2.2 The Soviet Union under Stalin-T-

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 3

9. The Time of World Wars

INTERBELLUM

2.2 The Soviet Union under Stalin

What is this lesson about?

Stalin succeeded Lenin and became a ruthless dictator of a totalitarian state. Stalin came up with five-year plans in which he wanted to turn the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower. To pay for this, he forced farmers to work on collectivised farms, from which he sold the yield to pay for machines. In order to keep his power, Stalin purged his opposition and used propaganda to develop a cult of personality around himself.

people in this lesson

Joseph Stalin

dictator

Soviet Union

Vladimir Lenin

Communist leader

Soviet Union

Leon Trotsky

Stalin's rival

Soviet Union

Word Duty

New Economic Policy: program instituted by Lenin for a temporarily more capitalism-oriented economic policy

superpower: very powerful and influential nation in the world

totalitarian state: state with a centralised government that is dictatorial and controls every part of people’s lives

Five-Year Plan: Stalin’s plan to industrialise the Soviet Union over five years

collectivisation: forceful joining of agriculture into huge state farms

kulak: peasant in Russia, who is wealthy enough to own a farm and hire labour

Great Purge: period of repression and persecution in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s

Gulag forced labour camps: system of forced labour camps in which opponents of the Soviet Union were imprisoned and many people died

cult of personality: excessive public admiration for or devotion to a famous person

WORD DUTY

Important dates in this lesson:

1921: New Economic Policy

1924: Lenin dies

1928: first Five-Year Plan

1936-38: the Great Purge

What you will learn in 

this lesson

•  how Lenin and Stalin turned the Soviet Union into an industrial country
• why and how Stalin wanted to turn the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower
• that Stalin ruled as a dictator and created a cult of personality around himself

Use these questions to make your own summary

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,

Lenin’s New Economic Policy

The revolution, World War I and the civil war had led to a destruction of agriculture, which caused widespread famine. Lenin had also forcefully confiscated food from the peasants to feed his Red Army. Now the Soviet-Union was an even more backwards country then it was in 1914.

To make things better, Lenin brought in the New Economic Policy. With this, he took a step backwards from communism and towards capitalism. Peasants were allowed to produce for themselves and sell their food surplus on markets. Businessmen could own small industries, but no factories. Factories and large industry became public property to be owned by the workers.

Lenin believed that with this economic policy the worst damage of the civil war could be restored. However, fanatical communists did not agree with him: some said that the revolution should be pushed further until they had formed a strong communist society, in which everyone was equal and in which there was no private property at all.

 Lenin holding a speech to Bolsheviks, 1917.

The death of Lenin and his succession

On 12th January 1924, Lenin passed away after a long illness. In his honour, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. His party members mourned, but a struggle for succession had already started when Lenin had fallen ill. Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Bolshevik party, had been able to put his followers in powerful positions. After a vote in the party, he became the new leader of the Soviet-Union. But who was Stalin?

He was born in Georgia as Joseb Jugashvili, but would later use his alias Stalin, man of steel. He became a revolutionary when he read Lenin’s works. As a member of the Bolshevik party, he wrote and spread propaganda and raised money by carrying out bank robberies, kidnappings and assassinations. Stalin was ambitious and intelligent; this enabled him to rise up in the party. But he was not widely loved. Leon Trotsky was his biggest rival and even Lenin mistrusted him. Lenin even wrote a warning in his testament. Stalin knew this and kept Lenin’s testament hidden, so it would not hinder his road to power.

After his death in 1924, Lenin's body has been preserved and put on display. It can still be seen today. A half-dozen Russian anatomists, biochemists, and surgeons care for Vladimir Lenin's  preserved body

Lenin's Mausoleum, also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated in Red Square in the centre of Moscow, is a mausoleum that currently serves as the resting place of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. 

