Government Flashcards
Why did Lenin close the Constituent Assembly?
The SRs won double the votes of the Bolsheviks
How and when was the Constituent Assembly close?
- using the Red Army
- January 1918, after one day
Who was Felix Dzerzhinsky?
‘Iron Felix’ - head of the Cheka
How big was the Cheka under Dzerzhinsky?
250,000
When was the Red Terror and how many were executed?
- 1918-21
- 200,000
Name 3 specific victims of the Red Terror.
- Tsar + family
- Fanny Kaplan
- Bim Bom
How many bishops were executed in the Red Terror?
28
What did Lenin do in 1918 which attributed to his personality cult?
Convinced Bolsheviks to sign a contract with Germany - gave up Russian land but freed up troops for the Civil War
What 3 factors caused Lenin’s personality cult?
- Threatened to resign - proving his irreplaceability
- Survival of assassination attempt
- Won Revolution and Civil War
What 2 factors are evidence of Lenin’s personality cult?
- Preservation in mausoleum
- St Petersburg renamed Leningrad
What counters Lenin’s personality cult?
His testament was largely ignored after his death
What 3 events constitute the crisis of 1921?
- Kronstadt Uprising
- Workers’ Opposition
- Tambov Uprising
What was the Kronstadt Uprising?
Rebellion of loyal and elite Kronstadt sailors due to Bolshevik violence and lack of democracy - destroyed by Red Army
What was the Workers’ Opposition?
A Bolshevik faction lead by Alexandra Kollontai opposing lack of democracy
Who was Alexandra Kollontai?
Revolutionary and Central Committee member
How did Lenin respond to the Workers’ Opposition?
Ban on Factions - prohibited debate and exiled Kollontai
Why did Lenin hate peasants?
Their orthodox religion and support of the Constituent Assembly
What was the Tambov Uprising?
Rebellion of peasants, resisting grain acquisition during the Civil War - bombed by Red Army
What was the One Party State?
Other parties outlawed, e.g. Mensheviks
What was the Nomenklatura?
List of loyal members for promotion
What is Democratic Centralism?
Illusion of democracy while power is held at the centre of the party
How was Democratic Centralism enacted in the Soviet Union?
Soviets were elected by local councils, but the most powerful were pre-selected forming the Politburo
What was the Sovnarkom?
Directly elected official government, kept appearance of democracy
What was the Politburo?
Leading body containing 7-9 members, passed decisions to Sovnarkom
What was the Central Committee?
Decision making body of 30-40 members
What did Lenin do to Trade Unions?
Took them over, no longer allowed to strike or demand better wages
Who fought in the Civil War and when?
- Red vs White armies
- 1918-21
Who were the White Army?
Anti-Lenin parties
How did Lenin mythologise the Civil War?
As a battle between good and evil
How did the Civil War transform the Bolshevik party?
Into a militarised and brutal force
What were the impacts of the Civil War? (4)
- War Communism
- Red Terror
- Justified violence and mass censorship
- Cult of Personality
How were Lenin and Stalin’s governments similar?
- Terror instigated by a secret police responsible to the party
- Undemocratic, corrupt, single party state
- Personality cult and dictatorship
How were Lenin and Stalin’s governments different?
- Stalin also instigated terror within his own party
- Stalin’s ideological orthodoxy banned any discussion and made the Nomenklatura a hit list
- Stalin’s cult of personality was inorganic
Why was Lenin’s Testament ignored? (3)
- Destroyed reputations of powerful members
- Party manipulated by Stalin
- They didn’t see Stalin as a threat
Who were Lenin’s potential successors? (4)
- Zinoviev
- Kamenev
- Trotsky
- Stalin
Who was Zinoviev?
- Head of Leningrad party
- Lenin’s closest friend
- Voted against Lenin in 1917
- Perceived as cowardly
Who was Kamenev?
- Head of Moscow branch
- Working class revolutionary
- Lacked charisma and cunning
Who was Trotsky?
- Head of Red Army
- Revolutionary icon
- Perceived as arrogant and middle class
What was Stalin’s role under Lenin?
General Secretary in charge of promotion and Nomenklatura
How did Lenin’s Police State cause the Great Terror?
