USSR - Section 2 Flashcards
When did Lenin die ?
21 jan 1924
Why did Trotsky not attend Lenin’s funeral ?
Stalin gave him false information so that he would have give the funeral speech
When did Trotsky resign as commissar of war
1925
When was Trotsky expelled from the politburo
1926
When was Trotsky expelled from the communist party ?
1927
When was Trotsky exhaled to Kazakstan ?
1928
When was Trotsky exiled from the Soviet Union ?
1929
What did Stalin do in 1925
Made an alliance with Bukharin and Rykov
By what year was it clear that Stalin had replaced Lenin ?
1928
In 1922 what was the Cheka reformed into ?
GPU (State political administration )
OGPU (unified state political administration )
What did the OGPU deal with ?
Political crimes
What could the OGPU do ?
Imprison without trial
Organise trials where the verdict was already decided guilty
Arrest
How many prisoners had been sent into camps by 1920
250,000
Who ran the camps ?
The gulag
What did Stalin begin in 1934
The purges
What happens to those purged ?
They were executed, exiled to labour camps, or exiled abroad
Between what years was the great terror ?
1936 and 1938
Those who the OGPU purged
Politburo Communist party Teachers Engineers, scientists and industrial workers Armed forces Secret police
When was Kirov murdered
1934
Why did Stalin use propaganda
To turn people against his enemies
To get people to accept his decisions
To get people to work harder
To build up a ‘cult of Stalin’
Techniques of propaganda
Show trials Posters Writing / poems / songs Censorship Radio Newspaper Films School textbooks
In which year was ‘Stalins Constitution’ introduced ? And who now ran the country ?
1936
The supreme soviet
How did Stalin control the information given to the public
Censorship
What type of culture did Stalin want to achieve ?
One which was not very intellectual, where all work produced was ‘low’
What did Stalin rely on to modernise the Soviet Union
Collectivisation and industrialisation
What was the name given to big collective farms
Kolkhozy
What was the name given to large state farms
Sovkozy
When was collectivisation enforced
1928
Why did peasants not want to collectivise
Because they would lose land they were given during the revolution
Why was industrialisation necessary
Because industry had collapsed during the civil war
Who were Lenin’s two main candidates for leadership ?
Stalin
Trotsky
How did Stalin manage to overcome his rivals
Spread false rumours about them
He got his supporters into important jobs
Got rid of his opponents
Who owned the land ?
The state
How much land dud peasants get to themselves after 1935
An acre
Why did peasants object to collectivisation
They did not want to share their time, land, cows and tools
They did not want to work set hours
Who were the kulaks ?
families that were much better off than others and were the most organised or educated people
How did workers ears object to collectivisation
Killed their animals
Hid their seed, crops and tools
Burned their homes
Between 1929 and 1933 half the pigs and a 1/4 of cows had been slaughtered
Stalins reaction to the workers objection
He sent officials to search for hidden crops - if they failed he sent in the army
He purged the kulaks
All peasant as from 1932 onwards were treated like kulaks if they did not collectivise
What was the biggest failure of collectivisation
The famine -3 million people starved
What did the state introduce in 1935
A Kolkhoz charter
How much farm land had been collectivised by 1935
90%
Successes of collectivisation
Production improved
People adapted to use machinery
Grain and animal numbers recovered
Rationing of bread and other foods ended
When was Gosplan set up ?
1921
What were organised from 1928 onwards ?
Three 5 year plans
What did the first 5 year plan focus on
Setting targets for the production of iron, steel, coal, oil and electricity.
It was said to be reached within 4 years however this was a lie to keep workers encouraged
What did the second 5 yet plan focus on
The Sam industries as the first but also set targets for tractors and combine harvesters
What did the third five year plan focus on
Targets were set for luxury consumer items such as radios and bikes
Who was the miner who beat his target by 95 tonnes of coal
Stakhanov
What was set up following the success of a miner
Stakhanovite movement where groups had competitions to see who could reach the highest targets
What was used to exaggerate the rate of industrialisation
Propaganda
What did industrialisation improve for the people
The living standard
Problems with industrialisation
Targets were too high
Shortages of materials and goods meant people took bribes
Many workers were unskilled
Factories were unsafe and high accident rates
Factory chimneys gave out fumes that affected people’s health
Gosplans reward system
What did Gosplan set up to try and solve problems of industrialisation
A bureaucracy
What happened to ethnic minorities
They received Russification and school children had to have Russian as a second language
What happened to those who were religious
They were scorned and deported
There were several purges of priests
In what year was “progressive piecework” introduced ?
1934
Reforms affecting women
Non church marriage was set up Divorce was easier Women had equal voting rights to men They had equal pay They had equal educational opportunities
Key features of life for women in the Soviet union after collectivisation
They became an important part of Stalin’s industrialisation plans. There was equal pay for equal work and over 100,000 women worked as engineers or in the building trade. It has been estimated that over half a million women worked on the railways. By 1940 over 13 million women were working in industry in the Soviet Union.
special steps were taken to allow them to work in factories. So free childcare was provided until children were old enough to go to school. There were free laundries and also free canteens to feed women at work and children at school.
Several reforms were put in place that affected women following the revolution. These included the set up of non-church marriage, easier divorce, equal voting rights to men and equal pay.
Effects of the cult of Stalin
People lived in fear of Stalin. Citizens were afraid to do anything that opposed the beliefs of Stalin and those in the cult and so could not object or have their our opinion as it would result in severe punishment e.g sent to the Gulag. If someone knew of another person that opposed Stalin they were told to turn them in for a reward. School children were the main targets of this scheme as they were easily persuaded
People were lead to believe incorrect information by the use of propaganda along with censorship. Propaganda encouraged people to support Stalin and made them believe all they were told. Since Stalin aimed to create a society in which all work was low and people were less intelligent, people were more likely to believe what they were told, as they did not have the education to think otherwise. Propaganda was in many different forms
LINKED BECAUSE PROPAGANDA PERSUADED PEOPLE WHAT STALIN WANTED THEM TO BELIVE AND SCARED THEM INTO NOT OPPOSING HIM AND THE CULT.
Why did Stalin introduce the purges ?
To remove any political opponents once it was set up in 1934 - they were so harsh that between 1936 and 38 the period was called the great terror. Sent people to the Gulag and by 1938 there were 7 million imprisoned
The purges allowed Stalin to safely maintain his leadership.
To scare people into not opposing him, as people were scared of being exiled
