The Stalinist dictatorship and reaction 1941-64 Flashcards
(131 cards)
1
Q
What were Stalin’s failures at the start of the war?
A
Had been warned by military intelligence agents and the British government that German forces were building up at the border.
Stalin caused confusion when he disappeared to his dacha for 10 days. Left announcement of war to Molotov.
2
Q
What was set up by the Politburo after the outbreak of war in June 1941?
A
The GKO (State Defence Committee exercised absolute authority over Party, state, military and economy)
3
Q
From July 1941, who had authority over war?
A
Stalin, ‘supreme war leader’
4
Q
When did the government relocate in the war, and where to?
A
In October 1941, as the Germans got dangerously close to Moscow the government was evacuated to Kuibyshev.
The Red Square Parade continued as usual.
5
Q
Who defended Moscow and when?
What did he also do?
A
Zhukov in November 1941.
He also led troops to Berlin in 1945.
6
Q
Who welcomed German soldiers?
What lost the Germans support?
A
Large numbers in national minority areas like Estonia, Latvia, Belorussia and Ukraine. Over 1m (250k cossacks).
Some fought in Russian Liberation Movement.
Nazi brutality lost support, policy to kill 75% and condemn rest to slavery.
7
Q
What was the government’s response to Germany threatening Stalingrad?
How many died because of this?
A
July 1942, order 227 ‘Not One Step Backward’ any soldier that fell behind or tried to retreat were shot on sight.
150,000 sentenced to death.
Penal battalions for those who broke discipline. Casualty rates c50%.
Blocking units with machine guns added to NKVD units to prevent desertion or retreat.
8
Q
Stalin’s response to national minorities in the war?
A
Dissolved Volga German autonomous republic, sent peoples to East.
Relied on deportation of ‘suspect’ ethnic groups including Crimean Tartars. 1.5m forced to uproot. Only 2/3 survived journey to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Siberia,
9
Q
What changed in the military during the war?
What about Party support in the military?
A
Emphasis on political education of the troops, downgraded role of political commissars and brought back special badges of rank.
By 1945, 25% armed forces Communists and 20% were Komsomol members.
10
Q
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% coal
A
63%
11
Q
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% iron
A
68%
12
Q
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% railways
A
45%
13
Q
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% arable land.
A
41%
14
Q
Which policy rendered much of farmland useless in war?
A
‘Scorched earth’ policy
15
Q
What did Russia do industrially to help minimise damage at the start of the war?
A
Soviet factories and workers were transported from west Russia and Ukraine to areas in the East between July and November 1941.
16
Q
What other measures were put in place to support the wartime economy?
A
5YP helped military production.
New railways built or redirected, linked industry to frontline.
People’s Commissars established to supervise each area of production.
Compulsory state orders allowed changes to take place in short time.
17
Q
What was the national expenditure redistributed to by 1942?
What was achieved by 1943?
A
Military share went from 29% to 57%
Munitions manufacture was 76% all production.
By 1943, industrial output and weapon quality exceeded Germany.
18
Q
What agriculture problems were there during the war?
What was relaxed?
A
Harvest of 1942 was a third of 1940.
Strict rationing and quotas on collective farms.
Peasants were allowed to keep private plots and sell produce.
19
Q
What foreign help was given to help with the war?
How many millions of tonnes of military equipment, vehicles, food etc sent?
Which scheme helped?
A
Unknown to the Russian people:
-UK and USA supplied war materials (tyres, lorries and telephones), 17.5m tonnes.
-Lend Lease Scheme of 1941, 11bn dollars of aid from USA.
By the end of the war 2/3 vehicles came from overseas.
20
Q
After the announcement of war, how many new recruits in Moscow?
A
120,000
21
Q
What new law increased the workforce for the war?
A
Dec 1941, all undrafted workers mobilised for war work. All men aged 16-55 and women 16-45 devoted to war work.
White collar workers sent to munition factories, pensioners encouraged to return to work.
22
Q
What measures were introduced during the war to increase production?
A
Overtime obligatory, holidays suspended, working day increased to 12hrs, avg working week 70-77hrs, normal for workers to sleep in factories.
Martial law in factories, unauthorised absence was classed as desertion punishable by death, severe punishment for negligence, lateness or absenteeism.
