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A Level History: Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855-1964 > The emergence of Communist dictatorship 1917-1941 > Flashcards

The emergence of Communist dictatorship 1917-1941 Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the name of the peace treaty signed by the Bolsheviks and when was it?

A

The Treaty of Brest Litovsk, 3rd March 1918

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2
Q

What concessions did the Treaty of Brest Litovsk involve?

A

Lost territory, eg. Finland, Poland, Ukraine etc.
Lost 1/6 population
Area that produced 1/3 Russia’s agricultural produce
74% iron and coal
26% railway

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3
Q

What were the contradictions between ideology and Bolshevik actions in 1917-18?

A

Negotiated with German Imperial gov
Sovnarkom ruled by decree, only a few left SRs allowed to join, no power sharing!
Dispersed Constituent Assembly in Jan 1918.
One party Communist state after Left SRs walked out in 1918.

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4
Q

When was the Cheka established?

A

December 1917

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5
Q

What were the main effects of the Civil War?

A

Centralisation- eg. War Communism.
Loss of support for ‘self determination’ and independence movements eg. Georgia.
Church attacked, censorship and Secret Police

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6
Q

What was Lenin’s final message?
What did it say about Stalin?
Significance?

A

‘Testament’ criticised Stalin (Georgia and insulted Lenin’s wife) as rude. Suggested should be removed. CC decided to repress it in 1924.

‘Personal rudeness, unnecessary roughness and lack of finesse’ and suggested ‘comrades should think about a way of removing Stalin from
his post’

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7
Q

Who was in the leadership race?

A

Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin and Stalin

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8
Q

How did Stalin defeat Trotsky?

A

Joined ‘triumvirate’ alliance with Kamenev and Zinoviev
Gave wrong date for Lenin’s funeral
Forced Trotsky out of CoWar
Accused of factionalism with the United Opposition and removed from Communist Party in Nov 1926.
Deported in 1928.

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9
Q

How did Stalin defeat Kamenev and Zinoviev?

A

Trotsky published ‘Lessons of October’ showing how they opposed Lenin in 1925.
Stalin supports Bukharin in 14th Party Congress claiming similar economic views. Their vote of no confidence fails.
United Opposition fails and accused of factionalism in Nov 1926.

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10
Q

How did Stalin defeat Bukharin?

A

He supported Bukharin between 1926-28, then announces left leaning economic strategy to gain ex-Trotsky supporters.
Bukharin removed as Pravda editor in Apr 1929
Removed from Politburo in Nov

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11
Q

Who was Leningrad boss in the leadership contest?

A

Zinoviev

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12
Q

Who was Moscow boss in the leadership contest?

A

Kamenev

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13
Q

Who wanted left policies in the power struggle and what did they want?

A

Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev wanted to abandon NEP

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14
Q

Who wanted right policies in the power struggle and what did they want?

A

Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky supported NEP.

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15
Q

What did Trotsky want in terms of spreading socialism?
What did Stalin want?

A

Trotsky- ‘permanent revolution’ until true socialist society achieved.
Stalin- ‘socialism in one country’, make Russia a ‘workers paradise’ as example to world.

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16
Q

What did the 1918 Constitution introduce?
What were the limitations?

A

RSFSR, with All-Russian Congress of Soviets responsible for electing Sovnarkom.
Vote did not include ‘exploiting classes’ (eg. businessmen, tsarist officials, clergy)
Workers vote 5:1 peasant vote
Sovnarkom chosen by CC in reality
Congress only met at intervals.

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17
Q

When was the Russian Civil War?
Who backed the Whites and why?

A

1918-1920, then 1921 in Poland.
The Whites backed by Britain France and USA. Ideology, war and borrowed money not repaid.

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18
Q

How many died during the Civil War and from what?

A

10 million (hunger, epidemics, fighting)

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19
Q

Why did the Red Army win the civil war?

A

Geography (Moscow and Petrograd, arms factories, railway networks)
Unity (Whites had different objectives)
Trotsky’s leadership and good discipline.
Support (land policies won over some peasants compared to Tsarist)
Propaganda platform due to foreign involvement. Foreign help not extensive and withdrawn after peace in West.

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20
Q

What was the result of nationalist struggle in Poland in 1921?

A

Treaty of Riga granted Poland self rule. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania independent.

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21
Q

How was centralisation increased with the Civil War?

