2. CH. 14 S. 2 - TOTALITARIANISM A. A GOVERNMENT OF TOTAL CONTROL
TOTALITARIANISM – A gov’t that takes total, centralized control over
every aspect of public and private life.
- Mass communication technology made it possible
- Secret police crush opposition, use fear as a tool to force obedience
- Indoctrination – instruction in the government’s policies to mold
peoples’ minds
- Control of education – nursery school thru college – essential to
the process of indoctrination
- Reinforced in youth groups, strongly enforced in schools

3. The State > The Individual
Propaganda and Censorship
- Propaganda that supports the dictator’s policies is essential
- Mass media is key to effective propaganda – all publications,
broadcasts, art, film, music subject censorship by the gov’t
- Violators are jailed or killed – including journalists, teachers, politicians
- False information is so prevalent it becomes accepted by citizens
Religious/Ethnic Persecution –
- “enemies of the state” – minority religious/ethnic groups serve as
scapegoats when things go wrong
- These groups are brutalized by the gov’t
The State > The Individual

7. B. Stalin Builds a Totalitarian State
- Police State – Stalin planted spies, tapped phones, read mail
- Secret police arrested and executed millions
The Great Purge, 1937 :
- Stalin then targeted other communist leaders
- Tortured officials were given show trials at which they would
agree to plead guilty to crimes against the state in exchange for gov’t
promises to leave their families unharmed – they were then executed
- Those not executed were sent to Gulags – prison camps
- Ended w/ Stalin in absolute control of USSR

11. Show Trials
Gulags

12. C. Stalin Seizes control of the Economy
- Stalin set up a command economy – a system where the gov’t made all
economic decisions, controlled all means of production
- 5-Year Plans – set up to improve Industry
- Set quotas – numerical goals – for
Steel, coal, electricity, & other industrial
needs
- Consumer goods were scarce, made
life harder
- 5-Year Plans – greatly increased industrial output, made USSR powerful

13. - An Agricultural Revolution
- small, private farms were confiscated and turned into large
gov’t-owned farms called collective farms
- Peasants resisted – saw it as a loss of freedom
- Peasants destroyed crops, livestock in protest
- Stalin forced peasants onto collectives – executed many
million peasants killed as a result of collective farming