RR - Unit 3 - Control of the People

Question 1

How Lenin Gained Control - 8 Points

Answer 1

• November 1917 - Decree of the Press, which gave emergency powers to close newspapers
• November 1917 - created a monopoly of advertising so only the government could advertise
• 1917 - nationalisation of the Petrograd Telegraph, which gave the government control of electronic means of communication
• January 1918 - Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press allowed for censorship of the press
• Those that did not follower were arrested and punished by the Cheka
• 1918 - established the All-Russia Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) that had control over all news
• By 1921, the communists had closed 2,000 newspapers and 575 printing presses
• Communist newspaper ‘Pravda’ circulate act a much higher rate

Question 2

Control of Mass Media and Propaganda Under Lenin - 6 Points

Answer 2

• Government initially collaborated with artists to produce propaganda
• Cult of personality was used as propaganda to increase support
• Given the title of ‘Leader of the Revolutionary Proletariat’
• Glavit was introduced - an organisation act oversaw censorship
• Principles of Glavit were that GPU in charge of policing every publication, and it complied a list of banned books
• All books were investigated for anti-communist bias and new professional censors were employed

Question 3

Control of Mass Media and Propaganda Under Stalin - 6 Points

Answer 3

• Tightened censorship further
• Works of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, and other revolutionaries were purged from Soviet libraries
• Lenin’s work was edited
• From 1928, Glavit controlled access to economic data
• People forbidden from publishing data about natural disasters
• Propaganda focused on the average worker

Question 4

Control of Mass Media and Propaganda Under Khrushchev - 7 Points

Answer 4

• Magazines encouraged readers letters, but they often tended to go against the government
• Would expose long term problems within the gulags, male alcoholism, and criticised the quality of consumer goods
• Khrushchev had not expected this to be the outcome of the program
• Campaigns introduced to counter letters in magazines
• Films focused on traditional themes
• 1961 - millions of viewers watched a 5 hour documentary of Yuri Garagin’s space flight that celebrated the triumphs of Communism
• 1960 - 1964 - television took off, and was broadly successful in supporting the communist regime

Question 5

Control of Mass Media and Propaganda Under Brezhnev - 7 Points

Answer 5

• Film and television culture changed
• There was till some traditional elements, but it began to focus on working people dealing with their daily lives who were ‘fashionable citizens’ who lived in luxurious apartments
• Increased the desire for consumer goods
• Control was so high that they were able to maintain control of footage of the war in Afghanistan - kept the truth a secret
• Brezhnev’s speeches were transmitted in full - backfired and he became weaker, as it portrayed a mentally and physically incapacitated man
• Government lost control of print media, with Western magazines becoming increasing more available
• KGB contained to police political publications

Question 6

Newspapers and Magazines - 4 Points

Answer 6

• Cheap and most produced, so most people had them
• Instrument of propaganda, agitation, and organisation - included the victories of socialism and did not publish natural disasters, which made people suspicious
• Magazines aimed at specific people to further influence them
• 65% of the population as illiterate

Question 7

Radio - 5 Points

Answer 7

• Installed larger speakers in public areas to broadcast their views
• Expensive in the beginning, as the government had to spend lots of money to broadcast messages
• Better than newspapers, as people could understand them better
• Cheap and small range radios were mass produced later on
• Risk of listening to foreign broadcasts

Question 8

Television - 3 Points

Answer 8

• Most people had one in later years
• Shows did not spark much interest so were not really washed- used it to get propaganda messages across and indoctrinate
• Life made to look much better in the USSR

Question 9

Lenin’s Cult of Personality - 3 Points

Answer 9

• Portrayed in a God-like image, as a visionary, and as a good and king leader
• Shown as a man who refused luxury, in hope that others would replicate this
• Gave communism a face and resulted in growing support

Question 10

Stalin’s Cult of Personality - 5 Points

Answer 10

• Most extensive and served a specific purpose
• Photoshopped images with Lenin, used the slogan ‘Stalin is the Lenin of today’, and rewrote history to make him look more involved in the revolution
• Images used to reinforce his power- made him look tall and edits were to the point that people didn’t recognise him in real life
• Known as ‘Vozhd’ (leader)
• Became an infallible figure - his birthdays were a national celebrate with parades

