RUSSIA Control of the People, 1917-85 Flashcards

1
Q

When was a decree issued banning all non-socialist newspapers?

A

November 1917

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2
Q

When were all non-Bolshevik newspapers eliminated?

A

By early 1920s

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3
Q

What were all newspaper editors and journalists?

A

Employees of the government; members of the Union of Soviet Journalists; expected to be Party members

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4
Q

What was the censorship office called?

A

Glavlit

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5
Q

What was needed for every newspaper article written for publication?

A

Approval from Glavlit

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6
Q

What are examples of daily newspapers published?

A

Pravda (truth); Izvestiya (News)

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7
Q

Pravda

A

Newspaper of the Communist Party

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8
Q

Izvestiya

A

Newspaper of the government

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9
Q

What was the purpose of both Pravda and Izvestiya?

A

Instruments of propaganda, agitation and organisation

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10
Q

What was the guiding principle of the Soviet press?

A

Partiinost (party-mindedness)

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11
Q

How was a high readership ensured of the daily newspapers?

A

Cheap to buy; widely available; copies posted on boards along pavements and at workplaces

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12
Q

What was Pravda’s circulation in 1983?

A

10.7 million

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13
Q

Which paper was even more popular than Pravda?

A

Trud (labour)

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14
Q

What were favoured topics of the newspapers?

A

Achievements of socialism; successful expeditions to the Arctic and northern Russia; triumph of technology over nature

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15
Q

What were the topics that were prohibited/subject to delayed reporting in the newspapers?

A

Plane crashes; natural disasters

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16
Q

Which newspapers were likely to publish views critical of the authorities?

A

Local newspapers

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17
Q

What were the limits put on the criticism published by local newspapers?

A

Criticising party leaders wasn’t allowed

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18
Q

What else were published alongside daily Soviet newspapers to cater for an ever-increasing range of interests?

A

Vast selection of magazines and journals

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19
Q

What were many of the magazines and journals aimed at?

A

Specific groups of workers; young children; sports fans; those with a particular hobby

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20
Q

Which areas of interest were off-limits in magazines and journals?

A

Sex; pornography; crime; religion

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21
Q

When was ‘Red Sport’ established?

A

1924

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22
Q

Which magazine succeeded ‘Red Sport’?

A

‘Sovetskii Sport’

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23
Q

Which aspect of the media was relatively easy for the Bolsheviks to control in 1917?

A

Radio

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24
Q

Why was radio relatively easy for the Bolsheviks to control in 1917?

A

Fairly recent development; didn’t have a long tradition of independent activity

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25
Q

How had radio broadcast news of the Revolution in October 1917?

A

Morse code

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26
Q

When did radio programmes begin being broadcast in Russia?

A

1921

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27
Q

Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency

A

Featured news and propaganda material, with little emphasis on music

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28
Q

How did the Bolsheviks get their message to the Soviet people over radio?

A

Installed loudspeakers in public places, factories and clubs

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29
Q

How was control of radio communications centralised?

A

Through the Commissariat for Posts and Telegraph

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30
Q

When did Moscow have a well-developed radio broadcasting station?

A

1922

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31
Q

Why was radio an especially useful medium?

A

Enabled the government to get its message across to the 65% of the population who were illiterate

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32
Q

How did the government convey its message through radio by the 1920s to make it more palatable?

A

Alongside light or classical music

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33
Q

When did the speed by which the government could convey its message through the radio prove invaluable?

A

During the German invasion of 1941

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34
Q

How was radio access restricted to government stations only?

A

Most new apartment blocks were wired for radio reception

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35
Q

Until when was there only one Soviet radio station?

A

1964

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36
Q

What was the radio range extended to under Brezhnev?

A

3 stations

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37
Q

How did the government restrict access to foreign radio stations?

A

Mass-produced cheap radios with a limited reception range; jammed foreign broadcasts; threatened to arrest those that listened to foreign stations

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38
Q

How successful were the government’s restrictions on foreign radio broadcasts?

A

Threats rarely succeeded

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39
Q

When was television becoming a key method by which the government got its message to the Soviet public?

