RUSSIA Control of the People, 1917-85 Flashcards
1
Q
When was a decree issued banning all non-socialist newspapers?
A
November 1917
2
Q
When were all non-Bolshevik newspapers eliminated?
A
By early 1920s
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
4
Q
What was the censorship office called?
A
Glavlit
5
Q
What was needed for every newspaper article written for publication?
A
Approval from Glavlit
6
Q
What are examples of daily newspapers published?
A
Pravda (truth); Izvestiya (News)
7
Q
Pravda
A
Newspaper of the Communist Party
8
Q
Izvestiya
A
Newspaper of the government
9
Q
What was the purpose of both Pravda and Izvestiya?
A
Instruments of propaganda, agitation and organisation
10
Q
What was the guiding principle of the Soviet press?
A
Partiinost (party-mindedness)
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
12
Q
What was Pravda’s circulation in 1983?
A
10.7 million
13
Q
Which paper was even more popular than Pravda?
A
Trud (labour)
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
15
Q
What were the topics that were prohibited/subject to delayed reporting in the newspapers?
A
Plane crashes; natural disasters
16
Q
Which newspapers were likely to publish views critical of the authorities?
A
Local newspapers
17
Q
What were the limits put on the criticism published by local newspapers?
A
Criticising party leaders wasn’t allowed
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
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
20
Q
Which areas of interest were off-limits in magazines and journals?
A
Sex; pornography; crime; religion
21
Q
When was ‘Red Sport’ established?
A
1924
22
Q
Which magazine succeeded ‘Red Sport’?
A
‘Sovetskii Sport’
23
Q
Which aspect of the media was relatively easy for the Bolsheviks to control in 1917?
A
Radio
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
25
How had radio broadcast news of the Revolution in October 1917?
Morse code
26
When did radio programmes begin being broadcast in Russia?
1921
27
Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency
Featured news and propaganda material, with little emphasis on music
28
How did the Bolsheviks get their message to the Soviet people over radio?
Installed loudspeakers in public places, factories and clubs
29
How was control of radio communications centralised?
Through the Commissariat for Posts and Telegraph
30
When did Moscow have a well-developed radio broadcasting station?
1922
31
Why was radio an especially useful medium?
Enabled the government to get its message across to the 65% of the population who were illiterate
32
How did the government convey its message through radio by the 1920s to make it more palatable?
Alongside light or classical music
33
When did the speed by which the government could convey its message through the radio prove invaluable?
During the German invasion of 1941
34
How was radio access restricted to government stations only?
Most new apartment blocks were wired for radio reception
35
Until when was there only one Soviet radio station?
1964
36
What was the radio range extended to under Brezhnev?
3 stations
37
How did the government restrict access to foreign radio stations?
Mass-produced cheap radios with a limited reception range; jammed foreign broadcasts; threatened to arrest those that listened to foreign stations
38
How successful were the government's restrictions on foreign radio broadcasts?
Threats rarely succeeded
39
When was television becoming a key method by which the government got its message to the Soviet public?
By the 1950s
40
How many television sets did the USSR have in 1950?
10,000
41
How many television sets did the USSR have in 1958?
Almost 3 million
42
What brought television within the price range of most people?
Mass production in the 1960s
43
When did most of the population have access to a television?
By the early 1980s
44
What did the government television stations provide?
News; documentaries on the achievements of socialism; cultural programmes; children's programmes; feature films
45
How was life in the Soviet Union presented on television?
Joyous compared to capitalism
46
How many television channels were there in 1985?
2
47
Edward Khil (Trololo)
Soviet singer, who became popular in the 1970s
48
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
49
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
50
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
51
What did favoured and rising stars of the Party receive in the press?
More news space
52
What was threatening the government's restriction of information to the population in the 1980s?
Advancing technology
53
What did the Bolsheviks see religion as?
Threat to the imposition of socialist ideology
54
Which religious figures did Lenin have a particular hatred for?
