RUSSIA Control of the People, 1917-85 Flashcards
When was a decree issued banning all non-socialist newspapers?
November 1917
When were all non-Bolshevik newspapers eliminated?
By early 1920s
What were all newspaper editors and journalists?
Employees of the government; members of the Union of Soviet Journalists; expected to be Party members
What was the censorship office called?
Glavlit
What was needed for every newspaper article written for publication?
Approval from Glavlit
What are examples of daily newspapers published? (2 big bois)
Pravda (truth); Izvestiya (News)
Pravda
Newspaper of the Communist Party
Izvestiya
Newspaper of the government
What was the purpose of both Pravda and Izvestiya?
Instruments of propaganda, agitation and organisation
What was the guiding principle of the Soviet press?
Partiinost (party-mindedness)
How was a high readership ensured of the daily newspapers?
Cheap to buy; widely available; copies posted on boards along pavements and at workplaces
What was Pravda’s circulation in 1983?
10.7 million
Which paper was even more popular than Pravda?
Trud (labour)
What were favoured topics of the newspapers? (3)
Achievements of socialism; successful expeditions to the Arctic and northern Russia; triumph of technology over nature
What were the topics that were prohibited/subject to delayed reporting in the newspapers?
Plane crashes; natural disasters
Which newspapers were likely to publish views critical of the authorities?
Local newspapers
What were the limits put on the criticism published by local newspapers?
Criticising party leaders wasn’t allowed
What else were published alongside daily Soviet newspapers to cater for an ever-increasing range of interests?
Vast selection of magazines and journals
What were many of the magazines and journals aimed at? (4)
Specific groups of workers; young children; sports fans; those with a particular hobby
Which areas of interest were off-limits in magazines and journals?
Sex; pornography; crime; religion
When was ‘Red Sport’ established?
1924
Which magazine succeeded ‘Red Sport’?
‘Sovetskii Sport’
Which aspect of the media was relatively easy for the Bolsheviks to control in 1917?
Radio
Why was radio relatively easy for the Bolsheviks to control in 1917?
Fairly recent development; didn’t have a long tradition of independent activity
How had radio broadcast news of the Revolution in October 1917?
Morse code
When did radio programmes begin being broadcast in Russia?
1921
Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency
Featured news and propaganda material, with little emphasis on music
How did the Bolsheviks get their message to the Soviet people over radio?
Installed loudspeakers in public places, factories and clubs
How was control of radio communications centralised?
Through the Commissariat for Posts and Telegraph
When did Moscow have a well-developed radio broadcasting station?
1922
Why was radio an especially useful medium? (could communicate with % pop who were demographics)
Enabled the government to get its message across to the 65% of the population who were illiterate
How did the government convey its message through radio by the 1920s to make it more palatable?
Alongside light or classical music
When did the speed by which the government could convey its message through the radio prove invaluable?
During the German invasion of 1941
How was radio access restricted to government stations only?
Most new apartment blocks were wired for radio reception
Until when was there only one Soviet radio station?
1964
What was the radio range extended to under Brezhnev?
3 stations
How did the government restrict access to foreign radio stations? (3)
Mass-produced cheap radios with a limited reception range; jammed foreign broadcasts; threatened to arrest those that listened to foreign stations
How successful were the government’s restrictions on foreign radio broadcasts?
Threats rarely succeeded
When was television becoming a key method by which the government got its message to the Soviet public?
By the 1950s
How many television sets did the USSR have in 1950?
10,000
How many television sets did the USSR have in 1958?
Almost 3 million
What brought television within the price range of most people?
Mass production in the 1960s
When did most of the population have access to a television?
By the early 1980s
What did the government television stations provide? (5)
News; documentaries on the achievements of socialism; cultural programmes; children’s programmes; feature films
How was life in the Soviet Union presented on television?
Joyous compared to capitalism
How many television channels were there in 1985?
2
Edward Khil (Trololo)
Soviet singer, who became popular in the 1970s
What are more positive features of Soviet television output?
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
What did the Soviet people learn to do as a result of the heavy censorship and restriction of material?
Got used to reading between the lines
What were indications in the press that someone had fallen from favour within the Party?
News of the heart problems of a member of the Politburo; someone’s continued non-appearance in the press
What did favoured and rising stars of the Party receive in the press?
More news space
What was threatening the government’s restriction of information to the population in the 1980s?
Advancing technology
What did the Bolsheviks see religion as?
Threat to the imposition of socialist ideology
Which religious figures did Lenin have a particular hatred for?
