The Emergence of the Communist Dictatorship 1917-41 Flashcards

Question

What were Stalins steps towards leadership in 1928

Answer 1

Jan 1928 Trotsky deported to a remote spot near the Chinese border. Stalin announces a new left-leaning economic strategy that disagress with Bukharin. Some of Trotskys remaining supporters join Stalin because of this Sep 1928 In desparation, Bukharin contacts Trotsky and an alliance is considered but rejected as supportes on both sides are hesitant. Stalin accuses both men of factionalism

Answer 2

Feb 1929 Stalin has Trotsky deported to Constantinople Apr 1929 Bukharin removed as editor of Pravda Nov 1929 Bukharin and his supporters, Rykov and Tomsky, are removed from the Politburo Dec 1929 Stalin celebrates his 50th as the undisputed Soviet LEader

Answer 3

Lenins 'New Economic Policy' of 1921 had allowed some private enterprise ,wether this was temporary or not was at the heart of the ideological debates

Answer 4

Left as represented by Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev favourted abdoning the NEP. Bukharin, Ryok and Tomsky supported its continuance. Stlain fluctuated from left to temporary right support from 1925 to 28 back to the left due to bread shortages and high food prices

Answer 5

Russia was the only Communist State. Trotsky believed in the 'continuous revolution'. Stalin adopted 'socialism in once country' and that they should focus on a 'workers paradise'. This appealed to those who favoured stability

Answer 6

Many felt they should abandon the central leadership principle, instead seeking collective control . It was mainly forwarded to oppose Trotsky dominance

Answer 7

Allowed him to some extent to control buisness of the Politburo e.g. drawing up agenda for meetings

Answer 8

* Get his supporters into key positions * Party secretariats became Stalins men and decided how party members at lower levels voted

Answer 9

* Pack Congress with his own supporters * Deliver votes in congress e.g. Trotsky hostile reception from 1924

Answer 10

* got rid of potential Trotsky supporters * Supervised Lenin Enrolement when party membership doubled * Made sure new members were poorly ideologically educated and were likely to be loyal to Stalinism

Answer 11

Revolution Betrayed in 1936, Trotsky wrote that Stalin’s power in the 1930s rested on a vast ‘administrative pyramid’ of five or six million Party officials, which needed to be swept away by a new proletarian revolution.

Answer 12

1) Maximum 8 hour daily for workers 2) Social Insurance provides old age, health and unemployment benefits 3) Ban on opposition press 4) Decree on Peace and Land

Answer 13

1) Rights of the People of Russia Decree; gives **self-determination to minorities in Empire** 2) Abolition of titles and class ranks 3) Workers control of factories 4) Abolition of old legal system 5) Women given equality with men and right to own property

Answer 14

1. Military Decree to outlaw class ranks 2. Decrees on the Church 3. Nationalisation of banks

Answer 15

1. Workers control of railways 2. creation of Red Army 3. Church and State separated

Answer 16

1. Nationalisation of industry 2. socialisation of land

Answer 17

* All power rested with the all Russian Congress of Soviets; made up of deputies from elected local soviets across Russia * Central Executive committee of that congress was to be 'supreme organ of power' * Congress made resposible for electing Sovnarkom

Answer 18

1. Vote was reserved for the **toiling masses**. Members of exploiting classes (Businessmen, clergy and tsarist officers) were excluded from voting or holding public office 2. Workers vote was weighted in **5:1** against the peasants 3. Sovnarkom was officially appointed by the congress, but in practice chosen by the Bolshevik Central Committee 4. Congress could **only meet in intervals** - executive authority remained in hands of the Sovnarkom

Answer 19

Anger at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk merged with political opposition

Answer 20

1) Ideological; capitalist nations opposed communism 2) Force Russia back into the war 3) Defend their own interests (Bolsheviks refused to pay back money borrowed in tsarist times and nationalised foreign-owned industries)

Answer 21

1) **Geography**; Reds commanded the hub of communications, the armaments factories and the most densely populated regions of central Russia. The Whites were widely dispersed 2) **Unity and Organisation**: White Generals operated ad fought for different objectives. The Reds had a unified command structure 3) **Leadership**: Red Army became a well disciplined fighting force under Trotsky's leadership, White's had few competent 4) **Support**: Red Land policies prevailed over the White's association with traditional Tsarist policies 5) Other: Hostility to foreign involvement.

Answer 22

Cost of as many as 10 million deaths from hunger and epidemic disease

Answer 23

* Poles rose again and defeated the Red Army, leading to the **Treaty of Riga** (March 1921) which granted Poland self-rule along with Glacia and parts of Belorussia. * This independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was also confirmed

Answer 24

1. Creation of Politburo as new policy centre 2. 1921 Ban on Factions 3. 1922 new post of '**General Secretary**' created to coordinate its workings' filled by Stalin 4. Introduction of the **nomenklatura** system added to the Party's domination; Party elite had to aprove promotions 5. 1919 creation of the Orgburo to supervise the work of local Party committees 6. Local Soviets should **only consist of Party members**

Answer 25

* Government abandoned its earlier support for 'national self determination' as in the November 1917 decree * 1922 Georgian demands were crushed

Answer 26

* the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally established in December 1922, replacing the RSFSR. * In practice, the difference was minimal. * Although Lenin prevailed over Trotsky in creating a federation of republics on a similar footing, rather than imposing direct control from Moscow which would have mirrored tsarist imperialism, the states which made up the union were kept under very strict control.

