Lesson video

Hello, everybody and welcome back to your history lesson at Oak National Academy with me Miss Porter.

Today's lesson is our second lesson of an inquiry four lessons looking at how people were controlled in totalitarian states.

For today's lesson, please just make sure that you have a pen or a pencil to write with and some paper to write on.

And just to make sure that you've moved yourself away from any distractions so you can focus on today's lesson.

Once you've done that, you'll be ready to get started.

And you can do so by writing down today's title, which is Economic policies.

Okay, so as I said, this is your second lesson on our inquiry, which we'll be looking at how people were controlled in totalitarian states during the 1930s and 1940s.

So remember from last lesson, you should know that totalitarian state is a state in which the people in power have complete control over the lives of the citizens in their country.

So to start today's lesson, I'd like you to look at this image taken in 1940 in Germany, and write down what you can see.

So pause the video here and resume when you're ready.

Okay, well done everybody.

Welcome back.

So you may have written down, that you can see lots of young men wearing matching uniforms or carrying spades.

You might also have noted down that you think they all look of a similar age.

And you might've even thought they look a bit quite militaristic as they are marching in formation.

Well done if you wrote down any of those things.

So this image is of men from the Reich Labour Service taken in 1940.

Now the Reich Labour Service was an organisation created in Nazi Germany to provide jobs for workers.

Therefore you can See how this organisation could have benefited people.

However, this was also an organisation used by the Nazi Party to control people and their way of thinking.

From June 1935, men had to serve six months in the Reich Labour Service between the ages of 18 and 25.

Whilst there young people were also educated in Nazi ideology, and taught to think in a certain way.

Therefore, organisations such as these were also often use to control people's lives.

In today's lesson, we're going to look at how organisations such as these were used in totalitarian states to increase the leaders control over people's lives.

So today, we're going to look at the economic policies introduced by Hitler and Stalin during the 1930s.

In order to understand these, we first need to think about what is meant by this phrase.

So in simple terms, the Economy refers to a country's wealth and trade Therefore, Economic policies are the actions made by a government that affect their country's wealth and trade.

So in today's lesson, we are going to see how Hitler and Stalin used their economic policies to strengthen their control.

Totalitarian dictators such as Hitler and Stalin wanted to gain control over every aspect of people's lives.

Therefore, they wanted to have greater control over the economy and people's jobs.

Now, in order for leaders to gain this control, there are potentially two methods that can be deployed.

So firstly, on the left, you could see that one way dictators could gain this control is by making the people happy with their rule, and therefore making them more likely to follow their orders.

This could be by offering people better jobs or the promise of a better life.

However, if people are not happy with the dictators rule, or choose not to follow their laws, a dictator could force them too by taking away their wealth, and possibly by using violence to force people to follow their rules.

Now, if we apply these two approaches to the economy, dictators could also use two options to gain greater control.

So firstly, on the left, you could see that they could provide more jobs and leisure activities.

And this could lead to greater support for the leader and encourage people to follow their rules.

However, on the right, if people were unwilling to follow their policies, the leader could take away people's wealth and independence by force in order to have greater control over people's lives.

Now, if we look at the two totalitarian states we are currently studying, we can see how these economic policies were applied.

Now, both governments did try to use both of these policies.

But broadly speaking in the 1930s, we can see a difference between some of the above approaches used by Hitler and Stalin.

On the left, you can see that Hitler and the Nazi Party tried to gain greater control of the economy by providing people with jobs and leisure activities.

This was especially important as many people did not have jobs in the 1920s in Germany following the end of World War I.

On the right, you can see that Stalin and the Communist Party used force to take away people's wealth and independence.

And they did this particularly in the countryside to gain greater control.

We are now going to look at why these economic policies were used in Germany and the Soviet Union.

But firstly, we're going to focus on Germany.

So during the 1920s, the German economy collapsed.

This was due to end of the First World War and events in the 1920s.

This meant that people's wages were cut, millions of people lost their jobs and couldn't afford to pay rent, which meant that homelessness also increased.

People also had to queue for basic resources including food.

For example, in this image, we can see children queuing to be fed in Berlin in 1924.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, he promised to strengthen the economy and fix these problems by providing more jobs.

In turn, he believed this would give him greater control over the economy and people's lives.

