The Stalinist dictatorship and reaction 1941-64 Flashcards
What were Stalin’s failures at the start of the war?
Had been warned by military intelligence agents and the British government that German forces were building up at the border.
Stalin caused confusion when he disappeared to his dacha for 10 days. Left announcement of war to Molotov.
What was set up by the Politburo after the outbreak of war in June 1941?
The GKO (State Defence Committee exercised absolute authority over Party, state, military and economy)
From July 1941, who had authority over war?
Stalin, ‘supreme war leader’
When did the government relocate in the war, and where to?
In October 1941, as the Germans got dangerously close to Moscow the government was evacuated to Kuibyshev.
The Red Square Parade continued as usual.
Who defended Moscow and when?
What did he also do?
Zhukov in November 1941.
He also led troops to Berlin in 1945.
Who welcomed German soldiers?
What lost the Germans support?
Large numbers in national minority areas like Estonia, Latvia, Belorussia and Ukraine. Over 1m (250k cossacks).
Some fought in Russian Liberation Movement.
Nazi brutality lost support, policy to kill 75% and condemn rest to slavery.
What was the government’s response to Germany threatening Stalingrad?
How many died because of this?
July 1942, order 227 ‘Not One Step Backward’ any soldier that fell behind or tried to retreat were shot on sight.
150,000 sentenced to death.
Penal battalions for those who broke discipline. Casualty rates c50%.
Blocking units with machine guns added to NKVD units to prevent desertion or retreat.
Stalin’s response to national minorities in the war?
Dissolved Volga German autonomous republic, sent peoples to East.
Relied on deportation of ‘suspect’ ethnic groups including Crimean Tartars. 1.5m forced to uproot. Only 2/3 survived journey to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Siberia,
What changed in the military during the war?
What about Party support in the military?
Emphasis on political education of the troops, downgraded role of political commissars and brought back special badges of rank.
By 1945, 25% armed forces Communists and 20% were Komsomol members.
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% coal
63%
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% iron
68%
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% railways
45%
By the end of 1941, German territory contained ___% arable land.
41%
Which policy rendered much of farmland useless in war?
‘Scorched earth’ policy
What did Russia do industrially to help minimise damage at the start of the war?
Soviet factories and workers were transported from west Russia and Ukraine to areas in the East between July and November 1941.
What other measures were put in place to support the wartime economy?
5YP helped military production.
New railways built or redirected, linked industry to frontline.
People’s Commissars established to supervise each area of production.
Compulsory state orders allowed changes to take place in short time.
What was the national expenditure redistributed to by 1942?
What was achieved by 1943?
Military share went from 29% to 57%
Munitions manufacture was 76% all production.
By 1943, industrial output and weapon quality exceeded Germany.
What agriculture problems were there during the war?
What was relaxed?
Harvest of 1942 was a third of 1940.
Strict rationing and quotas on collective farms.
Peasants were allowed to keep private plots and sell produce.
What foreign help was given to help with the war?
How many millions of tonnes of military equipment, vehicles, food etc sent?
Which scheme helped?
Unknown to the Russian people:
-UK and USA supplied war materials (tyres, lorries and telephones), 17.5m tonnes.
-Lend Lease Scheme of 1941, 11bn dollars of aid from USA.
By the end of the war 2/3 vehicles came from overseas.
After the announcement of war, how many new recruits in Moscow?
120,000
What new law increased the workforce for the war?
Dec 1941, all undrafted workers mobilised for war work. All men aged 16-55 and women 16-45 devoted to war work.
White collar workers sent to munition factories, pensioners encouraged to return to work.
What measures were introduced during the war to increase production?
Overtime obligatory, holidays suspended, working day increased to 12hrs, avg working week 70-77hrs, normal for workers to sleep in factories.
Martial law in factories, unauthorised absence was classed as desertion punishable by death, severe punishment for negligence, lateness or absenteeism.
How was army discipline tightened during the war?
How many soldiers were killed between 1941-45?
Offence to be taken captive and soldier’s family military ration cards lost.
8.6m soldiers (avg. daily rate twice that of allies)
What proportion of USSR deaths in war were caused by starvation?
What helped a bit?
Over a quarter of the 25m USSR deaths.
Allies provided tinned spam, rations only given to those who turned up for work.
What did people in gulag camps help with regards to the war effort?
Death rate?
Airports, landing strips, roads, vital war supplies.
Death rate in 1942 was 25%
What was the propaganda angle for the war?
Any evidence?
‘Great Patriotic War’ connotations, people encouraged to sacrifice themselves for ‘Holy Mother Russia’.
Patriotic, violent letters in Pravda- ‘not say “good morning”… we must say “kill the Germans”’ quote. Socialist anthem replaced with nationalistic motherland song in 1943.
What happened to churches during the war years?
How did Stalin use them?
Limitations?
Churches reopened, Russian Patriarch restored, clergy released from camps.
Used as a morale boost by Stalin, services were patriotic gatherings and sermons praised Stalin.
The church had no real autonomy and all Christian denominations under control of Orthodox church, which was under control of the government.
