Nature of Government

Question 1

Who created the ‘Three Pillars of Tsarism’ and what were the pillars?

Answer 1

Pobedonestsev, Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Nationality

Question 2

How did Lenin alter traditional Marxism?

Answer 2

He believed that he could skip the bourgeoisie stage of the revolution by creating a dictatorship of the proletariat

Question 3

What did Stalin reimpose that Lenin had previously removed?

Answer 3

Superstructure, whereby his state would plan the road to socialism, Lenin had removed the old Tsarist superstructure

Question 4

What did Khrushchev revert to as part of De-Stalinisation?

Answer 4

He reverted to a more party-based ideology, removing the cult of personality around Stalin and freeing Society to express further opinions

Question 5

What was the Tsars’ initial system of government?

Answer 5

It had a Council of Ministers, Committee of Ministers, and an Imperial Chancery which essentially all acted as advisors

Question 6

What adaptations were brought in to the system of government after 1905?

Answer 6

There was only a Council of Ministers that passed laws through the elected Duma and State Council

Question 7

What were some failures of the Duma?

Answer 7

Elections to the Duma were through electoral colleges and many people were disenfranchised. The Tsar dissolved the first two Dumas within months as they did not support his ministers well. There were two more subservient Dumas

Question 8

How did Nicholas II reassert his authority in 1906?

Answer 8

He imposed the Fundamental Laws in 1906 and had Article 87, which allowed him to make decisions without the Duma

Question 9

What was the democratic looking system used by the Communists?

Answer 9

There were elections through village, town, provincial and regional Soviets to the All Russian Congress of Soviets. The cabinet ‘Sovnarkom’ would be chosen from that

Question 10

What was the reality of the democratic looking Communist system?

Answer 10

The party told Sovnarkom what to do. The Politburo dominated the Central Committee and orders were passed down and managed by leading cadres and approved nomenklatura

Question 11

What organised and controlled the party during Lenin’s reign?

Answer 11

The Ogburo and the Orgburo

Question 12

What was the Lenin Enrolment and in what year did it take place?

Answer 12

The Lenin Enrolment occurred in 1924 and was an attempt to get more peasants into the party, but in reality officials tended to be old bourgeoisie managers

Question 13

What did Stalin create in 1936?

Answer 13

Stalin created the new constitution which gave more theoretical powers and representation to minorities through the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities, but in reality he was still totally in charge through the Presidium

Question 14

What organisations did Stalin create to make his state all encompassing?

Answer 14

He created GOSPLAN for economic planning and COMECON and Cominform for International links

Question 15

How did Khrushchev adapt the Stalinist system of government?

Answer 15

He didn’t really change the system but removed old Stalinist supporters like Beria and gave more decentralised control to party officials, he kept the Presidium but there was more emphasis on the Politburo

Question 16

What did the Tsars have as a local government?

Answer 16

The Tsars had local government in the form of the Zemstvo but they had limited powers

Question 17

What were the Communist local governments?

Answer 17

The Communists had the Soviets but they were controlled by the party

Question 18

What was the judiciary under the Tsars?

Answer 18

The Judiciary of the Tsars tended to be the Senate, and they did have some trial by jury and non-bribery of judges but political cases were dealt with by the Tsar and Ministers

Question 19

How did the Communists enforce justice?

Answer 19

They legalised terror and followed revolutionary justice which led to events such as the Show Trials in the 1930s

Question 20

What did all leaders use to maintain order?

Answer 20

Repression, Reform and Censorship

Question 21

What were the Tsars’ secret police called?

Answer 21

The Tsars had the Third Section and the Ohkrana after 1881

Question 22

What were the Third Section used for?

Answer 22

They placed people in administrative exile or in prison as ‘Guests of the Tsar’ in Siberian camps

Question 23

What were the Ohkrana used for?

Answer 23

The Ohkrana worked similarly to the Third Section but used varied tactics, particularly sending in Agents Provocateur to sabotage opposition such as Father Gapon and Bloody Sunday

Question 24

What was Lenin’s form of secret police?

Answer 24

Lenin used the Cheka, led by Dzerzhinsky to administer the Red Terror and root out class enemies in the Civil War

Question 25

What was Stalin’s form of secret police?

Answer 25

Stalin reconstituted the Ogburo into the NKVD who led the Great Purges. There were 40m people passing through Gulags compared to the 3,900 in Siberia in 1901

Question 26

Who led the NKVD throughout Stalin’s reign?

Answer 26

Yagoda, who was purged, Yezhov, who was purged after he unleashed the Great Terror, and Beria, who was executed by Khrushchev

Question 27

What happened to the Secret Police under Khrushchev?

Answer 27

Khrushchev dismantled the NKVD and gave ordinary police powers to the MVD and international espionage became important for the new KGB

Question 28

What did the Tsars use the army for?

Answer 28

They crushed Bloody Sunday and the Lena Goldfields strike in 1912 with it

Question 29

How was the Red Army used?

Answer 29

The Red Army had 5m soldiers by the end of the Civil War and was used to requisition grain then and during the collectivisation process. Khrushchev used it more do deal with revolt in satellite states such as East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956

Question 30

How many officers did Stalin purge before World War II?

