Rise of Totalitarians Flashcards
What is a totalitarian government?
A government, usually with one leader, that takes total control of all aspects of public and private life.
What are four methods that dictators use to control their people?
Censorship
Propaganda
Leader Worship
Police State
What is censorship? Why does it work?
Stops any damaging information from being public
People don’t get mad about things they don’t know about.
What is Propaganda?
Biased or false information used to sway people to accept the government’s views
Stress the positives of the government and the negatives of their opponents
What are the propaganda techniques ?
Bandwagon Name-Calling Emotional Words Fear Plain Folks
Describe what a police state is.
Control your country through the use of fear. Used spies, bugging houses, and concentration camps to make people fearful.
Why does police state work to keep people in line.
People are so scared of the secret police, that they never question anything.
What is leader worship?
Replacing organized religion with worship of the dictator
Why is leader worship successful?
People will make sacrifices for religion
The leader gets to be unquestioned no matter what
What kind of government style did Russia have before its revolutions?
Monarchy
What is a czar?
Russian word for king
What were the workers asking for on Bloody Sunday?
Better work hours, conditions, and pay Free Healthcare Parliament and voting rights Freedom of speech, association, press, and religion End of fighting in their war with Japan
Why was Bloody Sunday so damaging to the czar?
Riots broke out nationwide, and Nicholas never regained full control or the trust of his people
In what ways did WWI lead to the end of the Russian monarchy?
Russia lost over 2 million troops, and almost 1 million civilians in the war.
Food was scarce because it was mostly going to the military
People were furious with the government and eventually the Czar had to step down
What were the Russians fighting for in their Civil War?
They were fighting over who would be the new government in Russia
It was a fight between the Red Army (the Communists) and the White Armies (who didn’t want communism)
Explain the slogan of the Bolsheviks?
Peace - Getting out of WWI
Land - Giving land to the peasants
Bread - Providing food to all
Who took over after Lenin died?
Josef Stalin
How did Stalin use censorship to control the public?
He cut people out of pictures, “unpersoned” those who crossed him, and wouldn’t’ let any bad news about his government be printed.
How did Stalin use propaganda to control the public?
He hung posters of how great the Soviet Union was, had songs about himself, wrote all the books, made children’s cartoons, etc.