Name: ____________________________________________________________________________ Ms.Reyes/Ms.Rust; Global StudiesMini-Lesson 1: USSR under Stalin

AIM: Was Stalin a hero or villain for Russia?DO NOW: Regents ReviewA major cause of the Russian Revolution of 1917 was the

1-defeat of Germany in the Russian campaign 2-marriage of Czar Nicholas II to a German princess 3-existence of sharp economic differences between social

classes 4-appeal of Marxism to the Russian nobility

Explain your answer below.

Activity #1- Pair Work: Complete graphic organizer by visiting each of the six stations located at your table. At each station, take turns reading aloud the information on the placard and answer the questions on organizer (CCLS RI.1-citing strong and thorough textual evidence to

support analysis). STATION #1: INDUSTRIAL POLICIES

FIVE YEAR PLANS Stalin had very different plans for the economy than Lenin’s plan. Under the New Economic Plan, Lenin decided to allow some capitalism and chances for the people to make money. Stalin, however, returned to total communism and

total state control. His plans called for a command economy-a system in which the government made all economic decision.

To modernize the Soviet state, Stalin tried dramatic changes in industry. In 1928, Stalin outlined the first of industrial plans for the development of Soviet Union’s economy. In these plans, the government would take drastic steps to promote rapid industrial growth and to strengthen national defense. Stalin announced, “We are fifty or a hundred years behind advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it or was shall be crushed.”

These plans to increase manufacturing were called Five Year Plans. They set high quotas or goals to increase the output of steel, coal, oil and electricity. These goods were considered necessary for the future of the Soviet Union but they were so high they were impossible to reach. The government had a strong desire to make

military products such as weapons and bombs. Since there were only so many factories, the government limited production of consumer goods such as food and clothing. As a result, people faced several shortages of housing, food, clothing and other necessary goods.

Stain’s grim methods, however, also produced fantastic economic results. Although most of the targets of the First Five-Year plan fell short, the Soviets made impressive gains. A second plan, launched in 1933, proved equally successful. From 1928 to 1937, industrial production increased more than 25 percent but the people had very little to show for it.

1.Why did Stalin want to increase industrial production in the Five Year Plans?

2. What DIDN’T get made while the government was busy making weapons?

3. How successful were the five year plans in increasing production?

STATION #2: AGRICULTURAL POLICIES

COLLECTIVE FARMS As leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin found himself faced with the difficult problem of feeding millions of people in both the city and the countries. At the beginning of his leadership in the Communist Party, almost 80% of the farmers and peasants were not under the control of the government. They were used to selling their crops to the government for a profit as they did under Lenin’s plan.

Stalin’s agricultural revolution took a different approach and showed how brutal and mean he really was. He also showed how successful his tactics could be. In 1928, the government started taking over 25 million privately owned farms in the USSR. It combined them into large, government owned farms, called collective farms. Hundreds of families worked in these farms, producing food for the state. The government expected that the modern machinery on the collective farms would boost food production and reduce the number or workers.

The peasants, however, did not want to give up their lands to the government. They resisted Stalin’s actions fiercely. Many killed livestock and destroyed crops in protest. Stalin used terror and violence to force peasants to work on collective farms. Soviet secret police herded them onto collective farms at the point of a bayonet. Between 5 million and 10 million peasants died as a direct result of Stalin’s agricultural revolution. Millions more were shipped to Siberia. Resistance was especially strong among kulaks, a class of wealthy peasants. The Soviet government decided to eliminate them. Thousands were executed or sent to work camps.

By 1938, more than 90 percent of all peasants lived on collective farms. Agricultural production was on the upswing. That year the country produced almost twice the wheat than it had in 1928 before collective farming.

1.What is a collective farm?

