Theme 1- Communist Government In The USSR

Question 1

What was Russia like prior to the Bolshevik revolution

Answer 1

• Russia was led by the Tsars- tsar Nicholas 2nd 1894-1917 was a repressive leader and repression was widely spread- the vast majority of tsars subjects were largely impoverished and had no political rights
  EXAMPLE: hundreds of miners who protested for higher wages were brutally massacred in 1912
• The government was strong however economy was weak with little modernisation
  EXAMPLE:1913- only 2.4 million people worked in large factories
• political repression which led to many oppositions planning to overthrow tsars

Question 2

How did WW1 look like for Russia

Answer 2

-Russia’s economy was incapable of providing the food and resources necessary to fight the war.

• by early 1917, economic chaos, military defeat and political mismanagement led to the February revolution which overthrew the tsar and set up a provisional government.

Question 3

What did the provisional government set out and promise and what did Lenin do?

Answer 3

-to have a liberal system with freedom of speech, assembly, expression and religion
- promised there will be a democratic election to form a new government

• Lenin returned from exile, demanded an end to the first world war and redistribution of land to peasants and these demands were summarised into ‘peace land and bread’
  -by the October revolution, Lenin and the bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government, Lenin and Trotsky built a coup d’etat which allowed bolsheviks to take power

Question 4

What was the Marxist view of history, his 4 stages of history and how he contradicted himself?

Answer 4

• argued that workers should rise up and destroy capitalism in a revolution

4 stages of history
-primitive communism: simple society where humans hunt and gather
-classical slavery: ancient society divided into masters and slaves
-feudalism:society controlled by noble families
-Capitalism: after Industrial Revolution, proletariat powerless to owners due to poverty.

• Marx contradicted himself as he argues that revolutionary government would be more democratic but also famously wrote about the dictatorship of the proletariat

Question 5

What was the sovnarkom

Answer 5

The new Russian cabinet as the ‘all Russian congress’ was too big to meet regularly.

-consisted of 13 people’s commissars and Lenin was elected chairman

Question 6

What were Lenin’s 1917-18 decrees and how did it help him establish control

Answer 6

-decree on land oct 1917: gave peasants right to seize land from nobility and church
-decree of peace oct 1917: gov withdrew from ww1 and sought peace
-workers’ decree nov 1917: established 8 hour max working day and minimum wage
-the decree of workers’ control: allowed workers to elect committees to run factories

Establishing control
1. Decrees were popular
2. Ending ww1gave revolution ‘breathing space’ to rebuild economy and start constructing new gov

Question 7

How democratic was Russia in 1918

Answer 7

Lenin and the bolsheviks claimed the new government was very democratic and argued the state was based on committees who participated in gov on a day to day basis.
- first decrees were genuinely popular and reflected what the majority of the workers peasants and soldiers wanted
-Russia was not yet a one party state- it had factions such as Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries

Question 8

What was the constituent assembly

Answer 8

In January 1918, there was a clear indication that Lenin was turning against democracy- specifically Lenin refused to recognise the results if a nationwide election held in nov 1917. This election created the constituent assembly

-it had a Bolshevik minority and met for the first time in January 1918. Lenin closed it after only one day claiming it posed a threat to the power of the Soviets

Question 9

What was the Brest-litovsk treaty of 1918

Answer 9

Gave away significant proportion of Russian territory to the central powers in order to end Russia’s involvement in the First World War. This was extremely unpopular so the Bolsheviks lost the election in April and may 1918. In order to retain power Lenin refused to recognise the results of the elections arguing they were unfair and kicked out socialist revolutionaries and Mensheviks from the party.

Question 10

What was the effect of the Russian civil war on Russia

Answer 10

-Allowed Lenin to establish control over the whole of Russia
-led to the creation of a party state and state became more authoritarian and centralised
- serious opposition faced by government- battle between reactionary whites and communist reds
-senior members of Russian army wanted to reestablish tsarist rule while others wanted either a military dictatorship or democratic system like western countries
-Mensheviks and SRs wanted a democratic system whereas anarchists wanted to abolish government altogether
-first sign of military conflict- jan 1918-general kornilov organised anti Bolshevik party in don reigon, SR and liberals set up rival gov in Siberia

Question 11

In what two ways did government change due to the civil war?