Provided foundational institution
How did Nadezhda’s suicide cause the Great Terror?
1932 - she was found with a manifesto criticising Stalin’s policies
What occurred at the 1934 Congress of Victors?
Kirov elected higher, causing Stalin’s paranoia
Why was Kirov murdered in 1934?
Accusations of working for a Trotskyite-Zinovievite terror group
What did the murder of Kirov allow? (2)
- Stalin to try Zinoviev and Kamenev
- Issuing of order 447
What were Chistkas and when did they occur?
- ‘Cleansing’ of 22% of party members and trials of old Bolsheviks
- 1932-5
What were Show Trials and when did they occur?
- broadcasted trials and forced confessions of those accused of treason
- 1936-8
What was the Purge of the Red Army and when did it occur?
- Removal of those loyal to Trotsky
- 1937
How many officers were removed and what fraction of marshals were purged in the Great Terror?
- 35,000
- 3/5
How many personnel did Yezhov purge in the secret police?
3,000
When was the Purge of the Party?
1936-9
How did Stalin reform the NKVD? (4)
- expanded to millions or members
- made them independent, answerable to him
- encouraged denunciation
- police chiefs worked directly alongside Stalin
What was Order 447?
Gave secret police power to arrest all ‘anti-Soviet elements’
What was the Troika court system?
3 judges, including secret police chief, instead of jury
What was the Quota System?
Estimates to determine the exact amount of enemies to arrest
How was Stalin’s personal power strong? (3)
- New everything about party members
- Close relationships with police chiefs
- Manipulated history
How was Stalin’s personal power weak? (2)
- Believed to be forced into terror
- Out voted in favour of Kirov
What was Party Privilege under Stalin?
Nomenklatura given more power, status, housing etc.
How did Stalin use the Politburo?
Rarely - no trust
What was the Lenin Enrolment?
Increase in working class party membership
What was ideological orthodoxy?
One given ideology to be unquestionably followed
How was Stalin’s personality an asset?
Politically skilled and had proletariat roots
How did Stalin undermine Trotsky?
Told him the wrong date for Lenin’s funeral and read the eulogy in his place
What was Stalin’s ideology? (2)
- Socialism in one country
- Rapid industrialisation
What was Socialism in one country?
The idea that Socialism could be achieved in the USSR alone, providing Russians with a sense of an important historical role
What was Trotsky’s position on Socialism in one country?
Believed the USSR could not survive without other countries
What was Bukharin’s view on industrialisation?
Believed they should industrialise ‘at a snail’s pace’
How was Khrushchev removed from power?
In a coup from the Politburo and Central Committee in 1964
What were Khrushchev’s unpopular reforms? (3)
- Fixed Terms
- Decentralisation
- Socialist Legality
What was Socialist Legality?
Criminalised mass executions, outlawed police terror
What was Khrushchev’s retreat?
The slowing of de-Stalinisation in 1957, undoing his reforms
Who were the main figures to challenge Khrushchev?
Molotov and Malenkov
How did censorship show Khrushchev’s retreat?
Began to imprison writers in mental asylums and appointed his son as a newspaper editor
What did Khrushchev say in 1957 implying a favourable attitude of Stalin?
‘All communists are Stalinists’
How was Khrushchev hypocritical? (2)
- used Subjectivism to make his own decisions
- tried to forge his own personality cult
How did Khrushchev attempt to curate a cult of personality? (2)
- ‘Man of the People’
- photographed frequently with farmers
How did Khrushchev dismantle Stalin’s cult? (8)
- Criticised violence in new official history of the party
- Renamed Stalingrad to Volgograd
- Removed statues
- Allowed writers to criticise Stalin (1957)
- Secret Speech
- Releases gulag prisoners
- Published Lenin’s testament
- Removed Stalin’s body from Lenin’s mausoleum (1961)
How did Khrushchev decentralise?
Collective leadership returned and power divided regionally and departmentally (industry and agriculture)
What did Khrushchev establish to decentralise?
Regional Economic Councils
What was Subjectivism?