Answer 27

Party Congresses were called less frequently - and **none at all were summoned between 1929 and 1952**

Answer 28

he controlled the more important appointments to the Party '**apparat**'. The apparatchiki in turn controlled the nomenklatura which meant Stalin commanded vast patronage over all of the important positions

Answer 29

membership almost doubled to one million

Answer 30

Further extensions increased the number of members to 1,677,910 by 1930 and 3,555,338 by 1933

Answer 31

younger and less educated urban workers and ex peasants who were less interested in ideological debate Attracted by Stalins nationalist policies and knew loyalty would bring benefits

Answer 32

relied on a vast 'administrative pyramid' of 5 or 6 million Party officials, which needed to be swept away by a new proletarian revolution

Answer 33

* Split up into 11 Soviet Republics with each having a **Supreme Soviet** * Supreme Soviet made up of Soviet of Union or Nationalities * Promised local autonomy to ethnic groups and support for national cultures and language * Promised 4 yearly elections with the right to vote for all over 18 (raised to 23 in 1945) * Vote reserved for the 'toiling masses' * Extensive freedoms; speech and arbitrary arrest

Answer 34

* Promised rights were largely ignored and central control over republics budget * Ignored rights of secession; Party leaders in Georgia purged in 1951 when planned it * Elections were not contested so the right to vote was just affiriming the choice of representative * Supreme Soviet only met for a few days twice a year

Answer 35

* Stalin was universally portrayed as Lenin's true disciple * Paintings, Posters and sculptures. Stalin as disciples of Marx

Answer 36

The *History of the All-Union Communist Party* (or the Short Course) was published as the main historical textbook for all educational institutions in 1938. It said Stalin assumed a major role in the October Revolution, while Trotsky or other old Bolsheviks were portrayed as 'enemies of the people'. Photos were doctored to remove Stalin's enemies and put Stalin next to Lenin.

Answer 37

The Book sold 34 Million copies in the Soviet Union by 1948

Answer 38

a very traditional sense of loyalty to the leader; the Red Tsar

Answer 39

* Stalin's rule was a personal one where he was **above the party** and no longer dependent on it * Not invincible outvoted in POlitburo in plan to replace Nikolar Yezhov with Georgii Malenkov as head of the NKVD in 1937

Answer 40

a form of 'state capitalism'; during this stage there would be a degree of state control but private markets would remain as an important feature of economic life

Answer 41

* Lenin's Decree on Land in October 1917 **abolished private ownership of land** * Decrees in November recognised **workers' control over their own factories** and gave them the **right to supervise management** through factory committeess

Answer 42

established to supervise and control economic development but Lenin remained cautious about nationalisation of industry

Answer 43

* Workers awarded themselves **unsustainable pay-rises** and **output shrank** when most needed * With more money than goods there was **high inflation** * The food shortages in town grew; citizens of Petrograd were **living on rations of just 50 grams of bread a day in February 1918**

Answer 44

A rapid centralisation of the economy under the threat of the Civil War and ensure army had munitions and food

Answer 45

The poor – regarded as allies of the urban proletariat The moderately poor– regarded as allies of the urban proletariat The Kulaks – “enemies of the people”. Had their entire stocks seized.

Answer 46

* Programme of **food requistioning** * Encouraged collevitvisation * May 1918 **Food Supplies Policy**; detatchments of soldiers and workers ensured grain was delivered; often brtualy confiscating peasants grains and detatchments kept some as a reward

Answer 47

* Labelled as **enemies of the people** * Had entire crop seized

Answer 48

* Hid crops, grew less * Murdered requistion squads * Forced use of Cheka

Answer 49

* By November 1920 nationalisation was extended to nearly all factories and businesses

Answer 50

* State Managers extended Working hours and ration-card books replaced wages. * Internal passboks stoped employees going back to the countryside * All private trade and manufacture was forbidden

Answer 51

* 1921 total industrial output had **fallen to 20% of prewar levels**

Answer 52

end of 1920 the population of **Petrograd 57.5% lower than 1917 levels** **Moscow was 44.5% lower**

Answer 53

* 1/3 of Land abandoned to grass and livestock was slaughtered in thousands * Harvest of 1921 produced **only 48% of 1913** causing widespread famine

Answer 54

Widespreadd Famine: 1913-21 Russia's population fell from 170.9 million in 1913 to 130.9 million in 1921

Answer 55

January 1921: Martial law declared. Some regular soldiers refused to take action. The Cheka was used to crush demonstrations. Soldiers refusing likely scared Lenin

Answer 56

* Tambov revolt of 1920 led by Alexander Antonov was a 70,000 man Peasant Army. Struggle continued until 1921 and spead across south-eastern Russia Over 100,00 Red Army troops were deployed who brutally put them down

Answer 57

* most loyal supporters of the October revolution * In March 1921 they sent a manifesto to Lenin demanding an end to one-party communist rule * The Red Army took 15,000 rebel prisoners and shot the leaders, denouncing them as 'White Traitors'

