25 - Religion, Minorities, Propaganda And Cultural Change

Question 1

What did Marx famously describe religion as? Who was this statement meant to keep quiet?

Answer 1

“The opium of the people”

Lower classes

Question 2

What did Lenin recognise about religion in Russia? What did he flexibly allow?

Answer 2

They were very religious

Different religious worships

Question 3

Who launched a campaign to weaken the Orthodox Church’s powers? What happened to the Church’s lands?

Answer 3

Lenin

Seized

Question 4

Who were Church schools taken over by? What were monastries turned into?

Answer 4

Muslim schools

Schools, hospitals and prisons

Question 5

What happened to many Orthodox priests?

Answer 5

They lost their lives

Question 6

What places of worship did Stalin destroy? What did he confiscate?

Answer 6

Rural churches

Bric-a-brac

Question 7

What did Stalin’s anti-Rural Church perspective arouse? What did he label his opponents as?

Answer 7

Huge opposition

“Kulaks”

Question 8

How many churches were open for worship by 1940? What is this a percentage of in comparison to 1917?

Answer 8

500

1%

Question 9

What did the Bolsheviks promise for the ethnic minorities in 1917? Who opted for independence?

Answer 9

National self-determination

Finns

Question 10

How were minorities represented in the Communist Party?

Answer 10

As national minorities

Question 11

What kind of Tsarist laws concerning minorities were abolished? What language became more widely used as a result?

Answer 11

Anti-Semitic laws

Yiddish

Question 12

What did the Soviet Union become under Stalin? What had to be taught in schools from 1938 and primarily used in the Red Army?

Answer 12

A centralised state

Russian

Question 13

What Revolution led to a burst of artistic creativity? Who encouraged this?

Answer 13

October Revolution

Lenin

Question 14

What did Lenin believe solely about art and literature? Who was even more clear about this?

Answer 14

“Art and literature should serve the people”

Stalin

Question 15

What did Stalin want art and literature to promote? What did this mean by the 1930s?

Answer 15

Socialism

Conforming to Stalin’s standards

Question 16

What did Stalin believe writers were to people? What did he believe art was really about?

Answer 16

“Engineers of the human soul”

Shaping Soviet society

Question 17

What Union did all writers have to belong to from 1934? What were they meant to strive towards?

Answer 17

The Soviet Union of Writers

“Socialist realism”

Question 18

What did writers have to ensure their work could be understood by? What 2 things were the characters meant to politically represent?

Answer 18

Workers
Socialism and "class enemies"

Question 19

What writer praised Stalin’s 1st FYP? How did he describe it?

Answer 19

Maxim Gorky

“High-spiritual value”

Question 20

Where were anti-Stalin writers taken? What happened to many writers as a result?

Answer 20

Labour camps

They committed suicide

Question 21

Which composer had to famously tread a fine line after his controversial operas? What was an example of a controversial opera written by them?

Answer 21

Shostakovich

“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”

Question 22

What did Lenin and Stalin both appreciate in reaching the masses? What would they try and win the masses over with?

Answer 22

Propaganda

Socialism

Question 23

Which leader particularly exploited visual propaganda to make him appeal as a worthy successor? How did he portray himself?

Answer 23

Stalin

As a “father figure”

Question 24

What did Stalin claim to guide the masses through? What paradise was promised?

Answer 24

Collectivisation and industrialisation

Socialist paradise

Question 25

Who manufactured Stalin’s propagandist image? Who controlled this?

Answer 25

Communist Party machine

The media

Question 26

Which leader sought to become a political icon? What did he strengthen in turn?

Answer 26

Stalin

His political power