Transcript Life in the Late 1800’s / Early 1900’s

IB History
The USSR
Under Stalin:
Nature of the
Soviet State,
Propaganda,
Cult of
Personality
Soviet
Government
Council
of People’s
Politburo
Communist
Party
Commissars
(Sovnarkom)
Central Executive
Committee
All-Russian Congress of
Soviets
Central
Committee
Congress
City & Provincial Parties
Provincial & City Soviets
Local Parties
Local & District Soviets
Democratic Centralism
In Theory
 Village soviets elected by
working people
 Day-to-day admin by
executive committee


Appointed by soviets
Delegates sent to higher
bodies

Local -> District -> Province ->
All-Russian Congress -> Central
Executive Committee ->
Sovnarkom
In Reality
 Sovnarkom made all
decisions
 Politburo influenced &
eventually replaced
Sovnarkom
 Decisions passed down to
local levels to be carried out
Soviet
Government
Council
15 – 20 members, key decisions, less
important as Politburo took more control
of People’s
Commissars
(Sovnarkom)
Central Executive
Committee
All-Russian Congress of
Soviets
Provincial & City Soviets
Elected by Congress, Oversaw
government, actually had little power
Elected by city & provincial soviets,
supreme law-making authority
Elected by local & district soviets,
Moscow & Leningrad dominated,
carried out policy decisions
Local & District Soviets
Elected locally, carried out
policy decisions, direct contact
for people
~7-9 members, chosen by Central Committee,
Met daily, Ultimate decision-making body
Politburo
~40 members, chosen from level below,
debate & vote on key party issues but
became increasingly irrelevant to
Politburo
Central
Committee
Communist
Party
Chosen from level below, debate
& vote on main issues
Congress
Chosen from level below, sent
delegates to Congress, Party
secretaries often very powerful at this
level
City & Provincial Parties
Local Parties
Base unit, people often
joined for benefits: jobs,
election to soviets, consumer
goods, extras
Relationship of Government to Party

Key officials in government were members of
Communist Party

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E.g., Politburo members often held high
government positions
Over time, government bodies became
instruments for carrying out policies made by
Politburo
The further from Moscow the more
independent the local parties
ACTIVITY:
In the next few slides there are Propaganda posters.
Look at the posters and try to guess what they want
you to think, feel or believe.
Stalin’s Care Creates a Wonderful Childhood
Learn the great path of Lenin’s and Stalin’s Party!’
Talking too much – helping the enemy!’
‘Each day we live happier!’
‘Love your motherland!’
‘Hail to the powerful air force of the country of socialism’
With the guidance of Great Stalin – Forward to Communism!
Thank you to the Party, Thank you to our Dear
Stalin for a joyful and happy childhood.
Were Soviet culture and society
transformed by the Oct. Revolution?
1 Soviet Russia had the most liberal divorce and abortion laws in Europe,
but generally they worked against women. Childcare was to become the
collective responsibility of the state; but 7-9 million children homeless.
2 Alexandra Kollontai was the only woman among the leading
Bolsheviks, and the impact of her radical feminist ideas was limited.
3 The Bolsheviks believed in mass art that had to serve the new state.
Some avant-garde artists were initially attracted to the regime but the
relationship soured as political control increased.
4 Lenin was especially keen on the cinema and Eisenstein was an
outstanding film-maker, but political control curbed his freedom later on.
5 Education was an essential element in building socialism
but schools in the 1920s were not one of the Bolsheviks’ successes.
6 The campaign to liquidate adult illiteracy had a higher success rate.
7 The Bolsheviks were aggressively atheistic and over 8000 believers
were killed in the anti-Church campaign of 1922.
However, religious belief persisted, especially amongst the peasants
What is a ‘Cult of Personality’?

