Stalin's Totalitarian State: Building a Dictatorship in Soviet Russia

1. Stalin = Bad News

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

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

4. Leon Trotsky helped ignite the Russian Revolution of 1917, and built the Red Army afterward Trotsky proved to be an outstanding military leader, as he led the army of 3 million to victory over the Whites. The task was difficult, as Trotsky directed a war effort that was at times on 16 different fronts. In late 1920, the Bolsheviks finally won the Civil War

5. Lenin had a stroke in 1922. Stalin visits him frequently and serves as his link to the outside world. They argued a lot. Lenin did not like Stalin’s rude manners, ambition, politics, or excessive power. Lenin wanted Stalin removed. Stalin did not let this out.

6. But what about Leon Trotsky? He was a natural “second in command” to Lenin, but he had angered many in the Communist Party, including Stalin. Between 1925 and 1928, Trotsky was gradually pushed from power and influence by Stalin and his allies, who discredited Trotsky's role in the Russian Revolution and his military record.

7. TOTALITARIANISMStalinist Russia • After Lenin died, there was a power struggle for control of the Communist Part. • Stalin, Lenin’s successor, transformed the government and country by controlling every aspect of citizen’s lives.

8. But what about Leon Trotsky? In February, 1929, Trotsky was banished entirely from the Soviet Union. Trotsky continued to write and criticize Joseph Stalin and the Soviet government. In 1937, Trotsky moved to Mexico, eventually settling in Mexico City, where he continued to criticize Soviet leadership. On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was sitting at his desk in his study in Mexico City. Ramon Mercader, an undercover agent for the Soviet Union's secret police, attacked Trotsky with a mountaineering ice ax, puncturing his skull.

9. 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.

10. COMMAND ECONOMYStalin Seizes Control of the Economy • Stalin’s economic policies involved total state control. • Command Economy – a system in which the government makes all economic decisions. • Under this system, political leaders identify the country’s economic needs and determine how to fulfill them.

11. LARGE NEED FOR CHANGE • Stalin announced, “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.” • Country would take drastic steps to promote rapid industrial growth and to strengthen national defense.

12. INDUSTRIAL POLICIES • Impossibly high quotas, 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

13. Three Five Year Plans • First plan (1928 to 1932) • Concentrated on expanding industry, transport and the power supply • Second plan (1933 to 1938) • Focused on more manufactured goods, in addition to first plan • Third plan (began in 1939 but interrupted by outbreak of war) • Production of ‘luxuries’ like bicycles and radios

14. Problems with the Five Year Plans • Problem 1: the quality of goods suffered • Rapid production led to poor quality of goods • Workers were not trained properly • Stalin desperately sought help from Western experts • Problem 2: human cost • People were crowded into new industrial towns to live and work in appalling conditions • Living conditions were cramped with little running water or sanitation

15. 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).

16. Control over Russians • When we examine how Stalin controlled the Russian people, there are TWO MAIN FACTORS RESPONSIBLE: • Fear • Establishment of a Dictatorship • Development of a Terror State • Propaganda • The use of Propaganda to Control • Control over the Education System & Arts • Cult of Personality

17. FEAR • Police Terror –monitored telephone lines, read mail, planted spies, and arrested/executed millions of traitors • secret police – the KGB. • The KGB (КГБ) is the common abbreviation for the (Komitetgosudarstvennoybezopasnosti or Committee for State Security). • It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and its premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.

18. FEAR • The Great Purge (a campaign of terror) • It was directed at eliminating anyone who threatened Stalin’s 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.)

19. Altering Photographs to fit the cause… An example of how the picture was altered again and again after each person fell out of favor with the regime of Joseph Stalin.

20. Using the Media to change People’s Ideas about history:

22. This image taken by the Moscow Canal was taken when Nikolai Yezhov was water commissar. After he fell from power, he was arrested, shot, and his image removed by the censors.

23. The background of the original image includes a store that says in Russian, "Watches, gold and silver". The image was then changed to read, "Struggle for your rights", and flag that was a solid color before was changed to read, "Down with the monarchy - long live the Republic!"

