The atrocities of the WWII era were caused by Joseph Stalin using police and military terror in the USSR to get rid of anyone he considered his enemy by locking them away in the Gulags, he used control of individuals by forcing farmers to combine their farms into mega farms, and Adolf Hitler used ideology to “purify” Germany of lesser races.
In the USSR Joseph Stalin used police and military terror to confine peasants in concentration camps known as Gulags where millions died of starvation and exhaustion. Totalitarian leaders used terror and violence to defeat anyone they considered their enemies. The leader’s goal was to protect the interest of his government rather than those of his people. They used cruel force, murder, as well as surveillance …show more content…
Totalitarian leaders demanded the loyalty of their people to the state by denying them their basic rights. In addition, leaders expected the people to give up something of their own for the good of the state (Key Traits of Totalitarianism lecture). In the USSR Stalin established a command economy where the government made all the economic decisions and decided what the nation’s needs were. In 1928, Stalin created his first 5-year plan for the Soviet Union that was supposed to aid in the industrial development of the nation. Included in his plan was the collectivization of all individual farms into mega farms. Peasants were forced to sign away the claims of their land and join a collectivized farm. They were no longer able to use the land for their own purposes but had to depend on the leader of the collective farm for their pay, food, and employment (Soviet Atrocities Handout). Joining the farms was supposed to increase the rate of production and make the collection of crops easier. On the other hand, the stakes were much higher if something went wrong (Totalitarianism in USSR lecture 2/2/2016). By March 1930, almost three-quarters of the land in the Soviet Union had been combined into collective farms. Following a bad harvest in 1931 the crop yield was very low. The produce was to be redistributed equally among all citizens. The first to receive produce were proletariat in cities and then peasants living on collective farms. Because the amount of produce was so low, many peasants living on farms in the Ukraine barely received any food (Soviet Atrocities Handout). As a result, thousands of Ukrainians starved to death (Totalitarianism in USSR lecture 2/2/2016). This demonstrates that by forcing millions of peasants to sign away their
In the USSR Joseph Stalin used police and military terror to confine peasants in concentration camps known as Gulags where millions died of starvation and exhaustion. Totalitarian leaders used terror and violence to defeat anyone they considered their enemies. The leader’s goal was to protect the interest of his government rather than those of his people. They used cruel force, murder, as well as surveillance …show more content…
Totalitarian leaders demanded the loyalty of their people to the state by denying them their basic rights. In addition, leaders expected the people to give up something of their own for the good of the state (Key Traits of Totalitarianism lecture). In the USSR Stalin established a command economy where the government made all the economic decisions and decided what the nation’s needs were. In 1928, Stalin created his first 5-year plan for the Soviet Union that was supposed to aid in the industrial development of the nation. Included in his plan was the collectivization of all individual farms into mega farms. Peasants were forced to sign away the claims of their land and join a collectivized farm. They were no longer able to use the land for their own purposes but had to depend on the leader of the collective farm for their pay, food, and employment (Soviet Atrocities Handout). Joining the farms was supposed to increase the rate of production and make the collection of crops easier. On the other hand, the stakes were much higher if something went wrong (Totalitarianism in USSR lecture 2/2/2016). By March 1930, almost three-quarters of the land in the Soviet Union had been combined into collective farms. Following a bad harvest in 1931 the crop yield was very low. The produce was to be redistributed equally among all citizens. The first to receive produce were proletariat in cities and then peasants living on collective farms. Because the amount of produce was so low, many peasants living on farms in the Ukraine barely received any food (Soviet Atrocities Handout). As a result, thousands of Ukrainians starved to death (Totalitarianism in USSR lecture 2/2/2016). This demonstrates that by forcing millions of peasants to sign away their