What changes were there towards women in the war?
July 1944, measures to combat low birth rate and war deaths: taxes greater for <2 children, abortion forbidden, divorce restrictions tightened, inheriting property reintroduced, mothers of >2 children ‘heroines of the Soviet Union’
Womens workloads increased.
By 1945, what percentage of Soviet workers were female?
What about land workers?
How many were pilots, snipers etc.
50% Soviet workers
80% land workers
Over 500,000 in armed forces
What was the effect of the war on Stalin?
Reputation soared, national hero.
He was more paranoid: returning PoW sent straight from German labour camps to Soviet ones. Collaborationist Soviet citizens executed, cossacks virtually wiped out. Servicemen returning to USSR interrogated by NKVD in ‘filtration camps’ and ‘subversive views’ sent to gulags.
What was the effect of the war on the government?
War seen as triumph of Stalinist system, Stalin claimed it had ‘proved its unquestionable vitality’. Reputation as great military power.
Retained regions occupied under Nazi-Soviet Pact and took more, creating satellite states in eastern Europe.
How was the war portrayed by Stalin?
Anything changed?
Victory portrayed as victory for system, not the people. To Stalin, vindicated direct, coercive mobilisation with no intention of running USSR any differently. Retained Head of Government and Party Secretary and chose virtually same Politburo as in 1939.
How many civilians died in the war?
How many soldiers?
19m
9m
How many towns destroyed in the war?
How many villages?
How many kolkhozes?
1200 towns destroyed
70,000 villages destroyed
100,000 kolkhozes wasted
What influence was introduced that had not been possible in the isolationist 1920s and 30s?
Western influence. Lend Lease and Western allies disproved propaganda of drab and dismal West. Hollywood films, Western books, Western music (esp. jazz), Western goods in USSR, new restaurants and commercial shops.
What worried Stalin after the war?
What did he do to counter this?
Membership was up meaning that Party was unreliable, and the reputation of the Russian military was too high for his liking.
Dismantled GKO, downgraded military hierarchy, gave himself MoDefence, downgraded high ranking military officers (eg. Zhukov). Recruitment of party fell.
What new sort of Party Member was established?
Move from ‘old guard’ (people with personal Marxist commitment) to ‘new men’ who waited to receive party policy rather than formulate it.
Give an example of the messy manipulation that Stalin introduced
Malenkov lost position as Party Secretary, Zhadanov became Stalin’s closest advisor and launched Zhadanovschina.
Then Malenkov was reinstated as Party Secretary after Zhadanov favoured the Berlin Blockade of 1948.
How did Stalin reshuffle the government after the war?
What had not changed?
CC met in 1946 and elected new Secretariat, Politburo and Orgburo.
Stalin was still Head of Government and Head of Party.
What evidences the loss of Party authority under Stalin?
Party Congresses should have been held every 3 years, but were not held at all between 1939-52.There were only 6 meetings of the CC!
By 1952, there were nearly …. members of the Party and Komsomol had ….
Who did they recruit?
By 1952, there were nearly 7m members of the Party and Komsomol had 16m.
They recruited from industry again, rather than from agriculture.
How did Zhadanovschina start?
Two literary journals in Leningrad:
- The Adventures of a Monkey by Zhoshchenko because the monkey was considered anti-Soviet.
-Anna Akhmatova’s poetry was describes as ‘poisonous’.
The publishers were purged and the authors expelled from Union of Soviet Writers.
What did Zhadanovschina emphasise?
What became the norm again?
The conformity to socialist ideals and the cult of Stalin after the fear of Westernisation in the war years.
Socialist realism became the norm in literature, art music and film.
What was Shostakovich accused of during Zhadanovschina?
‘Rootless cosmopolitanism’
Which musician was criticised during Zhadanovschina?
Prokofiev criticised for ‘anti-socialist works’ and was forced to compose Stalinist pieces.
Whose books were removed from sale during Zhadanovschina and why?
Dostoevsky because the heroes ‘lacked socialist qualities’
What was encouraged during Zhadanovschina?
Anything that denigrated American commercialism, the treachery of the West or showed Soviet achievements/ praised Stalin.
What else was emphasised during Zhadanovschina?
Anti-Semitism, many Jewish drama and literary critics disappeared and the last Jewish newspaper was closed.
Who did Zhadanov restate support of and when?
1948, Zhadanov restated support for Lysenko whose ideas had been condemned by biologist before the war.
To what extent was Western influence blocked?
Completely! Non-Communist foreign papers were unobtainable, foreign radios were jammed and only a few ‘approved’ books were translated into Russian. Only pro-soviet writers could visit the USSR.
Why was there excessive isolation from the non-Soviet world?
What evidences this?
Concern over the Cold War and fears of ideological contamination.
Harsh treatment of returning PoW and a purge of foreign army officers.
What shows the climate of fear in the USSR?
What new law evidences this?
Within the USSR, a careless word or contact with a foreigner could land a person in the gulag.
February 1947, new law outlawing hotels and marriages to foreigners.
