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The Rise and Rule of Stalin

The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

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Page 1: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

The Rise and Rule of Stalin

Page 2: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Joseph (Josef) Stalin

• Succeeded Lenin• Leader of the Union of

Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953.

Page 3: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Early Life

• He organized bank robberies, arms deals, and assassination attempts and put in prison in 1908.• He was again arrested in 1911

and exiled. He had another son April 1912. • He created Pravda in 1912. It

was a Bolshevik newspaper. He was caught and again exiled.

Page 4: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

• During the Russian Civil War, Stalin was put in the Politburo (the executive committee for the Communist Party). He opposed many of Leon Trotsky’s policies (Trotsky was a Bolshevik Revolutionary and Marxist Theorist).• Ordered the killings of former tsarist

military leaders and counter-revolutionaries and burned villages to intimidate peasants.• In 1919, to fight against mass desertions

on the Western front, he had deserters and renegades publicly executed.

Early Career

Page 5: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Lenin’s Death

• With Lenin’s death, (January 21, 1924) a power struggle ensued. • Stalin seized power.

Page 6: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Joseph Stalin’s Rise to Power

• 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.

Page 7: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Stalin’s totalitarian elements

1. Cult of the leader/Cult of Personality - the all-knowing and all-seeing Father of the People.

Page 8: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

The Cult of Personality• After Lenin’s death (and very much against his

wishes) a personality cult was created around his memory, using methods such as:• Embalming his body and putting it on public display in

Red Square• Lenin’s image appeared everywhere in posters, film,

statues• Petrograd was renamed Leningrad (St. Petersburg-

Petrograd (1914)-Leningrad (1924)-St. Petersburg (1991))

• Stalin was an active promoter of this cult so as to link his name with Lenin• The Lenin personality cult made it easier for

Stalin to create one around himself.

Page 9: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Stalin’s Cult of Personality

• Stalin also had a city named in his honour – in 1923 Tsaritsyn became Stalingrad• The slogan: ‘Stalin is the Lenin of today’

was officially encouraged• Stalin was portrayed in various ways: Stalin

with peasants, Stalin with workers – all designed to show him as an ordinary man of the people.

Stalin liked to be portrayed as the friend of the workers, discussing the latest project

Page 10: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

• He accepted grand titles ("Father of Nations," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," "Gardener of Human Happiness," and others)

• He helped rewrite Soviet history to provide himself a more significant role in the revolution of 1917

Stalin’s Cult of Personality

Page 11: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Stalin’s totalitarian elements

2. Young People and Education

Page 12: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Youth Organizations

Party youth organisations were:• The Pioneers for those under 14•Komsomol for those between 14-

18; membership shot up from 2.3m in 1929 to 10.2m in 1940.• Young people were encouraged

to report members of their own families to the authorities for ‘anti-Soviet’ views

Page 13: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Education• The 1935 Education Law undid most of the

revolutionary ideas introduced in the early 1920s; • it reasserted discipline by restoring the

authority of teachers• Schools could only use texts prescribed by the

state• The Short Course history of the Communist

Party became the standard text; it presented Stalin’s view of the party and the Revolution.• By 1939 94% of those town-dwellers under 49

were literate; 86% in the countryside.

A poster from 1920: ‘You may as wellbe blind as illiterate’. The Bolsheviks believed that illiteracy had been a keyfactor in maintaining the power of thetsars.

Page 14: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Stalin’s totalitarian elements

3. Radical ideology•Marxism-Leninism was Stalin’s driving ideology but Stalin he

altered it to serve his personal nationalist ambitions.

• “Stalinism” refers to a brand of communism that is both extremely repressive and nationalistic.

Page 15: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Altering Photographs to fit the cause…

An example of how the picture was altered again and again after each person fell out of favor with the regime of Joseph Stalin.

Page 16: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

This image taken by the Moscow Canal was taken when Nikolai Yezhov was water commissar. After he fell from power, he was arrested, shot, and his image removed by the censors.

