USSR topic 3- Control of the People

Question 1

<p>What did the decree on November 1917 do to newspapers? What is the result of this?</p>

Answer 1

<p>it banned all non-socialist newspapers, by the early 1920s, all non-Bolshevik papers were eliminated</p>

Question 2

<p>Under Lenin, what was nationalised to help Bolsheviks control the press?</p>

Answer 2

<p>printing press, access was restricted to those working in 'the interests of the workers and the Socialist order', all editors and journalists were employees of the governmentm, members of the Union of Soviet Journalists and expected to be Party members</p>

Question 3

<p>What was set up under Lenin's regime to ensure that the press only spoke with one voice?</p>

Answer 3

<p>Glavlit, the censorship office, they approved every article written for publication</p>

Question 4

<p>What were the two main daily newspapers?</p>

Answer 4

<p>Pravda (Truth) - from the Communist Party and Izvestiya (News) - from the government</p>

Question 5

<p>What was the purpose of the daily newspapers of the Communist Party? How did they ensure a high readership?</p>

Answer 5

<p>the purpose was to act as an instrument of propaganda, agitation and organisation, they ensured high readership by making papers cheap to buy and widely available, copies were posted on boards along pavements/ workplaces to enable people to read them for free</p>

Question 6

<p>What was an evidence of the high readership of Pravda?</p>

Answer 6

<p>it had a circulation of 10.7 million in 1983</p>

Question 7

<p>What was another newspaper that was even more popular than Pravda?</p>

Answer 7

<p>Trud, which was a government-controlled trade union paper, it had a print run of 13.5m</p>

Question 8

<p>How were newspaper used to promote socialism?</p>

Answer 8

<p>they carried endless details about the achievements of socialism, with production figures relate to meeting/ exceeding targets of the latest economic plan, especially during Stalin's push to industrialise. They also had topics about the USSR's successful expedition in search of gold and oil/ triumpth of tech</p>

Question 9

<p>What were some prohibited topics in newspapers? What was an example? (1972)</p>

Answer 9

<p>Things that would tarnish the government's reputation, they would delay reporting of these e.g. natural disasters/ plane crashes. Example: July 1972, a vast fire was handled poorly by the government, which led to an explosion of nuclear waste storage tank which led to at least 200 fatalities</p>

Question 10

<p>Were criticisms allowed in newspapers?</p>

Answer 10

<p>yes, local newspapers were more likely to publish views critical of the authorities, but limits were placed where possible. People could complain about minor bureaucrats/ poor housing but not party leaders</p>

Question 11

<p>Except for newspapers, what were also allowed to cater for an increasing range of interests?</p>

Answer 11

<p>magazines and journals, they were aimed at specific groups like farmers, soldiers/ teachers/ young children etc.</p>

Question 12

<p>What were some prohibited topics in magazines?</p>

Answer 12

<p>sex, pornography, crime and religion</p>

Question 13

<p>What was a sports magazine that was hugely popular?</p>

Answer 13

<p>Sovetskii Sport</p>

Question 14

<p>How did the use of radio contributed to the October Revolution?</p>

Answer 14

<p>it was used to broadcast news in October 1917 in Morse code</p>

Question 15

<p>Which radio programme was in charge of spreading news/ propaganda material?</p>

Answer 15

<p>The Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency</p>

Question 16

<p>How did the Bolshevik party used radios to get their message to the people?</p>

Answer 16

<p>they installed loudspeakers in public places, factories and clubs so group listening can result in collective response that ensured everyone got the message</p>

Question 17

<p>Who controlled radio communications? (Commissariat)</p>

Answer 17

<p>the Commissariat for Posts and Telegraph</p>

Question 18

<p>Why were radios so useful?</p>

Answer 18

<p>it enabled the government to get its message across to the 65% of the population who were illiterate</p>

Question 19

<p>How did Stalin use radio to gain support?</p>

Answer 19

<p>he gave a speech through the radio during te German invasion of 1940, and commemorated the October Revolution, it reassured the Soviet population that not all was lost in the war</p>

Question 20

<p>How many radio stations were there until 1964?</p>

Answer 20

<p>only one</p>

Question 21

<p>Under Brezhnev, how many radio stations were there?</p>

Answer 21

<p>3, including Radio Maiak which played some foreign music and was popular among the youth</p>

Question 22

<p>How did the government try to restrict access to foreign stations? Were they successful?</p>

Answer 22

<p>they mass-produced cheap radios with a limited reception range, but they also had to rely on jamming foreign broadcasts and threaten to arrest those listening to foreign stations (they rarely succeeded though) NEVERTHELESS the limit on the amount of info received the Soviet population was enough to stifle public debate</p>

Question 23

<p>In 1950, how many sets of television were there?</p>

Answer 23

<p>10,000 sets</p>

Question 24

<p>By 1958, how many sets of television were there?</p>

Answer 24

<p>3 million</p>

Question 25

<p>Did the rural population have access to television?</p>

Answer 25

<p>by the early 1980s, most of the rural population had access to TV, partly because of mass production in the 1960s that made them affordable</p>

Question 26

<p>What did government television stations provided?</p>

Answer 26

<p>news, documentaries on the achievements of socialism, and culural programmes on ballet and classical art, children programme</p>

Question 27

<p>How was life under in the USSR presented in television?</p>

Answer 27

<p>it was presented as joyous, whereas life undere capitalism was rife with crime, homelessness and violence</p>

Question 28

<p>How did television programme enable the spread of other cultures in the USSR?</p>

Answer 28

<p>there were broadcasts of local programming for the regions of the USSR, often in local languages</p>

Question 29

<p>In what ways was censorship/ restriction of material not successful?</p>

Answer 29

<p>the Soviet public got used to reading between the lines, they would interpret sickness of a member of Politburo as a fall from favour, and favoured and rising stars would have more coverage</p>

Question 30

<p>Alongside propaganda, what did the government rely heavily on to distract from the realities of socialism?</p>

Answer 30

<p>output</p>

Question 31

<p>Why did it become harder for the government to restrict the population's access to information?</p>

Answer 31

<p>advancing technology like video recorders, computers</p>

Question 32

<p>Why was a cult of personality used?</p>

Answer 32

<p>to reinforce the power of individual leaders and detach them from the collective leadership exercised in theory by the Politburo , which is beneficial to individual leaders who wanted to raise their power and status above their colleagues</p>

Question 33

<p>How was cult of personality used in the 1920s?</p>

Answer 33

<p>after Lenin died, images of Lenin appeared in many forms and in newspapers, statutes and cnemas, and he was used to motivate the population to imitate his commitment to the Revolution</p>

Question 34

<p>How was the cult of Lenin used by successive leaders?</p>

Answer 34

<p>to support their claim to be the legitimate heirs of Lenin and the socialist order</p>

Question 35

<p>How did Stalin use the cult of personality?</p>

Answer 35

<p>he actively promoted himself as the worthy defender of the work of Lenin and to reinforce his claim that he is Lenin's rightful successor, this was especially useful when he was manoeuvring for power in the 1920s</p>

Question 36

<p>After Stalin gained power, how did he use the cult of personality?</p>

Answer 36

<p>for his personal dictatorship</p>

Question 37

<p>What were some examples of Stalin showing his close link with Lenin during his cult of personality?</p>

Answer 37

<p>he was presented as Lenin's closest colleague, a hero of the civil war and saviour of the Revolution, and after his death, the slogan 'Stalin is the Lenin of today' was widely used by sections of the rank and file Party membership</p>

Question 38

<p>In the 1930s, what were used to reinforce Stalin's power?</p>

Answer 38

<p>images where he was presented as the all-present and all-knowing leader, presenting him as 'the big hero'. Images portrayed him as the benefactor, inspiration and defender of socialism, painting identified him with the achievement of the FYPs, picture of Stalin with children emphasises his role as the father figure</p>