Answer 11

-Lenin’s gov became increasingly centralised
-communist party became increasingly powerful

Question 12

What was Lenin’s prime method of winning the civil war and how did he do this

Answer 12

Centralised power
- centralised economy with war communism
- relied on political centralisation - working through party nomenklatura instead of democratic soviets & used terror to suppress opposition
- Trotsky made red army more authoritarian by introducing conscription, harsh punishments and relying on former tsarist generals to rule army

Question 13

How was there an emergence of a party state

Answer 13

-civil war meant gov had to act quickly so Lenin used politburo instead of sovnarkom as it was smaller and therefore could reach decisions faster- it also contained his most loyal supporters- Stalin, Trotsky, zinoviev, kamenev
-by 1920 politburo became government of Russia, sovnarkom played much smaller role. Rise of politburo made it evident that the new gov was based on communist party rather than Soviet
-soviets were often bypassed in favour of communist nomenklatura
By 1921- gov was based on two structured- soviet state and communist party

Question 14

What was the red terror and what was the role of Cheka during this

Answer 14

-1917- Cheka was created - political police force
- during civil war chekists were responsible for raiding anarchist organisations, closing down opposition newspapers, expelling Mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries from Soviets
- Cheka was willing to imprison, torture or execute anyone who the communist party viewed as a threat.
-women captured by Cheka were routinely raped

Lenin argued the civil war and terror were necessary to protect new gov from its enemies

Question 15

How’s was the red army built

Answer 15

Lenin reformed the army as from the February revolution it was democratised: soldiers’ committees were empowered to elect senior officials.
Lenin abolished this and put Trotsky and tsarist generals in charge which created outrage among idealists in the party who accused Lenin and Trotsky of betraying the principles of the revolution

Question 16

What was the extent of popular unrest after the Russian civil war

Answer 16

-civil war ruined economy, droughts in 1920&21 made situation worse, threatening famine.
-Tambov rebellion led by antonov - peasants rebelling against communist grain requisitioning and Cheka brutality-antonov’s army had a force of 50,000 anti communist fighters by jan 1921
-Kronstadt rebellion- soldiers demanding reform including: immediate free and fair election of new soviets, release of all political prisoners, restoration of freedom of speech and press, abolition of Cheka and end to war communism

Question 17

How did Lenin respond to political unrest

Answer 17

Suppressing opposition political parties which led to the creation of a one party state.
-feb 1921 Lenin authorised Cheka destroying opposition parties and by the end of feb all Mensheviks in Petrograd and Moscow were arrested and sent to prison
-22 leading SRs were put on trial and either sent to prison or executed

Question 18

What did Lenin do in the 1921 party congress

Answer 18

Set up series of reforms
- NEP liberalised economy
- ban on factions tightened his political control

Question 19

Who did Lenin face opposition from within the Bolshevik party and what was his resolution

Answer 19

-the workers opposition- group who wanted to reintroduce workers’ control of industry
-democratic centralists- group who wanted to make communist party more democratic

Resolution- ‘on party unity’- banned factions inside party and those guilty could be expelled from party as punishment

Question 20

In what four ways did Stalin transform the government

Answer 20

-established ideological orthodoxy
-destroyed authority of other main contenders
-changed nature of party membership
-created patronage system

Question 21

Who were the key contenders for power after Lenin’s death and how did they prove to be a true Leninist

Answer 21

Gregory zinoviev
-Lenin’s closest friend- so close his handwriting became identical to that of Lenin’s
-supported Lenin since 1903, 1903-17 was Lenin’s right hand man

Nikolai bukharin
-Lenin and bukharin had a father son relationship
-joined Bolsheviks in 1906 and Lenin entrusted him with series of important jobs

Trotsky
-well known revolutionary hero- Lenin’s right hand man and closest political collaborator
-many communists think he joined to gain power as he opposed Lenin until 1917

Stalin
-joined in 1903 and was loyal until 1921 however began to be disloyal in 1922 when Lenin was too ill to fight back
-Lenin entrusted Stalin with important administrative tasks and supported his promotion to the position of general secretary in 1921

Question 22

How did Stalin transform the party through ideological orthodoxy

Answer 22

-socialism in one country: 1924 Stalin and bukharin advocated idea that Soviet Union should construct socialism although traditionally Marxists said it could only be done through a global revolution
-Collectivisation and industrialisation: 1928 Stalin abandoned nep and argued the correct Leninist would abandon it and introduce a more radical policy. He argued bukharin desire to continue with nep indicated he was not a true Leninist

