Evaluate the significance of propaganda to the maintenance of Stalin’s power between 1929 and 1945.

Overall, propaganda allowed Stalin to create complacency and nationalism in the Soviet population,
masking the reality of the harsh economic control and purges he used to generate terror, thus being the
most significant factor in maintaining a positive facade for his authoritarian state.

Purges and Economic Control = generate fear

- Great Terror 1936-38
- Party purge 1932 → 1M expelled, wasn’t violent
- Kirov was assassinated in​ Dec34​ = Stalin called plot to overthrow him, gave NKVD
power of arrest, trial, execution
- Show trials → NKVD ‘conveyor system’ to torture political opponenets, Bukharin in the
trial of the 21 refused to confess and they still killed him (1938), accused of
Trotskyist-Rightist Bloc
- Purge of the army ​May37​ → all 8 admirals were killed, 50% of the Red Army officer
corps either killed or imprisoned
- Collectivization (forced), 1929-39 = <5% to >99% farms collectivized
- Riots, peasants would burn crops/slaughter animals
- Horrific famines 1932-33 3.7-7M deaths (worst in Russian history)
- Ural-Siberian method 1929 + rationing introduced
- Gulags → 14M ppl through them from 1929-53, 1.6M of them died, most of them during the
Great Terror 1936-38
- Reality = repressive one-party state, mere suspicion of inappropriate thoughts was enough to
warrant the death penalty
- Forced resettlement of ethnic minorities to the far east after 1939 (6M ppl, 1.5M died)

