Wartime and post-war Stalin - Politics

Question 1

The great patriotic war

Answer 1

-june 1941, operation barbarossa launched on ussr
-initially successful, failed to capture moscow
-1942, attack on caucasus oil fields to the south
-tank battle at kursk summer of 1943
-germans driven back, reaching berlin by 1945

Question 2

Events of june 1941

Answer 2

-23 jun, stavka is established, military planning
-30 jun, state defence committee set up by politburo

Question 3

Events of july 1941

Answer 3

-1 july, stalin reassumes authority as leader in stavka/gko
-3 july, stalin makes first public wartime address
-20 july, stalin becomes the supreme war leader

Question 4

Wartime leadership

Answer 4

-running of the war increasingly left to general staff
-if leaders showed incompetence they were removed, eg voroshilov and budyenny replaced by men of talent
-stalin relied on zhukov, defended moscow nov 1941

Question 5

Impact of the war on multiculturalism

Answer 5

-aug 1941, dissolved volga german autonomous republic
-deported karachai, kalmyks, chechens, ingushi, mesketians and crimean tartars from homelands
-1.5 million forced to uproot, brutally treated, only 2/3 survived journey to kazakhstan, uzbekistan, siberia etc

Question 6

Impact of the war on the party

Answer 6

-during war 5 million candidate members, 3.6 million new
-3.9 million candidate and 2.5 million new in army/navy
-1945, 1/4 of those in armed forces communists
-military only 15% of party june 1941, 50%+ by 1945

Question 7

Impact of the war on stalin

Answer 7

-became more paranoid, sent returning pows to labour camps as he believed they were tainted
-cossacks wiped out for supporting germany

Question 8

Impact of the war on government

Answer 8

-soviet government a popular nationalist gov, military power
-molotov, voroshilov, mikoyan, kaganovic, andreyev remained in politburo

Question 9

Dismantling of wartime institutions

Answer 9

-state defence committee (gko) dissolved 4th sep 1945
-military hierarchy downgraded, stalin became defence minister, high ranking officers demoted
-zhukov sent to military command at odessa

Question 10

Reduction in party power

Answer 10

-malenkov lost position as party sec, zhdanov became stalins closest advisor
-malenkov reappointed in 1948 and zhdanov died
-politburo reduced to an advisory body

Question 11

Party membership under high stalinism

Answer 11

-recruitment fell back from the war years
-still 7 million members in 1952, komsomol 16 million