A

By the 1950s

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40
Q

How many television sets did the USSR have in 1950?

A

10,000

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41
Q

How many television sets did the USSR have in 1958?

A

Almost 3 million

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42
Q

What brought television within the price range of most people?

A

Mass production in the 1960s

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43
Q

When did most of the population have access to a television?

A

By the early 1980s

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44
Q

What did the government television stations provide?

A

News; documentaries on the achievements of socialism; cultural programmes; children’s programmes; feature films

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45
Q

How was life in the Soviet Union presented on television?

A

Joyous compared to capitalism

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46
Q

How many television channels were there in 1985?

A

2

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47
Q

Edward Khil (Trololo)

A

Soviet singer, who became popular in the 1970s

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48
Q

What are more positive features of Soviet television output?

A

Broadcast of local programming for the regions in the USSR, often in local languages; folk dancing made a change from the usual imposition of Russian culture on national minorities

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49
Q

What did the Soviet people learn to do as a result of the heavy censorship and restriction of material?

A

Got used to reading between the lines

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50
Q

What were indications in the press that someone had fallen from favour within the Party?

A

News of the heart problems of a member of the Politburo; someone’s continued non-appearance in the press

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51
Q

What did favoured and rising stars of the Party receive in the press?

A

More news space

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52
Q

What was threatening the government’s restriction of information to the population in the 1980s?

A

Advancing technology

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53
Q

What did the Bolsheviks see religion as?

A

Threat to the imposition of socialist ideology

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54
Q

Which religious figures did Lenin have a particular hatred for?

A

Priests

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55
Q

Why did the Bolsheviks attack the Russian Orthodox Church so fiercely?

A

It had been tied closely to the old order

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56
Q

What was religion referred to as, using Marx’s words?

A

‘Opium of the masses’

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57
Q

What separated the Orthodox Church from the state and lost it its privileged status?

A

1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience

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58
Q

What happened to the Church as a result of the 1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience?

A

Deprived of its land without compensation; its publications were outlawed; all religious education outside the home was banned

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59
Q

Who had been the head of the Orthodox Church in 1918?

A

Patriarch Tikhon

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60
Q

When did the attacks on the Church increase?

A

During the famine of the civil war

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61
Q

By 1923, how many bishops had been killed?

A

28

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62
Q

By 1923, how many priests had been killed?

A

Over 1000

63
Q

What was established by the Bolsheviks as part of a propaganda campaign against religion?

A

League of the Militant Godless in 1929

64
Q

What did the League of the Militant Godless do?

A

Launched events to disprove the existence of God

65
Q

What did a campaign suggest baptisms should be replaced with?

A

‘Octoberings’

66
Q

When did Patriarch Tikhon die?

A

1925

67
Q

What did Patriarch Tikhon’s death open the way for?

A

Metropolitan Sergei of Moscow to call on Church members to support the government

68
Q

How many of all village churches had been destroyed/weren’t operating by the end of 1930?

A

4/5

69
Q

How much of the peasantry were revealed to still be active Christians after surveys in the mid-1920s?

A

55%

70
Q

What was the print run of Trud?

A

13.5 million

71
Q

What was Trud?

A

Newspaper of the government-controlled trade unions

72
Q

When did the newspapers focus particularly heavily on production figures?

A

1930s

73
Q

When did ‘Sovietskii Sport’ replace ‘Red Sport’?

A

1946

74
Q

Which radio station played foreign music and was popular with the Soviet youth?

A

Radio Maiak (Lighthouse)

75
Q

What was the shortcoming of the mass production of televisions in the 1960s?

A

Availability failed to keep pace with demand

76
Q

What feature of Stalin’s rule led Trotsky to accuse him of betraying the revolution?

A

Stalin’s cult of personality

77
Q

Why was a cult of personality used?

A

To reinforce the power of individual leaders; detach them from the collective leadership exercised in theory by the Politburo

78
Q

What monument in Moscow showed how the cult of Lenin was developed more after his death?

A

Embalming his body for display in the mausoleum in Red Square

79
Q

When was Petrograd renamed Leningrad?

