Reppression Flashcards
Alexander II [1855-1881]
Secrete Police
The third section 1855-80
– used for spying, arresting, imprisoning and/or exiling opposition
– reduces their activities due to reforms between 1855 and 1866
– but increase their activities from 1866-80 due to Alexander’s new reactionary approach following his attempted assassination
in 1880 the Okhrana was founded
Alexander III [1881-1893]
Secrete police
Okhrana 1880-1917
• Alexander III used them for spying, arresting, imprisoning and/or exiling opposition
• in 1890s there was relative stability and therefore the okrana’s profile was decreased and activities reduced
Nicholas II [1893-1917]
Secret police
Nicholas II increased the activity if the Okhrana
– as SRS an SDS were gaining influence and opposing Tsardom
– this peaked in 1905
• where the okhrana was used as agents provocateures
– as they tempted people into crime
– then arresting them
– for example father gapon during the 1905 Revolution (during which farther gapon demanded rights such as eight hours and pay for workers)
• they also act as executioners
tsarist Gov
Secret Police
Third Section 1855-80
Okhrana 1889-1917
Between 1855-1917
The secret police exiled over a million people to Siberia
– either for new colonies to be established
– or punishment in labour camps
– this was due to people trying to get out of work by claiming they had diseases such as syphilis
Provisional Government [1917]
Secret police
The Provisional government of 1917
– did not have a secret police as they were mainly focused on wartime security
• the counter espionage Bureau of the petrograde military district
– did a simular job tho for wartime security than what a secret police would do
– to weed out those who undermine the war effort
– for example the bolsheviks
Lenin [1917-1924]
Secret Police
• Checka Dec 1917-22
– dealt with counter-revolutionaries
– by the [summer of 1917] they clamped down against SRS
– especially after they failed to assassinate Lenin in 1918
– led by the Polish communist: Dzerzhinsky
– the Checka often victimized people based off who they were such as their job, education etc rather than just their actions
RED TERROR
• the Checka:
– enforces war communism’s grain requisition
– enforces the labour code (which are rules for the deployment and control of labour)
– elimination of the Kulaks
– the administration of Labour camps
– the militarization of labor (when workers were forced to either be laborers or soldiers)
• [1922]
– Checka replaced with GPU
– which were the state police administrators
– Who were expanded in [1924] and renamed OGPU
– The OGPU was not as brutal as the Cheka, it still inspired fear
Stalin [1929-1953]
Secret Police
• [1934]
– NKVD
– Headed by Yagoda, then later Yezhov
PURGES
during the 1930s
– put 40Million in Gulags
• gathered evidence against high ranking officials for example Trotsky
Stalin believe the NKVD was conspiring against him
– Yezhov was replaced in 1938 after being blamed for an anti-purge campaign
– Replaced by Beria
[1943]
• NKVD -> NKGB
[1946]
• NKGB splits in 2:
– MGB (Keeps the General Population in line)
– MVD (Just the NKVD again regular secret police stuff)
– in 1953 they both merged again into just the MVD
– Beria remained incontrol till december 1953 when K tries and executes him
Khrushchev [1956(3)-1964]
Secret Police
[1954 march]
• K reorganises the MVD into:
– MVD ( for normal crime and cival control)
– KGB (Inter/external Security of the USSR)
• use of the gulags decreased
• the party controlled the secret police not an individual (to make it easyer to monitor)
• by [1960] only 11,000 counter revolutionaries had been captured which is far less than in the 1930s and 40s under Stalin
Nicholas I
Army
The Russian Empire’s army in the 1850s was of 1,400,000 peasnt conscripts and the officers were nobility
Alexander II [1855-1881]
Army
After the Crimean war (1853-6) FAILED
– many military weaknesses were revealed
– to combat this a series of reforms was made. incl:
– the emancipation of the Serfs 1861
– the construction of railways
– series of Educational reforms
This was so the army would actually be good and be able to fight.
Not really uses a measure of enforcement
Alexander III [1881-1893]
Army
Russification meant the army were peacekeepers and regulated regional fronters
• Poland protested rustification in 1885
– due to the implementation of minorities to become Russian
– and the Orthodox church being in stated as the main religion
– the opposed this mainly because they were Polish and Catholic
– this resulted in protesters being dealt with by 100,000 soldiers being permanently stationed in Poland
– they mainly opposed russification due to the Orthodox church not being the Catholic Church.