Question 39

<p>What method of propaganda was used during Second World War?</p>

Answer 39

<p>Stalin in military unifrom. and him in front of masses of Soviet troops and military hardware conveyed the message that Stalin was the defender of Mother Russia, propaganda posters also presented him as a man of people, working with workers and peasants</p>

Question 40

<p>How was art used during the cult of Stalin?</p>

Answer 40

<p>poems were written to praise Stalin, they were films to highlight his prominent role in events</p>

Question 41

<p>Was the cult of Stalin's successful?</p>

Answer 41

<p>Yes, Stalin was very popular and many Soviet citizens saw him as a benefactor, inspiration and the saviour of socialism, even people who disliked him respected him as a leader</p>

Question 42

<p>When did Khrushchev criticse Stalin's cult of personality?</p>

Answer 42

<p>during his Secret Speech of 1956 when he was pushing his policy during de-stalinisation</p>

Question 43

<p>Why was the cult of personality advantageous for Khrushchev?</p>

Answer 43

<p>it allowed him to be seen as the more important leader when power had originally been shared after 1953 with Malenkov</p>

Question 44

<p>Why did Khrushchev's cult of personality suit his style of leadership?</p>

Answer 44

<p>because it involved him personally meeting Soviet citizens on a much greater level thann Stalin, which were good photo opportunities, and allowed him to develop it into articles, books and posters</p>

Question 45

<p>How did cult of Khrushchev help during the later years of his leadership?</p>

Answer 45

<p>when his policies were increasing failing, he made use of radio, cinema and television for self-publicity</p>

Question 46

<p>How was the cult of Brezhnev beneficial to him after 1964?</p>

Answer 46

<p>during his power struggle with Kosygin and Podgorny after Khrushchev's removal</p>

Question 47

<p>Why didn't Brezhnev need to use the cult of personality at a large extent like Stalin?</p>

Answer 47

<p>because he was a popular leader due to his reluctance to use power to bring about change, the cult only gave Brezhnev symbols of power without having the exercise it</p>

Question 48

<p>How did Brezhnev use the personality cult to a larger extent after 1975?</p>

Answer 48

<p>when his health deteriorated and was clinically dead, the cult provided the appearance of leadership to the Soviet population</p>

Question 49

<p>How did the personality cult benefit the Party? (3)</p>

Answer 49

<p>it was useful to have one person as a focus for unity and loyalty especially during the FYPs in 1930s and war, it also provided a human face for socialism which remained a rather abstract concept for poorly educated Russians. it also made use of traditional Russian attitudes, where loyalty had to be expressed to the country through one person during the rule of Tsars. also filled a gap resulting from the severe restrictions of religious worship</p>

Question 50

<p>Why did the Bolshevikes see religion as a threat?</p>

Answer 50

<p>they think it is a threat to the imposition of socialist ideology, since the Church provided an alternative ideology to that of Marxism</p>

Question 51

<p>What emphasis did Christianity have that contrasted with the ideology of socialism?</p>

Answer 51

<p>the emphasis on rights of the individuals contrasted with the collective mentality of socialism</p>

Question 52

<p>Which religious group did the Bolsheviks have most concerns with? Why?</p>

Answer 52

<p>the Ruthssian Orthodox Church, they saw it as an instrument of social order that posed a threat to the imposition of socialist values and government control + it was tied closely to the old order (the tsar was its head), and the majority of the population took the word of their spitiual leaders seriously</p>

Question 53

<p>Which phrase was used by Marx to describe the use of religion by the ruling class as a tool to keep the population under control?</p>

Answer 53

<p>opium of the masses' (Bolsheviks thought that there was to be no opium of the masses other than communism</p>

Question 54

<p>When was the Decree of Freedom of Conscience implemented? What did it do?</p>

Answer 54

<p>1918 - it separated the Orthodox Church from the state and it lost its privileged status, the Church was deprived of its land without compensation, its publications were outlawed and all religious education outside the home was banned</p>

Question 55

<p>What did the government do to the churches and monastries?</p>

Answer 55

<p>they destroyed a large number of churches or converted them to other purposes, the gov also closed all monastries</p>

Question 56

<p>Who was arrested by the end of 1918? (Russian Orthodox Churh)</p>

Answer 56

<p>Patriarch Tikhon was under house arrest, he was the head of the Orthodox Church</p>

Question 57

<p>How did the famine (of the civil war) negatively impact the Orthodox Church?</p>

Answer 57

<p>attacks on the Church inreased and valuable objects were seized to help pay for food supplies, priests were depived of the vote, denied rations during the civil war and suffered as victims during the Red Terror (1921-22)</p>

Question 58

<p>by 1923, how many bishops and priests had been killed?</p>

Answer 58

<p>28 bishops and more than 1000 priests killed</p>

Question 59

<p>What was establsied in 1929 by the Bolsheviks as propaganda campaign against religion?</p>

Answer 59

<p>the League of Militant Godless</p>

Question 60

<p>How did the League of Militant Godless promote against religion?</p>

Answer 60

<p>it launched events to disprove the existence of God which included taking peasants for plane rides to show them heaven did not exist in the sky, weeping icons were ridiculed, with demonstrations of how they could be operated by rubber squeezers</p>

Question 61

<p>How did the Bolsheviks attack rituals and baptisms?</p>

Answer 61

<p>religious rituals were attacked and there was a campaign to replace baptism with 'Octoberings', new names like Ninel (Lenin spelt backwards) were encouraged</p>

Question 62

<p>What was the impact of Patriarch Tikhon's death?</p>

Answer 62

<p>it opened the way for Metropolitan Sergei of Moscow to call on Church members to support the government</p>

Question 63

<p>What did the scale of the attacks under Lenin lead to?</p>

Answer 63

<p>many Church leaders seeked an accomodation with the regime</p>

Question 64

<p>By the end of 1930, how many village churches were destroyed/ gone?</p>

Answer 64

<p>four-fifths of village churches were gone/ destroyed</p>

Question 65

<p>Did Bolsheviks attack on the Russian Orthodox Church limit its influence?</p>

Answer 65

<p>it restricted the Church but did not stamp out its influence, in the mid 1920s, surveys of the peasantry revealed that 55% were still active Christians</p>

Question 66

<p>How did Stalin's policy of collectivisation accompany the campagion of religious repression?</p>

Answer 66

<p>more churches were closed and village priests were labelled as 'kulaks' and deported, further attacks followed during the Great Purge of 1936-39</p>

Question 67

<p>By 1939 (after Great Purge), how many bishops were still at liberty?</p>

Answer 67

<p>only 12 out of 163</p>

Question 68

<p>What event led to the ease of restrictions on the Church under Stalin?</p>

Answer 68

<p>the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, the Church supported the war effort, which promted an accommodation between Church and state</p>

Question 69

<p>In what ways did Stalin take a more liberal approach towards the Church?</p>

Answer 69

<p>the patriarchate was re-established, some churches reopened and new seminaries were set up to train priests, there were some acknowledgement that religion could play a beneficial role in sustaining morale during the hardships of war</p>

Question 70

<p>How did Khrushchev view religion?</p>

Answer 70

<p>also viewed that it needed repression (like Stalin), he was fevently anti-religious</p>

Question 71

<p>When did Khrushchev launch a harsh anti-religious campaign?</p>

Answer 71

<p>in 1958-59, continued until 1964</p>

Question 72

<p>What did Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign consist of?</p>

Answer 72

<p>the role of priest was limited to one of spiritual advice only, parish councils were placed under the control of Party officials who often took action to dismiss priests on the grounds that they wre no longer needed</p>

Question 73

<p>What was the impact of Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign?</p>

Answer 73

<p>1) within 4 years, 10,000 of the existing churches were closed 2)surviving priests were often harassed by the secret police 3) baptists and jew also suffered severe restrictions on their right to congregate and worship</p>

