3 - control of the people Flashcards
1
Q
Newspapers under Lenin.
A
- November 1917 Lenin passed a decree banning all non-Socialist newspapers, and by the early 1920s all non-Bolshevik newspapers were eliminated.
- The printing press was nationalised; all editors/journalists had to be employees of the government and approval from the Glavlit was needed for every article.
2
Q
Newspapers post-Lenin.
A
- Newspapers contained details about the achievements of socialism.
- Plane crashes and natural disasters were prohibited or subject to delayed reporting.
–> September 1957, nuclear waste storage facility exploded, killing 200 and exposing 270,000 to dangerous levels of radiation, but was ignored. - In 1983 Pravda (newspaper of the Communist Party) had circulation of 10.7m.
3
Q
Radio under Lenin.
A
- Radio broadcasted news of the Revolution in October 1917 in morse code.
- Voice radio was developed by 1921, broadcasting news and propaganda material, and the Bolsheviks installed loudspeakers in public places.
- Radio allowed the govt. to get its message across to the 65% of the population who were illiterate.
4
Q
Radio post-Lenin.
A
- During the German invasion in 1941, Stalin gave a live speech on radio which reassured the population.
- Most new apartment block were wired for radio reception and access was restricted to government stations only. There was only 1 station until 1964.
- The govt. threatened to arrest anyone who listened to BBC or Voice of America.
5
Q
Television.
A
- By 1950 mass production of TV began; the USSR had 10,000 sets and rose to 3m by 1958.
- The government provided a mix of news, cultural programs and documentaries on the achievements of socialism.
- Life in the USSR presented as joyous while life under capitalism was shown to be riddled with violence and homelessness.
- By 1980, 85% of families had a TV.
- By 1985, there was greater emphasis on light entertainment with folk dancing being broadcast to national minorities.
6
Q
What were the features of the Cult of Stalin?
A
- Stalin presented as Lenin’s closest colleague, a hero of the civil war and saviour of the Revolution.
- Paintings portrayed Stalin as a benefactor and identified him with achievements of the FYPs (posing next to the Ryon hydro-electric complex 1935).
- Posters of Stalin in military uniform during WW2, and with workers/peasants.
- Poets were used to add to the quantity of material praising Stalin (‘Song about Stalin’ by M. Izakvosky)
7
Q
What were the features of the Cult of Khrushchev?
A
- Khrushchev condemned Stalin’s cult of personality in his Secret Speech, which allowed him to develop his own.
- Khrushchev’s cult would allow him to be seen as the more important Party leader when power was originally shared with Malenkov in 1953.
- The cult suited Khrushchev’s style of leadership as he frequently visited Soviet citizens, leading to pictures being taken and developing into adulation through books.
- Khrushchev appointed his son-in-law as editor of Izvestiya, increasing publicity.
8
Q
What were the features of the Cult of Brezhnev?
A
- Brezhnev used a personality cult to emerge ‘first among equals’ in the power struggle after Khrushchev’s removal.
- The cult gave Brezhnev the symbols of power without having to exercise it, allowing him to stay popular.
- Strokes and heart attacks left Brezhnev clinically dead for the last 6 years of his life, so the cult provided the appearance of leadership.
9
Q
What were the advantages of a cult for the Party?
A
- Useful to have one person as the focus of unity and loyalty, especially during WW2 + FYPs.
- Provided a human face for socialism so the population could identify with the state.
- Filled the gap resulting from restrictions on religious worship.
10
Q
How was the Russian Orthodox Church treated?
A
- Decree on the Freedom of Conscience 1918 - separated the ROC from the state, banned religious education outside the home. The govt. closed all monasteries by the end of 1918, head of ROC under house arrest.
- 1921-23: priests were denied rations during the civil war and were victims of the Red Terror. 28 bishops and over 1000 priests had been killed.
- 1929: League of the Militant Godless established - propaganda campaign against religion, launching events to disprove the existence of God.
- By the end of 1930, 80% of all village churches destroyed/not operating.
- A survey mid-1920s revealed that 55% of the peasantry were still active Christians.
11
Q
What were Stalin’s religious policies towards religion?
A
- Priests were labelled as kulaks during collectivisation.
- The Great Purge 1936-39 led to there being 12/163 bishops at liberty.
- During WW2, some churches were reopened and priests were trained as they supported the war effort.
12
Q
What was Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign?