23
Q
How was army discipline tightened during the war?
How many soldiers were killed between 1941-45?
A
Offence to be taken captive and soldier’s family military ration cards lost.
8.6m soldiers (avg. daily rate twice that of allies)
24
Q
What proportion of USSR deaths in war were caused by starvation?
What helped a bit?
A
Over a quarter of the 25m USSR deaths.
Allies provided tinned spam, rations only given to those who turned up for work.
25
What did people in gulag camps help with regards to the war effort?
Death rate?
Airports, landing strips, roads, vital war supplies.
Death rate in 1942 was 25%
26
What was the propaganda angle for the war?
Any evidence?
'Great Patriotic War' connotations, people encouraged to sacrifice themselves for 'Holy Mother Russia'.
Patriotic, violent letters in Pravda- 'not say "good morning"... we must say "kill the Germans"' quote. Socialist anthem replaced with nationalistic motherland song in 1943.
27
What happened to churches during the war years?
How did Stalin use them?
Limitations?
Churches reopened, Russian Patriarch restored, clergy released from camps.
Used as a morale boost by Stalin, services were patriotic gatherings and sermons praised Stalin.
The church had no real autonomy and all Christian denominations under control of Orthodox church, which was under control of the government.
28
What changes were there towards women in the war?
July 1944, measures to combat low birth rate and war deaths: taxes greater for <2 children, abortion forbidden, divorce restrictions tightened, inheriting property reintroduced, mothers of >2 children 'heroines of the Soviet Union'
Womens workloads increased.
29
By 1945, what percentage of Soviet workers were female?
What about land workers?
How many were pilots, snipers etc.
50% Soviet workers
80% land workers
Over 500,000 in armed forces
30
What was the effect of the war on Stalin?
Reputation soared, national hero.
He was more paranoid: returning PoW sent straight from German labour camps to Soviet ones. Collaborationist Soviet citizens executed, cossacks virtually wiped out. Servicemen returning to USSR interrogated by NKVD in 'filtration camps' and 'subversive views' sent to gulags.
31
What was the effect of the war on the government?
War seen as triumph of Stalinist system, Stalin claimed it had 'proved its unquestionable vitality'. Reputation as great military power.
Retained regions occupied under Nazi-Soviet Pact and took more, creating satellite states in eastern Europe.
32
How was the war portrayed by Stalin?
Anything changed?
Victory portrayed as victory for system, not the people. To Stalin, vindicated direct, coercive mobilisation with no intention of running USSR any differently. Retained Head of Government and Party Secretary and chose virtually same Politburo as in 1939.
33
How many civilians died in the war?
How many soldiers?
19m
9m
34
How many towns destroyed in the war?
How many villages?
How many kolkhozes?
1200 towns destroyed
70,000 villages destroyed
100,000 kolkhozes wasted
35
What influence was introduced that had not been possible in the isolationist 1920s and 30s?
Western influence. Lend Lease and Western allies disproved propaganda of drab and dismal West. Hollywood films, Western books, Western music (esp. jazz), Western goods in USSR, new restaurants and commercial shops.
36
What worried Stalin after the war?
What did he do to counter this?
Membership was up meaning that Party was unreliable, and the reputation of the Russian military was too high for his liking.
Dismantled GKO, downgraded military hierarchy, gave himself MoDefence, downgraded high ranking military officers (eg. Zhukov). Recruitment of party fell.
37
What new sort of Party Member was established?
Move from 'old guard' (people with personal Marxist commitment) to 'new men' who waited to receive party policy rather than formulate it.
38
Give an example of the messy manipulation that Stalin introduced
Malenkov lost position as Party Secretary, Zhadanov became Stalin's closest advisor and launched Zhadanovschina.
Then Malenkov was reinstated as Party Secretary after Zhadanov favoured the Berlin Blockade of 1948.
39
How did Stalin reshuffle the government after the war?
What had not changed?
CC met in 1946 and elected new Secretariat, Politburo and Orgburo.
Stalin was still Head of Government and Head of Party.
40
What evidences the loss of Party authority under Stalin?
Party Congresses should have been held every 3 years, but were not held at all between 1939-52.There were only 6 meetings of the CC!
41
By 1952, there were nearly .... members of the Party and Komsomol had ....
