Lesson video

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

Today's lesson is our forth and final lesson of our enquiry looking at how people were controlled in totalitarian states.

For today's lesson, please 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 today's title, which is propaganda and cults of personality.

So this lesson is the final lesson in our enquiry.

How are people controlled in totalitarian states? Now in totalitarian states, the leader or dictator has control over every aspect of people's lives.

And over the past few lessons, we have looked at multiple methods used by Hitler and Stalin to extend their control over people's lives in Germany and the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

We have already looked at the following methods of control, including developing a police state, economic policies and persecution.

And today we are going to look at something called the cult of personality.

To start our lesson today, I'd like you to look at this image and write down what you can see.

For example, who might the person in the image be? How did the people in the image look? Pause the video here and regime when you're ready.

Okay, well done everybody.

Hopefully you may have recognised that the man in this image is Stalin the leader of the Soviet Union with his hand on his chest.

You may also have noticed that he's surrounded by people in this image who look happy.

You might have noted that there are lots of shades of red in this poster.

red being the colour often associated with communism.

There are even red flags in the background.

Well done if you noted any of these things.

And now I'd like you think about how Stalin is presented in this image.

What words come to mind to describe how Stalin looks? Pause the video here, to think about this question and then resume when you're ready.

Okay welcome back.

So you may have noted the Stalin is presented as important in this image.

He takes up the majority of the space and is largest person present.

He also admits welcoming and approachable.

He is dressed quite plainly.

It almost looks as if he's smiling too.

It also looks like the people love and support him.

They are cheerful.

Some even have their hands in the air.

It is likely that this poster was created to present Stalin in this way.

Now at this poster is an example of propaganda.

And by this, I mean information which is often false, that is used to make people agree with something or think in certain way.

Stalin and the communist party used images like these to convince people, to support Stalin and to see him as a powerful and loved figure.

And we can say through many examples that this worked to a large extent.

This quote is from Pavel Titvinov A man who grew up in the Soviet Union during Stalin's dictatorship.

When he spoke of how he felt about Stalin when living in the Soviet Union, he said, "Stalin was like a God for us.

"We just believed he was an absolutely perfect individual, "and he lived somewhere in the Kremlin "a light ways in his window, "and he was thinking about us, about each of us.

"Somebody told me that Stalin was the best surgeon.

"He could perform a brain operation better than anyone else, "and I believed it." This quote shows us that many people living in the Soviet Union, viewed Stalin as a god-like figure.

That he was perfect and was always watching over his people.

Pavel was even to believe that Stalin was capable of any task of even being a surgeon, even though Stalin did not have these skills.

This is referred to a Stalin's cult of personality.

In today's lesson, we are going to look at how propaganda was used in Germany and the Soviet Union to convince people that Hitler and Stalin were these god-like, all powerful figures and how this gave them greater control over people's lives.

So the important definitions for today's lesson are as follows.

Firstly, cult of personality.

So this is created when the state uses propaganda to deliberately present a heroic and glorified image of a political leader.

And secondly propaganda.

This is information or ideas, which are often false that used to make people agree with something, or think in a certain way.

The use of propaganda, such as the poster we looked at at the start of today's lesson was the main method you used to create a cult personality in totalitarian regime.

So we need to think about the purpose of the cult of personality.

As we've already seen, totalitarian leaders had control of every aspect of people's lives.

So why would they need to create this image of themselves? Well firstly, the cult of personality was used to encourage the population to admire and support their leader.

And secondly, the cult of personality was used to give people confidence in their leader so that they supported their actions.

Now, this is different to the way leaders operate in democracies.

In a democracy, lots of people might support the leader because the majority of people have chosen them or voted for them.

This gives authority to the government so that they can make decisions.

However, in a totalitarian regime fear and persecution are needed to achieve authority.

Dictators have often seized power or use violent means to control their populations.

They therefore seek public support through the creation of a cult of personality to give people confidence in the leader and to support their actions.

To check your understanding of the lessons so far, I'm now going to ask you a couple of multiple choice questions.

Firstly, which of the following is the best definition of propaganda.

Pause the video, choose your answer from options A to D and resume when you're ready.

Okay the answer is A well done if you got that correct.

If you were unsure about this definition, you can now pause the video here to copy it down so you can refer back to it throughout the lesson.

The next question is, which is the best definition of cult of personality.

So again, pause the video to choose your answer and then resume once you're ready.

Okay welcome back.

So the answer is option B excellent work if you got that correct.

So a cult of personality is when a state uses propaganda to deliberately present a robotic and glorified image of a political leader.

Again if needed, you can pause the video here to copy down the definition, if you are unsure because you can refer back to this through about today's lesson.

Now as I said previously, propaganda was the main tool used to create a cult of personality.

And this included the following methods.

Firstly control of the arts.

This involve using and mass producing images of the leader and their achievements.

These were normally posters and portraits that presented the leader in a positive way, but this could also include films or songs which glorified the leader and their achievements and statues of the leader in public spaces.

It also involved the use of mass demonstrations or rallies to celebrate the leader.

These were used to unite the nation and to demonstrate the strength of the leader and the ruling party.

This was a method particularly used by Hitler.

