Life in a Totalitarian State

1. Life in a Totalitarian State Lesson 3 Chapter 15.3 Big Idea: Stalin turned the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state that regulated every aspect of the lives of its citizens

2. Objectives • Analyze the benefits and drawbacks of communist rule • Explain how Stalin created a totalitarian state • Summarize how communism changed Soviet society • Relate how state control affected the arts in the Soviet Union • Create a piece of Soviet Propaganda based on evaluated text

3. Warm up How did Stalin come to power in Russia? What were his goals for the country?

4. Activity ~30 minutes You will be completing a t-chart on communist rule Working individually you will be assigned a reading You will need to bullet point the benefits and drawbacks (Totalitarian Control and Changes in Soviet Society) Write on board/share with class

5. Age of Totalitarian Control • Totalitarian state • One party dictatorship; regulates every aspect of life • Obedience • Secret police, censorship, purges, terror • Propaganda • Radios, loudspeakers, movies, theaters, schools • nationalism • War on Religion • Atheism • Punished Orthodox Church

6. Changes in Soviet Society • New Elite • Head of society- Communist Party • Industrial managers, military leaders, scientists, some artists and writers • Social Benefits • Free education • Free medical care • Day care • Inexpensive housing • Public recreation • Bread plentiful • Social Drawbacks • S.O.L. low • Scarce housing • Lack of meat, fresh fruit and other foods • Education • State supported • Outside activities • Women • Equality under law • Access to edu & jobs

7. The Arts and the State • Socialist Realism • Soviet life in positive light • Promote hope in communist future • Themes- peasants, workers, heroes of rev, Stalin • Censorship • Govt control & persecution • Osip Mandelstam, Anna Akhmatova Socialist Realism Assignment

8. Closure-Discussion One historian has said that socialist realism was “communism with a smiling face.” What do you think he meant?