Transcript TOTALITARIANISM Stalinist Russia

Stalin = Bad News
Timeline of Early Soviet History
Russia governed by Czar until 1917; autocratic
political system.
 Country faced heavy military losses in WWI;
popular unrest.
 Moderates lead revolution in May 1917; Czar
imprisoned.
 Bolshevik Revolution in Nov. 1917; Czar and his
family murdered; Russia withdrew from the war

Bolshevik Revolution
V. I. Lenin was the head of Soviet
government & Bolshevik Communist party
from 1917
to his death
in 1924.
 Josef Stalin was a
top administrator in
Bolshevik Party

Leon Trotsky
helped ignite the Russian Revolution of
1917, and built the Red Army afterward
 Trotsky proved to be an outstanding
military leader, as he led the army of 3
million to victory over the Whites. The
task was difficult, as Trotsky directed a
war effort that was at times on 16
different fronts.
 In late 1920, the Bolsheviks finally won
the Civil War

Lenin had a stroke in
1922. Stalin visits him
frequently and serves
as his link to the
outside world. They
argued a lot.
 Lenin did not like
Stalin’s rude manners,
ambition, politics, or
excessive power. Lenin
wanted Stalin removed.
Stalin did not let this
out.

But what about Leon Trotsky?
He was a natural “second in
command” to Lenin, but he had
angered many in the Communist
Party, including Stalin.
 Between 1925 and 1928, Trotsky
was gradually pushed from power
and influence by Stalin and his allies,
who discredited Trotsky's role in the
Russian Revolution and his military
record.

TOTALITARIANISM
Stalinist Russia

After Lenin died, there
was a power struggle
for control of the
Communist Part.

Stalin, Lenin’s
successor, transformed
the government and
country by controlling
every aspect of citizen’s
lives.
But what about Leon Trotsky?
In February, 1929, Trotsky was banished entirely from
the Soviet Union.
 Trotsky continued to write and criticize Joseph Stalin
and the Soviet government.
 In 1937, Trotsky moved to Mexico, eventually settling in
Mexico City, where he continued to criticize Soviet
leadership.
 On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was sitting at his desk in
his study in Mexico City. Ramon Mercader, an
undercover agent for the Soviet Union's secret police,
attacked Trotsky with a mountaineering ice ax,
puncturing his skull.

BUILDING A TOTALITARIAN STATE
Stalin Focuses on Perfecting Communism in Russia

Totalitarianism – a
government that takes total
control over every aspect of
public and private life.

This form of government goes
against the democratic values of
freedom, human dignity, and the
worth of the individual.

Stalin transformed the Soviet
Union into a totalitarian state to
realize his vision.
COMMAND ECONOMY
Stalin Seizes Control of the Economy

Stalin’s economic policies
involved total state control.

Command Economy – a
system in which the
government makes all
economic decisions.

Under this system, political
leaders identify the
country’s economic needs
and determine how to fulfill
them.
LARGE NEED FOR CHANGE

Stalin announced, “We are fifty
or a hundred years behind the
advanced countries. We must
make good this distance in ten
years. Either we do it or we
shall be crushed.”

Country would take drastic steps
to promote rapid industrial
growth and to strengthen
national defense.
INDUSTRIAL POLICIES

Impossibly high quotas, to increase the
output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity.

The government limited the production of
consumer goods.
– severe shortages of housing, food, clothing, and other
necessary goods.

The government chose the workers, assigned
them jobs, and determined their working hours
– Needed police permission to move
Three Five Year Plans
 First
plan (1928 to 1932)
– Concentrated on expanding industry, transport
and the power supply
 Second
plan (1933 to 1938)
– Focused on more manufactured goods, in
addition to first plan
 Third
plan (began in 1939 but interrupted by
outbreak of war)
– Production of ‘luxuries’ like bicycles and radios
Problems with the Five
Year Plans

Problem 1: the quality of goods suffered
– Rapid production led to poor quality of goods
– Workers were not trained properly
– Stalin desperately sought help from Western experts

Problem 2: human cost
– People were crowded into new industrial towns to live
and work in appalling conditions
– Living conditions were cramped with little running water or
sanitation
AGRICULTURAL POLICIES

In 1928, the government seized over 25 million privately owned
farms in the Soviet Union.

It created collective farms – large government owned farms that
each had hundreds of workers producing food for the state.

Stalin used terror and violence to force peasants to work on the
collective farms (between 5 to 10 million peasants were killed).
Control over Russians

When we examine how Stalin controlled
the Russian people, there are TWO MAIN
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE:

Fear
– Establishment of a Dictatorship
– Development of a Terror State

Propaganda
– The use of Propaganda to Control
– Control over the Education System & Arts
– Cult of Personality
FEAR

Police Terror
–monitored telephone lines, read mail, planted spies,
and arrested/executed millions of traitors

secret police – the KGB.
– The KGB (КГБ) is the common abbreviation
for the (Komitet gosudarstvennoy
bezopasnosti or Committee for State
Security).
– It was the national security agency of the
Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and its
premier internal security, intelligence, and
secret police organization during that time.
FEAR

The Great Purge (a campaign of terror)
– It was directed at eliminating anyone who
threatened Stalin’s power.
– Estimate – killed 8 to 13 million people

Censorship
-Stalin would not tolerate individual creativity;
wanted conformity and obedience of citizens.
-Government controlled all media (newspapers,
movies, etc.)
Altering Photographs to fit the cause…

An example of
how the picture
was altered again
and again after
each person fell
out of favor with
the regime of
Joseph Stalin.
Using the Media to change People’s
Ideas about history:

This image
taken by the
Moscow Canal
was taken
when Nikolai
Yezhov was
water
commissar.

