Back in the USSR (you don't know how lucky you are...)
Activity 1: On either Monday Night (Feb 11) if you are in MPX9B (Period 5) or Tuesday Night (Feb 12) if you are in MPX9A (Period 6), watch the first two videos below on the Communist Manifesto AND/OR the Crash Course video on Capitalism and Socialism on the right. My videos try to give you a more thorough explanation of Communism according to what I think are more important, but with lower production values, and you know all about the Crash Course video style...
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Ideology Day! Today we are looking at communism as an ideology, and then compare and contrast it to fascism.
We are trying to solve a problem - we have seen documents that suggest that the rulers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union hated each as enemies, but also that they were allies, and even were similar to each other. To solve that, we need to understand the beliefs of each system to see just how far apart or similar they were. Therefore, our goal is to understand the differences and similarities in the ideologies of the leaders of the Soviet union and Fascist Germany. Your task, then, is to read the two excerpts, using your mind-web to help you through the documents, and then to create an artifact that identifies the differences and similarities in the ideologies of the leaders of the Soviet union and Fascist Germany. |
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Summary of the video...
By Nicole (left) and Krislyn (below)
Examples of student summaries after the mind-webbing class activity
Kris K: Communism, according to its policies, is total equality for everyone, basically a Utopia. Its policies consist of having no classes(lower, upper) and making everyone equal. When everyone is equal no one is mad at one another, which generates total peace. This is why communism would be like a utopia. Everyone would do their own jobs but now instead of money they do it for food and clothes and a set pay that everyone has. Malia: Communism is that there is more poor people than rich people. So since there are in rich people then everybody makes different decisions as a whole. Communism is also that everyone is equal. Nobody has more than one person or less. Communism is that everybody works, nobody stays home and that makes peace. There is no single person in charge of everybody. Since everybody works that and has something to do, then the people get food and clothes. |
Isaiah B: The idea of everyone is equal and everyone switches off doing tenuous tasks. The idea came from the poor being fed up with the rich having everything. By overthrowing the government with masses they took over and made everyone equal by making everything equal and no power. Everyone shares everything so that there is no private property. There can be no rebellion because there is no means to gain power if everything is equal and regulated by the government.
Bryson: Communism is a government for a utopian society. It is where everyone is shared and the titles “upper” “middle” and “lower” class is taken out of the vocabulary for good. It started as an idea by a man named Karl Marx. He wrote a book in 1917 during the industrial revolution explaining hoe the only people benefiting from the current government was the rich people. That made sense because even in the medieval days the king benefited from his ruling and governing. If everything was shared and all the resources was spread out evenly there would be no such thing as poverty or starvation. It was a way the poor people not be poor without being rich. In conclusion communism is a government that owns all the resources and it is distributed evenly amount rich and poor so there is no more people dying of starvation and lack of food. |
Coltrane: Communism centers around the belief that the government owns everything including you and that you should work hard to benefit it as a whole. In a communism, you retain no personal property or possessions of value and are provided the same resources as everyone else for your own individual efforts. This originated as a good sentiment but can become corrupted far too easily. While anyone not in direct affiliation with the government is equal I almost every regard, the people on the inside tend to receive better things such as food and goods. I would attribute this to human corruption and tends to undermine communists time and time again. |
Examples of fascism v communism similarities and differences
Activity 2: This vodcast covers the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Lenin, with special emphasis on his strategy, as outlined in the document "What is to be Done?"
we are going to read the "blueprint" for the 1917 Russian Revolution in the form of an excerpt from Lenin's "What is to be Done" from 1904. How closely did Lenin follow the strategy for successful revolution? Your task is first - to understand his strategy, and then to explain how the actions Lenin took from 1917 to about 1922 are examples of that strategy. We will discuss the excerpt first for the first segment of class, and then you will apply his strategy to the events described in the podcast. That is to say - did Lenin follow a clearly recognizable strategy for gaining and holding power in Russia?
what_is_to_be_done_one_page_edit.doc | |
File Size: | 29 kb |
File Type: | doc |
Super Duper Mind-Web construct of the video
By Nicole
Activity 3: Over the weekend (feb 23 & 24),
Watch these 3 videos (1 covers how Stalin rose to power after Lenin's death, 2 covers Stalin's economic policies, 3 discusses the horrifying toll on the population of the Soviet Union) on the rise of Stalin & and his “5 year plans.”
Stalin - ruthless power-hungry dictator or savior of Soviet Communism...you decide!