Question 74

<p>Did Brezhnev have a different approach towards religion? Why?</p>

Answer 74

<p>yes, he was happy to allow the Church to act within its defined limits (less persecution) because he was aware that storeis of religious persecution did not go down well in the West and had a damaging impact on the USSR's attempts to conduct foreign policy</p>

Question 75

<p>Under Brezhnev, what did the government use to monitor religious services? What were clergy classified?</p>

Answer 75

<p>Council of Religious Affairs, clergy were classified according to loyalty to socialism</p>

Question 76

<p>What was the Orthodox Church expected to do under Brezhnev?</p>

Answer 76

<p>to stick to formal church services and support Soviet policies, especially social policy where the Church could provide facilities, such as help for the poor</p>

Question 77

<p>Under Brezhnev, where there any opposition to the restrictions imposed on Churches?</p>

Answer 77

<p>yes, in 1976, a group of Orthodox priests set up the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers' Rights to draw attention to human rights abuse</p>

Question 78

<p>How did Brezhnev clamp down opposition against his policy for the Churches?</p>

Answer 78

<p>the leader of the Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers' Rights was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for anti-Soviet propaganda in 1979</p>

Question 79

<p>How were Jews and Baptists treated under Brezhnev?</p>

Answer 79

<p>they were treated with less tolerance bc they were more likely to be critical of the regime - their evangelical activities of preaching to gain converts were restricted, prayer meetings were broken up and members dismissed from their jobs</p>

Question 80

<p>Did the religious practices of the Jews and Baptists continue?</p>

Answer 80

<p>yes, unregistered congregations continued to meet and distribute prayer books</p>

Question 81

<p>Why was dealing with Islam a more difficult task for the Bolsheviks?</p>

Answer 81

<p>it was more engrained into a distinct way of life and integrated within its community</p>

Question 82

<p>Why was there a need to clamp down on the Islamic religion?</p>

Answer 82

<p>the Central Asia regions of the Soviet Union contained a sizeable Muslim community, they feared that Islam's link to national minorities within the USSR might threaten social cohesion of the state</p>

Question 83

<p>What did the government do to attack Islamic institutions and rituals in the mid-1920s? (7)</p>

Answer 83

<p>1) religious endowments of land were prohibited, making the upkeep of mosques more difficult <br></br>2) most mosques were closed down <br></br>3)sharia courts were phased out <br></br>4) Mullahs were removed during collectivisation (forced to admit to being 'deceivers of the ppl') <br></br>5) campaign against veiling of women launched on International Women's day in 1927(many women took part) <br></br>6) ramadan fasting was condemned as interfering with work discipline <br></br>7) polygamy prohibited on the ground of its subjection of women</p>

Question 84

<p>What did the measure against Islamic institutions lead to?</p>

Answer 84

<p>a series of violent revolts in 1928-29, during which the Chechens of Southern Russia were particularly active - crushed through the use of Sovet armed forces</p>

Question 85

<p>Was the attack on Islam successful?</p>

Answer 85

<p>no, many Muslims attempted to observe obedience to the state in public while retaining Islamic customs in private, others joined underground brotherhoods to continue to fight for Islamic rights</p>

Question 86

<p>What did the government anticipate the impact of the Communist Party's attacks on the Orthodox Church and Islam would result in?</p>

Answer 86

<p>decrease in numbers engaged in active worship</p>

Question 87

<p>How can it be argued that the Communist Party was successful in attacking religion?</p>

Answer 87

<p>a survey commissioned by the governmend during the 1980s found that only 25% of the population believed in God, far fewer were engaged in any religious worship</p>

Question 88

<p>How can it be argued that the Communist Party was unsuccessful in attacking religion?</p>

Answer 88

<p>the gov's actions seemed to have intensified faithful believers' religious commitment, an underground network of support developed that often provided sustenance to those who needs were not met by the government</p>

Question 89

<p>What was the name of the secret police under Lenin? Who was its leader? What was their task?</p>

Answer 89

<p>Cheka in 1917, headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, its task was to act against counter-revolution and sabotage (that they undertook with great ruthlessness)</p>

Question 90

<p>What was the role of Cheka during the civil war?</p>

Answer 90

<p>they were given powers to act with minimal interference from other legal bodies so they could act quickly to deal with actual and perceived enemies</p>

Question 91

<p>Who were the Cheka's targets during the Red Terror? How many opponents were shot?</p>

Answer 91

<p>Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, up to 200,000 opponents were shot</p>

Question 92

<p>When was Cheka replaced? Who was it replaced by?</p>

Answer 92

<p>replaced by the GPU in 1922, which became the OGPU in 1923</p>

Question 93

<p>What was the significance of the change from Cheka to OGPU?</p>

Answer 93

<p>the growing independence of the secret police from the interference from other state institutions, they became a body that only took orders and instructions from the leadership of the Communist Party</p>

Question 94

<p>How did the power of the secret police increase further in 1934?</p>

Answer 94

<p>when it merged with an enlarged Interior Ministry - NKVD</p>

Question 95

<p>How did Stalin use the secret police?</p>

Answer 95

<p>during the Five-Year Plans, secret police were used to deal with kulaks and other peasants who opposed collectivisation in the Gulags - to ensure the successful transformation of the USSR</p>

Question 96

<p>How did Stalin use the secret police when consolidating his power?</p>

Answer 96

<p>to identify political opponents (esp after trial of Zinoviev, Kamenev), purge the right o the party and members of the Red Army who were accused of working with foriegn countries to undermine the USSR</p>

Question 97

<p>How did the secret police deal with the arrests?</p>

Answer 97

<p>they would often arrest ppl in the middle of the night to disorientate the accused, they would be torture until ther confessed (high profile victims- show trials)</p>

Question 98

<p>When did Yagoda become the head of the secret police? What was keen to do under this position?</p>

Answer 98

<p>1934, he was keen to prove his loyalty to Stalin and with his ambitious nature - resulted in a concerted attempt to build up his own empire</p>

Question 99

<p>What did Yagoda's time as head of secret police lead to the the rapid expansion of?</p>

Answer 99

<p>Gulag (the Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps), in 1930, the labour camps were expanded under the Gulag and transformed into a vast system of forced labour to support industrialisation</p>

Question 100

<p>How did Yagoda deal with opponents?</p>

Answer 100

<p>he used his influence with Stalin to ensure that the secret police could deal with opponents without interference from regular courts</p>

Question 101

<p>How did the labour camps (under Yagoda) contribute to the economy?</p>

Answer 101

<p>the camps were to provide a pool of labour for exploiting the economic resources of the Soviet Union in areas where no one would live of their own free will, those deported to labour camps were placed in hostile environments, where many died of extreme cold and starvation</p>

Question 102

<p>What was one of Yagoda's industrial achievements?</p>

Answer 102

<p>the completion of the White Sea Canal, which used 180,000 labourers from the Gulag that dug by hand, the canal was completed under budget in less thatn 2 years but costed 10,000 lives + because of low costs, the canal was not dug deep enough, which made it useless</p>

Question 103

<p>How did Yagoda's influence increase?</p>

Answer 103

<p>during the Great Purge in 1936 when the number of political opponents arrested rose (he was given the task of arresting members of the Party who had alleged links with the Trotskyite opposition)</p>

Question 104

<p>When was Yagoda removed from power and why?</p>

Answer 104

<p>1936, he was accused of incompetence of not being able to safeguard Kirov and for not pursuing the opposition with sufficient enthusiasm</p>

Question 105

<p>Who was Yagoda replaced by?</p>

Answer 105

<p>Yezhov</p>

Question 106

<p>How was the process of arest, trial and imprisonment sped up under Yezhov?</p>

