Unit 1 - Soviet Government

Question 1

How was Lenin’s government democratic?

Answer 1

People were elected.
Freedom of speech / government debate.

Many socialist parties (Mensheviks and SR had representation in the sovnarkom)

Decree of Land: Peasants had the right to seize land from Nobility and Church.

Decree of Peace: Committed to leave WW1

Worker’s Decree (Nov 1917): Established an 8 hour working day.

Decree of worker’s control: Gave lenin breathing room, Lenin and the Bolsheviks claimed their regime was extremely democratic as committees of working people contributed on the day to day running of the country (compared to Britain which has an election every 5 years)

Question 2

How was Lenin’s government not democratic?

Answer 2

Lenin ignored result of Jan 1918 election

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was very unpopular

Government led by his vision. This meant other parties felt side lined and unheard. Many Mensheviks and other party members resigned

Sovnarkom was extremely disorganised and poorly resourced

Question 3

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War)

Answer 3

Used civil war as excuse to centralise

From 1920, Politburo essentially became government - Smaller, less accountable and full of Loyal leninists

Question 4

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War / Red Army)

Answer 4

Red Army: Lenin abolished Russia’s democratic system of appointing generals through committees - Trotsky appointed Tsarist generals who were better

Question 5

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War / War Communism)

Answer 5

War communism: Series of emergency economic measures (High levels of industrial production of war goods, efficient allocation of workers and increased food production)

Question 6

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Civil War / Creation of the Cheka)

Answer 6

Creation of the Cheka: Political task force tasked with defending the revolution, raiding the anarchist organisations and eliminating opposition. (Felix Dzerzhinsky, head of the cheka, came from a wealthy polish background, rooted out and destroyed bourgeois enemies of the state. Was single-minded, dedicated and ruthless, nicknamed the “Shield of the Revolution” and died in 1926.

Question 7

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / 1921 Party Congress)

Answer 7

Lenin authorised Cheka to destroy opposition parties (Mensheviks and SRs)

‘On party unity’ resolution: Banned factions inside party and party members found guilty of forming factions could be expelled

Question 8

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / Nomenklatura)

Answer 8

Party members who senior officials trusted to implement government policy without question

Question 9

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / 1924 Soviet constitution)

Answer 9

• USSR was in theory a federal system
• Tightened the authority of the communist party
• Ukraine were firmly under the control of the central Party Structure
• Russian made up 90% of the land area and 72% of the population of the new state.

Question 10

How did Lenin centralise the government? (Post Civil War / OGPU 1922 & Chistka)

Answer 10

OGPU 1922: Terror became more bureaucratic and discreet. Attention was turned to groups within the party and large numbers were purged.

Chistka: cleansing in 1918 and early 1920s, non-violent and had their party membership withdrawn. ⅓ of the party was purged under Lenin.

Question 11

Step 1/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle

Answer 11

Stalin’s position in the party administration gave him enormous power over both personnel and policy

Question 12

Step 2/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle

Answer 12

Stalin attended Lenin’s funeral - which Trotsky didn’t attend - and took the opportunity to set himself up as Lenin’s disciple

Question 13

Step 3/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle

Answer 13

Lenin’s testament - which criticises all the contestants for power (but most especially Stalin) was kept secret and not made public knowledge.

This is because Sinoviev and Kamenev ensured Lenin’s testament wasn’t made public knowledge as it helped Trotsky, who was their political opponent, and they didn’t see Stalin as a major player in the power struggle.

Question 14

Step 4/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle

Answer 14

Triumvirate - In 1924 at the 13th Party congress, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin had formed the triumvirate and were leading the party.

Trotsky spoke out at the Congress claiming the party had gotten too bureaucratic but he was easily defeated in the vote, as Stalin packed Congress will well instructed Stalin delegates.

Trotsky could’ve appealed to his supporters but didn’t want to split the party.

Question 15

Step 5/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle

Answer 15

1924: Zinoviev and Kamenev mounted a vicious campaign against Trotsky questioning his loyalty pre-1917

Trotsky responded with an article “Lessons of October” criticising Zinoviev and Kamenev for their lack of support in October 1917.

Stalin remained neutral, watching the Left tear themselves apart.

Question 16

Step 6/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle

Answer 16

1925: Stalin joined the Right over Socialism in One Country.

Zinoviev and Kamenev launched an attack on Stalin arguing the NEP should be ended but they lost every vote.

