Theme 3 Control of the people, 1917–85 ● Media, propaganda and religion: state control of mass media and propaganda; attacks on religious beliefs and practices. The personality cults of Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev. ● The secret police: attacks on opponents of the government; the roles of Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria; Andropov’s suppression of dissidents, 1967–82; the continued monitoring of popular discontent, 1982–85. ● The state and cultural change: Proletkult, avant-garde and Socialist Realism, 1917–53; nonconformity from the 1950s; clashes between artists and the government to 1985.

theme 4 Social developments, 1917–85 ● Social security: full employment, housing and social benefits, 1917–53. Khrushchev, Brezhnev and the promotion of a stable society, 1953–85. ● Women and the family: the changing status of different groups of women in towns and countryside; changing government attitudes towards the family as a social unit. ● Education and young people: the growth of primary, secondary and higher education; the reduction of illiteracy; state control of the curriculum.

Theme 2: Industrial and agricultural change, 1917-1985( Lenin -Andropov)