Question 11

Khrushchev’s Cult of Personality - 6 Points

Answer 11

• Revived the cult of Lenin - essentially two cults at the same time
• Khrushchev made to resemble Lenin and as one of his disciples
• Focused on the removal of terror
• Moved away from Stalinism and towards Leninism
• Effective in his downfall - strongly associated with the successes of the Virgin Land Scheme, so the cult was damaged by its failure
• Cult damaged by the embarrassing failure of foreign policy

Question 12

Brezhnev’s Cult of Personality - 6 Points

Answer 12

• Cult was created for pragmatic reasons
• By 1964, it was an essential feature of Soviet politics
• Had 4 aspects - great Lenin’s, military hero, dedicated to ensuring world peace, and a true man of the people
• Emphasised humble beginnings
• Used to consolidate his position to help stabilise the regime
• Counterproductive as he was mocked for his claims to greatness, growing the military contradicted world peace, WW2 veterans resented the inflation of his role in the war, and the luxurious lifestyle of his family led contradicted the claims that he was a man of the people

Question 13

Religion Under Lenin’s Rule - 7 Points

Answer 13

• 1917 - Decree on Land allowed peasants to take over land owned by the Church
• November 1917 - Archpriest Kochviov murdered outside Petrograd
• January 1918 - Decree concerning the separation of Church and State, and of Church and school
• January 1918 - Decree against Islam
• Church lost its position in society
• January 1918 - Orthodox priests massacred in Moscow following a Church decree, leading to the Bolsheviks being excommunicated
• November 1918 - Politburo issued a secret order to the Cheka, sanctioning the mass execution of priests

Question 14

Religion Under Stalin’s Rule - 10 Points

Answer 14

• Propaganda painted religion in a bad light and celebrated its defeat
• NKVD attacked local priests, intellectuals, and groups who defended Islam
• 1925 - Central Committee ended public debates
• 1936 - 1939 - many religious leaders killed
• By 1939, only 12/163 bishops were at liberty
• 1936 - strongholds of Sufi groups were destroyed
• During the War, Stalin had to make a pragmatic alliance withe the Church
• Had religious groups inspire people to fight and boost morale
• Offered support to those who had lost people in the War
• Anti-religious propaganda was halted

Question 15

Who were the Sufi?

Answer 15

Those dedicated to stopping Islam being polluted by Marxism

Question 16

Religion Under Khrushchev’s Rule - 7 Points

Answer 16

• 1958 - 1959 - launched a harsh anti-religious campaign
• Remained in place until 1964
• Role of priests limited to advice only
• Parish councils were placed under the control of Party officials, who often dismissed priests
• Within 4 years, 10,000 of the existing churches were closed
• Surviving priests were often harassed by the secret police
• Baptists and Jews were also targeted, with severe restrictions on right to congregate and worship

Question 17

League of the Militant Godless - 3 Points

Answer 17

• Propaganda campaign against religion in 1929
• Launched events to disprove the existence of God
• For example, peasants would be taken on plane rides to show them heaven did not exist in the sky

Question 18

Religion Under Brezhnev’s Rule - 9 Points

Answer 18

• 1964 - active persecution of the Church declined, as it was not liked by the West
• Church allowed to act, but within limits
• Council of Religious Affairs - monitored Church services and classified clergy members in terms of loyalty to socialism
• Services had to be in line with Soviet policies
• Religious groups less likely to criticise the regime were tolerated, such as the Jews
• Prayer meetings broken up and people dismissed from their jobs
• Unregistered congregations continued
• 1976 - group of Orthodox priests set up a Christian committee which drew attention to human rights abuses that had occurred
• Brezhnev charged the leader to 5 years imprisonment in 1979 for anti-Soviet propaganda

Question 19

Reasons for the Change in Secret Police Between 1917 - 1928 - 5 Points

Answer 19

• Growing need for control and the maintenance of power
• Growing influence of the West
• Civil War
• Opponents to the government changed and grew larger
• Secret police got new roles during policies, such as requisitioning grain under war communism and getting rid of nepmen under the NEP

