TOTALITARIANISM Stalinist Russia

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TOTALITARIANISMStalinist Russia

• After Lenin died, there was a power struggle for
  control of the Communist Party.
• Stalin, Lenins successor, transformed the
  government and country by controlling every
  aspect of citizens lives.

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BUILDING A TOTALITARIAN STATEStalin 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.

3
Partner Work

• Create a fictional totalitarian society
• Draw your fictional society
• Give it a name
• Create a dictator
• Make sure to include at least three aspects of a
  totalitarian society using VISUALS
• Totalitarianism a government that takes total
  control over every aspect of public and private
  life.

4
NEED FOR CHANGE

• 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.
• -Josef Stalin

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COMMAND ECONOMYStalin Seizes Control of the
Economy

• Stalins economic policies involved total state
  control.
• Command Economy a system in which the
  government makes all economic decisions.

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INDUSTRIAL POLICIES

• He set impossibly high quotas, or numerical
  goals, 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

7
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).

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ART/RELGION

• ART
• Art became a method of propaganda used to rally
  the workers.
• Social realism was an artistic style that praised
  Soviet Life and Communist values.
• RELIGION
• Communists aimed to replace religious teachings
  with the ideals of communism.
• The police destroyed churches and synagogues
  also killed leaders of all faiths or sent them to
  labor camps.

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EDUCATION

• Under Stalin, the government controlled all
  education nursery to university.
• University and technical training were the key to
  a better life.
• Students learned the virtues of communism and
  evils of capitalism
• Professors and students who questioned Communist
  Leaders interpretation of history were threatened
  or arrested.

10
CONTROL METHODS

• Police Terror
• monitored telephone lines, read mail, planted
  spies, and arrested/executed millions of traitors
• The Great Purge (a campaign of terror)
• It was directed at eliminating anyone who
  threatened Stalins 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.)

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PROPAGANDA METHODS

• 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.

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Closing Question

• Which Russian/Soviet leader would you have
  rather lived under- Nicholas II, Lenin or Stalin?
  Why?