Who did they recruit?
By 1952, there were nearly 7m members of the Party and Komsomol had 16m.
They recruited from industry again, rather than from agriculture.
42
How did Zhadanovschina start?
Two literary journals in Leningrad:
- The Adventures of a Monkey by Zhoshchenko because the monkey was considered anti-Soviet.
-Anna Akhmatova's poetry was describes as 'poisonous'.
The publishers were purged and the authors expelled from Union of Soviet Writers.
43
What did Zhadanovschina emphasise?
What became the norm again?
The conformity to socialist ideals and the cult of Stalin after the fear of Westernisation in the war years.
Socialist realism became the norm in literature, art music and film.
44
What was Shostakovich accused of during Zhadanovschina?
'Rootless cosmopolitanism'
45
Which musician was criticised during Zhadanovschina?
Prokofiev criticised for 'anti-socialist works' and was forced to compose Stalinist pieces.
46
Whose books were removed from sale during Zhadanovschina and why?
Dostoevsky because the heroes 'lacked socialist qualities'
47
What was encouraged during Zhadanovschina?
Anything that denigrated American commercialism, the treachery of the West or showed Soviet achievements/ praised Stalin.
48
What else was emphasised during Zhadanovschina?
Anti-Semitism, many Jewish drama and literary critics disappeared and the last Jewish newspaper was closed.
49
Who did Zhadanov restate support of and when?
1948, Zhadanov restated support for Lysenko whose ideas had been condemned by biologist before the war.
50
To what extent was Western influence blocked?
Completely! Non-Communist foreign papers were unobtainable, foreign radios were jammed and only a few 'approved' books were translated into Russian. Only pro-soviet writers could visit the USSR.
51
Why was there excessive isolation from the non-Soviet world?
What evidences this?
Concern over the Cold War and fears of ideological contamination.
Harsh treatment of returning PoW and a purge of foreign army officers.
52
What shows the climate of fear in the USSR?
What new law evidences this?
Within the USSR, a careless word or contact with a foreigner could land a person in the gulag.
February 1947, new law outlawing hotels and marriages to foreigners.
53
When was High Stalinism?
Who was Head of Security?
What other roles did he have?
What is he credited with?
Between 1945 and 1953.
Beria
Deputy PM and member of the Politburo.
Vastly expanding the gulag system.
54
What did the NKVD split into?
In 1946, split into:
-MVD (controlled domestic security and the gulags)
-MGB (controlled counter intelligence and espionage)
55
How many wartime survivors were sent to labour camps?
12m
56
How did Stalin deal with those who fell out of favour?
Removing them from history. Used airbrushing to remove old disgraced Bolsheviks from photos and wrote them out of history books.
For example, the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia.
57
When was 'The Leningrad Case'?
What did it involve?
1949. Several leading officials from the 'Leningrad Party' were arrested using false evidence. Included Head of Gosplan.
4 were executed.
58
Why did Stalin change his mind with respect to a Jewish state in Palestine?
What evidences anti-Semitism?
Initially favoured it, but changed to anti-Semitic stance when Israel was pro-USA.
The Director of Jewish Theatre in Moscow was mysteriously killed in a car accident in 1948, almost certainly arranged by the MVD.
Jewish wives of Molotov and Kalinin were arrested in 1949. Launched new campaign against 'anti-patriotic groups' affecting unis and cultural areas.
59
What case occurred in Georgia?
The Mingrelian Case (1951-2)
Purge in Georgia against followers of Beria (head of NKVD). It was an attempt to weaken Beria's authority as he was of Mingrelian ethnic extraction.
It had some anti-Semitic overtones too.
60
When was The Doctors Plot 'discovered'?
When were the doctors arrested?
What were they accused of?
1948 'discovered'.
Arrested in 1952.
9 doctors accused of 'Zionist conspiracy' to murder Zhadanov and Soviet leadership members. Stalin spread that Jews were using medical positions to harm USSR, had infiltrated Leningrad Party, the MGB and the Red Army.
61
What was the effect of the Doctors Plot?
Hundreds of doctors arrested and tortured. Thousands of ordinary Jews were deported to remote regions where new labour camps were established.
Anti-Jewish hysteria in press meant non-Jews feared hospitals and shunned Jewish professionals.
