1. Totalitarianism

2. What is it?
A government that takes total control over every aspect of public AND private life.
People give up liberty for a sense of security.
Need a dynamic leader to pull it off
Stalin
Mao
Hitler

3. What you need to make a Totalitarian State Work
Police Terror
Violence and terror keep people in line.
The secret police ENFORCE policy NOT protect citizens and catch criminals.
Spy on citizens

4. Instruction in government beliefs Glorify the leader
Indoctrination
Instruction in government beliefs
Glorify the leader
And his ideas
Begins with the young
Schools are key
Ex Hitler Youth

5. Propaganda and Censorship
Used to sway people
Must have control of ALL media to make it work.
The goal  present false information as the truth.
Anyone who tries to call the government out must be dealt with harshly
prison or a bullet

7. Persecution Usually ethnic or religious
You need someone to blame when things go wrong.
Need to be identifiable
Live in certain places
Follow “special” laws

8. Police Terror
Indoctrination
Propaganda
Persecution

9. Case Study- Stalinist Russia
The KGB (secret police)
Kept tabs on EVERYONE
Tap phones, read mail, random arrests and interrogations/ forced confessions.
Arrest LOTS of people
send them to the gulag (labor camp)
Or shoot them

10. Vasili Blokhin (KGB Executioner)
Once shot 7,000 Polish prisoners in 28 Days
Nikolai Yezhov
(head of the KGB in the 1930’s)

11. Propaganda and Censorship
Stalin’s government controlled:
Newspapers, movies, radio, and other sources of info.
All Stalin, all the time
Everything was a success, all policies were great, Stalin was awesome, etc, etc, etc…

13. The communist party controlled ALL schools
Education & Indoctrination
The communist party controlled ALL schools
ANY teacher or professor who challenged the Party view was arrested.
Ex. – Stalin wasn’t in St. Petersburg for the start of the October Revolution(true by the way)?
OFF TO THE GULAG
10 – 15 years.

14. Communists don’t like religion
“Opiate of the masses”
Russian Orthodox church pegged as the “bad guy”.
Stalin especially hated churches – many torn down during is regime

16. Stalin and the Economy
Stalin saw that Russia was behind the rest of the world
Wanted to catch up quick
His solution was a COMMAND ECONOMY
Government makes all of the economic decisions.
Stalin’s idea  Five Year Plans
Set impossible goals for industrialization
Two ways to reach the goals
Don’t make as many consumer goods
Lie about the figures.
In the end it worked (sort of)
Production increased but numbers not met

17. Stalin and Agriculture
1928
Stalin decides to collectivize farms
big government farms
People forced off their land
Produce more but it is mismanaged from the start
Widespread famine (food shortage)
Results in the death of 5 – 10 million people.

19. In-Class Project (3-5 per group)
Write our leaders “myth” (extended writing)
Humble Beginnings, Triumph over Adversity, Victory
Who is the “Enemy of the State” (extended writing)?
Flag of the State (large posters)
Propaganda poster of our leader (large poster)
Poster of what the ideal society will look like (extended writing or large poster)