Answer 106

<p>Courts made up of 3 people, one of whom was the regional NKVD boss, in Sep 1937, the Karelian Court processed 231 prisoners each day</p>

Question 107

<p>What happened to the Gulags under Yezhov?</p>

Answer 107

<p>in July 1937, he issued orders that required camps to meet quotas for the execution of prisoners, NKVD officers who carried out the executions were awarded medals, but often executed themselves in order to meet quotas</p>

Question 108

<p>How did surveillance of the general public by the NKVD increase under Yezhov?</p>

Answer 108

<p>plain-clothes police officers were used + system of informers from the general public themselves to collect info on the behaviour of individuals, Soviet criminal code was used to condemned people for anti-Soviet activity and the no. of detectives recruited to the NKVD quadrapled and extra staff were employed to torture subjects</p>

Question 109

<p>Under Yezhov, who were considered opponents?</p>

Answer 109

<p>anyone who didn't show sufficient commitment to the Revolutionary cause, even the secret police were at threat from accusation (members of NKVD were also purged)</p>

Question 110

<p>When was Yezhov dismissed? What did Stalin accuse him of?</p>

Answer 110

<p>1938, he accused Yezhov of being responsible for the excesses for the pruges</p>

Question 111

<p>What was Beria's approach to the procedure of arrest and trial?</p>

Answer 111

<p>he reintroduced more conventional methods of police procedure and public trials were only held where solid evidence was available</p>

Question 112

<p>Did surveillance continue under Beria?</p>

Answer 112

<p>yes, but it only led to arrests when evidence was found</p>

Question 113

<p>What was one of Beria's achievements?</p>

Answer 113

<p>the oversee of murder of Trotsky, killed by a Stalinist agent in Mexico in 1940</p>

Question 114

<p>What did Beria do to the Gulag?</p>

Answer 114

<p>made it a more profitable part of the Soviet economy, in 1939 food rations were improved to get maximum work out of prisoners + 1000 scientists were put to work on various projects that created many new military hardware (e.g. Tupolev, an aviation engineer, and Korolev, Soviet space programme)</p>

Question 115

<p>How did the Gulag's economic activity grow from 1937-1940?</p>

Answer 115

<p>2 billion roubles to 4.5 billion roubles</p>

Question 116

<p>What was a success of Beria's reform of the Gulag?</p>

Answer 116

<p>by the 1950s, it was a major contributor to the Soviet economy, over 1/3 of the country's gold and timber and coal was produced through the Gulag</p>

Question 117

<p>How did the secret police's power changed in 1941?</p>

Answer 117

<p>they were given some powers of supervision of the Red Army with responsibility for monitoring disloyalty and dealing with any desertions</p>

Question 118

<p>What was the NKVD's power in relation to national minorities?</p>

Answer 118

<p>they were given control over the deportations of those national minorities whose loyalty to the Soviet state was considered suspect - e.g. Crimean Tartars, Volga Germans and Chechens - the three-person courts (Troikas) were given powers outside the normal process of law</p>

Question 119

<p>What department did Beria set up by 1943 after the German invasion?</p>

Answer 119

<p>Special Departments to root out traitors, deserts and cowards, anyone suspected of co-operating with the Germans, e.g. SMERSH dealth with suspected spies and it was probably involved in the murder of 4000+ Polish officers at Katyn in 1943</p>

Question 120

<p>How were Soviet troops that were captued by German treated?</p>

Answer 120

<p>they were considered suspects, and Order 270 treated all Soviet troops who surrendered to the Germans as traitors. and returning prisoners of war were automatically held in detention camps run by secret police</p>

Question 121

<p>What did Beria do during Stalin's last years?</p>

Answer 121

<p>he used his role as the head of secret police to a launch a fresh wave of purges to gain Stalin's favour when there growing rivalry within the Party - he targeted the Leningrad branch of the Party, and imprisoned over 2000 members in 1949</p>

Question 122

<p>What Affair seemed to be Stalin's warning to Beria? (as Stalin was becoming suspicious of Beria) </p>

Answer 122

<p>the Mingrelian Affair of 1951, Beria was of Mingrelian ethnicity</p>

Question 123

<p>Why did Politburo members move so quicly to remove him from his position in June 1953 (after Stalin's death)?</p>

Answer 123

<p>bc he had a lot of power, he was in control of the secret police, the network of Soviet spies across the world, the Gulag system and its associated links to industry</p>

Question 124

<p>Who took the lead to eliminante Beria?</p>

Answer 124

<p>Khrushchev</p>

Question 125

<p>What did the Politburo do to limit the independence of the secret police after Beria's removal?</p>

Answer 125

<p>it was brough firmly under Party control, answerable to the Soviet Security and Intelligence Service (KGB), Khrushchev also dismantled the Gulag system and forced labour no longer played a party in the Soviet economy</p>

Question 126

<p>How can it be argued that Stalin was responsible for the extent of terror? (6)</p>

Answer 126

1) he signed many death warrants, adding comments on the lists of those arrested
2) he gave the NKVD quotas to meet or they would be under threat of arrest as welll
3) the use of terror accompanied Stalin’s policies (e.g. collectivisation, FYPs- meet demands for rapid success)
4) expanision of terror was due to the demand for slave labour to meet targets of the FYPs
5) he set the parameters for the purges (e.g. death of Kirov and Yezhov)
6) many aspects of the terror reflect Stalin’s paranoid personality

Question 127

<p>How can it be argued that the three heads of secret police were just merely functionaries carrying out Stalin's orders?</p>

Answer 127

<p>1) Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria all became powerful leaders of the secret police as a consequence of their willingness to follow Stalin's wishes, they all had sadistic tendencies, they owed their positions to Stalin 2) none of the three had much impact on the targets of the terror (they were made by Stalin)</p>

Question 128

<p>How can it be argued that the three heads of secret police had a role in influencing the development of terror</p>

Answer 128

<p>1) even though Stalin set the targets of the terror, and arguably they were the ones that implemented them, the three took the opportunity to add to the death lists people who stood in their way (e.g. Yagoda used his influence to enhance his career, Yezhov advanced his career by undermining Yagoda) 2) they had influence in the implementation of terror and the operation of the Gulag (e.g. the changes the three heads made to the Gulag system - Yagoda expanded it greatly during collectivisation, Yezhov speeded up process etc.)</p>

Question 129

<p>Who headed the KGB in 1967? What was its role?</p>

Answer 129

<p>Andropov, its role was to carry out surveillance of perceived enemies</p>

Question 130

<p>Who were the dissidents?</p>

Answer 130

<p>those who criticised the Soviet state or system and included a diverse range of people, they were the KBG's target</p>

Question 131

<p>Which 4 groups of peope did the dissidents make up of?</p>

Answer 131

<p>intellectual, political dissidents, national dissidents and religious dissidents</p>

Question 132

<p>Why were intellectuals considered dissidents?</p>

Answer 132

<p>because their high status in society allow them to develop independent ways of thinking, constatly came up against restrictions (that were usually of political nature)</p>

Question 133

<p>What was an example of intellectual dissidents?</p>

Answer 133

<p>Andrei Sakharov, a scientist, wrote a letter to Brezhnev complaining about the restrictions put on their research since they weren't allowed to exchange ideas with forieng colleagues nor use foreing equipments, the authorities later banned him from further military research</p>

Question 134

<p>Who were political dissidents?</p>

Answer 134

<p>people who tried to hold the government to the account of its own laws, they were usually concerned with abuses of human rights that broke Soviet law and international agreeents signed by the USSR</p>

Question 135

<p>What was the UN Declaration on Human Rights 1948?</p>

Answer 135

<p>that all member states had to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms for all (including freedom of speech)</p>

Question 136

<p>What was the Helsinki Accords 1975?</p>

Answer 136

<p>an agreement to respect basic human rights, e.g. freedom of speech/ movement</p>

