khrushchev (1953-1964)

Question 1

When did the Presidium begin debate over successor.

Answer 1

1952.

Question 2

When does Stalin die.

Answer 2

1953.

Question 3

Who becomes leader as Chairman of Council of Ministers and general party Secretary in 1953.

Answer 3

Malenkov.

Question 4

Who replaces Malenkov as General Secretary in 1953.

Answer 4

Khruschev.

Question 5

When is Beria arrested and executed in private court.

Answer 5

1953.

Question 6

When was the Virgin Lands Scheme launched.

Answer 6

1954.

Question 7

Who replaced Malenkov as Chairman of Council of Ministers in 1955.

Answer 7

Bulganin.

Question 8

When does an Anti-Party group attempt to overthrow Khrushchev.

Answer 8

1957.

Question 9

When is Bulganin forced to resign.

Answer 9

1958.

Question 10

What were Beria’s alarming political views.

Answer 10

• Release of many prisoners.
• Moderate foregin policy.
• Denounce of the Georgian Purge.
• Stopping of Stalin’s costly construction projects.

Question 11

Why was Beria arrested and executed.

Answer 11

Rivals were alarmed by his power and popularity.

Question 12

How did Khrushchev respond to the Presidium vote against him in 1957.

Answer 12

Put it to the Central Committee who was full of supporters.

Question 13

Which other leader was in support of Khrushchev.

Answer 13

Zhukov.

Question 14

What steps had Krushchev taken before the 1956 Congress meeting.

Answer 14

• Releasing those accused in the Doctors Plot.
• Criticising Beria, the gulag system and policing system.
• Cultural ‘thaw’.

Question 15

Name of Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’.

Answer 15

On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences.

Question 16

What was Khrushchev’s 1956 speech made with.

Answer 16

• Material from a Central Committee commission about abuses under Stalin.
• Quotes from Lenin’s testament.

Question 17

What were the main points of Khruschev’s speech.

Answer 17

• Blamed Stalin for the terror, purges, executions, Kirov’s murder, etc.
• Claimed Stalin hindered socialist progress.
• Called rehabillitation of trotsky.

Question 18

What did Khruschev’s 1956 speech leave out.

Answer 18

• Purge of ordinary citizens.
• Any flaws in economic control.
• Flaws of single Party system.
• Incrimminating evidence/discussion.

Question 19

What did Khrushchev do to the police system in 1956.

Answer 19

Reduce in power and size.

Question 20

What did Khruschev attempt to model his government body like.

Answer 20

Leninist one.

Question 21

Democratisation.

Answer 21

Invoking the weakening of traditional burocracy to give more responsiblity to the people.

Question 22

Decentralisation.

Answer 22

Giving more initiative to locals.

Question 23

What changes did Khruschev make to party in 1962.

Answer 23

• Split into rural and urban sections at all levels.
• Non-party members encouraged to take supervisory roles.

Question 24

What did Party membership expand to by 1958.

Answer 24

11 million.

Question 25

Issues under the Stalinist system.

Answer 25

- Lack of Moscow ministers. - Little administrators. - Factories would hide progress to prevent targets increase. - Heavy goods were favoured over light ones.

Question 26

What happened to the Sixth Five Year plan.

Answer 26

Was launched in 1956 and abandoned in 1958.

Question 27

How did K try to decentralise.

Answer 27

- Abolishing 60 Moscow Ministries. - Divided USSR into 105 economic regions. - Made local sovnarkovs in each region.

Question 28

The Seven Year Plan, 1959, aims.

Answer 28

- Improve living and working standards. - Expand chemical industries. - Increase housing. - Exploitation of natural resources.

Question 29

Results of the Seven Five Year Plan.

Answer 29

- Railways became electrifies or diseal run. - Train network expanded. - Air transport made more accessible. - Sputnik launched in 1957. - First human in space 1961.

Question 30

Failure of decentralisation policies.

Answer 30

Added another layer of bureacracy.

Question 31

Failures of the Seven Year Plan.

Answer 31

- Spending on the Space race distorted economy. - Technology was unsophisticated.

Question 32

How did K change management of agricultural policies.

Answer 32

Placed responsibility under local parties and made the Ministry of Agriculture an advisory body.

Question 33

Changes made to agriculture.

Answer 33

- State paid peasants more. - Grain quotas reduced. - taxes reduced. - Collectives became self-reliable. - More farms were linked to the electrisity grid. - Chemical fertiliser use was encouraged.

Question 34

Virgin Lands Scheme.

Answer 34

Unploughed land in Kazakhstan and Siberia was used for crop growth.

Question 35

Success of the Virgin lands Scheme.

Answer 35

Over 35 million hectares was ploughed by 1965.

Question 36

Agrocities.

Answer 36

Rural, agriculutral towns made to reflect urban factory cities to encourage modernisation in the countryside. But doesnt happen.

Question 37

Failure of K's agriculutral aims.

Answer 37

- Aim of 180 million tonnes of cereal not met. - Private plots were still peasants main form of income. - State officals constantly changed prices. - Interferenace from local officials in farm management irritated the peasants.

Question 38

What happened in 1963.

Answer 38

Bad harvest, making the USSR import grain from the West.

Question 39

Improvements in working conditions.

Answer 39

- Consumer goods became more avaliable. - Apartments were prefabricated. - Pension arrangments improved and extended to peasants. - Work hours reduced to 40 per week. - Wages increased. - Factory trade unions had more responsibilities. - More accessible and efficient transport.

Question 40

When and what was the World Festival of Youth.

Answer 40

1957, when youths from over 131 countries mingled in Moscow.

Question 41

What did a 1951 survey show about youths.

Answer 41

Motivated by material goods and cynical of the October Revolution.

Question 42

K's opinion on art.

Answer 42

Disliked modernism in any forms.

Question 43

Policies made against the church.

Answer 43

- Athesism brought into the school system. - Children banned from church services. - Parents forbidden from teaching children about religion. - Religious buildings turned into secular use. - Clerygmen critical of atheism could be forcibly retired, arrested or sent to a labour camp.

Question 44

Where was 'rapprochement' established.

Answer 44

1961 reformulation of Party doctrine.

Question 45

Rapprochement.

Answer 45

Assimilating all nationalities under one banner of Soviet.

Question 46

Kruschev on Jews.

Answer 46

- Complained they were too interested in academic pursuits. - Did not allow Jew immigration to Isreal.

Question 47

Tamizdat.

Answer 47

Printing banned writings abroad.

Question 48

Samizdat.

Answer 48

Reproduing banned works by hand for distrubution.

Question 49

Magazine example with dissident prose and poetry.

Answer 49

Sphinxes.

Question 50

When was the Mayak poetry reading events established.

Answer 50

1958.

Question 51

When were regular attendees of Mayak arrested.

Answer 51

1961.

Question 52

How many were identified and for what in 1961.

Answer 52

130,000 identified for leading 'parasitic and anti-social ways of life'.

Question 53

Magnitizdat.

Answer 53

Copying music on reel-to-reel tape recorders for distribution.

Question 54

How many political prisoners by 1957.

Answer 54

2% of prison population.

Question 55

When was the loyalist outbreak in Georgia.

Answer 55

1956.

Question 56

When was K forced from power.

Answer 56

1964.

Question 57

Aspects of politics which had not changed from the Stalinist system by 1964.

Answer 57

- Political elite wanted to maintain elements of control over the state and resources to maintain their career and lifestyle. - One party state remained. - Command economy.

Question 58

Economy by 1964.

Answer 58

No sustainable solution for economic growth was found.