Answer 58

* 'Workers Opposition' group was set up under Aleksandr Shiyapknikov and Alexandra Kollontai and argued for greater worker control and removal of military managers. * Lenin claimed the Kronstadr revolt was 'the flash which lit up reality better than anything else' but it was proabably the coincidence of the many troubles of the 1921

Answer 59

* Nationaliation of transport, banking and heavy industry continued the NEP allowed for **private ownership of smaller businesses** (through cooperatives and trusts) and **permitted private trade** * Rationing ended and industries had to pay workers from their profits, ensuring efficient use of resources * End to the requisitioning of grain, peasants paid some grain as a tax but permitted to sell any surplus seen as ideological betrayal by rank and file

Answer 60

Peasants responded quicked than the town workshops and industrial cooperatives, creating a scissors crisis * A huge increase in grain supplies **brought down food prices** in towns * a lack of indsutrial goods for peasants to buy in exchange encouraged them to hold back their supplues * Consequently the government capped industrial prices and replaced the peasants' quotas with money taxes from 1923, forcing the peasants to sell

Answer 61

* By **1926 the production levels of 1913 had been reached again**, this brought with it better living standards and an end to the revolts and disputes * There were **favourable trade agreeements with Britain and Germany** * Nepmen traders flourished by buying grain and selling industrial goods across the country and the kulak class re-emerged

Answer 62

speculative traders who bought up produce from the peasants to sell in the towns and consumer items in the towns to sell in the peasant markets. Controlled about **75% of the retail trade in 1923**

Answer 63

* By 1927 the NEP was failing to produce the growth tha many leading communists sought and a war scare n the late 1920s made them nervous Industrilised central planning was suited ideologically

Answer 64

* Targets were **very ambitious** * Failure to achieve targets was a **criminal offence** * As a result all those involved went to great lengths to ensure that reported statistics showed huge imporvements- often way above targets originally set * Thus **corruption and faulty reporting** was built into the system from the outset

Answer 65

1. **Increase production by 300%** 2. Develop heavy industry 3. Boost **electricity production by 600%** 4. Double the output from light industry such as the chemicals production

Answer 66

* Electric, coal and iron output doubled while steel production increased by 33% * Massive infastructure such as Magnitogorsk was set up * tractor works developed in Kharkov and Stalingrad met farmer demand

Answer 67

* The targets for the chemical industry were not met and house builiding, food processing and other **consumer industries were woefully neglected** * There were too few skilled workers and too little effective ventral coordination

Answer 68

A gigantic steel plant built and a **town of 150,000 people** were created from nothing. Workers lived in communcal barracks and were subject to constant lectures and political discussions

Answer 69

1) Continue development of heavy industry 2) Put **new emphasis on light industries** such as chemicals, electrical and consumer goods 3) Develop communications to provide links between cities and areas of industry; 4,500 enterprises opened 4) Consolidate gains made in First Five Year Plan that had moved quickly

Answer 70

'three good years' 1934-6 * **Moscow Metro** opened in 1935, **Volga Canal** in 1937 and the **Dnieper Dam** extended to largest in Europe * Electricity/chemical indsutries grew; Metallurgy developed * **Steel output trebled**, **coal production doubled** and by 1937 the Soviet Union was **virtually self-sufficient in metal goods and machine tools by 1917** * Rearmament grew from **4% of GDP in 1933 to 17% by 1937**

Answer 71

* Oil production failed to meet its targets * despire some increase in footwear and good-processing there was still **no appreciable increase in consumer goods** * Emphasis on **quantity over quality** continued

Answer 72

1) Focus on the **development of heavy industry** 2) Promote **rapid rearmament** 3) Complete **transition to communism**

Answer 73

Spending on rearmament **doubled between 1938-42**

Answer 74

* other areas as **steel production stagnate, oil failed to meet its targets** * many sectors found themselves short of raw materials * Consumer goods were also relegated again to the lowest priority

Answer 75

**dearth of good managers, specialists and technicians following the purges** and an exceptionally hard winter in 1938 along with diversion of funds to defence Oil production fall led to a fuel crisis

Answer 76

* Accussed of the criminal offence of '**wrecking**'

Answer 77

* Managers **had to pay 'extra' to workers** who exceeded norms rather than use bonuses to invest in buisness

Answer 78

* Surplus graains needed to be exported to enable purcharse of industrial equipment and feed growing industrial fworkforce * Despite that **by 1927 peasants were not producing enough sparking a food crisis**

Answer 79

* criticised the free market created by the NEP as it was working towards the advantage of the peasants over the industrial workers and that the peasants (with their 'petty-bourgeois' attitude') were holding back the move to true socialism

Answer 80

a term used in a derogatory way to suggest the peasants were middle class or 'bourgeois' in outlook , thinking only of themselves and how they could make personal profits

Answer 81

* 1926: requisition og grain **producess only 50% of expectations** despite good harvest; grain is **likely being hoarded** * 1927: Grain Procurement Crisis from low state collections causing a **food crisis** in industrial towns

