Theme 1 - Politics in USSR

Give three problems faced by the Provisional Government

• WW1 continuing

• Economic problems

• Temporary and unelected

• Other bodies competed for power

Give four early decrees passed by the Bolsheviks

• Decree on Land

• Decree on Peace

• Decree on Illiteracy

• Decree on Workers’ Control

• Decree on the Press

How did these early decrees help Lenin establish control?

Won popularity

When was the Cheka established?

December 1917

Who was the head of the Cheka?

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Give two ways that centralisation increased during the Civil War

• Greater control of the economy

• Decisions made by the Politburo and implemented down the Party hierarchy

• Increase in bureaucracy

• More centralised and authoritarian Red Army

What three policy changes did Lenin make in 1921?

• Ban on other political parties

• Ban on factions in the Party

• New Economic Policy

Give four reasons why the Bolsheviks won the Civil War

• Mass support and motivation and Whites lacking support

• Terror and discipline in the army

• Mass conscription and numerical superiority

• Recruited 75000 Tsarist officers

• Geographic/strategic advantage (eg. controlled central areas, industries, railways)

• Grain requisitioning (War Communism)

What was the official government called in the Soviet Union, and how was it supposed to be chosen?

Sovnarkom, elected by the soviets

What did the Decree on Workers’ Control do?

Allow workers to elect committees to run factories

What anti-democratic action did Lenin do in January 1918 and why?

Dissolved the Constituent Assembly, as the Bolsheviks had lost to the Socialist Revolutionaries

Give two main ways that the government changed during the civil war

• Increased centralisation

• Party became more powerful than state

What was the communist party bureaucracy called?

Nomenklatura

Give three ways that the Bolsheviks prevented political opposition in their early years

• Laws banning other parties

• Arrests and show trials

• Red Terror

• Preventing opposition newspapers

What two major rebellions did the Bolsheviks face in 1921?

Kronstadt and Tambov

Explain the structure of the communist party

At Party Congresses, they elected the Central Committee. who in turn approved the members of the Politburo

Give four contenders for leadership after Lenin’s death

• Stalin

• Zinoviev

• Kamenev

• Trotsky

• Bukharin

Give three reasons why Stalin won the leadership contest after Lenin’s death

• Ideology - socialism in one country

• Patronage

• Propaganda - seeing himself as a true Leninist

How did membership of the Party change in the 1920s?

• Lenin enrolment scheme - membership increased 500.000

• More interested in well paid joined than revolutionary idealism

• More loyalty to Stalin - he approved the list

Give three causes of the Great Terror

• Increasing discontent/opposition eg. industrial strikes 1932

• Criticism of Stalin from the Party

• Congress of Victors 1934

• Stalin’s paranoia (wife’s suicide, Kirov’s murder)

• Blame scapegoats for failure of 5YP

How were the targets of Stalin’s political terror different from Lenin’s?

Stalin purged the party itself

Give an example of a show trial under Lenin

Trial of the SRs in 1922

Give two examples of Stalin’s show trials, plus dates

• Trial of the 16 (Kamenev and Zinoviev) Aug 1936

• Trial of the Generals June 1937

Who was the head of the NKVD during the Great Terror?

Yezhov

Who were the two types of victims that suffered the most deaths/deportations during the Great Terror?

• Kulaks

• National minorities

Give two consequences of the Great Terror

• Destabilised the army, economy, administration

• National trauma

Give two ways Stalin ensured his own power during WW2

• Appointed rivals to key positions so they competed with each other

• Shifted power from party to state and back again

Give two ways Stalin promoted effective government during WW2

• Ended mass terror

• Created State Defence Committee (GKO) - centralised body to coordinate party and state structures

Give two examples of post-war terror

• Leningrad Affair

• Doctors’ Plot

How did Khrushchev outmanoeuvre Malenkov for leadership?

Khrushchev increased power of party over state and secured his own power base in the party

Why did Khrushchev give the Secret Speech?

• Restore faith in the Party

• Undermine rivals for leadership

• Make Party more effective

• Prevent more radical debate

• Moral reasons?

When was the Secret Speech?

February 1956

Give three things Khrushchev criticised in his speech

• The cult of Stalin

• Stalin’s performance in WW2

• Role of the NKVD in purges

What did Khrushchev not criticise in his speech?

• Stalin pre-1934

• Marxist-Leninist ideology

• Suffering of non-Party members (eg. kulaks)

Give two examples of how the Secret Speech encouraged protest

• Hungarian Uprising 1956

• Moscow state university demonstrations for multi-party democracy

What challenge did Khrushchev face to his power?

Anti-Party Coup 1957

Give two examples of Khrushchev going back on political de-Stalinisation

• Said in Dec 1957 that all communists are Stalinists

• June 1957 Central Committee revised the speech

When did Khrushchev further extend de-Stalinisation?

22nd Party Congress, Oct 1961

What were Khrushchev’s two other major political policies? Give examples of each

• Democratisation: expansion of Party membership, fixed terms for officials

• Decentralisation: abolished some central ministries

What was significant about the 1977 Constitution?

Article 6 - officially recognised power of Communist Party

How did Khrushchev and Brezhnev’s views differ on the progress of Soviet society?

• Khrushchev aimed to reach communism by 1980

• Brezhnev said they were in developed socialism

Give three parts of Brezhnev’s policy of restoration

• Collective leadership

• Stability of cadres

• Divide key posts in gov between supporters of Brezhnev and Kosygin

How did Brezhnev ensure restoration of the Party?

• Centralisation

• Ended split between industry and agriculture

• Article 6

How did Brezhnev’s power change over time?

Increased - moved against Kosygin, took role of head of state too in 1977. However, increasingly ill and unable to make decisions

Give one statistic to show stability of the cadres

80-90% of CC members kept their jobs 1966-71

How did Brezhnev emulate Stalin?

• Title of General Secretary like Stalin not First Secretary

• Renamed the Presidium back to the Politburo

Why did the stability of cadres encourage corruption?

It was very difficult to get sacked

Give two problems with the gerontocracy

• Generation gap - didn’t understand their people

• Illness and deaths in office - causing further incompetence

What year did Brezhnev die?

1982

Which two people succeeded Brezhnev?

Andropov and Chernenko