Extra detail: 'High Stalinism' 1945-53

Question 1

In what ways was Stalin’s dictatorship relaxed during the war?

Answer 1

• Persecution of religion was slackened
• There were many appeals to patriotism, national unity and the ‘spirit of the people’
• fear of Stalin’s regime had been overtaken by fear of the German invaders

Question 2

What did wartime propaganda promise?

Answer 2

A ‘better world’ after victory

Question 3

How old was Stalin in 1945?

Answer 3

66

Question 4

What may have been partly responsible for Stalin’s increasing paranoia in the post-war years?

Answer 4

The mild stroke he suffered in 1946

Question 5

How did Malenkov lose his position as Party secretary? (example of the divisions in Stalin’s inner circle)

Answer 5

Zhadanov challenged his policy and an investigation under Mikoyan was set up and condemned his actions. Zhadanov became Stalin’s new closest advisor

Question 6

How did Zhadanov’s political downfall in 1948 come about? (example of the divisions in Stalin’s inner circle)

Answer 6

Malenkov and Beria schemed against him and engineered his downfall

Question 7

What was the role of the Politburo?

Answer 7

Reduced to an advisory body who waited for Stalin or a spokesman to tell them what official line was to be followed

Question 8

How were big decisions made?

Answer 8

In ‘ad hoc’ gatherings of Stalin’s inner circle

Question 9

What was Party membership like?

Answer 9

It stayed high but new members were less likely to be committed ideologists and more likely to be obedient bureaucrats who didn’t show initiative and avoided ideological debates

Question 10

When did Malenkov join the Politburo?

Answer 10

1941

Question 11

What did Malenkov do after 1945?

Answer 11

Worked with Beria on rockets and atomic weapons

Question 12

What did Malenkov do in 1948?

Answer 12

Organised the purge of the Party leadership in Leningrad with Beria

Question 13

Who briefly led the USSR after Stalin’s death?

Answer 13

Malenkov

Question 14

What was so special about Mikoyan?

Answer 14

He was the only Old Bolshevik to remain high in the governing elite through the rule of Lenin, Stalin and their successors

Question 15

When did Mikoyan join the Politburo?

Answer 15

1935

Question 16

What was the GKO?

Answer 16

The State Defence Committee

Question 17

When was the GKO dissolved?

Answer 17

September 1945

Question 18

What was Boris Pasternak condemned for and what happened as a result?

Answer 18

His ‘apolitical’ poems
His girlfriend was sent to the gulag

Question 19

How was anti-semitism present in the cultural purge?

Answer 19

• Many Jewish artists were suppressed or ignored
• Jewish newspapers were shut down
• Nazi wartime atrocities were portrayed as ‘fascist crimes’ without mentioning Jewish people

Question 20

What was the climax of the Stalin cult?

Answer 20

When Moscow’s Red Square was dominated by a giant portrait of him suspended in the sky and illuminated by a halo of lights for his 70th birthday

Question 21

What were Stalin’s motives for inspiring fear in his subordinates and engineering an atmosphere of jealousy and rivalry?

Answer 21

• Paranoia about possible conspiracies against him
• The tactic of ‘divide-and-rule’ to prevent any of his subordinates from becoming too powerful
• Megalomania

Question 22

Give examples of Stalin’s isolation

Answer 22

• Hadn’t visited a peasant village or kolkhoz for 25 years
• Spent most of his later years at his daha outside Moscow

Question 23

Name 5 towns named after Stalin

Answer 23

1. Stalingrad
2. Stalino
3. Stalinsk
4. Stalinabad
5. Stalinogorsk

Question 24

What was the effect of anti-Jewish hysteria caused by the press during the Doctor’s plot?

Answer 24

Non-Jews feared to enter hospitals and shunned all Jewish professionals