Stalin and Communist Russia

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Stalin and Communist Russia
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Romanovs- Russian Royal Family
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Russian Monarchy

• Monarchy- a type of government ruled by a king,
  queen, and nobles.
• The nobles and monarchy are usually rich large
  land owners that have peasants (non-land owning
  poor) doing the work.
• In a Absolute Monarchy the king has total power.
  Often the monarchy is worshiped as Gods
  representative on earth. The Russian Czar (king)
  was an absolute monarch.
• In a Constitutional Monarch the monarch power is
  limited by a set of laws. Some kings are just
  national symbols with no real power at all (like
  in England).

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Communism

• Karl Marx came up with the idea of Communism. It
  is the opposite of capitalism. Under Communism
  the government in the name of the people owns
  everything. There is no private ownership and
  everyone works for the good of all. There are no
  rich, everyone is the same (a comrade). In order
  to have Communism, Marx believed that the workers
  of the countries would have to unite and have a
  revolution and force everyone to become a
  Communist.

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Russian Revolution

• Taking Marxs ideas, Vladimir Lenin, a Communist
  leader helped organize the workers of Russia.
  World War One was going terribly for Russia. The
  people were going hungry and the Russian army was
  experiencing continual defeat. Lenin organized
  the workers and army to overthrow the government
  and kill the Romanov Monarchy. A man named Stalin
  was helping Lenin remove any opposition to the
  Communist Revolution.

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Lenin giving a speech
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Workers and Soldiers demonstrating
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Loyalists to the monarchy shooting at
demonstrators
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Communist barricade in the streets
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The Rise of Joseph Stalin

• After a bloody Civil War the Communists
  eventually take control of the country from the
  monarchy.
• After Lenin dies, through murder and fear Stalin
  slowly emerges as the new all powerful dictator
  of Russia, or U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist
  Republics).

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Stalin concentrates power into his hands

• Unlike Germany, Russia had little
  industrialization (factories to make products),
  had little knowledge of rights, were uneducated,
  and technologically behind. It was mostly a
  country of peasants.
• Stalins main priority was to remove all
  potential threats to his power. He killed off all
  political opponents, even thousands of other
  communists. He also killed off the intelligentsia
  and religious leaders. In a Communist country,
  the only form of religion is to worship the
  country and leaders. He also killed off the
  nobility and anyone who owned land (Kulaks).

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Communist Propaganda- anti-capitalist
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Propaganda picture-the women work hard and are
happy in the U.S.S.R
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Propaganda-Russia is so modern with its countless
tractors
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Millions Die Under Stalin

• His goal of quick industrialization (to catch up
  the number of factories in Europe) meant taking
  peasants off the land and forcing them to work
  building factories. Communism gave little
  incentive to work as the people didnt get any
  benefit from it (like extra money). Everyone was
  paid the same even if you were not such a good
  worker. Less incentive to work lower goods or
  food produced.
• As a result of lower food production, the poor
  treatment of the working peasants, and Stalins
  fear of opposition, its estimated that thirty
  million people were starved or murdered during
  the1920s and 1930s in the U.S.S.R.
• Racial discrimination- thousands of Jews were
  sent to prisons in Siberia called pogroms.

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Kulaks were killed by the millions, even if you
just owned animals, you could be considered a
Kulak.
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A parade of children under the banners "We will
liquidate the kulaks as a class" and "All to the
struggle against the wreckers of agriculture."
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A summer camp for Young Pioneers. The sign over
the porch reads "Thank you comrade Stalin for a
happy and joyous childhood."
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Stalin-The Military Leader
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Picking tomatoes at a kolkhoz (government farm)
on the outskirts of Moscow. The pickers appear to
be all women, whereas the two figures standing
erect toward the rear are men.
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Shaming Winners of the "infamous banner for a
tortoise's pace."
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The poster quotes (in Ukrainian) a dictum of P.
P. Postyshev, Ukrainian party boss "We must make
1935 a year of bountiful harvest no matter what
the climatic conditions."
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Stalin Expands His Empire

• Stalin sought to expand the Communist revolution
  to among other countries of the world, he wanted
  a larger empire.
• Hitler hated Communists and so he invaded Russia
  in 1941 during World War 2. Stalin would come out
  victorious in the end. He pushed out the Germans
  from Eastern Europe only to replace the
  oppression of Fascism (Nazi Germany) with the
  oppression of Stalinist Communism.

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Large portions of Russia would be destroyed in
World War Two
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Fighting would often be house by house
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The ruins of Stalingrad
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Germans would murder millions in the invasion of
Russia in World War 2
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German soldiers surrendering to Russians
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The Communist Flag flying over the Reichstag
(capitol) in Berlin on the last few days of the
war.
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Europe was split in two after World War Two.
Behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe lay the
Communist Empire of Stalin
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Cold War

• After World War Two it became clear that Eastern
  Europe would remain under Stalins rule . The
  Western nations (USA, England, France etc.) were
  concerned that the Russians would invade the rest
  of the newly freed Europe.
• Stalin tried to invade the Middle East, he
  supported the Communist revolution in China, and
  he supported the invasion of South Korea by North
  Korea (Korean War).
• After his death in 1953, Communists revolutions
  continued spreading into Asia, Africa, and
  central America. Communist Totalitarian regimes
  were all around the world and growing until the
  collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1992.
• After the WW 2 the old super powers France,
  Germany, and England were too weakened and the
  USA became the leading super power among the free
  nations and USSR the leading nation for the
  Communist nations. The competition between the
  two new super powers was called the Cold War.

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Cold War Ends

• The Cold War ended when the Soviet empire began
  breaking up in 1989. People wanted their freedom
  and they began demonstrating in huge numbers.
  Communism eventually fell in Russia (Soviet
  Union) in 1992 as the nation was economically
  broke and unable to hold together the many ethnic
  groups who wanted their independence.
• With the end of the Cold War, the USA became the
  remaining world super power.