After he fell
from power, he
was arrested,
shot, and his
image removed
by the censors.

The background of
the original image
includes a store that
says in Russian,
"Watches, gold and
silver". The image
was then changed to
read, "Struggle for
your rights", and flag
that was a solid color
before was changed
to read, "Down with
the monarchy - long
live the Republic!"
Propaganda
 Propaganda:
the deliberate spreading of ideas
and information for the purpose of promoting a
specific cause
– The Bolsheviks used propaganda to start the
Revolution
– Stalin used propaganda to convince people he was a
closer friend of Lenin than he really was
 Stalin
increasingly used extreme propaganda and
censorship to control the people
PROPAGANDA

Totalitarian states rely on
indoctrination or brainwashing.

Propaganda is biased or
incomplete information used to
sway people to accept certain
beliefs or actions.

Soviet newspapers and radio
broadcasts glorified the
achievements of communism,
Stalin, and his programs.
ART
ART

Method of propaganda used to
rally the workers.

Artistic style that praised Soviet
Life and Communist values.
Art and Popular Culture


The experimental art of
the early 1920s was
abandoned and replaced
by ‘Socialist realism’; this
was seen in all forms of
culture – art, cinema,
literature.
Socialist realism was much
more conventional,
traditional but it was
designed to convey proSoviet messages to inspire
the population to work
harder, love the leader etc.
A typical painting in the style of ‘socialist
realism’. Stalin is shown amongst the
workers, urging them to meet their
production targets. The workers look on,
impressed.

Art, film, literature
was put in service
to the ideology.
Soviet art had to
praise noble
factory workers,
the “new Soviet
man & woman.”
Anti-Religion
Communists aimed to replace religious
teachings
 Atheism was the official religion under
Stalin
 Russian Orthodox Churches were seized
and turned into offices and museums
 Priests and Religious leaders were killed
 Jewish Synagogues were seized
 Hebrew language was banned

The Cult of Personality


A cult of personality arises when an
individual uses mass media, propaganda, or
other methods to create an idealized,
heroic, and at times worshipful image
1988 song by Living Color
“I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your T.V. I'm the cult of personality.
I exploit you
Still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three.
I'm the cult of personality”
The Cult of Personality

After Lenin’s death (and very much against his
wishes) a personality cult was created around his
memory, using methods such as:
– Embalming his body and putting it on public display in Red
Square
– Lenin’s image appeared everywhere in posters, film,
statues
– Petrograd was renamed Leningrad (St. PetersburgPetrograd (1914)-Leningrad (1924)-St. Petersburg (1991))
Stalin was an active promoter of this cult so as to
link his name with that of Lenin
 The Lenin personality cult made it easier for Stalin
to create one around himself.

Celebrations for
Stalin’s 70th birthday in
1949.
 A huge picture of
Stalin hung over Red
Square in Moscow – as
if by magic. In fact, it
was suspended by a
balloon and then lit by
searchlights.

Stalin’s Cult of Personality
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Stalin also had a city
named in his honour – in
1923 Tsaritsyn became
Stalingrad
The slogan: ‘Stalin is the
Lenin of today’ was
officially encouraged
Stalin adopted the title
‘Vozhd’ (Great Leader)
Stalin was portrayed in
various guises: Stalin with
peasants, Stalin with
workers – all designed to
show him as an ordinary
man of the people.
Stalin liked to be portrayed, as here, as
the friend of the workers, discussing the
latest project – in this case the Dneiper
Dam.
EDUCATION

The government controlled
all education – nursery to
university.

Students learned the
virtues of communism and
evils of capitalism

Professors and students
who questioned
Communist Leaders were
threatened or arrested.
Stalin died March 5, 1953 of
an apparent stroke. He was
embalmed on March 9, 1953.
 Some believed he was
poisoned.
 2003, Russian and U.S.
investigation shows Stalin
could have ingested warfarin,
a powerful rat poison. The
cause may never be known.
 He was buried in Lenin’s tomb
until 1961 when his body was
moved to outside the Kremlin
wall during “de-Stalinization.”

Effects of Stalin’s Purges
Evaluation of Stalin’s Rule

Good:
– In the long run,
agriculture became
collectivised and
yielded higher returns
as farming became
mechanised
– Standards of living
improved in
industrialised towns

Bad:
– Purges – killed many
Russians
– Human cost of the
Five-Year Plans
– State Control and
oppression of freedom
Achievements & Failures
There were huge achievements in the
following areas:
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new cities
dams/ hydroelectric power
transport & communications
the Moscow Underground
farm machinery
electricity
coal
steel
fertilizers
plastic
no unemployment
doctors & medicine
education.
The USSR was also transformed into a
modern state and was able to resist
Hitler’s invasion in the 1940s
Poorly organised –
inefficiency, duplication of
effort and waste.
Appalling human cost:
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discipline (sacked if late)
secret police
slave labour
labour camps (for those
who made mistakes)
accidents & deaths
(100,000 workers died
building the Belomor Canal)
few consumer goods
poor housing
wages FELL
no human rights