A

Politburo in 1919, Sovnarkom met less in 1920s. Only Party members elected to local soviets. 1921 ban on factions made criticism difficult.
1924 nomenklatura system introduced obedient party elite.

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22
Q

What was the party elite called and when was it introduced?
What was above these elite and who chose the candidates?

A

Nomeklatura 1923
The apparatchiki were chosen by the GS, Stalin.

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23
Q

With regards to the political system, what did Lenin refer to?

A

democratic centralism

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24
Q

List the Soviet government structure

A

Sovnarkom
CC of Soviets
Congress of Soviets
Provincial and city soviets
Local and district soviets

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25
Q

List the Communist Party Structure

A

Politburo
CC
Congress
Provincial and city parties
Local and district parties

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26
Q

What was the Soviet government’s purpose compared to the Communist Party structure?

A

Soviet government: issue orders and decrees
Communist Party: decide party policy

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27
Q

What did the 1922 Constitution introduce?
What were the limitations?

A

USSR established in Dec 1922 replacing RSFSR.
The Governments of Republics were regarded as regional branches of Sovnarkom and could be subject to central control.

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28
Q

What increased Party membership in 1924-25?
Membership …..

A

Lenin enrollment
Membership doubled.

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29
Q

What did the 1936 Constitution introduce?
What were the limitations?

A

Stalin claimed ‘most democratic in the world’. All Russian Congress of Soviets replaced by Supreme Soviet (Soviet of Union and Soviet of Nationalities). Support for national cultures, languages and autonomy. 4 yearly elections for all over 18 including ‘former people’. Civil rights, free speech.
Designed to impress foreigners, supreme soviet only met for a few days a year.

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30
Q

Evidence that 1936 constitution was not followed?

A

Although constitution acknowledged right of any union republic to leave, Party leaders in Georgia were purged after planning secession in 1951.

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31
Q

What became the main historical textbook for education institutions in 1938?
How many copies sold by 1948?

A

The Short Course
Stalin major role in October, Trotsky and old Bolsheviks ‘enemies of people’
34 m

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32
Q

Stalin could be described as ‘….’

A

The Red Tsar

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33
Q

What organisation was established to control the economy under state capitalism?
When was it established?

A

Veshenka (Council of National Economy)
December 1917

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34
Q

What were the effects of state capitalism?
What made it worse?

A

Workers failed to organise effective factories and output shrank.
High inflation, more money than goods, and food shortages due to peasants hoarding.
Treaty of Brest Litovsk meant loss of Ukraine

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35
Q

What were bread rations in Petrograd by Feb 1918?

A

50g a day

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36
Q

What did war communism involve?
When was it used?

A

Between 1918-21, food requisitioning, encouraged collective farming, kulaks ‘enemies of the people’.
Food supplies policy in May 1918 meant soldiers and workers took grain by force.
Nationalisation of banks, power, Putilov Iron Works. Ration card workbooks not wages. Private trade and manufacture forbidden.

37
Q

What were the economic effects of war communism?

A

By 1921, industrial output 20% of pre war levels.
Acute food shortages, 1921 harvest 48% of 1913 harvest.

38
Q

What resistance was there to war communism?

A

Peasant revolts, especially Tambov. 100,000 troops dealt with troubles.
Krondstadt manifesto in March 1921 demanded end of one party rule (30,000 soldiers). Red Army shot leaders and took 15,000 prisoners.

39
Q

When was gosplan established and what was it in charge of?

A

Feb 1921
Central planning

40
Q

What did NEP involve?

A

State control of transport, banking, heavy industry, coal and steel but private ownership of small businesses allowed and private trade! End of grain requisitioning and rationing. Peasants taxed in grain but allowed to sell surplus.

41
Q

What and when was the scissor crisis?
How did Lenin deal with it?

A

1923, huge increase in grain supply brought down food prices in towns but a lack of industrial goods caused peasants to hold back supplies.
Capped industrial prices, replaced quotas with money taxes in 1923 to force them to sell.

42
Q

Evidence for positive impact of NEP?

A

By 1926, production levels of 1913 reached, some trade agreements with Britain and Germany. Kulaks re-emerged and NEPmen accumulated private wealth.

43
Q

When was the First Five Year Plan?
What was its aims?
What did it achieve?