Priests
Why did the Bolsheviks attack the Russian Orthodox Church so fiercely?
It had been tied closely to the old order
What was religion referred to as, using Marx’s words?
‘Opium of the masses’
What separated the Orthodox Church from the state and lost it its privileged status?
1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience
What happened to the Church as a result of the 1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience? (3)
Deprived of its land without compensation; its publications were outlawed; all religious education outside the home was banned
Who had been the head of the Orthodox Church in 1918?
Patriarch Tikhon
When did the attacks on the Church increase?
During the famine of the civil war
By 1923, how many bishops had been killed?
28
By 1923, how many priests had been killed?
Over 1000
What was established by the Bolsheviks as part of a propaganda campaign against religion? (and when?)
League of the Militant Godless in 1929
What did the League of the Militant Godless do?
Launched events to disprove the existence of God
What did a campaign suggest baptisms should be replaced with?
‘Octoberings’
When did Patriarch Tikhon die?
1925
What did Patriarch Tikhon’s death open the way for?
Metropolitan Sergei of Moscow to call on Church members to support the government
What % of all village churches had been destroyed/weren’t operating by the end of 1930?
80%
What % of the peasantry were revealed to still be active Christians after surveys in the mid-1920s?
55%
What was the circulation of Trud?
13.5 million
What was Trud?
Newspaper of the government-controlled trade unions
When did the newspapers focus particularly heavily on production figures?
1930s
When did ‘Sovietskii Sport’ replace ‘Red Sport’?
1946
Which radio station played foreign music and was popular with the Soviet youth?
Radio Maiak (Lighthouse)
What was the shortcoming of the mass production of televisions in the 1960s?
Availability failed to keep pace with demand
What feature of Stalin’s rule led Trotsky to accuse him of betraying the revolution?
Stalin’s cult of personality
Why was a cult of personality used?
To reinforce the power of individual leaders; detach them from the collective leadership exercised in theory by the Politburo
What was the most striking use of the image of Lenin for political purposes?
Embalming his body for display in the mausoleum in Red Square
When was Petrograd renamed Leningrad?
1924
How was the cult of Stalin invaluable in supporting his career?
Linked him to Lenin during the power struggle of the 1920s; reinforced his personal dictatorship in the 1930s
Which town was renamed Stalingrad in 1925?
Tsaritsyn
When were images of Stalin used to reinforce his power by giving the impression of the all-present and all-knowing leader?
1930s
What did the statues erected of Stalin give him the stature of?
Tsar Alexander III
Which actor made a career out of playing Stalin?
Mikhail Gilovani
When did Stalin’s cult of personality rise to ever more ridiculous heights?
Early 1950s
Which canal was littered with statues of Stalin along its banks?
Volga-Don Canal
Why were the advantages for Khrushchev in developing his own personality cult? (2)
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
When did Khrushchev’s personality cult take on a more desperate tone?
As his policy failures mounted
When was a personality cult useful for Brezhnev?
In the power struggle with Kosygin and Podgorny that followed Khrushchev’s removal
What was different about Brezhnev’s cult of personality?
Less a method of securing power than a substitute for real power
What was one of the key reasons for Brezhnev’s popularity?
His reluctance to use his power to bring about change
How many medals was Brezhnev awarded?
At least 100
What is an example of one of the medals Brezhnev received?
Lenin Prize for Literature for his memoirs
When did Brezhnev’s personality cult take on a more practical element?
After 1975 when his health deteriorated
When was Patriarch Tikhon put under house arrest?
End of 1918
How were priests persecuted?
Deprived of the vote; denied rations during the civil war; suffered as victims of the Red Terror of 1921-1922
How many bishops were still at liberty by 1939?
12/163
When did Stalin’s religious repression become more moderate?
WW2
What were Khrushchev’s views on religion?
Fervently anti-religious
When did Khrushchev launch a harsh anti-religious campaign which continued until his death?
1958-59
How many churches were closed between 1958-62?
10,000
Why did Brezhnev approach religion more moderately?
Religious persecution didn’t go down well in the West and had a damaging impact on the USSR’s attempts to conduct foreign policy
What organisation monitored religious services during Brezhnev’s rule?
Council of Religious Affairs
When was the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights set up?
1976
How did Brezhnev react to the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights? (What was there leaders name Y _ _ _ _ _ _)
Sentenced its leader, Father Yakunin, to 5 years imprisonment in 1979
Why was dealing with Islam a difficult task for the Bolsheviks?
