Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,

1917-1953

• What is Stalinism? How did it evolve in the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1956?
• How did Stalinism manifest itself in Eastern Europe after 1945?

Key Terms

1) Stalinism

2) “Socialism in One Country”

3) Five Year Plan/Command Economy

4) Collectivization

5) Great Purges/Show Trials

6) Gulag

7) Totalitarianism

8) Cult of Personality

9) Stalinization of Eastern Europe

I. Stalinism in the Soviet Union: Origins and Definition, 1928-1956

· The Rise of Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)

· After Lenin: “Permanent Revolution” (Leon Trotsky) vs. “Socialism in One Country” (Stalin)

· Five-Year Plans, Collectivization, The Great Famine, the “Command” Economy

o The Kulaks vs. The Commune

· Radical Centralization, Secret Police (KGB), Internal “Class” Enemies, and Communist Class System

· The Great Purges (1938-1939), the Gulag System, and Culture of Fear

· Stalin’s Cult of Personality

· Stalin, World War II, and Its Aftermath

· Restoring Stalinism after World War II, 1945-1953

· Stalin’s Legacy and Russian Historical Memory

II. Replicating Stalinism:  Eastern Europe, 1945-1956

· “Liberating” Eastern Europe and the New Soviet Empire, 1944-1948

· Stalinizing Eastern Europe, 1948-1954:  Creating “Replica States”

o Constitutions and Communist Party Dictatorships

o Five Year Plans and Collectivization

o Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance)

o Police States/Prison States

o Show Trials as “Public Pedagogy”: The Slánsky Trial (1952)

· Josip Tito’s Yugoslavia

· Rebellions:  East Germany (1953) and Hungary (1956)

· Torn Away:  Eastern Europe and Western Europe

· Tony Judt:  “A permanent state of undeclared war against its own citizens.”