They then joined Trotsky and formed the New Opposition. They tried to get the party masses to support them by organising demonstrations but they were accused of factionalism and lost all positions of power before being expelled.

Question 17

Step 7/7 of Stalin removing his opponents in the power struggle

Answer 17

1928: Stalin then turned against the Right and advocated rapid industrialisation and attacked the NEP. Bukharin put up a strong defense but was outvoted and removed from Politburo.

Question 18

Great Purge 1935-38 (Trials)

Answer 18

Dec 1934: Kirov murdered. Stalin used this to claim the party was under attack and that there was a dangerous conspiracy against the party. He used this fear to begin a mass campaign to hunt down his enemies.

Show trials - Most public aspect of terror (Trial of 16,17 and 21)

Secret Trials - Trial of Red Army leaders - 8 leaders who had worked with Trotsky were executed - 37k officers killed

Question 19

Great Purge 1935-38 (Consequences)

Answer 19

Eliminated Stalin’s rivals

NKVD grew in power

New generation of loyal communists

Senior officials, who could’ve helped Russia’s economy, were purged.

Sent victims to gulags - Used as slave labour to industrialise etc.

Question 20

Stalin’s power over party and state (Methods of control)

Answer 20

Intimidation

Appointed rival personnel in key positions in both party and state so they would rival each other

Test people’s loyalty (arresting Molotov’s wife etc,)

Purging his opponents

Weakened institution’s power (Made Politburo meet less frequently)

Shifted power from party to state and appointed himself as head of both

Question 21

Stalin’s power over party and state (Limitations)

Answer 21

Relies on others for administrative work and had to give others power (e.g. Yexhov - Head of NKVD)

WW2: Gave men in Politburo important jobs so that the war could be better coordinated

Occasionally, Stalin gave into opposition (e.g. Stalin’s targets in second 5 year plan were considered too high so he was forced to lower them)

Question 22

Khrushchev’s Secret speech

Answer 22

Khrushchev negotiated with the Presidium to present his criticisms of Stalin at a secret session of the 20th party congress of 1956 - the first congress since Stalin’s death

The congress started on 14 February. On the night of 25 February, a day after congress ended, delegates were summoned to an unscheduled late night meeting. Khrushchev spoke for 4 hours, setting out a profound critique of stalin’s rule.

A large critique of Stalin’s rule. Outlined Stalin’s mistakes without the party’s guidance such as purging the red army immediately before WWII and concealing Lenin’s last testament. Revealed scale of the terror and claimed that Stalin had committed enormous crimes (Stalin’s policies such as industrialisation, collectivisation or communist ideology were considered sound)

Focused on his cult of personality and argued Stalin had abandoned collective leadership, placing himself above the party and robbing it of a leading role.

Question 23

Destalinisation (Ending the terror)

Answer 23

Khrushchev and Malenkov set up a special commission to review cases of political prisoners but only 4620 of 113,739 were released. Progressed after the secret speech by June 1956, 51,439 were released.

Question 24

Destalinisation (Cult of personality)

Answer 24

Khrushchev scrapped plans to turn Stalin’s dacha into a museum celebrating his life.

Annual Stalin prizes were cancelled and there was no official celebration of Stalin’s birthday (For the first time since the 1930s).

People fainted and committed suicide and questioned the legitimacy of communist rule because Stalin was a well-respected member of the party. (Some students in favour of multi-party democracy, suppressed by communist authorities).

Usually quotes from Stalin in newspapers, these were replaced by quotes from Marx and Lenin.

Secret Speech

Question 25

Destalinisation (Political reforms / satellite states)

Answer 25

Khrushchev made it clear that he would not treat the soviet republics and satellite states with the same force. Some soviet countries saw this as an opportunity (Hungarian Uprising and Khrushchev crushed this with soviet troops)

Question 26

Destalinisation (Political reforms / fixed terms)

Answer 26

Khrushchev introduced fixed terms for senior communists to ensure they were replaced regularly. This aimed to cut down on Patronage and corruption. This replacement of senior members also created opposition.

Question 27

Destalinisation (Political reforms / decentralise)

Answer 27

Khrushchev tried to reduce the size and power of the central party in order to decentralise the soviet union. He wanted more democracy without introducing new elections, he did this by increasing party membership.

Khrushchev also attempted to decentralise by abolishing some central ministries in charge of the economy and devolving power to 105 economic councils. As a result of this, many powerful officials lost power, their jobs or were forced to move. This led to renewed criticism of Khrushchev.