Answer 82

1928 Continuing problems lead to rationing in cities. Stalin supports seizure of grain and closing down of the markets in the 'Ural-Siberian method' . This brings unrest in rural areas 1929 'Ural Siberian' method is used throughout Soviet Union brining NEP to an end. Stalin **launches forced collectivisation**

Answer 83

announced he would 'annihilate the kulaks as a class' Stalin believed the grain procurement problems were caused by the kulaks

Answer 84

Red Army and Cheka were used to identify, execute or deport kulaks, said to **represent 4% of peasant households** In Reality around **15% of peasant households were destroyed** and **150,000 richer peasants forced to migrate to poorer land** as they killed livestock and burnt crops

Answer 85

work of **25,000 urban activists** to oversee collectivisation, backed by local police, OPGU and the military; **58% of peasant households had been collectivised** A decree on 1 February 1920 gave local party organisations the power to use necessary measures against the kulaks.

Answer 86

Up to 10 million people had been deported to Siberia or labour camps by the end of the collectivisation process

Answer 87

'**Dizzy with success**' blamed the hostility on local officials who were over-eager. Speech led to a slow down in collectivisation speed of collectivisation created such hostility that a brief return to voluntary collectivisation so by October 1930 only 20% of households were still collectivised

Answer 88

a collective operated by a number of peasant families on state-owned land, where peasants lived rent-free but had to fill quotas, Any surplus was divided between the families and each family had a small private plot

Answer 89

* Slower Pace * Establish 2500 machine tractor stations (MTS)

Answer 90

* They provided seed and maintained machinery to the kolkhozes while also **ensuring quotas were collected**

Answer 91

**10 million**

Answer 92

**25-30% of livestock** were slaughtered by peasants from 1929-33. Livestock numbers **did not exceed pre-collectivisation until 1953**

Answer 93

poorly organised by inexperienced Party officials with too few tractors, insufficient animals and a lack of fertilisers causing Peasants to have little surplus grain to share and little incentive to work hard

Answer 94

In Ukraine, thousands of extra officials rooted out hidden stocks to get grain at any cost to boost exports; **1.73 million tons in 1932, only slightly less than the following year at the worst period of the famine**

Answer 95

Conquest in his The Harvest of Sorrow puts his figure as high as 7 million peasants died

Answer 96

law of 7/8ths in 1932, anyone who **stole from a collective could be jailed for 10 years** (subsequently made a capital crime) Further decrees gave **ten year sentences for any attempt to sell meat or grain before quotas** were filed along with **internal passports** to prevent peasants leaving

Answer 97

52% of vegetables, 70% of meat and 71% of milk in the Soviet Union was produced this way

Answer 98

* road to socialism via industrialization; creating a new society superior to capitalism * Industrialization was the way to break through to socialism

Answer 99

1. **Military Strength** + Self Sufficiency -war scare in 1920s and 1930s increased Stalin’s fear of attack. 3. **Grain supplies** - end dependance on backwards agricultural sytsem 4. **Socilaist state** - Marxism could only be created in a highly industrialised nation, **1928 only 20% population were workers** 5. **Establish his credentials** - Stalin nneeeded to prove himself

Answer 100

1) Toz: where peasants owned their own land but shared machinery and cooperated in activities 2) Sovkhoz: Owned and run by state; paid a regular wage Kolkhoz: wheree all land held in common and run by an elected committee. All land, tools and livestock were pooled. Each household given its own private plot

Answer 101

1) Machinisation made larger farms more efficiently farmed; could also utilised modern methods 3) Easier to procure grain and ensured no hoarding 4) Socialist solution to agriculture

Answer 102

* shortages in 1929 made Stalin announce a policy of forced mass collectivisation * 1927 war scare forced an increase in the pace of industrilisation * Lot of support in urban working class * Credibility and Political battle with the rights * Looking at success of the URals SIberian Method * Long Term socialist plans of agrotowns

Answer 103

Simply not enough tractors, harvesters or fertilisers to carry out a high speed collectivisation programme

Answer 104

Up to 10 million people had been deported to Siberia or labour camps by the end of the collectivisation process

Answer 105

grain harvests dropped in 1930s when it was most needed and didn't recover to their 1928 level until 1935 which was only a bit above the 1918 level

Answer 106

10 million peasants were dispossesed between 1939-32 of whom around 2 or 3 million lives lost their lives Conquest estimates 7 million died from the famine

Answer 107

· Party didn’t want peasants have power over the state · In this sense they won · Party gained control of the villages and did not have to bargain with the peasants nay more, it established a system using local soviets and MTS of controlling the countryside · While harvest fell, State procurement did not; Dispossesed peasants fled to cities, providing labour · USSR didn’t get as much as expected because the Great Depression forced down prices

Answer 108

* Create a society without classes and based on the socialist man; publicly engaged and put community over individual * Collective class enemy was the burzhui and their way of life (byt)

Answer 109

creation of plain citizen (*grazhdanin*) while Party members were (*tovarishch*) comrades

Answer 110

* Former nobles or burgeoisie were forced to undertake menial tasks, had houses requisitioned and turned into kommunalka ( community living ) * 2 to 7 families shared a hallway, kitchen and bathroom with each family having a room

Answer 111

workers and soldiers receiving the most while essential professionals and civil servants like doctors got a lower rate and the burzhui barely enough to live on * Some sold their possessions but middle-class girls turned to prostitution

