USSR

By nualamoya

  • Russia enters World War 1

    • Russia’s economy incapable of providing food and equipment
    • Tsar incompetent war leader

  • 1914 32% of pop could read and write

  • February Revolution overthrows the Tsar

    • Provisional Govt Established
    • Continued to fight in war, Lenin gains popularity with ‘Peace, Land and Bread’ message as economy worsens

  • Lenin establishes the Sovnarkom

    • 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)

  • The Decree on Land

    • 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

  • The Decree On Peace

    • Committed govt to withdrawing from WW1 and seeking peace
    • Gave govt ‘breathing space’ to rebuild economy and construct new govt

  • The Workers' Decree

    • 8 hour working day
    • Minimum wage

  • The Decree on Land

    • Large estates belonging to church (religion!) or aristocrats broken up and given to peasants to farm own land
    • Win support and stimulate agriculture

  • Decree on the Press

    • 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

  • Nationalisation of Petrograd Telegraph Agency

    • Govt control of electronic means of communication

  • Archpriest Ivan Kochurov murdered

  • Proletkult set up

     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

  • State monopoly on advertising introduced

    • Only the govt can publish ads

  • The Cheka is set up

    •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

  • October Revolution led by Bolsheviks overthrows the Provisional Government

  • Decree of Workers' Control

    • Allowed workers to elect committees to run factories

  • Constitution created and Sovnarkom set up

    • 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 disbands the Constituent Assembly

    • 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

  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

    • 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

  • The Civil War

    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)

  • The Red Terror

    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

  • State capitalism

    •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

  • War Communism

    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

  • Working day extended to 11 hours

    Part of War Communism

  • Decree Concerning Separation of Church and State, and of School and Church

    • lost privileged position in society, property nationalised, religious education banned in schools

  • Decree allowing massacres of priests

    • Moscow Orthodox priest massacre, due to Church decree excommunicating the Bolsheviks

  • Compulsory labour introduced

    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

  • Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press

    • Journalists who committed ‘crimes against the people’ could be punished by the Cheka

  • Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited Peoples

    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

  • Unified Labour Schools set up under 1918 Education Decree

    -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

  • Komsomol founded

    • 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

  • Emergence of a party-state

    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

  • Work made compulsory for all able-bodied people between 16-50

    Part of War Communism

  • Zhenotdel established

    • the department of the Russian Communist party devoted to women's affairs in the 1920s.

  • Women given equal pay, work and voting rights

    Lesbianism and prostitution also legal at this time.

  • Decree On Illiteracy

    • required illiterate people between 8 and 50 to learn to read and write and allowed the gov to conscript literate people to teach.

  • Tambov Uprising

    August 1920-June 1921
    • 100,000 people deported to labour camps
    • Peasant villages attacked with poisonous gas

  • Lenin merged Proletkult with the Commissariat of Education

    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

  • Department of Agitation Propaganda (Agitprop) set up

     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

  • Kronstadt Uprising

    • 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 Banned

    • 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

  • 10th Party Congress

    • 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

  • New Economic Policy (NEP)

    • 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

  • Govt closed some schools and introduced fees

    Under NEP
    -In first 18 months the number of children in education and the number of school halved

  • Rent reintroduced

  • USSR created

    Soviet Constitution set up - guaranteed 'freedom of conscience' for all people

  • Glavit set up

    General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press

  • Cheka unit developed to monitor the press

    oSupervise deportation of professors and engineers suspected of anti-Communist sympathies

  • The Scissor Crisis

     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

  • Large towns socialised

    1923-24 large towns were socialised. Owners lived in single rooms.
    Church property was nationalised, priests evicted.

  • House building restarted

    • after CWar over

  • Lenin dies

    • 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

  • Petrograd renamed Leningrad

    honour of his achievements in the Oct Revolution in Petrograd

  • Town of Tsaritsyn renamed Stalingrad

  • Literacy Liquidation Campaign

    -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

  • Marriage Code

    -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.

