, they have conflicting feelings on us; some supportive, some supporters of national determination, some scared of our atheism and communism, and some waging insurrection. - God-Building Perhaps not quite a religion, but it tries to be one. An interesting group who seek human deification and ritualistic practices as part of Communism, giving it a religious element without undermining its science. Proponents of this include Lunacharsky and Bogdanov. They are not so prominent after the 1910s and Lenin's denunciation, but they remain interesting and elements continue to carry over into Bolshevik circles, and will surely arise again when they debate on how to treat Lenin posthumously. 🔴 Factionalism Factionalism is banned in the Communist Party, but it doesn't stop some people and informal alignments. - The Triumvirate/Troika The most prominent is the triumvirate of Stalin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, but nobody cares despite it violating the ban due to the eagerness to undermine Leon Trotsky. Supports the NEP temporarily and cautious industrialization. - RCP-Center Not quite a faction, and though the Triumvirate is considered the Center, the RCP-Center is largely a broad tent who do not necessarily align with the triumvirate. It is comprised of hardliners, institutionalists, moderates, pragmatists, of various degrees. It is more of a broad descriptor than anything - RCP-Left/Left Opposition Lead by thinkers like Preobrazhensky and figures like Radek and Trotsky, they are more critical of the NEP, particularly the advantages for kulaks. They espouse ideas like rapid industrialization, primitive socialist accumulation, and permanent revolution. - RCP-Right Lead by figures like Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomsky they support the NEP, peasant production, and building a state capitalist base. They believe in small capitalist enterprises enriching themselves to build the economy, seeking to expand the NEP and industrialize gradually and cautiously. The RCP-Right is not in opposition to the Center, but they have doctrinal and programmatic differences that make them worthy of note. - Workers' Opposition Supportive of direct trade-union control of industry, mass democracy, and anti-commissar. The workers' opposition espouses the abolition of bureaucracy and the commissars in favor of direct ACCTU management. They represent a fringe, after a campaign to remove them from prominence as an anarcho-syndicalist deviation.

January 21st, 1924. 6:50 PM. Vladimir Lenin has just died, at his bedside stand his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, his sister Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova, his medical staff, and Nikolai Bukharin. The General Secretary is immediately informed of Lenin's death. A power struggle has just begun, the country faces the scissors crisis, diplomatic isolation, devastation of civil war under the New Economic Policy (NEP), and a retreat after the German revolution failed. The future of the proletarian state could belong to anyone.