Propaganda In Joseph Stalin's Reign Of Terror

When Stalin first came to power in the mid-1920s he had the popular support of the peasantry and working class because of his previous position as General Secretary of the Communist Party. He drew many supporters because of his promise to build Russia into a socialist society with the exception of the educated classes who did not want to see him in power. As Stalin gained more power his rule became more authoritarian and he began to lose the support of the masses. The Great Purge of 1934-39 directly resulted from Stalin imposing his will and power on a population that was unwilling or uneducated due to misinformation spread by components of Stalin's Reign of Terror.

The Purges were a direct result of Stalin imposing his will on an unwilling

Propaganda was specially made by the Communist Party to gather support and achieve their goals of socialist competition, labor expansion, and Soviet Patriotism. The misinformation fed to the masses by the Communist Party turned some of the unwilling population into willing supporters, but anyone who did not support was also purged. The working class and peasantry were subject to the political education network which aimed to control the information they received on domestic and foreign events. As a result of the propaganda “according to some observers, a new Soviet human being was in fact created, one who did not think for himself.”(123) The population did not need the ability to think for themselves or else they would be unwilling to Stalin’s murderous regime. “The Soviet Union was a totalitarian dictatorship. A modern dictatorship is never based on coercion alone. Those in position of power do not disregard public opinion; on the contrary, they do everything within their power to influence it, and try to make every citizen into an accomplice.”(122) Stalin knew his population was unwilling toward his will and through the power of fear from the purges and reeducation he was able to control public

At the Seventeenth Party Congress in 1934 Stalin had already defeated his rivals and the Soviet Life was full of terror and suspicion. “The peoples of the Soviet Union, and also many members of the political elite, desperately wanted a time of relaxation.”(105) This desire for relaxation only fired Stalin up more. After realizing he had noone else to fight, he turned on the party itself. Sergei Kirov was the first victim of the Stalin’s plan, although there is no hard evidence his murder was orchestrated by Stalin his assasination started a wave of more deaths and show trials. “The most spectacular were the trials of ex-leaders of the Bolshevik Party” because these were Lenin’s comrades, namely Zinoviev and Kamenev.(105) Once Stalin had removed the entire party leadership around him he was free to exert his will uncontested. His rule became more and more like a dictatorship as the population was forced to align their views with his or face labor camps or death. The show trials sent the message the Stalin was hoping for, fear, suspicion and that if anyone opposed or threatened his power they would