Dictator Diaries, cont'd, Stalin edition Diary 1 I’m so happy that Comrade Lenin has put me in a position if so much power. I was but a young foolish boy before I learned about his true power. The communist ideal, a glorious thing! To be in control of this powerful state is to be in the status of a god. If I get this, then I will be able to lead them to victory! Lenin’s mind has become damaged in his recent strokes. He is now turning the state back towards capitalism! I must go and reverse this, before the damage that his senile mind has caused the state spreads. I must remove my competition for his seat of power. Especially that bastard, Trotsky. I’ll be able to tell everyone of how these people are plotting against the party. I can have them sent away, where no one will ever find them. They’ll be gone, or dead. Whichever suits my purpose better. Diary 2 I was thinking about my past, and how I used to be. I would get into fights over the last shot of vodka, or be sent of to Siberia for plotting against the Tsar. Ah, but I won’t forget the sound bone makes when it breaks. It’s a very hard crunch, almost like someone taking a bite out of a potato chip. I could say I miss this, but looking at where I am now, I don’t miss it one bit. I’ve just started my first idea ever since coming to power. I will call it, “the five year plans” for how long each of these are to take. The first must be to focus on food production. We are going to need food to fuel our army as well as to fuel the workers in the factory. I must set the quota high so we can reach it. I’m sure if everyone works hard enough, we can reach these goals, however high they are. I shall also provide enough to sustain the people who are working on the collective farms. Those damn kulaks will have all of their excess food seized for the good of the country. No person should have more than anyone except for me. And that is only for the good of the country. Diary 3 These plans have gone well so far. The food production has increased and it’s been completed in only four years! I must start the second plan. We must industrialize. Compared to everyone else, our superior country is inferior to all of these other countries! We must gather materials, build more factories, mine more coal and improve our railways. This is the only way that we can achieve the perfection of our state. We must use all of the materials we have at hand and produce more steel, wood, iron and other things. We must be ready for war at any time, which is what the next plan will be. Me must produce weapons, tanks and other things for the Red Army. We will have an unstoppable military force. To crush everyone else, we must be prepared to destroy their forces first. We have the superiority in numbers, now we must arm these numbers. We will have the most deadly army in history. |
Stalin is bad because everything he does, the 5 stages were not realistic to what could be produced. The affect of what he did made terrible problems on his people. Stalin was a gangster he was a troubled person who was really a piece of trash of a human. Stalin was obsessed with industrial revolution, Stalin was trying to get the peasants to give up what they had, and it did not end up working. The people rebelled by killing all there animals, and he did what hitler did to the Jews. The kulaks were dying because they didn’t have food, if he would of been a good guy he would helped out his people. Stalin used propaganda liked big brother, and if you followed his rules you would be a hero in his eyes. Factory people got scared of him. The 3rd plan all they prepared was to make the army strong, thats all he cared about. On June 22 hitler did a surprise attack on Russia, and now questions came up with Stalins actions. His polices introduced a famine. Stalin used all power to silent descent, he wanted money from the death of his people. Much like big brother and hitler if you spoke out you were killed. One state just like big brother, new drive just like what we have been learning, man made famine. Forced the Kaluks out and killed them all for happened. Russia than starts to lose a lot of things, and its getting them hard to,live on, collection. The people than rebelled against the Soviet Union, and took them out and had all the grain. Stalin was a terrible person he did everything for himself, killed his own people , and did not help anyone on need, he let so many people die. Everywhere started to become filthy. So many similarities to big brother and hitler. Stalin was a monster. |
Activity 4: Tuesday Night (Feb 6) watch this video on Soviet Propaganda. Create a mind-web or summary of the main points
The following animations were made by artists working for the gov't. In order, they are:
A. A depiction of the wealthy classes in Russia (1924)
B. A statement about the way America treated non-white nations (1933)
C. An anti-German cartoon created after the German invasion of Russia in 1941
D. A cartoon mocking American musical culture (1948)
You have two options for today's activity:
1. Write a traditional document analysis of these animations explaining how these cartoons reflect core ideas about Soviet ideology and propaganda as expressed in the video you watched for homework. This will be more fun but will be more difficult.
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2. Create an artifact that performs a comparison and contrast with Nazi propaganda and ideology. You must be specific and use examples and indicate what you learned from the video. You can use these videos (part 1, part 2) as a reference for Nazi propaganda.
The documents which we just looked at were cartons made by Russia artist supporting the Russian government. They are meant for children to introduce them to the ideas that the Russian government wants them to believe. We see things like Russians fighting off a monster bearing a swastika, a stuck up bird being chased off, workers and farmers becoming united, and racial discrimination. What it’s trying to tell kids is to support communism and their country and how great Russia is.
In the first video there’s a fat man who just keeps consuming and taking up resources, and two religious men. Then a farmer and a worker come together and are able to crush the fat man and take back some money. Then we see soldiers coming together to make a christmas tree in which the religious men, the fat man, and a woman who earlier on in the video with the fat man, are all hung on the tree like ornaments while the workers and farmers sit happily at the top, with a Soviet Russia symbol. What this is supposed to represent is that if the workers can come together then they can defeat the monopolists and create a new order, communism, in which they would have the respect they deserve. The reason why the religious men were hung was because they believed that they were using religion to keep people in line and under the monopolists control, and in return they would become rich.
