HIST 121 Lecture Notes - Secret Police, Scientism, Chicken Coop
Document Summary
Stalin, follower of lenin: five year plans (1928), collectivization (1929-1940), the great terror/purge (1936-1938) 10 million death toll collectivization doesn"t work in practice as on paper; decline in productivity; passive resistance. As a system, modern aspects: cult-like leader, obedience + worship, one-party state. Mass rallies, fake elections; channeled political inclinations. Judicial procedures, known outcome, sham liberal order: propaganda. Requires modernity; technology; microphones, radio, film clips, television. In order to indoctrinate the masses: terror. Good of the people projected as ideal; elimination of enemies beforehand. Secret police, summary execution, interrogation + torture. Totalitarian ideologies resembled the religions they tried to replace: aspire to more than politics; transformation of every aspect of human life; even internal thoughts of the individual. How to cope with loss of faith. Concern with human freedom: crystal palace, constraint of the human will by technology and progress, rebellion against the crystal palace; underground man against rational egoism. Grand inquisitor as a symbol of modernity as a whole.
