Totalitarianism in Russia

Totalitarianism in the Soviet Union
Today

Communism and Totalitarianism
The Soviet Union under Stalin



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HistoryMiddelbare schoolhavo, vwoLeerjaar 3

This lesson contains 39 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 1 video.

time-iconLesson duration is: 45 min

Items in this lesson

Totalitarianism in the Soviet Union
Today

Communism and Totalitarianism
The Soviet Union under Stalin



Slide 1 - Slide

communism
capitalism
Make the correct combinations
businesses / industry are owned by the state
big difference between poor and rich
you work to make a profit for yourself
farmers must sell their crops to the state
the state controls the economy (planned economy)
)

Slide 2 - Drag question

Totalitarian State

  • In a totalitarian state the government has almost complete power over citizens
  • Three examples in the 1920s/1930s:
  1. Soviet Union (communist/extreme left)
  2. Italy (fascist/extreme right)
  3. Germany (fascist/extreme right)

Slide 3 - Slide

Give some examples of Totalitarianism in Nazi Germany

Slide 4 - Open question

Totalitarian State
  • The Dictators who rule Totalitarian states don't usually think they are evil or bad
  • People like Hitler and Stalin believed that what they did was for the 'greater good', that it was a kind of sacred mission to improve (some) people's lives

Slide 5 - Slide

What did Hitler try to do?

Who did he believe he was helping?

Slide 6 - Slide

What did Hitler believe?
Who did he believe he was helping?

Slide 7 - Open question

Totalitarianism in the Soviet Union
Take notes when you see the icon and answer the following questions:




  1. How did Stalin and Communist Party turn the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state?



Slide 8 - Slide

Slide 9 - Slide

The Soviet Union in brief
  • 1917 October Revolution - Communists seize power
  • After the communists win a brutal civil war Russia and its empire become the Soviet Union (until 1990)
  • A totalitarian state which tried to create a communist paradise
  • Spoiler alert - no communist paradise

Slide 10 - Slide

The Soviet Union in brief

Slide 11 - Slide

Lenin - the first leader of the Soviet Union in 1919

Slide 12 - Slide

Lenin
He develops the totalitarian state:
  • Secret Police
  • Terror and ‘purification’ 
  • Gulags (Russian concentration camps) for opponents

  • Lenin dies in 1924, Stalin and Trotsky fight to become the next leader

Slide 13 - Slide

  • Stalin wins the battle to become the next leader
  • Priority Number 1: Make Russia powerful
Propaganda poster. The text says: ‘And Stalin raised us to be loyal to the people, inspired us to work and to deeds!’, Leonid Golovanov, 1949,

Slide 14 - Slide

Stalin had two goals

1. Turn the Soviet Union into a modern communist superpower:
  • Industry: Five-Year Plans
  • Agriculture:    Collectivisation

Slide 15 - Slide

Stalin had two goals

1. Turn the S.U into a modern communist superpower:  
  • Industry: Five-Year Plans
  • Agriculture:    Collectivisation
2. Turn the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state:
  • Great Purge/Terror: kill all opponents of the Revolution
  • Cult of Personality: use propaganda to make him into superhuman hero

Slide 16 - Slide

Slide 17 - Slide

Five Year Plans. (1928 - '32), (1933 - '37)
  • Stalin wanted to develop industry - coal, oil, steel, electricity.
  • Factories, dams, power-stations, whole new cities built.
  • Industries are given 5 year targets to meet.

Slide 18 - Slide

Propaganda poster: "we will achieve the Five Year plan in four years"

Slide 19 - Slide

Slide 20 - Slide

Failure to meet targets = arrest / Gulags in Siberia

Slide 21 - Slide

Five Year Plans. 

Results?
  • progress is made, but...
  • many industrial accidents, many deaths
  • harsh penalties for failure, many sent to Gulags

Slide 22 - Slide

2. AGRICULTURE: Collectivisation.

What?

  • Russian farming backward and inefficient
  • Richer farmers (kulaks) often killed or sent to work camps (Gulags)
  • Millions of tiny farms to be forcibly gathered into large state-run farms   (= collective farms = "kolchoz")
  • Surplus grain used to buy modern machinery abroad for modern farming or to feed the population needed in the cities for industrial growth.

Slide 23 - Slide

Collectivation
State propaganda shows that the policy was a big success

Supported by many poorer farmers but....

Slide 24 - Slide

Holodomor
Ukraine
1932 - 1933
'Death by Hunger'
3.3 - 7.5 million deaths by famine

Slide 25 - Slide

Food exported even as people were starving
Anyone who complained was sent to the Gulags

Slide 26 - Slide

One death is a tragedy.
A million deaths is simply a statistic

Slide 27 - Slide

Slide 28 - Video

Stalin had two goals

1. Turn the S.U into a modern communist superpower:  
  • Industry: Five-Year Plans
  • Agriculture:    Collectivisation
2. Turn the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state:
  • Great Purge/Terror: kill all opponents
  • Cult of Personality: use propaganda to make him into superhuman hero

Slide 29 - Slide

The Great Purge/Terror (1930s)

What?
  • Stalin's efforts to eliminate all opposition to his power.
  • Millions of "enemies of the state" were arrested, sent to gulags or executed.
  • Show trials were held to give the impression of a fair justice system, but the outcome ("guilty") of these show trials was decided beforehand.
  • Enemies who were killed were also "erased from history"
  • Stalin even purged the Red Army, killing thousands of his own officers.

Slide 30 - Slide

Gulags
18,000,000 people sent to Gulags 1919 - 1952
53 Gulag camps and 423 labor colonies in the Soviet Union as of March 1940
1,600,000 died in the camps.

Slide 31 - Slide

Show trials
  • Gefilmde neprechtszaken
  • People 'found guilty' and confessed on camera to betraying the revolution
  • Shown in cinemas
  • Family and friends forced to give evidence to protect themselves

Slide 32 - Slide

The Cult of Personality
  • What?
  • Propaganda campaign to lift Stalin to the status of a demi godMake people believe they owed everything to him and the communist party. Slogan: "thank you comrade Stalin"

  • How?
  • Mass parades with people cheering StalinPropaganda films, photos, posters, sculptures, paintings of Stalin everywhere.

Slide 33 - Slide

The Cult of Personality
  • Stalin could not ever make a mistake so history was changed if necessary
  • Anyone who questioned the official history was killed
  • Examples from Soviet Classroom?

Slide 34 - Slide

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