62
What was the turning point of The Doctors Plot?
Stalin's death in 1953. The 9 doctors who were sentenced to execution were re-examined and released. 2 had died.
63
After Stalin's success in the war, how was he portrayed?
Why was it ironic that he was presented as a 'man of the people'?
Example of cult of personality?
Achieved a god-like status and portrayed as world's greatest living genius in all areas.
He had not visited a peasant village or kolkhoz in 25 years, got all his info from films and papers and was misled by propagandists.
70th birthday, giant portrait of Stalin in the sky at Red Square.
64
What did Khrushchev announce right before Stalin's death that hinted at another purge?
The Orgburo was to be abolished and the Politburo was to be replaced by a larger Presidium.
65
When was the last Party Congress before Stalin's death?
What was it's significance?
1952
Malenkov and Khrushchev delivered the main speeches.
66
What was the effect of Stalin's death?
Left Russia politically demoralised.
Hysterical public grief, large crowds went to see his embalmed body.
There was no obvious successor: Beria, Malenkov, Molotov....
67
Who held which important roles after Stalin's death?
Malenkov became Chairman of Council of Ministers and General Secretary.
Khrushchev then became General Secretary a week later.
68
Describe Beria's downfall
Beria was advocating moderate policies including releases of political prisoners, foreign policy etc.
Malenkov and Presidium members conspired against him and arranged arrest in June 1953.
Secretly tried and executed in December, supporters purged.
69
Describe the downfall of the 'Anti-Party group'
Attempt to dismiss Khrushchev failed in 1957. Majority in Presidium agreed he should go, but insisted on CC vote.
Favourable people in Moscow for vote, Zhukov support against Malenkov, Molotov and Kaganovich.
Anti-Party group outvoted at CC, accused of involvement in 1930s purges and expelled.
70
What did Khrushchev do to finally consolidate power?
October 1957, dismissed Zhukov accusing his of creating own personality cult.
March 1958, Bulgarin accused of encouraging Anti-Party group and forced to step down.
71
What was the name of the Secret Speech and when was it?
What did it accuse Stalin of?
What did it omit?
'On the Cult of Personality and it's Consequences' in February 1956.
Accused Stalin of responsibility of purges, terror, torture, mass arrests, gulags, Kirov's death, autocratic leadership, undermining of Party, suppression of Party members, mishandling war etc.,
DID NOT apply to ordinary citizens or incriminate Khrushchev or leadership.
72
What was the influence of the Party under Khrushchev vs under Stalin?
Under Stalin, Party and government were 'rubber stamping' institutions. Under Khrushchev, they had renewed importance for debate and decision making.
73
What two focuses did Khrushchev have?
Democratisation- weakening traditional bureaucracy so more responsibility to the people.
Decentralisation- more initiative to local bodies.
74
How did Khrushchev try and achieve democratisation?
Membership expanded from 7m in 1956 to 11m in 1964 with more working class members. Broadened base and reduced power of higher level bureaucrats.
Non-party members encouraged to have supervisory roles and some invited to Party Congresses.
Khrushchev visited villages and towns.
75
How did Khrushchev try and achieve decentralisation?
1962, the Party split into urban and rural sections.
New rules limiting how long Party officials could serve.
Role of local Soviets increased, comrade courts to handle minor offences.
Economic decentralisation, moving power from central Moscow ministries to provincial authorities.
76
How much of the USSR's industrial capacity was destroyed in WW2?
What else was damaging the industrial economy?
70% industrial capacity destroyed.
Huge defence spending with satellite states. Lend Lease ended in 1947. Stalin refused Marshall Aid from US.
77
What did Stalin create to counter Western propaganda?
What did he do to link the Soviet Bloc economically?
Established Cominform to counter Western propaganda.(1947)
Established Comecon to economically link Soviet Bloc. (1949)
78
INDUSTRY 4th 5YP
When was it?
What were the aims?
What funded it?
What did it involve?
What were the results?
1946-50
Catch up with USA, rebuild heavy industry and transport, revive Ukraine.
Used reparations from Germany.
Maintained wartime controls on labour force, 'grand projects' like canals.
USSR 2nd to USA in industrial capacity, most heavy targets met, production doubled, Dneiper Dam working again by 1947.
