Joseph Stalin

The Bolshevik Czar

Early Life

• Born in Georgia in 1879 to peasant couple and died in march 1953

• Father was poor, violent alcoholic

• Family background led him to be a cruel, sadistic man

Early Life• Not a revolutionary in the sense of

Marx -- but more of a thug that the revolution would need

• Started out as a criminal to finance the revolution

• Repeatedly exiled by the czar & would later exile millions of Russians

Early Life

• Did take part in the Revolution but was involved in the Civil War of 1918 – 1921

• The civil war brought out in Stalin the worst of his personality -- he was more interested in violence than in speaking of revolution

• "death solves all problems. No man, no problem."

Political Beginning

• Stalin used alliance w/ Khamenev & Zenoviev to oust Trotsky from the party

• Before Lenin died, he left secret will that told the party not to trust or to keep Stalin

• Stalin's alliances prevented his ouster

Political Beginning

• Later Stalin's alliance w/ the conservatives led to the ouster of Khamenev & Zenoviev

• Lenin's successor's did so much squabbling that Stalin was able to manipulate the party & gain control.

Stalinist Control Of The Economy:

• Unlike Lenin before him, Stalin created a command economy in which the Soviet government made all of the economic decisions.

• Problem areas of the economy, like agriculture, were identified by the government and plans were made to correct these problems.

Stalinist Control Of The Economy:

• Collectivized farming: kicked kulaks off land and sent them to Siberia

• Giant farms created w/ as many as 40,000 people and production still fell

• 5 million died as result of the famine & Russians turned in some instances to cannibalism. Stalin made it a crime to even mention the famine.

Stalinist Control Of The Economy:• 5 year plans in industry were also not having

the kind of success he had imagined.

• Stalin had unrealistic expectations and many projects failed as a result.

• Consumer goods were necessarily limited. Why!?

• 5 Year Plans resulted in shortages in just about every product area.

Stalin's Totalitarian Russia

• What is TOTALITARIANISM?

• "A government that takes total, centralized state control over every aspect of public and private life.“

• It is a more modern version of the absolute monarchy.

• The individual and his/her rights are trampled, freedom is forgotten & the use of logic & reason continued only as long as it does not get in the way of what the leader wants.

Ideology:sets goals for the stateglorifies aims of the statejustifies gov’t actions

Methods of Enforcementsecret policecensorshipcampstorture Control of

Individualsdemands loyaltydeny basic libertypersonal sacrifice for good of state

Modern Technologymass communication to spread the wordadvanced weapons

Control of Societybusiness laborhousingartsreligionyouth groups

Dynamic leaderunites peoplesymbol of gov’tencourages popular support

One-Party Ruleabsolute authoritydominates gov’t

Control Of The Soviet State

• Stalin filled the gulags with criminal who were late to work or who had stolen food

• Gulags were hard labor prisons and filled with brutality and torture & murder.

• Religion, the opiate of the masses, according to Karl Marx, was persecuted. It did not disappear completely, however.

Control Of The Soviet State • Stalin made Russia look good but in reality

there was not as much success as he'd like the world to believe.

• Stalin became a secular saint. People were overwhelmed w/ propaganda about Stalin being infallible

• To remain god status Stalin had to begin his purges of the communist party and of the military and the educated classes

• The Great Purge (1934) was directed against "enemies of the state" but really was directed against anyone that Stalin saw as a threat to Stalin.

Control Of The Soviet State

Control Of The Soviet State

Stalin purged communist party members, army officers, directors of industry, and anyone else who might run afoul of Stalin.

Students were taught in school that the state came above all, that individual freedom meant nothing and that Comrade Stalin was all-knowing and very powerful.

Control Of The Soviet State

• Stalin needed a form of coronation to solidify his power. Had to disgrace Lenin's followers and show the nation that he was the only man who could lead the soviet union

• Leon Trotsky spoke out against Stalin in exile in Mexico and was murdered in 1940

• Stalin created a society of terror and informers. Stalin's paranoia led to millions disappearing into the gulags or being executed.

World War II

• Growing power of Hitler's Germany led to respect b/t both nations.

• In August 1939 the two nations signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact.

• Both nations needed time before they would fight each other (they knew they would fight eventually) & this was a way to buy time to prepare for the main event.