Question 28

Destalinisation (Political reforms / speed)

Answer 28

Stalinists began to argue that reforms were happening too quickly. Khrushchev reacted by backtracking

Question 29

Destalinisation (Successes)

Answer 29

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

The use of Political Terror ended

Question 30

Destalinisation (Failures)

Answer 30

CIA published it to the New York Times and was public knowledge to the west but not published in Russia until 1989.

Editors of a magazine that had published the extent of Stalin’s crimes were punished and in December he secretly authorised a special commission to suppress anti-communist activity. Khrushchev admitted in a speech on NYE that all communists were in fact “Stalinists”

Hungary started their own revolution and elected a new prime minister. This led to the ending of the military alliance between Hungary and the Soviet Union. Khrushchev ordered the Soviet troops to crush the revolution

Question 31

Aims of the Anti-Party group

Answer 31

To overthrow Khrushchev

Question 32

How did Khrushchev beat the Anti-Party group?

Answer 32

Khrushchev argued that the decision to replace him can only be made by the central committee - where Khrushchev had a lot of support. As a result, Khrushchev survived the attempt to oust him and he sacked his opponents

Question 33

Why was the Anti-Party group significant?

Answer 33

It demonstrated that senior communists would no longer use political terror

It recognised that the power of the party leader depended on the support of the central committee

Question 34

Why was Khrushchev removed?

Answer 34

Khrushchev’s political reforms created discontent. His economic reforms failed to boost economic growth. There were concerns that his international policies were rash and dangerous. In October Khrushchev was summoned to a special meeting in which he was criticised for his political and economic reforms.

Question 35

What was Brezhnev’s reason for “No two jobs in government were occupied by same person”?

Answer 35

To stop the emergence of an all powerful leader. Brezhnev - General secretary and Kosygin - Premier

Question 36

What was Brezhnev’s reason for “Ensuring party and state officials kept their jobs for long periods of time”?

Answer 36

Limited opportunity for patronage (giving positions to loyal allies etc.)

Question 37

What was Brezhnev’s reason for “Dividing key posts equally roughly between Brezhnev and Kosygin supporters”?

Answer 37

This gave both Kosygin and Brezhnev equal amount of support within powerful positions

Question 38

Khrushchev’s policy were limited terms, what did Brezhnev do?

Answer 38

Stability of Cadres

Question 39

Khrushchev’s policy decentralised, what did Brezhnev do?

Answer 39

Centralise

Question 40

Khrushchev’s policy separated the industrial and agricultural wings of the party, what did Brezhnev do?

Answer 40

Ended the split between agriculture and industrial wings of party

Question 41

Khrushchev’s policy aimed to give state more power, what did Brezhnev do?

Answer 41

Article 6 of 1977 Soviet constitution - Gives party more power

Question 42

Pros of Stability of Cadres

Answer 42

Popular with bureaucrats who disliked constant change of officials under Khrushchev

Clearer and more stable party policy

Less internal power struggle or division

Question 43

Cons of Stability of Cadres

Answer 43

Led to growth of bureaucracy

Irremovability of cares/party officials

Less or no incentive to perform better

USSR turned into gerontocracy - don’t understand current affairs

Corruption became life

Brezhnev kept incompetent cadres

Stops young politicians from progressing.

Question 44

Yuri Andropov

Answer 44

Born in 1914. Nov 1982 - Feb 1984

Recognised need for reform

Main concern was corruption within the party but attempts to deal effectively with this were hampered by his lack of charm

He was also too ill to follow through his ideas .
Mid 1983- his death in 1984 he was reliant on a kidney dialysis machine.

His leadership was the promotion of a younger generation of Party members who saw reform as essential.

Head of the KGB, Ambassador to Hungary and part of the politburo under Brezhnev

Question 45

Konstantin Chernenko

Answer 45

Born in 1911 in a working class family.
Ruled Feb 1984- March 1985

In his mid-seventies and was dying of emphysema when he was elected leader.

Chernenko was a Brezhnev man and made no changes in his short leadership. He died in March 1985.

Friends with Brezhnev in the 40s, joined Komsomol (communist youth league) in 1921 and party in 1931, completed military training and later worked for a party propaganda department.

Question 46

What was the Sovnarkom?

Answer 46

A government institution formed after the October Revolution.

Question 47

What was the All-Russian Congress?

Answer 47

Was the supreme governing body from 1918-36.