Question 137

<p>How did political dissidents hold the government accountable?</p>

Answer 137

<p>by establishing groups to monitor the Soviet Union application of the UNDHR and Helsinki Accords</p>

Question 138

<p>Who were the nationalists?</p>

Answer 138

<p>groups of Ukraines, Latvians, Lithuanians and Georgians- they wanted a greater status of their own national languages and culture; some for independence from the USSR</p>

Question 139

<p>what did the KGB do to the nationalists?</p>

Answer 139

<p>they tried to ban celebrations of the anniversary of a Ukranian poet and also caused fire at the Ukranian archive</p>

Question 140

<p>What did the Lithuanians do to raise awareness? What happened to them?</p>

Answer 140

<p>they formed a National Popular Front to call for greater recognition for them and an end to Soviet colonisation, but further arrests followed</p>

Question 141

<p>Whose support did the nationalist groups have?</p>

Answer 141

<p>their compatriots from abroad</p>

Question 142

<p>Who did religious dissidents include?</p>

Answer 142

<p>Baptists and Catholics- they both faced restrictions on their worship/ religious practices, Catholic dissidents were often prominent in the Baltic republics</p>

Question 143

<p>Which religious group had support from the US Congress?</p>

Answer 143

<p>refuseniks (Soviet Jews) who had been denied their wish to emigrate to Israel - they remained a difficult issue at international summits</p>

Question 144

<p>What did the dissidents do to promote their cause?</p>

Answer 144

<p>they would produce illegal, self-published materials that voiced their concerns - 'samizdat'</p>

Question 145

<p>By the 1970s, how did the dissidents promote their views?</p>

Answer 145

<p>they made use of foreign press to advance their case</p>

Question 146

<p>How were the intellectuals treated by the secret police/</p>

Answer 146

<p>they were threatened of expulsion from their professional organisation, or might be denied permission to publish/ be dimissed from their posts, houses were searched to look for any materials that could be used to produce material + they were classified as political prisoners (would be discriminated at wrk, fail to gain a place at uni, continued surveillance)</p>

Question 147

<p>By the mid-70s, how many political prisoners did Amnesty International estmate that there would be?</p>

Answer 147

<p>10,000</p>

Question 148

<p>What did the new criminal code in 1960 do?</p>

Answer 148

<p>abolished night-time interrogations and limited the powers of the KGB, but Article 70 provided the authorities the power to deal with anything that was 'anti-Soviet'</p>

Question 149

<p>Even though the criminal code 1966 dropped the requirement in criminal code in 1960, what changes were made the arrest/trial procedure?</p>

Answer 149

<p>the arrested had to be dealth with a court of justice, court records of proceedings were kept (which allowed dissident to publicise their cases)</p>

Question 150

<p>What was one important development made to the treatment of dissidents?</p>

Answer 150

<p>the use of psychiatric hospitals who were run by the NKVD and 'patients' were held until they were 'cured' (which usually meant changing their views and opinions of the Soviet state), those who refused to change their views would be 'treated' with electric shocks and drugs</p>

Question 151

<p>What was an example of a dissident being treated in a pyschiatric hospital?</p>

Answer 151

<p>Natalya Gorbanevskaya, one of the editors of the 'Chronicle of Current Events' (samizdat) was sent there for treatment</p>

Question 152

<p>What was another method to limit the impact of dissidents?</p>

Answer 152

<p>send them into internal exile, troublesome academic were sent to out-of-the-way places (which was why the Siberian division of the Academy of Science produced a lot of excellent works)</p>

Question 153

<p>What was an example of a dissident being sent to internal exile?</p>

Answer 153

<p>Sakharov in 1980 was sent to Gorky (close to the foreigners) which restricted his means of communication with supporters</p>

Question 154

<p>What issues within the USSR did the dissidents shed light on to other countries? What problems did it cause for the USSR?</p>

Answer 154

<p>violation of Helsinki Accords 1975 bc of the treatment of dissidents which could embarrass the Soviet leader and damage Soviet diplomacy with the growing mass comunication on a worldwide scale, internatioal condemnation sometimes led to the realse of dissidents</p>

Question 155

<p>Did the dissidents have support from the general public?</p>

Answer 155

<p>no, the dissidents were a collection of individuals but not a coherent group nor movement, they struggled to organise public demonstrations, and when they did, they received little support (due to fear of prosecution by the secret police)</p>

Question 156

<p>What was an example of a failed public demonstration by the dissidents?</p>

Answer 156

<p>in 1968, they organised a public protest at the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in Red Square but only 7 people showed up</p>

Question 157

<p>By the end of 1970s, whose measures had succeeded in keep the dissident groups small and divided and in a state of mutual mistrust?</p>

Answer 157

<p>Andropov, using developments in surveillance technology like electornic bugging devices, professionalism, status and reputation of the KGB also grew</p>

Question 158

<p>What event convinced Andropov of the need to control dissident to prevent a popular uprising?</p>

Answer 158

<p>the Hungarian Uprising in 1956</p>

Question 159

<p>Under Andropov, how did monitoring of dissident groups increase in 1982?</p>

Answer 159

<p>there were plain-clothes secret police officers, conversations were recorded using tape and cassette recorders and listening devices and cameras were secreted in briefcases and bras so that the KGB was well informed of the criticisms put forward by the dissidents, and their threats to political and social stability had been effectively neutralised</p>

Question 160

<p>What did Andropov believe popular discontent would be based on apart from the threat of dissidents?</p>

Answer 160

<p>Economic conerns, he was concerned with the growing inefficiency in the Soviet economy and believed that if the Soviet gov did not deliver a reasonable standard of living, there would be an uprising</p>

Question 161

<p>How did Andropov use the secret police to bring greater efficiency to the Soviet economic system?</p>

Answer 161

<p>secret police were used to clamp down on alcoholism and absenteeism in the workplace, KGB officers also did spot checks on factories to record attendance and combed the streets for traunting workers</p>

Question 162

<p>Why were female workers disavantaged by the KGB's spot checks on factories for attendence?</p>

Answer 162

<p>because female workers had to work full-time as well as queuing for food at shops (due to cheap government-set prices, which meant that goods sold really quickly upon arrival at shops)</p>

Question 163

<p>What did Andropov do in order to 'acquire an understanding of the society in which [they] live'?</p>

Answer 163

<p>he visited factoreis to talk to workers, in Feb 1983, he visited a Moscow factory but this event was rather contrived because he was humourless and lacked charm, workers who met him felt restricted by the fact that they were talking to the ex-head of the KGB</p>

Question 164

<p>What did Andropov do to the appointment of government advisers to get more in touch with the general population?</p>

Answer 164

<p>he surrounded himself with people who were relatively free thinkers, e.g. journalists/ academics, who were in touch with the causes of popular discontent - he made use of a group of sociologists and economists, espeically Tatyana Zslavskaya, who argued that the abritraty nature of the Soviet gov was a key cause of resentment</p>

Question 165

<p>Within the Party leadership, what did Andropov do so that it more in touch with the general population?</p>

Answer 165

<p>by promoting a younger, more reformist generation, whose experience in the lower ranks of the Party meant they were more in touch with the realities of daily life in the USSR - e.g. Ligachev, Gorbachev, Ryzhov</p>

Question 166

<p>To Andropov, what was the best way to make the existing system work better in order to meet the needs of the population and address public concerns?</p>

Answer 166

<p>instilling greater discipline in the workforce</p>

Question 167

<p>Was the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s stable?</p>

Answer 167

<p>yes, there was little public criticism of the government and social conflict was rare, and a well-worked system of propaganda, censorship, rewards and sanctions was highly effective. However, this doesn't mean that the Soviet public was happy since there was still public discontent</p>