In the second video we see white people relaxing, eating plenty, and living happily, while beating black people who are in chains and working. There was also a priest who was eating a lot and waving his cross at some of the black workers, which again symbolized how religion was used to keep the people in line, yet the priests prospered. What this video is supposed to represent is how in countries like America there is discrimination and its the whites who are rich and live off the black who suffer. It also conveys the message that in Soviet Russia all people of all races can live together in harmony, without racism.
The next video had a monster with weapons stomping across countries and destroying them. He had a swastika on his clothes, so we can assume that he represents the Nazis. Finally once he reached Russia and was about to set fire to it, a fist hit him repeatedly and knocked him back. Then music about Stalin calling Russia to defend their country from the monster began to play, and tanks, planes, and submarines were shown rallying to fight. It was used to inspire kids to fight Germany (which in Stalins Russia qualified as any work, including factory work which a lot of kids did) and to make the Nazis look even worse.
The last video had a nightingale who all the birds listened to because it sang so sweetly. Then there was a magpie who criticized the nightingale, saying that it had heard better foreign music, but when it tried to sing all the birds chased it off because it was no where near as good as the nightingale. Then the nightingale continues singing, and a message plays warning all “magpies” of bragging. I was not entirely sure about the message of this cartoon, but what I think that what it’s saying is, because the magpie was bringing in ugly foreign music it was chased off. If you bring in foreign ideas, possibly like world war which Russia suffered from, you can expect to be chased off.
In the first video there’s a fat man who just keeps consuming and taking up resources, and two religious men. Then a farmer and a worker come together and are able to crush the fat man and take back some money. Then we see soldiers coming together to make a christmas tree in which the religious men, the fat man, and a woman who earlier on in the video with the fat man, are all hung on the tree like ornaments while the workers and farmers sit happily at the top, with a Soviet Russia symbol. What this is supposed to represent is that if the workers can come together then they can defeat the monopolists and create a new order, communism, in which they would have the respect they deserve. The reason why the religious men were hung was because they believed that they were using religion to keep people in line and under the monopolists control, and in return they would become rich.
In the second video we see white people relaxing, eating plenty, and living happily, while beating black people who are in chains and working. There was also a priest who was eating a lot and waving his cross at some of the black workers, which again symbolized how religion was used to keep the people in line, yet the priests prospered. What this video is supposed to represent is how in countries like America there is discrimination and its the whites who are rich and live off the black who suffer. It also conveys the message that in Soviet Russia all people of all races can live together in harmony, without racism.
The next video had a monster with weapons stomping across countries and destroying them. He had a swastika on his clothes, so we can assume that he represents the Nazis. Finally once he reached Russia and was about to set fire to it, a fist hit him repeatedly and knocked him back. Then music about Stalin calling Russia to defend their country from the monster began to play, and tanks, planes, and submarines were shown rallying to fight. It was used to inspire kids to fight Germany (which in Stalins Russia qualified as any work, including factory work which a lot of kids did) and to make the Nazis look even worse.
The last video had a nightingale who all the birds listened to because it sang so sweetly. Then there was a magpie who criticized the nightingale, saying that it had heard better foreign music, but when it tried to sing all the birds chased it off because it was no where near as good as the nightingale. Then the nightingale continues singing, and a message plays warning all “magpies” of bragging. I was not entirely sure about the message of this cartoon, but what I think that what it’s saying is, because the magpie was bringing in ugly foreign music it was chased off. If you bring in foreign ideas, possibly like world war which Russia suffered from, you can expect to be chased off.
Propaganda comparisons by (a) Nicole, and (b) Emma and Aly |
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Activity 5: Enjoy these videos regarding the show trials and purges of the Stalin Regime, then do the associated activity
these videos will give you a general history of the purges and the gulags in Soviet Russia during Stalin's regime
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these videos discuss the purges and show trials throughout Soviet Russia and give you also some commentary on Yezhov (who appears in one of our documents
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these videos tell the stories of people sent off to work and die in the Siberian gulags
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these videos tell the story of what happened to one of the highest ranking members of the Party - Bukharin
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Your assignment is to create an artifact that takes evidence from these videos and compares it to 1984 and the Nazis. To what extent do the purges in the USSR and the work camps bear any similarity to what happens in the novel 1984 or to what we know happened in Germany? Is there any truth in the belief that Hitler and Stalin were much more similar than they were different?
Create an artifact that explains your answer, with accompanying evidence, and submit it to Tumblr.
Create an artifact that explains your answer, with accompanying evidence, and submit it to Tumblr.
Activity 6: Watch this video on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the subsequent start of WWII. Then, do the associated activity
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