A

1924

80
Q

How was the cult of Stalin invaluable in supporting his career?

A

Linked him to Lenin during the power struggle of the 1920s; reinforced his personal dictatorship in the 1930s

81
Q

Which town was renamed Stalingrad in 1925?

A

Tsaritsyn

82
Q

When were images of Stalin used to reinforce his power by giving the impression of the all-present and all-knowing leader?

A

1930s

83
Q

What did the statues erected of Stalin give him the stature of?

A

Tsar Alexander III

84
Q

Which actor made a career out of playing Stalin?

A

Mikhail Gilovani

85
Q

When did Stalin’s cult of personality rise to ever more ridiculous heights?

A

Early 1950s

86
Q

Which canal was littered with statues of Stalin along its banks?

A

Volga-Don Canal

87
Q

Why were the advantages for Khrushchev in developing his own personality cult?

A

Allowed him to be seen as the more important leader as power had originally been shared after 1953 with Malenkov; suited his style of leadership

88
Q

When did Khrushchev’s personality cult take on a more desperate tone?

A

As his policy failures mounted

89
Q

When was a personality cult useful for Brezhnev?

A

In the power struggle with Kosygin and Podgorny that followed Khrushchev’s removal

90
Q

What was different about Brezhnev’s cult of personality?

A

Less a method of securing power than a substitute for real power

91
Q

What was one of the key reasons for Brezhnev’s popularity?

A

His reluctance to use his power to bring about change

92
Q

How many medals was Brezhnev awarded?

A

At least 100

93
Q

What is an example of one of the medals Brezhnev received?

A

Lenin Prize for Literature for his memoirs

94
Q

When did Brezhnev’s personality cult take on a more practical element?

A

After 1975 when his health deteriorated

95
Q

When was Patriarch Tikhon put under house arrest?

A

End of 1918

96
Q

How were priests persecuted?

A

Deprived of the vote; denied rations during the civil war; suffered as victims of the Red Terror of 1921-1922

97
Q

How many bishops were still at liberty by 1939?

A

12/163

98
Q

When did Stalin’s religious repression become more moderate?

A

WW2

99
Q

What were Khrushchev’s views on religion?

A

Fervently anti-religious

100
Q

When did Khrushchev launch a harsh anti-religious campaign which continued until his death?

A

1958-59

101
Q

How many churches were closed between 1958-62?

A

10,000

102
Q

Why did Brezhnev approach religion more moderately?

A

Religious persecution didn’t go down well in the West and had a damaging impact on the USSR’s attempts to conduct foreign policy

103
Q

How were religious services monitored during Brezhnev’s rule?

A

Council of Religious Affairs

104
Q

When was the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights set up?

A

1976

105
Q

How did Brezhnev react to the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights?

A

Sentenced its leader, Father Yakunin, to 5 years imprisonment in 1979

106
Q

Why was dealing with Islam a difficult task for the Bolsheviks?

A

More engrained into a distinct way of life and integrated within its community

107
Q

When did the government feel confident enough to attack Islamic institutions and rituals?

A

Mid-1920s

108
Q

When was the campaign against the veiling of women launched?

A

International Women’s Day in 1927

109
Q

When did the measures against Islamic practices result in a series of violent revolts?

A

1928-29

110
Q

Why did the Bolsheviks attack Islam so violently?

A

Its links to national minorities within the USSR threatened the social cohesion of the state

111
Q

How much of the population believed in God by 1980?

A

Only 25%

112
Q

When was Andropov’s suppression of dissidents?

A

1967-82

113
Q

Which organisation took over the surveillance of perceived enemies in 1953?

A

KGB

114
Q

When did Andropov take over the leadership of the KGB?

A

1967

115
Q

Who were the dissidents?

A

Those who criticised the Soviet state or system

116
Q

Which different groups did the dissidents fall into?

A

Intellectuals; political dissidents; nationalists; religious dissidents

117
Q

What is one of the most famous examples of an intellectual being suppressed under Andropov’s orders?

A

Andrei Sakharov- a nuclear scientist

118
Q

Where were Catholic dissidents often prominent?

