-
• Russia’s economy incapable of providing food and equipment
• Tsar incompetent war leader -
-
• Provisional Govt Established
• Continued to fight in war, Lenin gains popularity with ‘Peace, Land and Bread’ message as economy worsens -
• 13 People’s Commisars
• Trotsky – People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
• Stalin – People’s Commissariat of Nationality Affairs
• Initially only had power in Petrograd, not in other cities or rural areas
• Previous people of power refused to recognise Bolshevik authority (e.g. General Dukhonin, Chief of Staff of Russian army, refused to give orders to stop fighting) -
• Peasants right to seize land from nobility and Church
- At first working people stole property from aristocrats and the middle class, then legalised so govt could regulate
- Former owners were killed, forced out or allowed to keep one room -
• Committed govt to withdrawing from WW1 and seeking peace
• Gave govt ‘breathing space’ to rebuild economy and construct new govt -
• 8 hour working day
• Minimum wage -
• Large estates belonging to church (religion!) or aristocrats broken up and given to peasants to farm own land
• Win support and stimulate agriculture -
• Emergency powers to govt to close any counter-revolutionary
o Initially shut down supporters of the Tsar or Provisional govt
o By 1918 shutting down non-Bolshevik socialist papers -
• Govt control of electronic means of communication
-
-
Proletkult was an experimental Soviet artistic institution which arose with the 1917 Revolution with the intention of creating a proletarian culture
• Independent from the govt
• Through Proletkult, working people had access to local art studios giving them the opportunity to create and exhibit artwork
• Flourished 1917-1920, a considerable feat considering that the Civil War was taking place Prompt setting up suggests Bolshevik highly prioritised culture -
• Only the govt can publish ads
-
•Felix Dzerzhinksky head 1917-1926
•1917-1921:
oAid RA grain requisitioning
oClosing opposition newspapers
oImprison/tortur/execute socialist opponents
oExtreme violence against opponents in recently captured areas
- more likely to revolt
Crucified priests
Allowed large nos of White Army to freeze to death, becoming ice statues
Scalped, burned opposition alive
oRan concentration camps
oPoliced private trading
•Civil War ends, Red Terror ends - Cont use of secret police, but much less -
-
• Allowed workers to elect committees to run factories
-
• Sovnarkom respond to the Congress of Soviets – representatives (from varying political parties) of local democratic councils
• Led to belief that Bolsh would establish a coalition govt, so gained them broader support
• Within the party Kamenev and Zinoviev supported forming a coalition
• Lenin refused to give in to moderates, and many resigned as a result – left Lenin with govt full of people wanting a Bolshevik only govt -
• Lenin refuses to recognise results of Nov 1917 elections as resulted in a Bolshevik minority in the Assembly
• After only one day Lenin closes it down, claiming it posed a threat to the power of the soviets
• Carried out attacks on other socialists
o Closed by the Cheka
democratically elected body dominated by SRs -
• Significant proportion of Russian territory given to Central Powers
• Very unpopular, lost Bolsheviks soviet elections in April and May – Lenin refused to recognise these elections claiming they were not fair -
1918-1921
•Bukharin states formal democracy has to be abandoned to win the CW, all elections postponed
•Lenin establish control across Russia
•Increasingly authoritarian+centralised (War Comm, Nomenk, Terror)
•Took power away from people claimed to represent
•Bolshevik opposition(Russian army wanting re-establish Tsarist rule, SRs and Mensh wanting democratic socialism, Anarchists wanting abolish govt, BR, FR, USA and JAP troops because fear of the rev spreading/opportunity to seize territory) -
o 1917 Cheka established
o Responsible for raiding anarchist organisations, closing opposition newspapers, expelling Mensh and SRs from the soviets – torture, imprisonment, executions (including barbaric killings e.g. Ukraine Church leaders impaled on spikes), raping of women
• Building the Red Army
o Abolished elections of senior officers
o Tsarist generals put back in
o Disciplined, led by highly trained experts -
•Lenin – rev had destroyed capitalism but economy not yet strong enough to start building socialism
•Nationalism ended capitalism by taking industry away from middle-class owners
•All industry run by the Vesenkha
oEnsure factories properly organised by appointing skilled managers
oCo-ordinate economic production to meet needs of society
•Small factories and workshops not nationalised
•Not radical enough for many in the Party incl Bukharin, but Lenin pushed through anyway March – June 1918 -
July-December 1918
•Emergency econ measures for comm victory in CW
•Designed to ensure:
oHigh prod war goods
oFood prod enough to feed pop and soldiers
oGrain requisitioning
oRationing–workers+soldiers most, bourgeoisie least
•Harsh punishments for lateness/slacking
•Abolition of the market
oGovt printed more money, hyperinflation. Money so worthless payed workers through rations and public services (money abolished, move away from capitalism)
oPrivate trade illegal