More engrained into a distinct way of life and integrated within its community
When did the government feel confident enough to attack Islamic institutions and rituals?
Mid-1920s
When was the campaign against the veiling of women launched?
International Women’s Day in 1927
When did the measures against Islamic practices result in a series of violent revolts?
1928-29
Why did the Bolsheviks attack Islam so violently?
Its links to national minorities within the USSR threatened the social cohesion of the state
How much of the population believed in God by 1980?
Only 25%
When was Andropov’s suppression of dissidents?
1967-82
Which organisation took over the surveillance of perceived enemies in 1953?
KGB
When did Andropov take over the leadership of the KGB?
1967
Who were the dissidents?
Those who criticised the Soviet state or system
Which different groups did the dissidents fall into? (4)
Intellectuals; political dissidents; nationalists; religious dissidents
What is one of the most famous examples of an intellectual being suppressed under Andropov’s orders?
Andrei Sakharov- a nuclear scientist
Where were Catholic dissidents often prominent?
Baltic republics
Refuseniks
Soviet Jews who had been denied their wish to emigrate to Israel
What did all the dissidents share a concern with? (2)
Human rights; freedom of expression
What were the Samizdat?
Illegal, self-published materials that shared concerns and criticisms of the Soviet system
When did samizdat become popular?
Late 1960s
What was one of the most well-known samizdat materials?
‘Chronicle of Current Events’
What was ‘Chronicle of Current Events’?
Underground newsletter that highlighted human rights abuses and the treatment of dissidents
When did the dissidents become bolder and start using the foreign press to advance their cause?
1970s
What are the 4 countries that called for greater status for their own national languages and culture?
Ukranians; Latvians; Lithuanians; Georgians
How many political prisoners did Amnesty International estimate that there were by the mid-1970s?
10,000
When had a new criminal code abolished night-time interrogations of the KGB and limited its powers?
1960
What had provided the authorities with useful catch-all powers of dealing with anything considered ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’?
Article 70
When was the new criminal code of 1960 dropped?
1966
What was an important development in the treatment of dissidents?
Use of psychiatric hospitals
What ran the psychiatric hospitals used for dissidents?
NKVD
Who is an example of someone held in a psychiatric hospital for being a dissident?
Zhores Medvedev- a writer and scientist
What was a method, other than the psychiatric hospitals, used to limit the impact of dissidents?
Internal exile
When had the Soviet leadership become increasingly concerned with its international reputation?
In light of the Helsinki Accords
When were the Helsinki Accords signed?
1975
Why did the dissidents never really threaten the social or political stability of the country?
Collection of individuals and never a coherent group; limited support
What is an example of the limited support of the dissidents being exposed?
Organisation of public protest against the Prague Spring in 1968 in the Red Square- only 7 people showed
What played a key role in preventing many people from joining dissident protest?
Fear of the secret police
How effective was Andropov’s suppression of dissidents?
Succeeded in keeping the dissident groups small, divided and in a state of mutual mistrust
How did Andropov’s methods of dealing with opposition differ from those of the Stalin years?
Andropov’s methods were more subtle and sophisticated
How did the KGB change under Andropov’s leadership?
Its professionalism, reputation and status grew considerably
When did Andropov become General Secretary of the Communist Party?
1982
Why had Andropov become convinced that dissident action could easily turn into a popular uprising that might threaten the state?
He had served as the Soviet Ambassador to Hungary during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956
How did Andropov’s monitoring of the dissident groups change after 1982?
Increased
Why did Andropov attempt to bring greater efficiency to the USSR?
Realised that dissidents didn’t represent the majority of the population; popular discontent was more likely to be based on economic concerns
How did Andropov attempt to promote economic reform?
Tried to connect with the people; appointed new free-thinking government advisers; made a conscious effort to promote a younger, more-reformist generation
When did Andropov have an unsuccessful visit to a Moscow factory?
February 1983
In appointing new advisers, who did Andropov make particular use of?
Group of sociologists and economists from Novosibirsk
Who did Andropov promote in an effort to promote a younger, more-reformist generation?
Gorbachev; Yegor Ligachev; Nikolai Ryzhkov
What do Andropov’s methods of monitoring popular discontent show about him?
A greater desire to meet the needs of the general population and for reform
Where did Andropov’s methods of monitoring popular discontent stall?
In the development of firm action to address these public concerns
What seriously hampered Andropov’s ability to introduce more wide-ranging reform?
Ill health