Nicholas II [1893-1917]
Army
The use of the army under Nicholas II, was oft. characterised by excessive force and met woth outrage
– for example in the 1905 Revolution also known as Bloody Sunday
– the army was used to deal with a Protestors along with the secret Police Okhrana
– as the protestors along with father gapon was demanding worker rights such: as an eight-hour day an increase in pay
The army was also used in the 1912 Lana goldfields Massacre to remove the striking workers
– 270 died and 250 were injured
Provisional Government [1917]
Army
Was fighting World War I
The army consisting of 150,000 joined protesters to support the February Revolution
deserted allot in ww1
Lenin [1917-1924]
Army
Used the military revolutionary committee [MRC] ( known as the Vanguard of the Revolution Who led the way to taking over Russia)
And the red guard
to storm the Winter Palace in October 1917
( this is very easily done as it was hardly guarded and if they had 100 more opponents they would probably have lost)
• the military was then used to consolidate power across Russia and deal with strikes by civil servants and financial workers
• the military had a lot of discipline but there was still desertion plus Rebellion
– e.g [Kronstadt sailor mutany in rebuary 1921]
– 50,000 troops are ordered to recapture some sailors
– 10,000 casualties
– the sailors were either executed or Exiled to the Arctic
• between 1918-21
– the Red Army engaged in a conflict with the armies representing SRS, SDS and mensheviks, called the White army, and a Green Army of mainly peasnt opposition to both, in a conflict known as the Russian Cival War
Stalin [1929-1953]
Army
• under Stalin the army help ed grain requisition and the purges between 1936-8
– high ranking generals was seen as a threat so they were purged
– by the end of the purges 40% of the top military commanders were gone
• during World War 2 order 227
– an order in which it states that under no circumstances are the soldiers to retreat
– if so a second front behind the main front will shoot them
– which resulted in fighting until the last drop of blood
– 1000 were shot within the first three months
– and 24,000 were sent to the convict units to be canon fodder for betrayal
• after World War II the generals were seen to be suspicious so some were executed
– for example Marshall zuhkov was exiled from Moscow
• the armies roll change to internal security after World War Two meaning they helped in the resolve of the doctors plot ( in 1953 an announcement was made
– that nine doctors worked alongside a US Jewish group to murder high ranks Soviet officials
- seven of these doctors were Jewish)
Khrushchev [1956(3)-1964]
Army
Under nikita Khrushchev
• the army was involved in international conflicts
• when Détente [1963-late 70s (relax of Cold war tensions)]
– the army reduced from 3.6 million to 2.4 million
• but they did shoot down the U2 spy plane in 1962
• and the involvement in the Cuban missile crisis shows the ussr’s army is still strong
• however it is not overly used for oppression
Alexander II [1855-1881]
censorship
Censorship was relaxed under Alexander II in a state known as Glasnost (oppeness)
• the government however still could withdraw dangerous publications
• the government had its own newspaper called Ruskii
– in which it relayed official information
• 1855 = 1020 books published
1864 = 1836 bookd published
[1872]
• the Russian translation of Das capital volume one by marx was published
Alexander III [1881-1893]
censorship
Alexander III’s policy of Reactionary meant that the amounts of publication is decreased
• official sensor books before they were published
– and they also close some newspapers and journals etc
• however despite this by 1894 there were 89 newspapers
– and 10,691 books were published
– which was the same amount of both the USA and UK combined
Showing how the policy of reactionaryism did not hinder the publication of books increasing overall
Nicholas II [1893-1917]
censorship
There was a relaxed period of censorship once more (Glasnost)
• there was a decrease in pre-publish censorship
• but you could still be fined for bad material being published
• that was workers newspapers such as Kopek
– within the first two years of this newspapers lifetime it’s sold 25,000 copies
• the Duma political discussions were printed and sometimes even censored
• during the First World War that was an increase in censorship
– troops gained news from foreign broadcasts including the fall of the romanovs
Provisional Government [1917]
Censorship
Under the provisional government there was no overall reduction in censorship allowing for Greater personal and political freedom
for exactly seven months
Lenin [1917-1924]
censorship
• The bolsheviks did not allow for freedom of the Press
– to make sure there were no counter-revolutionaries
• [1921] agitation and propaganda department was founded
– promoted the ideal Russian life
– not the average Russian life which was crap
• schools, Cinemas, radio and libraries were all under surveillance
– so there was no spread of counter-revolutionary material
• writers supporting the new regime were considered good
– but if they were against it they were bad
– for example Zemyatin, who predicted a totalitarian state was victimized
Stalin [1929-1953]
censorship
• once more censorship increased
• in 1932 all literature groups closed
• if you wanted to write you have to drawing the USW which was the Union of Soviet writers
– during the first Congress of the group in 1934
– it was decided that you must write with socialist realism:
– this meant you had to depict someone overcoming the struggles of oppression
– all work was to be approved by the party
• if your work wasn’t approved you’d be Force to change it to fit
– such as Pasternak
– or just be arrested and exiled to labour camps
WW2
• censorship increased even more:
– radio Airways were distorted
– news was fictionalized
– art restrictions to prevent bourgeoisies influence
– and to stop the external worlds information spread into
– Russia writers had to glorify russian Acheivments
– and promote the new Soviet man
– which outlines the perfect Soviet citizen which was moral, hardworking, law abiding and supported the Communist Party
– Stalin calls writers “engineers of men’s Souls”
Showing he was aware of the influence they had and was willing to reduce it.
