Key Dates Flashcards
1
Q
1917 (Seven things) - vital
A
- February ~ The February revolution overthrows the Tsar
- March ~ A Provisional Government is established the only truly democratic election
- October ~ The October Revolution overthrows the Provisional Government
- Lenin established the Sovnarkom
- Decrees: The Decree on Land; Workers Decree (November), Peace Decree, Marriage Decrees Decree banned all on-socialist news papers, the land Decree took land away from the church
- Vensenkha set up - Supreme Council of National Economy
- Establishment of the Cheka and the Commissariat of Enlightenment
2
Q
1918 (nine things) - vital
A
- March ~ Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany to end the war
- Lenin disbands the Constituent Assembly
- Beginning of the Russian Civil War and high centralisation
- Lenin introduces state capitalism and War Communism
- Komsomol founded (youth group for 16-24)
- Newspapers Pravda and Izvestiya are being used as vehicles for propaganda
- The All-Russia Telegraph Agency (ROSTA), established and gave the state control of all news reporting
- Orthodox Priests in Moscow were massacred in January - - Cheka have 40,000 members
3
Q
1919 (two things) - one vital
A
- Zhenotdel created, which was the women’s branch of the Communist government
- The nomenklatura system is beginning to be established
4
Q
1920 (three things)
A
- Department of Agitation Propaganda (Agitprop) set up
- 300 studios set up for the Proletkult, with a monthly magazine called Gorn (Furnace)
- The Tambov uprising, peasants in the Tambov province were rebelling against war communism and took over 50,000 troops to put it down
5
Q
1921 (seven things) - vital
A
- End of the Russian Civil War
- Opposition political parties banned - Russia becomes a one-party state
- Lenin introduces the New Economic Policy (NEP)
- March ~ 10th Party Congress bans factions
- Kronstadt Mutiny - Sailors rebelled against war communism and had the slogan ‘Soviets without Bolsheviks’
- Cheka now have grew over 5x as much since 1918 from 40,000 - 250,000 people
- By 1921 programmes were being broadcast on the radio, this was very effective as 65% of the population were illiterate.
6
Q
1922 (four things)
A
- Glavlit, a new organisation, which oversaw, a more systematic censorship regime, introduced
- Established the Soviet Union (USSR)
- Stalin becomes General Secretary which allows him to have access to thousands of personal files, controlled the agenda of meetings, and appoint his friends
- Moscow has an established broadcasting system
7
Q
1923 (three things)
A
- The Soviet economy experiences the ‘scissor crisis’
- 1917-23 ~ the Red Terror, executions of up to 200,000 people
- 1923-25 ~ the Lenin enrolment allowed Stalin to fill the party with people who were loyal to him, it brought in over 500,000 workers
8
Q
1924 (four things) - vital
A
- January ~ Lenin dies and the
- The first Soviet Constitution which outlines the key government structure
- 1924 industrial production was 45 % of its 1913 figures
- Cement by Gladkov was a key example of social realism
9
Q
1927 (one thing)
A
-Grain shortages
10
Q
1928 (five things) - vital
A
- 1924-28 ~ power struggle for the leader of the Soviet Union, with Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Tomsky and Rykov
- Stalin emerges as the leader of Russia
- Stalin introduces the first Five-Year-Plan (FYP) October 1928- December 1932
and grain requisitioning begins - focus on rapid industrialisation - 1928-41 saw a 17% growth rate, a four-gold increase in steel and a six-fold increase in coal production.
