Secret Police

Question 1

Cheka

Answer 1

Felix Dzerzhinsky Bolshevik Secret Police formed after Revolution in 1917

Question 2

OGPU

Answer 2

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Unified State Political Administration formed shortly before Lenin’s death in 1924

Question 3

NKVD

Answer 3

Genrikh Yagoda/
Nikolai Yezhov/
Lavrenti Beria
Merging of the OGPU with the Interior Ministry under Stalin in 1934

Question 4

KGB

Answer 4

Yuri Andropov

Soviet Security and Intelligence Service, reformed under Khrushchev after 1954

Question 5

The Role of the Cheka 1917-22

Answer 5

Root out counter-revolutionaries, Help win war by enforcing War Communism and attacking opposition such as SRs and Mensheviks
Terror

Question 6

Once Civil War won, what was the key role of the Secret Police?

Answer 6

Enforce orders of the Politburo and seek out enemies within the CP

Question 7

What was the decree which gave them wide-ranging powers

Answer 7

Murder of Kirov: Decree Against Terrorist Acts 1934

Question 8

Genrikh Yagoda (1934-36)

Answer 8

Ambitious to build personal empire - expansion of Gulag camps
But shift from ideological purpose to economic benefit
Under Yagoda, Gulags provide massive slave labour force
(white sea canals/show trials)

Question 9

Nikolai Yezhov (1936-38)

Answer 9

Execution quota system in 1937
Yezhov so radical he purged the NKVD: 23,000 killed
This period known as the Yezhovshchina: ‘Yezhov’s Terror’

Question 10

Lavrenti Beria

Answer 10

Focus on making NKVD more efficient and productive
Used skilled prisoners on projects: 1000 scientists put to work
Gulag economic growth from 2bn roubles in 1937 to 4.5bn in 1940
1/3 Russia’s gold, timber and coal produced by Gulag

Question 11

The Role of the KGB

Answer 11

during de-Stalinisation?
Gulags taken away and made accountable to the state
New Criminal Code in 1960 severely limit use of terror
Role switched from mass terror to surveillance

Question 12

Intellectuals reasons

(Dissidents)

Answer 12

Limitations on independent thinking; restrictions on contact with foreign academics and literature; ideological nature of academia; scientists led by Andrei Sakharov complained to Brezhnev

Question 13

Human Rights bodies reasons for dissidents

Answer 13

After Russia signed UN Declaration on Human Rights in 1948 and Helsinki Accords in 1975, Human Rights groups attempted to hold Russian government to account for abuses

Question 14

Nationalists reasons for dissidents

Answer 14

Ukrainians, Lithuanians and Georgians called for greater rights for their own cultures: attempt to ban 150th anniversary celebrations of Ukranian poet Taras Shevchenko in 1964

Question 15

Catholics/Jews for dissidents

Answer 15

Restrictions on religious worship led to dissent, especially in Baltic regions; refusenik Jews denied right to emigrate to Israel which caused diplomatic friction with America

Question 16

2 methods dissidents used against the CP

Answer 16

Samizdat – widely circulated literature critical of CP

Foreign press – undermined Russia’s international standing

Question 17

2 methods used by Andropov to suppress dissidents

Answer 17

Intellectuals could be dismissed from positions

Arrested as ‘political prisoners’ – 10,000 by 1970s

Question 18

What legal power did the KGB have to control dissidents

Answer 18

Article 70 of 1960 Criminal Code

Arrest those guilty of ‘anti-soviet agitation and propaganda’

Question 19

How was psychiatry used against the dissidents?

Answer 19

Undermined their credibility in eyes of the public
From 1967 dissidents confined to ‘special hospitals’
Run by KGB and held there until ‘cured’

Question 20

How successful in challenging the CP?

Answer 20

Succeeded in undermining Russia’s international standing
BUT
Failed to gain the support of general public – an intellectual movement
Failed to organise protests as split between numerous groups

Question 21

Andropov as General-Secretary

Answer 21

Convinced popular dissent could lead to uprisings against CP

With Andropov in charge, KGB intensified surveillance

Question 22

Surveillance techniques

Answer 22

Audio recordings

Cameras placed in bras!

Question 23

3 Andropov’s economic reforms

Answer 23

Politburo to be more in touch with society – tours of factories
New government economic advisors – Novosibirsk group
Tackle ‘gerontocracy’ – promoted younger members of CP