Theme 3 Flashcards
In which order of effectiveness did leaders use propaganda / cult of personality to control?
Stalin
Lenin
Khrushchev
Brezhnev
How did Lenin control the press and media ?
2
Decree on press 1917
- banned all left wing newspapers
Glavlit - introduced. All books had to be approved by it to be published.
How did Stalin control press and media?
2
Socialist realism 1944- art needed approval
Glavlit became more powerful
How did Khrushchev and Brezhnev control media / propaganda?
Loosened culture
Allowed foreign music
Didn’t really have a choice about it though as because of increasing technological advances
What was lenin’s personality cult?
Lenin was not pro-personality cult as it was fundamentally anti Marxist because it would show Lenin as more important and above others
However the politburo wanted to use it
Phase 1 1918-1924
Lenin depicted as leader of revolution in front of red banner
After his assassination attempt, Lenin was opted enter as miraculous
Phase 2 post death Lenin is painted as a saint Statues Petrograd was changed to Leningrad Stalin used his cult for his own agenda
What were the three stages of Stalin’s personality cult?
Myth of two leaders
Vozhd
Generalissimo
What was Stalin’s personality cult? (Part one)
1920s - myth of two leaders
Photomontages would depict Lenin looking down approvingly of Stalin
History books were edited to exclude Trotksy and exaggerate Stalin’s part in the October Revolution I.e the histories of the communist party.
What was Stalin’s personality cult (part 2)
1930s Vozhd
Emphasis on Stalin being a leader
His birthday became a celebrated communist equivalent of a national holiday
Depicted with children - father figure
If anything went well, Stalin would be praised - 5 YP
What was Stalin’s personality cult (part 3)
Generalissimo 1940s
Depicted with tools and weaponry to show Stalin as a man of the people bringing in advanced technology
What was Khrushchev’s personality cult?
Criticised Stalin’s personality cult but developed one of his own
Books developed “adulation” - strong praise
Media depicted him as responsible for successful Virgin lands scheme. When it went wrong he was blamed 1958
Peace maker - Cuban midsole crisis
Cult of Lenin can
What was the cult of Brezhnev?
Excessive medals -Order of Lenin 9 times !
Cult of Lenin- acted as if he was continuing his work
Foreign policy success in developing détente - defender of world peace
What does the infamous Karl Marx❤️❤️❤️ say about religion ?
“Religion is the opium of the masses”
Created by the upper class to distract workers to put up with their misery without complaining
How was Lenin the most Marxist ?
Against personality cults
Very anti religion
How much of a threat were religions to Lenin? What did he do to them?
Decree on freedom of conscience 1918 - separated church and state so church lost privilege
Civil war - 1000 priests were killed, 28 bishops
Patriarch Tikhon (head of Orthodox Church) was put under house arrest and died in 1925
Islamic shrines were attacked.
What were the three religious groups targeted in the USSR and in which order
Christianity
Islam
Judaism
Which religious figures and how many were killed in the civil war?
1000 priests
28 bishops
They were denied rations as well
Who was Patriach Tikhon
Head of Orthodox Church put under house arrest by Lenin and died in 1925
What was the campaign against the veiling of women?
1927
Campaign against women wearing the burka
What was Stalin’s relationship with religion ?
Collectivisation 1928
Kulaks were sent to gulag which expanded to priests in dekulakisation
League of militant godless 1929
- took peasants to heaven to show them that there is no God
Great purge 1936-1939
12 out of 163 bishops were still in Liberty
CHANGE
During war 1941-1945
Godless is closed
Soldiers found comfort it god
Stalin forms pragmatic alliance with church.
Churches and seminaries reopened so new priests can be created
Why did Stalin’s relationship with religion change in 1941?
War!
People looked to religion in the war so Stalin formed a pragmatic alliance with the church
They were allowed to reopen as well as seminaries so more priests could be created
What was Khrushchev’s relationship with religion?
