repression and enforcement Flashcards
what were the main tools of repression across the period? (4)
The secret police The army Propaganda Censorship Terror Orthodoxy
How was Russification used as a means of control under the Tsars?
A2 - post assassination attempt, Dimitri Tolstoy conservatised education and other areas
Polish Uprising 1863 - due to such changes but was quickly put down under Miluytin
A3 - Jews discriminated against due to May Laws 1882, not allowed to live outside Pale Settlement, conservitisation of education (e.g Statute of Universities 1881), Municipal Act 1892 to limit voting franchise
How were reforms/the enforcement of communism used as a mean of control under the communists?
- Lenin and Stalin - dekulkaisation - united against the opponents but also used as a means to remove dissenters
- Collectivisation, economic policies (do it or famine) and 5YP were all used a means to achieve the ‘greater good’ but were all means of control
- Bolsheviks - 1st Dec introduction of the one party state
- Komsomol
how was the army used as a means of control under the Tsars?
A3 - used for russification policies
N2 - army was used to quell strikes (i.e Years of the Red Cockerel, Bloody Sunday 1905, Lena Goldfields 1912) but by the end of his reign had started to be sympathetic towards the soviets, many disserting to join the Petrograd Soviet and leaders encouraging N2 to abdicate
PG - did very little, wanted to be more liberal and promote grass-root activism
how did the Bolsheviks use the army to maintain control?
Bolsheviks - Kornilov affair, Red Guard seize power of Kerensky and aided seizing buildings for the storming of the winter palace
Civil War - enforcing War Communism and Red Terror - 50k shot between April-July, 5mil conscripted by 1920
Involved in dekulakisation
How were the army used under Stalin to maintain control?
Red Army - Great Terror (1936-38)
Army impacted by Great Purges as well - 34. Every admiral of Soviet fleet, 90% of generals and more than half of the officers in the RA = loss of many experienced admirals
WW2 - 28mil Russian soldiers dead, portrayed as objects of admiration in a ‘Great Patriotic War’
post-WW2: treated with suspicion
Grain Req
How were the army used by Khrushchev as a means of control?
- army became involved with solving international conflicts - Cuban Missile Crisis (illustrated the Russia required a significant military presence)
- also helped quell rebellions e.g Hungarian Uprising
- army size reduced to 2.4mil
How did the Tsars/PG use the secret police as a means of control?
A3 - Statue of State Security – 1881 – emergency measures, no gathering of more than 12
Control – 1881 – Okhrana set up (over 10k arrests), 1883 – legal surveillance of any citizen
PG - control decreased, as a means to gain support and focus on wartime stability - failed i.e 237 land seizures in July
How did the Bolsheviks use the secret police as a means of control?
- Cheka set up as a means of terror - Dec 17th
- Cheka killed 50k April-July, Burzuhi liable to be beaten and arrested
- Used for Red Terror (under Trotsky guidance) and enforcing War Communism (requisition squads 1919-20)
- also used for the ‘Labour Code’, administration of labour camps and militarisation of labour
How did Stalin use the secret police as a means of control?
- NKVD formed 1934
- 1934 after murder of Kirov NKVD got more power and catalysed purges
- Used for Purges and gathering evidence for high-rank communists to be used in show trials e.g Kamenenv and Trotsky
- Used to administer Gulags - 3mil in 1939
- 1946 - replaced by two bodies MGB and MVD - kept general population in line
How did Khrushchev use the secret police as a means of control?
- 1953 - MVD - control was under Beria but he was executed
- A new clearer structure of policing was part of destalinisation -> MVD was for ordinary criminal acts and civil disorder, KGB for internal and external security matters (important due to Cold War)
- Both these bodies were placed under direct admin of the party rather than an individual - easier to monitor security - number of political arrests plummeted and gulags largely disappeared
How was censorship used under the Tsars?
A2 - loosed censorship, growth of newspapers in circulation 6 -> 66 newspapers (may be seen as bad, spread of anti-tsarist stuff), this tightened again after assassination attempts
A3 -stricter censorship in reactionary period
N2 - newspapers aimed at the proletariat emerged e.g ‘Kopek newspaper’ - discussed Duma matters
PG - loosened censorship as part of 8-point programme and to encourage grass-root activism
How was censorship used under the Bolsheviks?
- press freedoms abolished - 1st Dec all non-Bolshevik newspapers banned
- Agitprop - movement with the aim to promote an idealised picture of Russian life - schools, cinema, radios were all under surveillance to prevent counter-revolutionary material
How was censorship used under Stalin?
- Huge amount of censorship - writing had to promote the idea of ‘social realism’ (heroic efforts of workers to achieve communism)
- Writing had to be approved by the party, authors had to be part of the USW - closely monitored - risk of being sent to Gulags or Purged
- during WW2 - news/states of 5YPs was fictionalised, writers valued as the ‘engineer of men’s souls’ and were used to promote the concept of the New Soviet Men
How was censorship used under Khrushchev?
- censorship eased, newspapers flourished with a total readership of nearly 6mil by 1960s
- wanted anti-Stalinist material to spread - history books were rewritten
- people who dissented were often silenced (e.g Bukovsky), Kh still had a preference for those who promoted the party