A
- 1958-59: the role of the priest was limited to spiritual advice only.
- Within 4 years, 10,000 of the existing churches were closed.
- Surviving priests were harassed by the secret police, Baptists and Jews suffered severe restrictions on their right to worship.
13
Q
What were Brezhnev’s policies towards religion?
A
- Happy to allow the church to act within its limits. The ROC was expected to stick to formal church services.
- In 1976, a group of Orthodox priests set up a committee to draw attention to human rights abuses. Brezhnev sentenced their leader to 5 years imprisonment.
- Jews and Baptists were treated with less tolerance; preaching was banned and prayer meetings broken up.
14
Q
How was Islam dealt with?
A
- It was more difficult to deal with Islam as it was more engrained into a way of life, and the Bolsheviks feared that Islam’s links to national minorities might threaten the social cohesion of the USSR.
- Mid-1920s: most mosques were closed, sharia courts phased out mullahs removed, ramadan fasting condemned.
- These changes led to a series of revolts in 1928-29 in the Chechen region and were crushed by Soviet armed forces.
15
Q
How were opponents of the government attacked under Lenin and Stalin?
A
- Cheka (1917) acted against counter-revolutionary and sabotage.
–> During Red Terror (1921-22) 200,000 Mensheviks/SRs were shot.
–> The secret police grew from 40,000 in December 1918 to 250,000 in 1921.
–> Chitska (1918 and 1920) purged 1/3 of the Party. - OGPU (1923) became more independent from interference, and was responsible for deporting kulaks during collectivisation.
- NKVD (1934) involved in Show Trials.
16
Q
What was the role of Yagoda? (1934-36)
A
- Emphasis on economy rather than ideology.
- Completed the White Sea Canal Project (1932) in 2 years under budget using 180,000 Gulag labourers, at the cost of 10,000 lives.
17
Q
What was the role of Yezhov? (1936-38)
A
- Gulag inmates rose, in July 1937 he set execution quotas.
- Sped up the process of arrest, trial, imprisonment; in September 1937 the Karelian Troika processed 231 prisoners each day.
- Surveillance increased and the group of people considered opponents widened to anyone who didn’t show enough commitment to the revolutionary cause.
18
Q
What was the role of Beria? (1938-53)
A
- Focused on productivity in the Gulag.
–> 1939, food rations improved.
–> Beria used the technical skills of inmates; 1,000 scientists were put to work on military hardware projects.
–> Early releases were cancelled.
–> Gulag economic activity rose from 2bn roubles in 1937 to 4.5bn in 1940. - Public trials only held where solid evidence was available, and surveillance only led to arrests when evidence was found.
- Beria launched a new wave of purges in 1949 to gain Stalin’s favour, where 2,000 Party members from the Leningrad branch were purged.
19
Q
What was the role of the NKVD during WW2?
A
- In 1941 they were given power over the Red Army, monitoring disloyalty and desertion.
- NKVD deported national minorities whose loyalty to the USSR was suspect.
- Special Departments were set up in areas previously captured by Germans to root out traitors. SMERSH was involved in the murder of 4,000 Polish officers in Katyn in 1943.
- Returning prisoners of war were held in detention camps and used to clear minefields.
20
Q
What actions did Andropov take against intellectual/academic dissidents? (1967-82)
A
- Intellectuals: threatened with expulsion from their organisations, denied permission to publish, homes searched and material that could be used to spread or publish material was confiscated.
- Academics: sent to remote places, which developed academic work (e.g Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences). In 1980, Sakharov was sent to Gorky (city closed off to foreigners) which limited his means of communication.
21
Q
How were general dissidents treated under Andropov? (1967-82)
A
- Constant surveillance and harassment from secret police.
- Arrested dissidents claimed the status of political prisoners, so were marked out in civilian life, and subject to discrimination.
- In 1967, leading dissident Vladimir Bukovsky was placed in a mental hospital.
–> Dissidents were held until they changed their views, and those who refused were treated with electric shocks and drugs.
–> This discredited dissidents in the eyes of the public.
22
Q
How did Andropov monitor popular discontent, 1982-85?
A
- Monitoring of dissidents increased (plain clothed secret police officers used, conversations recorded with cassette tapes).
- Realised that popular discontent came from economic concerns, so KGB conducted spot checks in factories to record attendence and clamp down on absenteeism/alcoholism.