2. What happened to peasants and kulaks when they resisted collective farming?

3. How successful was the collective farming?

STATION #3: ART & RELIGION Religion “Religion is the opium of the people”, wrote Karl Marx. All Bolsheviks believed that religion was an invention to distract the poor and oppressed from trying to remedy their situation on earth by offering them the prospect of perfect happiness after death. The attack on religion that began under Lenin, was continued by Stalin. Worship of Stalin was encouraged but religious worship was strongly discouraged. Nearly 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 mosques were closed down and converted into clubs, cinemas, schools, and warehouses. Church bells were removed and melted down as scrap metal. In Muslim areas, women were forbidden to wear the veil and pilgrimages to Mecca were banned. Church leaders were arrested and imprisoned. Those who escaped arrest were forbidden to organise any religious activity in public. In 1930 there were 30,000 Orthodox congregations, but by 1939 only 1 in 40 churches were still functioning and only seven bishops were still active in the whole of the Soviet Union. Only 1300 mosques were still operating in 1941 as against 26,000 in 1917. The photograph above shows the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in the heart of Moscow. Stalin ordered its destruction in 1931.

To weaken the religious faith of the Soviet people, the Communist Party had set up a League of Militant Atheists back in 1924. By 1933 it had 5.5 million members, whose job was to try to turn people away from religion. They set up anti-religious museums in former cathedrals. They burnt icons and other religious objects. They organised anti-religious propaganda campaigns. In the old capital, St. Petersburg, which was now known as Leningrad, the authorities seemed to have a macabre sense of humour. The famous Kazan Cathedral was converted into a museum of atheism.

ArtThe Communist Party kept a strict watch on the Soviet Union's creative artists - its writers, painters, composers, etc - to make sure that they supported the Party and the government. All writers had to belong to the Union of Soviet Writers, and members were expected to follow a policy of 'socialist realism' in their writings. This meant that novels, film scripts, poems, plays and journalism had to deal with the lives of ordinary working people and to show the progress of Communism. The same applied to painters, composers and any other creative artist. Soviet people were therefore able to read only books that supported the ideas of Communism.

What about books that had already been written but which did not support the Party? Nadezhda Mandelstam, a Soviet writer, tells us in her memoirs, published in 1970, what happened in such cases: 'Varia... showed us her school textbooks where the portraits of Party leaders had thick pieces of paper pasted over them as one by one they fell into disgrace - this the children had to do on instructions from their teacher . . . With every new arrest people went through their books and burned the works of disgraced leaders in their stoves. In new apartment buildings, which had central heating instead of stoves, forbidden books, personal diaries, correspondence and other "subversive literature" had to be cut up in pieces with scissors and thrown down the toilet.'

1. What did Marx mean by, ‘Religion is the opium of the people?’

2. What did Bolsheviks believe was the purpose of religion?

3. How did Stalin attack religion? How successful was this onslaught?

4. How did the manner in which the Bolsheviks and the Tsars use religion differ?

5. Why did Stalin seek to control all art forms?

6. What was the purpose of ‘socialist realism’?

7. What happened to books that did not support the Communist Party?

STATION #4: EDUCATION

LIFE UNDER JOSEPH STALIN After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, there had been some interesting changes in teaching and learning styles. Examinations had been denounced as ‘bourgeois’ and therefore removed.

Similarly activities which emphasised competition, and thus divisiveness, such as sports were downplayed. Traditional academic education was replaced by a heavy emphasis on vocational training. However, under Stalin's rule, school life and education became stricter once more. An education law of 1935 allowed teachers to use strict methods of discipline. Report cards and test marks, which had been abolished in the 1920s, were reintroduced. School uniforms were restored - including compulsory pigtails for girls. In history lessons, kings, battles, dates - especially Russian ones - became the staple diet of pupils.

The aim of education was summed up in Rule One of twenty rules of behaviour that all pupils had to learn by heart: 'It is the duty of each school child to acquire knowledge persistently so as to become an educated and cultured citizen and to be of the greatest possible service to his country.' One result of these education policies was the almost total disappearance of illiteracy. By 1939, each child spent seven compulsory years at school. Even illiterate adults were encouraged to attend school or evening classes. Thus, by 1939 illiteracy had declined to just 4% of the male and 18% of the female population. Literacy was, however, of little use if there was little to read. Pravda and Izvestia were therefore widely distributed. Stalin revealed his motives behind the literacy drive when he said, ‘The press should grow not by the day, but by the hour, for itis the sharpest and most powerful weapon of our people’.

