Transcript TOTALITARIANISM: STALINIST RUSSIA

TOTALITARIANISM
&
STALIN
Totalitarianism
*What is it?
- A type of government where the gov’t
takes control of all aspects of public and
private life
*Key Traits of Totalitarianism
1.Dynamic leader
-Unites people
-Can convince people to support
him or uses force to achieve it
2. Dictatorship/One Party
-Dominates gov’t completely and
has full control
Key Traits Continued…
3. State Controls all parts of society
-Business, labor, housing, education, religion,
the arts…
4. Modern Technology
-Gov’t controls mass communication
-Uses it to spread propaganda
(biased/incomplete information to sway how
people believe and act)
-Advanced military weapons
5. State Control of Individuals
-Demands loyalty
-No basic freedoms
-Expect personal sacrifice for the good of the
country
How do they enforce things?
6. Methods of Enforcement (how do they
force?)
*Police Terror
-Force obedience and crush all
opposition
-Spying, violence, murder
*Indoctrination
-Instruction in “gov’t beliefs,” used to
mold minds
-Control of education to glorify the
leader
How do they enforce things?
*Propaganda & Censorship
-Gov’t must approve everything published
(news, art, music…)
-People constantly surrounded by false info
that seems true
-Anyone who rebels is imprisoned or killed
* Religious/Ethnic Persecution
-Blame “enemies of the state” for anything
that goes wrong
-Groups are targeted for blame and are
attacked/terrorized
-Members of these groups are often forced to
live in restricted areas where they have
different rules that apply only to them
HOW DID STALIN DO IT?
Stalin’s Police State
-Secret police &
tanks to stop riots
-Monitored
telephones, mail,
planted spies
-Arrested and
executed millions of
“traitors”
THE GREAT PURGE
1937-1938
*A campaign of terror to eliminate everyone
to threatened his power
*Tried thousands of Bolsheviks who
helped with the revolution
-Executed or send to labor camps
*Stalin is now in total control of Soviet
Union and Communist Party
-8-13 million murdered
INDOCRINATION & PROPAGANDA
*Education & Indoctrination
-Gov’t controlled all schools & ed.
-Kids in school learned about the
virtues of the Communist Party
*Russian Propaganda &
Censorship
-Controlled all newspapers, movies,
radio, & all other sources of info
-Writers, artists, composers all
censored
-All media & art to glorify communism,
Stalin, and his programs
-No creativity, threat to
obedience
-Used as means for propaganda
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
*Churches and synagogues
destroyed
*Religious leaders killed or sent to
labor camps
*Less freedoms for people, more
power for state
STALIN CONTROLS ECONOMY
* Command Economy: economic system
where the gov’t makes all economic
decisions
*Five-Year Plans
-Goals and impossible quotas for
production (steel, oil, coal…)
-Never met but huge gains
made
-Consumer goods limited leaving
shortages of housing, food, clothing,
other necessities
AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
* Gov’t seized 25 million privately owned farms
*Collective farms
-Hundreds of families work on these large now
gov’t owned farms to produced food for the
state
-Kulaks (wealthy peasants) resisted, gov’t took
food & eliminated them
-Ukraine=5-6 million dead
-Anyone who resisted was forced or killed
-90% of peasants lived on collectives by
1938
-5-10 million Russians die as a result of
Stalin’s Agricultural Revolution