Topic: The totalitarian system in the USSR

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

XXVII. Europe and the world after World War I. Pupil:

3) characterizes the face of totalitarianism (Italian fascism, German national socialism, the Soviet system): ideology and practice.

General aim of education

Students become acquainted with the totalitarian system in the USSR.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• about the circumstances in which Stalin came to power and the history of the Red Terror;

• about the changes in the political, social and economic life of the USSR after Stalin came to power, including the industrialisation of the country, collectivisation of the agricultural sector and its outcomes (the Holomodor), and the Great Purge;

• about the characteristics of the totalitarian system.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students recall information about years 1917–1918, including Lenin's actions towards Russia's withdrawal from the war, and the circumstances of the Bolshevik defeat in the war with Poland in 1920.

Introduction

1. The teacher states the subject of the lesson, explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

2. The teacher displays the map presenting Russia during the 1917‑1921 revolution (Task 1). Asking students brief questions that require map analysis – in the course of a duscussion, he characterizes the reasons for the failure of the intervention of the Entente countries in Russia. He makes students aware of the difference in Russian chronology, explaining why the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 did not constitute a significant breakthrough in the history of Bolshevik Russia, but the Peace of Riga did (stopping the „export of the revolution”, the end of its first phase, the necessity of a temporary change of tactics etc .). He tells students briefly about the foundations of the Leninist New Economic Policy (NEP) and its goals.

Realization

1. Students individually perform Task 2. They familiarize themselves with the history of the Red Terror. Then they carry out Exercise 1. They evaluate the way of shaping the „socialist morality” of the younger generation of the USSR. The teacher checks if the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback to students.

2. The teacher divides the students into three‑person groups. Each member of the team receives a different part of the material (E, P or S) to analyze or a portion of the exercises to be done (work sheets prepared by the teacher). Students working on the same issues meet in expert groups. They discuss the assigned subject, share doubts and organize their knowledge. Later they return to their „own” three‑person groups and pass on their aquired knowleldge to the rest of the group (in the alphabetical order of the discussed areas).

3. Tasks for the expert E (E as economy). The student examines the issues of the planned economy, collectivization and its effects, the role of the udarnik movement and GULAGs in the economy of the USSR. He performs Tasks 6‑7 and Exercise 2. He analyzes the distribution of labor camps and the costs of industrial development. The teacher explains the importance of collectivization to the group.

4. Tasks for the expert P (P for politics). The student examines the circumstances of Stalin's rise to power, the phenomenon of political terror as a tool for maintaining power, controlled social support, the government of monoparties, the formation of Stalin's autocracy and personal cult. He executes Tasks 3‑6 (it is important to keep the order in which exercises are performed, specific issues are ordered in a logical sequence). He gets acquainted with a fragment of Lenin's „testament” regarding Joseph Stalin, and also analyzes photographs in terms of how Stalin exercised power.

5. Tasks for the S expert (S like society). The student investigates the impact of terror conducted on a large scale with the help of the secret police; atomization and subordination of society, goals of defining „the enemy of the socialist state”, ways (decrees of Red Terror and official, radical ideology, censorship and centrally controlled propaganda, monumentalism and socialist realism in art). He performs Task 6 and Task 8‑10. He analyzes the policy towards the Orthodox Church, as well as photographs presenting examples of the art and architecture of socialist realism.

6. Work after the return of experts (to teams of three), in addition to communication with other colleagues, should assume interaction between the areas of knowledge gained by each student: an attempt to look for manifestations of mutual interaction between politics, economy and social experiments in the USSR under Stalin. The common goal for each group is to understand the system prevailing in Russia and the „logic of the Bolshevik”. Students carry out Exercise 3.

7. The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly performed and provides feedback.

Summary

1. The work ends with a discussion on the issues discussed during the lesson. The teacher makes students aware that the decisions and actions of the Bolshevik authorities led to the effects that are characteristic of a totalitarianism system.

2. The teacher assesses the students' work during the lesson, taking into account their input and commitment. For this purpose, he may prepare a self‑assessment questionnaire.

Homework

1. The teacher tasks willing students with homework. Two versions to choose from: Version I - compare the totalitarian systems of Germany under Hitler's rule and in the USSR under Stalin's rule. Look for differences and similarities. Make a multimedia presentation. Use resources from the Internet (including e‑textbook). Version II - execute Task 26 from the e‑textbook. Write a speech accusing Stalin of genocide, taking into account his internal actions in the USSR in the interwar period.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The totalitarian system in the USSR

The founder of the Soviet state was Lenin, who established its ideological foundations and made it possible for the Bolsheviks to come to power and strengthen their rule in the country. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin started gradually and silently changing the party structures, and filled significant positions with people loyal to him. Having eliminated his most dangerous opponent (Leon Trotsky), Stalin started taking actions which allowed him to assume full power in 1929. Stalin preached that with the development of communism, the number of class enemies increases, and staying faithful to his theory, he killed everyone who raised the slightest doubt. Terror became the foundation of Stalin’s unlimited power and allowed him to create one of the most sinister systems in the world. From 1934, the NKVD began to play the role of the security apparatus and played a huge role in building the Stalinist regime. It spread terror and caused fear. The system of Soviet forced labour camps, also referred to as Gulags, was expanded. Thirty to forty million people had seen the inside of those camps. A planned economy fully supervised by the state was introduced. The agricultural sector was collectivised. The development of the industrial sector claimed millions of lives. Similarly to the fascist state, ideology and propaganda played a major role in the USSR and were used to establish the cult of Stalin and indoctrinate society.