How Powerful Was Stalin?

Stalin Made Enemies Stalin controlled (R) to a degree that most citizens feared even thinking about opposing him Secret police (First called Checka, then OGPU, the NKVD) crushed opponents

Stalin controlled (R) to a degree that most citizens feared even thinking about opposing him

Secret police (First called Checka, then OGPU, the NKVD) crushed opponents

The Purges First signs of terror to come: 1928: S accused engineers of sabotaging dam w/ little evidence 1931: former Mensheviks charges w/ obviously false evidence The Purges began in 1934 Kirov, leader of Leningrad, murdered S probably ordered him killed S used murder as excuse to purge Communist Party of ‘counterrevolutionaries’ ‘Show Trials’ killed loyal Bolsheviks whose power threatened Stalin 1936: Kamenev, Zinoviev executed 1938: Bukharin executed 1940: Trotsky murdered in Mexico 500,000 party members executed or sent to gulag

First signs of terror to come:

1928: S accused engineers of sabotaging dam w/ little evidence

1931: former Mensheviks charges w/ obviously false evidence

The Purges began in 1934

Kirov, leader of Leningrad, murdered

S probably ordered him killed

S used murder as excuse to purge Communist Party of ‘counterrevolutionaries’

‘Show Trials’ killed loyal Bolsheviks whose power threatened Stalin

1936: Kamenev, Zinoviev executed

1938: Bukharin executed

1940: Trotsky murdered in Mexico

500,000 party members executed or sent to gulag

The Purges Expand Next came military officers 25,000 officers removed – 20%!!! Supreme Commander of Red Army Marshal Tukhachevsky executed Purges were extended Teachers, miners, engineers, factory workers Rumored that every Russian family lost someone Midnight arrests, physical & psychological torture to gain confessions If these failed victim’s family was threatened

Next came military officers

25,000 officers removed – 20%!!!

Supreme Commander of Red Army Marshal Tukhachevsky executed

Purges were extended

Teachers, miners, engineers, factory workers

Rumored that every Russian family lost someone

Midnight arrests, physical & psychological torture to gain confessions

If these failed victim’s family was threatened

The Costs of the Purges By 1937 (R) was greatly weakened 18 million people in gulags 10 million dead Red army so weakened that it almost failed against Hitler in 1941. The #1 problem in Red Army was lack of skilled leaders. Stalin succeeded in destroying any independent thinking To live one had to adhere to everything S said No one dared question Comrade Stalin

By 1937 (R) was greatly weakened

18 million people in gulags

10 million dead

Red army so weakened that it almost failed against Hitler in 1941. The #1 problem in Red Army was lack of skilled leaders.

Stalin succeeded in destroying any independent thinking

To live one had to adhere to everything S said

No one dared question Comrade Stalin

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?

Photographs can lie. They certainly do in the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953, the years of Joseph Stalin's dictatorial rule. Stalin's agents routinely arrest and kill as "enemies of the people" anyone who disagrees with his politics. Communist Party workers then try to remove any trace of these people from the photographic archives, and so from the media. By the 1930s Communist "truth" circulates worldwide in party approved books. With airbrush or ink spot, the photo censors work quietly. But despite their power, they ultimately fail. The images expose decades of photographic lies. It's a stark visual tour through a society where freedom is not an option -- the culture of control that goes on to create the Berlin Wall. This is an example of totalitarian rule at work. Even the memory of enemies cannot be tolerated.

One rule, apparently forgotten here, is to pay attention to what's intruding into the camera's view. Lenin's sister, who took this photo in 1922, apparently does not notice the thing that looks like a gun pointed right at the head of Lenin's wife, Nadezhda. It's a telescope, At the close of Soviet Rule in the late 1980s, retouchers finally eradicate the telescope. This was only a telescope, but what can you do with your enemy? 1922 1960 Late 1980s

Stalin's bloody reign is not without certain irony. Nikolai Yezhov, the young man strolling with Stalin, is shot in 1940. It seems only fitting that when Yezhov is removed from the photograph he is replaced by the waters of the Moscow-Volga Canal. Yezhov was commissar of water transport. Whether they were called Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro or Sadam Hussein, none of them tolerated the visual presence of fallen rivals on official portraits.