oAll businesses nationalised -
Part of War Communism
-
• lost privileged position in society, property nationalised, religious education banned in schools
-
• Moscow Orthodox priest massacre, due to Church decree excommunicating the Bolsheviks
-
September 1918 Ended unemployment
Able-bodied men 16-50 lost the right to refuse employment
People in work issued a work card which entitled them to rations
After money was abolished, rations were based on occupation
Working class get bigger rations than the aristocracy of ‘former people’
Only 25% of workers’ rations -
• Journalists who committed ‘crimes against the people’ could be punished by the Cheka
-
Abolished private ownership of land
Can no longer make money by simply owning things
Introduced universal labour duty
Hypothetically:
Everybody must work
No one lives off others working
No one unemployed
However, ensuring stable employment was difficult due to the economic chaos caused by the February and October revolutions
Also, the Russians left WW1 in 1917
War production ceases, jobs decline and out of work soldiers -
-labour schools provide free polytechnic education to 8-17y.o.s
-banned religious teaching
-ended gender segregation
-abolished corporal punishment, homework+exams
-free breakfasts+medical examinations
-churches made into schools
BUT insufficient resources to carry out during civil war
-free compulsory education not achieved until 1950s
-schools did not have resources to provide free meals and checkups
-traditional methods used due to no system training them otherwise -
- for ages 16-28 -Wore uniforms, took part in activities and campaigns (put up posters of leaders) -However had a reputation of drunkenness, promiscuity and hooliganism
-
o War meant govt had to make quick decisions, so Lenin relied on the politburo rather than the Sovnarkom as it was smaller and could reach quicker decisions. From 1920 Sovnarkom merely become rubber stamp
o Orders didn’t go to local soviets but rather to local party branches -
Part of War Communism
-
- the department of the Russian Communist party devoted to women's affairs in the 1920s.
-
Lesbianism and prostitution also legal at this time.
-
- required illiterate people between 8 and 50 to learn to read and write and allowed the gov to conscript literate people to teach.
-
August 1920-June 1921
• 100,000 people deported to labour camps
• Peasant villages attacked with poisonous gas -
oBrought under state control
oLenin critical of Proletkult
Believed the best culture was universal – not reflecting the bourgeoisie or just the proletariat, but rather reflecting the human spirit
Believed Proletkult was dominated by socialist opposition groups e.g. anarchists
More important to give working class basic education, vs artistic opportunities
Saw continued independence of Proletkult as a threat to the state
Commissariat of Education was responsible for culture and education -
Agitprop: political propaganda in art and literature
Set up as a department in the Communist Party
Organised propaganda production to support the govt
Used avant-garde artists
Mostly experimental art
e.g. 1918 ‘Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge’ – one of the most famous Civil War posters
o Used geometric shapes to represent the Red and White sides -
• Demanded
o Free and fair elections to soviets
o Release of political prisoners
o Freedom of speech and press
o Abolition of Cheka
o End to War Communism
• Lenin responded by having Red Army crush uprising
Cheka stood behind Red Army soldiers with instructions to shoot any soldier retreating or refusing to fight -
• Opposition parties survived Civil War and played key role in strikes
• Russia is a one party state
• Cheka given task to destroy all opposition parties
• Crushing of political opposition consolidated the communists power between 1921 and 1922 -
• Ban on factions
o Lenin faced opposition from factions within the party such as the Workers’ Opposition group who wanted to reintroduce workers’ control of industry and the Democratic Centralists who wanted the Party to be more democratic
o ‘On Party Unity’ speech/policy declared members found guilty of forming factions would be expelled
o Strengthens Lenin’s position in the party as makes it more difficult to organise opposition against his policies
• NEP introduced -
• Why introduced:
o Economic retreat in order to retain political power
o Stimulate grain production and end famine
o Clear by this point would need to build socialism without foreign aid
• Grain requisitioning over
• Peasants sell and buy grain in a free market
• Factories with less than 20 people denationalised
• Money reintroduced -
Under NEP
-In first 18 months the number of children in education and the number of school halved -
-
Soviet Constitution set up - guaranteed 'freedom of conscience' for all people
-
General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press
-
oSupervise deportation of professors and engineers suspected of anti-Communist sympathies
-
Uneven growth – agriculture recovered quickly
Greater supply of food leads to lower prices
Industrial prices raise because of less supply
Farmers’ incomes can’t compete with industry prices
Over time, less incentive for farmers to produce large amounts of grain -
1923-24 large towns were socialised. Owners lived in single rooms.
