Theme 1 - Key evidence

Question 1

Political problems faced by The Party Congress of 1921

Answer 1

-1920 Autumn - peasants rebelled in Tambov against War Comm and Cheka brutality
-Jan 1921 - 50,000 Tambov rebels fought CP
- 1921 Kronstadt sailors demanded ‘soviets without communists’. Govt responded by deporting 100,000 rebels to labour camps and attacking peasants in villages with poison gas.
-Early 1921 - strikes across cities, govt opened fire on unarmed workers in Petrograd.

Question 2

The Great Terror/Purge

Answer 2

-1935-38: 10m killed, 10% of population
-During Yezhovshchina: 1.5m arrested, 635k deported, 680k executed

Question 3

Early Decrees

Answer 3

-Decree on Land (Oct 1917): Peasants could seize land from nobility and church
-Decree on Peace (Oct 1917): Committed gov to withdraw from WW1
-Workers’ Decrees (Nov 1917): set 8 hour work day and minimum wage
-Decree on Workers Control (Apr 1918): allowed workers to elect committees to run factories
- First decrees were genuinely popular.

Question 4

Stalin’s Shifting Powerbases

Answer 4

-Shifting power between party and state meant noone could get powerful enough to rival Stalin
-Most powerful body was:
1938: Politburo
1942: State Defense Committee
1945: Sovnarkom

Question 5

The Leningrad Affair

Answer 5

-Leningrad party purged in 1949 as Beria wanted to remove rivals
-100 shot + 2000 arrested/dismissed

Question 6

Patronage System + Lenin Enrolement

Answer 6

• System was Stalin attempting to gain power and authority during the power struggle of 1924-8.
  -Stalin issued an approved list from 1923
  -5500 on list + 1/3 of list selected
  -Lenin enrolment brought in 128k new members loyal to Stalin in 1923

Question 7

The Show Trials + Secret Trials

Answer 7

-Trial of the 16 (1936): Zinoviev, Kamenev + 14 supporters executed
-Trial of the 17 (1937): former Trotsky imprisoned and executed
-Trial of the 21 (1938): Bukharin + close supporters executed
-37,000 Red Army officers purged in secret trials in 1937

Question 8

Destalinisation

Answer 8

-March-April 1953: amnesties for political prisoners
-May 1953: 4620 prisoners rehabilitated
-1953-56: replaced half of regional Party secretaries and 44% of Central Committee

Question 9

popular participation

Answer 9

-Membership grew 6.9m-11m (1954-64)
-1964: 60% of members peasants or workers

Question 10

Decentralisation (Khrushchev)

Answer 10

-Economic powers devolved to 105 new econ councils, tried to keep their own assets and minimise trade w/ others = unsuccessful.
- GOSPLAN abolished

Question 11

22nd Party Congress political reforms

Answer 11

-Oct 1961: divided party into industry and agriculture, introduced Fixed terms to party officials

Question 12

What did Stability of Cadres lead to?

Answer 12

-Led to gerontocracy
-1964-71: only 2 people promoted to Politburo
Average age rose from 56 in 1966 to 75 in 1982

Question 13

1a

Answer 13

• Sovnarkom = 13 people
• L claimed Russia was more democratic that Britain, USA, France where people only voted once every four or 5 years.
• Genuine support for Bolsheviks from workers i.e. first conference of female factory workers met 5 Nov 1917
• constituent assembly met in Jan 1918 closed a day after
• march 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Bolsheviks lost elections after
• Before the Civil war power only in Moscow and Petrograd also Lenin’s power was not absolute. Chief of staff in the Russian army refused a direct order from Lenin to stop fighting and begin peace negotiations.
• From 1920 politburo effectively became government
• 1921 gov based on 2 parallel structures: party and state.
• Cheka Dec 1917, e.g. in Ukraine church leaders impaled on spikes. Women captured were routinely raped (red terror).
• Kronstadt sailors wanted ‘soviets without communists’, rebellion suppressed by deporting 100,000 ppl to labour camps
• Feb 1921 Lenin authorised Cheka to eliminate all opposition parties i.e. 22 leading SR’s put on trial in 1922
• ‘on party unity’ 1921 ban on factions: workers opposition and democratic centralists.
• There was a new party elite. The Nomenklatura were dominated by the educated middle-class who had worked for the Tsarist administration. Communist officials had better to food, housing etc. Bureaucratic.
• people expected and wanted a socialist coaliation government not Lenin’s personal dictatorship.

Question 14

1b

Answer 14

• 1925 Bukharin and Stalin formed an alliance named Dummvirate.
• party members became known as ‘apparatchiks’ people who implemented orders instead of thinking creatively about politics.
• Stalin accused workers and managers of being ‘wreckers’ and ‘saboteurs’
• vote at end of congress which elected new central committee: stalin - 927 votes, Kirov - 1225
• 95% of those affected by terror were between 30 and 45 men who held senior positions in the party or important role in economy.
• trial of the red army leaders: following it more than 37,000 officers were purged from the army.
• 1941 Stalin became chair of the Sovnarkom
• 1948 Stalin demanded to remove Molotov’s wife from the party to test his loyalty.

Question 15

1c

Answer 15

• March 1953 K introduced an amnesty for non-political prisoners who were serving short sentences
• commission to investigate past executions rehabilitated 4620 communists who had been executed from forced confessions.
• Gulag population dropped from 2.4 million in 1953 to 1.6 million in 1956.
• June 1953 Beria’s introduction of measures designed to make republican governments more representative.
• between 1953 and 1956 K replaced around half of regional party secretaries and 44% of the central committee
• proportion of soviet industry controlled by central government dropped from 68-44%
• may 1954 special commission to review cases of political prisoners in gualgs june 1956 51439 prionsers released.
• article 6 1977 ‘brezhnev constitution’ recognised partys leading role in society.
• between 1964-71 2 people were promoted in the politburo