A

1928-32
Increase production by 300%, develop heavy industry, boost electricity output by 600%, double light industry output.
No major targets met. Dneiper Dam finished 1932. Electricity x3, coal and iron x2, steel up by 1/3. Magnitogorsk 1929.
Consumer industries neglected.

44
Q

In the First Five Year Plan:
-Electricity ….
-Coal and iron ….
Steel production …
-Magnitogorsk built ….
-Dnieper Dam built ….

A

Electricity x3
Coal and iron x2
Steel production up by 1/3
Magnitogorsk 1929
Dnieper Dam 1932

45
Q

When was the Second Five Year Plan?
What was its aims?
What did it achieve?

A

1933-37
Continue heavy and light industries, boost engineering and tool making.
‘Three good years’ 1934-36. Moscow Metro 1935, White Sea Baltic Canal 1933, Volga Canal 1936. Steel output x3, coal x2. Focus on rearmament 1936.

46
Q

In the Second Five Year Plan:
- …. opened in 1935
- …. built in 1933
- Steel output …
- Coal ….

A

Moscow Metro 1935
White Sea Baltic Canal 1933
Steel x3
Coal x2

47
Q

When was the Third Five Year Plan?
What was its aims?
What did it achieve?

A

1938-43
Heavy industry, rapid armament, communist transition
Spending on arms x2 between 1938-40. Fuel crisis slowed steel and oil. Consumer goods not prioritised. Purges meant lack of good managers and specialists. War in 1941 ended it early.

48
Q

In the Third Five Year Plan:
- …. slowed steel and oil
- …. were not prioritised
- Spending on arms ….

A

Fuel crisis
Consumer goods
Arms spending doubled

49
Q

Failure to meet targets meant managers could be accused of what?

A

Wrecking (sabotage)

50
Q

When did rationing in cities restart and what method was used to procure grain?

A

1928
Ural-Siberian method.

51
Q

When was the first stage of collectivisation?
What was the main aim?

A

1929-30
Dekulakisation, ‘annihilate the kulaks as a class’

52
Q

What were the two types of collective farms?

A

Kolkhoz: peasant families, paid in profits and product, allowed some private land
Sovkhoz: State farms with employed salaried workers

53
Q

What percentage of kulaks were collectivised by 1930?
What did this drop to and why?

A

58%
20% after voluntary collectivisation temporarily reinstalled

54
Q

How did Stalin describe Party members after the first stage of collectivisation?

A

‘Dizzy with success’
Blamed over eager officials for hostility

55
Q

When was the 2nd stage of collectivisation?
What was the main achievement?

A

1930-41
2500 MTS established
100% peasants collectivised by 1941

56
Q

Problems with the second stage of collectivisation?

A

Dekulakisation removed 10m of most successful farmers
25-30% pigs, cattle and sheep slaughtered 1929-33
Worst famine in Russian history in Ukraine 1932-33

57
Q

Which law was a response to the 1932-33 famine?

A

Three Stalks Law, jail for 10 years (later capital punishment)

58
Q

List the stages of the Russian economy between 1917-41

A

State capitalism 1917-18
War communism 1918-21
NEP 1921-28
Central Planning with 5 Yr plans and collectivisation 1929-41

59
Q

What were class enemies called?
What restrictions did they have?

A

burzhui
Former nobility or bourgeoisie not able to work and had houses requisitioned (turned into kommunalka), poor rations

60
Q

What was the effect of collectivisation on the workforces in cities?

A

Urban labour force doubled by 1932

61
Q

What improved workers lives from 1931?

A

Wage differentials, bonuses and better housing to reward skills. They could choose their place of work.

62
Q

What movement was heavily endorsed in propaganda to try and encourage workers?

A

Stakhanovite movement from 1935 (14x coal)

63
Q

What early policies on women were progressive?

A

Nov 1917, decrees against sex discrimination and women had right to own property.
Abortion legalised in 1920 and free contraceptive advice.

64
Q

What policies on women were introduced under Stalin?

A

Family became focus after population fall.
1936: large fees to deter divorce, adultery criminalised, contraception banned, financial incentives for large families.

65
Q

What percentage of the workforce were women by 1940?
How much did they earn compared to men?

A

43% workforce women by 1940.
Women earned 40% less than men.

66
Q

What liberal trends in education were introduced in the 1920s?
What was reversed under Stalin?

