Post war/ culture Flashcards
What and when was the Leningrad Affair?
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
How many people were affected by the Leningrad Affair in 1950?
6 leading party member executed, over 200 arrested, and 2000 removed from positions of power
Why is the Leningrad Affair unsurprising?
Stalin always hated Leningrad. His greatest opponents had lead the party here e.g. Zinoviev, Kirov, Trotsky.
What and when was the Doctor’s Plot?
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
What was post-war terror like?
It was more selective, focused and efficient
What and when was the Mingrelian Case?
1951- in Georgia, there was an attack on Mingrelian minority, suspected of supporting Beria
By which year were the USSR a nuclear superpower?
1949
Name some key summit meetings the USSR attended between 1943 and 1945
Tehran 1943
Yalta 1945
Potsdam 1945
How did Russia manage to take hold of Eastern Europe?
They used salami tactics (small attacks to take control rather than a whole invasion
What was the Soviet Bloc?
It was basically nations East of Germany that were under the control of the Soviet Union
What and when was the Berlin Blockade/Airlift?
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.
How many party congresses were there between 1939 and 1952?
0
What was the NKVD reorganised into and when?
1946– turned into MVD (Domestic Security) and MGB (Ministry of State Security)
What was the Truman Doctrine and when was it?
1947- President Truman asserted the need to contain the spread and influence of Communism
What and when was the Iron Curtain Speech?
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
What was the Marshall Plan and how did the USSR react to it?
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.
What were the levels of coal, electricity and steel at post-war compared to 1940?
Industry Devastated by war – Compared to 1940, coal production less than 50%, Electricity 52%, Steel 45%
How many collective farms were lost over the course of WW2?
98,000
What was the name of the Soviet Youth group and when was it created?
Komsomol created in 1926
How many members of the Komsomol were there by 1928?
Over 2 million
What did the Komsomol do?
They became ‘soldiers of production’. They could be responsible for enforcing grain supply, informing on families and unmasking hidden enemies
How did Stalin’s culture view religion?
By 1931, 80% of Churches had been closed down. By 1939 only 12 Bishops remained, churches raided
What and when was the “Great Retreat”?
In the 1930s, very pro-family and pro-discipline laws were introduced. This included things like the anti-abortion laws
When was the fourth FYP introduced and what impact did this have?
1945- did help with economic recovery
Coal production mostly healed, grain production not so much
What was ‘The Family Code and when was it introduced?
1936- divorce made harder, abortion outlawed outside of exceptional circumstances, laws passed against homosexuality and prostitution
How many workers went to further education during the first FYP?
150,000
What did education under Lenin look like and how did this differ from what Stalin did?
It was a mess. Teachers couldn’t discipline pupils, only 5% of teachers were communist, they were poorly paid. Stalin brought back formal education
What was the Commissariat of Englightenment?
Controlled education during Lenin’s era
What was the NKVD like under Beria?
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
What was Zhdanovism and the cultural purge?
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
