Chapter 1.1 - The Ideologies of Government Flashcards
Autocracy:
What is autocracy?
A system of government in which one person has total power
What slogan did tsars use to justify their conservative nature of rule?
‘Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality’
What did the tsar expect?
‘Total submission from his subjects’
What was the tsar obliged to act as?
A ‘moral judge’ on behalf of God
Who argued that a liberal democracy and constitutional government would have been disastrous for Russia?
Konstantin Pobedonostsev
Who did Alexander II (A2) make peace with in 1856?
Enemies in the Crimean War
What did A2 announce in 1856 about the abolition of serfdom?
‘it is better to begin abolishing serfdom from above than to wait for it to begin to abolish itself from below’
When did A2 relax censorship, giving writers greater freedom of expression?
1865
What was formed in 1864?
The Zemstva (regional councils)
What did Alexander III (A3) blame his father’s assassination on?
His father’s liberal reforms
What did A3 reverse and what did he introduce?
Reversed his father’s liberal reforms and introduced stronger censorship
What was the repressive period under A3 known as?
‘The Reaction’
Who influenced A3 during the ‘Reaction’?
Pobedonostsev
When did A3 introduce Land Captains to monitor and control the behaviour of peasants?
1889
What was passed in 1881, giving the Okhrana more power?
The Statute concerning measures for the Production of State Security and the Social Order
Who did A3 execute in May 1887, which may have played a huge part in the future of Russia?
Lenin’s brother
What opposition group was disbanded in 1884 by the Okhrana?
The People’s Will
What was passed under Nicholas II (N2) in 1905, changing Russia from an autocracy to a constitutional monarchy?
The October Manifesto
Why was the October Manifesto passed in 1905?
Passed as a result of the economic crisis and the disastrous consequences of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5)
What did the October Manifesto create?
The Duma (elected national parliament)
When was the Fundamental Laws passed? (Month and year)
April 1906
What did the Fundamental Laws 1906 effectively make the Duma?
Effectively made the Duma a talking shop
When did N2 start using repression to implement autocracy?
1906
How many people were executed in 1909?
537
Dictatorship
dictatorship ideology
What were the 3 different ideologies of communism?
- Marxism
- Marxism - Leninism
- Marxism - Leninism - Stalinism
What is the idea of Marxism?
Eventually power will be handed to the people, however, there would need to be a dictatorship of the proletariat until the time is right
How is Marxism - Leninism different to Marxism?
Marxism - Leninism concludes that the time will never be right so the Communist party will rule on behalf of the workers
How many people were executed by the Cheka every year from 1917 to 1922 under Lenin?
28,000
What did Lenin do to show that he was a flexible autocrat?
He scrapped War Communism when it wasn’t working
What did Lenin believe?
The Bolsheviks needed to rule on behalf of the workers
How was Lenin similar to the tsars?
He believed that he was beyond criticism
What did Lenin replace War Communism with?
The New Economic Policy (NEP)
Who criticised Lenin’s ‘bourgeois’ concessions?
Trotsky
Totalitarianism
totalitarianism ideology
What is Marxism - Leninism - Stalinism?
You need to create a cult of personality to stop infighting
Command economy
What is a command economy?
An economy totally controlled by the state
What did Stalin create, which was key to his communist ideology?
A cult of personality
How did Stalin argue the ‘base’ of society could be permanently changed?
Through a particular type of ‘superstructure’
How did Stalin repress people?
Through the NKVD/gulags
How many members of the NKVD were executed in 1938?
20,000
What was Stalin’s superstructure?
Stalin’s superstructure had to be highly personalised under the total control of one individual
What did Stalin label disagreement as?
Bourgeois
What do some historians believe about Stalin’s manipulation of Marxism-Leninism?
Some historians believe that Stalin manipulated the Marxism-Leninism ideology to serve his own megalomania
What did Khrushchev do to the USSR?
Khrushchev de-Stalinised the USSR
How many political prisoners were there by 1960?
11,000 political prisoners
How many books were published every year under Khrushchev?
65,000
When did Khrushchev show that he was still an autocrat?
When he crushed the Hungarian Uprising in 1956
What was Khrushchev’s speech on Stalin about in 1956?
‘The Cult of the Individuals and its Consequences’
What was Stalingrad renamed?
Volgograd