79
INDUSTRY 5th 5YP
When was it?
What were the aims?
What did it involve?
What were the results?
1951-55
Continued heavy industry and transport, post 1953 Malenkov focused on consumer foods not military expenditure.
Continuation of 4th 5YP, resources diverted to rearming during Korean War (1950-53).
Most growth targets met, National income increased 71%, but Malenkov's changes led to loss of leadership in 1955.
80
Why were there issues with the Stalinist system of central planning?
Ministers in Moscow set targets for each enterprise, but more enterprises and more products!
Managers avoided exceeding targets and getting higher targets next year. Avoided innovation and improvement.
Output targets measured in weight so light industries not favoured.
Resources not used efficiently and not enough administrators.
81
When was the 6th 5YP launched and why was it special?
What followed it?
6th 5YP launched in 1956 but targets were too optimistic and it was abandoned after 2 years.
The 7YP was launched in 1959 (1959-65).
82
How did Khrushchev decentralise the economy?
In 1957, 60 Moscow ministries were abolished . The USSR divided into 105 different economic regions with own economic councils (sovnarkhoz) to plan and supervise economic affairs.
State committees and new Supreme Economic Council.
83
INDUSTRY 7YP
When was it?
What were the aims?
What did it expand?
What were the results?
1959-65
'Catch up and overtake USA by 1970', expand chemical industry, housing, resources like oil and coal, improve living standards.
Expanded communications, technology, electrified railway lines, air transport.
Aerfolot corporation subsidised, 40hr week, 40% wage increase. 1957, first artificial satellite (Sputnik) and Laika. 1959, red flag on moon. Worlds first civil nuclear powered ship in 1959. First man in space 1961, first female cosmonaut 1963.
84
Who was the first man in space?
What about the first female cosmonaut?
1961, Yugi Gagarin first man in space.
1963, Valentina Tereshkva first female cosmonaut.
85
What did decentralisation under Khrushchev cause?
What was the effect of the space race on the economy?
Interesting point on gap to USA
Decentralisation caused another layer of bureaucracy and system abandoned in 1965.
Space race distorted economy and by 1958, industrial growth had slowed from 10% to 7.5%.
When USSR opened first supermarkets, shop assistants used abacuses rather than cash registers!
86
How many farms were operational in Russia after the war? Which policy?
What was the 1945 harvest like compared to pre-war?
What percentage of the agricultural labour force was gone?
Only 1/3 farms were operational. The 'scorched earth' policy destroyed Western regions.
1945 harvest produced 60% pre-war.
2/3 of the agricultural labour force was gone.
87
AGRICULTURE 4th 5YP
When was it?
What were the aims?
What did it involve?
What were the results?
1946-50
Forced kolkhozes to deliver produce, revive wheat fields in Ukraine, revive barren land.
State direction (high quotas, low wages, higher taxes on private plots). Lysenkoism.
70% of 1946 harvest. Kolkhozes output increased, food rationing ended in 1947. Incentives low, lagged behind industry. Almost half output from private plots. Lysenko inaccurate.
88
AGRICULTURE 5th 5YP
When was it?
What were the aims?
What did it involve?
What were the results?
1951-55
Continuation of 4th 5YP and Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Scheme and 'agrocities' from 1953.
High procurement levels still, expansion in previously uncultivated areas.
Still lagged behind industry, not yet to 1940 levels. Virgin Lands initially successful.
89
How did Khrushchev try to offer incentives for peasants and production?
Price paid by state raised by around 25% between 1953-6.
Quotas and taxes reduced.
Peasants who did not have animals did not have to deliver meat to the state.
More farms on electricity grid.
1962 campaign for chemical fertilisers.
Use of farm machinery, buy from MST.
Merging collectives.
90
What did the Virgin Lands Scheme involve?
By 1956, how many hectares had been ploughed for wheat?
Why was it not successful long term?
Cultivating grazing lands in west Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. Successful in 1953.
By 1956, 35.9m hectares.
Land worked intensively with no rotation of crops. Caused land erosion, soil became infertile quickly. Meant almost famine in 1963, had to import grain.
91
What crop did Khrushchev get rather enthusiastic about and why?
Why was it a failure?
