ideologies: autocracy, dictatorship and totalitarianism

Question 1

KEY DATES: TSARS (6)

Answer 1

1855: ALEXANDER II BECOMES TSAR
1861: EMANCIPATION EDICT
1881: ASSASSINATION OF ALEXANDER II
1894: NICHOLAS II BECOMES TSAR
1906: FIRST DUMA, FUNDAMENTAL LAWS PASSED
1917: ABDICATION OF NICHOLAS, PG TAKES POWER

Question 2

KEY DATES: COMMUNISTS (7)

Answer 2

1918: TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK
1924: DEATH OF LENIN
1927: STALIN CONTROLL PARTY CONGRESS
1953: DEATH OF STALIN
1953-6: KHRUSHCHEV CONTROL AND DESTALINISATION
1964: KHRUSHCHEV REMOVED FROM POWER

Question 3

When as Russia governed by autocracy? What were the main features of autocracy?

Answer 3

1855-March 1917 Russia was governed by autocracy

• Tsars answerable to God - selected by God to protect and maintain moral standards
• supported by Orthodox Church - Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality
• very practical and straight forwards

Question 4

How did each of the Tsars implement autocracy?

Answer 4

A2 - string of reforms appeared to dilute autocracy - after assassination attempt Tolstoy’s ‘tango of reforms’ reduced liberalism
A3 - Influenced by Pobedonostev’s ‘Manifesto of an Unshakeable Autocracy’ adopted a repressive autocracy - 10k Populists arrested on his accession, reactionary measures etc
N2 - continuity of autocratic rule - October Manifesto and Dumas seemed to move towards democracy but Fundamental Laws 1906 maintained his autocratic power. Also adopted a policy of repression - Stolypin’s necktie

Question 5

When was Russia governed by dictatorship? What were the basis of this Marxism-Leninism rule?

Answer 5

Post Oct 1917 Russia was governed by dictatorship under Marxist-Lenin values

• Destroy the Tsarist ‘superstructure’ - serfdom and capitalism to be replaced with bodies to ensure egalitarianism (Sovnarkrom, dekulakisation)
• ‘Labour Theory of Value’ - acted as basis of a government which would eventually be run by workers (Workers’ Control Decree, Soviets), after sacrifices were made
• ‘Dictatorship of the proletariat’ - before communism, political control would be placed into the hands of the workers to represent communal interests - both Lenin and Stalin bent this to fit their cirumstances

Question 6

How did Lenin implement Marxism-Leninsm?

Answer 6

• pamphlets - emergence of the Pavrada
• ‘taking power by the soviets’, Sovnarkom appointed by Congress of Soviets (congress and local parties under instruction), ministers’ replaced by People’s Commissars,
• One party-state - 1st Dec all non-Bolshevik newspapers banned, Cheka killed 50k April-July
• Civil War - eradicate opponents, Red Terror under Trotsky 50 killed
• War Communism - nationalisation, grain req harshly implemented by the Cheka
• NEP - political concessions/sacrifices in order to ensure a permanent revolution

Question 7

When was Russia ruled by totalitarianism? What were the main features of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism?

Answer 7

From 1928 onwards Russia was governed by Stalin’s formalised ideologies:

• centralised economy (command economy centred on collectivisation)
• personalised superstructure - cult of personality, disagreement labelled bourgeois, Purges

Question 8

Was Stalin’s totalitarian rule that different to Lenin’s?

Answer 8

Argued that Lenin was moving towards Totalitarianism before his death
Stalin acted as Lenin’s ‘disciple’
Lenin was the one who established the Cent Com and other institutions designed to control the superstructure
Cheka set up by Lenin 17th Dec - opposition and stabilise economy

Question 9

What was collective leadership?

Answer 9

After Stalin’s death - power struggle led to a government of collective leadership - mostly under the control of Khrushchev and Malenkov

Question 10

How did Khrushchev move away from Stalinist policies?

Answer 10

• Secret Speech (20th Party Congress 1956) - denounced Stalin on multiple levels
• De-Stalinisation - release of political prisoners, relaxation on censorship (particularly to allow media which criticised Stalin) and erosion of the cult of personality (Stalingrad renamed Volograd, removal of Stalin’s body from the mausoleum)

Question 11

In what ways was Khrushchev similar to Stalin?

Answer 11

• removal and execution of Beria without a trial
• used MVD and KGB to maintain control - used force in Hungarian Uprising 1956 (inc putting people in psychiatric hospitals)
• Exploited power struggled and used factionalism rule as a means to expel opponents - Anti-Party Group
• Khrushchev reorganised economy to gain control around him
• Re-wrote history books to eradicate Stalin from Russian history

Question 12

In what ways was Khrushchev similar to Alexander II?

Answer 12

• both experienced strikes after the introduction of reforms - Kh had issues in satellite states like Poland and Hungary
• both did not intent to move too far away from an authoritarian rule - one-party/leader state remained until fall of SU in 1991

Question 13

similarities in ideologies across the period

Answer 13

• need to absolute control
• use of repression to maintain control
• use of reform to maintain control
• reluctance to allow openness and complete freedoms