Global Studies II

Unit II Russia

Name ______________________________
Date ____________

Totalitarianism under Stalin

1. Define the term totalitarianism
A government that takes total control over every aspect of public and private life.

2. While reading the excerpt, create a list of methods of control used by Soviet leaders and examples

Methods
1. Police Terror
2. Indoctrination
3. Propaganda and Censorship
4. Religious and Ethnic Persecution

Examples
1. The police are there to enforce the
governments policies. They can spy on or
just intimidate citizens. They often use
brutal force or even sometimes murder to
prove their point.
2. This is the instruction of the
governments beliefs to mold peoples mind
and make them believe certain things.
3. This is biased or incomplete information
to sway peoples minds and make them
believe certain things or actions.
4. Leaders blame things that go wrong on
certain people. These people are often
members of religious or ethnic groups to
make the group look bad.

Of all the methods of control, which allows the MOST long-term control?

I would think that the indoctrination would allow the most long term control. I think this
because it is completely changing the minds of the people. It is going to make people believe
certain things for as long as they live.

3. Stalins methods of control.

a. What was the Great Purge? How would Stalins use of this action increase his power?
The great purge was a campaign of terror that would eliminate anyone who threatened his power.
This would increase his power because there wont be anybody going against him and threatening his
power. He has full power.

b. What was Pravda? How did Stalin explain the purpose of art in the USSR?

The Pravda was an editorial in the communist newspaper in 1930 that Stalin used for propaganda. He
explained it as Literature, the cinema, the arts, are levers in the hands of the proletariat which
must be used to show the masses positive models of initiative and heroic labor.

c. What is an atheism? How did Stalin use atheism to influence his control over his citizens?
This is the act of making other religions look bad. It was a group who showed why religious beliefs
were superstitions. He used this to try and make people have the same beliefs as him but many
people still clung to their religions.

4. Stalins control over the economy.

a. What is a command economy? A system where the government made all economic decisions.
b. Stalins Five Year Plans
1. Purpose To develop the Soviet Unions economy.

2. Results? To reach the numbers that Stalin wanted the government had to limit the
consumer goods being produced and therefore people faced shortages of housing, food, clothing, and other
necessary goods.

c. What methods did Stalin use to bring agriculture under state control?
He had the government seize over 25 million privately owned farms and make them government
owned. He then had hundreds of families work on these farms to produce food for the state.

d. Kulaks - Who were they?

1. How did they create a problem for Stalin?

They murdered officials, torched the property of the collectives, and burned their own crops and
grain in protest.
2. How did he solve the problem?
He took over all of their land and equipment and completely eliminated the kulaks by 1935.