  • 1927 fees for primary schools abolished

    -majority of children gained 4 years of education

  • Stalin emerges as leader of USSR

  • Stalin introduces emergency economic measures, ending NEP

    • 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

  • The First Five Year Plan

    1928 - 1932
    • Cut short due to problems with the plan

  • 1928 'October' Film

    • mocked females who fought against the Bolsheviks.

  • Access to economic data was put under the control of Glavit

  • 1928 60% of children were in primary school

    -inequalities e.g in countryside unlikely to get even 3 years of education

  • Compulsory Collectivisation

    • Farms forcibly merged
    • Equipment taken from richer peasants, given to poorer
    • Peasants on collectives allowed to keep small amount of grain to live on

  • Moscow Metro train line constructed

    • 1930s + 30,000km of railways was built

  • Past 1930, Stalin rarely met regular soviet people

  • Socialist Realism

    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

  • Zhenotdel shut down

    • Party believed women's issues had been solved

  • Famine in Ukraine

    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

  • Discipline guildlines for education set out

    -1932 decree introduced discipline on students punctuality and homework.
    -National code of conducts; sit and stand as prep for discipline in factories.

  • Achieved 95% of children in primary education

    -100% of children between 8-12 would be in primary education by 1932.

  • Second Five Year Plan

    1933-1937

  • By 1933 most homes had electricity

  • 1933: 1) 100% of 8-12 year olds had 4 years in primary 2) 65% of 12-17 year olds went to secondary 3) 20% completed secondary.

  • National Examinations introduced

  • Private criticism of Stalin expressed at the Congress of Victors

    • 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

  • Kirov murdered

    • Allowed Stalin to claim there was a dangerous conspiracy to overthrow the CP

  • Genrikh Yagoda made head of secret police by Stalin

    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

  • Stalin set out guidelines for history teaching

    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.

  • The Great Terror begins

    •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

  • Trial of 16

    Zinoviev, Kamenev and supporters

  • Yezhov becomes head of secret police

    Terror intensifies

  • Yagoda replaced by Nikolai Yezhov

    o Reasoning for brutality:
     As socialism advances, class struggle intensifies, due to capitalists fighting harder against socialism

  • The Great Retreat

    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.

  • Trial of 17

    Trotsky's former supporters

  • Red Army purges

    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

  • Yezhovschina

    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

  • NKVD Purged

     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

  • Secret Trials

    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

  • History of the All-Union Communist Party (commonly known as the Short Course) published

    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.)

  • Trial of 21

    Bukharin and supporters
    Also Yagoda

  • Great Terror ends

    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.

  • Yezhov resigns as head of NKVD, replaced by Beria

    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

  • 94% literate by 1939

    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

  • The number of unis increased by 800% in 1939

    • so did the number of students in uni education.

  • Trotsky murdered in Mexico

  • Workers lost the right to change jobs and internal passports were introduced

    Stop movement for better pay/conditions

  • In 1940 41% of workers were women

  • Russia enters World War 2

    Reaction to Hitler's June 1941 invasion of USSR

  • Decree reintroducing gender segregation in schools

    July 1943 - to avoid distraction.

  • The Arms Race

    1945 onwards
    Economic strain

  • World War 2 800,000 women served in combat roles

  • USSR has fastest growing economy in the world

  • The Fourth Five Year Plan

    1946-1950

  • The Leningrad Affair

     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

  • The Fall of Berlin Film (1950)

    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

  • Infant mortality declined by 50% between 1940-1950

  • Workforce increased from 8m to 12.2m in 1945-50

  • The Fifth Five Year Plan

    1951-1955

  • Stalin dies

    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

  • Beria's reforms

    •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

  • The Virgin Lands Scheme

    • 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

  • The Doctor's Plot

     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

  • Malenkov and Khrushchev have Beria arrested by the NKVD

    3 months after Stalin’s death

  • Kruschev Thaw Number 1

    o 1953-1954
     Following Stalin’s death
     Authorised a series novels critical of Stalin’s era