Answer 30

Stalin purged 40% of officers before World War II and arrested many more after the war due to fear of links to the West. War hero Marshal Zukhov was exiled.

Question 31

When did periods of Glasnost occur and what did this lead to?

Answer 31

There were periods of Glasnost under Alexander II, Nicholas II and Khrushchev, and in each case revolutionary material and periodicals increased dramatically

Question 32

How did Lenin spread Communist ideas?

Answer 32

He closed down all non-Bolshevik newspapers and used Pravda and Izvestiya to spread Communist ideas

Question 33

What restrictions did Stalin place on writers?

Answer 33

All were forced into the Union of Soviet Writers and forced to adhere to Socialist Realism, removing all western influences

Question 34

How did the Tsars use propaganda?

Answer 34

The Tsars rarely used propaganda apart from Portraits and the ‘Little Father’ idea spread by the Church. They stepped up after 1905 with things such as the 300 year Romanov Parade in St Petersburg

Question 35

How did the Communists use propaganda?

Answer 35

The Communists used a wide variety of media; films, art and music promoting Socialist Realism. The Stakhanovite movement also encouraged hard work for Stalin’s goals

Question 36

How was reform predominantly used under the Tsars?

Answer 36

Reform was predominantly used to appease opposition, such as the Emancipation, the October Manifesto and Stolypin’s Agrarian Reforms, although they did use it to modernise and try and catch up with the west economically and militarily

Question 37

How did the Communists use reform?

Answer 37

Reform tended to act as a repressive measure as well as being ideological, such as War Communism, the Five Year Plans and Collectivisation. Although there were altruistic reforms during Khrushchev’s era, with the Virgin Lands Scheme and De-Stalinisation. Only the NEP can be totally attributed to appeasing opposition

Question 38

How did the Provisional Government show that they desired political change?

Answer 38

Through the creation of the Constituent Assembly and 8 Liberal Principles, however it was run by ‘old school’ members of the Progressive Bloc in the Duma

Question 39

How did the Provisional Government use repressive measures?

Answer 39

They used Punishment Brigades and Kerensky assumed a more dictatorial role

Question 40

Who were some significant individuals who influenced leaders?

Answer 40

The Milyutin Brothers, Witte, Pobedonostsev, Stolypin, Trotsky, Rasputin, Dzerzhinsky, Kirov, Zinoviev, Beria, Kaganovich, Molotov

Question 41

When did the first Duma take place, and why was it disbanded?

Answer 41

The first Duma took place between April and July 1906, and was dissolved after the government made a statement that compulsory land redistribution was not an option, which angered the Duma whose more radical solution quickly gained press coverage, leading to Nicholas II disbanding it

Question 42

What were the consequences of the first Duma?

Answer 42

A new approach to dealing with dissidents was adopted, sparked by the arrest, trial and imprisonment of key Kadet and Labourist party members who had signed the Vyborg Manifesto. The approach to dealing with them became known as Stolypin’s neckties

Question 43

When did the second Duma take place and why was it disbanded?

Answer 43

It took place between February and June 1907, and the Tsar and Stolypin continued to mistrust the work of the Duma over land reform. When a Social Democrat member of the Duma was framed for attempting to arrange an army mutiny, the Tsar claimed that the Duma was subversive and dissolved it

Question 44

What were Justices of the Peace?

Answer 44

Landowners appointed by officials to maintain law and order at a local level. They worked in conjunction with the police

Question 45

What were Land Captains?

Answer 45

Landowners who were appointed form 1889 onwards, mainly to supervise the work of the Zemstva

Question 46

When did the third Duma take place and what benefits did it bring?

Answer 46

It took place between November 1907 and June 1912 and consisted mainly of people loyal to the crown, and during this period, major reforms strengthened the army and navy, and the judicial system was further improved with the reinstatement of Justices of the Peace and the abolition of Land Captains. For the first time, state-run insurance schemes were introduced

Question 47

When did the fourth Duma take place?

Answer 47

It took place from November 1912 to February 1917

Question 48

What was the Progressive Bloc?

Answer 48

The Progressive Bloc was a group within the fourth Duma, consisting of members of the Kadets, Octobrists, Nationalists and Party of Progressives, who challenged the authority of Nicholas II

Question 49

What happened to the government under the Provisional Government?

Answer 49

The Petrograd Soviet was formed alongside the provisional Duma committee, and this was the foundation of governance through a duel authority

Question 50

What was Soviet Order No. 1?

Answer 50

It gave the Petrograd Soviet total control over the Russian military

Question 51

When was the Third Section replaced with the Okhrana?

Answer 51

1880

Question 52

What was the army reduced to under Khrushchev?

Answer 52

It was reduced from 3.6 million to 2.4 million

Question 53

How many books were being published per year by the late 1950s?

Answer 53

65,000 books were published per year, twice the number that came out in the mid-1920s

Question 54

What was the total readership of newspapers by the early 1960s?

Answer 54

60 million

Question 55

When were the Zemstva created?

Answer 55

1864, with the Duma being created in 1870