- Andropov visited factories to listen to workers, but people felt restricted in what they could say as he was ex-KGB leader.
23
Q
What were 3 features of Prolekult?
A
- ‘Smithy’ magazine contained poems about factories and machines.
- Government used festivals to develop socialist values; extra food rations were used as an incentive to attend.
- The Anniversary of the Revolution was celebrated in 1920 by re-enacting the storming of the Winter Palace using over 8,000 people.
24
Q
What were 3 features of Avant-garde?
A
- The Bolsheviks used innovative slogans and posters, and sculptures made by Fellow Travellers.
- Fantasy play ‘Mystery Bouffe’ (1918) was based on workers defeating their exploiters.
- Eisenstein made use of cinema and imagery - his films ‘Strike’ and ‘Battleship Potemkin’ were important to Lenin for promoting political messages.
25
What happened in the Cultural Revolution? (1928-32)
- CR was an attempt to sweep out the old bourgeois' elements within society to accompany FYPs.
- Traditional writers and artists were attacked, and Fellow Travellers removed.
- The Komsomol disrupted theatre productions considered suspect and the RAPP condemned experimentation.
26
What were the features of Socialist Realism in art, literature, music and film?
Art: no experimentation (avant-garde/abstract art rejected) and art should present ideal images of life during the FYPs.
Literature: emphasis on heroes connected to the Party; standard plot involved a hero from the people being guided to greater things by the Party.
Music: military songs favoured over jazz.
Film: Eisenstein's 'October' presented a heroic version of the storming of the Winter Palace, so presented the Revolution as a mass movement.
27
What was the impact of de-Stalinisation on culture?
- Khrushchev allowed works to be published that had previously been banned (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, works by Isaac Babel, jazz reappeared).
- Writers began to explore other themes such as spiritual concerns and the problems with life, and sci-fi novels contained messages that critiqued society.
- By the late 1950s, youth groups began to smuggle US records into the USSR.
- Guitar-poet Alexander Galich composed and performed his own work rather than officially sanctioned pieces, and addressed the feelings of the individual.
27
What was done to deal with non-conformity during Stalin's last years?
- Zhdanov condemned Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova's public readings of poetry after WW2 as Western in his campaign 'Zhdanovschina'.
- In 1946 a campaign was launched to remove all aspects of 'bourgeois culture', leading to heavy restriction.
28
What were examples of non-conformity during the Brezhnev years?
- Pop music grew in influence and drew the youth towards trends in the West, and cassette recorders undermined government control over record production.
- Russian nationalist writers alienated non-Russians who then became more inclined to criticise the Soviet Union.
- Derevenshchiki school of village prose featured a longing for a lost world, which could be interpreted as a criticism of the USSR.
29
What were examples of clashes between Khrushchev and artists?
- 'Doctor Zhivago' was banned, but it was smuggled abroad and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. Khrushchev didn't allow Boris Pasternak to collect the award.
- Komsomol groups patrolled the streets and dance halls to report on the behaviour of young people, and in 1961 the government held a conference about what dance moves were permissible.
- Manege Affair (1962); an angry rant from Khrushchev after visiting an art exhibition in Moscow that displayed Socialist Realism, decadence and sexual deviation.
30
What were the events of the Trial of Joseph Brodsky?(1964)
- Brodsky was arrested after his poems were read at secret gatherings. He was not a licensed poet under the Writers' Union.
- He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and was used as an example to send a firm message.
- When he was released after 2 years he was expelled from the USSR.
31
What were the events of the Trial of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel?
- Arrested after they wrote short novels depicting life in the USSR as harsh, accused of anti-Soviet propaganda.
- Resulted in a demonstration of over 200 students and an open letter of support signed by 63 leading intellectuals.
- February 1966, Andrei sentenced to 7 years in a labour camp, Yuli 5 years.
32
What were some examples of clampdowns on art under Brezhnev?
- Employment could be taken away from troublemakers, and those who continued to push boundaries were expelled from the Writers' Union and USSR.
- Abstract and experimental art continued to be a source of conflict;
--> A local art gallery director was sentenced to 8 years in prison for displaying art by dissident painters in 1970.
--> In 1975 a group of unlicensed artists put on an open air exhibition of their work. The government hired hooligans to attack their work.
- Komsomol groups patrolled the streets, and Andropov's government restricted output of songs not composed by official Soviet composers to 20% of radio airtime.
