The Techniques - Force
Despite the exile of many socialist activists, unrest grew among the people of Russia. In january 1905, The people of Saint Petersburg went to the Czar Nicholas's winter palace to demand better working conditions. As this large group arrived at the palace gates, they were met by the Czar's Soldiers, who opened fire on the crowd, causing hundreds of people to lay dying in the streets. The day later became known as Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday
Fear and Oppression & the Purges of 1936-1939
Stalin, when he took over, used fear as a political tool. His role as General Secretary of the Communist Party gave him the power to hire and fire people. Through this he built up a network of people who were loyal to him and him alone. During the Great Purges of the 1930s he decided to "prune" the party of a lot of people. He did this by setting quotas for the number of people to be arrested, executed and sent to internal exile to each of the regional soviets.
He also encouraged people to denounce others for speaking ill of him, the regime, party policies or anything that may be deemed "anti-revolutionary". Pupils denounced their teachers, children denounced their parents, lovers denounced their rivals, even husbands and wives denounced each other - it was a terrible time.
By instilling fear about speaking about anything, he ensured that any rivals, potential opponents and anyone who may challenge him he was able to ensure that no-one could remove him from office.
He also encouraged people to denounce others for speaking ill of him, the regime, party policies or anything that may be deemed "anti-revolutionary". Pupils denounced their teachers, children denounced their parents, lovers denounced their rivals, even husbands and wives denounced each other - it was a terrible time.
By instilling fear about speaking about anything, he ensured that any rivals, potential opponents and anyone who may challenge him he was able to ensure that no-one could remove him from office.
Altering the Soviet Archives
The Communist regime considered dissent in the Soviet Union a repudiation of the proletarian struggle and a violation of Marxism-Leninism, and thus a threat to its authority. The proletariat was seen as selflessly striving for progress in the building of socialism, whereas the bourgeoisie was seen as selfishly fighting to maintain the status quo. According to Marxist ideology, class struggle was the engine of change in all social development. Vladimir Lenin's ideological contribution was to make the party itself the exclusive "vanguard of the proletariat" and thus the final arbiter of what was proletarian or bourgeois. The secret police was enlisted to enforce the party's ideology and to suppress dissent. Because the party's legitimacy rested on the basic correctness of its ideology, failures in practical policy were never attributed to ideology itself. To maintain the party's ideological authority, religion had to be condemned outright, and history periodically revised to match the current party line. Books and magazines viewed as no longer politically correct were removed from libraries. Scientists, artists, poets, and others, including many who did not think of themselves as dissidents but whose work appeared critical of Soviet life, were systematically persecuted and even prosecuted. Often they were declared either enemies of the state and imprisoned, or insane and committed to punitive mental hospitals.
To speak for human rights or to support freedom of expression was to question the very basis of Marxism-Leninism and the legitimacy of the party's rule. Among those harassed and persecuted were world-renowned artists and scientists, including Nobel Prize winners Boris Pasternak, who was forced to refuse his prize; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was forcibly removed from the USSR; and Andrei Sakharov, who was expelled from the Academy of Sciences and internally exiled to a closed city.
A prime mover of change was Mikhail Gorbachev, whose policy of glasnost' allowed freedom of expression and resulted in the abandonment of Marxist-Leninist ideology and a loss of legitimacy for the party.
To speak for human rights or to support freedom of expression was to question the very basis of Marxism-Leninism and the legitimacy of the party's rule. Among those harassed and persecuted were world-renowned artists and scientists, including Nobel Prize winners Boris Pasternak, who was forced to refuse his prize; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was forcibly removed from the USSR; and Andrei Sakharov, who was expelled from the Academy of Sciences and internally exiled to a closed city.
A prime mover of change was Mikhail Gorbachev, whose policy of glasnost' allowed freedom of expression and resulted in the abandonment of Marxist-Leninist ideology and a loss of legitimacy for the party.