Alevel Exexcel History 1E Russia 1917–91 Lenin-Yeltsin

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.