The Soviet Union Under Stalin
Chapter 13 Section 4
A Totalitarian State
• Stalin’s Five Year Plans
– Aimed at building heavy industry, improving
transportation, and increasing farm output
– Command economy
• Mixed Results in Industry
– Chart on pg. 441
• Forced Collectivization in Agriculture
– To bring agriculture under his control, Stalin used forced
collectivization
– Collectives: the government provided tractors, fertilizers,
and seed
– Kulaks
Stalin’s Terror Tactics
• Terror as a Weapon
– Gulag
• The Great Purge
– Along with “show trials” tried to eliminate
everyone Stalin saw as a threat
• Results of the Purge
– Increased Stalin’s power, but weakened the
economy, military, and society
Communist Attempts to Control Thought
• Propaganda
• Censorship and the Arts
– Socialist realism
• Russification
– Stalin tried to make the cultural life of the Soviet
Union more Russian by promoting russification
• War on Religion
– Under Stalin, the official state religious policy was
athiesm
Soviet Society Under Stalin
• The New Elite Takes Control
– Mostly Communists
• Benefits and Drawbacks
• Women in the Soviet Union
– Under Communism, women won equality under
the law
Soviet Foreign Policy
• Two contradictory goals:
– As Communists- bring about worldwide revolution
like Marx predicted
– As Soviets-guarantee nation’s security by winning
support of other countries
– Led to a generally unsuccessful foreign policy
• The goal of the Comintern was to encourage
worldwide revolution
Looking Ahead
“By the time Stalin dies in 1953, the Soviet Union
had become a military superpower and a world
leader in heavy industry. Yet Stalin’s efforts
exacted a brutal toll. The Soviet people were
dominated by a totalitarian system based on
terror. The reality of communism fell far short of
Lenin’s promises. Most people in the Soviet
Union lived meager lives compared with people
in the West.”