  • K and M set up special commission to reassess cases of political prisoners

    Slow progress

  • Improved incentives

    • 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

  • Khrushev's early reforms

    • 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%

  • Malenkov loses Premiership to Nikolai Bulganin (key K ally)

    • Due to K’s state reforms and initial success of Virgin Lands Scheme

  • Mid-1950s protestant churches prophesised Soviet regime would end with a generation

    o Govt realised church attendance was a form of resistance
    Sparked Khrushchev's Anti-Religion Campaign

  • USSR 7.1% growth per year vs US 2.9% growth per year

    By the mid-1950s

  • In 1955, 49% of soviet workforce were women.

  • Abortion legalised

  • 51,439 gulag prisoners released

    Post-Secret Speech

  • The 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

  • The Hungarian Uprising

    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.

  • Khrushchev Thaw Number 2

    o 1956-1957
     Following secret speech, more cultural liberation
     Focused on criticising Stalin
    • Way of avoiding revealing faults of current regime

  • Late 1950s US Classical music to be taught in schools

    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

  • 1956 Maternity leave increased with pay to 112 days

  • Student demonstrations at Moscow State University

    o Revelation of Stalin’s crimes forced people to question legitimacy of govt

  • Democratisation and Decentralisation

    • 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

  • 1957 6th World Music Festival hosted in Moscow

    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

  • 1957 ‘Doctor Zhivago’ by Boris Pasternak

    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

  • 1957 World Festival of Youth and Students held in Moscow

    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’

  • Vote to remove Khrushchev by the Presidium

    • 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

  • Greater freedom of expression permitted

    • Response to World Festival of Youth and Students

  • Khurshchev's Anti-Religion Campaign

    •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

  • Boris Pasternak awarded Nobel Peace Prize

    o Refused by Khrushchev to go to Sweden to collect his prize, saying he wouldn’t be allowed to re-enter if he left

  • Khrushchev's education reforms

    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.

  • The Seven Year Plan

    • 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

  • From 1960 regular publications of Science and Religion

  • Campaign encouraging men to pass their beliefs to their children

    2/3 of church goers women, likely to pass beliefs to children as play main childcare role

  • In 1960s ½ of university graduates were women

  • Half of people executed under Stalin rehabilitated

  • Khrushchev's retreat

    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

  • Khrushchev’s final major reforms at the 22nd Party Congress

    • 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

  • The Berlin Crisis

    June - November 1961

  • Yuri Gagarin’s space flight televised

  • First TV news broadcast

    Featured successes of ordinary workers

  • Khrushchev Thaw Number 3

    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

  • K splits the CP into two divisions

    – agriculture and industry, splitting even the Central Committee into ag bureau and in bureau

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • ‘One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich’ Novel (1962)

    By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  • Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space

  • Khrushchev removed from office

    • 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

  • Brezhnev immediately starts reversing K reforms

    •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

  • Post-1964 Brezhnev makes allowances for nationalism in the republics

    ○ 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

  • Urban housing doubled under Khrushchev 1960-1965

    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.

  • The Sinyavsky-Daniel trial

    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

  • Andropov appointed head of KGB

  • The Kosigyn Reforms

    • 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

  • Institute for Scientific Atheism set up

    Advised teachers on how to teach atheism
    Brezhnev wishes to encourage atheism, rather than close churches and oppress

  • The Prague Spring

    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

  • The Brezhnev Doctrine

    ■ 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

  • 1968 Nonna Gorunova’s ‘Forest Ritual’

    o Live production where she posed nude in a forest to express female beauty independent of male desire

  • USSR achieve nuclear parity with the USA

    o retaining this became a prolonged strain on the economy

  • 1970s Growth at 2% per year

  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn awarded Nobel Peace Prize

    Exiled from the USSR in 1974

  • Brezhnev's education reforms

    -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.

  • The 'Bulldozer Exhibition'

     broken up by police driving bulldozers, destroying the artwork

  • BAM railway recruitment

    Women were employed to build a rail line across the north. This was an opportunity to liberalise and meet men.

