Khrushchev - Control of the People

Question 1

Khrushchev’s Methods

Answer 1

Dismantling of Terror.
Cult of Personality.
Religion.
Culture.

Question 2

Dismantling of Terror

Answer 2

Relaxed control, beginning with Beria’s death (12/1953).
Dismantling Stalinist system.
Number of camps fell from 500 under Stalin to several hundred.
After a few months = 1.5m political prisoners released from gulags.
Christopher Read - “a return to much greater freedom and a vast improvement in camp life.”
Style hunters. Women who wore western (capitalist) clothes said to be letting down Russia.

Question 3

Secret Police

Answer 3

Beria executed 12/1953.
1954, KGB (party controlled) replaced NKVD.
1959, psychiatric hospitals for those of an unsound mind (political prisoners) - Paranoid reformist solution.
1960, Liquidated gulags - represented terror under Stalin.
No forced labour.
1960, KGB under a new criminal code; no night time interrogation.
Encouraged to inform on people.

Question 4

Cult of Personality

Answer 4

Reinforced his power > Malenkov.
Detached from collective leadership (Politburo).
Suited leadership style - met citizens, visited peasant farms. Photos with peasants in collective farms to show he cared.
Helped push de-Stalinisation.
1956, Secret Speech condemned Stalin’s use of personality cult. Hypocritical.
Admiration & publicity improved when he appointed his son-in-law to editor of Izvestiya.
Radio, cinema, tele for self-publicity, desperately used once his policies began to fail.
Reflected his egotistical personality, a reason for his dismissal in 1964.

Question 5

Religion

Answer 5

Anti-religious.
10k churches closed.
Priests dismissed on grounds that they were no longer needed.
Priests harassed.

Question 6

Art

Answer 6

Thought art should inspire, but found Manege Art Exhibition (1962) confusing and a waste of resources.
Limited artistic freedom.
Censored dancing in 1961, condemned modern art.

Question 7

Media

Answer 7

1953, subscribers to Soviet encyclopaedia instructed to remove pages with details of Beria.
09/1957, nuclear storage tank explode, Kyshtym, 200 fatalities and 270k people exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Ignored by gov and press agencies. Took 2yrs to evacuate unsafe areas without drawing too much attention.
Magazines published letters from readers allowing for more openness. Complained about: LR economic issues (scarcity of consumer goods), male alcoholism, inequalities within families + domestic violence.

Question 8

Radio

Answer 8

Until 1964, only 1 radio station.

Question 9

TV

Answer 9

1950 = 10k tv sets –> 1958 = 3m tv. 1960s, mass production of TV brought prices down, more affordable.
Films focussed on traditional methods (Soviet victory, WW2).