Answer 112

turning masses of the population into urban workers to destroy selfish capitalism

Answer 113

* During 1921 workers could be imprisoned or short if they failed to mee t targets Harsh living persisted during NEP little increase in wages

Answer 114

* 7 day working week and longer hours * Arriving late could result in dismissal and eviction Leaving a job or striking was illegal

Answer 115

**doubled**

Answer 116

wage differntials and payment by the piece giving opportunities for better housing * Workers could choose their place of work * Disciplinary rules eased

Answer 117

* Aleksei Stakhanov extracted in 5hrs 45 mins 102 tonnes of coal - 14 times the expected work rate * Competitions set up to emulate this across the country to gain the prestige of a 'shock worker'; **socialist competition**

Answer 118

* Socialist competition * Vacancies 'at the top' after purges * Wage Differentials

Answer 119

* Skilled labourers realised their value and were moving a lot to get competitive wages Only 17% of workers skilled

Answer 120

* Wage differentials and Piece Work - those who stayed in their job were given bonuses to reduce turnover * Training - training was poorly executed and rushed. Better quality in the second FYP * Toughness - absenteeism punished with eviction, dismissal and loss of benefits. Damage or leaving was punishable with prison. ○ 1938: labour books and internal passports were issued. * Forced Labour - **300,000 prisoners worked on the Baltic-White Sea Canal**. Anyone with a 3+ year sentence is forced into labour. In extreme conditions. Swelled in number during the Great Purges. * Propaganda and Encouragement - Stakhanovite Movement

Answer 121

- resorted to bribery and corruption to fulfill targets - favouritism with rations and bonuses - resentment from workers derived from stakhanovism ; those who failed to meet targets were branded as 'saboteurs'

Answer 122

- oversaw implementation - Prioritised meeting/beating targets - Placed pressure on managers and helped to gain scarce resources

Answer 123

* Living conditions remained primitive and cramped; inadequate sanitation and erratic water supplies Real wages increased during the 2nd 5yr plan but still lower in 1937 than 1928 which was only a little better than in 1913

Answer 124

1917 decree against gender discrimination and allowed women to own property - Recognition of only civil marriage and Divorce made easier - 1920 **abortion legalised** w free contraceptive advice

Answer 125

* Women expected to work for equality, yet this was misleading as women worked but also attending to all the household's tasks and the family needs * Spent a considerable number of non-working hours in food queues Girls were given same educational rights but double life made it a constant toll

Answer 126

* Stalin reverted to more traditional policies; due to fall in pop. Growth and fears of war 'Family' became the focus of a new propaganda wave where Stalin was the father figure with the replacement with the musuclar woman of the 20s with a more feminine family woman

Answer 127

1) Large fees introduced to deter divorce, added penalty that **men contribute 60% of their income to child support** 2) **Adultery criminalised** (names of male offenders put in the press) 3) **Contraception banned**, only permitted on medical grounds 4) **Tax exemptions for families of 6 or more** and bonus payment for every additional child up to 10

Answer 128

in work: female industrial workers grew from **3 million to 13 million** 1928-40 women in education **doubled**

Answer 129

150,000 arbotion to every 57,000 live births

Answer 130

In 1937 91% of men and 82% of women in their thirties were married, years 1928-40 saw a falling rate of population growth

Answer 131

* set up the Commissariat of the Enlightenment which provided **free education at all levels in coeducational schools** * new secondary schools which combined general education with vocational training * Most schools abolished textbooks and exams but there was a **fair amount of freedom** and physical punishment was banned

Answer 132

enrolement rates starting at 170,000 in 1927 reaching 812,000 by 1940

Answer 133

16th party congress 1930 eliminate illiteracy ensure primary compulsory - 3 million vollunteers recruited from the Komsomol to educate workers and peasants - 90% of adults attended literacy course and 68% literate

Answer 134

* Increasing vocational work, nationalism and military training * Schools responsibility of collectives and Unis put under Veshenka * **Quota system for working class abolished** giving an advantage for wealthier

Answer 135

teachers encouraged to set high targets and make students meet them or they'd be purged * Teachers were closely watched

Answer 136

* Only 3% of the 90% of middle class children finished it Dominated by wealthy 97% paid fees

Answer 137

By 1941 some 94% of the towns were literate and 86% in the countryside USSR produced very strong science graduates

Answer 138

Organisaiton for youth that taught communist value: * Free summer and winter camps * Members helped Party Campaigns in assisting the Red Army * Youth Newspaper ***Komonsolskaia Pravda*** * Offered chances for social mobility

Answer 139

Only **6%** as youth had other interests in Western Culture

Answer 140

Toleration: * 1917 Church+Muslim lands seized and Official Separation in 1918 with abolishment of Sharia courts * 1921 teaching of religion forbidden in schools * Patriarch of the Orthodox Church Tikhon **arrested in 1922** and his successor Sergius spent **first 2 years in jail** * 1923 League of the Godless condemned Bible stories and spread atheism

