Stalin's Rule
In The USSR
FiveYearPlan
Oct 1st, 1928—1933
The Five Year Plan was intended to transform the soviet union from a peasantry/agricultural
economy to an industrial power. It was meant to help the soviets win more wars and develop a better communist government.
Stalin did this by taking control of the economy and using forced collectivization of agriculture. In forced colectivization the government took control of private farms and forced them to work for massive state owned enterprises, those who refused were exiled/killed. Many were also sent to the Gulag, a prison labor system established during the first five year plan.
In 1929 the number of collectivized farms was 5%, but by 1939 the number was up to 99%. But collectivization did a lot of harm, causing a famine and millions dead
A failed
Success
Stalin’s Five Year Plan achieved amazing success. However, most of this came at the cost of many human lives.
The USSR did succeed in modernizing and becoming a military threat. Some examples include imporved eletricity supply and an increase in machines produced. Heavy industries also saw an increase in output and productivity.
The five year plans were poorly organized, leading to wastes in resources. These plans were also executed through severe means, usually at the cost of human lives and rights. This included many accidental deaths, slave labor, labor camps (Gulag), and horrible work conditions.
The Great Purge
The Great Purge, also known as the “Great Terror”, was bloody polticial compaign meant to kill off all communist members who were in disagreement with Stalin.
Большой террор
Was started by the killing of Sergei Kirov who was a political leader in the Leningrad apparatus that had gained massive popularity. Stalin, being very paranoid, staged his with the NKVD, using it as a pretext to The Great Purge
Using the killing of Kirov, Stalin began arresting other innocent political members and forming staged trials for others. In these staged trials people were tortured behind the scenes into falsely admitting to the crimes in court.
November 1938
August 1936—
Altogether the Purges helped to maintain Stalin’s authority and further intimidate any other political members. The Great Terror is sometimes thought of as the crime of the century, as estimated deaths near 1 million.
Pro
paga
nda
Stalin used propaganda as a means of swaying the people of the
USSR to his regime and its views, while also demolishing the public view of his opponents.
One of the biggest uses of Propaganda by Stalin was on children. He believed that to succeed as a country he had to make a “new man” or new generation fully devoted and in belief in the Communist party and its agenda.
One example was the folk tale Stalin made starring Pavlik Morozov, a boy who denounced his father to the NKVD for hoarding grain. Pavlik became a symbol of ideal orthodox behavior, shaping the minds of a whole young generation towards radical support of their leader.
Propaganda even infiltrated education, as teachers were forced to teach Communist principles and glorify Stalin’s rule.
Other media forms like the radio, posters, and cinema were propagandized with Communist themes and symbols to help reach the illiterate of Russia. Newspapers and books had also been seized and put under propagandist publication, with opposing newspapers and books being shut down or purged.
Propaganda was also used to support his controversial policies, like collectivization. A tale of Stakhanov was even coined, depicting him mining 105 tonnes of coal in one shift and praising him as a hero of socialist workers; hoping to instill this work ethic into the working people.
Secret police-
NKVD
The NKVD’s main job was to ensure national security, however it was carried out in very radical ways. They would find and arrest anyone suspected of being anti-Communist/Stalinist, these people would then either be killed or sent to the Gulag.
Not long after their establishment the NKVD became feared by all citizens throughout the USSR. This intimidation proved useful as people would spy on neighbors and report them to the NKVD, believing that if they didn’t they instead would get reported on.
Control
The Politics
As Stalin’s power increased so did the secret police of the USSR, forming the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, which is abbreviated as the NKVD in Russian. The police force went from being used purely for enforcement to a political weapon.
The NKVD was very powerful, with Communist support and a massive intelligence system,
allowing their paramilitary to carry out domestic and ethnic repression when necessary, on top of political missions.
After forming the NKVD, which was separated from party control and clear governmental regulation, they became tools for Stalin to carry out his Communist Agenda. This included carrying out the Great Purges, political assassinations and kidnappings.
The cult of
personality
Stalin's cult was dependent on Lenin's legacy. Stalin rewrote the past and falsified photographs
to ensure his succession. He upheld the core principles of Marxist-Leninism, strengthening his cult.
All-powerful
All-knowing
Our leader
Stalin's propaganda was everywhere, controlling people and brain washing them to believing that Stalin was a god-like figure.
His image was everywhere. Stalin's propaganda served well in masking the darker side of the regime and in bending the truth. He relied on the hypnotic power of mass ideology to condition people into believing he was working to achieve perfect socialism.
Stalin also used education and the youth to create a new generation of believers that would help maintain his position in society and his control over people. Different playground games were transformed into their own Soviet versions, like Cowboys and Indians became Reds and Whites.
Stalin was able to carve out a position of power for himself. His terror and propaganda machine allowed him to maintain power throughout his rule. Anyone who opposed Stalin was seen as an enemy of the party, and in that sense also an enemy of the people.