RUSSIA- Fall of the USSR 1985-91- POLITICAL REFORMS

Question 1

Glasnost

Answer 1

Openness

Question 2

What were the key criticisms of the Party that came out as a result of glasnost?

Answer 2

Poor housing; brutality of Soviet history; reckless waste of human lives in WW2; environmental issues

Question 3

What had convinced Gorbachev that glasnost was essential?

Answer 3

Soviet government’s response to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986

Question 4

When had the Soviet population become much more politicised due to Glasnost?

Answer 4

1989

Question 5

How many informal groups and clubs were campaigning for reform by 1989?

Answer 5

Over 60,000

Question 6

When did Gorbachev seek to separate the Party and state?

Answer 6

Nineteenth Conference of the Communist Party of June 1988

Question 7

Why was it so difficult to separate the Party and state?

Answer 7

Lines between the two had become so blurred

Question 8

What did Gorbachev become at the same time he was made General Secretary of the Party?

Answer 8

President of the Soviet Union

Question 9

How did Gorbachev attempt to shift power from the Party to the Soviets?

Answer 9

Soviets were to be elected for 5 years rather than 2- gave them greater security in their post

Question 10

How did Gorbachev attempt to streamline the Party?

Answer 10

Departments of the CC were reduced from 20 to 9; 6 new commissions were created; combining ‘superministries’

Question 11

Who was one of the leading casualties of Gorbachev’s clampdown on corruption?

Answer 11

Brezhnev’s son-in-law, Yuri Churbanov, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment

Question 12

How did Gorbachev attempt to move towards democratisation?

Answer 12

Discussion about secret ballots; June 1987 experiment with multiple candidates in elections for local Soviets; Nineteenth Party Congress of June 1988

Question 13

When did Gorbachev discuss the idea of secret ballots for multiple candidates?

Answer 13

Early 1987

Question 14

What did Gorbachev announce about elections at the Nineteenth party Conference?

Answer 14

Principle of multi-candidate elections would be extended to a national level with elections for the new Congress of People’s Deputies

Question 15

What was the Congress of People’s Deputies?

Answer 15

Set up to provide an independent, supervisory role over the government; part of attempts to separate the Party and state

Question 16

When did the elections for the new Congress of People’s Deputies take place?

Answer 16

March 1989

Question 17

What political system did many reformers become convinced that the USSR needed to move towards after the failure of reforms to the Party?

Answer 17

Pluralism

Question 18

How did Gorbachev’s failure to bring substantial reform of the Party affect Party unity?

Answer 18

Alienated both ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ in the Party

Question 19

When did disagreements between Yeltsin and Gorbachev come to a head?

Answer 19

October 1987 Plenum of the Central Committee

Question 20

How was Yeltsin punished for openly attacking Gorbachev’s slow approach to reform?

Answer 20

Sacked as First Secretary in Moscow; removed from the Politburo in February 1988

Question 21

When did the hard-line communists in the Party attempt to strike back and gain some control over events?

Answer 21

March 1988

Question 22

How did conservatives within the Party attempt to attack Gorbachev’s slow pace of reform?

Answer 22

Published a letter in the Sovetskaya Russia while Gorbachev was on a diplomatic trip to Yugoslavia

Question 23

What was worrying about the conservatives’ attack on Gorbachev with the Sovetskaya Russia letter?

Answer 23

Its sentiments were supported by some of his own appointees, such as Viktor Chebrikov

Question 24

When did informal groupings begin to emerge within the Party?

Answer 24

During the elections for the Congress of People’s Deputies

Question 25

Which informal group did reformers within the Party create?

Answer 25

An Inter-Regional group

Question 26

Which informal group did conservatives within the Party create?

Answer 26

Soyuz

Question 27

Who was one of the leading critics who called for the ending of Article 6?

Answer 27

Andrei Sakharov

Question 28

When did Gorbachev repeal Article 6?

Answer 28

March 1990

Question 29

What was Article 6?

Answer 29

Enshrined the one-party state

Question 30

How many seats did the opposition secure in the Leningrad elections in 1990?

Answer 30

60%

Question 31

How did Gorbachev retain power after he had repealed Article 6?

Answer 31

Elected as President of USSR by the Congress of People’s Deputies

Question 32

Why had the lines between Party and state become blurred?

Answer 32

Largely because of the nomenklatura system

Question 33

How were the ‘superministries’ streamlined?

Answer 33

5 were merged to create 1 for agriculture

Question 34

When did Gorbachev witness the difficulties that could come along with attacking corrupt Party officials?

Answer 34

December 1986, Dinmukhamed Kunayev was removed from the position of First Secretary in Kazakhstan; replaced with an ethnic Russian; rioting

Question 35

Who was acting as leader of the USSR while Gorbachev was in Yugoslavia?

Answer 35

Ligachev

Question 36

Which group had Yeltsin successfully led in the elections for the Russian Congress of People’s Deputies?

Answer 36

Democratic Platform