8. high stalinism

• post war


  Stalin viewed as a patriotic hero who had saved Russia.

  Russia and USA both emerged from ww2 as great superpowers.
• during war

  many aspects of Stalin's dictatorship has been relaxed adn wartime propaganda promised a 'better world' post war.
• Party post WW2


  Molotov, Malenkov, Mikoyan, Beria and Zhdanov

  No party congresses held between 1939-1952.

  Membership of the party was high but members weren't commited ideologists
• Renewed Terror


  returned POW recieved harsh treatment as anyone who had seen oer come into any contact with the outside world was prosecuted.
• NKVD and Beria


  presided ove
• NKVD and Beria


  split into two sections, espionage and domestic affairs

  12 million were sent to wartime prisons
• Zhdanovism- cultural purge


  union of Soviet writers

  social realism promoted

  Lysenko took dominance over sciences in 1948

  artists like Shostakovich and Prokofiev came under criticism.
• Cult of Personality


  Stalin seen as world's greatest living genius; God like in post war years. Seen as 'father of all people's'.

  70th birthday- Moscow red square lit up.

  'Stalin prizes' introduced to counter Noble prizes of the West.

  Never enough for Stalin who made sure that everyone around him was always in a state of constant fear= 'divide and rule' method
• Leningrad Affair


  Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kirov had been powerful in early years and Stalin always wanted to prevent a powerbase from emerging therefore he removed Zhdanov in 1949. By 1950, more than 2000 officials had been dismissed or exiled from Leningrad. First major purge since 1938.
• Mingrelian case 1951


  Georgians accused of collaboration with West and followed Beria who was on Mingrelian origin therefore limiting his powers. Carried on up until Stalin's death in 1953.

  Involved 'Anit-Semitic tones' as they were charged with having conspired with 'Jewish Plotters'
• Doctor's Plot


  Lydia Timashuk accused of treating Zhdanov in 1948 with sloppy methods. 1952 Stalin able to arrest many doctors for being part of a 'zionist-conspiracy and made an issue of anti-zionism claiming they have infultrated the Leningrad party and the Red Army. Molotov and Kamanevs wives were also arrested jn 1949.

  Thousands of ordinary jews rounded up and deported to the gulag