- Cultural Revolution launched
11
Q
1929 (three things)
A
- Stalin orders compulsory collectivisation of Soviet farms
- 25 people living in Magnitogorsk, three years later that number has increased exponentially to 250,000
- Collectivisation paused
12
Q
1930 (four things)
A
- Cattle went from 52 million on 1930 to 38 in 1933
- Sheep and goats went from 108 million to 50 million in 1933
- Grain went from 83 million to 68 million
- The gulag system set up: system of labour camps expanded
13
Q
1932 (six things)
A
- Beginning of the Great Famine
- Holodomor results in millions of deaths
- Dnieper Dam started in 1927, completed in 1932
- 1932-35 ~ The Chistka was a purge of party members, and was designed to remove local party officials. By 1935, 22% of the Party had been removed
- Ryutin issued a document criticising Stalin
- Stalin’s wife, Nadezhda, commits suicide
14
Q
1933 (two things)
A
- January 1933- December 1937 second Five Year Plan
- White Sea Canal project 1931-1933
15
Q
1934 (three things) vital
A
- Cheka had evolved to become the NKVD
- 1 December ~ Kirov is murdered in Leningrad
- Yagoda appointed head of NKVD
16
Q
1935 (two things)
A
- The Great Terror begins with a purge of the Leningrad Communist Party
- Zinoviev and Kamenev sentenced to long term imprisonment
17
Q
1936 (six things)
A
- Stalin removes high-profile opponents in the first Moscow Show Trials
- August ~ The Trial of the Sixteen, involved members of the left such as Zinoviev and Kamenev
- Yezhov becomes head of the secret police.
- The Great Terror intensifies, also known as the ‘Yezhovshchina’ the Great Terror claimed the lives of around 1 million which was 1% of the population
- Stalins terror destroyed Islamic groups such as Sufi groups in Turkestan were destroyed by 1936
- Second Soviet Constitution, claiming everyone had freedom and the right to vote
18
Q
1937 (two things)
A
- Trial of the Seventeen, was a purge of party officials such as Karl Radek and Gregory Pyatakov, accused of working for Trotsky
- 1937-1938 ~ there was a purge of the Red Army, ⅗ marshals were purged and 14/16 army commanders and 35,000 officers shot or imprisoned.
19
Q
1938 (one thing)
A
-January 1938- June 1941 Third Five Year Plan
20
Q
1939 (things) - vital
A
- World War Two starts in the west
- 16/71 Central Committee members still alive
- Trial of the Twenty-one, this was a purge of the right, such as Bukharin and Rykov (Tomsky had committed suicide prior to the trial)
21
Q
1940 (one thing)
A
-Trotsky assassinated in Mexico with an icepick by a KGB member
22
Q
1941 (two things)
A
-German invasion leads to the Soviet entry into the -Second World War
Cult ~ Stalin known as ‘generalissimo’ and ‘Vozhd’
23
Q
1943 (one thing)
A
-Between 1943 to 1945 over 73,000 tanks and 94,000 aircraft were made
24
Q
1945 (three things) - vital
A
- World War Two ends
- 25 million people homeless over 1,700 towns and 70,000 villages destroyed
- 1945-53 ~ high Stalinism
25
1946 (one thing)
- January 1946- December 1950 fourth Five Year Plan - focus on economic reconstruction
26
1947 (one thing)
-Vaccines for common diseases such as typhus and malaria made universally available
27
1951 ( things)
- The Mingrelian Affair, was one of the last purges of the Party by Stalin, purge of Party in Georgia, removing Beria's ally
- January 1951 - December 1955 fifth Five Year Plan
28
1953 (four things) - vital
- Evidence of Stalin planning his last purge, the ‘Doctors plot’ targeted at Jews
- Stalin dies and Khrushchev becomes General Secretary
- Khrushchev launches the Virgin Lands Scheme
- 1953-1960~ 2 million political prisoners released
29
1954 (one thing)
KGB established
30
1955 (one thing)
Abortion legalised
31
1956 (two things) - vital
- Khrushchev’s ‘Secret Speech’ - beginning of widespread de-Stalinisation which included more meeting with the presidium, less violence, fear and terror
- Khrushchev starts dismantling the Gulag
32
1957 (four things)
- Greater freedom of expression is permitted following the World Festival Youth and Students
- Khrushchev’s cultural ‘thaw’ begins
- Attempted coup to remove Khrushchev by the Anti-Party group, led by Malenkov and Molotov
- Khrushchev setup 105 Regional Economic Councils
33
1958 (one thing)
- March ~ Khrushchev becomes Prime Minister as well as General Secretary