Question 23

How did Stalin transform the party through authority at the top of the party

Answer 23

Under Lenin many people had authority within the party. Stalin wanted to become the undisputed leader so he destroyed the authority of his opponents. He undermined their authority by
1. Establishing a new ideological orthodoxy and branding his opponents enemies of Leninism
2. Demanding that Trotsky zinoviev and kamenev apologise to party for the errors when they lost vote at party congress
3. Accusing bukharin, zinoviev and kamenev of plotting against party and forming a faction

Question 24

How did Stalin transform the party through party membership

Answer 24

He increased party membership
1. 1924 Stalin initiated Lenin enrolment which allowed 128k to join the communist party and justified this by arguing the party needed more working class people
However in practice the new members were poorly educated who wanted well paying jobs in the party
- the new recruits were less interested in ideas or the goals of the revolution and more interested with their careers

Question 25

How did Stalin transform the party through creating a patronage system

Answer 25

1923- Stalin issued an approved list: rather than having free choice, local parties were encouraged to sent delegates to the party congress from the approved list.
-Stalin also had a number of positions in the party allowing him to win support by acting as a patron for example as general secretary he could give well paid all powerful jobs to lower ranking party members and equally as head of central control committee and as rabkrin he had the power to investigate and if necessary sack party members and government officials

Question 26

What was Stalin concerned about

Answer 26

1. That his own supporters were prepared to challenge his authority
2. His old rivals could conspire against him and overthrow him

Question 27

What were the 4 causes of the purges.

Answer 27

Opposition
Economic problems
Congress of victors
Kirov’s murder

Question 28

How was opposition one of the causes of the purges

Answer 28

By1932 there was a group of moderates in the politburo associated with Kirov and they were able to force some policies in the early 1930s:
- in 1932 Kirov defended ryutin as he has circulated a document highly critical of stalins policies and formed an opposition group and Stalin demanded his execution however Kirov argued successfully that he should be just sent to prison
-1933 Kirov and moderates argued for more realistic targets in the second 5 year plan and for greater emphasis on production of consumer goods

Question 29

How were economic problems one of the causes of the purges

Answer 29

-senior figures within government were aware of the problems with Stalin’s industrial and agricultural policies which undermined stalins authority in government
-by accusing workers of being spies and saboteurs Stalin could blame them for the problems rather than accepting the responsibility for the failure of his policies
-Stalin sent spies and saboteurs to gulags

Question 30

How were the congress of victors a cause of the purge

Answer 30

-Stalin came second to Kirov in the vote at the end of the congress which elected the new central committee. 1225-927
-senior members encouraged Kirov to stand against Stalin as general secretary- Kirov refused and vote was kept secret

Question 31

How was kirovs murder a cause of the purges

Answer 31

It was a useful pretext for launching the terror, Kirov was murdered in 1934. Some historians believe Stalin ordered the attack but conclusive proof has never been found. The murder removed stalins main rival. The murder allowed Stalin to claim that there was a dangerous conspiracy that aimed to overthrow the government which gave him a reason to arrest his rivals

Question 32

What were the show trials and what years

Answer 32

Removed Stalins rivals
1. 1936- execution of zinoviev, kamenev and 14 of their supporters
2. 1937- execution and imprisonment of 17 of trotsky’s former supporters
3.1938- execution of bukharin and many of his closest supporters

Question 33

What were the secret trials

Answer 33

Trial of red army leaders
1937- eight senior generals were tried for plotting to overthrow government. These 8 people had worked with trotsky

Following trial 37,000 officers were purged from army

Question 34

What were the consequences of the great terror (5)

Answer 34

-eliminated Stalins rivals from the 1920s
-led to death or imprisonment of a who,e generation of communists who had worked and known Lenin so in this sense it removed all party members who could claim authority that was independent from Stalin
-led to emergence of new generation of communist party leaders who all owed their positions to Stalin and were therefore loyal
-established principle that Stalin had right to use terror against anyone disloyal
-Stalins political police NKVD became a powerful organisation within the regime

Question 35

What was the party and state’s relationship

Answer 35

-Stalin inherited the communist party and soviet state from Lenin. Although Lenin created both, he failed to define the relationship between the two organisations.
-Stalin used the vagueness of the relationship between the party and the state to his advantage

Question 36

In what 4 ways did Stalin promote effective government during ww2

Answer 36

-he ended mass terror- during war Stalin allowed state and party officials to continue working in order to ensure that gov could run more smoothly
-allowed state power to grow- during war, shift in power from party to state so instead of party bosses, state ministers made decisions
-changed composition of politburo- as power of state grew, ministers joined politburo and members were given important ministerial jobs meaning politburo increasingly coordinated state activity as well as party activity
-created state defence committee- GKO was responsible for economic coordination, military production and defence during the war

