Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM


Top Flashcards (Certified)
All Flashcards

History > USSR: Topic 1 - Government > Flashcards

USSR: Topic 1 - Government Flashcards

1
Q

October 1917 (3)

A

October Revolution
Decree on Land – peasants can seize land
Decree on Peace – withdrawal from WW1

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Lenin’s tenure

A

1917-1924

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

All Russian Congress of Soviets

A

A congress made up of representatives sent by small local elected Soviets

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Sovnarkom (4)

A

Council of People’s Commissars (or the Russian Cabinet)
Responsible to the All Russian Congress of Soviets
Ostensibly, governed on a day-to-day basis
Rubber stamped the decisions of the Politburo

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

November 1917 (3)

A

Workers’ Decree – 8-hour max. day and min. wages
Decree of Workers’ Control – workers elect committees in factories
Nationwide election – Bolshevik minority in Constituent Assembly

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

January 1918

A

Lenin closes Constituent Assembly

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

3 March 1918

A

Unpopular Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

April-May 1918

A

Bolsheviks loses general election

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Summer 1918 - 1921

A

Russian Civil War

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Lenin’s Politburo (3)

A

A committee made up of Lenin and around 7 of his most loyal supporters
The primary organ of government
Dictated policy to the Sovnarkom and the All Russian Congress of Soviets

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Nomenklatura (3)

A

Party members trusted by senior officials to implement government policy
The former educated middle class of the pre-revolutionary government
Superseded the local soviets

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

December 1917

A

Creation of the Cheka

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

1920-1921

A

Droughts threatening famine

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

January 1921

A

Tambov Uprising

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Tambov Uprising (3)

A

Led by Aleksandr Antonov
Rebellion against grain requisitioning and the Cheka
A force of 50,000 anti-communist fighters

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

March 1921

A

Peasant attacks on government grain stores along the Volga River

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Kronstadt Mutiny

A

Mutiny by sailors at Kronstadt naval base
Demanded a series of democratic reforms
“Soviets without Communism”

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Mid-March 1921

A

Kronstadt Mutiny crushed by Red Army

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

May 1921

A

Tambov Uprising repressed with 100,000 people deported to gulags

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

February 1921

A

Cheka destroys opposition political parties

22 leading Social Revolutionaries were sentenced to prison or exiled

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

The 1921 Party Congress (2)

A

Introduction of the New Economic Plan (NEP)

“On Party Unity” introduced banning factionalism within the Party

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

“On Party Unity”

A

A resolution that meant party members found guilty of forming factions, such as the Workers’ Opposition or the Democratic Centralists, would be expelled from the party

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Socialism in one country

A

1924: Bukharin and Stalin believed that socialism should first be established in the USSR instead of waiting for a global revolution

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Collectivisation and Industrialisation

A

1928: Stalin argued peasants should work on state-owned farms and that the USSR should be industrialised at a rapid pace