Question 20

Role of the Cheka During the Civil War - 7 Points

Answer 20

• Protect communist rule in ares they held - used extreme violence in enemy areas that were recently captured
• January 1918 - shut down Constituent Assembly, as it was dominated by the SRs
• Closed down opposition newspapers
• Imprisoned, tortured, and executed opponents
• Helped the Red Army in grain requisitioning
• Ran concentration camps
• Stopped private trading, as it was outlawed under war communism

Question 21

Role of the Secret Police During the 1920s - 9 Points

Answer 21

• Agency set up within the GPU to monitor the press
• GPU surveillance reports sent directly to the Central Committee and reported moral problems to them, such as drunkenness, gambling during the NEP
• Had the power to intercept post and communications as they did not want people working with the West
• 1922 - deported professors and engineers suspected of anti-communist sympathies
• Organise the trails of SRs
• Policed the semi-capitalist market place established under the NEP
• Imprisoned nepmen getting too rich
• Harassed women in Western styles and young people who danced to jazz music
• Persecuted priests

Question 22

How Was Islam Attacked? - 5 Points

Answer 22

• Most mosques were closed
• Mullah’s were removed and forced to publicly admit to being deceivers of the people
• Ramadan was condemn as it interfered with work discipline
• Campaign against the veiling of women
• International Women’s Day 1927, veils were thrown in a bonfire

Question 23

4 Leaders of the Secret Police

Answer 23

• Yagoda
• Yezhov
• Beria
• Andropov

Question 24

Yagoda’s Leadership - 5 Points

Answer 24

• 1934 - made head of the NKVD and Chief Administrator of labour camps
• Main targets were members of the Party that had links to Trotsky
• Exploited the gulag for economic profit, and many died due to the harsh labour conditions
• Main achievement was the White Sea Canal - 141 miles long and built by 180,000 gulag workers, of which 10,000 died during the process
• Stalin was unimpressed with his slow progress - arrested and put on trial in 1938

Question 25

Yezhov’s Leadership - 13 Points

Answer 25

• Important role in radicalising the NKVD - terror spread to the whole Soviet government
• Stalin justified terror at this time with the ‘Doctrine of Sharpening Class Struggle’ - Yezhov’s reforms reflected this doctrine
• Stalin set targets for arrests, executions, and deportations
• 1937 - NKVD purged as many were communists since 1917/1918 and were loyal to the party, and possibly Stalin’s opponents who were opposed to mass terror
• Known as the ‘Great Purge’
• New NKVD members recruited were loyal to Stalin and not the Party
• Introduced the ‘conveyor belt system’ of continuous torture to speed up confessions - led to the Trial of the 17 and the Trial of the 21
• This period of terror was known as the ‘Yezhovshchina’
• Targeted all aspects of life
• 1.5 million were arrested - 680,000 were executed and 635,000 were deported
• Terror focused on groups most likely to oppose, such as manual workers
• 95% of targets were male, and women were less targeted
• General target was urban educated men, 30 - 45, holding senior positions in government

Question 26

Beria’s Leadership - 9 Points

Answer 26

• Had helped organise the purges in the mid 1930s
• Became head of the NKVD in 1938
• During WW2, he organised mass executions and deportations
• Wanted to reform the excessive terror as not all arrests had enough evidence for public trials
• Wanted to make gulags a profitable part of the Soviet economy
• 1939 - gulag rations increased to get more work done
• Used technical skills of inmates for specific tasks - 1,000 scientists worked on various projects
• Early release cancelled so they could provide more work
• Growth in economic activity - 1939 profit was 2 billion, 1940 profit was 4.5 billion

Question 27

Types of Dissidents - 4 Points

Answer 27

• Intellectuals - high status, critical thinkers, exchanged ideas with foreign colleagues
• Political dissidents - those that tried to hold the government accountable
• Nationalists - those who wanted greater status of their own language and received encouragement from abroad
• Religious dissidents - included Baptists and Catholics

Question 28

Action Taken Against Dissidents 1967 - 1982 -

Answer 28

• Secret police conducted surveillance and harassment of subjects
• Houses raided and searched
• Intellectuals threatened with expulsion from their field or professional organisation
• 1960 - Criminal Code abolished, which meant that the actions of the KGB were limited as they could no longer do night time interrogations
• 1967 - common action was to send them to psychiatric facilities
• Secret hospitals set up and run by the secret police, and was located away from urban areas and people
• ‘Patients’ who refused to change their mind were ‘treated’ with electro-shock therapy