  • Andrei Sakharov awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

  • 1975 - 50% of psychiatric hospital patients/prisoners were nationalists

  • The Helsinki Agreement

     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

  • Brezhnev incapacitated for last 6 years of his life

    1976-1982

  • Law and Order Campaign

     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

  • 1980 19% of population had a university education

  • By 1980s growth at 0.6%

  • Andropov in power

    • 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

  • Andropov's Anti-Corruption Campaign

    November 1982- Anti-Corruption campaign
    •Investigated senior Party members and factory managers who were using soviet resources to make themselves rich

  • Operation Trawl (anti-alcoholism and anti-absenteeism)

    • KGB officers visited parks and other public areas and arrested people who were drunk or absent from work

  • Chernenko

    February 1984 - March 1985 • 72 years old and extremely ill
    • Gorbachev essentially ran govt for him
    • Accomplished very little

  • Still 20% believe in religion

    Stable from 1960-1985

  • In 1985 70% of doctors were female

  • Gorbachev’s initiative to continue Andropov’s anti-alcohol campaign

    ● 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

  • Oil Crisis

    Sharp decline in the global price of oil ($70 a barrel in 1985 to $20 by 1987)
    Worst hit 1989 onwards

  • The Twelth Five Year Plan

    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

  • The 27th Party Congress

    ●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

  • Law on Individual Economic Activity

    ○ Legal to make money from small-scale work such as private teaching or repair/maintenance jobs

  • Kazakhstan Riots

    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

  • Chernobyl Crisis

    ■ Population discovered 1986 Chernobyl crisis had occurred and its radiation impact due to Glasnost

  • Glasnost

    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

  • Law on State Enterprise

    ○ 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

  • Law on Co-operatives

    ○ Large-scale private companies legal

  • Extended Glasnost

    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

  • Azerbaijan unrest

    ■ 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

  • Poland and Hungary overthrow their Communist Governments

    Followed by 15 Soviet Republics, one by one.

  • Multi-candidate elections to the Supreme Soviet allowed

    ● 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

  • The Sinatra Doctrine

    ■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

  • Uzbeks in central Asia massacre the Muslim minority

    ■ Soviet failure to restore peace/ negotiate compromise led to loss of faith in the CP

  • The Tbilisi Massacre, Georgia

    ■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 was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies

    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

  • The Berlin Wall Falls

  • Gosplan abolished

  • 1990 - 260 enterprises strike, up to 1755 in 1991

  • Gorbachev approval rating at 20%

    ○ Due to factors such as dissatisfaction and nationalism

  • The 500 Day Programme

    ● Proposed widespread privatisation and complete market economy within 2 years
    ○ But, Gorbachev backed down from his proposals due to pressure from hardliners

  • Republic elections held

    ● Anti-communist trends now obvious
    ● In Moscow ‘Democratic Russia’ group won 85% of the vote 1990

  • Newly elected Lithuanian parliament declares independence from the USSR

    ● 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

  • Yeltsin insists laws in the Russian parliament should have authority over Soviet laws

    ● 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

  • Reformed Union proposal

    ● 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

  • Gorbachev removes article 6 of the constitution, legalising other political parties

  • Yeltsin becomes chair of Russian Congress of People’s Deputies (new Russian parliament)

  • Severe food shortages

    ■ State distribution systems were abolished - combined with the still developing market, there were food shortages across the entire USSR

  • Gorbachev is appointed President of the USSR

    ● 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

  • Elections of 1990

    ○ 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

  • 1991 - Reform and collapse

    ● 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

  • Union Referendum held

    ● 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

  • Yeltsin wins election to become Russian president

    ● 57% of the vote
    ○ CP candidate on 16%
    ■ Russia makes up 60% of the USSR’s population

  • Yeltsin bans the Communist Party

  • Ukraine, Moldova declare independence

    In the wake of the failed coup against Gorbachev

  • Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) created

    ● Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine sign agreement replacing the USSR with the CIS

  • The Coup

    ●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