Political authority and government to 1953

Question 1

What was high Stalinism?

Answer 1

-A time period where Stalin’s cult of personality grew to unimagined levels

Question 2

How was Stalin portrayed after WW2?

Answer 2

-God Like figure –> sole victor of the war

Question 3

What evidence is there of Stalin’s renewed paranoia?

Answer 3

• Key players were removed from positions of power

i. e Marshall Zhukov was exiled to Ukraine

Question 4

What institution did Stalin use in his Renewed Terror?

Answer 4

-The NKVD under Barria

Question 5

Why was Stalin suspicious of returning prisoners of War?

Answer 5

-Feared ideological contamination.

Question 6

How Was Beria Complicit in the Renewed Terror?

Answer 6

-Responsible for the vast expansion of the gulag system

Question 7

What is an example of Stalin centralising power to himself?

Answer 7

-Did not allow the politburo to meet from ‘47-‘52

Question 8

How did Stalin control the communist party and preserve his own power?

Answer 8

-Fostered tensions between government and party to preserve his own power.
=>encouraging rivalry and therefore protecting himself

-Party Growth: new members = Yes Men.Loyal to Stalin.

Question 9

What examples are there of a cultural purge that took place after WW2?

Answer 9

• Tightening of political opposition
• increase in censorship
• Artistic conformity 1946 Zhdanov imposing ,western writers art prohibited
• -> Fed into this idea of an “Ideological conflict”

Question 10

What were the two consequences of renewed Terror under Beria?

Answer 10

1)Cultural Purge

Question 11

What was the Leningrad Affair?What did it show?

Answer 11

• on basis on prefabricated ,false evidence
• Purge of party officials in Leningrad, part of the leningrad Party which showed some independence.
• Showed Stalin was against factions within the CP

Question 12

What was the doctors plot?

Answer 12

-Jewish doctors from Moscow were accused of a conspiracy to assassinate Soviet leaders

–> Rise in antisemitism, especially in the Media

Question 13

What was the Terhan Conference?

Answer 13

Allied leaders agreed to invasion of Nazi Germany

Question 14

What happened in the Yalta conference?

Answer 14

Allied division of Germany. Also specific to Berlin

Question 15

What did the Truman Doctrine do?

Answer 15

-Ended the U.S policy of isolationism

Question 16

What ideological conflict arose after WW2?

Answer 16

The cold War

Question 17

What was a political aim of the U.S Marshall Plan?

Answer 17

-Stop the spread of communism , (If countries were prosperous they were less likely to turn to communism)

Question 18

When did Stalin die and who was he succeeded by?

Answer 18

1953

Nikita Krushchev

Question 19

Why was there a power vacuum after Stalin’s Death?

Answer 19

Stalin appointed weak people close to him so they were not threat his rule.

+ Purges had left vacancies in positions of power

Question 20

WHat were the problems left behind by Stalin? (1)

Answer 20

• High level of repression. People afraid to act.
• -> stifled innovation
• Slave economics -unproductive
• Focus on defense spending –> hampered consumer goods
• Ambitious targets were prioritised over innovation
• Neglect agriculture in favour of Industry.Grain payments less than cost of production

Question 21

W