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Undeserved or excessive
admiration for a person
Created via excessive
praise
Government uses of mass
media to create largerthan-life public image


Can be led by a specific
leader (Stalin)
Can be done after death of a
leader (Lenin)
The Lenin Cult
‘Lenin Lived,
Lenin Is Alive,
Lenin Will Live’
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Body preserved in mausoleum
Every city has Lenin statue
St Petersburg renamed Leningrad
Many children named after Lenin
Thousands join party in Lenin
enrolment
Cult of Personality

Stalin links himself
to Lenin
Funeral
 Photographs

 Many

doctored
Propaganda

Stalin seen everywhere
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Worshiped by People
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Roads
Posters
Pictures on every wall
Even projected image into
night sky
Their ‘god’
Myth persists today even
though


Kruschev denounced
Stalin’s purges
Cities, factories renamed

E.g., Stalingrad to Volgograd
Cult of
Personality
Socialist Realism
The ideological philosophy that guided Soviet literature and
the arts after 1934, all creative writing and art had to celebrate
the achievements of the proletarian in his struggle to make a
contribution to the Soviet achievement.
Cult of Personality

One of Stalin’s speeches
was published on
records


One side of record
contained speech
The other side contained
nothing but applause
Cult of Personality

Stalin edited his own
biography:

‘Although he performed
the task as leader of the
people with consummate
skill and enjoyed the
unreserved support of the
entire Soviet people, Stalin
never allowed his work to
be marred by the slightest
hint of vanity, conceit, or
self-adulation.’
Cult of Personality

At a provincial meeting
there was a standing
ovation when Stalin’s
name was mentioned,
and no one would sit
down first. An old man
finally could stand no
longer and was first to
sit…he was arrested the
next day.
Re-Writing History – Short Course

‘History of the All-Union
Communist Party’

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AKA the ‘Short Course’
1938
Main history course used for
all educational institutions
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Stalin closest friend & disciple
of Lenin
Trotsky called a ‘bourgeois
specialist’
Other Bolsheviks demoted to
‘enemies of the people’ or
other minor roles
Re-Writing History –
Doctored
Photographs

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The shop sign
‘Watches, Gold, Silver’
changed to ‘In Fight
You’ll Get Your Right’
The red flag received
the words ‘Down with
the Monarchy’
Doctored Photos

Trotsky distanced from Lenin to make Trotsky
appear less important
Doctored Photos:
Crowd too small
for Lenin?
• Bottom photo distributed to
world media
Doctored
Photos

Multiple changes
required as purges
continued to execute
party leaders
Doctored Photos: Victims of the Purge
Doctored Photos

Secret police leader
executed in purges, and
therefore removed from
photo with Stalin
Doctored Photos

No one should show the way for Stalin!!
At its Height the Soviet Union:
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2nd largest economy after the United States
Largest armed forces
Largest nuclear arsenal
Leader in space exploration
But…
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The Communist leaders had totalitarian control:
government, business, education, & notably the
media
Freedom we take for granted did not exist:
speech, religion, assembly, fair trial, etc.
Religion
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Need to add more
Official religion is
atheism
Churches closed
Churches used for
other functions
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Meetings
Storage
Barracks
Cathedral of Christ the Savior (restored)
Original destroyed by Stalin in 1931
Education
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Soviets strongly supported
education
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Most citizens are peasants
Needed managers & workers
for new industry
Expanded schools
Developed research
institutions
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Employed 100,000s of
scientists, engineers,
technicians
Stressed science and
technology
Achievements among highest
in the world
The Arts
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Control of all artistic
expression
Writers had relative
freedom in 1920s as
long as they did not
criticize, but in 1930s
they were heavily
censored & persecuted
Socialist Realism

Emphasized goals &
benefits of life in the
USSR
Culture and society in a decade of turmoil
1 The Cultural Revolution of 1928–31 coincided with industrialisation &
collectivisation. It saw a return to the class struggle of the Civil War.
2 The Komsomols were particularly active in enforcing the Cultural
Revolution in education and art and intensifying the attack on religion.
3 After the Cultural Revolution there was a return to traditional values in
many areas of Soviet society. This is sometimes called the ‘Great Retreat’
4 Abortion was outlawed and divorce was made harder after the
introduction of the 1936 Family Code, which emphasised the value of family
life.
5 In education, discipline, exams and traditional procedures were brought
back.
6 Socialist Realism was the guiding principle for all artist from 1932
onwards.
7 Art was even more tightly controlled than it had been in the 1920s.
Artists rose, like Brodsky, or fell, like Meyerhold, depending on how closely
they followed the dictates of Socialist Realism.
8 Great writers like Pasternak were silent; lesser ones produced novels
about the Five-Year Plans.
9 The Soviets were trying to produce a new type of man.
10 Their success was very limited. In spite of Stalin’s terror, the Soviet
people were survivors and remained sceptical.