Control of the People Flashcards
How did Khrushchev have a personality cult? (3)
- used photography to stay relevant
- man of the people
- made his son the editor of a government newspaper
Why was Khrushchev deemed hypocritical?
He criticised Stalin’s cult but attempted to forge one for himself
How did Brezhnev have a personality cult? (3)
- awarded himself at least 100 medals
- considered good looking and popular
- remained in power whilst being basically dead
How many Hero of the Soviet Unions did Brezhnev award himself?
4
What is evidence of Lenin’s personality cult? (3)
- remained in power in spite of War Communism
- official ideology named ‘Marxist-Leninism’
- St Petersburg renamed Leningrad
What is evidence of Stalin’s personality cult? (3)
- Statues at every major landmark
- Stalingrad site of WW2 victory
- Awarded medals
How did Stalin use hagiographies?
To officially produce lies and exaggeration
What were the 3 stages of Stalin’s cult?
- Myth of 2 Leaders - Lenin’s successor
- The Vozhd - Father of the nation
- High Stalinism - God-like
How did Khrushchev use newspapers?
Pravda reported on Stalin’s terror but not on major disasters
How did Khrushchev use Red Blockers?
To prevent foreign stations from broadcasting in the USSR
How many TVs were in the USSR under Khrushchev?
3 million
How did Khrushchev use TV?
Presented the USSR as prosperous but the West as violent and criminal
How did Brezhnev use newspapers?
‘Red Sport’ had to carry political views on the front page
What was Radio Lighthouse?
Station broadcasting controlled foreign music
How did Brezhnev control radio?
- Radio Lighthouse
- Government radios made cheap with limited range
What did Brezhnev ban on TV?
All aspects of sex, nudity, violence and language
What was Glavlit?
Censorship office
How did Lenin control newspapers?
- nationalised the press in 1921
- Pravda made national paper, controlled by the propaganda
How did Lenin control radio?
- collective listening
- Spoken newspaper (news and propaganda)
What was collective listening?
Broadcast of programmes on loud speakers to encourage communal mindset
How did Stalin use Pravda?
Reported false production figures to exaggerate the success of economic plans
What did Stalin broadcast on the radio?
Red Square Speech 1941
How many TVs were in the USSR under Stalin?
10,000
How did Brezhnev control art well? (3)
- control and treatment of dissidents was a good deterrent
- people conformed to guidelines
- artists given incentives to write pro-government propaganda
How did Brezhnev control art badly? (3)
- Western music was very popular
- underground dissidence
- dissidents remained influential in exile
What was Samizdat?
Underground dissident literature movement
What did Andropov allow in 1982?
20% of music to be non-Soviet
Why did Khrushchev attempt to ban Doctor Zhivago?
It contained criticisms of the revolution
Why did Khrushchev hate modern art?
He hated non-conformity and could enforce restrictions on it
How did Doctor Zhivago cause the USSR international embarrassment?
It was smuggled abroad and awarded a Nobel Prize despite being banned in the USSR
Who was Joseph Brodsky?
Non-conformist poet accused of being a parasite
What was the Brodsky controversy?
- sentenced to 5 years hard labour for ‘adding no value to society’
- court records were smuggled abroad and he was released due to international pressure
Who were Sinyavsky and Daniel?
Dissident writers, accused of anti-Soviet propaganda
How did Sinyavsky and Daniel show a weakness and a strength in Brezhnev’s control?
- arrests were protested
- they were still sentenced in labour camps
How did Khrushchev de-Stalinise art? (2)
- lifted some censorship
- allowed non Socialist Realist
How did Solzhenitsyn show de-Stalinisation?
Was allowed to publish anti-Stalinist writing and won a Nobel Prize
What was Solzhenitsyn not allowed to publish?
Gulag Archipelago
What was Khrushchev’s modern art outburst?
Exploded in rage at a modern art exhibition in 1962, filmed by Western journalists
What was Stalin’s view on art?
Avant garde artists were allowed too much freedom and art should glorify workers
What were the aims of Socialist Realism? (3)
- inspire workers
- celebrate economic achievements
- easy to understand
What was Socialist Realist art?
Photographic-realist paintings simply reflecting socialist values in order to inspire the masses
How was Socialist Realism enforced?
Terror
Who was an example of terror enforcing art?
Isaac Babel, arrested and executed for not conforming
What was Prolekult art?
Revolutionary art dominated by the Proletariat and free from central control
When was Prolekult a national organisation?
1918-20
Why was Prolekult shut down?
Lenin became increasingly suspicious of its independence
What was Avant Garde art?
New, modern and experimental art, deemed elitist and inaccessible
What was Agitprop?
Department of Agitation Propaganda - controlled avant garde
What were Khrushchev’s policies towards religion?
Increased attacks, closing religious institutions and spreading anti-religious propaganda through the space race
Why did Brezhnev reduce persecution of the Church?
Bad reputation in the West
How did Brezhnev’s government compromise with the church?
The Church was allowed some operation but only if it supported Soviet policies and helped the vulnerable
How did Stalin justify initial attacks on the Church?
Linked it to kulaks
What happened when churches were closed under Stalin?
Demolished and bells melted down to fund industrialisation
What percentage of churches were still open in 1939?
1 in 40
What happened to the Cathedral of Christ Our Saviour?
Dynamited with the intention of building the Palace of the Soviets
How were Stalin’s religious policies resisted?
Congregations met in secret and holy days continued
What percentage of Russians were still religious in 1937?
50%
What happened to the League of Militant Godless between 1932-38?
Lost 3/4 of members
Why did Stalin change religious policy after the outbreak of WW2?