Children and adults were bombarded with propaganda inside and outside of school. The young were encouraged to join party groups, the Young Pioneers, up to 14 years, and then Komsomol,until they were 28. As young Communists they were expected to set an example to their peers: party rules,for example, forbade them to smoke or drink. Most of them went on to become full members of the Communist Party. The Communist future they were told, would be theirs, but they must do their part to build it. And build it they did, volunteering for the most grandiose projects of the Five Year Plans, and for the party’s biggest prestige project in the capital – the Moscow Metro. Children were also given idols of their own age group to admire. 1. How had the approach to education changed after the 1917 Revolution?

2. How did Stalin reverse this trend? Why do you think he did so?

3. What did Stalin believe the purpose of education was?

4. To what extent had the problem of mass illiteracy been overcome by 1939? What was the real motive for the literacy drive?

5. How did Stalin seek to control children outside of school? 6. Why were children encouraged to admire Pavlik Morozov?

STATION #5: CONTROL METHODS

THE GREAT PURGE The problem with a communist or command economy is that there is little incentive for the individual to work harder. If the government is making all the economic decision, there is little motivation to work harder because wages are set and profit isn’t allowed. Stalin solved that problem by using force and intimidation to make people work.

Stalin began building his totalitarian state by destroying his enemies-real and imagined. Stalin’s secret police used tanks and armored cars to stop riots. They monitored telephone lines, read mail and planted informers everywhere. Even children told authorities about disloyal remarks they heard at home. The secret police arrested and executed millions of so-called traitors.

In 1934, Stalin turned against members of the Communist Party. He launched the Great Purge campaign of terror that was directed at eliminating anyone who threatened his power. Thousands of old Bolsheviks who helped stage the Revolution in 1917 stood trial. They were executed for “crimes against the Soviet state.”

The state had the authority to punish even the most minor acts. The police arrested the director of the Moscow Zoo because his monkeys got tuberculosis. The police themselves were not above suspicion, especially if they did not meet their quotas of “crimes’ arrested. Every family came to fear the knock on the door in the early hours of the morning .Such as surprise visit from the secret police usually meant the arrest of a family member.

When the Great Purge ended, Stalin had gained total control of both the Soviet government and the Communist Party. Historians estimate that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 8 million to 13 million people.

1. What is the problem with a communist economy?

2. What was the goal of the Great Purge?

3. How many people are thought to have died under Stalin’s rule?

STATION #6: PROPOGANDA METHODS

In order to keep control, Stalin needed to educate the people of the Soviet Union to understand the goals of the communist party. They also stressed the importance of sacrifice and hard work to build the Communist state. State-supported youth groups served as training grounds for future party members.

Totalitarian states also spread propaganda. Propaganda is information given to the people that only shows one point of view or leaves out important facts. It was designed to sway people to accept certain beliefs or actions of the communist party. Soviet newspaper, posters and radio broadcasts made Communist ideas wonderful and wrote favorably about Stalin. They often exaggerated his economic

progress.

Many towns, factories and streets in the Soviet Union were named for Stalin. A new metal was called Stalinite. An orchid was named Stalinchid. Children standing before their desks every morning said, “Thank Comrade Stalin for this happy life.”

Stalin also relied on censorship. Since his government controlled the newspapers and radio stations, he would not let them print anything negative about his plans. Many Soviet writers, composer, and other artists also fell victim to official censorship. Stalin would not tolerate individual creativity. He demanded conformity and obedience of all his citizens.

Communists aimed to replace religious teachings with the ideals of communism. Under Stalin, the government officially sponsored groups of atheists, people who did not believe in God. .“Museums of atheism” displayed exhibits to show that religious beliefs were mere superstitions. Yet many people in the Soviet Union still clung to their faiths.

The Russian Orthodox Church was the main target of persecution. Other religious groups, including Roman Catholics and Jews, also suffered greatly under Stalin’s totalitarian rule. The police destroyed magnificent churches and synagogues. Many religious leaders of all faiths were killed or sent to labor camps.