Hitler introduced organisations such as the Reich Labour Service, which we saw in the first image of today's lesson, to help overcome the effects of unemployment, or people not having jobs.

Hitler and the Nazi party also created organisations aimed at improving people's lives with the hope that people would be more likely to enjoy their job and work hard to strengthen the nation.

This included offering sport and leisure activities, and even travel abroad for those who worked hard.

One of Hitler's larger programme was a scheme to build motorways.

This would provide hundreds of construction jobs and strengthen the economy by providing quicker transport for industry.

Here you can see in the image on the right Hitler shovelling dirt at the beginning of a drive to build motorways in Germany in 1933.

images such as these would have promoted Hitler's role in providing more jobs for the German people, thus encouraging people to support him and giving him greater control.

Now on the right here, you can see a table which shows a number of people that were unemployed or did not have a job in Germany on the following dates.

So firstly in September 1929, and this was before Hitler became Chancellor or the leader of Germany, then in January 1933, which is when Hitler became Chancellor, and in January 1939, once Hitler had been in control for six years.

If you'd like to look at, I'd like you, sorry, to look at the number of people that were unemployed on each day.

And think about the answers to the following questions.

What does this suggest about unemployment in Germany when, Firstly, Hitler became Chancellor in 1933? And secondly, after Hitler had been empowered by 1939? Pause the video here and think about answers to these questions.

Okay, well done everybody.

hopefully you've recognised that unemployment was high when Hitler became Chancellor, around 6.

1 million people didn't have a job at this time.

However, by 1939, that figure had been reduced to half a million.

And this suggests that unemployment dropped significantly during this period of Hitler's dictatorship, suggesting that he did strengthen the economy during this time.

Now, we have seen some examples of Hitler's economic policies, including how he provided jobs and leisure activities to increase his control.

We are now going to look at some of the economic policies Introduced by Stalin, on the right to increase his control over people's lives in the Soviet Union.

Firstly to understand some of the policies introduced in the Soviet Union.

We need to learn what the Soviet economy was like before Stalin introduced his new policies.

So at the start of the 20th century, the majority of Russian people were peasants who farmed small pieces of land and did not produce a large amount of food.

After coming to power in the 1920s, Stalin wanted peasants to work together to produce more food to feed the population more effectively.

Stalin wanted peasants and farmers to give up their land and move on to large farms that were owned by the state.

This process was called Collectivization.

Stalin hoped this would produce more food to feed the population, specifically in the cities, but he also believed it would allow him to have greater control over people living in the countryside on state owned farms. However, some wealthier peasants did not want to move to collective farms or give up their land Stalin needed to control these peasants to achieve collectivization.

Stalin also viewed these peasants as an enemy, because they opposed his rule.

Therefore, he used the police and the army to force these peasants onto collective farms, or he attacked those people who continued to oppose his policies.

Based on what you've learned so far, I'd like you to take a look at this image on the right.

It is a poster published in 1930.

In the Soviet Union, I'd like you to think about the following questions.

What can you see in this image? For example, who might the person represent and what could be in the background? Secondly, what do you think is the message of this poster? So you can now pause the video for 30 seconds or so to think about the answers to these questions.

Well done and welcome back everybody.

I'd now like to see if you can complete these sentences based on your ideas.

So pause the video here and complete these sentences.

Okay, welcome back again and very well done.

Hopefully you may have recognised that in this image there is a farm in the background, and this is meant to represent the collective farm.

in the forefront, you might have written that you can see a larger man and a fist knocking him out of the way.

The message of this cartoon is that the larger man at the front is meant to represent the wealthier peasant.

The posters suggesting that they should be removed from the farm so that collectivization can take place.

So well done if you've got something similar to that and for writing down your own ideas.

Remember Yours may be slightly different to mine, which is fine.

You can now pause the video if necessary to make any changes to your work or to tick through it.

In a minute or so, you'll be able to complete this lessons reading to find out more about each of these economic policies we've discussed.

And to answer today's comprehension questions.

I'll now briefly talk you through them before you get started.

So firstly, how many Germans were out of work in 1933.

So look out for that figure in your reading today.

Secondly, to describe two methods used by Hitler to strengthen the German economy, so to make it stronger.