A

Gimnazii abolished, abolished textbooks and exams and physical punishment.
Under Stalin, unis under control of veshenka, quota system stopped in 1935 (selection instead). Nationalism promoted including military training.

67
Q

By 1941, …. in towns literate and …. in countryside.

A

By 1941, 94% in towns literate and 86% in countryside.

68
Q

What youth organisation was founded in 1918?
What did it become later on and what percentage had joined?
When did it become directly affiliated with the Party?

A

Russian Young Communist League (RKSM).
Komsomol in 1926, only 6% joined.
1939

69
Q

How did Marx describe religion?

A

‘opium of the people’

70
Q

What was Lenin’s policy on religion?

A

Freedom of religion BUT church land seized in 1917, schools taken over by state. Official separation of church and state in 1918, religion in schools banned in 1921.
Priests died in war communism due to lack of rations.
Tikhon arrested in 1922 and Sergius spent first 2 years in office in jail.

71
Q

By 1941, how many churches and mosques had closed?
What percentage were still believers?

A

40,000 churches and 25,000 mosques
57% believers

72
Q

Under Lenin, how were national minorities treated?

A

Self determination in Nov 1917 decree, Finland independent and rada in Ukraine.
All major nationalities had representation within the Party. In 1926, special homeland for Jews. Literacy campaigns and abolition of antisemitic laws in 1917.

73
Q

What evidences a lack of tolerance of national minorities by Stalin?

A

1938, learning Russian compulsory in Soviet schools and only language in the Red Army.
Deportations of non-Russians in 30s

74
Q

The 1920s was the …. of Russian literature and poetry.

A

Silver age

75
Q

Under Stalin, art had to be ….. and from 1932, all writers had to belong to the ….

A

Social realism (what socialism might become)
Union of Soviet Writers

76
Q

Who had their opera attacked by pravda?
Other interesting thing?

A

Shostakovich in 1936
Theatre director who defended him was tortured by NKVD and shot, his wife was stabbed to death.

77
Q

What were the stages of the purges?

A

Red Terror, 1918-21
Crisis of 1932, ‘Old Bolsheviks’ and ‘Riyutin Platform’
Kirov Affair 1934
Great Purges, 1936-38 (show trials and army)
Yezhovshchina, 1937-38 (citizens)
End of the purges (Yezhov replaced and shot, Trotsky murdered)

78
Q

Who was head of Cheka in Dec 1917?
Now list the variations of the Cheka to 1943.

A

Dzhehinsky
1922, GPU
1923, OGPU
1934-43, NKVD

79
Q

What powers did the cheka gain in September 1918?

A

Authority to find, question, arrest and destroy families of suspected traitors.

80
Q

What happened on the 17th July 1918?

A

The Tsar and his family were shot.

81
Q

How many shot between 1918-21?

A

500,000 to a million shot.

82
Q

Which show trial evidences Stalin’s tactic of scapegoating own economic policies?

A

Shakhty show trial in 1928

83
Q

Who murdered Kirov and when?
What did it mean?

A

Nikolayev in 1934 under suspicious circumstances.
Decree allowing Yagoda powers to arrest and execute anyone guilty of ‘terrorist plotting’, 6500 arrested. One day after death!

84
Q

When was the first major show trial of the Great Purges?
Who did it involve?
Result?

A

Aug 1936, Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others. All executed.
Yagoda replaced Yezhov as NKVD chief.

85
Q

When was the second major show trial of the Great Purges?
Who did it involve?
Result?

A

Jan 1937, included Radek. 13 died. Bukharin arrested

86
Q

In May-June 1937, how did Stalin purge the army?

A

8 commanders of army including Takachevsky arrested, tortured, signed false confessions, tried in secret and shot.
Of High Command, 512 executed, 13 suicide and 59 in jail of original 767.

87
Q

When was the third major show trial of the Great Purges?
Who did it involve?
Result?

A

March 1938, Bukharin, Rykov, Yagoda and 13 others shot.

88
Q

What were the purges between 1937-38 nicknamed?
How many were on an arrest list issued in 1937?
What percentage of the CC of the 17th Party Congress had been shot by this point?

A

Yezhovshchina
250,000
70%

89
Q

When was Trotsky assassinated?

A

Feb 1940 by hired assassins in Mexico

A Level History: Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855-1964 (7 decks)

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