Theme 3 - Control of the People

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60 Terms

1
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Give two things Lenin did early on to reduce opposition to media

  • Decree on the Press (Nov 1917) - government could close down counter-revolutionary newspapers

  • Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press (Jan 1918) - censorship, Cheka punished journalists

  • Closed 2000 newspapers by 1921

2
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What measures did Lenin take to help spread Bolshevik propaganda?

  • Nov 1917 - state monopoly of advertising

  • All-Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) distributed all news

  • High circulation for Pravda

3
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What were the features of the early cult of Lenin?

  • Depicted as a modern day Christ following assassination attempt

  • Leader of the Revolutionary Proletariat

  • Man of the People

4
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What was the censorship office called and when was it established?

Glavlit (1922)

5
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Give two things Glavlit did

  • Banned books (housed in book gulags)

  • Employed professional censors

6
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How was censorship expanded under Stalin?

  • Purged works by Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trotsky

  • Edited Lenin’s works to remove statements favourable to Stalin’s rivals

  • 1928 - censored bad news (eg. natural disasters, industrial accidents)

7
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How was propaganda expanded under Stalin?

  • Rewrote Soviet history to emphasise Stalin’s role

  • Socialist Realist art

  • Cult of personality

  • Heroic Soviet workers (eg. ‘The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman’)

8
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How did the medium of propaganda change under Khrushchev?

More consumer culture - magazines, radios, TV

9
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Give an example of Soviet media not supporting Khrushchev

Magazines publishing letters about problems in Soviet society (eg. ‘The Woman Worker’)

10
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How did cinema change under Khrushchev?

Victory in WW2 and Civil War, but now about ordinary people rather than Stalin (eg. ‘Ballad of a Soldier’)

11
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What was TV used for under Khrushchev?

  • Celebrating the Space Race (eg. Yuri Gagarin 1961)

  • TV news show - ‘News and Mail’ (1961)

12
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How did film and TV change under Brezhnev?

  • More about working people and daily lives

  • About fashionable people living in luxury - encouraged consumerism

13
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How did Brezhnev use TV to help propaganda?

  • Limited coverage of the war in Afghanistan

  • Transmitted Brezhnev’s speeches

14
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How did media undermine Brezhnev’s rule?

  • Footage of him exposed how frail he was becoming

  • Western magazines increasingly available on black market - showed Western lifestyles

15
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Give two purposes of the cult of Stalin

  • Give him legitimacy as a leader

  • Create trust and respect for Stalin

  • Make them blame daily problems on local officials

16
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What was the ‘Myth of Two Leaders’?

  • Revolution and Civil War victory achieved by Stalin and Lenin

17
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How did Stalin promote the Myth of Two Leaders?

  • Edited two histories of the Communist Party (1938)

  • Altering photos to take out rivals

  • Socialist Realist paintings of Stalin and Lenin

  • Photomontages by Klutsis of leaders from Marx to Stalin

18
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Give two other features of the cult of Stalin

  • Vozhd (leader) - unlimited power

  • Generalissimo (war leader) - after WW2, focusing on Stalin as a military genius

19
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How was the cult of Stalin promoted?

  • Photos

  • Newspapers praised his wisdom

  • Parades on his birthday

20
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Give three features of Khrushchev’s cult of personality

  • Reformer who was completing Lenin’s work

  • Responsible for success in Space Race and Virgin Lands

  • Authority of literature, art, science, agriculture

21
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Give two reasons why Khrushchev’s cult of personality failed

  • Linked to failure of Virgin Lands Scheme and Corn Campaign

  • Highlighted foreign policy failures eg. Cuban Missile Crisis

22
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Give three features of the cult of Brezhnev

  • Continuing Lenin’s work

  • Military hero

  • Dedicated to world peace (détente)

  • Man of the people

23
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Give two reasons the cult of Brezhnev failed

  • Exaggerated role in WW2

  • Young people unconvinced by dedication to peace

  • Luxurious lifestyle

  • Subject of many jokes and cynicism

24
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Give three similarities between the cult of Stalin and the cult of Khrushchev/Brezhnev

  • All linked themselves to Lenin

  • Emphasised their role in WW2

  • Leader was focused on unity and loyalty during difficult periods (WW2, Cold War)

25
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Give three differences between the cult of Stalin and the cult of Khrushchev/Brezhnev

  • K & B were much less successful at winning respect from people

  • Stalin’s far larger scale

  • K & B never had such a total personal dictatorship

26
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Give two reasons Lenin disliked religion

  • Marx saw it as ‘opium of the masses’

