Wartime developments worrying - a lot of new Party members introduced under lax wartime leadership. Unreliable?
Wartime institutions dismantled, eg. GKO on 4th Sept 1945, and military hierachy was downgraded.
Notorious war figues played off against each other - assured Stalin's personal dominance.
Central Committee met Mar 1946 to elect new Politburo, Stalin held most of the power himself and bypassed the government.
Party institutions undermined - Party congresses not held 1939-52. Central Committee only met 6x in this period. Politburo reduced to 'advisory' - most decisions made by Stalin and his close advisors.
Recruitment reduced - less than war yrs. New Party members different - used to the Party & shifting political policies - therefore more cautious - faceless bureaucrats.
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Cultural High Stalinism
Zhdanovshchina - cultural purge launched 1946 - result of increased Westernisation - promotion of conformity to socialism.
2x literary journals purged - considered to be 'anti-Soviet' - publishers purged and writers expelled from Union of Writers.
Social realism the norm in literature, art and music.
Condemned artists had to publicly recant errors to cont. work.
Anti-Semitism - Nazi atrocities portrayed w/o mention of the Jews.
Western influence blocked - foreign radio blocked - few Western people allowed in and few Soviet citizens allowed out to West.
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The Leningrad Case - 1949
Stand against the Leningrad Party - had always shown some independence in views/actions.
Some of its members promoted to senior positions in Moscow under Zhdanov.
Leading officials arrested under false evidence - Head of Gosplan & Voznesensky - economic reformer who was in Politburo.
After Stalin's death - found that 4 of arrested (including Voznesensky) were executed.
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Anti-Semitism
End of war - Stalin had initially favoured creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Israel turned out to be pro-USA - he reverted to former anti-Semitic stance & feared all Jews in USSR were enemies.
1948 - fear reinforced by arrival of Israeli ambassador to USSR, Golda Meir. Enthusiastically cheered by Jews wherever she went.
1948 - director of the Jewish theatre in Moscow dies in a car crash - almost certainly arranged by MVD.
1949 - Jewish wives of Molotov and Kalinin arrested.
1949- - campaign against 'anti-patriotic groups' launched. Mainly affected cultural areas & unis.
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The Mingrelian Case (Georgian Purge) - 1951-2
1951 - purge launched in Georgia against followers of Beria - head of NKVD.
Accused of collaboration w/ Western powers.
Beria of Mingrelian ancestry - purge was likely trying to weaken his authority.
Many aspects of the purge remain unclear - still in progress when Stalin died.
Also had some anti-Semitic overtones.
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The Doctors' Plot - 1952
1948 - New conspiracy 'discovered' when Lydia Timashuk - female doctor - wrote to Stalin 2 days before Zhdanov's death. Accused 9 doctors of failure to diagnose/treat him professionally.
Nothing done at the time - case reopened 1952.
Stalin ordered arrest of the doctors - accused of Zionist conspiracy to murder Zhdanov & other members of Soviet leadership.
Stalin claimed that the Jews used their positions on the medical industry to harm the USSR in the pay of the US and Israel.
Minister of State Security threatened w/ execution if he didn't get a confession - hundreds of doctors arrested.
Thousands of ordinary Jews arrested & deported to remote areas - turned into labour camps. Anti-Jewish hysteria whipped up by press. All Jewish professionals shunned.
9 doctors condemned and sentenced to execution, but Stalin died before this could happen. Relief to those at the top - Beria, Mikoyan, Molotov and Kaganovich likely to be lined up as victims of another purge.
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