20) Political Authority 1945-53 Flashcards
Why did Stalin deal with national minorities?
🔸S suspicious of Beria (head of MVD)➡️wanted to threaten his position (B = Mingrelian) + reassert S authority over security apparatus.
🔸Irrational link between Judaism + lack of patriotism. Seen as American 5th columnists.
🔸Wanted secure Sov power over re-annexed territories. Repression of fifth column continued.
How did Stalin deal with national minorities?
🔸Georgian Party accused of collaborating w/ West➡️Beria carried out purge targeting Mingrelian members 1951-52➡️B insecure.
🔸1948 Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee shut down (had helped in war). Jewish schools, libraries + newspapers closed. Cultural religious lives of Jews severely restricted.
🔸1944 Estonia, Latvia + Lithuania re-annexed➡️elites arrested + shot or sent concentration camps.
Why did Stalin deal with Western sympathisers?
🔸S feared spreading of western culture + political ideas to R people, especially after contact w/ west during war.
🔸Wanted to prevent any independent thought.
🔸Sov culture seen as superior to liberal western culture.
🔸Xenophobia.
How did Stalin deal with Western sympathisers?
🔸Anyone who spent time outside direct Sov control or related = permanently suspect. Postwar 3mn people sentenced to terms in camps + those released “socially dangerous” w/ stigma as cowardice.
🔸S wanted all ‘contaminated’ citizens returned➡️forced return 32,000 Cossacks.
🔸Secret police + informers everywhere - people arrested for hint of independent thought, subject to interrogation + torture. Sent to labour camps - gulag system expanded under Beria (12mn sent 1945-53).
🔸Zhadanovschina - cultural control: theatres attacked for staging western plays. Controls on filmmaking➡️only 9 films produced 1951.
Why did Stalin deal with Party members?
🔸S wanted protect his personal power + make Politburo work harder for outcomes he wanted.
🔸S wanted reassert authority over Party by making everyone feel insecure.
How did Stalin deal with Party members?
🔸Politburo rarely met + became advisory body - S controlled decision-making.
🔸S encouraged rivalry between contenders for influence.
🔸S fostered tensions between Party + govt (stop either undermining personal power).
🔸1952 attacked Molotov + Mikoyan in Central Committee conference.
🔸Party membership ⬆️to 6mn - many young w/ little kn of outside world🗺🚫. Older members committed to Marxist ideals disappeared.
🔸Presidium of 25 replaced Politburo.
🔸S political authority⬆️. 1945 elevated to Generalissimo.
Why did Stalin deal with war heroes?
🔸Voznesensky responsible for planning Sov war economy successfully.
🔸General Zhukov popular + world-renowned figure, given credit for victory against G.
🔸S didn’t like war heroes, feared ⬇️his personal power.
How did Stalin deal with war heroes?
🔸1949 Leningrad Affair: leading Leningrad Party officials inc Voznesensky arrested + executed after secret trial.
🔸Zhukov stripped of position + assigned far from Moscow, lacking strategic significance + troops.