A

Baltic republics

119
Q

Refuseniks

A

Soviet Jews who had been denied their wish to emigrate to Israel

120
Q

What did all the dissidents share a concern with?

A

Human rights; freedom of expression

121
Q

Samizdat

A

Illegal, self-published materials that shared concerns and criticisms of the Soviet system

122
Q

When did samizdat become popular?

A

Late 1960s

123
Q

What was one of the most well-known samizdat materials?

A

‘Chronicle of Current Events’

124
Q

What was ‘Chronicle of Current Events’?

A

Underground newsletter that highlighted human rights abuses and the treatment of dissidents

125
Q

When did the dissidents become bolder and start using the foreign press to advance their cause?

A

1970s

126
Q

What are the nationalist groups that called for greater status for their own national languages and culture?

A

Ukranians; Latvians; Lithuanians; Georgians

127
Q

How many political prisoners did Amnesty International estimate that there were by the mid-1970s?

A

10,000

128
Q

When had a new criminal code abolished night-time interrogations of the KGB and limited its powers?

A

1960

129
Q

What had provided the authorities with useful catch-all powers of dealing with anything considered ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’?

A

Article 70

130
Q

When was the new criminal code of 1960 dropped?

A

1966

131
Q

What was an important development in the treatment of dissidents?

A

Use of psychiatric hospitals

132
Q

What ran the psychiatric hospitals used for dissidents?

A

NKVD

133
Q

Who is an example of someone held in a psychiatric hospital for being a dissident?

A

Zhores Medvedev- a writer and scientist

134
Q

What was a method, other than the psychiatric hospitals, used to limit the impact of dissidents?

A

Internal exile

135
Q

When had the Soviet leadership become increasingly concerned with its international reputation?

A

In light of the Helsinki Accords

136
Q

When were the Helsinki Accords signed?

A

1975

137
Q

Why did the dissidents never really threaten the social or political stability of the country?

A

Collection of individuals and never a coherent group; limited support

138
Q

What is an example of the limited support of the dissidents being exposed?

A

Organisation of public protest against the Prague Spring in 1968 in the Red Square- only 7 people showed

139
Q

What played a key role in preventing many people from joining dissident protest?

A

Fear of the secret police

140
Q

How effective was Andropov’s suppression of dissidents?

A

Succeeded in keeping the dissident groups small, divided and in a state of mutual mistrust

141
Q

How did Andropov’s methods of dealing with opposition differ from those of the Stalin years?

A

Andropov’s methods were more subtle and sophisticated

142
Q

How did the KGB change under Andropov’s leadership?

A

Its professionalism, reputation and status grew considerably

143
Q

When did Andropov become General Secretary of the Communist Party?

A

1982

144
Q

Why had Andropov become convinced that dissident action could easily turn into a popular uprising that might threaten the state?

A

He had served as the Soviet Ambassador to Hungary during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956

145
Q

How did Andropov’s monitoring of the dissident groups change after 1982?

A

Increased

146
Q

Why did Andropov attempt to bring greater efficiency to the USSR?

A

Realised that dissidents didn’t represent the majority of the population; popular discontent was more likely to be based on economic concerns

147
Q

How did Andropov attempt to promote economic reform?

A

Tried to connect with the people; appointed new free-thinking government advisers; made a conscious effort to promote a younger, more-reformist generation

148
Q

When did Andropov have an unsuccessful visit to a Moscow factory?

A

February 1983

149
Q

In appointing new advisers, who did Andropov make particular use of?

A

Group of sociologists and economists from Novosibirsk

150
Q

Who did Andropov promote in an effort to promote a younger, more-reformist generation?

A

Gorbachev; Yegor Ligachev; Nikolai Ryzhkov

151
Q

What do Andropov’s methods of monitoring popular discontent show about him?

A

A greater desire to meet the needs of the general population and for reform

152
Q

Where did Andropov’s methods of monitoring popular discontent stall?

A

In the development of firm action to address these public concerns

153
Q

What seriously hampered Andropov’s ability to introduce more wide-ranging reform?

A

Ill health