This photograph became a famous Soviet icon. It shows the "Friend of the Little Children" in a joyous mood, having just received a bunch of flowers from six-year-old Gelya Markizova. To the right is the first secretary of the Buryat Mongol ASSR. A year later Geyla's father, Ardan, was shot for "spying for Japan." Soon after her mother, Dominica, was murdered under mysterious circumstances- so mysterious that the case was never investigated by the authorities.

In the Soviet Union, distorted images are used to further the cause of communism and to boost the reputations of those in power. If photographs are usually considered factual, what happens to the truth when the facts are altered? Propagandists seize every opportunity to get their message across. In the original of this photo, the sign on the building says, "Watches, gold and silver." Now it reads, "Struggle for your rights." Likewise the flag being waved says, "Down with the monarchy - long live the Republic!" has no visible words in the original.

Without fanfare, official Soviet Photographs are purged of the image of anyone who has fallen from official favor, especially those murdered for political reasons. Trotsky and Lenin (top center of stairs) in 1919 photograph of a Red Square celebration is of the anniversary of the revolution. To make it suitable for a 1967 book of Lenin Photos, Trotsky is removed.

This is one of the earliest and most famous examples of Stalinist retouching. Trotsky not only becomes a pest to budding Soviet communism, but he is a pesky presence in many photographs of significance to Lenin's history, like this one is taken in front of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in 1920. With Lenin as he rallies the troops to fight Poland is Trotsky (in uniform beside the wooden pulpit). This photograph comes to be a symbol of revolutionary Russia, but after Trotsky's downfall he has to go. His image is removed from all widely distributed reproductions.

The New Constitution 1936: Stalin gives USSR new constitution Freedom of speech & free elections guaranteed Only communist party members could stand Only approved newspapers & mags published

1936: Stalin gives USSR new constitution

Freedom of speech & free elections guaranteed

Only communist party members could stand

Only approved newspapers & mags published

The Cult of Stalin Today S is seen as an ogre In 1930s (R) he was generally admired People believed Purges not S’s fault Communist Party saw him as ‘winner’ People saw him as ‘Dictator of the People’ Sincere belief in Stalin as good man, great leader Education: History rewritten so Lenin & Stalin only heroes of the revolution Not geared to independent thinking Children learned of heroic Stalin and three Rs Children expected to join ‘Young Pioneers’

Today S is seen as an ogre

In 1930s (R) he was generally admired

People believed Purges not S’s fault

Communist Party saw him as ‘winner’

People saw him as ‘Dictator of the People’

Sincere belief in Stalin as good man, great leader

Education:

History rewritten so Lenin & Stalin only heroes of the revolution

Not geared to independent thinking

Children learned of heroic Stalin and three Rs

Children expected to join ‘Young Pioneers’

Pravda starts as an underground revolutionary Bolshevik newspaper. After the revolution, it becomes the official newspaper (with Izvestia ) for the Communist Party. Its name stands for the word "truth." Propaganda can be even worse than censorship. Censors keep facts from the public; propagandists twist facts into lies. Under a state-controlled press system, the government can order newspaper editors to print stories the editors know are not true. Early on, Russian revolutionary leaders realize they can force newspapers to print only the simple concepts, slogans and ideas of Bolshevism. Trotsky, left, reads Pravda , the Bolshevik newspaper he once edited. In 1925, Stalin ousts Trotsky as commissar of war. At right, a citizen has scratched Trotsky's picture from his own history book, as part of the citizen's "personal responsibility" to support the Communist Party.