Maize. Thought it would be answer to food shortages because of high tonnage per hectare and it could be used as animal fodder and human consumption. After USA visit in 1959, encouraged cornflake production.
Failed due to overenthusiasm of local officials. Maize grown in unsuitable soil at detriment of wheat. Cornflakes not popular compared to buckwheat porridge!
92
Was Khrushchev successful in incentivising peasants to produce more?
Why was the new pricing system a failure?
No. Private plots provided half peasants income and over 30% produce sold in USSR. But they were only 3% of cultivated area! Not enough farmers who were capable of repairing tractors.
State officials kept changing the prices so it was difficult to plan ahead.
93
Why did the 4th and 5th 5YP fail to improve living standards?
What event wiped out savings?
Peasants were squeezed by quota system and earned 20% of industrial worker. Diets poor, housing, consumer goods short supply in towns.
Working week at wartime levels (12hr day)
Wage differentials favoured Party officials.
1947, 90% devaluation of rouble.
94
How did living standards improve under Khrushchev?
| What law changes helped too?
Consumer goods like radios, TVs, sewing machines, fridges, some imported goods. Housing initiatives like prefabricated flats.
No bachelors or childless couple tax. Peasants eligible for state pension.
Reduced working week to 40hrs. Low wage differentials. Better education, welfare services, tech, transport.
95
What undermined Khrushchev's claim of an equal society?
Privileges remained with non-wage payments, access to scarce commodities, health care and holidays for higher level officials. Cars more common, but beyond reach of 'ordinary' citizens and reserved for Party officials. Only 5 cars per 1000 people in 1966.
96
To what extent was there a 'thaw' under Khrushchev?
Restrictions on foreign literature, radio lifted. Some travel abroad, cultural and sports tours. International performances on TV (eg. Moscow State Circus).
Not by Bread Alone, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
BUT Boris Pasternak Dr Zhivago banned 1955. Won Nobel Prize in 1958.
97
To what extent was there exposure to Western culture under Khrushchev?
Greater contact. World Festival of Youth 1957 (attended by 34,000 from 131 countries).
Young people: jeans, rock and roll, jazz, make up, slang and Tarzan movies. Soviet version of the Teddy Boys, the stiliagi.
98
Why were changing attitudes in young people concerning for Khrushchev?
More vandalism, hooliganism, boycotting lectures. Soviet authorities survey in 1961 found most found people cynical about October Revolution ideals and instead motivated by material ambitions. Since 55% population was under 30, that was a serious threat.
99
What book published in the thaw was about a Soviet engineer whose creativity was stifled by industrial bureaucracy?
Not by Bread Alone by Dudinstev
100
What book published in the thaw described life in a gulag?
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Sold half a million copies in 6 months!
101
Give an example of Khrushchev's conservative attitudes to the creative arts?
Did not like modernism in literature and art. Moscow art gallery displaying modernist works in 1962.
102
What was Khrushchev's attitudes towards the churches?
What was banned in 1961?
Revived campaign against Churches. Atheism in school curriculum.
Children banned from church services from 1961. Forbidden for parents to teach religion to their children. Mandatory course on 'foundations of scientific atheism' in higher education.
Mass closures of monasteries, convents, Orthodox churches, seminaries.
pilgrimages banned, regulations on services and church bells.
103
What was Khrushchev's attitudes towards independence for nationalities?
What did the Party Doctrine have to say about the subject?
No move to greater independence. Spoke of greater unity and fusion of nationalities.
Party Doctrine 1961 stated ultimate aim was for ethnic distinctions to disappear and a single common language to be adopted by all nationalities in the Soviet Union.
104
Was Khrushchev anti-Semitic?
He denied being an anti-Semite but was against Jews having own schools and complained that Soviet Jews preferred intellectual pursuits rather than 'mass occupations'. Refused to allow Jews to emigrate to new state of Israel created after WW2.
105
What was tamizdat?
Printing banned writings abroad, hoping that works would be relayed back to Soviet citizens through foreign broadcasts.
106
What was samizdat?
Where individuals reproduced works that would not pass the censor and redistributed them within Russia.
Copied by hand, carbon paper or illegally printing. Circulated by personal contact.
107
Give an example of an underground society spreading dissident literature.
Name the associated journal.