Page 17: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

The background of the original image includes a store that says in Russian, "Watches, gold and silver". The image was then changed to read, "Struggle for your rights", and flag that was a solid color before was changed to read, "Down with the monarchy - long live the Republic!"

Page 18: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Stalin’s totalitarian elements

4. Organization• The Soviet communist party solidified Stalin’s power. • Party cells operated in every workplace & classroom, with party

members reporting on anyone who was not loyal enough.

Page 19: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Stalin’s totalitarian elements

5. Control

Pervaded ALL aspects of life…• Religion/culture•Media• Family life• Economy (industrialization, collectivization)

Page 20: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Command Economy• Heavily centralized “command economy.”

Stalin’s 1st goal to create an advanced industrial economy. • Command economy - where supply and price are

regulated by the government rather than market forces.

• Five Year Plans – Stalin’s plan for industrial and agricultural production

• Peasants resisted; killings; exile. • Severe agricultural losses & famine. • After a decade, millions dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_8e_OUUA2s

Page 21: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Collective Farms

• Under Stalin, the Government seized ALL farm landOR

• The Government allowed Peasants to stay on their land if they gave it (and all resources) to a “collective”• The state controlled all supplies

Page 22: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Kulaks

• Term for the “wealthy” peasants• Stalin “purged” kulaks when

he believed they weren’t cooperating with his plan• Over 5 million kulaks

deported to Siberia

“...rich peasants who exploit the labour of others, either hiring them for work, or lending money at interest, and so forth. This group supports the landowners and capitalists, the enemies of the Soviet power.” (V.I. Lenin Collected Works, Vol. 36, pp. 500-503.)

“In order to oust the kulaks as a class, the resistance of this class must be smashed in open battle and it must be deprived of the productive sources of its existence and development (free use of land, instruments of production, land-renting, right to hire labour, etc.).” (J. V. Stalin Works, Vol. 12 pp. 184-189.)

Page 23: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

The Media

• All media controlled by the government• Pravda was the paper of the

Communist Party• Izvestiya was the paper of

the Soviets• Radio stations conveyed the

official party view

Page 24: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Police Force - NKVD

• Cheka disbanded after Civil War• New Secret Police force

under Stalin – NKVD• “People's Comissariat for

Internal Affairs”• Direct instrument for Stalin

for use in the Great Terror

Page 25: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Anti-Religion

• Atheism was the official religion under Stalin• Russian Orthodox Churches were

seized and turned into offices and museums or destroyed• Priests and Religious leaders were

killed• Jewish Synagogues were seized• Hebrew language was banned

Page 26: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Art and Popular Culture• The experimental art of the

early 1920s was abandoned and replaced by ‘Socialist realism’; this was seen in all forms of culture – art, cinema, literature.• Socialist realism was much

more conventional, traditional but it was designed to convey pro-Soviet messages to inspire the population to work harder, love the leader etc. A typical painting in the style of ‘socialist

realism’. Stalin is shown amongst theworkers, urging them to meet their production targets. The workers look on,impressed.

Page 27: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

Stalin’s totalitarian elements

6. Violence & Terror.• Brutality on massive scale. • Targets: political opponents & party rivals.

Page 28: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

The Great Purge/The Great Terror• The Great Purge/Terror - series of campaigns of political

repression and persecution in the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin • Show trials, with coerced confessions and summary

executions, from 1934 to 1938.• During his rule, one million direct killings & 12 million deaths

in Soviet prisons & slave labor camps.

Page 30: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

The assassination of Sergei Kirov was the spark of the Great Purge

"In sharp contrast to Stalin, Kirov was a much younger man and an eloquent speaker, who was able to sway his listeners; above all, he possessed a charismatic personality. Unlike Stalin who was a Georgian, Kirov was also an ethnic Russian, which stood in his favor.“Edward P. Gazur

Page 31: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953

The GULag

• Soviet system of forced labor camps• “Corrective labor

camps”• Several million inmates

Page 32: The Rise and Rule of Stalin Joseph (Josef) Stalin Succeeded Lenin Leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 -1953