Church property was nationalised, priests evicted. -
- after CWar over
-
• Before his death party is pluralistic – number of powerful people with varying views
• Everyone knew Lenin was the mastermind behind the revolution – to win power, must show Leninism
• Uncertain what positions held power, as Lenin held power from his reputation, not his positions -
honour of his achievements in the Oct Revolution in Petrograd
-
-
-May 1925 working with trade unions they set up an initiative to make all adults in the USSR literate by October 1927. Libraries and reading rooms set up in factories
-goals of campaign pushed back to 1933 as peasants were hard to help
-literacy liquidation campaign abandoned 1927 -
-Reforms difficult to uphold as soviet law courts had little authority.
-1917-28, 70% of divorces were initiated by men.
-1926 marriage code said that adoption was easier and facto marriage.
Postcard divorce of 1926. -
-majority of children gained 4 years of education
-
-
• Red army and Cheka ordered to requisition grain from peasants
• In response to ‘Kulak grain strike’
• Rationing in cities
• Need grain to feed workers and for exports
• Peasants responded with violence, destroying/hiding grain
• Stalin claimed attack coming from capitalist Kulaks resisting communism
• Initiated ‘liquidation of the Kulak class’ – mass deportations and killings of resistant peasants
• 1.5 million sent to labour camps -
1928 - 1932
• Cut short due to problems with the plan -
- mocked females who fought against the Bolsheviks.
-
-
-inequalities e.g in countryside unlikely to get even 3 years of education
-
• Farms forcibly merged
• Equipment taken from richer peasants, given to poorer
• Peasants on collectives allowed to keep small amount of grain to live on -
- 1930s + 30,000km of railways was built
-
-
1930-1953
Stalin wanted art to reflect govt priorities not individual creativity
oLed to emergence of Socialist Realism: art containing ‘a true reflection of reality’ with the aim of society ‘participating in the building of socialism’
e.g. realistic paintings, of workers in a factory
Reflected Stalin’s strive for conformity and govt control
Set targets for painting/sculptures to be produced
Sculptures of Stalin erected countrywide, not just in major cities e.g. the village of Chokh -
- Party believed women's issues had been solved
-
o Fiercest resistance to collectivisation
o Punished by Stalin by seizing livestock and grain
o 1932-1933 5 million deaths
o Stalin refused international aid for farmers
o Used famine to destroy Ukrainian resistance -
-1932 decree introduced discipline on students punctuality and homework.
-National code of conducts; sit and stand as prep for discipline in factories. -
-100% of children between 8-12 would be in primary education by 1932.
-
1933-1937
-
-
-
-
• Stalin came second to Kirov in vote which elected new central committee
• Senior party members urged Kirov to stand against Stalin for Gen Sec, but he refused -
• Allowed Stalin to claim there was a dangerous conspiracy to overthrow the CP
-
o Led hunt for enemies of the party following Kirov’s death
o He disappointed Stalin
Scale of terror in 1935 and 1936 not unusual by Soviet standards
Targeted Kamenev and Zinoviev, not Bukharin and Trotsky -
May 1934 decree teaching of civil history which taught the achievements of great men.
-Nationalistic
-Focus to respect Stalin and love their country - ulterior purpose. -
•Because:
oCongress of Victors
oAssassination of Kirov
oOpposition to Stalin
1932 Ryutin writes doc critical of S, S demands he's executed. Kirov convinces reduction to prison (power!)
1933 Kir argues for more realistic targets in 2FYP
1933 Kir nominated as S’s deputy – threat
oEcon problems
Snr govt offs aware of probs with S’s ag and ind. policies, undermining his authority
By accusing workers+managers of being ‘sabateours’ he could pass blame
Send ppl to Gulags, free slave labour -
Zinoviev, Kamenev and supporters
-
Terror intensifies
-
o Reasoning for brutality:
As socialism advances, class struggle intensifies, due to capitalists fighting harder against socialism -
1936-53 aimed to increase birth rates and cut divorce rates. In 1936: 1) abortion was criminalised 2) contraception was banned 3) gays criminalised (5 years in gulags) 4) no sex outside marriage 5) divorce expensive and difficult. 6) Pronatalist policy, women paid to have kids.
