High stalinism Flashcards
dictatorship and totalitarianism; renewed Terror; the NKVD under Beria; Zhdanovism and the cultural purge; Stalin's cult of personality; the Leningrad affair; purges and the Doctors' Plot
How were decisions made after the GPW
no party congresses were held between 1939 and 1952
the politburo was reduced to an advisory body
big decisions were made by gatherings of Stalin’s inner circle and often Stalin could bypass both government and party and exert direct central authority
how did membership of the party change
members less likely to be committed ideologists from the peasantry or workers
new men were obedient bureaucrats who did not show initiative and avoided ideological debates
what is high Stalinism
the culmination of Stalin’s regime 1945-1953
Stalin’s authority over the state, party and the people and the cult of the personality reached its peak
example of Stalin playing his men off one another
Zhdanov challenged the policy of Malenkov
Malenkov was investigated as he lost his position as party secretary
Malenkov and Beria schemed against Zhdanov and engineered his political downfall in 1948
What positions did Stalin hold
head of government
Party chairman
why did Stalin play people off against each other and encourage rivalry
protect himself
make sure the members of the politburo worked hard to produce the outcomes he wanted
helped to confirm Stalin’s dominance
example of harsh treatment of people who had been outside of the USSR during the GPW
Leopold Trepper
led a spy ring in Nazi Germany
awarded a medal as a hero of the soviet union then immediately arrested and deposited in the gulag
What law was passed in February 1947
marriages to foreigners were outlawed
How were people in the newly annexed territories treated
needed to show unwavering loyalty
saying the wrong thing or brief contact with a foreigner could get a person denounced or arrested
How was surveillance used
hotels, restaurants and embassies were under surveillance with police watching for meetings between soviet girls and foreign men
What was Beria’s role
NKVD chief
deputy prime minister
member of politburo
in charge of developing a soviet atomic bomb
how was the NKVD reorganised and strengthened
separated into the MVD and MGB
what was the role of the MVD
ministry of internal affairs
controlled domestic security and the gulags
What was the role of the MGB
ministry of state security
handled counter intelligence and espionage
How many wartime survivors were sent to labour camps
around 12 million
How similar was the renewed terror to the terror of the 1930s
far fewer people were killed
but tens of thousands were arrested annually for counter revolutionary activities and millions sent to labour camps
who coordinated the cultural purge
Zhdanov
what 2 literary works began the Zhdanovschina by being purged
The adventures of a money and a collection of poems
the publishers were purged and the authors expelled for the Union of Soviet writes
what happened to socialist realism
re-asserted as the norm in literature, art and cinema
what did condemned artists have to do
make public recantations of their errors in order to keep working
what did favoured cinema show
criticisms of American commercialism
soviet achievements
the cult of Stalin
How was antisemitism prevalent in the cultural purge
Jewish artists were supressed of ignored
Jewish newspapers shut down
Nazi wartime atrocities portrayed and fascist crimes without mentioning jews
what happened to the great composer Prokofiev
came under criticism for anti socialist tendencies
found it difficult to get his music performed
removed from his teaching post
his wife was imprisoned as a way of intimidating him
What did Lysenko do
August 1948 given complete dominance over the Academy of Sciences
his theory crippled Soviet scientific development