Question 168

<p>New Soviet Man</p>

Answer 168

<p>An ideal socialist who thinks and acts according to socialist values. Soviet government's aim of producing the 'New Soviet Man' entailed using writers and artists to construct a whole new culture that would sweep away the old bourgeoisie culture associated with the Tsarist regime.</p>

Question 169

<p>What was Lenin's view on culture?</p>

Answer 169

<p>According to Lenin culture was vital but subordinate to class conflict and the retention of power.
<br></br>
<br></br>Lenin's cultural tastes were conservative, with a liking for classical Russian culture.
<br></br>
<br></br>He wanted the Party to keep high-calibre artists and writers on side as much as possible.</p>

Question 170

<p>When was the establishment of the Commissariat of Enlightenment?</p>

Answer 170

<p>1917</p>

Question 171

<p>What was the Commissariat of Enlightenment?</p>

Answer 171

<p>It was a ministry of culture, to support and encourage artists.
<br></br>
<br></br>This was a development accepted by artists as it replaced the heavy restrictions and censorship of the old regime.</p>

Question 172

<p>What was Lenin prepared to do to those artists who were not Communists?</p>

Answer 172

<p>Lenin seemed prepared to accommodate those artists who were not Communists but who were sympathetic to the ideals of the Revolution.
<br></br>
<br></br>Trotsky labelled these artists as Fellow Travellers.</p>

Question 173

<p>What was the Prolekult?</p>

Answer 173

<p>Proletkult was an experimental Soviet artistic institution which arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolution of 1917.</p>

Question 174

<p>Who promoted the Prolekult?</p>

Answer 174

<p>Alexander Bogdanov, a leading figure in the Party, and Anatoly Lunacharsky, the head of the Commissariat of Enlightenment.</p>

Question 175

<p>What did the prolekult entail?</p>

Answer 175

<p>A group of proletariat artists assembling where art was to serve a social and political purpose.
<br></br>
<br></br>The emphasis was to be on the collective of the worker as a class, rather than individualism.
<br></br>
<br></br>Workers and peasants were encouraged to make their own culture, from writing their own stories to putting on theatre productions. E.g Smithy Magazine, that contained poems about machines and factories.</p>

Question 176

<p>What is an example of the Prolekult?</p>

Answer 176

<p>The anniversary of the Revolution in 1920 was celebrated by a re-enactment of the Storming of the Winter Palace using over 8,000 people.
<br></br>
<br></br>Parades through Red Square in Moscow were organised and directed by the Party by such an extent that they were examples of street theatre.</p>

Question 177

<p>Constructivists</p>

Answer 177

<p>Those who wished to create a new proletarian culture based on the worker and industrial technology.</p>

Question 178

<p>High culture</p>

Answer 178

<p>This is used to refer to art forms, such as ballet, opera and fine art, that are geared towards a restricted and exclusive audience. Prolekult was a deliberate direct challenge to high culture.
<br></br>
<br></br>The Bolsheviks disliked high culture as opposed to low culture as it is seen as a bourgeoisie art.</p>

Question 179

<p>What happened to Prolekult in the early 1920s?</p>

Answer 179

<p>Although Prolekult was popular for a time, by the early 1920s the government was concerned at the variety of viewpoints expressed through this culture from the people, and started to impose restrictions on it. Lenin was suspicious of the organisation and believed that Prolekult was dominated by socialists associated with opposition movements such as anarchism. Also believed that working people needed an education rather than opportunities for artistic expression.</p>

Question 180

<p>Avant-garde</p>

Answer 180

<p>A wave of experimental art, the influence modernism, with its emphasis on abstract art, was coupled with futurism as artists attempted to convey visions of a new futuristic world.</p>

Question 181

<p>Which artist the Bolsheviks use?</p>

Answer 181

<p>In poster art, the Bolshevik regime was to hire the services of talented poet and playwright, V Mayakovsky, who set his work producing posters and slogans for the government. Lots of stress on visual arts b/c low literacy rates.</p>

Question 182

<p>What was Agitprop?</p>

Answer 182

<p>Lenin and Trotsky believed art could be used to inspire ppl to support the new govt. In 1920= establishment of the Department of Agitation Propaganda (agitprop), a dept within the CP. In the same year, the Commissar of Enlightenment established a similar dept: Glavpolitprosvet. Tgt these two organised propaganda that was designed to support the govt, and agitprop was often produced by avant-garde artists.</p>

Question 183

<p>Who was Sergei Eisenstein?</p>

Answer 183

<p>Eisenstein was a leading innovator in the new medium of cinema under Lenin, when Soviet Cinema flourished. He already made 'Strike' in 1924 and 'Battleship Potemkin' was to be produced by 1925. Lenin stated the importance of cinema as a tool for promoting political messages, but it was sometimes too sophisticated; culture of avant-garde was not the answer to mould ppl's beliefs and values. Dziga Vertov was also another experimental film maker who filmed people in their daily lives -- so experimental that Pravda described them as 'insane'.</p>

Question 184

<p>Cultural Revolution</p>

Answer 184

<p>Launched in 1928, it was the movement by Communist Party activists to purge all 'bourgeoisie' elements from Soviet culture.</p>

Question 185

<p>Why did the Cultural Revolution entail?</p>

Answer 185

<p>-A full-scale assault on traditional writers and artists. Fellow travellers tolerated under Lenin were replaced by artists whose loyalty was not in question.
<br></br>
<br></br>-Theatre productions of suspect plays were disturbed by booing and whistling .
<br></br>
<br></br>-The Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP) made increasingly bitter attacks on the Fellow Travellers and condemned the decadent individualism of writers who adopted new experimental techniques.</p>

Question 186

<p>Komsomol</p>

Answer 186

<p>The youth organisation of the Communist Party that were encouraged to root out and attack 'bourgeois' elements.</p>

Question 187

<p>Cult of the 'little man'</p>

Answer 187

<p>The writings of novels that glorified the achievements of the industrial worker and collective peasant. It was encouraged by the government and was the criticism of bourgeoisie writing., which often focused on wealthy people of high status. E.g Kataev's novel 'Time Forward'.</p>

Question 188

<p>What happened to the RAPP in 1932?</p>

Answer 188

<p>In 1932, the Party leadership announced that RAPP would be closed down and replaced by a new Union of Soviet Writers.
<br></br>
<br></br>This, in effect was bringing the cultural Revolution to an end.</p>

Question 189

<p>Socialist Realism (brought about in 1932 under Stalin [when the Russian CR ended])</p>

Answer 189

<p>A term used to describe art that produced idealised images of life under socialism to inspire the population towards the achievement. Stalin had strong views on art and thus initiated a significant shift in Soviet art.
<br></br>
<br></br>Social Realism was used to convince the Soviet population that Stalin's statement of 1935 'Life has become more joyous' was true. It contained a 'true reflection of reality'.</p>

Question 190

<p>What was art like under socialist realism?</p>

Answer 190

<p>-There was to be no experimentation with avant-garde styles.
<br></br>
<br></br>-Art was harnessed by the regime to project real images of life under the Five-Year Plans.
<br></br>
<br></br>-Stalin told artists they should make it clear who was responsible for socialism. This often resulted in a fusion of socialist realism with the personality cult of Stalin.</p>

Question 191

<p>What was literature like under Socialist Realism?</p>

Answer 191

<p>-Saw a change away from the cult of the 'little man' to heroes connected to the Party.
<br></br>
<br></br>-The standard plot of novels in the 1930s was a hero from the people who is guided by the Party to greater things.
<br></br>
<br></br>-The low price of these books and the tenfold growth in library acquisitions ensured the population had access to the material</p>

Question 192

<p>What was music like under socialist realism?</p>

Answer 192

<p>- Pressure to toe the line as well. In 1935, Stalin walked out of a performance of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (a politically correct story of adultery) due to discordant notes.
<br></br>
<br></br>-The real reason was Stalin's shock at the bedroom scene, where trombones were used to underline what was happening.
<br></br>
<br></br>-In popular music, government favoured military songs rather than jazz, this led to the banning of saxophones in the 1940s.</p>