-
Trotsky's former supporters
-
o 1937 eight senior Red Army leaders tried and executed for plotting to overthrow the govt – they had been part of Trotsky’s govt so S did not trust them
o 37,000 officers purged from army -
The period of the most intense purge, 1937–1938
o 1.5 million arrests
10% of the male population
Half deported, half executed
o Mass arrests of govt officials left entire apartment blocks empty in Moscow and Leningrad
o Terror expanded and accelerated due to popular participation
Workers and peasants organising their own show trials -
Some loyal to Stalin’s opponents
Opposed to use of mass terror – those ideologically in line with Lenin
o New recruits
Not loyal to the Party – loyal to Stalin
No ideological opposition
Enjoy violence/power
o ‘Conveyer belt system’
Agents working in shifts around the clock to get confessions -
Eight senior Red Army leaders tried and executed for plotting to overthrow the govt – they had been part of Trotsky’s govt so S did not trust them
o 37,000 officers purged from army -
Gave Stalin prominent role in all party policy since Lenin’s death and showed Stalin as essential in saving the revolution (a hagiography is a publication which intentionally creates an idolised, saint-like image of a person often regardless of the facts. The Short Course was a pure hagiography rather than history.)
-
Bukharin and supporters
Also Yagoda -
o Eliminated all remaining rivals
o Removed whole generation of communists that had worked with Lenin – Stalin now sole claim to Leninism
o New generation owed their positions to Stalin, loyal
o Established principle that Stalin had the right to eliminate anyone disloyal
o NKVD became a powerful organisation
o Death of approx. 10 million, 10% of pop.
o Established Stalin as only source of authority in the USSR Continued on a smaller scale until Stalin's death. -
Responsible for Trotsky murder, Mexico 1940
WW2 targetting of ethnic groups who may be sympathetic to the Central Powers
o From 1942-1953 53,000 of 130,000 Kalmyks in Siberia survived
Post WW2:
o 1945 interrogated prisoners of war
Stalin viewed them as traitors for being captured rather than fighting until death
Most exiled to Siberia -
Due to Stalin's policies of:
-compulsory primary school education
-3 million volunteers from Komsomol educated workers and peasants
-campaign successful. In 1st 5YP 90% of adults attended a literacy course, 68% literate -
- so did the number of students in uni education.
-
-
Stop movement for better pay/conditions
-
-
Reaction to Hitler's June 1941 invasion of USSR
-
July 1943 - to avoid distraction.
-
1945 onwards
Economic strain -
-
-
1946-1950
-
Purge launched against the officials in the Leningrad party because they were operating as if they were ‘an island in the pacific’ – too independent of Moscow
Beria had stake in the Leningrad affair as many of his potential rivals for power post-Stalin were there – very possible he orchestrated it -
depicts Stalin flying in and being greeted by cheering crowds when the Red Army liberated Berlin from the Nazis in May 1945 - actually Stalin rarely flew and didn’t go to Berlin until Sept when the war was over
-
-
-
1951-1955
-
Leadership struggle ensues:
o Georgy Malenkov
Replaced Stalin as Premier
Powerbase in the state
o Nikita Khrushchev
Secretary of Central Committee
Popular member of politburo
Powerbase in party
o Lavrentiy Beria
Head of NKVD
Stalin’s deputy P
MVD his power base -
•All senior party officials to speak the language of the republic worked in
•All official publications available in languages of the republics Caused Fall of B:
•Reforms weakened MVD
•Rivals still feared he would use MVD to terrorise/execute them
•Khrush+Malenkov plot to arrest+execute Beria
•June 1953 Presidium meeting K accuses B of handing soviet secrets to BR govt
•Put on trial, Malenkov accuses B of using MVD against USSR people
•Trial used to restrict power of MVD+restore power of party -
• Turning unfarmed than in Caucasus area, Kazakhstan, and Siberia into new farms
• September 1958 Corn Campaign
o Ukraine to grow maize
o Wheat production moved to the VLS areas
o Maize used to feed animals, hope to increase meat production
o Based on US farming
But:
• Climate different
• Lower labour productivity
Less mechanisation meant only capable of producing 50% amount of US maize at maximum
o Led to more corn but less hay, so amount of animal feed decreased September 1953 - 1963 -
Stalin’s medical staff arrested for trying to poison him
Possible sign that Stalin was planning to begin another purge
