Political Authority 1945-53 Flashcards
What period of time is referred to as high Stalinism
The years after the war. The years were stalins authority over state and party and his cult of personality had grown around him and reached its pinnacle.
What was stalins approach after the war and why
How did Stalin deal with this
Back to the future
As war time developments had worried Stalin. Increased party membership weakened the reliability of the party and Stalin believed the military was praised to highly for his liking.
- GKO (state and defence committee) was dissolved.
- the military hierarchy was also downgraded. Stalin personally took the role of minster of defence and high ranking officer were moved down to inferior posts.
- zhukov who was seen as a potential rival was sent to the military command to Odessa, losing his position on the central committee party.
Why was there a disagreement under foreign policy
Zhdanov - favouring the Berlin lockable of 1948.
Malenkov - mode moderate path.
What was reelected in 1946
What showed Stalin had full control
A new politburo, secretariat and orgburo,
- party congress which were meant to be held every 3 years were not held between 1939 and 1952.
Only 6 full central committee meetings in this time.
Politburo was reduced to an advisory body
Who were old guards replaced with
(Those who had joined because of Marxists ideas)
Replaced by new style party members- saw the party as a way of life and were cautious and careful, both in their party position and in their personal life. Unwilling to act without the backing of higher authority.
What was zhdanovshchina
Society after the war.
Everything western was condemned as bourgeois and decadent. All things Russian were regarded as superior and uplifting.
Zhdanovshcina started with the purge of two literacy journalists published in Leningrad. One the adventures of a monkey by zoshchenko because the monkey was anti soviet. They were purged and there authors expelled from the union of soviet writers.
Why were literacy scholarships condemned
What happened to anti-semitism
For suggesting that Russian literacy had been influenced by western thinking.
- it flourished, many Jewish dramas and literacy critics disappeared and the last Jewish newspaper was closed down.
What was blocked
Western influence
Non communist foreign papers were unobtainable, foreign radio transmission were jammed only few approved foreign books were translated into Russian.
Why did stalins want isolation from the non soviet world
- concern for national security as the Cold War was emerging
- obsessive fear of ideological contamination
What could land you in a gulag
- a careless word or brief contact with a foreigner
What law was passed in 1947
Furthermore…..
Outlawing hotels and marriages to foreigners.
- restaurants were watched by police for soviet girls meeting foreign men.
Who was at the head of security
What was he responsible for
Beria
- a large expansion in the gulag system
How many war time survivors were sent back to labour camps
12 million.
How did Stalin deal with those who had fallen from favour
Removed them from history. Their very existence was taking out of text books and Stalin manipulated the science of photography using airbrushing and other techniques to remove the old disgraced Bolsheviks.
What was the Leningrad case 1949
Lenin had decided to take a stance against the Leninist party which had always shown some independence in its views and actions. On the basis of false evidence many learning officials were arrested including head of gosplan.