Answer 141

* 1932 introduction of 'uninterrupted 6 day working week' (each day had a sixth of workers off) meant Sunday Church Service disrupted * 1935, frequency of prayers, fasts and feasts reduced while the hijab was banned, Hajj/Umrah banned * 1936 Constitution criminalised the publication of religious propoganda

Answer 142

1941, nearly 40,000 Christian Churches and 25,000 Muslim mosques had been closed

Answer 143

57% of the population identified themselves as believers

Answer 144

* Decree of 1917 encouraged separatist movements as Finald opted to become an independent state and an **elected rada in Ukraine** * All major nationalities were given representation in the Communist Party * in 1926 Soviet Jews were given a special 'national homeland' autonomous republic in 1934. By **1941 about a quarter of the region's population was Jewish** * Early communists encouraged use of national language and **abolished all anti-Semitic laws in 1917**

Answer 145

Although in the civil war regime couldn't afford to lose the Ukraine or Georgia (Stalin repressed independence)

Answer 146

Stalinist policy veered towards greater centralisation and a Soviet identity and nationalism was only Russian Leaders of different republics put down as bourgeois nationalists if deviated from Moscow

Answer 147

* From 1928 learning Russian became compulsory in all Soviet Schools Russia was the only langauage used in the Red Army

Answer 148

* Finns (29-31 and 32-36) and Poles from Belorusia, the Ukraine and European Russia (32-36) * In 1937 Koreans in the far east of Russia were deported * divided central Asia into 5 separate republics and forced the migration of Muslim ethnic groups to weaken any loyalty

Answer 149

After annexation of Eastern Poland **1.45 million deported** and process repeated in the Blatic republics

Answer 150

Commissariat of Popular Enlightenment headed by Lunarcharsky Focus moved from ‘high art’ - ballet, opera, fine art and museums which was seen as bourgeoisie and elitist to ‘popular culture’ Many of Russia’s finest artist initially engaged in this socialist experiment creating the 1920's ‘silver age’ of Russian literature and poetry

Answer 151

only worthwhile if they served socialist ideology and the creation of a new socialist man. Creating 'socialist realism' and the Cultural Revolution of 1928-31 being enforced by the Komsomols

Answer 152

an attack on ‘bourgeoisie specialist’ and is seen as the start of the cultural revolution, that attacked old intelligentsia and bourgeoisie specialists.

Answer 153

all writers had to belong to the Union of Soviet Writers, similar bodies were established for musicians, filmmakers, painters and sculptors. Non-membership meant isolation and no oportunities for commissions These exerted control over what was created and by whom according to socialist realism norms

Answer 154

* Lenin after death was treated largely like a god * Stalin insisted against Krupskaya’s wishes Lenin be embalmed Lenin’s tomb became a shrine and in 1924 Petrograd became Leningrad Stalin was seen as a genius part of the natural progression from the genius of Marx, Engels and Lenin

Answer 155

* Universally portrayed as Lenin’s true successor * Father of a nation * Cult peaked after ‘Patriotic War’ * Photographs were doctored to put Stalin at Bolshevik successs and condemn enemies * **Red Corner** in most houses

Answer 156

* Benefactors – Those who prospered such as Stakhanovites, soldiers some of the young * Traditional defender of the people – he tapped into a traditional desire to believe in a benevolent leader harking back to Tsarist Russia Charismatic leader - He was honored much like traditional Christian saints, with shrines this was difficult to avoid especially by 1940s and many built into the charismatic nature of the image created of him.

Answer 157

A decree of April 1932 abolished all proletarian artistic and literary organisations and centralised all artists into a single union. **Avant Garde artists such as Malevich were excluded** , leading realist artists became very successful guided down the path to socialist realism. Socialist realism appeared first in 1932 at the newly founded Union of Writers in 1934. It was designed to show soviet heroes and be a glimpse into a brighter future

Answer 158

the director of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, a theatre director who spoke in his defence was seized and brutally tortured by the NKVD and shot along with his wife

Answer 159

Music saw a return to Russian classsical composers like Tchaikovsky and literature saw a return to Pushkin and Tolstoy * Folk culture was also promoted with traditional peasant arts and crafts praised linked to 'traditional' culture Contrast to previous persecution of Tsarist intelligentsia

Answer 160

* Moscow Metro of 1935 had 'stations of light' and symbols of 'all victorious socialism' Stalinist era brought solid classical imposing forms in Architecture

Answer 161

1) From other political groups 2) From opponents throughout the Empire; tsarists/peasants 3) Ideological opposition from bourgeoise and upper classes of society against whom the Bolsheviks had fought

Answer 162

* Civil war brought new wave of coercion against both real and assumed enemies, creating 'The Red Terror'

Answer 163

* 1918 assassination attempt on lenin justified an attack on the bourgeoise, Cheka rounded up thousands and names of 'accomplices' were obtained by torture * Sept 1918 sovnarkom gave cheka authority to find, question, arrest and destroy the families of any suspected traitors

Answer 164

* All remaining **SR and Mensheviks (500) shot as traitors** in Petrograd * Local cheka found hidden 'opposition' from Tsar's family to workers suspected of 'counter-revolution' * Merchants and traders (nepmen), professors, prositutes and kulaks all suffered

Answer 165

* Priests, Jews, Catholics and Muslims persecuted 8000 priests executed in 1921 for not handing over Church valuables

