• Government is shaky

• Massive losses from WWI - over 3 million casualties

• Poverty

• Famine

• Not industrially developed

• Communist Dictatorship (Stalinism)

  • One party

  • Totalitarian dictatorship (rule by one person)

  • Military has LOTS of power

  • Government controls all aspects of economy

  • Russian nationalism

  • Forget about global socialism/communism - focus on the USSR

  • Government has to get stronger before it can "wither away"

Specific events in Stalin's Rise to Power

• Stalin became a powerful member of the Communist Party in the USSR

• Lenin will give Stalin a powerful role. Lenin would regret it prior to his death and warn others to find a way to eliminate Stalin.

• Stalin and his allies eliminated opponents to his power (sometimes murdered them) and took over as the dictator

• Promised to modernize the USSR industrially and agriculturally.

Tactics used to gain/maintain power

• Tactics Used to Maintain Power

  • Promises to make things better

  • Eliminate all opposition

  • KGB (secret police)

    • Used fear and violence to eliminate opposition.

  • Purges

    • Round up opponents

    • Send to forced-labor camps (gulags)

  • Powerful military

  • Propaganda

  • Mass rallies/speeches

  • Scapegoating - blame other groups for problems

  • Censorship (limit information/control the message)

• Was successful in modernizing Soviet Union

• Originally signed agreement with Hitler for an alliance.

• Forced to enter WWII when Germany invaded the USSR.

• Some estimates state that the USSR lost 25% of its population in the war.

• Estimates that 20 million died as a result of the gulags, famine, and executions

• Another 20 million were victims of imprisonment and forced relocation