1.1b How did Stalin exercise control over the Communist party and the Soviet state?

Question 1

What did Stalin do to Trotsky to damage his reputation?

Answer 1

Tricked him into not going to Lenin’s funeral

Question 2

How did Stalin get congress on his side?

Answer 2

Packed Congress

Question 3

How did Stalin outsmart Zinoviev and Kamenev to remove them as opposition?

Answer 3

They tore each other apart in ‘lessons of October’

Question 4

What was Stalin’s very popular policy before he got into power?

Answer 4

‘Socialism in one country’

Question 5

What did Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev do that got them removed from the running?

Answer 5

United to form ‘united opposition’, allowing them to be accused of factionalism

Question 6

What policy did the leftists want to continue?

Answer 6

the NEP

Question 7

What were the leftist objective?

Answer 7

Waiting for the whole of Europe to fall to Communism after WW1 (permanent revolution)

Question 8

What was the Chistka?

Answer 8

Political purging

Question 9

What did the party secretariat do?

Answer 9

collected information on party members that could be to condemn them

Question 10

Under the Cheka, what percentage of the party were purged?

Answer 10

22%

Question 11

In what year did the Cheka become the NKVD?

Answer 11

1934

Question 12

What change happened when the Cheka become the NKVD?

Answer 12

Became more beuraucratic

Question 13

Why was there a purge in 1932?

Answer 13

To deal with problems from the 1st FYP

Question 14

What did Ryutin do as opposition to Stalin?

Answer 14

Issued a critical document on Stalin, accusing him of having a personal dictatorship

Question 15

Why were party officials critical of Stalin?

Answer 15

Due to unrealistic targets

Question 16

What did the peasant brutality cause?

Answer 16

Added peasant resistance

Question 17

Who received a standing ovation in criticism of Stalin?

Answer 17

Kirov

Question 18

What happened to Kirov after his criticism of Stalin?

Answer 18

He was assassinated by Nikoloyev who’d been government trained to shoot

Question 19

When was the trial of the 16?

Answer 19

1936

Question 20

What was the trial of the 16?

Answer 20

Zinoviev and Kamenev were accused of working as agents of Trotsky and the murder of Kirov

Question 21

What was the trial of the 21?

Answer 21

Bukharin and Rykov were accused of forming a ‘Trotskyite rightist bloc’ after writing criticism of the FYPs

Question 22

In what year did Stalin become ‘general secretary’?

Answer 22

1922

Question 23

How did Stalin gain the role of ‘general secretary’?

Answer 23

Nobody else wanted it because it was low down and boring but he worked his way up

Question 24

How did ‘general secretary’ benefit Stalin in his rise to power?

Answer 24

Gave him access to 26,000 personal files

Question 25

What was the Lenin enrollment and what was its significance?

Answer 25

An attempt to increase industrial workers in the party rank which Stalin supervised as 'general secretary'

Question 26

How did Stalin use Kirov's murder to his advantage?

Answer 26

Accused Zinoviev and Kamenev on jumped up charges to remove them as opposition

Question 27

What tactic did Stalin use to intimidate people in meetings?

Answer 27

Walked around the room whilst they were talking

Question 28

Who did Stalin catch out by using his tactic of walking around the room whilst they were talking?

Answer 28

Rychagov - commander of the airforce who criticised te quality of Soviet aircraft

Question 29

Why was Stalin's new constitution introduced?

Answer 29

To seem democratic and gain allies in the fight against Nazi Germany

Question 30

How did Stalin describe his new constitution?

Answer 30

"the only thoroughly democratic system in the world"

Question 31

What was the reality of the new constitution?

Answer 31

Only candidates from the Communist party could run in elections

Question 32

What was 'high Stalinism'?

Answer 32

The tightening of regulations after a slight relaxation for WW2

Question 33

Give 2 features of 'high Stalinism'

Answer 33

1. Terror increased to regain control | 2. Older generations of the government replaced by youth (specifically Beria)

Question 34

What was Stalin planning just before his death?

Answer 34

A purge of the Jews called the 'Doctor's Plot'

Question 35

What did 'high Stalinism' do to the Politburo?

Answer 35

Enlarged it and renamed it the Presidium