Stalin died before they could be executed
• After his death, they were released -
3 months after Stalin’s death
-
o 1953-1954
Following Stalin’s death
Authorised a series novels critical of Stalin’s era -
Slow progress
-
• Reduced quotas under K
• Higher prices for grain produced in addition to the quota
• 250% increase in farm income 1952-1956
• Investment in resources
o Farm equipment, fertilisers, tractors -
• Used to weaken Malenkov and the state
• Personnel changes
o Secretary of central committee, so replaced half of regional officials and 44% of central committee with his supporters
• Anti-bureaucracy campaign
o Devolved power from soviet government to the republics
o Mid-1954 cut number of govt ministries from 55 to 25
o Proportion of industry controlled by state dropped from 68% to 44% -
• Due to K’s state reforms and initial success of Virgin Lands Scheme
-
o Govt realised church attendance was a form of resistance
Sparked Khrushchev's Anti-Religion Campaign -
By the mid-1950s
-
-
-
Post-Secret Speech
-
•K=Leninist–against CoP, shift focus to achievement of people
•Said S had abandoned collective leadership+set himself up as a dictator, put himself ahead of the CP
•Without listening to the Party S made mistakes e.g.purge Red Army b4 WW2
•Crimes-killing of thousands of innocents in GTerror
•K revealed scale of terror+quotes about Stalin from Len’s Test
•Didn’t crit any aspect of communist ideology
•Speech secret, but copies sent to USSR+East bloc leaders, leaked to the West+printed in NYTimes -
October-November 1956
o Elected new PM
o Ended military alliance with USSR
o Soviet troops came in and crushed revolution
Proof that democracy threatens communism? (Link to Gorbachev) Uprising also took place in Poland at the same time. -
o 1956-1957
Following secret speech, more cultural liberation
Focused on criticising Stalin
• Way of avoiding revealing faults of current regime -
o Put back on the curriculum after being removed by Stalin
o E.g. George Gershwin’s music taught in schools, US musician who was influenced by jazz music -
-
o Revelation of Stalin’s crimes forced people to question legitimacy of govt
-
• Democratisation designed to increase participation of workers in govt
o Not involving new elections
o Party membership expansion (6.9 million 1954, 11 million 1964)
o 1964 60% peasants
o Fixed terms for senior communists so regularly replaced
• Decentralisation
o Abolished some central ministries that oversaw the edconomy and desolved power to 105 new economic councils
• Meant officials demoted, lost jobs, moved away from Moscow – resentment within the party -
o Young people danced to jazz and African drumming
o World Music Festival still running today, yet Moscow remains to have drawn the largest crowd ever in the festival’s history -
o Plot taking place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the end of the Civil War
o Highly critical of Lenin’s regime and its causing of suffering to the Russian people
o Oh dear! Criticising Lenin was unacceptable under Khrushchev’s regime
o Shows things weren't becoming that much more free
o Banned until the late 1980s -
o Govt concerned about women (obviously not men!) having sex with foreign men
o Party members patrolled the streets and shaved the heads of women they found having sex
In some cases women were deported and forced to farm in the Virgin Lands for their ‘crimes’ -
• K argued decision to remove him should be taken by Central Committee, where he had majority support
• Sacked his opponents
• Attempted coup significant because:
o Demonstrated leaders no longer using terror against each other
o Proved party leader relied on support of the Central Committee -
• Response to World Festival of Youth and Students
-
•Churches re-opened WW2 reclosed
•Reintroduced anti-rel propaganda
•Convents put under surveillance
•Patrols prevented access of holy sites
•Targeted women bc 2/3 of church goers+passed beliefs to children
•Campaign against nuns for being ‘unnatural women’ - not wives/mothers
•Women-only meetings banned
•School expected to deliver anti-religious message
•3000 of 8000 orthodox buildings shut
•But women organised protests, created form of dissidence -
o Refused by Khrushchev to go to Sweden to collect his prize, saying he wouldn’t be allowed to re-enter if he left
-
1) compulsory age 7-15 2)11 year programmes aged 19 3) academies given places in special schools for academic education.
-Abolished the rule about right sitting and standing.
-1961 foreign languages taught.
-Homework dropped and final exams replaced by continuous assessments.
