Lenin control: religion, media and propaganda

by 1921, how many newspapers had lenin closed down?

2000

what key resource did the party have control/”monopoly” over during the civil war? and what did this therefore allow them to control?

stocks of paper

control over what was published and also education

from what year was lenin increasingly phtographed wearing a cap

1919

an eg of a poster produced to depict lenin as leading the rev and to try and increasingly rally support behind him and te comms?

1920- A spectre is haunting europe- the spectre of communism 

the cult of lenin lead to increased t___ within the people for him

trust

what would lenin and his legacy be used to do by all his successors?

they would appeal to his legacy in an attempt to legitimise their actions and their cults of personality

all wanted to be seen as legitimate successors

lenin believed that their r________ would l_____ the w______ people from the d________ of religion

rev

liberate

working

delusions

what was the dominant organised religion in lenin’s russia

the russian orthodox church

what organised religion did lenin hate the most?

give some reasons why

the russian orthodox church

the church was a very wealthy institution and so most priests lived luxurious lives and privilege whilst many working people were living in poverty

3 main reasons why comms were oppossed to religion and saw them as a threat?

• marx said it was “the opium of the masses”

• it stood for values that werent always compatible with comms

  • these groups were indep of state control and could potentially organise selves in opp to gov

context of religious and ethnic diveristy of sov union before persecution starts?

mlti-ethnic and multi-religious

large muslim communities in central asia

lithuania had a large catholic community

ext

what did the 1922 soviet constitution guarentee?

what did this mean de jure/ in theory?

BUT the reality/ de facto?

freedom of conscience for all sov people- a commitment to legal equality of all people regardless of their beliefs

BUT althoggh these rights existed in law, sov courts ultimately lacked the power to force gov to obey law

give an example of something lenin done in the first year of the rev to attack the orthodox church?

(think in retaliation to something the orthodox church done against bolsheviks?)

orthodox preists in moscow were massacred in jan 1918, after a church decree that excommiunicated the bolsheviks

in nov 1917, ann archpriest was murdered outside petrograd

what did the politburo issue in 1918?

SO what had happened in the next 2 years?

a secret order to the cheka which sanctioned the mass execution of priests

SO

in 2 years, most of the most pop orthodox priests were killed

who did lenin believe the orthodox church was an ally of?

the tsar, and therefore made them an enemy to the communists 

before the civil war, how were roman catholic priests treated and why?

deported, as lenin didnt see them as being part of the church that backed the tsar

(power and control wasnt as solidified/strengthened enough to ‘justify’ the killings of groups the party saw as s threat to them

what did comms soon encourage muslims to do (instead of persecution)?

comms were less a________ towards i____ than russian o______ c__________ as there had been no oficial l____ between islam and the t___

join the party

they were allowed to continue funding schools in muslim areas to

less antagonistic

islam

orthox christianity

links

tsar

what stopped during civil war (in terms of treatment towrads religious groups)?

mass executions, deportations, violence

after 1922, how did policies towards islam change and one reason why?

because islamic organisations had the loyalty of MANY in central asia and the caucasus so wanted to extend their own across it by destroying the religion

-clsoed mosques and turned them into things like sports clubs

-attcked islamic shrines

-opened anti-islamic museums

-ext

give BRIEF examples of moral,religious, cultural and ethnic crimes that the GPU policed during the NEP?

there were no l____ against these activities BUT the GPU ‘d_____ the i______ of the r_____’ and thus could a_____ act against p_____ class e______.

• imprisoned nepmen who had gotten too rich from trading goods around

• harrassed women who wore western styles

• persecuted young people for listenig to jazz

• persecuted preists

no laws

‘defended the interests of the rev’

arbitrarily act

percieved class enemies