Anti religious campaign 58-64
Churches that were reopened were closed again as well as monestaries m
Priests were allowed to be beaten up, anti religious magazines, believers were denied access to holy sites
What did Brezhnev’s relationship with religion?
4
He ends Khrushchev’s campaign and stops church closures
1968- opens institute for scientific atheism.
Only 20% of population were professing religious faithS this remained the same
Still anti religious tho
1976- Christian committee for the defence of believers rights was created
-leader was sent to prison 5 years
How did the relationship with religion and the leaders in power change?
Lenin
- traditional Marxist anti religious stance
- decree on freedom of conscience + civil war (1000 priests)
Stalin
-pragmatic stance on religion
-league of militant godless 1929 and 12/163 bishops still in Liberty after purge
BUT
during war, church state alliance- churches reopened and ministries
Khrushchev
- anti religious campaign 1958-1964-closes churches
- patrols don’t let religious people on holy sights and priests beaten up
Brezhnev
-ends Khrushchev’s campaign and stopped church closures
However very atheist population with only 20% professing faith
-however Christian committee for the defence of believers rights 1976
1 Lenin 2 Khrushchev 3 Stalin 4 Brezhnev (Worst relations with religion)
What did Lenin think about terror and how did this contrast with Stalin (with examples)
Lenin tended to use terror when the party was at threat rather than himself
- he would not shed the blood of another Bolshevik in his chitska
- during the civil war, red terror was used against the whites with burying alive and freezing whites to death
Stalin however tended to use terror when he was at threat
-excessive purges
-show trials 16,17,21
-targets people in the party -Kirov?
He is able to do this as he is a personal dictator
Who were the four heads of secret police? When were they head?
Dzerzhinsky 1917-1926 Yagoda (effectively leader) 1926-1936 Yezhov 1936-1938 Beria 1938-1953
What did the secret police do under Dzerzhinsky?
1927/1926
Attack opponents outside of party
Later attacked NEPmen
Closed newspapers 1917
Closed constituent assembly 1918
1917-1923 200,000 people killed
Red terror in civil war - freezing whites to death, burying prisoners alive
Show trial of SRs 1922
Labour camps
What methods/things did Lenin introduce but stalin followed?(4)
Show trials 1922-SRs
Cheka introduced
Chitskas
Labour camps set up
What did Yagoda get up to as head of the secret police? (5)
1926-36
Targets - kulaks and people in the party
Dekulakisation 1928
Rich peasants were sent to work camps
Expansion of gulags
R A P I D
10,000 died digging the White Sea canal
Night time arrests
Old Bolsheviks at night. Party officials began sleeping with a bag next to them so they would be ready if they were arrested
Extraction of confessions
Threats against family
-bukharins wife and child
-physical and mental torture
Show trial of 16
Zin and Kam were told they would receive light sentences
What did Yezhov get up to? (5)
1936-38
Targets
-anyone who didn’t prove loyalty
Men aged 35-45
Used power in a totalitarian way. "Sharpening class struggle" - to justify more violence
10% of the adult male population were arrested.
Legal processes were a 3 day period 1=arrest 2=trial 3=execution
Purge of red army 14/16 commanders
Trial of 16,17,21
What percentage of the adult male population were arrested in Yezhovchina ?
10%
What was the trial of 16?
Zinoviev and Kamenev show trial 1936
They were told they would receive light sentences if they confessed
They were sentenced to death for association with kirov’s murder
What was the trial of 17?
1937
People that criticised the 5 year plan were put on a show trial and accused of working for Trotsky
Purge of the left
What was the trial of 21?
Bukharin was put on show trial
1938
He criticised Stalin’s economic policies
Purge of right
How did legal processing speed up under Yezhov? (2)
3 day period after arrested
1 arrested
2 trial
3 execution
Stalin was signing 3200 death warrants a day by 1938
What torture methods did each secret police leader use?