Allowed decisions to be made at local and national levels without the approval of the Politburo
How did centralisation continue under Khrushchev? (2)
- remaining ban on factions and dominance of the Politburo
- fixed terms didn’t apply to Khrushchev
How did Khrushchev remove terror?
- Renamed to KGB and no longer independent
- Socialist legality
- No more political mass terror or gulags
What was the Hungarian Uprising?
4,000 people killed in an attempt to gain independence from the USSR
What was Destalinisation also called?
Khrushchev Thaw
What was the Secret Speech and when?
- 20th Party Congress, Khrushchev spoke for 4 hours criticising Stalin
- 1956
Where was Stalin’s body moved to in 1961?
By the Kremlin, alongside other party members
How were Khrushchev and Brezhnev similar? (3)
- Use of Politburo and central leadership
- No mass terror, purges or gulags
- More human personality cults
How were Khrushchev and Brezhnev different?
- Brezhnev was more central and corrupt and less democratic
- Expanded KGB
- Brezhnev increased censorship and presented a sense of superiority
What was Mature Socialism?
Expansion of the party and recentralisation
What was ‘Trust in Cadres’?
Allowed loyal officials unlimited time in power
What is oligarchy?
Self-motivated governance
How can Brezhnev’s era be described?
- Corrupt
- Oligarchical
- Nepotistic
What is Gerontocracy?
Leaders were significantly older than the average population, no progression or new ideas
What did the 1977 Soviet Constitution do?
Limited freedom of speech, criticism and protest
When was Lenin in power?
1917-24
When was Stalin in power?
1928-53
When was Khrushchev in power?
1953-64
When was Brezhnev in power?
1964-82
Trotsky - Lenin’s Testament
‘he has displayed excessive self-assurance and arrogance’
Stalin - Lenin’s Testament
‘I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution’
Marxism - Figes (It was S as a ‘P of R’, O ‘OS’ to the M of P and B)
‘It was seen as a ‘path of reason’, offering ‘objective solutions’ to the misery of poverty and backwardness’
Lenin’s character - Figes
‘there was a strong puritanical streak in Lenin’s character which later manifested itself in the political culture of his dictatorship’
Lenin’s persuasive personality - Figes
‘the dominance of his personality’
Reasons for Red Terror - Figes
‘retribution and revenge were powerful revolutionary impulses’
Lenin’s cult - Figes
‘a cult designed by the Bolsheviks, against Lenin’s will’
Origins of terror - Figes
‘from the Civil War that Bolsheviks inherited their cult of sacrifice’
Description of Stalin - Figes
‘he had gained a reputation for modest and industrious mediocrity’
Yezhov - Figes (he was P to I Stalin’s PF by FE of ‘CRC’)
‘he was prepared to indulge Stalin’s paranoid fantasies by fabricating evidence of ‘counter-revolutionary conspiracies’’
Khrushchev - Figes (a F and TC, D by his O as B, O and I to make B)
‘a flamboyant and tempestuous character, described by his opponents as boorish, overbearing and inclined to make blunders’
Secret Speech - Figes (it was the M when the PLA, U and SB. It was the B of the E)
‘It was the moment when the party lost authority, unity and self-belief. It was the beginning of the end’
Brezhnev - Figes (he was a C of the S, a G and MF rather than a R)
‘he was a creature of the system, a grey and mediocre functionary rather than a revolutionary’
Mature Socialism - Figes (the AD that a SS had been SC and that all that was N was to C it’s G)
‘the absurd doctrine that a socialist society had been successfully created and that all that was needed was to consolidate its gains’
Secret Speech - Khrushchev
‘Stalin was a very distrustful man; sickly suspicious’
Downfall of Khrushchev - Stableford (he was O a V of his OA […] P the E and C of D)
‘he was often a victim of his own ambition […] preferring the ease and comfort of dictatorship’
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Solzhenitsyn
‘no one would care if a prisoner froze to death, but what if he tried to escape?’
Terror - Dherzhinsky
‘we stand for organised terror […] our aim is to fight against the enemies of the new order of life’
Freedom - Lenin
‘it is true that liberty is precious; so precious it must be carefully rationed’
Ideology - Stalin
‘Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why would we let them have ideas?’
