Recognize this kid?
Source R: The Stalinist Constitution
QW What can you infer about Stalin’s leadership of the Soviet Union?
Source S: Propaganda in Stalinist Russia
QW What does this source tell you about Stalin?
Joseph Stalin
Man of Steel
Lenin and Stalin
Aleksei Vasiliev
Lenin and Stalin in Summer
1917
Ivan Vladimirov
Stalin
Totalitarian State
Stalin would take power after the death of
Lenin in 1924.
 He turned the Soviet Union into a
Totalitarian State.
 Stalin’s Five-Year Plans
*Main purpose was to build heavy
industry & increase farm output.
*All economic activity was brought
under gov’t control - command economy
was developed.

Five-Year Plans cont’d

Though output increased the standard of
living remained low.
*Wages were low & workers were
forbidden to strike.
 Government
control of agriculture
 Collectives: large farms owned
and operated by peasants as a
group
 State set prices and access to
supplies
 Peasants who did not want to give
up their land resisted the collectives.
Collectivization of farms
Individual farms
Each has own farmhouse
Tractor
Equipment etc
Farmers make $ based on
how productive they are.
The more productive, the
more $ they make.
Workers live in
communal village,
in govt housing
projects
Collective farm – state (government) owned,
all equipment and
Housing, pooled together. Everyone gets paid the same wages.
All profits go to government, which then pays the workers.
No incentive, no ownership of land
Stalin blamed
kulaks, wealthy
farmers, for
resistance
 Land confiscated
 Millions were killed
outright or sent to
forced-labor camps
to suffer a slow
death.

"We farmers, on the basis of complete
collectivization, will liquidate the kulaks as
a class."
Terror Famine

Angry peasants resisted collectivization by
growing just enough to feed themselves.
– In response the gov’t seized all their grain
and purposefully left them to starve.

In 1932 this ruthless policy led to the
Terror Famine-between 5 & 8 million
people died in the Ukraine alone.
Stalin’s Terror Tactics
Stalin ruthlessly used terror as a weapon
against his own people.
 He committed crimes against humanity
and violated his people’s individual rights.

Critics
were sent to the Gulag (a
system of brutal labor camps where
many died).
Hard / Physical Labor
Food was in short supply
Maria Tchebotareva
Trying to feed her four hungry children
during the massive 1932-1933 famine,
the peasant mother allegedly stole
three pounds of rye from her former
field—confiscated by the state as part
of collectivization. Soviet authorities
sentenced her to ten years in the
Gulag. When her sentence expired in
1943, it was arbitrarily extended until
the end of the war in 1945. After her
release, she was required to live in
exile near her Gulag camp north of the
Arctic Circle, and she was not able to
return home until 1956, after the death
of Stalin. Maria Tchebotareva never
found her children after her release.
Ivan Burylov
Seeking the appearance of
democracy, the Soviet Union
held elections, but only one
Communist Party candidate
appeared on the ballot for each
office. Fear of punishment
ensured that nearly all Soviet
citizens “voted” by taking their
ballot and ceremoniously placing
it into a ballot box.
In 1949, Ivan Burylov, a
beekeeper, protested this absurd
ritual by writing the word
“Comedy” on his “secret” ballot.
Soviet authorities linked the
ballot to Burylov and sentenced
him to eight years in camps for
this “crime.”
The country had virtually become a
labor camp
Stalin’s Terror Tactics
Great
Purge (policy created by Stalin in
which he eliminated rival party leaders and
old Bolsheviks).
–Started in 1934
–At least 4 million people were purged
(killed) during the Stalin years.
This puts the USSR in a bad position when it comes time to
fight WWII, since Stalin liquidated many officers in the
military…
Bodies were simply piled up to be
buried in a mass grave

Stalin promoted atheism (the belief there
is no god) as the official state
policy…communism is your god.
Attempts to Control Thought

Propaganda-the attempt to boost morale
& faith in the communist party by making
himself (Stalin) a godlike figure.
Soviet Propaganda Poster
“Look Me in the Eyes and Tell
Me Honestly:
Who is your friend? Who is your
enemy?
You have no friends among
capitalists.
You have no enemies among
the workers.
Only in a union of the workers
of all nations will you be
victorious over capitalism and
liberated from exploitation.
Down with national
antagonisms!
Workers of the world unite!”
"To whom goes all national profits? In the CCCP, to the workers."
“Love Your
Motherland”
IN DECEMBER 1934, Sergey
Kirov, a prominent early
Bolshevik leader and loyal
supporter of
Joseph Stalin, was
assassinated… a purge…
…Stalin had ordered the execution.
Attempts to Control Thought
 Socialist
Realism-Goal to show Soviet
life in a positive light & promote
communism.
– The following works of art illustrate
socialist realism…
The Leaders:
The Cult of Personality
Lenin in Front of the Globe
Vladimir Sinitsky
Lenin
Aleksei Nesterenko, 1938
Lenin
German Tatarinov, 1950s
Lenin at the Kremlin
Ivan Petrenko
Lenin in his Study
Nikolai Pavliuk, 1947
Lenin at the Smolny Institute
Isaak Brodsky, 1930
Portrait of Stalin
Aleksandr Laktionov, 1945
Stalin
Aleksei Vasiliev
Stalin
Grigory Shpoliansky, 1949
Stalin
Konstantin Lomykin, 1949
Karl Marx
Konstantin Kamyshni
Karl Marx
Aleksandr Krylov
The Guiding Role of the
Party
Vladimir Ilich Lenin
Vasily Ivanov
Lenin With Farmers
Viacheslav Tokarev, c. 1960
Lenin with Villagers
Evdokiya Usikova, 1959
Gorky Reading to Stalin
Viktor Govorov, 1940
Stalin as Organizer of the October
Revolution
Karp Trokhimenko
Stalin at a Political Meeting at the Kremlin
Sergei Grigoriev
Stalin at the 8th Party Conference
Petr Parkhets
Adoration of the
Leaders
Lenin’s Arrival at Finland Station
Arkady Rusin
On the
Battlefield
Lenin on the Airfield
Boris Vladimirsky, 1930
Stalin in the Civil War
Mikhail Bozhi, 1950
Trumpeters of the First Cavalry
Mitrofan Grekov, 1934
The 1917 Revolution
Karp Trokhimenko
The Return of the Victors
Vasily Saicenko, 1953
Industry
Stalin and Kirov Visit the Volkhov
Hydrostation
Karp Trokhimenko
In the Stalin Factory
Mikhail Kostinin
Steel Workers
V. Malagis, 1950
Miner
Boris Vladimirsky, 1929
Agriculture and
Education
The First Tractor
Vladimir Krikhatsky
Female Worker
Boris Vladimirsky
In a Girls’ School
Ivan Vladimirov
Communist
Moscow
The Kremlin
Aleksei Putayev
Moscow State University
Mukhina’s Monument
Aleksei Shovkunenko
Soviet Society
Benefits
Free
schooling
Programs outside
of school (sports)
Free medical care
Inexpensive
housing
Public recreation
Drawbacks
Taught
communist
values (atheism,
glory of collective
farming, love of
Stalin)
Housing scarce
Most food in short
supply
Russification
Attempts to make the nations culture
more Russian.
 11 Soviet Republics
 Old Russian heartland the largest and
most dominant.
 Attempt to overwhelm the other cultures
in the USSR.