Dzerzhinsky - tortured socialist opponents 1918
Yagoda threats against bukharins wife Physical and mental torture Yezhov Bare foot+ hot floor Beatings Genocidal techniques Carbon monoxide
Beria had a personal preserve with the most terrifying prison with electric shocks
What did Beria get up to as head of secret police? (6)
14,000 young poles were massacred and blamed on the nazis
Villages that resisted his slave plan were locked up in a barn and burnt alive
He practiced rape
He had personal preserve with the most terrifying prison that practiced electric shocks
He did give more food to the gulags so they would be more productive
He ends the mass terror in the war to create an illusion of a legal system
How did the leaders of the secret police pursue their own sadistic agendas?
Yagoda deliberately fed Stalin’s paranoia for his own power
All 3 added to death lists people that stood in their way
Yezhov removes NKVD opposition
What is a samizdat ?
Something which is self published
Which famous scientist did Andropov try to deal with ?
Sakharov
Father of soviet hydrogen bomb who then campaigned for nuclear disarmament
He was too famous to be sent to repressive psychiatry so was sent to internal exile in Gorky in 1980
What happened with Solzhenitsyn ?
He wrote “a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich” which was about a prisoner in a labour camp
Khrushchev allowed it as he was initiating destalinisation at the time
When he tried to publish his next book it was not allowed to be published
What was repressive psychiatry ?
People who criticised the soviet system could be considered mentally ill and send to repressive psychiatry
This was done because criminal case files could be made public but medical case files were private. Fhis drew less attention from western press.
Also, dissidents could be held indefinitely rather than receive a sentence
People were treated with electric shocks and drugs
Who wrote a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich
Solzhenitsyn
What was the Helsinki accord ?
1975
Human rights law
Used by the people to show pressure for change
Evidence that there were only a small number of dissidents?
What does this suggest?
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia 1968 red square protest
7 people showed up
Suggests Andropov was excessive
2 examples of people who were sent to repressive psychiatry?
Bukovsky 1967 criticised the government t
The editor of the Chronicle of current events
What was the chronicle of current events?
Samizdat newspaper criticised human rights abusers
It’s editor was sent to repressive psychiatry
People who ran it were put on show trial in 1972
Yakir+Krasin
What did Andropov do with religious dissidents
Refuseniks (Jews not allowed to go to Israel under Stalin) were allowed to go
100,000 potential trouble makers were allowed to go
This was justified as 1/5 of journalists and writers were Jews so they were more likely to fm caused trouble
What was anti soviet behaviour a sign of ?
“Paranoid reformist delusion”
Mentally ill -> REPRESSIVE PSYCHIATRy
What was the law and order campaign by Andropov and why was it introduced ?
1979 To attack 3 forms of anti social behaviour Hooliganism Drunkenness Corruption
In preparation for the 1980 Olympics
If you were seen drunk, you could get arrested!
How did Andropov deal with dissidents after 1982?
Increasing monitoring of groups with developing technology
-conversations were recorded
Economic reform
Anti corruption
Senior party officials
Anti alcoholism
-workers could be sacked for drunkenness
Anti absenteeism
KGB arrested people absent from work
What did Andropov do after 1982 in general? To change from Brezhnev ??
Gathering opinions of people
-surrounded himself with free speakers and tried to father opinions with visits to Moscow factories. People were still restricted as he was the head of the KGB
Promoted the younger generation with experience in low ranks of the party to stop gerontocracy. They were more in touch with daily life
When did Andropov get appointed leader and die
1982
1984
How did Andropov deal with nationalists?
Ukrainians wanted to celebrate 150 year anniversary of poet Zhevchenko
They were allowed
Literature archive was coincidentally burned down
What is avant-garde art?
Revolutionary conceptual art first developed in 1918
Why did Lenin’s relationship with avant garde art change?
From 1918-1920
Culture was considered less pressing as they were in the civil war
Afterwards Lenin considered it dangerous
What was Prolekult? What did Lenin do with it?
Supported by Bukharin and Lunacharsky
Ran by Bogdanov (Lenin’s past rival)
Independent organisation free from party control
Art lessons for workers to replace bourgeoise art
84,000 members,300 studios by 1920
Lenin believed it was dominated by socialists and anarchists.