34
1959 (two things) -vital
- 1959-65 ~ Seven-Year Plan: focus on chemicals and light industry and consumer goods
- The Alcoholic and (1959) the Lazy Bureaucrat (1961)
35
1962 (three things)
- Cuban missile crisis
- Khrushchev divided the party into industry and agriculture
- The Liberman Plan, encourage initiative
36
1964 (two things)
- Khrushchev was removed from office. Brezhnev begins to reverse Khrushchev reforms
- Until 1964 there was only one Soviet radio station, under Brezhnev this expanded to three
37
1965 (one thing)
- Kosygin’s economic reforms
38
1966 (two things)
- New criminal code tightens laws on political dissidents
| - Sinvasky-Daniel trial
39
1967 (two things)
- Andropov promoted to head of the KGB
| - Growth of dissident activity
40
1971 (one thing)
Ninth Five Year Plan 1971-1975, focus on consumer goods
41
1973 (one thing)
Major industrial complexes were joined with scientific research institutions in an attempt to ensure that the latest technology was applied to production
42
1975 (two things)
- Brezhnev becomes increasingly ill and unable to govern effectively
- 1970s ~ by the end of the 1970s around 70,000 people had received a warning from the secret police for ‘dissident’ action
43
1976 (one thing)
26% of investment was in agriculture and private plots made up 1% of cultivated areas but was producing 25% of all produce.
44
1977 (one thing)
Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution declares the Communist Party as the guiding force of the country
45
1980 (two things)
- 1953-1980~ Party membership grew from 6.9 million to 17 million
- 85% of families had televisions and 70% had washing machines
46
1982 (three things)
- Brezhnev dies; Andropov initiates reforms and tackles corruption
- Andropov’s labour laws
- Andropov launches clampdown on dissident activity and suppression of arts
47
1983 (one thing)
Pravada had a circulation of 10.7 million, other paper Trud (Labour) had a print run of 13.5 million
48
1984 (one thing)
Andropov dies and is replaced by Chernenko before reforms take place
49
1985 (one thing)
Gorbachev introduce uskorenie - initial economic reforms
50
1986 (three things)
- The Twenty-Seventh Party Congress sets out a new programme for the communist party, Gorbachev attacks Brezhnev as era as years of stagnation
- April ~ Chernobyl nuclear accident
- Twelfth Five-Year Plan is launched
51
1987 (three things)
- Gorbachev initiates reforms intended to introduce market forces into the Soviet economy and political reforms to build support for greater economic change
- Law on State Enterprises
- Yeltsin attacks Gorbachev’s reforms at a Plenum of the Central Committee, Yeltsin dismissed as First Secretary in Moscow
52
1988 (five things)
-January ~ Legalisation of co-operatives
-February ~ Yeltsin removed from the Politburo, Nina Adreeva’s letter published, leading to a conservative backlash against Gorbachev
- June ~ Nineteenth Party Conference: principle of multi-candidate elections agreed
- October ~ Popular Fronts formed in the Baltic republics
- November ~ America announces its control over Nagorno-Karabakh
1989
53
1989 (six things)
- Communism fall across Eastern Europe
- March ~ Elections to Congress of People’s Deputies
- April ~ Demonstrations in Tbilisi, Georgia
- May ~ Gorbachev elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet
- October ~ 500 Days Programme calls for rapid transition to market economy
- November ~ Fall of the Berlin wall
54
1990 (five things)
- March ~ article 6 repealed: way opened for new political parties to be established
- March ~ Lithuania proclaims independence from the USSR
- July ~ Yeltsin resigns from the Communist Party
- Gorbachev appointed President of the Soviet Union
- Perestroika: Gorbachev begins to abandon fundamental aspects of the system such as single-party rule and command economy
55
1991 (seven things)
-April ~ Georgia declares independence
- June ~ Yeltsin becomes president of Russia
- August ~ Coup to overthrow Gorbachev by conservatives in an attempt to seize power
- Soviet Union recognises independence in the Baltic Sea
Yeltsin suspends the Communist Party in Russia and rejects Gorbachev’s new union treaty
- Gorbachev resigns as president
- December ~The Soviet Union ceases to exist