Third, why did Stalin want to modernise the Soviet economy in the 1920s? So what reasons did he have for this.

Four, ask you to describe two methods used by Stalin to gain more control over the Soviet economy.

And your challenge question today is, what were the differences between Hitler and Stalin's economic policies.

So maybe try and find one or two differences between Hitler and Stalin's economic policies.

So you can now pause the video here and get started with your reading , there is a glossary if you need it to support you of some of the more difficult words as well.

Once you've completed today's questions, you can return to this video to check for your work.

Okay, Welcome back, everybody, and very well done for completing those questions.

So we will now go through these answers together.

Remember that my answers may look different to yours, which is okay.

You may want to pause the video after each question or at any point when I go through the answers to tick through your work and to make any changes.

So the first question asked how many Germans were out of work in 1933? An acceptable answer is six million.

And a good answer could maybe put this into a full sentence such as six million Germans were unemployed, we could say out of work in 1933.

Second question asked you to describe two methods used by Hitler to strengthen the German economy.

So there's a number of acceptable answers here.

You could have had creating jobs, creating building schemes, providing leisure activities and travel abroad.

A good answer is going to put these two methods into full sentences such as: one method used by Hitler to strengthen the German economy was creating more jobs to reduce unemployment.

Another method Hitler used was to provide leisure activities to encourage people to like their jobs, and work hard to make the nation stronger.

Third question is, Why did Stalin want to modernise the Soviet economy in the 1920s? so you could have put to compete with other countries and to help communism survive? Good answer could be that Stalin wanted to modernise the Soviet economy so it could compete with other European countries such as Britain and Germany.

He also believed communism would only survive in the Soviet Union if the economy was strengthened.

So you can see I've given a couple of examples there on the good answer four asked you to describe two methods used by Stalin to gain more control over the Soviet economy.

So you could have had, moving peasants onto larger farms or collective farms and removing the wealthier peasants.

Your good answer could put this into full sentences such as: one method Stalin used to gain more control over the Soviet economy was collectivization.

This was the process of forcing peasants to give up their land to join large farms that were controlled by the state.

Another method Stalin used was to remove the wealthier peasants as a class of people.

So you can see that the good answer use the key terminology of collectivization as well there.

And your challenge question today asked what were the differences between Hitler and Stalin's economic policy? So you could have had that, Hitler offered jobs and leisure activities whereas Stalin forced peasants onto collective farms. Now, good answer could be that, Hitler's economic policy differed from Stalin's as he was trying to reduce unemployment by creating jobs and encouraging people to work harder by offering incentives.

Stalin focused on improving Soviet agriculture and had to force peasants to give up their land and move on to collective farms, where peasants did not follow this policy, they were arrested or deported.

So you can see in that good answer you are focused on the difference between Hitler's policies of providing jobs, and Stalin's focus on the countryside and improving agriculture.

So, you may want to spend a few minutes now adding some extra details to your answers or ticking through your work.

If so, pause the video here and again, very well done for completing those questions.

We are now going to return to the inquiry and think about how people were controlled using these policies in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

So I would like you to answer the following question.

How did Hitler or Stalin use their economic policies to increase their control? And yeah, I'd like you to write a paragraph in response to this question.

So based on your own knowledge from today's lesson, choose either Hitler or Stalin to write about and explain how they used their economic policies to strengthen their control over people's lives.

For example, you could discuss how Hitler introduced schemes to reduce unemployment and to provide jobs.

And you could discuss how Stalin used force to create collective farms in the countryside.

On the left hand side of this table, I've provided some sentence starters that you can use.

These will help you structure your paragraph.

If you feel confident starting without these then that is great and you can continue to do so.

On the right hand side I've provided you with some examples of key words you may want to include in your response.

So the top half are words I recommend to use for Hitler's economic policies and the bottom are key words for Stalin's.

So you can now pause the video here and complete your paragraphs.

Okay, Welcome back, everybody, and very well done for completing that final task for today's lesson.

You have now completed today's lesson.

So thank you so much for your hard work today and extremely well done for completing those tasks.

I just like you to make sure you've now completing.

Go and complete the End of lesson quiz to check your understanding.

And I look forward to teaching you in your next lesson of this inquiry.

See you.