The Fate of the October Revolution Under Stalin - Professor Bob Service

When Lenin died in 1924, he had effected a temporary stabilisation of the Soviet order. But many political, economic, social and international trends grew more worrisome to Bolsheviks who still wished to preserve the gains of October. The solution that the Politburo adopted at Stalins suggestion was a comprehensive revolutionary offensive. It increased the powers of the state over society, but this was never wholly acceptable in the communist central leadership, and tensions contributed to Stalins Great Terror. The USSR became a great European power and helped defeat Nazi Germany but had October been saved or its foundations been destroyed? The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: