High Stalinism Flashcards
What was high stalinism?
A culmination of Stalin’s authority over state, party and people through the cult of personality as the embodiment of totalitarianism. This grew due to him image of a heroic war leader due to the great patriotic war and the USSR’s position as a world super power. Although, it was limited due to the scale of Russia in terms of geography and population of 175 million therefore power remained a balancing act between the party and the government
Why was fear relaxed during the war?
The persecution of religions was replaced with patriotism to challenges German invaders
What was fear like after the war?
- Despite promising a better world after victory, GKO (state defence committee) were dissolved in September 1945
- The military hierarchy was downgraded a Zhukov was demoted to a minor command at Odessa
- This is significant as Stalin’s aging increased his paranoia as in 1946, he had a mild stroke so it was an extended version of his control in the 1930s
How did Stalin place loyal men to him against one another?
- Zhadanov challenged Malenkov’s wartime policy, Mikoyan set up an investigation that condemned Malenkov’s actions
- Malenkov was no longer party secretary and Zhadanov became Stalin’s closest ally
- This is until Malenkov and Beria scheme his political downfall in 1948
- Whilst, Molotov were engaged in these battles, he ultimately held the greatest power until 1949
- These rivalries merely confirmed Stalin’s dominance as the cult wasn’t enough to confirm his ego
How did the runnings of government shift?
- The central committee and politburo met regularly but Stalin was able to exert direct central authority by by passing the government and the party
- No party congresses were held between 1939 and 1952
- The politburo was reduced to an advisory body to follow the lines of Stalin
- Big decisions were made in ad hoc gatherings of Stalin’s inner circle which were ranks of peasants or workers who became obedient bureaucrats who didn’t show initiative or engage in ideological debates
Why did Stalin want isolation from the non-Soviet world?
- Fears of ideological contamination
- National security during the cold war leading the harsh treatment of POWs, former army officers and their relatives who spent time after the USSR
How did Stalin enforce this isolation?
- Those in newly incorporated areas like the Baltic sates and Western USSR had to show unwavering loyalty as careless word or brief contact with a foreigner could lead to punishment
- The numbers of informers increasing placing suspicion on friends and neighbours
- In February 1947, a law was passed preventing marriage to foreigner
- Hotels, restaurants and embassies were under surveillance as a secret police watching for meeting between soviet girls and foreign men
What happened to Leopold Trepper?
During the war, he held a left-wing spy ring in Nazi Germany. He was initially awarded a medal as a hero of the soviet union but soon arrested and sent to a gulag until 1955
What was the NKVD like under Beria?
- Beria was deputy prime minister, a full member of the politburo and in charge of developing the Soviet atomic bomb
- He presided over the expansions of the gulags
- The NKVD was recognised as the MVD who controlled domestic security and the gulags and the MGB handled counter-intelligence and espionage
- Whilst less people were killed than in the 1930s, tens of thousands were arrested for counter-revolutionary activity and 12 million war time survivors were sent to gulags
Who launched the cultural purge in 1946?
Zhadanov
Why was the cultural purge promoted?
Communist ideology through propaganda and to suppress creative individualism as Stalin feared the spread of bourgeoise values because of the war
How were writers attacked?
- It began with the purges of two literary works in Leningrad, The adventures of a monkey by Zoshchenko and a collection of poems by Anna Akhmatara
- The publishers were purged and writers expelled from the union of soviet writers
- Boris Pasternak was condemned for a political poems and his girlfriend was sent to a gulag
- Traditional writers like Dostoevsky were attacked for lacking socialist qualities
What was asserted in literature, art and film?
Socialism realism
What happened to film director Sergei Eisenstein?
His film Ivan the terrible was attacked for portraying the tsar’s bodyguards as thugs rather than a progressive army
How were other forms of media attacked?
- Condemned artists had to make public recantations or their errors to continue working
- Media had to promote the cult of Stalin over American achievements
How did the media display anti-semitism?
- Jewish artists resigned
- Nazi wartime atrocities were labelled as fascist crimes without mentioning Jews
What happened to composers?
- Shostakovich ad Prokofiev came under criticism for rootless cosmopolitan and anti-socialist tendencies as they found it hard to perform and teach
- Prokofiev’s wife was imprisoned for espionage as a threat to him
What happened in August 1948?
Trofim Lysenko had dominance over the academy of science as he affected the study of maths, physics, chemistry and economics based on Marxist principles
How was foreign media treated?
- Non-communist foreign papers were unavailable, foreign radio transmission blocked and few translated books
- Only pro-Soviet writers and artists could enter the USSR
- Very few Soviet citizens could leave the USSR to the west
How did the Stalin cult increase?
- He was presented as the world’s greatest living savior in newspapers, books, films, radio and speeches
- It became customary law for the last paragraph of an academic article or book to acknowledge Stalin’s genius on a subject
-Stalin became the hero of plays, folk songs and symphonies, canals and dams were named after him as he was praised as the father of all people - Towns competed to rename themselves after Stalin and there was an unsuccessful proposal to rename Moscow, Stalinodar
- Stalin prizes were given for artistic and scientific achievements to counter the Nobel prize
- Photographs of Stalin were retouched
- Monuments appeared celebrating Stalin
How did peasant villages view him?
Even though he didn’t visit one or a Kolkhoz for 25 years, he was seen as the omniscient man of the people. In reality he relied on others to give him information and was misled by his own propaganists
What happened on Stalin’s 70th birthday?
Moscow’s red square was dominated by a giant portrait of Stalin, suspended in the sky and illuminated by search lights
Why did Stalin resented the power of Leningrad?
- Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kirov’s power all grew due to their power base in the city justifying why Zhdanov was pushed aside in 1948
- Stalin also resented the pride the city took from its role in the great siege as it was declared a hero-city with Shostakovich’s seventh symphony dedicated to the city as a symbol of patriotic defiance
What happened in 1949 after the death of Zhdanov?
- He purged those with senior position when Zhdanov gained power including economic expert, Nikolai Voznesenki
- Malenkov and Beria were pushed by Stalin to increase control of the Leningraders
- All leading officials were executed in October 1950 and by then, 2000 had been dismissed, exiled and replaced
- Even though the Leningraders were never a large threat, Stalin returned to policies of the 1930s
What was the Mingrelian purge (Georgian purge)?
- It was launched in 1951 against party officials in Georgia for collaborating with the west
- The officials were Mingrelian (an ethnic group) and followers of Beria who was of Mingrelian origin
- It was not settled until March 1953
- It served to limit Beria’s power to suppress non-Russian nationalities and anti-Semitic overtones of conspiring with Jewish plotters
What triggered the Doctor’s plot?
Female doctor and secret informer, Lydia Timashuk wrote to Stalin accusing the doctors who treated Zhdanov of sloppy methods that led to his death. While nothing was done at the time, in 1952, Stalin used it to arrest doctors of being part of a Zionist conspiracy to murder Zhdanov
How did Stalin blame the doctors of anti-zionism?
- The doctors were in pay of the US and Israel and abusing their positions to harm the USSR
- The conspiracy also affected the Leningrad party and the red army
- This spread as the director of a Jewish theatre in Moscow was mysteriously killed in 1948, the wives of Jewish Molotov and Kalinin were arrested in 1949
- Anti-patriotic groups were campaigned against in the arts and universities
- It was used to increase fear for Beria, Mikoyan, Molotov and Kaganovich
- Stalin threatened the minister of state security, Nikolai Ignatiev with execution if he didn’t obtain confession
- Thousands of ordinary Jews were sent to gulags
- Anti- Jewish hysteria was present in the media causing non-Jews to fear Jewish professional (causing 9 doctors to be almost executed) and hospitals
- It only stopped due to Stalin’s death