Answer 166

Estimated that between 1/2 a million to a million people were shot in the 1918-21 period

Answer 167

* In Kharkov, they put victims hands in boiling water and kept topping it up until the blisters became so bad the skin started to peel off In kiev, a cage full of rats was placed around the victims body, this was heated to make rats eat the victims body to escape

Answer 168

1921 Lenin ban on factions made debate and challenge impossible, especially from the highly centralised, authoritarian, one-party state that emerged from the years of civil war

Answer 169

* Extended use of Terror and class warfare, to destroy kulaks and enforce collectivisation * Sent 'bourgeois managers', specialist and engineers whom he accused of sabotage to labour camps e.g. Shakhty Show Trial, Industrial Party, Metro Vickers Trial * Expansion of Gulag system

Answer 170

* 1928, 53 engineers at Shakhty coal mine were given a 'show trial' where they were foreced to confess. **5 executed and 44 got long-prison sentences** 1933 Metro-Vickers trial, British specialists found guilty of wrecking activities

Answer 171

* By 1929 soviet prisons could no longer cope with the numbers * He recommended recpanding the Leninist labour camps by creating a new serios of camps of 50,000c prisoners each in remote areas of the North and Siberia where diamonds, gold, platinum nickel, oil, coal and timber were all to be found - economiic benefit * Housed over a million people

Answer 172

White Sea Canal joined the Baltic Sea and the White Sea * Dug cheaply with no power tools in freezing cold temperatures * Some 100,000 prisoners were employed on this task in 1932 but **nearly 25,000 died in the 1931-2 winter** * It was opened by Stalin in a blaze of publicity in 1913 but **since it was only 12 feet in depth, it proved useless to bigger shipping**

Answer 173

* Suicide of wife Nadeya and her having the 'Ryutin Platform'; deeply unhinged Stalin * Famine in Countryside and workers strikes brought critcism of Stalin's leadership * Bukharin re-elected to Central Committee and Emergence of 2 opposition groups

Answer 174

* Ryutin's was arrested and Stalin called for their immediate executions, but was overruled by the Politburo and in particular, by **Sergei Kirov**, the Leningrad Party Secretary. * 24 were expelled from the Party and exiled from Moscow while several other old Bolsheviks like Zinoviev and Kamenev were expelled and exiled, simply for knowing of the group * Ryutin was imprisoned and shot in 1937 * April 1933 he announced a general purge of the Party over the next 2 years and conducted a paranoid struggle in which over **18% of the Party membership were branded as Ryutinies and purged** * Most of them were new and Stalin was unsure of them

Answer 175

1. an informal group of 'old Bolsheviks' which included Leonid Smirnov, was discovered to have held meetings at which they had debated Stalin's removal but they were quickly arrested and expelled 2. A second group was led by Martemyan Ryutinan (former Moscow Party Secretary and a 'rightists') and their criticisms became known as the 'Ryutin Platform'. Ryutin even sent an appeal signed by prominent communists to the Central Committee urging Stalin's removal

Answer 176

* At 17th Party Congress Stalin announced that the 'anti-Leninist opposition' had been defeated * Bukharin had been defeated + Rykov, Tomsky, Radek and others who had challenged Stalin all admitted their errors

Answer 177

* Stalin received c150 negative votes; only 3 officially recorded * A split between maintain the pace of industrilisation and others, like Kirov, who spoke about stopping forcible grain serizures and increasing workers' rations. * Only 2 of the Politbburo firmly supported Stalin (Molotov and Kaganovich) while **Kirov received a long, standing ovation for his speech** advoating a more moderate approach * The title of 'General Secretary' was abolished and replaced with 'Secretary of Equal Rank', given to Stalin, Kirov, Andrei Zhdanov and Kaganovich

Answer 178

* Leonid Nikolayev murdered Kirov, who was a disgruntled party memner whose wife may have been having an affair with Kirov * Kirov's bodyguard and NKVD men were mysteriously killed in a car accident before they could give evidence and leading NKVD men were sentenced for failure to protect Kirov * But their terms were short and treatment was lenient 1938 Yagoda pleaded guilty to allowing Nikolayev to reach Kirov, although may have been said under duress

Answer 179

*Stalin claimed murder was part of Trotskyite conspiracy, led by 'Zinovieties' to overthrow the Party A decree published a day after giving Yagoda powers to arrest and execute anyone found guilty of 'terrorist planning;' **6500 people arrested due to this law** * Jan 1935 Zinovev, Kamenev and 17 otherrs arrested for terrorism (5-10 yrs imprison) * 843 former associates were also arrested 11,000 'former people' were arrested, exiled or placed in camps while 250,000 Party Members were expelled as 'anti Leninists'

Answer 180

* 1936 show trial of Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others * All 16 found guilt in a plot to murder Stalin, all executed with 160 accomplies * Further show trial of 17 prominent communists like Radek, sentenced to death

Answer 181

Sept 1936 succeeded Yagoda as NKVD chief and carried out the Yezhovshchina. 1938 he was under suspicion and replaced by Lavrenty Beria. Arrested and shot in 1940