24. Propaganda • Propaganda: the deliberate spreading of ideas and information for the purpose of promoting a specific cause • The Bolsheviks used propaganda to start the Revolution • Stalin used propaganda to convince people he was a closer friend of Lenin than he really was • Stalin increasingly used extreme propaganda and censorship to control the people

25. PROPAGANDA • 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.

28. ART ART • Method of propaganda used to rally the workers. • Artistic style that praised Soviet Life and Communist values.

29. Art and Popular Culture The experimental art of the early 1920s was abandoned and replaced by ‘Socialist realism’; this was seen in all forms of culture – art, cinema, literature. Socialist realism was much more conventional, traditional but it was designed to convey pro-Soviet messages to inspire the population to work harder, love the leader etc. A typical painting in the style of ‘socialist realism’. Stalin is shown amongst the workers, urging them to meet their production targets. The workers look on, impressed.

30. Art, film, literature was put in service to the ideology. Soviet art had to praise noble factory workers, the “new Soviet man & woman.”

31. Anti-Religion Communists aimed to replace religious teachings Atheism was the official religion under Stalin Russian Orthodox Churches were seized and turned into offices and museums Priests and Religious leaders were killed Jewish Synagogues were seized Hebrew language was banned

32. The Cult of Personality A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods to create an idealized, heroic, and at times worshipful image 1988 song by Living Color “I sell the things you need to beI'm the smiling face on your T.V. -I'm the cult of personality.I exploit youStill you love meI tell you one and one makes three.I'm the cult of personality”

33. The Cult of Personality After Lenin’s death (and very much against his wishes) a personality cult was created around his memory, using methods such as: Embalming his body and putting it on public display in Red Square Lenin’s image appeared everywhere in posters, film, statues Petrograd was renamed Leningrad (St. Petersburg-Petrograd (1914)-Leningrad (1924)-St. Petersburg (1991)) Stalin was an active promoter of this cult so as to link his name with that of Lenin The Lenin personality cult made it easier for Stalin to create one around himself.

34. Celebrations for Stalin’s 70th birthday in 1949. A huge picture of Stalin hung over Red Square in Moscow – as if by magic. In fact, it was suspended by a balloon and then lit by searchlights.

35. Stalin’s Cult of Personality Stalin also had a city named in his honour – in 1923 Tsaritsyn became Stalingrad The slogan: ‘Stalin is the Lenin of today’ was officially encouraged Stalin adopted the title ‘Vozhd’ (Great Leader) Stalin was portrayed in various guises: Stalin with peasants, Stalin with workers – all designed to show him as an ordinary man of the people. Stalin liked to be portrayed, as here, as the friend of the workers, discussing the latest project – in this case the Dneiper Dam.

41. EDUCATION • The government controlled all education – nursery to university. • Students learned the virtues of communism and evils of capitalism • Professors and students who questioned Communist Leaders were threatened or arrested.

42. Stalin died March 5, 1953 of an apparent stroke. He was embalmed on March 9, 1953. Some believed he was poisoned. 2003, Russian and U.S. investigation shows Stalin could have ingested warfarin, a powerful rat poison. The cause may never be known. He was buried in Lenin’s tomb until 1961 when his body was moved to outside the Kremlin wall during “de-Stalinization.”

44. Effects of Stalin’s Purges

45. Good: In the long run, agriculture became collectivised and yielded higher returns as farming became mechanised Standards of living improved in industrialised towns Bad: Purges – killed many Russians Human cost of the Five-Year Plans State Control and oppression of freedom Evaluation of Stalin’s Rule

46. There were huge achievements in the following areas: new cities dams/ hydroelectric power transport & communications the Moscow Underground farm machinery electricity coal steel fertilizers plastic no unemployment doctors & medicine education.   The USSR was also transformed into a modern state and was able to resist Hitler’s invasion in the 1940s Poorly organised – inefficiency, duplication of effort and waste.   Appalling human cost: discipline (sacked if late) secret police slave labour labour camps (for those who made mistakes) accidents & deaths (100,000 workers died building the Belomor Canal) few consumer goods poor housing wages FELL no human rights Achievements & Failures