The Soviet Union Under Stalin

1. The Soviet Union Under Stalin

2. Today’s Standard 10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I. Explain the rise of Stalin and compare and contrast Stalin's Communist Russia to Hitler and Mussolini’s Fascist nations. Essential Questin

3. Stalin Becomes Dictator • After Lenin dies (1924), Trotsky & Stalin compete for power • 1928: Stalin has total command of Communist Party • Focus on Russian development

4. Communism Under Stalin • Karl Mark Communism = no central government • Stalin communism = Totalitarian government • Totalitarianism = total control over every aspect of public & private life • Seems secure & stable, but no freedom

5. The Cult of Stalin • Russian religious tradition: worship of the saints and veneration of the Tsar were common practices… • Stalin intensified this tradition, leading to the “cult of personality” – the deliberate fixation on an all powerful leader, whose personality exemplified the challenge of extraordinary times. • Mandated & expanded education at all levels • Promoted educational opportunities for women • Censored all forms of creative thinking and expression • Replaced religious teachings with Communist ideals

6. The Cult of Personality

7. Economy Under Stalin • Command Economy = Gov’t. controlled 5 Year Plan • rapid industrialization & strengthening of national defense • Increase output of steel, coal, oil, etc. by limiting production of consumer goods • Improving transportation • Increasing farm out-put • Jobs, workers, & hours decided by gov’t • Secret police (Cheka) enforced with imprisonment or execution Soviet Postcard of Worker Holding Five-Year Plan Postcard states that "with honor, we will fulfill and fulfill again Stalin's new Five Year Plan".

8. “Industrialism is the Path to Socialism” As this 1928 poster proclaims, Stalin’s government saw rapid industrialization as the key to the success of the Soviet Union. The development of transport is one of the most important tasks for the implementation of the five year plan.

9. Results of 5 Year Plan • 1928-1939 huge growth in industry • Working men and women had little to show • Standard of living remained low • Low quality goods • Wages were low and workers were not allowed to strike a woman and her son search for food during the famine. Describe the effect of Stalin’s ruthless policies on the production of oats, wheat, and potatoes.

10. Agricultural Revolution • Creation of Collective Farms: • Government-owned • Produce food for the State • People resisted collectivization by killing farm animals, destroying tools and burning croups • Kulaks = wealthy peasants; thousands executed or sent to camps • Resistance continued 10 million died due to famine; millions more sent to Siberia 'We will keep out Kulaks from the Collective farms' - 1930. 

11. Weapons of Totalitarianism • Police Terror • Gulags – brutal labor camps • Secret police • Propaganda • Indoctrination • teaching someone to accept a set of beliefs without questioning them. • Censorship • Religious Persecution • pogroms

12. Gulags Entering Gulag (a leaf fromEufrosinia Kersnovskava’s notebook)

13. The Great Purge 1934 – 1939 • Targets of Purge included • Early Bolshevik revolutionaries • Military heroes • Anyone who became a threat • At least 4 million people executed • Results • Increased Stalin's Power • Hurt the government because so many important people were executed. Portrait of Lev Borisovich Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev (1883-1936) became a Communist revolutionary at a young age and rose through the ranks to become a prominent member of the Politburo in Russia. He was executed on Stalin's orders in the Great Purge.

14. Propaganda Stalin propaganda poster, reading: "Beloved Stalin—good fortune of the people!" >Propaganda: biased or incomplete info used to sway people beliefs or actions • Stalin sought to control the hearts and minds of Soviet citizens • Censored opposing ideas, made himself a godlike figure • Bombarded radios, loudspeakers, movies, theaters, schools, billboards, posters, newspapers w/ communist propaganda

15. Soviet Propaganda Posters The Giants of the Five Year Plan “The results of the Five Year Plan show that the working class is not only capable of destroying the old, but also of building the new” Long Live the Great Stalin!!

16. Censorship and the Arts • Gov’t controlled what books were published, what music was heard, and which works of Art were displayed. • Stalin encouraged: • Russification- making the cultures of nonRussians more Russian • Atheism- belief that there is no God • Socialist Realism- Show soviet life in a positive light Soviet ArtIn this Socialist Realist sculpture, a factory worker and a collective farmer raise the hammer and sickle together.

17. Benefits and Drawbacks • Did not create a society of equals as promised • head of society were the members of the Soviet party • All Children attended free communist schools • State provided free medical care, day care, inexpensive housing, public recreation • Housing was scarce, meat , fruit and other foods were hard to get

18. Women • Won equal rights • Did same job as men • More educational opportunities • Also expected to produce offspring for future obedient citizens This woman is one of the workers charged with the job of constructing a giant tractor plant in Byelorussia as part of Stalin's new "Five Year Plan".