'The Youngest Society of Geniuses'
Journal 'The Sphynxes' published poetry and prose.
108
What satirical poet had a monument constructed in Moscow and when?
What did this start?
Mayakovsky in June 1958. It led to impromptu poetry readings.
Regular 'Mayak' readings in Mayakovsky Square attended by students and intelligentsia.
109
Give an example of 'dissident' magazines published in the 1960s.
Sintaxis by Ginzburg.
Boomerang by Osipov.
Pheonix by Galanskiv.
110
Which official publication adopted a more dissident stance in the early 1960s?
Novy Mir, famously printed One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962.
111
In 1961, how many people were identified as leading an 'anti-social, parasitic way of life'?
What did these people do?
130,000
Worked unskilled jobs as could not obtain State employment, some sent to labour camps or mental hospitals.
112
What were magnitizdat?
Illegal recordings, usually in reel-to-reel tape recorders. Tapes passed between friends, spread forbidden musical styles and songs underground.
Jaz, rock n roll, Western pop.
113
Which musician wrote a song telling of subversive conversations passing through Moscow's kitchens?
Yuliy Kim, 'Moscow kitchens'
114
Which dissident art group was influential?
The Stretensky Boulevard Group
115
Who famously defected to Paris in 1961?
Rudolf Nuryev, a leading ballet dancer with Kirov Ballet.
116
What was different about Khrushchev to Stalin with regards to political demotions?
How many people were returned from gulags and special settlements between 1953-60?
Politicians demoted, not shot!
2m from each
117
What happened to Molotov?
Became ambassador to Mongolia
118
What happened to Malenkov?
Became director of HEP station in Kazakhstan.
119
What happened to Kaganovich?
Became director of a cement works.
120
Give an example of hardliner/loyalist demonstrations during Khrushchev's leadership
Violent nationalist demonstrations in Tblisi, Georgia in March 1956.
121
Why was it ironic that Khrushchev was ousted by Brezhnev?
Who else played a part?
Just a few months previously, had praised him in his 70th birthday speech and in a special ceremony in Kremlin, Khrushchev had been awarded a 'Hero of the Soviet Union' medal.
Brezhnev, Podgorny and Suslov.
122
How did Khrushchev get ousted from power?
On holiday in Georgia in October 1964. Summoned to emergency Presidium meeting. Former supporters voiced criticism. Refused to resign, denied access to media.
Following day, resignation paper presented to Khrushchev.
Brezhnev became First Secretary and Kosygin became Premier.
Announcement that had resigned through ‘advanced age and ill health’ to appease international community.
123
Which magazine was suppressed after Khrushchev's resignation and why?
Izvestia edited by Khrushchev's son in law. Only Pravda and the radio announced.
124
What did Pravda denounce Khrushchev for?
'Hare-brained schemes, half-baked conclusions, hasty decisions, unrealistic actions, bragging, phase-mongering and bossiness’.
125
Reasons for Khrushchev's fall:
-Personal
Accused of 'one man' style
Lacked expertise
Nepotism- advancing son in law
Embarrassing behaviour (1960 meeting of UN General Assembly banged shoe on table)
126
Reasons for Khrushchev's fall:
-Decentralisation
Granting autonomy to regional economic councils upset central Party members.
Regional Party secretaries offended at how responsibilities were divided.
25% CC renewed at each election threatened influence.
127
Reasons for Khrushchev's fall:
-Agriculture
Failure of the Virgin Lands Scheme, shortfall in supplies. Forced import of grain from USA and Canada. Seen as his responsibility as an 'agricultural expert'.
128
Reasons for Khrushchev's fall:
-industry
Decision to promote consumer goods offended those who thought he was giving inadequate attention to heavy goods.
129
Reasons for Khrushchev's fall:
-Military
Offended military by wanting to reduce spending on conventional weapons and concentrate on nuclear arms.
Khrushchev's dealings abroad criticised.
130
Reasons for Khrushchev's fall:
-Foreign policy
Disapproval of handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, seen as victory for USA diplomacy despite agreement to remove US missiles from Turkey.
Blamed for poor relations with Communist China.
131
What evidence is there that Khrushchev dealt with opposition similarly to Stalin?
Novocherkassk 1962
Protests about milk and meat shortages.
Khrushchev sends in tanks.
