The Soviet Union under Stalin

1. The Soviet Union under Stalin Creating the �New Soviet Man�

2. Timeline of Early Soviet History Russia governed by Czar until 1917; autocratic political system & feudal economy. Country faced heavy military losses in WWI; increasing popular unrest. Moderates lead revolution in May 1917; Czar deposed & imprisoned. Bolshevik Revolution in Nov. 1917; Czar and his family murdered; Russia withdrew from the war; moderates & other dissidents in exile.

3. Bolshevik Revolution V. I. Lenin was head of Bolshevik Communist party & government from 1917 to his death in 1924. Josef Stalin a top administrator in Bolshevik Party

4. Lenin�s alteration of Marxism Marx wrote that communist revolution could only occur in advanced industrial capitalist system. Russia in 1917 a feudal economy. How could revolution occur there? Lenin reframed Marxism. Called Marxism-Leninism.

5. Bolshevik Revolution Lenin sanctioned brutal tactics to seize power (e.g., �salami tactics�), but not a totalitarian system because no cult of the leader or total control of society. Lenin died in 1924; power struggle between right & left wings of party. Stalin � a nationalist on the right � seized power.

6. Joseph Stalin Head of both the Communist party and Soviet government from 1924 to 1953. Most interested in power and not ideology. By 1928, established himself as absolute dictator. Increasingly paranoid.

7. Stalin�s totalitarian elements 1. cult of the leader: the all-knowing and all-seeing Father of the People.

8. Stalin�s totalitarian elements 2. radical ideology Marxism-Leninism the driving rationale for Stalin�s power grab. But Stalin altered the ideology to serve his personal nationalist ambitions. Stalinism refers to a brand of communism that is both extremely repressive and nationalistic.

9. Stalin�s totalitarian elements Stalin intertwined his own myth with the revolutionary struggle. One current gallery exhibit about Stalin notes: �Only a few photographs of Stalin exist from his youth and the early revolutionary period. A past was created for Stalin through works of art. He was often cut and pasted into photographs to create an artificial history which placed him at the forefront of events.�

10. Stalin�s totalitarian elements 3. organization Soviet communist party effectively used to solidify Stalin�s power and to spy on potential rivals. 4. control of all information TASS news service.

11. Stalin�s totalitarian elements 5. mass mobilization 6. secret police: KGB

12. Stalin�s totalitarian elements 7. central control of all other organizations. Stalin�s first goal to turn Russia & other Soviet republics into advanced industrial economy. Heavily centralized �command economy.� Called a 5-year plan. Peasants resisted; killings; exile. Severe agricultural losses & famine. After a decade, millions dead.

13. Soviet art extolling the noble worker, the �new socialist man.�

14. Stalin�s totalitarian elements 8. Violence & Terror. Brutality on massive scale. Targets: political opponents & party rivals.

15. Stalin�s totalitarian elements Political purges from 1934 to 1936 were called the Great Terror. Show trials, with coerced confessions and summary executions, from 1936 to 1938. During his rule, one million direct killings & 12 million deaths in Soviet prisons & slave labor camps.

16. Stalin�s totalitarian elements Gulag, Soviet era slave labor camp for dissidents, former capitalists, non-cooperative peasants & party rivals.