28, Political Authority 1945-50

High Stalinism 1945 - 1953 3

Culmination of regime

Peak authority, control had peaked

Embodiment of totalitarianism

What years are referred to as 'High Stalinism'?

1945-53

What significant event occurred on September 4, 1945?

The GKO (State Defence Committee) was dissolved.

What happened to Zhukov in 1945?

He was demoted to the military command at Odessa.

Who returned to the Party Secretariat in 1946 and challenged Malenkov's policy?

Zhdanov

What was the outcome of the investigation under Mikoyan in 1946?

Malenkov lost his position as Party Secretary.

What significant political event occurred in March 1946?

The Central Committee met to elect a new Politburo, Secretariat, and Orgburo.

Who continued to hold power as Head of Government and Head of the Party in 1946?

Stalin

What did Zhdanov and his supporters favor in 1948?

The Berlin blockade

What happened to Malenkov in 1948?

He was reappointed to the Party Secretariat.

What significant event occurred in 1949 regarding nuclear weapons?

The USSR acquired an atomic bomb, ending the USA Nuclear Monopoly.

What was notable about Party congresses from 1939 to 1952?

They were not held, and only six full meetings of the Central Committee were convened.

What was the status of the Politburo by 1952?

It was reduced to an advisory body.

What was the membership of the Party in 1952?

7 million members

How many members did Komsomol have in 1952?

16 million

Zhdanovshchina 2

A period of repression and purges between 1946 and 1948.

Many leading party and administrative officials were purged.

What cultural purge did Andrei Zhdanov launch in 1946?

Zhdanovshchina

What was condemned as bourgeois and decadent during the Zhdanovshchina?

Everything Western

Which satirist wrote 'The Adventures of a Monkey' that was condemned for being anti-Soviet?

Mikhail Zoshchenko

What was described as poisonous in the context of Anna Akhmatova's work?

Her poetry

Who was condemned for writing 'apolitical poems'?

Boris Pasternak

What was condemned in literary scholarship during the Zhdanovshchina?

The suggestion that Russian literature was influenced by Western thinking

Why was Dostoyevsky's work removed from sale?

His heroes lacked socialist qualities

What accusation was made against composer Shostakovich?

'Rootless cosmopolitanism'

Why was Prokofiev criticized during the Zhdanovshchina?

For 'anti-socialist' works

What happened to Prokofiev's income during the Zhdanovshchina?

It was curtailed

Which film by Eisenstein was criticized for its portrayal of the Tsar's bodyguards?

'Ivan the Terrible'

What did Zhdanov restate his support for in 1948?

The theories of environmentalist Lysenko

What subjects were governed by Marxist principles according to Zhdanov in 1948?

Maths, Physics, and Chemistry

What language did Stalin decide would be used after the socialist revolution?

Russian

What did Stalin publish in 1952?

His own views on economic theory

anti semitism 2

- last jewish newspaper closed down

- nazi atrocities portrayed without mentioning jews

foreign influence 3

- completely blocked

- foreign radio transmissions jammed

- only pro soviet foreign writers and artists were allowed to visit the USSR

Revival of terror and destruction of 'supposed opposition' 5

- excessive isolationism due to an obsessive fear of ideological contamination

- 1947 law opposing marriage to foreigners

- Beria responsible for vast expansion of the gulag system

- NKVD reorganised into MVD for domestic security and gulags and MGB for counter intelligence

- 12 million wartime survivors sent to labour camps

The Leningrad case 1949

- Stalin took a stand against the Leningrad party, which had showed independence in its views. On the basis of false evidence, several leading officials were arrested and executed

Police procuracy

A government office responsible for ensuring all government ministries obeyed the law

Anti semitism round DOS 3

- Stalin became suspicious of Jews after Israel turned out to be pro USA, fearing that all Jews within the USSR were potential enemies

- director of Jewish theatre in Moscow was mysteriously killed in 1948, MVD thought to be responsible

- Jewish wives of some politburo members were arrested eg Molotov and Kalinin

Georgian Purge (1951-52) 3

- aimed at weakening the authority of Beria

- directed against the followers of Beria

-accused of collaboration of Western powers

The doctors Plot 1952 6

- doctors accused of failure to treat Zhdanov professionally

- Stalin thought it was the Jews, in pay of the USA and Israel, trying the harm the party

- hundreds of doctors arrested and tortured

- thousands of ordinary Jews deported to remote regions of the USSR

- anti Jewish hysteria whipped up the press

- 9 doctors condemned and sentenced to excevution, but Stalin died before this would happen

Stalin cult of personality after 1945 2

- Stalin built up his reputation of a warrior in war time, and retained a god like status

- this image was carefully cultivated by newspapers, books, films, radios, speeches. Any article or academic book had to be devoted to Stalins genius

Stalin portrayed as a man of the people

Had not visited a peasant village or a kolkhoz for 25 years

Spent most of his later years in his dacha

Stalin being glazed 3

- towns vied to use stalin's name

- on his 70th birthday, a giant portrait of him was suspended in the sky

- monuments to him appeared all over the USSR, deluxe ones made in copper

The power vacuum on Stalins death 5

1952 - Stalin became increasingly frail in his last year of life, spending much of his time watching films and enjoying all night drinking sessions with his wartime cronies

1952 October - Stalin called a party congress at which Malenkov and Khrushchev delivered the main speeches. Stalin's request to be relieved of his position as Party Secretary because of his age was rejected by delegates unsure of his intentions

1952 October - Khrushchev announced the Orgburo was to be abolished and the Politburo was to be replaced by an enlarged Presidium, which was seen as hints of preparation for another purge.

1953 March - Stalin's death left a nation politically demoralised. There were hysterical public displays of grief and crowds queued to see his embalmed body which was laid in state in the Hall of Columns within the Party Congress Hall in Moscow.

1952 March - A political leadership struggle was underway between prominent members of the leading 'troika' - Lavrenty Beria, Georgii Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov.