Methods of Repression and Enforcement Flashcards
What were the 4 main methods of Repression and Enforcement used both by Tsars and Communists?
- The Secret Police – to investigate, arrest, imprison, execute and exile “opposition”
- The Army – to deal with riots and unruly mob behaviour (including strikes)
- Propaganda – to manipulate ideals, values, beliefs and attitudes of the people
- Censorship – to control access to information that affects ideals, values, beliefs and attitudes of the people
2 points
How did the Tsars make use of the Secret Police?
A2: Third Section
* Abolished as part of reforms, replaced them with ‘softer’ Okhrana. Powers of this body increased in the 1880s to counter growing unrest.
A3 / N2: Okhrana
* Used for spying, arresting, imprisoning, exiling.
* Use fluctated according to need.
* Use at an all time low in 1890s given relative stability of that period.
* Use at an all time high in 1905 following rise of SRs and SDs.
2 points
How did the Provisional Government make use of the Secret Police
- In 1917 they disbanded the Okhrana and replaced them with the more moderate Counter Espionage Bureau of the Petrograd Military District.
- Their use focused more on those undermining the war effort (including the Bolsheviks) rather than political crimes.
5 points
How did Lenin use the secret police?
The Cheka:
* Created in 1917, and headed by Polish Communist Dzerzhinsky.
* Used to target counter-revolutionaries.
* Different to Tsarist use in that, for first time, people were targeted based on who they were not what they did.
* Under Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky Cheka formally implemented Red Terror: Enforcing War Communism, Administration of Labour camps, Eliminating Kulaks.
* Disbanded in 1922 and replaced with State Police.
9 points
How did Stalin use the Secret Police?
The NKVD
* Formed in 1934 to combat opposition to Stalin’s personal dictatorship.
* Led by Yezhov.
* Created a permanent terror and crucial to the purges.
* Used to gather evidence on key communist party members, e.g. Kamenev, Zinonev, Trotsky.
* In 1938 Stalin suspected them of treason. Yezhov was replaced by Beria, and by the end of WWII the NKVD had been purged of around 20,000 members.
The MGB and MVD
* Replaced the NKGB (what came after the NKVD) in 1946.
* MGB was responsible for keeping population under control.
* MVD was another version of NKVD.
* Merged to form the a larger version of the MVD in 1953. Control stayed with Beria.
3 points
How did Khruschev use the secret police?
He took a softer approach as part of de-stalinisation:
* Arrested Beria and had him executed.
* Split it into two parts again, the MVD to deal with ordinary criminal acts and civil disorder, and the KGB to deal with internal and external security of the USSR.
* Both were placed under the control of the party, not the individual.
4 points
What impacts did Khrushchev’s reforms to the secret police have?
- Number of arrests plummeted.
- Gulags largely disappeared.
- Torture seemed a thing of the past.
- By 1960 only an estimated 11,000 counter revolutionaries in captivity.
7 points
How did the Tsars make use of the Army?
The Early Army
* At the start of the period, the army numbered around 140,000 men, most of whom were peasant conscripts.
* Officers came from the nobility.
* Russification under A3 led them to be used as a peace keeping force and a regulator of regional frontiers.
* When used with excessive force, e.g. Bloody Sunday, led to significant outrage.
The Army 1905-17
* During 1905-7 army was used to put down strikes, protests and riots.
* Many troops deserted to the revolution, encouraged by Bolsheviks.
* Once Bolsheviks seized control, they deployed army to consolidate power.
4 points
How did Lenin make use of the army?
The Red Army
* Influential in aiding communists win civil war.
* At the beginning of the war it hardly existed, but by the end it numbered 5 million (Mensheviks could only get 500,000).
* Used alongside Cheka to impose war communism.
* Some problems with desertion, e.g. 1921 mutiny of Baltic naval base Kronstadt.
3 points
How did Stalin make use of the army?
- Red army helped with collectivisation, required to requisition grain.
- Helped to administer purges, was part of great terror.
- Its leader was consistently percieved as a threat by Stalin. By the end of the Great Purge (1936-38), over 40% of army’s upper echelon had disappeared.
2 points
How did the role of the army change after WWII?
- Concerned more with international affairs.
- After détente, scaled back in size (3.6 mill to 2.4 mill), but flashpoints with USA showed there was still a need for USSR to have a strong force.
5 points
How did A2 + A3 use Censorship?
A2:
* Russia experienced ‘glasnost’ (openness) for the first time.
* In 1865, censorship was relaxed, which led to circulation of newspapers, periodicals and books.
* There was no censorship of things before they came out (although the government reserved the right to withdraw publications of a ‘dangerous orientation’).
A3
* Reactionary nature of his reign led to a clamp down on publications.
* Officials could censor things before they were published, and certain newspapers ect were closed down.
4 points
How did N2 use censorship?
- Returned to glasnost of A2’s reign.
- No pre-publication censorship (although the government could still fine / shut down someone for circulating subversive material.
- During his reign, newspapers aimed at proletariat began to appear. Kopek ‘Penny’ paper reached a circulation of 25,000 within its first two years.
- Matters discussed in duma began to appear in print (althout sometimes they were changed / ommitted).
4 points
What was censorship like during WWI
- People (and especially troops) were heavily censored. Troops of the frontlines recieved news (including that of the Romanovs’ deaths) from foreign news stations.
- When Bolsheviks came to power the first thing they did was abolish fress freedom to supress ‘counter-revolutionaires’.
- In 1921 Agitation and Propaganda department was created to promote and idealised picture of Russian Life.
- Schools, cinemas, the radio and libraries were watched very closely. Writes who supported the regime flourished, whilst those who didn’t (e.g. Zemyatin) were labelled as subverisve and victimised.
3 points
How did Stalin use censorship?
- Under Stalin censorship increased.
- By 1932 all literary groups were closed down and those who wanted to write had to join the Union of Soviet Writers, where they were instructed to write ‘social realism’, stories of ordinary people overcoming hardships. Those who objected were sent to the labour camps.
- During WWII, Stalin became increasingly more concerned with censoring information about the outside world. Radio airways were distorted and the news was fictionalised.
