Creating the “New Soviet Citizen” The Soviet Union Creating the “New Soviet Citizen”

Timeline of Early Soviet History Russia governed by Czar until 1917; autocratic political system & feudal economy. 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; moderates in exile.

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

Lenin’s alteration of Marxism Marx wrote that a communist revolution can only occur in advanced capitalist system. Russia in 1917 had a feudal economy. How could revolution occur there? Through a radical party of intellectuals to lead the workers. Lenin’s revision of Marxism called Marxism-Leninism.

Bolshevik Revolution Lenin sanctioned brutal tactics to seize power (e.g., “salami tactics”), but not a totalitarian system because no cult of the leader or total control of society. With Lenin’s death, a power struggle ensued. Stalin – a nationalist on the right – seized power.

Joseph Stalin Head of both the Communist party and Soviet government from 1924 to 1953. Most interested in power and not ideology. By 1928, established himself as absolute dictator. Increasingly paranoid & dangerous.

Stalin’s totalitarian elements 1. cult of the leader: the all-knowing and all-seeing Father of the People.

Stalin’s totalitarian elements 2. radical ideology Marxism-Leninism the driving rationale for Stalin’s power grab. But Stalin altered the ideology to serve his personal nationalist ambitions. Stalinism refers to a brand of communism that is both extremely repressive and nationalistic.

Stalin’s totalitarian elements Stalin intertwined his own myth with the revolutionary struggle. One current gallery exhibit about Stalin notes: “Only a few photographs of Stalin exist from his youth and the early revolutionary period. A past was created for Stalin through works of art. He was often cut and pasted into photographs to create an artificial history which placed him at the forefront of events.”

Stalin’s totalitarian elements 3. organization Soviet communist party effectively solidified Stalin’s power. Party cells operated in every workplace & classroom, with party members reporting on anyone who was not loyal enough.

Stalin’s totalitarian elements 4. mass mobilization in the early years. 5. secret police – the KGB.

Stalin’s totalitarian elements 6. central control of all organizations. News media: no independent press; only TASS news service. Heavily centralized “command economy.” Stalin’s 1st goal to create an advanced industrial economy. Peasants resisted; killings; exile. Severe agricultural losses & famine. After a decade, millions dead.

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

Stalin’s totalitarian elements 7. Violence & Terror. Brutality on massive scale. Targets: political opponents & party rivals.

Stalin’s totalitarian elements Creation of a gulag system. Gulags were slave labor camps for critics, former capitalists, non-cooperative peasants & party rivals.

Stalin’s totalitarian elements Political purges from 1934 to 1936 were called the Great Terror. Show trials, with coerced confessions and summary executions, from 1936 to 1938. During his rule, one million direct killings & 12 million deaths in Soviet prisons & slave labor camps.