-June 1962 underachieving students couldn't be expelled. -
• Aim to boost ag prod and consumer goods by investing in light industry (due to chem prod)
• Improve standards of living
• Based on optimism due to
o Initial success of VLS
o High rates of growth
o Technical success in the space race in 1957 and 1959 -
-
2/3 of church goers women, likely to pass beliefs to children as play main childcare role
-
-
-
1961-1963
o Moderates said reform too quick
o Stalinists said destabilised govt
o June issued statement revising secret speech
o Brezhnev set up secret Special Commission for supressing anti-communist activities
o NYE speech said all communists were Stalinists -
• Restarted destalinisation
• Accused stalin of involvement in Kirov’s murder
• Congress voted to remove Stalin’s body from public display
• Fixed term for all jobs in the party e.g. 16 years for Central Committee -
June - November 1961
-
-
Featured successes of ordinary workers
-
o 1961-1962
Following the 22nd Party Conference and the vote to remove Stalin’s embalmed body from public display in Red Square (in Moscow)
Previously banned booked allowed to be published
• E.g. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s ‘One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich’ published in 1962, previously would have gotten him 10 years labour/prison -
– agriculture and industry, splitting even the Central Committee into ag bureau and in bureau
-
-
By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
-
-
• Political reforms created discontent within the party
• Economic reforms failed to boost growth, slowing from late 1950s
• Foreign policy considered rash and dangerous
• October K summoned to presidium meeting where he was criticised for mishandling the economy, foreign policy and creating own CoP
• This time the C Committee was behind the presidium
• K retired, media said stepped down to ill health
• Given a pension and put under guard for remaining 7 years of life -
•Ensured top two jobs not occupied by the same person -prevent emergence of all-powerful leader
•Divided key posts equally between supporter of B (General sec) +Kosygin (Premier)
•Pact kept 1964-1970 when Kosygin lost job as Prem
•‘Trust in cadres’/‘stability of cadres’ policy
oDiscourage promotions/demotions
oEnsured few battles over patronage
oGained support as replaced K’s unpo limited term policy
oRe-established all-union ministries abolished by Khrushchev
oEnded ag and in split -
○ The republics were allowed to teach in their own language
○ Increase in publications (books, newspapers) in language of the republic
○ Folk art, music and museums devoted to national culture allowed
○ Brezhnev’s ‘trust in cadres’ allowed locals to consolidate power in the CP in their area
■ Meant better reputation of e.g. Turkic people in the Central Committee and Politburo -
Invested in new materials and techniques.
-Khrushchyovka were low cost housing blocks. They had bathrooms, kitchens, 2 bedrooms and were 10x bigger than Kommunalka(or K-7 apartment blocks). They allowed privacy and were 5 stories high.
-These were constructed quickly and easily. They allowed families entire apartments. -
o Andrei Sinyavsky
o Yuli Daniel
o 2 authors arrested for producing anti-Soviet propaganda
o Show trial took place
o Used to show the public the end of the leniency under Khrushchev’s regime
o Only evidence presented against them was their writings
o Sentenced to 5 and 7 years in gulags
Hopes that Khrushchev’s fall would lead to a complete thaw, were ended -
-
• Designed to cut investment in inefficient collective farms and divert money to light industry
• Gave power over production to factory managers
• Judge success on profit not quantity
o Aim to make produce people actually wanted
• Was halted in August
o Similar reforms in Czechoslovakia had sparked a rebellion against the Soviet Union
o Authority returned to central planners -
Advised teachers on how to teach atheism
Brezhnev wishes to encourage atheism, rather than close churches and oppress -
Jan 1968 – Aug 1968
o Led to hardening of attitude towards arts and culture
o Czech reforms had attempted to liberate Czechoslovakia, and reject Stalinism
o Reforms led to pressure to end communist rule altogether and break away from the USSR
Brezhnev sent in troops to crush the liberal regime
o Confirmed Brezhnev’s suspicion that cultural liberation was a threat to communist rule -
■ Stated that the USSR had the right to intervene with military action to protect socialism anywhere in Europe
- Speech made at Fifth Party Congress
- Focused on nations which had been under Soviet control since the 1940s e.g. East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia -
o Live production where she posed nude in a forest to express female beauty independent of male desire
-
o retaining this became a prolonged strain on the economy
-
-
Exiled from the USSR in 1974
-
-small scale reforms
-all schools provide hot meals to draw in peasants. Textbooks also made free.
-Repealing the K reforms. In 1964-66 the council of ministries: 1) ended 11 year schooling 2) restored focus on academia 3) ended vocational training 4) abandoned compulsory secondary school education. -
broken up by police driving bulldozers, destroying the artwork
-
Women were employed to build a rail line across the north. This was an opportunity to liberalise and meet men.