Question 29

Andropov’s Successes at Dealing with Dissidents - 4 Points

Answer 29

• Psychiatric facilities kept quiet and methods of control became more subtle
• Dissidents received little support from the people in the USSR, and support could not be organised out of fear
• 1968 - meant to be a protest in the Red Square in Moscow against the events in Czechoslovakia, but only 8 turned up
• Professionalism and reputation of the KGB increased considerably

Question 30

Andropov’s Failures at Dealing with Dissidents - 3 Points

Answer 30

• Human rights policies created that were targets at the USSR, such as the Helsinki Agreements in 1975
• Human rights issue of putting dissidents in psychiatric facilities as we have freedom of speech
• Court cases smuggled out of the USSR and given to human rights groups, which sometimes led to the release of prisoners

Question 31

Causes of Discontent and Social Malaise When Dealing With Dissidents 1982 - 1985 - 4 Points

Answer 31

• Improvements in the standard of living was beginning to occur slower
• People were dissatisfied with quality of availability of food and consumer goods
• Workers felt there was insufficient opportunity for promotions within industry
• People resented the privilege and occupation of party members and managers

Question 32

Examples of Discontent and Social Malaise When Dealing With Dissidents 1982 - 1985 - 6 Points

Answer 32

• Alcoholism
• Poor discipline and avoidance of military service
• Increased black market trade and greater demand for Western goods
• Sympathy for strikes taking place in Poland
• Increased church attendance
• Failing birth rate

Question 33

Policies to Deal with Dissidents 1982 - 1985 - 3 Points

Answer 33

• Anti-corruption - senior party officials and industrial managers who are using Soviet resources to make themselves rich, some were sacked and some put on trial
• Anti-alcohol campaign - workers sacked for drunkenness and fined if damaged equipment/products whilst drunk
• Operation trawl - anti-drunkenness and anti-absenteeism, where KGB officers visited public places and arrested those drunk or absent from work

Question 34

Culture Under Lenin - 4 Points

Answer 34

• Did not like futurism
• Used avant-garde to promote loyalty - failed in the 1920s as it was to hard to understand
• Under the NEP it became slightly more free
• Prolekult was an independent movement for proletarian art - forced to merge with the Commissar of Education and funding for it moved to traditional arts

Question 35

Culture Under Stalin - 5 Points

Answer 35

• Used socialist realism and focused on making it understandable for workers and peasants
• Severe censorship - acts of dissident often involved praising the work of Lenin
• Artists were set targets for how much they had to produce
• Purges in the 1930s made artists more desperate to follow his rules
• Cultural revolution occurred here

Question 36

Cultural Revolution 1928 - 1931 - 12 Points

Answer 36

• Return to the class struggle of the civil war, followed by the ‘Great Retreat’ to traditional values and attacks on the bourgeoise
• ‘Komsomol’ was the young communist league and they played an important role in cultural revolution
• Vandalised the work of suspected bourgeoise artists, marketed work by the proletariat to be protected, downplayed religion, and requisitioned grain
• Films produced had to be simple
• At the end of revolution Stalin merge all the proletariat organisations into one
• Art was used to convince people that life had become better under Stalin
• Paintings rejected the avant-garde style, and were often a fusion of socialist realism and Stalin’s cult of personality
• Literature surrounded heroes of the party in the 1930s
• Ballet and theatre became more traditional and more accessible to the working class
• Military songs were preferred
• Achievements of the revolution conveyed through films, and war films which promoted patriotism
• Work from pre-revolution was smuggled abroad

Question 37

Culture Under Khrushchev - 4 Points

Answer 37

• Took a more liberal approach than prior leaders but was indecisive
• 3 phases of thaws - each allowed more work that was previously banned, such as work criticising Stalin
• Most things that went against Stalin was allowed
• During the winter freezes, the government became harsher - some were arrested and imprisoned

Question 38

Culture Under Brezhnev - 3 Points

Answer 38

• Took a conservative approach and focused on repression
• Some underground art exhibitions were broken up and the art destroyed, but not all
• Could not target dissidents as much because of international interference - could only target low profile artists