Totalitarianism in Russia with Stalin as their fearless leader

1
Totalitarianism in Russia with Stalin as their
fearless leader

• Chap 14.2
• Russian Revolution Lesson Group Project

2
Trotsky v. Stalin

• Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin were the two
  rivals competing for the top position.
• The winner in this struggle was Joseph Stalin
• Stalin turned the Soviet Union in to a
  totalitarian state

Whats Totalitarianism?
3
Totalitarianism

• Government takes complete, central control over
  every aspect of public and private life
• It challenges the values of democratic states of
  the Enlightenment
• reason, freedom, human dignity, and the worth of
  the individual
• (Please refer to page 396 for a chart on
  Totalitarianism)

4
Police State

• Not even the slightest bit of dissent was
  allowed, before the secret police arrested you
• If there was even the slightest suspicion you
  were planning to overthrow the government or
  failed to meet your quotaBye, Bye!
• Stalin became more powerful than any of the
  previous Russia czars

5
Religious Persecution

• State encouraged (nodemanded) atheism
• Police destroyed churches and synagogues
• Persecuted religious leaders
• But people still clung to their faiths

6
Great Purge

• Stalin arrested many Bolsheviks who participated
  in the revolution almost every leader in
  Stalins government for crimes against the
  Soviet state
• These killings were called the Great Purge
• 8 to 13 million deaths occurred

7
Command Economy

• Stalin changed Lenins NEP to an economy
  controlled by the government
• Wanted to catch up to Great Britain and Germany,
  as well as the rest of Europe, in
  industrialization

8
First Five Year Plan and Workers Lives

• 1928 Stalin outlined Five-Year Plan
• The government take drastic steps to promote
  rapid industrial growth and strengthen military
  defenses (remember just lost WWI)
• Set impossibly high quotas for the output of
  steel, coal, oil, and electricity
• To reach goals, Russia limited the production of
  consumer goods thus hurting the population
• Government controlled every aspect of a workers
  life-who, where and when they work

9
The Agriculture Revolution

• The Agriculture Revolution was very successful,
  but far more brutal
• In 1928, Stalin began to seize 25 million private
  farms and combine them into huge collective
  farms. Peasants worked on these farms.

10
The Agriculture Revolution

• The Peasants were angry-they revolted by
  destroying crops and livestock
• Stalin struck back with the secret police,
  sending peasants to work at the threat of death
• Between 5-10 million peasants were killed with
  millions more sent to Siberia.
• The kulaks, wealthy peasants, revolted and their
  entire class was sent to death or work camps

11
Success!

• In 10 years
• Wheat production was doubled due to collective
  farming
• Electricity production was up 800
• Steel production increased from 4 to 18 million
  metric tons
• The USSR was becoming a major industrial power

12
In the Long Run

• Stalin responsible for Russias industrialization
• Russia was able to stand up to Germany in WWII
• Stalin changed Russia from an agricultural
  backwater into a world-power industrial giant
• But the people paid the price for these gains