Question 193

<p>What was architecture like under Socialist realism?</p>

Answer 193

<p>-Socialist realism promoted the style known as 'Stalinist baroque', better known as 'wedding cake' architecture, which made use of classical lines.
<br></br>
<br></br>-Many buildings were built in this style, the best example being Moscow University, which was rebuilt after 1945.
<br></br>
<br></br>-The Moscow metro system was another example of Stalinist baroque, with stations decorated with chandeliers and elaborate murals.</p>

Question 194

<p>What was film like under Socialist Realism?</p>

Answer 194

<p>-The achievements of the Revolution were conveyed through films such as Eisenstein's October (1927), which presented the heroic events of storming the winter palace in 1917.
<br></br>
<br></br>-This served the interest of government in presenting the Revolution as a mass movement.
<br></br>
<br></br>-During the second World War, the cinema was used to present patriotism in the defence of Mother Russia and socialism.</p>

Question 195

<p>How did the government use Socialist Realism?</p>

Answer 195

<p>It gave the government many opportunities to use the arts and popular culture to mobilise support at a range of levels for the regime b/c of formalised but accessible styles in art & writing.</p>

Question 196

<p>What happened after the Second World War with culture?</p>

Answer 196

<p>-The government was prepared to allow artists and writers to have greater freedom.
<br></br>
<br></br>-Both Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova were allowed to give public readings of their unorthodox poetry. in Moscow in 1946</p>

Question 197

<p>Western Culture condemned in the Zhdanovschina campaign</p>

Answer 197

<p>-Zdanov was a Party boss in Leningrad and had a particular interest in culture.
<br></br>
<br></br>-In 1946, a campaign was launched to remove all aspects of 'bourgeois' culture from the West. Influenced by Xenophobia.</p>

Question 198

<p>How was Khrushchev's cultural policy like?</p>

Answer 198

<p>A series of 'thaws' and 'freezes'. During the 'thaws' a degree of freedom of expression was encouraged, and during the 'freezes' government control was re-emphasised. This 'zig- zag' policy reflected the contradictions in Khrushchev's approach to art and the pressure Khrushchev was under from the Communist Party to maintain control and suppress the truth about the true horrors of Stalin's policies.</p>

Question 199

<p>Why did Khrushchev want to form an alliance between the Party and creative intellectuals?</p>

Answer 199

<p>1) due to investment in education by previous soviet leaders, there was a growing no. of intellectuals in the SU.
<br></br>2) Khrushchev believed that intellectuals should help the govt build socialism. This is because he believed that true intellectuals wld understand the benefits of Communism and thus willingly collab w/ Soviet leaders.
<br></br>3) He also believed that Communism should liberate the artists</p>

Question 200

<p>Conflict between Khrushchev and art?</p>

Answer 200

<p>1) He believed that ordinary Soviet workers were not ready for complete freedom, or even the truth abt Stalin's policies.
<br></br>2) He believed that freedom could destabilise the Party by allowing criticism of the govt.
<br></br>Thus, K's policies lurched b/w his desire to increase freedom for some and his concern that too much freedom, especially for ordinary citizens, could undermine the regime.</p>

Question 201

<p>What was the impact of de-Stalinisation on culture?</p>

Answer 201

<p>Those artists and writers who wished to express themselves freely were to receive greater hope from Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation policy after 1957.
<br></br>
<br></br>Khrushchev allowed work to be published that had previously been banned:
<br></br>- Work by Isaac Babel, a writer who had been shot in the purges, were published.</p>

Question 202

<p>Examples of voices speaking out against official culture</p>

Answer 202

<p>Writers began to explore new themes such as spiritual concerns, the bleakness of rural life, problems of adultery, divorce, and alcohol abuse.</p>

Question 203

The ‘thaws’ under Khrushchev (3 examples)

Answer 203

• 1953-54: Post-Stalin, the gov authorised novels which acknowledged generational differences between the new generation of the 1950s and the previous generation of Stalinists. The Soviet journal ‘New World’ published Ilya Ehrenburg’s story ‘The Thaw’. The novel was critical of various aspects of Stalinism, including mass terror.
• 1956-57: After Khrushchev’s Secret Speech, there was another period of cultural liberalisation. ‘New World’ published Vladimir Dudintsev’s ‘Not by Bread Alone’ (abt an innovative worker’s battles with the unjust Party bureaucracy). Again, the story was critical of the Stalin period.
• 1961-62: After the Twenty-Second Party Congress and the vote to remove Stalin’s body from Red Square, books were published that criticised aspects of Stalin’s rule. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s short story ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’, which tells of the life of a prisoner in the Gulag, is the best-known work published in the period. Additionally, Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera, ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’, which had not been performed since Stalin criticised it in 1936, was performed again in 1962.

Question 204

<p>Were the 'thaws' only about literature?</p>

Answer 204

<p>No; there were other cultural innovations during these periods. For example, during the World Youth Festival, in Moscow in 1957, young people danced to jazz music
<br></br>and African drumming. Equally, in terms of music the
<br></br>Soviet Union experienced a 'thaw' under Khrushchev. For example, the classical music of Western Europe and the US, which was not taught in schools under Stalin, was put back on the curriculum in 1957.</p>

Question 205

<p>The temporary 'freezes' at the end of each period (as artistic expression went beyond the limits that the authorities were prepared to tolerate)</p>

Answer 205

<p>1) After the initial thaw in 1953-54, Boris Pasternak's novel 'Doctor Zhivago' led to cultural restrictions. Pasternak's novel was critical of Lenin's period as leader and therefore unacceptable to Khrushchev's regime. The book was banned in the Soviet Union until the late 1980s.
<br></br>
<br></br>2) After the final thaw Khrushchev was horrified by an exhibition of Moscow artists. He reacted to the show with anger shouting loudly.
<br></br>
<br></br>3)The final freeze led to the arrest and imprisonment of
<br></br>several artists. The poet Josef Brodsky, for example, was arrested in January 1964.</p>

Question 206

<p>What was happening to the culture by the late 1950s?</p>

Answer 206

<p>Nonconformity was starting to have an important impact on the youth culture of the USSR.
<br></br>
<br></br>Soviet youths became influenced by music tastes from the West. Urban groups developed who listened to the pop and rock 'roll music that was smuggled from the West.
<br></br>
<br></br>From 1955, this music was broadcast into the USSR by the radio station voice of America.</p>

Question 207

<p>Explain the rise of the guitar-poet?</p>

Answer 207

<p>Its leading figure was Alexander Galich, who composed and performed his own work rather than official pieces produced by the government.
<br></br><br></br>The guitar-poet typically addressed the feelings of the individual and often spoke to the socially alienated.</p>

Question 208

How was the Khrushchev government still keen to challenge non-conformity (despite the ‘thaws’)? Pt.1

Can be said to be more ‘freezes’

Answer 208

1) Propaganda and ‘popular oversight’ = Propaganda poked fun at Soviet people. The new posters attempted to challenge non-conformity through ‘popular oversight’. Posters presented non-conformist citizens as bald, fat, or lazy. These posters were designed to encourage ‘popular oversight’. Citizens were expected to keep other citizens under surveillance. Rather than reporting misbehaving citizens to the police, good citizens were encouraged to intervene with helpful moral advice.
2) Disciplining ‘style hunters’ = K’s govt went to great lengths to ensure that women conformed. The govt was concerned that women wld be seduced by consumerism into lives of glamour and reckless shopping. Consequently, there was an official campaign against young women who adopted Western fashion, so-called ‘stilyaga’ (style hunters). Also concerned w/ rising female female sexuality/female sexual desire/promiscuity.

