history essay plans

Stalins cult as different to Khrushchev and Brezhnev

1 Stalins cult was a tool to legitimise state terror and eliminate opposition

2 Khrushchev and Brezhnev used cults tp affirm leadership without same terror

3 Brezhnev- first among equals

how accurate is it tp say that the main reason for survival of su 1917-28 was due to nep

1 economic stabilisation- ended grain requisitioning, tax in kind

2 reduced opposition - allowed enterprises, reduced revolts eg khronstadt

factors beyond nep=

1 coercion and terror

2 political consolidation

economic weakness in fall of ussr

1 long tern economic weakness allowed defeat of nazis and growing economy - arms race at expense of other industry

2 stagnation under Brezhnev

3 Gorbachev perestroika and reform, rationalisation

collapse due to gorbachevs failed reforms perestroika and glasnost

1 perestroika weakened authority- wage rises, less productive

2 glasnost- party became unmanageable - rivalry was corrupt and wasteful, party under attack eg Katyn massacre

3 attempts at party reform - set to separate party and state as lines were blurred - promotion based on loyalty, emergence of factions

nationalism in the Fall of the ussr

1 ideological engine of collapse- glasnost provided surface for issues

2 Yeltsin architect of dissolution - had democratic legitimacy gorbachev didnt as 1st president of rsfsr

3 framework of systematic failure - economic paralysis