High Stalinism 1945-53 Flashcards
Dictatorship & Totalatarianism
High Stalinism = culmination of S’s regime 1945-53
Key Features =
unchallenged leadership by S,
an extreme dictatorship,
S as a heroic leader of the GPW,
S cult portrayed him as god like+ apart from others,
a secret police state, cul purges in the name of ideological purity ,
the party/institutions weakened/ ignored, rivalries & plots amongst inner circle
S was becoming increasingly withdrawn & paranoid deeply suspicious of outside influences,
a lack of policy reform due to stagnation + inertia at top of gov
Dictatorship & Totalarianism
2
During war some aspects of= relaxed Eg religion= tolerated & churches reopened
After war dictatorship = stronger than b4
Party= sidelined = x congresses 1929-52 - Politburo & CC followed S’s order
Renewed Terror:
S ruthlessly enforced R iso from non-Soc world - security - CW intensified & fear losing ideology commitment if saw bens of living W
Around 15% of 1.8 million returned pris to gulags = offence for RA to surrender += sus may have collab w Gers
Any contact w foreigners could= denouncement & arrest - 1947 law x to mar to foreigners- travel = controlled few = allowed to leave R
Sense of terror = persuasive + 10,s of 1000,s of Sov cits contin arrest in S last yrs - sometimes for careless few words - 12 mil wartime survivors to gulags
The NKVD Under Beria:
After war Beria = NKVD chief, dep PM, Pol mem + head of atomic weapons programme - NKVD = strengthened + reorg as 2 separate mins
MVD ( min of internal affairs - dom security + gulags
MGB (min of state sec). Counter intel & espionage
Zhdanovism + Cultural Purge
Andrew Zhdanov= leader of cul policy 1946 - insisted Sov artists + writers followed party lines: Soc realism, praise of S + Sov achievement & criteria of American commercialism + inequalities
Those whose work did not embody socialist realism had to pub a pol to continue working. Anti- sem = prev m. Jewish artist = suppressed
Began w/ purge of Zoshchenko’s ‘ The Advens of a monkey’ deemed to mock difs of Sov life & colof poems by Anna Akhmatova - lacked ideological content - writers = expelled from U of soviet writers
In music Shostakovich & Prokofiev = crit for “ Rootless cosmopolitanism & anti-Soc tendencies - removed from teaching+ Ps wife imprisoned
W. Cul influ= blocked + = imposs to get non- com N papers from abroad + only a few approved foreign books = translated
Sov science development = hampered by Trofim Lsyenleci’s dom over Aca of science - new theories/research = suppressed if contradicted Marxism
Stalins Cult of Personality
S portrayed as worlds greatest living genius equally superior in all areas of philosophy science military strategy econ- built on rep as R saviour
= customary to end all books & articles w/ para acknow S’s genius
His vic in GPW replaced L’s Oct/Nov Rev as greatest event of Sov history
Leningrad Affair
S = sus of party base in Lgrad - rivals had often built power there - T,Z,Kirov + by 1948 Zhdanov also = previous capital
Didn’t like the way Lgrade glorified their 872 day struggle against Ger siege = accus S could have done m to help - airdrops of food/ large Evans
1948 Zhdanov appeared to = out of favour w/ S died heart attack in Aug S launched purge to Lgrad P
Leading offs eg Nikolai Voznesenski = arrest interrogation + exec 1950 x m owed pos to Zhdanov - by 1950, 2000 p offs = dismissed + = new pro - S coms
Purges
Lgrad Affair = 1st Maj purge since 1938 x m followed increase climate of fear - the Lgraders were x a direct threat to S but he set rivals against each other
Mingrelian Case 1951 targeted P offs in Georgia - accused of collab w/ w
M case = sig B = M and they were many followers of B - was using to contain power - accussed of conspir w/ jewish plotters accus still made at S’s death
The Doctors Plot
A doctor (+ police informer) called Lydia Timashut accused Drs who treated Zhdanov of contributing to his death - nothing done at time
1952 S used this complaint to arrest M.jewish drs for ptping in a “Zionist” conspiracy to harm R for Isreal & US
Other Jews = caught up inc Malotov + Kalinin wives 1000s = arrested + deported to Gulags
9 senior Drs given exec but S died 64
Cult of Personality
2
= portrayed as man of ppl= instinct in touch w/ what av w = thinking but hadn’t gone to Kolkhoz in 25 years += provided w/ the info
= often misled by prop += increase iso
Towns & cities competed for the honour of being named after him eg Stalin’s = movement for most = Stalinador
Stalin prizes = launched after = felt = excluded from Nobel Prize
D & T
3
RA + hero’s= downgraded so wouldn’t challenge S eg 1946 war hero Marshal Zhukov sent to Odessa to lower level command
Inner circle = kept divided eg Malenkov + Beria plotted against Zhdanov & engineered his downfall 1948
Terror = renewed to ensure ppl gave absolute obedience