1. How did Stalin use propaganda to control the people?

2. How did Stalin use censorship to control the people?

3. What role was religion and God allowed to play in the Soviet Union?

Objective One Activities: You must Choose one. 50 pointsOption 1: Read the following excerpt by Yevgeny Yevtushenko about Stalin. Then answer the questions that refer to the poem.Thank you, Stalin. Thank you because I am joyful. Thank you because I am well. No matter how old I become, I shall never forget how we received Stalin two days ago. Centuries will pass, and the generations still to come will regard us as the happiest of mortals, as the most fortunate of men, because we lived in the century of centuries, because we were privileged to see Stalin, our inspired leader. Yes, and we regard ourselves as the happiest of mortals because we are the contemporaries of a man who never had an equal in world history.

The men of all ages will call on thy name, which is strong, beautiful, wise and marvelous. Thy name is engraven on every factory, every machine, every place on earth, and in the hearts of all men.

Every time I have found myself in his presence I have been subjugated by his strength, his charm, his grandeur. I have experienced a great desire to sing, to cry out with joy and happiness. And now see me – me! – on the same platform where the Great Stalin stood a year ago. In what country, in what part of the world could such a thing happen.

I write books. I am an author. All thanks to thee, O great educator, Stalin. I love a young woman with a renewed love and shall perpetuate myself in my children – all thanks to thee, great educator, Stalin. I shall be eternally happy and joyous, all thanks to thee, great educator, Stalin. Everything belongs tothee, chief of our great country. And when the woman I love presents me with a child the first word it shall utter will be: Stalin.

O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples, Thou who broughtest man to birth. Thou who fructifies the earth, Thou who restorest to centuries, Thou who makest

vibrate the musical chords…Thou, splendour of my spring, O thou, Sun reflectedby millions of hearts.

Questions:1. How does this author view Stalin? Be specific.2. What aspects of totalitarianism do you see reflected in this writing?3. What roles does the author see Stalin as serving for the country?4. Select at least THREE sentences / phrases that you found particularly persuasive or disturbing or interesting in some way. Highlight them and explain why you chose them in the space below.Option 2: Imagine you are a peasant living in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. The only place it is safe to talk about your o pinion of the government is behind closed doors with members of your family that you can trust. Create a conversation/ monologue/ journal/ letter in which you discuss what life is like in the Soviet Union for you and your family. Include at least 10 words from the list below:Lenin NEP Stalin communist Five-year plans Ukrainian forced laborkulak USSR collectivization killing cult of personality totalitarianism grain

Option 3: Cross Word Puzzle

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

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5 6 7

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9 10

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13 14

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17 18 19

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www.CrosswordWeaver.com

Across1 Czar Nicholas II's response to the 1905

uprisings; created new constitution & legislature5 Stalin's committee created to encourage the

spread of Communism6 Peasants who cannot leave their farms because

they are obligated to their landowner8 Russia's royal family for 300 years10 Lenin was part of this radical Socialist group

that wanted immediate revolution11 Leader of Provisional Government17 First Romanov czar19 In the early 1800s, Russia's agricultural

economy was still based on this medieval system

20 The Revolution of 1905 was a revolt to create a new ___

21 Army veterans who protested Russia's government & demanded a new constitutional monarchy

22 Economic idea in which equal society exists with no need for government

Down2 Stalin's plan to reform agriculture and industry3 Helped Lenin and Red's win Civil War4 In Socialism, the ____ takes over the economy6 Workers' councils created to hear workers'

problems7 Replaced Lenin as leader of Russia9 ___% of Russia's troops were killed or wounded

in Great War12 To give up a throne13 Treaty signed by Russia to end war with

Germany14 Nicholas II's son Alexei had this disease15 Russia was embarrassed by a military defeat by

____16 Provisional18 Mystic healer who had influence over Romanov

family21 National Legislature in Russia

O C T O B E R M A N I F E S T OG I R

C O M I N T E R N S E R F S V OV O T E TE R O M A N O V A Y S

S R I B O L S H E V I K SK E R E N S K I E I A YV M T N R AE E B S P B HN N R J T L D E

P E T E R T H E G R E A T F U E D A L I S MY A S P M N C OS S T A P A PI P L C O N S T I T U T I O N T HX U I R E E

T T A LI O D E C E M B E R I S T S IN V U Y A

S C O M M U N I S M SK A

This source has a British video (a bit like brainpop) that summarizes everything. I might show this to my students.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalinsact.shtml