Priests
55
Why did the Bolsheviks attack the Russian Orthodox Church so fiercely?
It had been tied closely to the old order
56
What was religion referred to as, using Marx's words?
'Opium of the masses'
57
What separated the Orthodox Church from the state and lost it its privileged status?
1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience
58
What happened to the Church as a result of the 1918 Decree on Freedom of Conscience?
Deprived of its land without compensation; its publications were outlawed; all religious education outside the home was banned
59
Who had been the head of the Orthodox Church in 1918?
Patriarch Tikhon
60
When did the attacks on the Church increase?
During the famine of the civil war
61
By 1923, how many bishops had been killed?
28
62
By 1923, how many priests had been killed?
Over 1000
63
What was established by the Bolsheviks as part of a propaganda campaign against religion?
League of the Militant Godless in 1929
64
What did the League of the Militant Godless do?
Launched events to disprove the existence of God
65
What did a campaign suggest baptisms should be replaced with?
'Octoberings'
66
When did Patriarch Tikhon die?
1925
67
What did Patriarch Tikhon's death open the way for?
Metropolitan Sergei of Moscow to call on Church members to support the government
68
How many of all village churches had been destroyed/weren't operating by the end of 1930?
4/5
69
How much of the peasantry were revealed to still be active Christians after surveys in the mid-1920s?
55%
70
What was the print run of Trud?
13.5 million
71
What was Trud?
Newspaper of the government-controlled trade unions
72
When did the newspapers focus particularly heavily on production figures?
1930s
73
When did 'Sovietskii Sport' replace 'Red Sport'?
1946
74
Which radio station played foreign music and was popular with the Soviet youth?
Radio Maiak (Lighthouse)
75
What was the shortcoming of the mass production of televisions in the 1960s?
Availability failed to keep pace with demand
76
What feature of Stalin's rule led Trotsky to accuse him of betraying the revolution?
Stalin's cult of personality
77
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
78
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
79
When was Petrograd renamed Leningrad?
1924
80
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
81
Which town was renamed Stalingrad in 1925?
Tsaritsyn
82
When were images of Stalin used to reinforce his power by giving the impression of the all-present and all-knowing leader?
1930s
83
What did the statues erected of Stalin give him the stature of?
Tsar Alexander III
84
Which actor made a career out of playing Stalin?
Mikhail Gilovani
85
When did Stalin's cult of personality rise to ever more ridiculous heights?
Early 1950s
86
Which canal was littered with statues of Stalin along its banks?
Volga-Don Canal
87
Why were the advantages for Khrushchev in developing his own personality cult?
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
When did Khrushchev's personality cult take on a more desperate tone?
As his policy failures mounted
89
When was a personality cult useful for Brezhnev?
In the power struggle with Kosygin and Podgorny that followed Khrushchev's removal
90
What was different about Brezhnev's cult of personality?
Less a method of securing power than a substitute for real power
91
What was one of the key reasons for Brezhnev's popularity?
His reluctance to use his power to bring about change
92
How many medals was Brezhnev awarded?
At least 100
93
What is an example of one of the medals Brezhnev received?
Lenin Prize for Literature for his memoirs
94
When did Brezhnev's personality cult take on a more practical element?
After 1975 when his health deteriorated
95
When was Patriarch Tikhon put under house arrest?
End of 1918
96
How were priests persecuted?
Deprived of the vote; denied rations during the civil war; suffered as victims of the Red Terror of 1921-1922
97
How many bishops were still at liberty by 1939?
12/163
98
When did Stalin's religious repression become more moderate?
WW2
99
What were Khrushchev's views on religion?
Fervently anti-religious
100
When did Khrushchev launch a harsh anti-religious campaign which continued until his death?
1958-59
101
How many churches were closed between 1958-62?
10,000
102
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
103
How were religious services monitored during Brezhnev's rule?
Council of Religious Affairs
104
When was the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers' Rights set up?
1976
105
How did Brezhnev react to the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers' Rights?