-
-
-
Committed countries across Europe to respect human rights
USSR were a signatory
o Dissidents then used thus to show their treatment was wrong as it was breaching the agreement
Couldn’t stop the govt breaking the agreement, but could use it to embarrass them -
1976-1982
-
Stricter policies introduced due to increased problems in the USSR such as
o Economy slowing down
o Poor harvests
o The Afghan war
o Failure of Brezhnev’s negotiations with the USA
o Growing corruption’
o Growing non-conformity
o Also – Moscow Olympics 1980 – brought international media attention on USSR – clamp down on law and order
Andropov given permission to carry out attacks on hooliganism, drunkenness and corruption -
-
-
• Aged 68
• Believed system fundamentally worked but a few reforms were needed
• Needed to be more disciplined
o Abandoned stability of cadres, replaced ¼ of senior officials
o Introduced small scale economic reforms focusing on labour discipline
o Anti-corruption campaign: attacked senior figures e.g. Red army general and minister of the interior Nikolai Shchelokov and Boris the Gypsy, included media exposés of corrupt officials November 1982 - February 1984 -
November 1982- Anti-Corruption campaign
•Investigated senior Party members and factory managers who were using soviet resources to make themselves rich -
• KGB officers visited parks and other public areas and arrested people who were drunk or absent from work
-
February 1984 - March 1985 • 72 years old and extremely ill
• Gorbachev essentially ran govt for him
• Accomplished very little -
Stable from 1960-1985
-
-
● 1987 still 45 million registered alcoholics
● Failed:
○ Just began to drink Samogon, illegally manufactured alcohol
○ Govt therefore gained less money from tax on vodka sales, and from decreased alcohol sales overall
● The campaign was thus abandoned in 1988 -
Sharp decline in the global price of oil ($70 a barrel in 1985 to $20 by 1987)
Worst hit 1989 onwards -
1986-1990
‘Acceleration’ Economic initiative to end stagnation
●Huge increase in investment in modernisation - efficiency
■Failed - Sharp decline in the global price of oil significantly undermine govt’s ability to fund investment
●Further worsened by the drop in alcohol revenue
○Tried to finance by borrowing from the West
■Got the country into deep debt
■When investments didn’t lead to growth, the govt just spent more and more getting into more and more debt
●Debt with raising interest -
●First time a new set of priorities set out for the Party since 1961
○Outdated? Before Gorbachev was in power. Waiting so long to reform, reforms had to be dramatic
●Committed the Party to ‘systemic and all round improvement of socialism’
○Included ‘genuine democratic power exercised for the people and by the people’
●However, Gorbachev failed to set out detailed plans on how the reforms would be carried out Here, Yeltsin denounced privileges of Party leaders+advocated a new focus on equality -
○ Legal to make money from small-scale work such as private teaching or repair/maintenance jobs
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When leader Dinmukhammed Kunaew was replaced
Due to Andropov and Gorbachev deciding that an effective govt was more important than a representative govt
■ No longer committed to having republics staffed by locals
● Replaced existing leaders with Russians as part of the anti-corruption campaigns
■ Gorbachev’s politburo had only one non-Russian
● Govt dominated by Russians = resentment in the republics -
■ Population discovered 1986 Chernobyl crisis had occurred and its radiation impact due to Glasnost
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1986-1988
● Originally ‘glasnost term’ used as a commitment to being open about the state of the economy
● Became important because Gorbachev tried to use it to get around opposition within the Party
○ Looked outside the party for the support, inviting intellectuals to criticise the hardliners based on released information, and in turn supporting reform -
○ Devolved power from central management to factory managers
■ Factory managers allowed to set own prices
○ Failed. In two ways:
■ 1 - Little power was actually devolved
■ 2 - Ability to charge more meant the govt had to pay more for goods -
○ Large-scale private companies legal
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Originally the media criticised Stalin - Not new! Khrush did this in 1957
Now:
●Permitted to listen to foreign radio and read foreign newspapers
○Officials admitted to scale of the USSR’s problems:
■Inadequacies in healthcare+education
■Poverty of the rural population
●Much larger than scale understood by the people
○Especially the scale of inequality - Undermined the ideology of communism Now criticisms emerged of Lenin+Marx - undermined foundation of communism, let alone the Communist Party -
■ Armenian nationalists living in Karabagh wanted to unite with Armenia
● Azerbaijani nationalists organised a counter-campaign, resulting in violent riots
○ Gorbachev responded by introducing a new direct rule of Karabagh
■ This pleased neither side
■ Led to mass massacres and migration of Armenians
■ Both sides denounced the corruption of the USSR
● By the end of 1989 the CP had lost control of Azerbaijan -
Followed by 15 Soviet Republics, one by one.