Needed the church to motivate soldiers
What were Stalin’s religious policies post 1939? (3)
- closed League of Militant Godless
- re-opened churches
- declared WW2 a holy war
What was Stalin proclaimed as by the Patriarch?
A ‘God chosen leader’
When and what was the Degree of Separation of the Church and State?
- 1918
- declared the church could not own property, religion schools was outlawed
What was the purpose of the League of Militant Godless?
Spread atheism through propaganda
What did the propaganda of the League of Militant Godless portray?
Mary desperate for abortion and women and children being liberated by secularism
How many were executed between 1921-2 for resisting seizure of church valuables?
8,000, including 28 priests
Why were Priests massacred in Moscow in the 1920s?
Excommunicated Bolsheviks
When was the Living Church established?
1921-46, ended due to little support
What was the purpose of the Living Church?
Rival the Orthodox church and divide Christianity
Who was Patriarch Tikhon?
Head of the Russian Orthodox church
What happened to Patriarch Tikhon after resisting seizure of valuables?
Arrested, freed, demoted and replaced by a member of the living church
Who was KGB leader 1967-82?
Andropov
What can Andropov’s KGB be compared to?
The Stasi
How did Andropov reform the KGB?
Brought the KGB closer to Stalinism as he believed dissident movements were very dangerous
What were the main 4 methods of Brezhnev’s secret police?
- harassment and surveillance
- emigration and exile
- psychiatric hospitals
- media campaigns
How did Brezhnev’s secret police use harassment and surveillance?
Writers were threatened with blacklisting, warning letters and surveillance
How did Brezhnev’s secret police use emigration and exile?
High profile dissidents were encouraged to emigrate or internally exiled in Gorky
What was Gorky?
A closed city for dissident academics
How did Brezhnev’s secret police use psychiatric hospitals?
Argued anti-Soviet thinking was a mental illness and heavily ‘treated’
How did Brezhnev’s secret police use media campaigns?
Famous dissidents were smeared and discredited in the media
How was dissidence successfully controlled? (3)
- fear and intimidation suppressed movements
- no wide-scale protests
- KBG became more professional and subtle
How was dissidence not successfully controlled? (3)
- Samizdat flourished
- USSR gained a poor international reputation
- Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn were rewarded internationally
What are 3 examples of Khrushchev’s use of terror?
- Execution of Beria
- Hungarian Uprising
- Novocherkassk Strikes
When was Beria executed?
1953
When was the Hungarian Uprising?
1956
What was the Hungarian Uprising?
Reformers aimed to break away from the USSR, 4,000 killed by Soviet tanks
When were the Novocherkassk Strikes?
1962
What caused the Novocherkassk Strikes?
Increasing prices and decreasing wages
What happened during the Novocherkassk Strikes?
- 10,000 workers went on strike, walking over tanks and carrying red flags and portraits of Lenin
- Stormed party headquarters and killed 23 people
How did the government cover up the Novocherkassk strikes?
Repaved the entire square to cover up the blood
How did Khrushchev reform the secret police? (4)
- criminal code
- scaled down gulags
- reduced size and independence of the KGB
- socialist legality
What was the criminal code?
Banning of night-time interrogations and arrests
What is dissidence?
Opposition of governing ideals and the status quo
What did political dissidents believe?
The Government are accountable for the lack of human rights
What did religious dissidents believe?
Resisted forced restrictions on religious practices
Who were refuseniks?
Soviet Jews denied emigration to Israel
What did nationalist dissidents believe?
Demanded recognition of their national languages and cultures
What did intellectual dissidents believe?
Resisted restrictions on their work and writing
When was Yagoda NKVD leader?
1934-36
What were Yagoda’s developments to the NKVD? (3)
- began Gulag expansion
- created system of forced labour which supported rapid industrialisation
- show trials
What was the nickname for Yezhov?
‘Poisoned dwarf’
When was Yezhov NKVD leader?
1936-38
What were the mistakes of Yagoda?
Too slow at organising show trials and failed to catch Trotsky
What happened to Yagoda?
Purged in a show trial in 1938
What were Yezhov’s developments to the NKVD? (3)
- increased executions with order 447
- encouraged denunciation
- execution quotas
How many were shot for crimes against the state under Yezhov?
1 million
Why was Yezhov executed?
Scapegoated by Stalin, accused of being an enemy of the people
When was Beria NKVD leader?
1938-53
Why was Beria so feared? (3)
- kidnapped and raped women
- doubled gulag production
- order 270
What was order 270?
Treated retreating or captured soldiers as enemies of the state
Who were Stalin’s 3 NKVD leaders?
- Yagoda
- Yezhov
- Beria
How was the Cheka linked to the state under Lenin?
Dzerzhinsky was in the Central Committee and the Politburo
Manipulation - Figes (HE by FSP to AM of T and B)
‘human engineering by formulating social policies to alter modes of thinking and behaviour’
Socialist Realism - Figes (it I a DC on A and W, who were now E to be UO about SL and EA to the M)
‘it imposed a deadening conformity on artists and writers, who were now expected to be uniformly optimistic about Soviet life and easily accessible to the masses’
Denunciations - Figes (P often WD in the SC that they were P their D as C)
‘people often wrote denunciations in the sincere convictions that they were performing their duty as citizens’
Consequences of terror - Figes
‘Terror atomised society. It broke up the collective unities’
Psychological terror - Solzhenitsyn
‘beat the dog once and you only have to show him the whip’
Propaganda - Stalin
‘the production of souls is more important than the production of tanks’
Literature - Figes (in no other C did LA as much A - as the V and C of the P - as it did in SR)
‘in no other country did literature attain as much authority - as the voice and consciences of the people - as it did in Soviet Russia’
