Life in a totalitarian state

1. Life in a totalitarian state Deana Velandra

2. An “iron age” of totalitarian control • Totalitarian state- government in which a one-party dictatorship regulates every aspect of citizens’ lives. • Stalin’s Communist party tried to make people obey by using terror and other extreme tactics. • Stalin also used a lot of propaganda to make people believe what he wanted them to believe.

3. War on religion • Atheism became the official policy of the state. • The Russian Orthodox Church was targeted first as they had strongly supported the czars. • Priests and other religious leaders were killed. • Later on, Judaism and Islam were also discouraged. • The government replaced people’s religion with communist ideology.

4. Changes in the soviet society • A group of elite members of society forms in Russia. • Free education became available to all. • The people also enjoyed free medical care, day care, inexpensive housing, and public transportation and recreation. • The standard of living still remained low, and many people migrated to cites.

5. Education • Russian schools were built and children were required to attend. • Adults were also taught to read and write. • Schools taught atheism and the love of Stalin along with the basic skills.

6. women • After the revolution, Kollontai, Lenin’s wife, became the only woman to serve in Lenin’s government. • Women won equality under the law as well as access to education and a wide range of jobs. • Many worked in medicine, engineering, or science by the 1930s. • Their wages were needed because men earned low wages.

7. The arts and the state • Socialist realism- artistic styles whose goal was to promote socialism by showing Soviet life in a positive light. • The government controlled what people could read, what music was heard, and what art could be displayed. • Many writers were persecuted for writing things that went against communist ideas.

8. Looking ahead • In 1953, Stalin died, but the Soviet Union was already a world leader in heavy industry, steel, and oil production. • One of the world’s military superpowers along with the United States. • Dictators in Italy and Germany used their own ideas, different from the Soviet Union.