  • Orthodox Church was wealthy and allied to the Tsar

27
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Give three religious minorities in the USSR and where they mostly lived

  • Muslims - central Asia

  • Catholics - Lithuania

  • Baptists - Ukraine

28
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Give three laws on religion that Lenin passed

  • Decree on Land - peasants could seize Church land

  • Separation of Church and State - Church land nationalised, religious education banned in schools

  • Constitution (1922) - freedom of conscience

29
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Give three examples of terror being used against religious groups under Lenin

  • Bishop of Kiev shot in Jan 1918

  • Orthodox priests in Moscow massacred

  • Politburo authorised mass executions of prietss in Nov 1918

30
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How did persecution of the Church increase in the Civil War

  • Confiscated property

  • Propaganda blamed priests for sabotaging relief efforts

31
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How was early policy towards Islam less confrontational?

  • Muslim schools still funded

  • Encouraged Muslims to join the Party

32
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How was religious policy changed after the Civil War?

  • Less executions/deportations, more subtle, indirect

  • Komsomol’s anti-religious propaganda campaigns

33
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What was the Living Church?

Claimed to be a reformed version of the Orthodox Church, deposed of Patriarch Tikhon

34
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Give two anti-Muslim policies of the 1920s

  • Closed mosques

  • 1927 - Campaign against the veil (aiming for gender equality)

35
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Give two anti-religious policies of Stalin

  • League of the Militant Godless - propaganda promoting atheism and science

  • Attacked Muslim priests and intellectuals

36
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why did Stalin make an alliance with the Church during WW2?

  • Increase patriotism (linked to Russian identity)

  • Comfort for bereaved families and soldiers

37
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Give two examples of how Stalin treated religion better during the war

  • Stopped anti-religious propaganda

  • 414 churches reopened

38
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What was Khrushchev’s approach to religion?

Revived anti-religious campaigns from 1958

39
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Give three examples of Khrushchev’s anti-religious measures

  • Closed 3000 churches

  • 1500 religious activists in gulags

  • Highlighted space program to undermine religion

40
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Give one way Khrushchev’s anti-religious policy failed

Marches and pamphlets circulated defending religion - new dissident movement

41
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Give two measures Brezhnev took towards religion

  • Institute for Scientific Atheism (1968)

  • Stopped anti-religious propaganda and Church closures

42
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What statistic shows the failure of Brezhnev’s religious policy?

20% of people calling themselves religious in 1960 and still in 1985

43
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When was the Cheka created and who was its leader?

Dec 1917, Felix Dzerzhinsky

44
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Who did the Cheka target?

All enemies of Bolshevism (including other socialists)

45
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What principle shaped and justified the Cheka’s actions?

‘Revolutionary justice’

46
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Give three ways the Cheka supported early Bolshevik rule

  • Requisitioned grain and prevented private trading

  • Extreme violence against enemies

  • Closed opposition newspapers

47
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Give three examples of continued terror under the NEP

  • Show trials of SRs in 1922

  • Made surveillance reports to the Party about moral problems

  • Deported professors and engineers in 1922

48
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How did Yagoda contribute to the growing terror?

  • Head of the NKVD 1934-36

  • Turned the NKVD against the Party

49
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What was the Great Terror also known as?

Yezhovschina

50
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How many people were arrested during the Great Terror?

1.5 million (10% of adult male population)

51
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What evidence is there that terror was directed from below?

Workers and peasants organised their own show trials of officials/factory managers

52
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Who became head of the NKVD in 1938?

Beria

53
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How did terror change during WW2?

  • Targeted ethnic minorities (eg. deported 460,000 Chechens in 1944, 170,000 dead)

54
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Give three examples of post-war terror

  • Interrogated 1.5 million Soviet POWs, most sent to Siberia

  • Leningrad Affair (1949)

  • Doctors’ Plot

55
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How did terror change under Khrushchev?

  • Ended mass terror, rehabilitated thousands of Party members and released many from gulags

  • Promoted popular oversight - people police each other

  • Psychiatric treatment of dissidents

56
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When did Andropov become head of the KGB?

1967

57
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What was the priority of the KGB under Andropov?

  • Control dissidents with minimum violence

  • Move from repression to prevention

58
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Give three ways Andropov carried this out

  • KGB Order 0051 to increase surveillance and actions

  • Established special branch ‘Directorate V’ in 1967

  • Expanded use of repressive psychiatry (1969) easier to hide repression

59
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What did Andropov begin in 1979?

Law and Order Campaign

60
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Give two policies Andropov used from 1982 to deal with discontent

  • Anti-corruption

  • Anti-alcohol

  • Operation Trawl - against drunkenness and absenteeism