This lesson contains 35 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 2 videos.
Items in this lesson
Soviet Totalitarianism
Slide 1 - Slide
Today
Recap: Sovjet Union?! - Questions
What is communism?
Who was Stalin?
Reading plus questions
Slide 2 - Slide
What do you remember about the Sovjet-Union?
Slide 3 - Mind map
In what year was the Russian Revolution(s)?
A
1905
B
1917
C
1919
D
1923
Slide 4 - Quiz
What is Communism? What do you remember?
Slide 5 - Open question
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
Slide 6 - Drag question
Characteristics of communism
A Communist state is a totalitarian state: the government controls every aspects of peoples' lives.
Most characteristics are economical in nature:
Planned economy: The state decides what is produced, how much and against what prices.
No private companies. All companies are owned by the state. Workers get fixed wages. Nobody makes a profit.
Slide 7 - Slide
Plan Economy
Plan Economy: production plan for everything in the next 5 years
Government decides what and how much should be produced
Economically a disaster - shortage of everything!
Slide 8 - Slide
The symbol of
Communism
hammer and sickle
both are tools that represent the two most important groups of people in the country:
farmers and industrial workers
The color associated with communism is RED
Slide 9 - Slide
Introduction
Lenin had begun to transform the new Soviet Union into a communist state, but died before his plans were realised. After a power struggle, Joseph Stalin became the new leader. How did Stalin rule the Soviet-Union?
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 10 - Slide
Slide 11 - Video
Reading - 8 minutes
Read:
Learnbeat 3.2 - Theory 8-9
Write down:
Difficult words
Difficult theory
timer
8:00
Slide 12 - Slide
What is meant by Stalinism? Explain.
Slide 13 - Open question
Why is killing your opponents for being critical a totalitarian aspect?
Slide 14 - Open question
Homework
Before next class (next week)
Make:
Learnbeat 3.2 - Basics 9 &10
Slide 15 - Slide
Totalitarianism in the Soviet Union
Learning goals
What did Stalin want to do and how did he try to achieve these goals?
How did he believe he was helping people?
Slide 16 - Slide
The Soviet Union in brief
1917 October Revolution - Communists seize power
After the communists win a brutal civil war Russia becomes the Soviet Union (until 1990)
A totalitarian state which tried to create a communist paradise
Spoiler alert - no communist paradise
Slide 17 - Slide
Lenin - the first leader of the Soviet Union in 1919
Slide 18 - 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 19 - 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 20 - Slide
Slide 21 - 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 22 - Slide
Propaganda poster: "we will achieve the Five Year plan in four years"
Slide 23 - 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 24 - Slide
Collectivation
State propaganda shows that the policy was a big success
Supported by many poorer farmers but....
Slide 25 - Slide
Holodomor
Slide 26 - Slide
Food exported even as people were starving
Anyone who complained was sent to the Gulags
Slide 27 - Slide
One death is a tragedy.
A million deaths is simply a statistic
Slide 28 - Slide
Slide 29 - 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: kill all opponents
Cult of Personality: use propaganda to make him into superhuman hero
Slide 30 - Slide
The Great Purge (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 31 - 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 194 1,600,000 died due to detention in the camps.
Slide 32 - 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 33 - 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 34 - 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