Question 37

How was there competition between the party and state

Answer 37

-following the war, Stalin used the party state relationship to his advantage by encouraging competition between the two organisations- 1st he did this by appointing rival personnel to keep positions in the party and stay for example he placed beria’s key rival in charge of party supervision of beria’s political police-encouraging competition between party and the officials that senior officials in circuit government competed with each other and not with Stalin
-Secondly Stalin shifted power from party to state and back again in 1938 the politburo was the most senior committee government by 1942 it was GKO and after the war Council of ministers was the most powerful
-

Question 38

What was the leningrad affair 1949

Answer 38

-During 1949 Stalin launched a purge against the leningrad party as he was concerned that leningrad was developing a degree of independence from his power base in Moscow. Around 100 officials were shot and 2000 arrested and dismissed.
- leningrad affair may also have been a part of the struggle to replace Stalin that emerged in the late 1940s

Question 39

How did Stalin test the loyalty of his closest allies?

Answer 39

-Imprison or sack the wives and daughters of senior figures in government- for example Molotov was one of Stalin‘s closest allies and had been a member of the politburo since 1926, in 1948 Stalin demanded that the politburo vote to expel his wife from the party and he abstain from the vote and later apologise to Stalin for his disloyalty. In 1949 Stalin had his wife arrested and imprisoned and having learned from his mistake he made no effort to stop the arrest.

Question 40

Who were the three main contenders for power after Stalin‘s death?

Answer 40

Malenkov, Beria, Khrushchev

Question 41

Why did Stalin successor face a problem and what did they do about it?

Answer 41

-on his death, there was a power vacuum which threatened to cause chaos within the government
-Stalin’s power had been based on his personal prestige and terror and his successor needed to shift the balance of power away from the leader and back towards the state

Question 42

What reforms did beria make? 4

Answer 42

-He introduced an amnesty for non-political prisoners serving short sentences
-A party commission set up in 1953 to investigate pot executions and it rehabilitated 4620 communists who had been executed on the basis of forced confessions
-The MVD lost a great deal of its economic powers when Gulag labour was stopped as the MVD had used Gulag labour to construct factories and power stations
-He ordered that all official publications should be available in the language of the republic as well as Russian

Question 43

Why was BERIA arrested?

Answer 43

-His reforms had significantly weakened the MVD
-rivals fed that he would use the secret police to terrorist and eventually execute them
-krushchev accused him of handing Soviet secrets to the British government and of crimes against the Soviet people

Question 44

What did krushchev reform first?

Answer 44

-used his position as secretary of central committee to replace senior officials throughout the party
-Between 1953 and 56 he replaced around half of the regional party secretaries and 44% of the central committee allowing him to secure his position with people who are prepared to back his reforms

Question 45

What was Krushchev’s second initiative?

Answer 45

-designed to weaken the state
-Proposed curling bureaucracy by evolving power from the Soviet government to Republican government which was a direct attack on MALENKOV‘ S powerbase
-Proportional survey industry was controlled by central government dropped from 68% of 44%

Question 46

What were the key features of de Stalinisation?

Answer 46

-The secret speech focused on ending the cult of Stalin-he argued that Stalin had placed himself above the party and rubbed the party of its leading role and claimed that he committed enormous crimes, particularly during the terror
-Ending the terror-by 1961 1/2 of those executed by Stalin had been rehabilitated

Question 47

What did krushchev criticise during his secret speech?

Answer 47

Several key aspects of Stalin‘s leadership
-Cult of personality- krushchev condemned the cult of personality that surrounded Stalin arguing that it led to an environment where dissent was suppressed and decisions were based on Stalin’s whims rather than collective leadership
-Repression and terror-highlighted the extensive political repression on the Stalin, including the great purge which resulted in the execution and imprisonment of millions of innocent people
-economic mismanagement-criticise the economic policies implemented during Stalin resume claiming that they were inefficient and lead to significant problems in production and distribution

Question 48

What happened during the secret speech?

Answer 48

Some accounts indicate that some delegates were so horrified that they had heart attacks during the speech and others took their own life after learning the true scale of Stalin‘s crimes

Question 49

How many political prisoners were released after the secret speech?

Answer 49

In June 1956, 51,439 prisoners including 26,155 political prisoners were released

Question 50

Why did radical de Stalinisation end by the end of 1957?

