Transcript Life in a Totalitarian State

Life in a Totalitarian State
Stalin
• Totalitarian Statea one party
dictatorship that regulated every aspect of
the lives of the people.
• To ensure obedience, Stalin used secret
police, censorship, and terror
• Critics were sent to brutal labor camps
(many died)
• PropagandaInformation, esp. of a
biased or misleading nature, used to
promote or publicize a particular political
cause or point of view.
Stalin in the Kremlin cares
about each one of us
Take a look: the entire
Soviet nation is
singing and dancing
Comrade Lenin cleanses
the earth of scum
An Equal Society?????
• Communists promised equality but instead
created a society where a few elite groups
became the new ruling class
• The New Elite the head of society were the
members of the Communist Party (only a small
amount of Soviet citizens could join), industrial
managers, military leaders, scientiststhey got
the best of everything
Social Benefits
*Free medical care
*Day care for children
*Inexpensive housing
*Women became equal under the law and were allowed
into many jobs
*Public transportation and recreation
*Free Education for all (men and women)
– Schools served an important goal educated workers
were needed to build a modern industrial state. They
also taught Communist values (atheism, collective
farming, and love of Stalin)
Drawbacks
• Standard of living remained low
• Housing was scarce so people crowded
into small apartments in cities
• Bread was plentiful, but meat, fish, fruit,
etc. were scarce
VERY LITTLE OF:
LOTS OF:
Censorship
• Gov’t controlled what books were
published, what music was played, and
which works of art were displayed
• Writers, artists, and composers faced
persecution some were exiled or
tortured
The Great Purge
• Stalin was an insecure obsessive man who
worried constantly that others would try to steal
his power.
• Stalin used his secret police to arrest thousands
for plotting against him.
• “Show trials” – people were forced to confess to
all kinds of crimes
• 4 million people were
“purged”, of those at least
800,000 were executed.
• Features of a Totalitarian State:
– Single party dictatorship
– State control of economy
– Police spies and state terrorism
– Strict censorship and gov’t control of media
– Use of schools and media to indoctrinate and
mobilize citizens
– Unquestioning obedience to single ruler
Summary
• Strict censorship, massive propaganda,
and terror were used by Stalin to ensure
personal power and to push the Soviet
Union toward modernization.
• By Stalin’s death in 1953, the Soviet Union
was a world leader in heavy industry,
steel, and oil production
• Along with the U.S. it was one of the
world’s two military superpowers
Hitler and the Rise of Nazi
Germany
The Rise of Adolf Hitler
• Born in Austria in 1889
• He attempted to seize power in 1923 and failed.
He was put in jail. While in prison he wrote Mein
Kampf (My Struggle) which outlined the goals
and ideology of the Nazi party.
• Goals and Ideology of the Nazis
– Extreme nationalism
– Racism
– Anti-Semitism – Hitler believed Germans
belonged to a superior “master race” called
Aryans (light skinned Europeans). Greatest
enemies were the Jews. Hitler believed Jews
were not a different religion but a different
race
The word "swastika"
comes from the
Sanskrit svastika "su" meaning "good,"
"asti" meaning "to
be," and "ka" as a
suffix.
How Hitler came to be in power
• Great Depression was very hard on the German
people (as unemployment rose, Nazi membership grew to ~ 1 million)
• Promised to end reparations, create jobs, and
rearm Germany
• Elected chancellor by other members of the
government (came to power legally)
• Wanted to create a German master race.
Use of Propaganda
Purging German Culture
• No modern art or music because it was corrupted by
Jewish influence
• Textbooks were rewritten to reflect Nazi racial views
• Burned books, including All Quiet on the Western Front
(it was an insult to the German military) and many
others.
• Sought to stop Christianity
by closing churches and
silencing clergy
*Used the Gestapo
(secret police) to enforce his will
Hitler begins his campaign against
the Jews
• 1935 – Nuremburg Laws placed severe
restrictions on Jews
– Prohibited from marrying non-Jews
– Prohibited from attending or teaching at German
schools or universities
– Prohibited from holding government jobs
– Prohibited from practicing medicine or law
– Prohibited from publishing books
 Nazis beat and robbed Jews and gathered mobs to
join in.
 Many Jews, including Albert Einstein, fled to other
countries
• Quote from Martin Niemoller, a German
Protestant minister
– “The Nazis came first for the Communists. But I
wasn’t a Communist, so I didn’t speak up. Then they
came for the Jews, but I wasn’t a Jew so I didn’t
speak up. Then they came for the trade unionists.
But I wasn’t a trade unionist so I didn’t speak up.
Then they came for the Catholics, but I was a
Protestant so I didn’t speak up.
Then they came for me. By that time,
there was no one left to speak up.”
What is propaganda?
Great Britain
John Bull, the English
Uncle Sam, in a poster
very similar to Flagg’s
“I Need You” poster
with Uncle Sam.
Great Britain
United States
Propaganda???
Choose 1 of the following
• Make a propaganda poster for this time period
or our time period. You should have a visual
and brief description of your goals of the
propaganda (p.880-881)
– What are you trying to accomplish? What in your
picture promotes that goal(s)?
• Write a 5-7 sentence letter to Hitler or Stalin
telling him how you like or dislike the new
totalitarian way of life. (p.874-879)
– What is your job? Is life easy for you? How is your
life different now?