AIM: How should history judge Stalin? Do Now: Do these quotes portray Stalin in a positive or negative light? Explain.

1. “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns- why should we let them have ideas?”

2. “The only real power comes out of a long rifle.”

3. “Death solves all problems - no man, no problem.”

- Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin Vocabulary

• Command Economy – economy in which government officials make all basic economic decisions

• 5 – Year Plan – one of a series of plans instituted by Joseph Stalin to build the industry & increase farm output in the Soviet Union

• Collective – large farm owned & operated by workers as a group• Gulags – Russian prison camps, where peasants who resisted

collectivization were sent to work. Over 20 million Russians froze or starved to death in the camps.

• Cult of Personality - when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized, heroic, and at times, god-like public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise

What Were Stalin’s Aims?Russia’s production from heavy industries was very low compared to other countries.

Stalin wanted the USSR to modernize quickly so that it could make up a 50-year gap

in 10 years.

So, how did Stalin achieve his goal?Positive Achievements of Stalin Negative Achievements of Stalin

• Initiated his Five-Year Plans to make the Soviet Union a modern industrial nation. Under his plans huge increases in coal, oil and steel production were made.

• Collectivization - temporarily increased agricultural efficiency and production by creating huge-state owned farms.

• Great Terror- when peasants rebelled against collectivization, Stalin ordered the imprisonment of millions of citizens, without trial, into brutal work camps known as gulags. Over twenty million died as a result.

• Use of Secret Police (KGB)- hundreds of thousands of people were executed in order to intimidate the nation. Basic human rights were denied to all citizens.

Read documents # 1 – 4 and answer the questions for each documentFor each document write whether it is a positive or negative achievement by Stalin • (Explain why you feel this way to your neighbor)

Activity

Document #3Stalin's Purges

Primary Source Activity• As a small boy, how did the author regard

Stalin? • What evidence of Stalin’s brutality does

Yevtushenko mention in this excerpt?

• What did ordinary Russian people think about Stalin’s rule? How did they avoid acknowledging reality?

SummaryExit Card:

*Make sure to provide SPECIFIC examples to back up your outlook*

• Evaluate the rule of Stalin in the Soviet Union, taking into consideration the changes made and the methods used.

• Was Stalin a positive or negative influence on Russia under his leadership?