Chapter 20 Flashcards
Political authority 1945-53
Why is the period following the Second World War referred to as ‘High Stalinism’?
These were the years that Stalin’s authority over State and Party, as well as the cult of personality, reached its pinnacle
How had the USSR become a ‘world superpower’?
The USSR had grown larger with the annexation of new territory, as well as the establishment of satellite states and its new military strength
Why had wartime developments worried Stalin?
Increased party memberships had made the Party potentially unreliable and the Soviet military’s reputation was too strong
How did Stalin respond to these wartime developments?
Wartime institutions were dismantled and the GKO was dissolved. The military hierarchy was downgraded and Stalin became Minister of Defence
Which was the most notorious of Stalin’s post-war demotions?
Marshal Zhukov
Who replaced Georgii Malenov as Stalin’s closest wartime aide?
Andrei Zhdanov, who later launched the Zhdanovshchina
How were Party institutions undermined during High Stalinism?
It no longer had any real supervisory role over the government, Party Congresses were not held between 1939 and 1942, only six Central Committees were held
By 1952, how many members were there of the Party and the Komosol?
Nearly 7 million members and around 16 million Komosol members
What were the views and position of the ‘new men’ who replaced the ‘old guard’?
They accepted the Party as a way of life and were cautious in both their political and personal lives - becoming faceless bureaucrats
What was the Zhdanovshchina?
A movement that stressed conformity to Socialist ideals and promoted Stalin’s cult of personality. It dismissed Western ideals as bourgeois
What were the first two literary journals purged under the Zhdanovshchina?
The Adventures of a Monkey by Mikhail Zoshchenko and a journal of Anna Akhmatova’s poetry
In what ways did culture once again reflect socialist realism?
Novels, plays and films that denigrated American commercialism, conveyed the treachery of the West or extolled Russian achievements were favoured
What form of bigotry particularly flourished in this period?
Anti-Semitism, as many Jewish critics disappeared and Nazi atrocities were portrayed without mentioning Jewish people
Which surprising fields of study were also governed by Marxist principles?
Maths, Physics and Chemistry
How was Western influence completely blocked?
Non-Communist foreign papers were unobtainable, foreign radio transmissions were jammed and only pro-Soviet foreign writers and artists were allowed to visit both the USSR and West