Answer 50

-regional communist parties had begun their own process of de Stalinisation which led to a revolution in Hungary
-Moderate accused krushchev of moving too fast and causing instability

Question 51

How much did membership increase under krushchev’s democratic reforms

Answer 51

-In 1954 it was 6.9 million and by 1964 it was 11 million

Question 52

In order to democratic the party, what did krushchev introduce?

Answer 52

-fixed terms for senior communists to ensure that they were replaced regularly
-2/3 of regional secretaries and the presidium were replaced between 1957 and 1961

Question 53

In order to decentralise the party, what did krushchev do?

Answer 53

-He abolished some of the central ministries that over saw the economy and devolved power to 105 newly created economic councils

Question 54

What did krushchev reforms mean?

Answer 54

-Many communist officials were demoted lost their jobs or were forced to move away from Moscow
-Consequently there was renewed criticism of krushchev within the party

Question 55

Why was the attempted coup of 1957 significant for the evolution of Soviet government?

Answer 55

-demonstrated that senior communist would no longer use political terror against each other
-Recognise that the power of the party leader depended on the support of the central committee which krushchev had majority support of

Question 56

What was introduced krushchev’s final major political reforms

Answer 56

The 22nd party Congress of October 1961

Question 57

What was the main focus of the Congress?

Answer 57

-Economic
-But he also used it to restart the process of de Stalinisation which he accused Stalin of being involved in kirov’s murder

Question 58

What was the extent of de Stalinisation?

Answer 58

-krushchev ended executions or torture against party officials
-He ended Stalin’s system of personal role and the party gained new authority
-However the government never publicly rejected Stalin’s legacy
-Brezhnev authorised articles celebrating Stalin on important anniversaries between 1964 and 1982

Question 59

What were the goals methods and outcome of krushchev’s reforms

Answer 59

Goal-end mass terror, fulfill Lenin’s mission and rebuild the party
Methods-de-Stalinisation, democratisation and party reform
Outcome -instability

Question 60

What did Brezhnev and Kosygin do together?

Answer 60

-Ensured that the top two jobs in government were not occupied by the same person in order to stop the emergence of an all powerful leader
-divided key posts in government roughly equally between supporters of them both
-ensured that the party and state officials kept their jobs for long periods of time to limit opportunities for patronage

Question 61

How did Brezhnev change over reverse krushchev’s reforms

Answer 61

-Centralisation-he reversed krushchev’s changes and took power away from the Republic
-The stability of cadres policy discouraging promotions or demotions in government and provided job security replaced krushchev’s unpopular policy of limited terms
-He ended the split between industrial and agricultural wings of the party
-Article 6 of the new 1977 Soviet Constitution established the superiority of party over the state

Question 62

How did gerontocracy make the government less effective?

Answer 62

-Caused it to become increasingly static
-In 1966, the average age of the politburo was 58 however by 1982 it was 75
-Senior officials were often ill and unable to do their jobs
-Stability of cadres policy meant there was no chance for promotion and there was no incentive to work hard
-Created a generation gap between government and society which made his government no longer understand the society the governed

Question 63

Why was there an increase in corruption?

Answer 63

Due to the lack of opportunities to advance
-Meant that Soviet officials who could not grow rich through hard work and promotion use their positions to grow rich knowing they were unlikely to be disciplined

Question 64

What were a few examples and forms of corruption?

Answer 64

-So good on the black market
-yury sokolov-the director of a major Moscow food store-took bribes from rich customers for passing on luxury food
-Brezhnev’s daughter was able to get access to diamonds and one of her lovers smuggled with millions of pounds worth of diamonds out of the, USSR

Question 65

What were the goals methods and outcome of Brezhnev’s reforms

Answer 65

Goal-get stability
Method -restoration and stability of cadres
Outcome -political stagnation, rise of gerontocracy and corruption

Question 66

What were features of the rule of Andropov and Chernenko

Answer 66

-Andropov abandoned the stability of cadres policy and replaced a quarter of senior officials
-Andropov’s most important initiative was an anti-corruption campaign
-Introduced more skill, economic reforms focusing on labour discipline
-Chernenko was too ill to play of a rule role so gorbachev lead meetings on his behalf

Question 67

What did Andropov’s anti-corruption campaign include?

Answer 67

-Attacked senior figures for example he prosecuted red army general and invested the daughter of Brezhnev’s lover ‘ Boris the gypsy’
-Included media exposes corruption officials

Question 68

What did Andropov and Chernenko prove about the government between 1982 and 1985?

Answer 68

Unable to revive the system