Theme 3

Question 1

Media- Lenin

Answer 1

Decree on Press Nov 1917- govt get emergency powers to close counter revolutionary newspaper
State monopoly of advertising Nov 1917- only govt can publish ads
Establish All Russian Telegraph Agency and Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press Jan 18- power to censor press
Nationalised Petrograd Telegraph Agency Nov 1917- govt control of electronic communications
By 1921 communists closed 2000 newspapers and 575 printing presses

Question 2

Media- NEP

Answer 2

1922- Glavlit introduced to oversee censorship
Some books banned
Libraries purged of banned books
Professional censors employed
Books investigated for anti communist bias
GPU in charge of policing publication

Question 3

Media- Stalin

Answer 3

Soviet history rewritten
Censorship tightened- media only broadcast positives
Stalin focus of propaganda

Question 4

Media- K and B

Answer 4

Western magazines more available
Popular magazines encouraged public letters
Readers could complain
Cinema and tv more popular and accessible

Question 5

Personality cult- Stalin

Answer 5

Emphasised right to be leader
Myth of two leaders- october revolution was work of both Stalin and Lenin 
Turned Stalin into celebrated figure 
Painters showed Stalin as Lenin’s heir 
Post war portrayed as generalissimo

Question 6

Personality cult- Khrushchev

Answer 6

Criticised Stalin’s cult but made his own
Cult of Lenin- shows Lenin as human- slogan ‘Lenin’s lives’
Cult of Khrushchev- great reformer,respected statesman, responsible for success
Associated himself with virgin lands

Question 7

Personality cult- Brezhnev

Answer 7

Shadow of Stalin 
Used to consolidate position 
He was mocked
Showed him as Leninist- military hero 
Was a joke
Seem through by young people

Question 8

Secret police- Lenin

Answer 8

Cheka 1917- protect communist rule 
Leader= Dzerzhinsky
Not bound by law 
Violence against opposition 
Ran labour camps 
Post civil war- became GPU
1922- agency set up to monitor press and set up political trials
Surveillance reports sent to central committee
Helped red army with grain requisitions

Question 9

Secret police- Stalin

Answer 9

GPU become NKVD
Yagoda- leader in 1934 after Kirov’s death
Organised arrest, interrogation and trial of Z & K
Yezhov took over from Yagoda 1936 (not eager enough)
Terror more widespread
Accelerated through arrest targets and executions
1937- NKVD purged- new agents recruited
Great Terror- Yezhovschina- 1.5 million arrested 635,000 deported 680,000 executed
Stalin emerged strong
War- policed ethnic minorities
End of great terror- yezhov resigned
Beria takes over 1938
Leningrad affair 1949- purge on Leningrad party
Doctors plot- 52-53 stalins staff arrested for poisoning him

Question 10

Secret police- K&B

Answer 10

NKVD becomes KGB
Andropov becomes head 1967 
No more terror 
Suppress dissidents 
Initial strategies caused foreign outcry 
Psychiatric treatment mainly used
1972- KGB offered warnings
1979- Andropov attacked anti social behaviour
Psychiatric treatment could last longer

Question 11

Secret police- Stalin deportations

Answer 11

1942- Beria deports Kalmyks

1944- deportation of Chechens to Siberia

Question 12

Religion- Lenin

Answer 12

Decree on separation 1918- separated Orthodox Church from state and took away property rights
Priests and believers killed
Living church established- challenge to Orthodox Church
September 1920- congress of toiling people of the east- endorsed going against European colonialist
Lenin blames famine on church 1921-22

Question 13

Religion- Stalin

Answer 13

1931- condemned anti Semitism
1928- birobidzhan- Jewish religion established
Collectivisation- anti religious campaign- Orthodox Church blames
Accommodation with Orthodox Church made for war- allowed to choose new patriarch and reopen some churches
End to living church
Ethnic minorities deported mainly Muslims (Chechens and Crimean Tartares)
1927- Hujum- public unveiling of Muslim women in Central Asia
1948- Israel established Jews seen as enemies of state

Question 14

Religion- K&B

Answer 14

Khrushchev attacked Stalin’s tolerance
1957- anti religious campaign- around 10,000 churches closed
Journal- Science and Religion 1959
Brezhnev more moderate
Govt supports anti American Islamic groups
Anti Semitism increased after six day war 1967
1981- Brezhnev denounces antisemitism

Question 15

Art and culture- Lenin

Answer 15

Proletkult- supported by Anatoly lunacharsky
1929- 84,000 members
Lenin argues culture should be universal
Proletkult merges with commissarist of education
Agitprop- inspired people to support govt
1920- department of agitation propaganda established
By end of ‘20s govt controls art

Question 16

Art and culture- Stalin

Answer 16

Significant shift in art
Socialist realism
1930- Stalin wrote the Bolshevik arguing art should reflect govt priorities
1932- union of soviet writers established
Artists set targets for paintings
Paintings celebrated FYPs and Collectivisation

Question 17

Art and culture- krushchev

Answer 17

Wanted socialism to liberate artists
Books criticising Stalin authorised
Policies moved between increasing freedom and controlling it
Thaws in censorship
More books authorised over time ‘one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’
Samizdat- self published books and magazines
Propaganda made fun of soviet people
Campaign against women adopting western fashion ‘stilyaga’
Policies jumped between desire for more freedom and not too much freedom

Question 18

Art and culture- B & A

Answer 18

Soviet magazines continue to ridicule western style
Art became nostalgic
Brezhnev- less willing to criticise Stalin
Sinyavsky and Daniel trial- arrested for ‘anti soviet propaganda’
Dissident artists major part
Some artists forcibly medicated
Ballet in high demand