1. Totalitarianism & Joseph Stalin
Macdonald
World History

2. Early Years Bolshevik (communist) Lenin’s follower
Slowly rose up in gov’t until he seized power in 1929

3. Totalitarian State
Totalitarian (gov’t has complete control of public & private life)
Wanted to create society where all ppl (workers, peasants, owners, etc). were financially & politically equal
Opposite of democracy & capitalism

4. Command Economy
Set up command economy (gov’t makes all financial decisions)
Inc. 5 Year Plans for rapid growth in Soviet Union
Spent $ on military
Set high quotas for production of steel, coal, oil & electricity
Limited production of everything else leading to shortage of food, housing, etc.
Repressive, but very successful financially

5. Agriculture Seized 2.5 million private farms
Combined them into large gov’t own farms called collective farms
Hundreds of families worked to produce food for entire state - all food went to state to be distributed to all

6. Peasant Deaths
If peasants resisted, livestock killed, farms burned, etc.
Used violence to get ppl to work
Kulaks (wealthy peasants) resisted most strongly, so Stalin decided to get rid of all of them
5 – 10 million peasants were killed
By 1928, 90% of all peasants in Soviet Union lived on collective farms – food production doubled

7. Weapons of Totalitarianism
Police Terror
Read mail, listed to all phone calls, tanks in streets, planted informers, kids told on parents
Great Purge launched – effort to get rid of all enemies of the state – arrested for minor acts – police arrested if didn’t arrest enough ppl – killed 8 – 13 million

8. Weapons of Totalitarianism
Indoctrination (lectured workers, trained kids, etc.)
Propaganda (only spread positive info – all glorified Stalin)
Censorship (controlled all media so only glorified Stalin)
Religious Persecution –
Supported atheism b/c wanted ppl to only be loyal to Stalin, not anything else
Destroyed churches, synagogues/ killed religious leaders