The Soviet Union as an industrial superpower

Stalin’s goal was clear: he wanted to turn the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower. He believed that the Soviet Union could outgrow the capitalist Western countries if every citizen participated in a state that worked as a well-oiled machine. For this, the Russians had to give up their freedom and individuality. Stalin continued what Lenin had started and turned the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state. This means that the government controlled everything, from economics to the private lives of the people; even the clothes they wore and what they had to think and believe. In 1928, he created his first Five-Year Plan, in which he stated the goals that had to be reached in the economy between 1928 and 1933. Factories had to produce according to the demands of the state. Stalin described his production plans in detail, from agricultural machines to the shoes people had to wear. His state officials outlined production quotas for factories. But it was not easy to pay for industrial development without borrowing money from foreign countries. Therefore, the money that was needed for industrialisation had to come from the Soviet Union itself.

propaganda poster: A five-year plan in four years - we'll do it

Red book is titled "5 year plan" while evil capitalist says: "Fantasy, nonsense, utopia"

Below factories fly banners: "Industrialization, Collectivisation of Farms"

Collectivisation

To pay for the industrialisation, Stalin wanted to revolutionise agriculture. In order to gain more from farmland, he forced farmers to give up their private land to work for big agricultural companies. During this collectivisation, farmers had to work on the kolkhoz, huge state farms, and had to give their yield to the state. Stalin sold the yield to foreign countries and used the money to buy machines that were necessary for industry. Independent farmers resisted collectivisation because they did not want to give up their land and livestock. When they were forced, many slaughtered their own animals rather then giving them up. Everyone who resisted was called a kulak and stigmatised as an enemy of the state. Government officials and the secret police arrested them; kulaks were killed or send to labour camps where they had to work under terrible conditions. Farmers that joined the collectivisation had to share tools and agricultural machines. They were all responsible for the yield of the land and each year they had to satisfy quotas demanded by the state. This sometimes caused problems when there was a bad harvest, but Stalin still demanded all the food, even when there was not enough for the farmers to eat or to plant for the next year. This led to a terrible famine in Ukraine, which killed millions of people.        Watch this video to do question 17

Against the Kulak’s Howl - A Concerted, Collective Front to Sow!’. Soviet poster, 1920s.

A starving family in a courtyard during the famine in the Ukraine

The Great Purge

In order to consolidate his power even more, Stalin developed a strong secret police and intelligent agency. Especially during the Great Purge (between 1936 and 1938), everyone who opposed Stalin was arrested and subjected to a fake trial. These show trials made people believe that there was a fair justice system, but the accused were already branded guilty beforehand. Political opponents suddenly ‘disappeared’ and kulaks were punished by imprisonment, which actually meant that they were being executed. Others were sent to workcamps. These included thousands of high ranking officers of the Red Army, who were not trusted by Stalin. In the Gulag forced labour camps, they had to work hard under terrible conditions. Historians estimate that more than two million people died of cold, famine, exhaustion and disease in these camps.

enemies of communism are "purged".

Stalin's wife, Nadezjda, did not know about the cruelties for a long time. When she found what her husband did she resisted him.Not long after, she was shot. Nobody knows if she killed herself or if Stalin murdered her.

‘Father of Nations’

Stalin used propaganda in order to indoctrinate the Russians and make them believe that he was an all-powerful, wise and kind leader. A big

cult of personality around him was built, in which children had to learn songs and poems about him. They had to thank Stalin for their country and their lives. The phrase, ‘thank you dear comrade Stalin for our happy childhood,’ appeared above doorways at schools and nurseries. Posters, that pictured the dictator as a kind father figure and a powerful leader, could be found everywhere. Stalin was shown as the true follower of Lenin and because of this, his rule was faultless. Stalin was pictured next to Lenin, cities were named after him, books and music were written about him and almost every city had its own statue of the dictator.

The next slide shows a scene from a propaganda film. Try not to laugh..

"In 1920, [Dmitry] Moor designed a striking poster, "Bud' na strazhe!" (Be on Guard!) that featured a drawing of Trotsky holding a bayonet and standing, larger than life, on Russian territory, with minuscule enemies around him."

‘Comrade Stalin’

When today someone calls you comrade, it means that he sees you as a kind of friend. In the Soviet-Union, the word comrade was used to address fellow communists. Even Stalin was called ‘comrade Stalin’. For many people the word is still connected to communism.

‘Thank you beloved Stalin for our happy childhood’, Viktor Govorkov, 1936

congratulations

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