Sentenced its leader, Father Yakunin, to 5 years imprisonment in 1979
106
Why was dealing with Islam a difficult task for the Bolsheviks?
More engrained into a distinct way of life and integrated within its community
107
When did the government feel confident enough to attack Islamic institutions and rituals?
Mid-1920s
108
When was the campaign against the veiling of women launched?
International Women's Day in 1927
109
When did the measures against Islamic practices result in a series of violent revolts?
1928-29
110
Why did the Bolsheviks attack Islam so violently?
Its links to national minorities within the USSR threatened the social cohesion of the state
111
How much of the population believed in God by 1980?
Only 25%
112
When was Andropov's suppression of dissidents?
1967-82
113
Which organisation took over the surveillance of perceived enemies in 1953?
KGB
114
When did Andropov take over the leadership of the KGB?
1967
115
Who were the dissidents?
Those who criticised the Soviet state or system
116
Which different groups did the dissidents fall into?
Intellectuals; political dissidents; nationalists; religious dissidents
117
What is one of the most famous examples of an intellectual being suppressed under Andropov's orders?
Andrei Sakharov- a nuclear scientist
118
Where were Catholic dissidents often prominent?
Baltic republics
119
Refuseniks
Soviet Jews who had been denied their wish to emigrate to Israel
120
What did all the dissidents share a concern with?
Human rights; freedom of expression
121
Samizdat
Illegal, self-published materials that shared concerns and criticisms of the Soviet system
122
When did samizdat become popular?
Late 1960s
123
What was one of the most well-known samizdat materials?
'Chronicle of Current Events'
124
What was 'Chronicle of Current Events'?
Underground newsletter that highlighted human rights abuses and the treatment of dissidents
125
When did the dissidents become bolder and start using the foreign press to advance their cause?
1970s
126
What are the nationalist groups that called for greater status for their own national languages and culture?
Ukranians; Latvians; Lithuanians; Georgians
127
How many political prisoners did Amnesty International estimate that there were by the mid-1970s?
10,000
128
When had a new criminal code abolished night-time interrogations of the KGB and limited its powers?
1960
129
What had provided the authorities with useful catch-all powers of dealing with anything considered 'anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda'?
Article 70
130
When was the new criminal code of 1960 dropped?
1966
131
What was an important development in the treatment of dissidents?
Use of psychiatric hospitals
132
What ran the psychiatric hospitals used for dissidents?
NKVD
133
Who is an example of someone held in a psychiatric hospital for being a dissident?
Zhores Medvedev- a writer and scientist
134
What was a method, other than the psychiatric hospitals, used to limit the impact of dissidents?
Internal exile
135
When had the Soviet leadership become increasingly concerned with its international reputation?
In light of the Helsinki Accords
136
When were the Helsinki Accords signed?
1975
137
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
138
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
139
What played a key role in preventing many people from joining dissident protest?
Fear of the secret police
140
How effective was Andropov's suppression of dissidents?
Succeeded in keeping the dissident groups small, divided and in a state of mutual mistrust
141
How did Andropov's methods of dealing with opposition differ from those of the Stalin years?
Andropov's methods were more subtle and sophisticated
142
How did the KGB change under Andropov's leadership?
Its professionalism, reputation and status grew considerably
143
When did Andropov become General Secretary of the Communist Party?
1982
144
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
145
How did Andropov's monitoring of the dissident groups change after 1982?
Increased
146
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
147
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
148
When did Andropov have an unsuccessful visit to a Moscow factory?
February 1983
149
In appointing new advisers, who did Andropov make particular use of?
Group of sociologists and economists from Novosibirsk
150
Who did Andropov promote in an effort to promote a younger, more-reformist generation?
Gorbachev; Yegor Ligachev; Nikolai Ryzhkov
151
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
152
Where did Andropov's methods of monitoring popular discontent stall?
In the development of firm action to address these public concerns
153
What seriously hampered Andropov's ability to introduce more wide-ranging reform?
Ill health