Answer 182

* 1937: 8 senior military commanders including Mikhail Tukachevsky - heroes of civil war- tortured to sign false confessions and shot 767 of High Command arrested: 512 were executed, 29 died in prison, 13 committed suicide

Answer 183

* 3rd and Largest major political show trial took place in March 1938, 21 Bolsheviks were interrogated and Bukharin, Ryok and Yagodha sentenced to be shot Bukharin tried to defend himself ; shot

Answer 184

The purge of ordinary citizens as it spread to all classes and all towns

Answer 185

* Surveillance everywhere; ordinary citizens encouraged to root out hidden enemies even if ffamilies or friendss * NKVD employed reliables; who informed them

Answer 186

Leading Party Members -**70%** of the members of Central Committeee at the 17th Party Congress were **arrested and shot** - Molotov + Kalinin eventually excepted that their wives would stay imprisoned - Sergo committed suicide after a heated row with Stalin; last person to oppose - Old Bolsheviks were removed through show trials; **less than 10% of the Party Membership in 1939 had joined the Party before 1920**

Answer 187

Minority Nationalities - Leaders of national republics were charged with treason - In Georgia, 2 state prime ministers, 4/5 regional Party Secretaries and thousands of lesser officials lost posts - Around 350,000 people from minority ethnic groups put on trial, 140,000 Poles

Answer 188

Armed Forces - 8 senior generals, 3/5 marshalls, all eleven war commissars, all 8 admirals and their replacements were shot - All but one of the senior airforce, approximately 50% of the officer corps in all three services and a substantial numbers in military intelligence were also tried; many were shot

Answer 189

Managers, engineers and scientists High proportions of managers, leading scientists lost their positions, some were executed

Answer 190

Yagoda and **more than 230,000 NKVD put on trial**; most were shot

Answer 191

kulaks represented 50% of all arrests and more than half the total number of executions

Answer 192

Stalin used Yezhov as a scapegoat, accusing him of excessive seal * 18th Party Congress declared that 'mass cleansings' were no longer needed. 1.5 million cases were reviewed and reversed * Trotsky and Yezhov shot by 1940 so there was no one with a greater claim to leadership than Stalin * Quashing of sentences and release of prisosners helped restore faith in the system * Yezhov viewed as cause of the problems

Answer 193

1935-39 membership fell by a million due to arrests of which **600,000 were exeecuted** New members recruited in late 1930s who saw Stalin as the only possible leader

Answer 194

* Ultimate authority increasingly rested with Stalin; could avoid calling congresses * No independent insitutions, no rival power centres and younger officials, indebted to Stalin were placed in authority * Mistakes blamed on scapegoats like Yezhov **Nomenklatura** system of priveleges to reward loyalty concentrated decision making into few hands * However, Stalin relied on a highly bureaucratic system that relied on drive from local officials * Plenty of corruption, lying and even non-compliance at lower levels of administration + lack of innovation

Answer 195

* Intensified class warfare and political attacks even on leaders became violent and widespread under Stalin * Correction camps developed into gulags providing slace labour * Lots of evidence of rural hostility and some gave welcoems to invading Germans in 1941

Answer 196

* 1926-->1939, 17%-->33% population lived in towns * By 1940 **Russia took over Britain in iron and steel (400%) production** and wasn’t far behind Germany * Heavy industry development lay foundation for war success: 9 aircraft factoris construcred in 1939 between **1938-41 rearmament spending rose from 17.5 billion to 70.9 billion roubles**

Answer 197

* Yet **consumer goods were scarcer in 1941** than even under the NEP * **Quality was poor as bureaucrats prioritised targets**, while central planning w as inefficient at local levels * Purges of specialists and managers didn’t help - culture of fear * In 1941 the nation was still **producing less grain** than under the NEP * Insufficient attention paid to modern farming technologies

Answer 198

* Communist control of countryside grew; peasants living in kolkhoz and under supervision of Party Officials, and by the NKVD at each Motor Tractor Station * Increased urbanisation, expansion of town populations created a far stronger working class - the backbone of the Communist State * A new 'mass culture' developed by education, propganda, leadership cult, public celebration, arts culture and show trials * Quality of life didn’t increase substantially increase with low rations, poor housing and a lack of consumer goods * Internal passports, strict censorship restricted freedoms * Rather than a classless society there was a heirachal society with a priveleged elite organised around the party

Answer 199

'Stalinism' never entirely reshaped public opinion, Service said that through interviews with Soviet refugees said there was support for a State welfare and strong government, along with policies and strong gov., as well as pride in Soviet achievements, there was also a feeling of resignation to life's hardships, mingled with hope that one day things might get better

Answer 200

* Stalin was caught by surprise by the attack in 1941, had ignored intelligence and reports * Purges of red army from 1936-8 sapped strength and skill; Mikhail Tukachevsky who wass an exponent of massive tank operations and others had been removed. Shown in lack of intiative in Winter War with Finland 1939-40 * Stalin re-established dual command with political commissars; increasing party control but weakening combat performance * Most equipment was old design and Stalin insisted on traditional battleships and cruisers rather than aircraft carriers * However industrial growth meant that by 1941 SU was more than 100,000 rifles per month

The Emergence of the Communist Dictatorship 1917-41 Flashcards

(226 cards)