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● Independent candidates as well as Communist Party candidates
○ People largely picked independent candidates rather than the Party
■ A considerable power shift
● Gorbachev hoped people would support radicals, which would help him to reform
○ However, led to a power shift to the Supreme Soviet, as it was now a democratically elected body
■ Took power out of the Party
● Taking power from Gorbachev, as the Party is his support base -
■Rejected the Brezhnev Doctrine
■Named Sinatra after song ‘My Way’ as Gorbachev’s policy was to allow other countries to follow their own path to communism
●He would not use military force to maintain control
○Result, October-November 1989 communism fell across Europe
●Poland and Hungary new leaders in democratic elections
●November Berlin Wall fell
■More than Gorb anticipated, but still refused to intervene
■Revolutions in East. Eur inspired Soviet republics to seek their own autonomy -
■ Soviet failure to restore peace/ negotiate compromise led to loss of faith in the CP
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■Georgian nationalists protested the right of the Abkhazian minority
●Soviet troops attempted to restore order by force
○19 protesters killed, thousands wounded
■Two main consequences:
●1 - Concerned nationalists - USSR govt was willing to use force?
●2 - The govt refused to take responsibility for the killings, instead blaming local military leaders
○From then on, military leaders refused to use force - became known as ‘Tbilisi Syndrome’
■The govt could now no longer rely on military support -
Yeltsin elected to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union as the delegate from Moscow district with a hugely decisive 92% of the vote
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○ Due to factors such as dissatisfaction and nationalism
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● Proposed widespread privatisation and complete market economy within 2 years
○ But, Gorbachev backed down from his proposals due to pressure from hardliners -
● Anti-communist trends now obvious
● In Moscow ‘Democratic Russia’ group won 85% of the vote 1990 -
● Gorbachev declared it illegal and imposed economic sanctions
○ But no resolution was reached
○ 1991 Soviet govt sent in troops, after failed economic sanctions
■ 14 killed
■ Outrage widespread at the use of force
● Yeltsin told Russia to refuse any orders to suppress political dissidence
● Also created his own Russian army to protect nationalists from Soviet troops -
● Gave them independence from the USSR
○ The USSR’s main republic is Russia - they can’t exist without Russia
● Rise in the use of the banned Russian flag -
● Gorbachev responded to unrest by proposing a reformed Union, giving all republics greater independence
● However, negotiations were hampered by Gorbachev’s declining authority
○ The other negotiators were all elected, and therefore he was not a match for their authority -
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■ State distribution systems were abolished - combined with the still developing market, there were food shortages across the entire USSR
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● Short term win, long term lose
● Gorbachev created the position because he wanted to increase his power independent of the Party, which was now weak
● However, he would not stand for public election, but rather was elected within the Party
○ This significantly undermined his power, as Yeltsin has won his position, yet Gorbachev demonstrated that he knew he didn’t have the nations support by not standing for free election -
○ Allowed nationalists to stand for and win elections as part of democratisation
■ Won majorities in several republic’s parliaments
■ First major nationalist challenge to the USSR since 1921 = CCP not equipped to deal with it -
● Private property legalised
● Stocks and shares available to citizens
○ Yet, the economy continued to decline
■ Oil production fell
■ Steel production also fell
● By the summer, the Soviet govt was effectively bankrupt
○ It no longer had the economic power to govern
■ It therefore could not implement any more reforms -
● Gorbachev hoping to strengthen his position by gaining popular support for a reformed Union
○ 6 republics refused to even participate
○ But, the of remaining republics 76% backed a new Union
● April 1991 Provisional agreement/ ‘9+1 agreement’
○ Independent states with a single president -
● 57% of the vote
○ CP candidate on 16%
■ Russia makes up 60% of the USSR’s population -
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In the wake of the failed coup against Gorbachev
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● Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine sign agreement replacing the USSR with the CIS
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●Gorbachev on holiday before the signing of new treaty
●Hardline opponents attempt coup to remove Gorb
○8 senior communists announce establishment of an Emergency Committee
■Said Gorb had resigned bc poor health
●Gorb refused to actually resign so kept on house arrest
○Yeltsin called a general strike to reject coup
■Soldiers ordered to arrest Y, but refused
●Y demanded Gorb put back in power
○W/out support of army, the Emergency Committee couldn't continue, and the coup collapsed after 3 days