The Cult of Stalin Propaganda everywhere! Portraits, photos of S in every shop Every town had Stalin Square & Stalin Avenue & statue of Stalin in town center Poets & playwrights praised Stalin Composer wrote hymns to Stalin Regular parades honoring Stalin organized in every town NKVD carefully monitored all of these things Religion: All religious worship banned Stalin wanted everyone’s complete loyalty God & priests replace by Communism & S

Propaganda everywhere!

Portraits, photos of S in every shop

Every town had Stalin Square & Stalin Avenue & statue of Stalin in town center

Poets & playwrights praised Stalin

Composer wrote hymns to Stalin

Regular parades honoring Stalin organized in every town

NKVD carefully monitored all of these things

Religion:

All religious worship banned

Stalin wanted everyone’s complete loyalty

God & priests replace by Communism & S

Stalin: Success or Failure? Stalin died in 1953. There was deep distress at the loss of the successful and great leader. However, three years later, he was denounced as a failure by his successor, who paraded his faults before the nation. Join the debate – was Stalin a success or failure? Work in pairs to prepare for a class debate. One of you gather evidence and arguments from your notes that Stalin was a success as leader of the Soviet Union, the other gather evidence that he was a failure.

Stalin died in 1953. There was deep distress at the loss of the successful and great leader. However, three years later, he was denounced as a failure by his successor, who paraded his faults before the nation. Join the debate – was Stalin a success or failure?

Work in pairs to prepare for a class debate. One of you gather evidence and arguments from your notes that Stalin was a success as leader of the Soviet Union, the other gather evidence that he was a failure.

These men lifted their villainous hands against Comrade Stalin. By lifting their hands against Comrade Stalin, they lifted them against all of us, against the working class … against the teaching of Marx, Engels, Lenin … Stalin is our hope, Stalin is the beacon which guides all progressive mankind. Stalin is our banner. Stalin is our will. Stalin is our victory. From a speech made by Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1937, at the height of the Purges. Khrushchev later became the leader of the USSR and in 1956 announced a ‘de-Stalinization’ program! A tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up … for three minutes, four minutes, the ‘stormy applause, rising to an ovation’ continued … Who would dare to be the first to stop? After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall waiting to see who quit first! After 11 minutes the director [of the factory] … sat down … To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved! … That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they eliminated them. The same night the factory director was arrested. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago , published in 1973. Solzhenitsyn lost his Soviet citizenship as a result of this book.

These men lifted their villainous hands against Comrade Stalin. By lifting their hands against Comrade Stalin, they lifted them against all of us, against the working class … against the teaching of Marx, Engels, Lenin … Stalin is our hope, Stalin is the beacon which guides all progressive mankind. Stalin is our banner. Stalin is our will. Stalin is our victory.

From a speech made by Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1937, at the height of the Purges.

Khrushchev later became the leader of the USSR and in 1956 announced a ‘de-Stalinization’ program!

A tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up … for three minutes, four minutes, the ‘stormy applause, rising to an ovation’ continued … Who would dare to be the first to stop? After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall waiting to see who quit first! After 11 minutes the director [of the factory] … sat down … To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved! … That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they eliminated them. The same night the factory director was arrested.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago , published in 1973. Solzhenitsyn lost his Soviet citizenship as a result of this book.

The teacher 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 A soviet writer describes how children in soviet schools had to revise their school history books during the 1930s ‘ I, a young pioneer of the Soviet Union, in the presence of my comrades, solemnly promise to love my Soviet motherland passionately, and to live, learn and struggle as the great Lenin bade us and the Communist Party teaches us!’ The Young Pioneers pledge

The teacher 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

A soviet writer describes how children in soviet schools had to revise their school history books during the 1930s

‘ I, a young pioneer of the Soviet Union, in the presence of my comrades, solemnly promise to love my Soviet motherland passionately, and to live, learn and struggle as the great Lenin bade us and the Communist Party teaches us!’

The Young Pioneers pledge