Post war/ culture

Question 1

What and when was the Leningrad Affair?

Answer 1

1940s/1950s Stalin fabricates criminal cases against a number of Leningrad authority figures. They were accused of treason and intention to create an anti-Soviet organisation based in the city

Question 2

How many people were affected by the Leningrad Affair in 1950?

Answer 2

6 leading party member executed, over 200 arrested, and 2000 removed from positions of power

Question 3

Why is the Leningrad Affair unsurprising?

Answer 3

Stalin always hated Leningrad. His greatest opponents had lead the party here e.g. Zinoviev, Kirov, Trotsky.

Question 4

What and when was the Doctor’s Plot?

Answer 4

1952- alleged series of conspiracies by medical professions to assassinate political leaders, potentially including Stalin. It lead to the general mistrust of Doctors and many of them losing their position. It emerged after Stalin’s death that this was all fabricated. This whole thing was deeply rooted in Anti-Semitism

Question 5

What was post-war terror like?

Answer 5

It was more selective, focused and efficient

Question 6

What and when was the Mingrelian Case?

Answer 6

1951- in Georgia, there was an attack on Mingrelian minority, suspected of supporting Beria

Question 7

By which year were the USSR a nuclear superpower?

Answer 7

1949

Question 8

Name some key summit meetings the USSR attended between 1943 and 1945

Answer 8

Tehran 1943
Yalta 1945
Potsdam 1945

Question 9

How did Russia manage to take hold of Eastern Europe?

Answer 9

They used salami tactics (small attacks to take control rather than a whole invasion

Question 10

What was the Soviet Bloc?

Answer 10

It was basically nations East of Germany that were under the control of the Soviet Union

Question 11

What and when was the Berlin Blockade/Airlift?

Answer 11

June 1948- Stalin blockaded West Berlin in an attempt to starve out those who were living there and convert them to communism. The Americans airlifted them supplies daily during this time.

Question 12

How many party congresses were there between 1939 and 1952?

Answer 12

0

Question 13

What was the NKVD reorganised into and when?

Answer 13

1946– turned into MVD (Domestic Security) and MGB (Ministry of State Security)

Question 14

What was the Truman Doctrine and when was it?

Answer 14

1947- President Truman asserted the need to contain the spread and influence of Communism

Question 15

What and when was the Iron Curtain Speech?

Answer 15

1946- Winston Churchill expresses the need for Britain and America to stop the spread of Communism. He used this metaphor to give his warnings maximum dramatic impact

Question 16

What was the Marshall Plan and how did the USSR react to it?

Answer 16

1948- This was an American initiative to provide financial aid for Western European countries. Stalin thought this plan was a political device to extend American influence, as well as it being directly anti-Soviet.

Question 17

What were the levels of coal, electricity and steel at post-war compared to 1940?

Answer 17

Industry Devastated by war – Compared to 1940, coal production less than 50%, Electricity 52%, Steel 45%

Question 18

How many collective farms were lost over the course of WW2?

Answer 18

98,000

Question 19

What was the name of the Soviet Youth group and when was it created?

Answer 19

Komsomol created in 1926

Question 20

How many members of the Komsomol were there by 1928?

Answer 20

Over 2 million

Question 21

What did the Komsomol do?

Answer 21

They became ‘soldiers of production’. They could be responsible for enforcing grain supply, informing on families and unmasking hidden enemies

Question 22

How did Stalin’s culture view religion?

Answer 22

By 1931, 80% of Churches had been closed down. By 1939 only 12 Bishops remained, churches raided

Question 23

What and when was the “Great Retreat”?

Answer 23

In the 1930s, very pro-family and pro-discipline laws were introduced. This included things like the anti-abortion laws

Question 24

When was the fourth FYP introduced and what impact did this have?

Answer 24

1945- did help with economic recovery
Coal production mostly healed, grain production not so much

Question 25

What was ‘The Family Code and when was it introduced?

Answer 25

1936- divorce made harder, abortion outlawed outside of exceptional circumstances, laws passed against homosexuality and prostitution

Question 26

How many workers went to further education during the first FYP?

Answer 26

150,000

Question 27

What did education under Lenin look like and how did this differ from what Stalin did?

Answer 27

It was a mess. Teachers couldn’t discipline pupils, only 5% of teachers were communist, they were poorly paid. Stalin brought back formal education

Question 28

What was the Commissariat of Englightenment?

Answer 28

Controlled education during Lenin’s era

Question 29

What was the NKVD like under Beria?

Answer 29

Beria was a bit of a psychopath. He presided over many labour camps and tightened the NKVD. He also reorganised it into two separate ministries (the MVD controlled the gulags and domestic security and the MGB, forerunner of the KGB controlled espionage and counter-intelligence).
Far fewer people were killed than in the purges of the 1930s, but around 12 million wartime survivors were sent to labour camps

Question 30

What was Zhdanovism and the cultural purge?

Answer 30

1946- Zhdanov planned to use culture as a form of propaganda. He reasserted the importance of socialist realism, and Western influence was completely blocked. Only a few ‘approved’ foreign books were translated into Russian