It was merged with the government. In 1920. Bogdanov arrested 1923
What is the commissariat of enlightenment ?
Created 1918 by Lenin to support and encourage artists who used to mass censorship
Head = Lunacharsky
What is agitprop ?
Example?
What did Lenin do to control it?
Department in the communist party of agitation propaganda in 1920
It produced avant garde art
“Beat the whites with the red edge”
Lenin was not a fan of its confusing messages and got it to produce more political art. It was more criticised through the 1920s
Example of avant garde art in the theatre and the different reactions of Lenin and Stalin
Meyerhold produced avant garde pageant in 1918 called
Mystery Bouffe
It was shut down after one performance for being too confusing.
Stalin had him executed in 1940
What was formalism and why did Stalin attack it ?
“Art for arts sake”
It did not serve his political agenda.
Art should reflect government priorities rather than creativity
What was socialist realism?
1934- all Union congress of soviet fighters developed it
- artists developed it
It should reflect Proletariat Typical Partisan (promote communist ideas) Representational
Who was Mayakovsky ?
Poet and designer who made simple graphic propaganda posters in the war
Smear campaign against him “down with mayaokovshchina” 1930
Read his poem “at the top of my voice” and was shouted down on stage 1930
“Too obscure”
Denounced
Killed himself 1930
What did Stalin do with avant garde art?
Introduced socialist realism
- proletariat
- typical
- partisan
- representational
Encouraged the youth to attack bourgeois plays
Introduced KPDI in 1936 to target and punish non conforming artists
Example of socialist realism art?
“Voting to expel the Kulak from the collective farm”
To go with the dekulakisation campaign of Yagoda
Who was Shostakovich ?
Composer who conformed after being criticised for lady Macbeth music.
Stalin walked out!
He then became more conservative
But mocked the regime with a subtle irony
but was denounced by the Zhdanov decree
After Stalin died he released a sassy tenth symphony
How did Stalin control cinema ?
October - Eisenstein 1927
Depicted the revolution
He was assigned producers so he would not stray to formalism
What was the Zhdanov decree? When was it
1946
Zhdanov’s attack on cultural dissent
Artists should only conform to party wishes
What was the doctor’s plot?
1953
Stalin arrests Jewish doctors and accused them of trying to kill. Him
What was the Mingrelian affair?
1951
Beria’s allies of Mingrelian dissent were killed
What book can be used to show an example of thaw under Khrushchev but in a pragmatic and self serving manner
“A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich”
Solzhenitsyn
Was allowed to be published as destalinisation
What book can be used an example of cultural freeze under Khrushchev
“Doctor Zhivago” -Pasternak
Refused to be published as it insulted Lenin / communism
It was smuggled out to the west and awarded a noble prize which was not allowed to be collected
How did Khrushchev show cultural thaw in the theatre
Shostakovich’s Lady Mcbeth was allowed to be performed again
What happened at the 1957 world youth festival?
Shows cultural freeze
Women found having sex with foreign men had their heads shaved and in some cases deported to work on farms
How did Khrushchev allow thaw with music
Let America music in!
1955 radio station -“voice of America”
However it was being smuggled in before this and he didn’t really have a choice as there was growing technology
How did Brezhnev send the message that the “thaw” was over ?
Sinyavsky-Daniel trial
1965
They posted poetry criticising Stalin that was allowed in Khrushchev’s reign but under Brezhnev
7 years hard labour -Sin
5 years -Dan
What was Brezhnev’s relationship with art?
Inconsistent
1974 - government paid police to drive bulldozers into exhibition
This looked bad in foreign press
He then displayed the remainders of the art he had ordered to destroy
What happened with the Prague Spring ?
1968
Leader of Czechoslovakia wanted to adapt socialism with a human face and allowed more freedom for the people
This led to a protest for democracy which meant the red army were sent in and Dubcek had to resign