Khrushchev [1956(3)-1964]
Censorship
• censorship was reduced under Nikita
• in the late 1950s 65,000 books were published per year
– double the amount published in the mid 20s
• there were 60 million newspapers by the early 1960s
• by 1959, there were 35,000 libraries, that contained 8,000 million books
– which was 10 times as many as in 1913
This showed that when censorship decreased the USSR was capable of producing vast amounts of literature
This also showed nikita’s overall lack of enforcing repression of information.
Propaganda under the Tsars
They had literally no need for propaganda as they got their right to ruling from God in the Orthodox church
• they did promote themselves of pamphlets and portraits and photographs
• a notable example of this is a staged event in 1913: Tercentoneky of Romanovs
– which was celebrated with a Russian tour of the family
Lenin [1917-1924]
Propaganda
Slogans:
• peace bread and land
– this made the bolsheviks very popular during the waining hours of the provisional government
as it’s stated that everything the peasants and work has wanted the bolsheviks could provide
Cult of Personality under Lenin
• Lennon’s image was even used after he died
– for example in a poster in 1967 that showed Lenin
– it was captuned: lenin’s alive, Lenin lived, Lenin will live
• Lenin’s body was displayed in the mausoleum in the Red Square
• Petra Grant was renamed to Leningrad in 1924 to Honor Lenin
• in October 1917 they were over a thousand cinemas, that were all about to start showing some goddamn Soviet propaganda
Stalin [1929-1953]
The master of propaganda
Slogans
• 1924: Stalin is the Lenin of today
Cult of personality
• rename Tsaritsyn to stalingrad in 1923
• photographs and posters depicting Stalin as a man of the people in peasants clothing
• they even added Stalin in the national anthem
Newspapers
• Starlin used the Communist newspapers
the Pravda and izvestiya
– as propaganda tools to promote his 5 Year plans achievements
Groups
• special youth organizations were established such as the pioneers and Komsomol
– they were encouraged to grass on those who criticize the leader
– the members x5 between 1929-41
Arts
• Stalin manipulated Pop Culture to emphasize “The little man” (individual workers) and traditional values
– any trends that varied from the norm such as jazz or rock and roll were sadly banned
The Stakhanovite movment
• propaganda used in the workplace to raise productivity
– a good example of this is the stakhanovite movement
– based on the efforts of a minor called Alexi Stakhanov
– who shifted much more than the normal quantity of coal per man in a single shift
– he became a role model for workers to follow to increase production
Leisure
– promoted communist ideas such as the Dynamo and Spartak Moscow football teams
– that were used to show the rest of Europe how successful Russian people were under communism
Films
• in late 1920s Stalin was using films to promote collectivization in his Five-Year Plans under the guidance of the Sovnarkom
– Soviet cinema was immersed in socialist realism
These are all ways in which Stalin used propaganda as a method of repression and enforcement to promote himself and communism.
Khrushchev [1956(3)-1964]
Propaganda
After the 1956 Secret Speech there was greater creative freedoms allowed
• by 1959 there were 145 films made in cinemas
• there are also 59,000 cinemas
Nikita therefore did not utilize propaganda as a method of repression and enforcement to the same extent as Joseph Stalin.