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
1923
Stalin issues his first “approved list” of party members
26
May 1924
128.000 new members to the Party via Stalin’s Lenin Enrolment initiative
27
Party of 1928
Less revolutionary and more career-driven members who owed their jobs to Stalin
28
Stalin’s tenure
1928-1953
29
Stalin’s powers in 1928 (2)
General Secretary – able to give powerful jobs to Party members Head of Central Control Commission – able to investigate and sack Party and government officials
30
Apparatchiks
Party members, or apparatus, who implemented orders and nothing else
31
Sergei Kirov
Head of the Communist Party in Leningrad who was challenging Stalin’s authority
32
1932 (2)
Sergei Kirov defend Stalinist critic Martemyan Ryutin | Sergei Kirov forms Union of Marxist Leninists
33
February 1934 (3)
Congress of Victors Sergei Kirov receives around 300 more votes than Stalin Sergei Kirov urged by senior members to stand against Stalin as General Secretary
34
Congress of Victors
A congress which elects the Central Committee
35
December 1934
Sergei Kirov assassinated and his death is used as the pretext to launch the Great Terror
36
1935-1938
The Great Terror or Great Purge
37
The Great Terror
A campaign of arrests, torture, imprisonments and executions that killed around 10 million Soviet citizens
38
1937 (2)
Trial of the 17 – execution of 17 Trotskyites | Execution of 8 senior generals in the Red Army
39
1938
Trial of the 21 – execution of Bukharin and his closest supporter
40
37,000
The number of officers purged in the Red Army
41
1941
Stalin becomes Chair of Sovnarkom making him the most powerful man in the Party and now the government
42
Ministers
The People’s Commissars under Stalin
43
Council of Ministers --> Presidium
The Sovnarkom under Stalin
44
GKO
The State Defence Committee responsible for economic co-ordination, military production, and defence
45
Power shifts (x4)
1) Party under the Politburo is the most powerful 2) State power grows = State ministers in Politburo 3) GKO becomes the most powerful committee during the war 4) Party is given more power = Council of Ministers is the most powerful
46
1953-1955
Power struggle between Nikita Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov and Lavrentiy Beria
47
March 1953
Beria introduces amnesty for non-political prisoners
48
May 1953
Creation of a party commission to investigate past executions
49
Khrushchev’s tenure
1953-1964
50
4620
The number of communists rehabilitated, under Beria’s reforms, who had been executed based on forced confessions
51
Gulag population: 1953-1956
1953: 2.4 million 1956: 1.6 million
52
June 1953 (2)
Beria increases republican representation through lingual inclusivity Beria is executed
53
Lingual inclusivity (2)
Senior Party officials must speak the language of the republic they work in All official publications must be available in each republic’s language
54
44%
The percentage of the Central Committee that Khrushchev replaced
55
68% --> 44%
The proportion by which Soviet industry controlled by the central government decreased
56
20th Party Congress
14-25th February 1956 | Khrushchev’s Secret Speech
57
May 1954
Khrushchev sets up a special commission to review the case of political prisoners
58
June 1956
51,439 prisoners were released by Khrushchev’s special commission
59
1961
½ of those executed by Stalin were rehabilitated
60
Mid-December 1957
Establishment of an Anti-Communist Commission, headed by Leonid Brezhnev, to suppress anti-communist activities
61
Party membership: 1954-1964
1954: 6.9 million 1964: 11 million
62
105
The number of new economic councils created by the decentralisation of central ministries
63
June 1957
An attempted coup by Georgy Malenkov that was supported by the Presidium but not the Central Committee
64
October 1961
22nd Party Congress
65
22nd Party Congress (3)
Fixed terms for all jobs in the Party Fixed 16-year terms for Central Committee members Split of the Party into industrial and agriculture bureaus
66
October 1964
Khrushchev forced into retirement by senior Party members who had the backing of the Central Committee
67
Stability of Cadres
A policy that discouraged promotions and demotions replacing Khrushchev’s policy of limited terms
68
Brezhnev’s tenure
1964-1970 with Alexei Kosygin | 1970-1982
69
1977 Soviet Constitution
Known as the “Brezhnev Constitution” which recognised the supremacy of the Party over the state
70
Centralisation (2)
Re-establishment of all-union ministries | The end of the industrial and agricultural split in the Party
71
1964-1970
Only 2 people promoted to the Politburo
72
1966-1971
90% of Central Committee members retained their jobs
73
75
Average age of the Politburo in 1982
74
Galina Brezhneva
Her lover, Boris the Gypsy, smuggled millions of pounds worth of diamonds out of the USSR
75
Andropov’s tenure
November 1982-February 1984
76
1/4
Proportion of senior officials replaced under Andropov
77
Nikolai Shchelokov
Red Army General and Minister of the Interior investigated under Andropov’s anti-corruption campaign
78
Chernenko’s tenure
February 1984-March 1985 | Mikhail Gorbachev led meetings on his behalf as he was bed-ridden

History (6 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions