Russian Recvery after WW2 (part 2)

Russian Recvery after WW2 (part 2)

1. Post-war purges

   • Stalin was still paranoid+ suspicious
   • 1949: Wide-range purging of Leningrad party
     • Carried out by Beria's secret police
     • Thousands of arrests including: Voznesensky (head of GOSPLAN) and Kuzntesov (secretary of committee in charge of secret police)
       • Beria+ Malenkov used 1949 purging to get rid of rivals
   • Campaign against 'Bourgeoisis"
   • 1951: Mingrelian Case
     • Mingrelia= birthplace in Georgia of Beria
     • Stalin thought Beria was too powerful so arrested high-ranking Mingrelians
   • Marshal Zhukov :gained good reputation in the war
     • Demoted from military and removed from committee and Moscow

2. Anti-semitism

   • 1952: Stalin ordered Kagonovitch (a jew) to prepare a list of Jews to resettle in Jewish republic of Birobidzhan
   • 1953: 'Doctor's Plot' announced in a Moscow hospital
     • Most arrested were Jewish
     • Led to attacks on Jews by Russians

3. Stalin's Death

   • March 1953: Stalin collapsed at his dacha (countryside home) from a heart attack
     • Declared dead on 5th March

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