Stalin
Purges, gulags, famine
Stalin was the Soviet dictator who ruled from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953, presiding over rapid industrialization, mass purges, and millions of deaths through famine and political terror.
The name functions as shorthand for brutal totalitarian rule: He runs that department like Stalin.
Stalinism denotes his particular brand of authoritarian communism.
Former communist superpower
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- MoscowRussia's capital city
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
- Red ArmySoviet ground forces
collectivization · KGB · October Revolution · Bolshevik · Leninism · Marxism-Leninism · Comintern · industrialization
State controls everything absolutely
- authoritarianismConcentrated, unchecked governmental power
- autocracyRule by one
- repressionUnconscious blocking of thoughts
- censorshipOfficial content restriction
oppression · purges · show trials · political prisoners · secret police · surveillance · one-party state · personality cult
Soviet term for WWII
- Eastern FrontSoviet-German combat theater
- StalingradRenamed Soviet industrial city
- Operation BarbarossaNazi Soviet invasion
- Nazi invasionGerman military conquest, WWII
Red Army · Hitler · nonaggression pact · Lend-Lease · scorched earth · war production · partisan resistance · Kursk
Excessive veneration of leader
- agitpropPolitical art for causes
- PravdaSoviet state newspaper
- postersPrinted wall advertisements
- indoctrinationSystematic uncritical belief instillation
glorification · iconography · slogans · airbrushing · state media · portraits · statues · hagiography
Divider of forged metal
- Truman DoctrinePolicy opposing communist expansion
- Marshall PlanPostwar American economic assistance
- NATOWestern defense organization
- Warsaw PactSoviet-led military alliance
Yalta · Potsdam · containment · Churchill · Truman · spheres of influence · Eastern Bloc · satellite states
USSR
Former communist superpower
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- MoscowRussia's capital city
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
Red Army · collectivization · KGB · October Revolution · Bolshevik · Leninism · Marxism-Leninism · Comintern · industrialization · purges
totalitarianism
State controls everything absolutely
- authoritarianismConcentrated, unchecked governmental power
- autocracyRule by one
- repressionUnconscious blocking of thoughts
censorship · oppression · purges · show trials · political prisoners · secret police · surveillance · one-party state · personality cult · Great Purge
Great Patriotic War
Soviet term for WWII
- Eastern FrontSoviet-German combat theater
- StalingradRenamed Soviet industrial city
- Operation BarbarossaNazi Soviet invasion
Nazi invasion · Red Army · Hitler · nonaggression pact · Lend-Lease · scorched earth · war production · partisan resistance · Kursk · Allied victory
cult of personality
Excessive veneration of leader
indoctrination · glorification · iconography · slogans · airbrushing · state media · portraits · statues · hagiography · mass rallies
iron curtain
Divider of forged metal
- Truman DoctrinePolicy opposing communist expansion
- Marshall PlanPostwar American economic assistance
- NATOWestern defense organization
Warsaw Pact · Yalta · Potsdam · containment · Churchill · Truman · spheres of influence · Eastern Bloc · satellite states · postwar order
- 1940sWWII, D-Day, Pearl Harbor, Normandy, VE Day
- World LeadersChurchill, Winston Churchill, Eisenhower, Gorbachev, Thatcher
- World War IIAllies, Nazi, Hitler, Axis, Third Reich
- WWIID-Day, Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Hiroshima, Holocaust
- 20th Century IconsEinstein, Churchill, Gandhi, Hitler, FDR
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
StalinHitler
Nazi Germany's totalitarian leader
Winston Churchill · Franklin D. Roosevelt · Harry Truman · Ronald Reagan · Mussolini
- Joseph Stalin
- Stalin era1924-1953 Soviet period
- Stalin's purgesSoviet mass political repression