Propaganda = generate nationalism

- Stalin’s Personality Cult
- Portrayed as “man of steel” with imagery of infrastructure and large happy crowd to
emphasize the rapid industrialization (him as architect of USSR)
- Appealed to Leninism using the slogan “Under the banner of Lenin, under the leadership
of Stalin--forward to great victories!”
- Symbols of happy children, the sun, red banner of communism to create a positive
atmosphere
- Archetype of father/teacher
- Stalin claimed “the people need a tsar”
- Encouraged national resistance in WWII = 800,000 women in combat roles, scorched earth
- Stakhanovite movement = Aug35, Aleksei Stakhanovite mined 14 times quota (102 tonnes of
coal less than 6 hours)
Evaluate the importance of leaders in the emergence of two democratic states.
Overall, the role of leaders played a significant role in generating change in both SA and India; however,
both required the pre-existing social inequalities which generated discontent with civilians, as well as
external factors which were the most significant as they acted as a short-term trigger for the emergence of
democracy.
South Africa
Role of Leaders
- Steve Biko → killed by police in 1977,
generated discontent, Black
Consciousness Movement inspired
Africans, celebrated African identity
(helped to spark uprisings at Soweto)
- Nelson Mandela → imprisoned in 1960,
symbol of freedom, helped with Freedom
Charter 1955, first pres of SA
- De Klerk → enabled reformed in Feb90,
which changed the structure of SA
- Unbanned the ANC, initiated
negotiations, abolished apartheid
- Joe Slovo → negotiated for the Sunset
Clauses which allowed for a coalition
govn’t for the first five years, one of the
reasons the NP agreed b/c they wanted
minority interests to be protected
Social Inequalities
- Racist attitudes of apartheid generated
discontent due to Bantu education, pass
laws, Section 10 rights
- Sharpeville 1960
- Soweto 1976
- State of emergency 1984
- Costly sustained uprisings
External Factors
- Fall of the Berlin Wall Nov89 (collapse of
communism) = lost support from US/Br
(govn’t) and from USSR (ANC)
- 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act
in US
- 1963 = UN $ sanctions + suspended from
general assembly meetings after
India
Role of Leaders
- Gandhi transformed the INC from a
movement of wealthy Indians to a mass
movement (civil disobedience)
- Non-violent protest
- Women’s rights, abolish caste
system, against communalism
(wanted freedom of religion)
- Quit India campaign
- Created internal pressure
- Nehru wanted a mixed economy,
Westernized views, less idealistic than
Gandhi, India to form stable democracy
Social Inequalities
- Class, gender, religion, linguistic
differences across nation (not very
unified)
- Not as integral (not the reason for it)
- Muslims didn’t wanted to be ignored in a
Hindu-dominated society (20%)
- 16% literacy 1950 = ppl didn’t know,
75% agricultural
External Factors
- Br = bankrupt after WWII, thus employed
decolonization
- Br public perspective
- Churchill → supported
imperialism, loss of India would
mark the “downfall of the Br
Empire”
- Reliance on US Marshall Plan to
rebuild
- Atlantic Charter = attitudes of
decolonization (Chruchill,
Aug41)
- Government of India Act 1935
 To what extent did citizens benefit from social and economic policies in two democratic states?
Overall, citizens benefited from social and economic policies in South Africa and India to somewhat of an
extent, as the effectiveness of policies in practice was limited by traditional attitudes, as well as the
HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa and rapid population growth in India.
South Africa
Social Policies
Education
- 16% literacy 1950 to 62% in 1990s
- United to 1 national education system + no more
Bantu edu
- Pass rates actually decreased from 58% in 1994 to
49% in 1998
- 2000 UNESCO Study = grade fours in SA among
worst literacy, numeracy, and life skills in the world
- 2002 schools with 28% no running water, 43% no
electricity, 78% no libraries
Healthcare
- 4.2M HIV/AIDS in 2000 = a pandemic
- 7.6% 1994 to 30.2% 2005 pregnant women with
HIV/AIDS
- Denialism (Thabo Mbeki perspective, constitutional
court had to override 1999 for antiretroviral drugs)
Economic Policies
- Working for Water Project 1995
- GEAR 1996 didn’t succeed in improving
employment
- RDP helped 10M ppl gain access to water
- 41.6% unemployment 2001, doubled from 1994
22.9%
- Got rid of Section 10 rights, pass laws
- M. Meredith (2005) = “perhaps 5 percent” reached
middle class, BEE 1997 only helped small
percentage of well-connected black South Africans
- 11,000 affirmative action positions (race/gender)
- By 2000, 30% national parliament seats held by
women + 13% of top management in companies
- Redistributed <2% of land by 2000 (had hoped for
30% farmland to black farmers)
- Civil Service 44% white to 18% white (1994-99)
India
Social Policies
- 1955 Hindu Marriage Act, 1956 Hindu Succession Act
- 1961 Dowry system abolished = traditional attitudes
regarding women’s role in society limited success
- Education - 1951-61 number of boys in primary school
doubled, number of girls tripled, Built 41 new universities
with 22% female enrollment, >80% girls in Rajasthan
hadn’t attended school by 1990s
- Healthcare → increased 165% the number of hospital beds
during Nehru’s time as pres
- 95% births attended to by healthcare profession in
Kerala, only 40% in Madhya Pradesh
- Orissa 39 years behind Kerala in terms of Infant
Mortality rate (87 vs only 10)
Economic Policies
- Inter-state differentials due to differences in state
commitment/efficiency in implementing policies of
national govn’t (liberalized $ in 1980s)
- Untouchables caste = exempt from school fees, given 20%
seats in legislature bodies, but disrimination still in
workplace
- Industry grew 7% 1950-65 (Nehru created mixed economy
with some central planning, some capitalism)
- Agri increased 25% in 1st Five-Year Plan 1951-56,
increase 20% in second 1956-61
- More than doubled industrial production 1948-64
- Panchayati Raj = rural development project, wealthy
peasants ensured election to local councils for domination
of decision-making + allocation of funds (did little to
eradicate inequality, especially among millions of landless
villagers)
- Wide disparities in state income rates (greater variation
than in education levels) = on HDI, India ranked 127 of
177 countries with 0.595 in 2002 (0.638 in Kerala, almost
half in Buhar with 0.367)
- >260M ppl below poverty line of income <$1/day 2004