Chapter 14 Section 2Totalitarianism

I. A Government of Total ControlA. Totalitarianism

1. Totalitarianism- describes a government that takes total, centralized, state control over every aspect of public and private life

2. Leaders tend to be dynamic who are capable of building support for policies & justify actions

I. A Government of Total ControlA. Totalitarianism

3. Totalitarianism challenges reason, freedom, human dignity, and worth of the individual

B. Police Terror1. Use terror and violence to force obedience and crush opposition2. Police serve to enforce govt. policies by spying and intimidation

C. Indoctrination1. Indoctrination-means instruction in govt.’s beliefs-to mold people’s

minds2. Controlling education to glorify leader and policies to convince

citizen’s unconditional loyalty. Best to begin with children

D. Propaganda and Censorship1. Use biased information to sway people to accept certain beliefs2. Control of mass media

D. Propaganda and Censorship3. Film, art, music and publications exist only through the govt.4. Challenging govt. info is considered treason

E. Religious or Ethnic Persecution1. Govt. leaders will create “enemies of the state” to place blame for

things that go wrong

II. Stalin Builds a Totalitarian StateA. A Police State

1. Stalin create this to maintain his power2. Used tanks and armored cars to stop riots3. Tapped phone lines, children told on parents, and police arrested and

executed millions of so called traitors

Stalin Builds a Totalitarian StateA. A Police State

4. 1934, Great Purge- campaign of terror directed at anyone who threatened Stalin’s power-even old Bolsheviks

5. By 1938 when the purge ended Stalin had gained total control and had been responsible for 8-13 million deaths

B. Soviet Propaganda and Censorship

1. Stalin would not tolerate individual creativity that did not conform to his views

D. Education, Indoctrination & Religious Persecution

1. Stalin controlled all education from nursery schools to the universities2. Leaders preached sacrifice and hard work for the Communist state3. Stalin wanted to replace religion with the ideals of communism

III. Stalin Seizes Control of the EconomyA. An Industrial Revolution

• Command economy is a system in which the govt. made all economic decisions

• Stalin sets a 5-year plan that set goals for increasing the production of steel, coal, oil, and electricity but this created shortages in housing, food, & clothing

• These methods did succeed in producing economic gain

B. An Agricultural Revolution1. Collective Farms- In 1928 the govt. began to seize over 25 million

privately owned farms and combined them into large govt. owned farms

2. Families worked on these farms producing food for the state3. Kulaks (wealthy peasants) resisted but the Soviet govt. eliminated

them

B. An Agricultural Revolution1. 5-10 million peasants died as a result of Stalin’s agricultural revolution2. By 1938 more than 90% of all peasants lived on collective farms3. These farms were effective; wheat production had doubled in 1938

Daily Life Under Stalin

• Better education• Opportunity to master

technical skills• Women and men equal

in communism– Women in the Soviet

Union could work, get an education

– By 1950, 75% of Soviet doctors were women

– Gov’t provided child care

Daily Life Under Stalin

• Personal freedoms limited/oppression

• Goods in short supply• Women expected to

provide the state with future generations of loyal citizens

• Total social control and terror