Question 209

How was the Khrushchev government still keen to challenge non-conformity (despite the ‘thaws’)? Pt.2

Answer 209

3) The 1970s and early 1980s = The govt was still concerned abt Western styles. Thus, Soviet magazines continued to mock Western ways of dressing, and teachers were expected to discourage Western styles at schl. Nonetheless, sometimes official attempts to discourage new fashions backfired. In terms of pop culture, the govt lost the battle against non-conformity. By the mid 1970s, the fashion hunters won.
4) Deviant artists = K’s ‘thaws’ didn’t allow all Soviet artists to publish their work through official govt-owned publishing houses. Thus, from the 1950s, writers self-published (‘samizdat’). ‘Doctor Zhivago’ was refused publication in 1954 in the SU, but it was smuggled in and ‘samizdat’ editions were produced. Artists that refused to submit to govt control were sent to psychiatric institutions in order to be cured. Some artists were forcibly medicated as part of their ‘treatment’. Conditions in the hospitals were poor & mental & physical health deteriorated.

Question 210

Clashes between artists and the government: Khrushchev Pt.1

Answer 210

Altho cultural restrictions were lessened after 1953, the boundaries of what as permissible was constantly tested by artists.
- The limit’s of K’s thaw was shown by the treatment of Pasternak’s ‘Doctor Zhivago’. Soviet publishers were uncertain abt publishing it, but K intervened and decided the book shld be banned. However, the novel was smuggled abroad & its reception was very positive. To K’s embarrassment, Pasternak was awarded a Nobel Prize for Lit. However, K didn’t allow Pasternak to go to Sweden to collect his prize, & this whole affair caused int’l embarrassment.

Question 211

Clashes between artists and the government: Khrushchev Pt.2

Answer 211

• Abstract art was another area where nonconformity wasn’t encouraged. K hated abstract art, and when he visited the exhibition hall in the Kremlin in 1962, the abstract artists were harangued full view of the cameras and left the exhibition in fear of arrest and imprisonment. But, change occurred and no action was taken against the artists (to K’s fury). K also hated Jazz and even held a conference in 1961 to decide which dance moves were acceptable. However, enforcing the decision was a failure.

Question 212

What was the policy towards culture under the Brezhnev years?

Answer 212

Many artists and writers found the new cultural climate easier to work in as there was more certainty over what was permissible, but nonetheless they continued to push the boundaries over what was acceptable. Official culture continued to focus on propaganda & achievements of the socialist state, providing stirring themes for the population.

Question 213

What did Brezhnev try to do with art and culture?

Answer 213

He wanted to revive faith and interest in the heroic deeds of the revolution and created Cultural Conservatism to try and do this. He was a lot less interested in arts than Khrushchev was, and was critical of his willingness to publish works that contained the difficulties of soviet life. Thus, art under Brezhnev was more nostalgic as he tried to revive faith in the heroic days of the Revolution.

Question 214

What were the aspects of non-conformity?

Answer 214

• By the 1970s, Soviet culture had become conservative, and artists and writers were more likely to get into trouble by touching on sexual themes than political ones.
• The derevenshchiki school of village highlighted the value of simple rural life; it was romanticised.
• Russian nationalism received some encouragement from the government , but the so called writers (‘Russites) who took up the theme, alienated non-Russians and often came close to criticising the Soviet Union.
• Increasing influence of pop music. Soviet youth continued to be drawn to cultural trends in the West. Vladmir Vysotsky emerged as an influential guitar poet whose songs of sex and delinquency were popular. His funeral in 1980 = lots of grief that worried the govt bc it signalled alienation of young ppl frm Soviet society.

Question 215

Why did cultural non-conformity in the cultural sphere cause government irritation in the early 1980s?

Answer 215

Artists and writers continued to use a range of responses to avoid conforming to the role expected of them by the govt. Some emigrated and others were exiled or refused to work. However, in the Brezhnev years, subtexts in one’s work was more common, and the audience/reader became skilful at grasping these messages.

Question 216

What was the 1964 trial of Joseph Brodsky about?

Answer 216

He was arrested by the KGB for not being a licensed poet but still reading poems aloud. Records of his trial were smuggled abroad and he was released and deported. He was accused of ‘parasitism’ and condemned for the ‘depravity’ of his poetry. Subject to forced psychiatric treatment & then imprisoned.

Question 217

What did the Joseph Brodsky trial show?

Answer 217

His case was used to send a message to those artists who wished to work independently of the state. The treatment of Brodsky indicated that, despite the cultural thaw of the Khrushchev years, there were limits to what Brezhnev’s government was prepared to tolerate.

Question 218

What happened to Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel in 1966 (The Sinyavsky-Daniel trial)?

Answer 218

In 1965 arrested under article 70 for for novels that depicted life as harsh & anti-soviet propaganda. There was then a demonstration of 200 students against this and an open letter written supporting the accused but A.S got 7 years in a labour camp and Y.D got 5 years.

Question 219

What was the impact of international pressure?

Answer 219

New regime was aware of international outrage that persecuting writers and artists provoked. Thus, some writers that were imprisoned under Khrushchev were released. I.e Brodsky released in 1965. After the Sinyavsky-Daniel trial, show trials & imprisonments became rare. Well-known artists were allowed to emigrate, whilst not well-known artists were sent to psychiatric institutions, as there wld not be an int’l reaction as they weren’t well-known.

Question 220

What was the impact of the Prague Spring 1968?

Answer 220

It was a period of political liberalisation and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It led to further hardening of B’s attitude to art and culture. It confirmed B’s views that cultural liberalisation was a danger to Communist rule. Thus, post-1968, there was increasing pressure for artists to conform.

Question 221

What were dissident artists like in 1968-85?

Answer 221

Despite B’s cultural conservatism & policy of repression, dissident artists continued to write, paint, & perform in the SU throughout his premiership and into the mid 1980s. I.e in the 1970s, a group called the Moscow Conceptualists attempted to make art which was a ‘rebellion against everyday life’. It was supposed to expose the truth, and was thus an antidote to propaganda.

Question 222

Examples of control and further clampdowns?

Answer 222

The govt attempted to control and direct cultural output by an extensive system of state subsidies and ensuring access to the radio and venues. Awards and privileges were given to those artist and writers who served the interests of the state. Employment could be withdrawn from troublemakers.

For those writers and artists who continued to push the boundaries, the government resorted to more punitive measures. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Writers’ Union in 1969 and then expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974.

Question 223

Why was dealing with subversive elements in popular culture more difficult?

Answer 223

Due to the underground nature of much of their activity. It was left to Andropov’s govt of 1982-84 to clamp down on these activities. They understood that accommodation of pop music was necessary, so govt restricted output of songs not composed by official Soviet composers to 20% of radio airtime.
Clashes b/w nonconformist artists and the government caused bad publicity for the Soviet Union in the West, but these high-profile cases were of less significance within the USSR itself.

Question 224

Summary of each leader’s response to arts and culture?

Answer 224

L: Early stages of rev = room for creativity. In the NEP = large amounts of creative freedom as Prolekult and avant-garde artists flourished. However, as comm consolidated their power, they attempted to extend control of artistic expression. From mid-20s , independent creativity dwindled & more traditional artists emerged.

S = Stalinism led to conformity and govt control in almost all aspects of life. The art reflected growing concerns among Communists during the 1920s about the impact of experimental art and pop culture on Soviet ppl.

K = Non-continuity with ‘thaws’ and ‘freezes’. His cultural policy reflected his personality in that it was subject to mood swings. Less tolerant of nonconformity in his last months & this attitude was entrenched by his successors.

B = Sceptical of K’s ‘thaws’. He wanted to celebrate the achievements of the Stalin period, rather than expose its atrocities. Officials became backward looking, particularly focusing on the Soviet triumph in WW2.