Atlas / Comparisons / Bolsheviks vs Stalinism
Bolsheviks and Stalinism
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on EC, AU, SC, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | RSDLP(b) | Socialism in one country | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −09 | −10 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −05 | +03 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +08 | +10 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +10 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −07 | +03 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | +08 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
RSDLP(b) · CU −05
Culturally radical in the first phase: the most permissive family and gender law then in existence anywhere.
- Documented act or statuteDivorce on demand, civil marriage and the legalisation of abortion were introduced between 1917 and 1920.
- Documented act or statuteThe criminalisation of homosexuality was removed with the tsarist code in 1922.
Socialism in one country · CU +03
Coded positive despite Bolshevik origins because the regime reversed its own cultural programme after 1934.
- Documented act or statuteAbortion was recriminalised in 1936 and divorce made difficult; the 1936 constitution celebrated the family.
- Documented act or statuteMale homosexuality was recriminalised in 1934.
RSDLP(b) · ID −07
Internationalist and class-based rather than national: membership was defined by relation to production, not descent.
- Programme textThe Comintern was founded in 1919 on the premise that the revolution was not national.
- Documented act or statuteCoded −7 rather than lower because 'former people' were disenfranchised by class origin in the 1918 constitution.
Socialism in one country · ID +03
Coded slightly positive rather than universalist because of the deportation of entire nationalities.
- Documented act or statuteEight nationalities including Chechens, Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans were deported wholesale between 1941 and 1944.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1952–53 campaign against 'rootless cosmopolitans' targeted Soviet Jews explicitly.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
Bolsheviks
1903–1924 · Russia
A disciplined vanguard party seizes power in the name of the working class and imposes socialism from above.
Stalinism
1928–1953 · USSR
Forced industrialisation and collectivisation under a single leader identified with the party, the state and history itself.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
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