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Stalin Condensed Notes

The document summarizes aspects of life under Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union, including his cult of personality, repression of religion and culture, policies towards education, family and peasants, industrialization efforts, use of slave labor in gulags, and the Great Purges. Stalin consolidated power by promoting worship of himself, closed churches and punished religious and artistic dissent. He implemented strict education policies, collectivization of agriculture that led to famine, rapid industrialization through slave labor, and show trials and executions of perceived political opponents in the Great Terror.

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Faseeh Irfan
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43 views

Stalin Condensed Notes

The document summarizes aspects of life under Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union, including his cult of personality, repression of religion and culture, policies towards education, family and peasants, industrialization efforts, use of slave labor in gulags, and the Great Purges. Stalin consolidated power by promoting worship of himself, closed churches and punished religious and artistic dissent. He implemented strict education policies, collectivization of agriculture that led to famine, rapid industrialization through slave labor, and show trials and executions of perceived political opponents in the Great Terror.

Uploaded by

Faseeh Irfan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Cult of Personality

● Stalin used this, and many other leaders did as well: wanted people not to question his power
○ Begins by renaming streets, buildings named after him, portraits everywhere
○ Public rooms, schools, offices, and factories would have a "Red Corner" — a sort of
shrine to Stalin and Lenin
Religion
● Stalin wanted people to worship him, not god.
● Closed 25k Churches, 40k mosques, arrested religious leaders
● Muslim women not allowed to wear veils in public, Christian holidays not celebrated in public.
Culture and Censorship
● Artists: If your work did not celebrate or promote Stalin, you were sent to Siberia.
○ Artists disagreed with him, but were punished; many gave up
Education
● Was very strict, regimented, controlled
● Teachers allowed to use corporal punishment
● 20 rules that all students had to remember.
Family Life
● Lenin did not like the family unit
○ Did away with wedding rings
○ Marriage ceremony was short and non-religious.
● Stalin reversed this as most of the pop. liked traditional ideas better
● 1936 New Family Law
○ Abortion by choice was legal
○ Divorce was harder to get
○ Wedding ring restored
○ The more children, less the taxes.
● Downside was not enough housing so families had to share apartments.
● Lack of consumer goods; Stalin had to decide Industry vs. Consumer Goods?
Peasants
● 90% were peasants, 100 million
● 50% food produced harvested with a sickle,
● New Economic Policy: peasants allowed to sell their extra food.
● 1928 big shortfal of grain, 2 million tonnes so Stalin announces a new plan
● 1929 Collectivization
○ All the peasants in one big area would join their farms together (50-100 families)—land,
animals, equipment. Stalin promised it would make farming easier.
○ He does this by buying new equipment: tractors (to share between all the people on the
farm), work will be shared by all the people, and so will the gains
○ Some were accepting, others not so much
● Kulaks
○ Richer peasants who didn’t want to give up their land; opposition to collectivization
○ Dec 1929, Stalin arrested hostile kulaks and sent to Siberia, wanted to “liquidate as a
social class”
○ 1.5 mil ppl sent away, 25% died in Siberia.
○ 1930, 50% of peasants had been collectivized
○ Some peasants rebelled
■ Destroyed their own crops, killed their own animals, and destroyed buildings.
○ Drop in food production and then a famine;
○ 1930-33 Between 5-6 mil people starve to death
Industry
● 1927: Forming of the Gosplan (central planning committee, made targets for the industry, and
how to share the country's wealth equally.
● First Five Year Plan 1928
○ Set targets for industry, agriculture, trade, transportation. Aim to take and agrarian
society and transform into an industrial one.
● Idea of this was that Stalin thought if the Soviet’s industry wasn’t strong, they would be crushed.
● October 1928: The Plan Begins
○ Heavy industry(coal, iron, steel, oil) to increase by 3x
○ Light industry (consumer goods) to increase by 2x
○ Energy Production to increase by 6x
○ 1929 Stalin says do it in 4
● New Work Practices
○ Factories Open 7 days a week, workers get 1 day off.
○ Punishable Absences
○ Internal Passport registered where you lived and what job, couldn't move without police
permission.
○ Shock Brigades were young people who were rewarded for doing good work.
○ Stakhovites: the best workers who were given the best apartments, medals, paid leave
○ Number of workers doubled from 11mil in 1928 to 22mil 1932
● Slave Labour
○ 1930 Gulags set up to make slaves work on big projects
○ 500km long canal w/ 300k workers; 20 months long; only 70k released
○ 1932, 2 million Zeks, 1937 6 million, 1938 8 million
○ 1938, 20% of prisoners died … 20 million.
Purges
● Kirov Murder
○ Shot and killed December 1 1934 (Theory that Stalin was behind it)
○ Killer found guilty Dec 29
● Show Trials - performances with the press and public involved to evoke fear
○ 1936 - Trial of 16 - 15 of 16 confessed
■ Conspiracy to overthrow govt w/ Trotsky; all guilty and shot next day
○ 1937 - Trial of 17
■ Accused of having links to Trotsky and terrorist acts - all guilty and shot next day.
○ 1938 - Trail of 21
■ Following Trotsky’s ideas and being foreign spies - all confessed, guilty, and shot
● The Great Terror 1937
○ Stalin arrests generals, admirals, officers for spying for Gr. and Japan
○ 1939 - all admirals in the navy executed - 50% of officers executed.

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