And these would often include factions of people gathering in support of their leader.

Lastly, in some totalitarian regimes, history was rewritten to show the leader and the party in a positive light.

This often meant that events were rewritten in a non-factual way, and the leader was made to have him more important than they perhaps were.

This was a method utilised by Stalin in the Soviet Union and this included rewriting history textbooks and editing photos of the past.

We are now going to move on to look at some examples of propaganda deployed in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to create a cult of personality for Hitler and Stalin.

In the image on the left here, you can see hit that and an open top car using the Nazi salute when greeting that are marching by.

The use of Nazi flags is very prominent in this image.

In the image on the right, you can see a Soviet poster of Stalin above his army pointing forwards.

In the background you can see the air force.

Again the use of the Soviet flag is very prominent in this image.

Hopefully, you can see the similarities between these two posters.

What I'd like you to do now is pause the video here and think about how Hitler and Stalin are presented in these images.

You can perhaps think of a few words to describe how they are presented.

For example, you could say that they looked powerful standing above their armies.

Pause the video now and resume when you're ready.

Okay welcome back and well done.

Hopefully you came up with a few answers.

So some examples could be that the leaders look strong due to the large space they occupy in the posters.

You could say that they look determined.

Well, you might have said that they are presented as a leaders standing alongside the armies.

Hopefully from this, you can see that these posters were made to present Hitler and Stalin in a positive way to make them appear strong and somewhat heroic.

These spaces would be used to spread this message to ordinary citizens.

And now I'd like you can pause the video again, and think about this question on the left.

Why are these images likely to give people confidence in Hitler and Stalin.

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

Okay good work everyone.

Hopefully you may have thought that these are likely to give people confidence in Hitler and Stalin as the leaders look strong, confident, and ready to lead their armies.

They're also standing alongside their people, particularly Stalin who appears to be leading his army forward.

These images were made to give people confidence in their leader and in return allow the leader to have greater control over people's lives.

We're now going to look at a second set of propaganda images.

So on the left, you can see a picture of Hitler greeting children in 1940.

On the right you can see a poster of Stalin with a series of images in the background.

Children are marching in front of him and adults appear to be cheering him in the background.

Again there are references to the military with the guns and planes that are pictured.

Pause briefly here and think about how Hitler and Stalin are presented in these images.

And you can resume the video afterwards.

Okay welcome back.

So you may have felt that in both these images, Hitler and Stalin might be presented as cheerful.

For example, Hitler is smiling while greeting some of his citizens.

They also had it supported or even adored by the people that they are with.

Now, these images are likely to encourage people to support Hitler and Stalin and they're presented in a way which is more approachable or even in a father like way.

By seeing the support others may have for Hitler and Stalin in these images, it suggests that ordinary citizens, should also support them too.

So now you've seen some of the common features of propaganda used.

We're now going to focus on Hitlers cult of personality.

In Nazi Germany, Hitler was presented as a leader with absolute authority.

Meaning he had the power to enforce any policy and demand obedience from the nation.

However, he was also portrayed as a saviour and somebody who would strengthened the nation.

This allowed him to gain widespread support despite the cruel and unfair policies he often introduced.

To enforce this images of Hitler were portrayed everywhere in Germany.

In posters or portraits.

The swastika, the Nazi symbol was on every government uniform and public building.

Germans also had to greet each other by saying "Heil Hitler" and raising one arm and a salute.

This meant that Hitler and the Nazi party were constantly present in people's daily lives.

This enforced the strength of Hitler and the Nazi party and encouraged people to support them.

A feature of Hitler's cult of personality was mass rallies and demonstrations.

A mass rally was held each year at Nuremberg, a city in Germany to advertise the strength of Hitler and the Nazi party.

You can see an example of one held in 1934 on the right, which had up to 200,000 party supporters present.

These rallies created a sense of unity for the German people and increase their confidence in Hitler.

We are now going to focus on Stalin's cult of personality in the Soviet Union.

Now this differed from Stalin's as the methods used to present Stalin in a positive light were implemented more gradually at first.

At the start of Stalin's leadership, he needed to be viewed as modest and hardworking as he had struggled to become the leader in the 1920s.

To establish his control of the party Stalin had to show he was the rightful successor to Lenin the first Soviet leader.

Therefore in 1930s, propaganda was used to present Stalin as a close friend and advisor to Lenin in order to portray him as a successor.

This included adapting photographs, creating paintings to show the two together.

In the mid to late 1930s, Stalin began to introduce more extreme policies.

He had to be presented as a strong leader to reassure people during the disruption and chaos.

He was also presented as heroic and powerful during the second world war to encourage people to fight.

By the end of the war Stalin was presented as a god-like leader for leading the country to victory.

An interesting feature of Stalin's cult personality was the retelling of past events.

The state rewrites Soviet history, and manipulated the past present to present Stalin as the rightful and all powerful leader.

This included adding Stalin to pictures of Lenin to prove he was a legitimate leader and rewriting history books to change the way events were presented and to present Stalin is having a more significant role in past events than he actually did.

This recounting of the past and creating Stalin's enemies being removed from photos as seen in these series of images.

The top left picture is the original and it features alongside Antipov, Kirov and Shvernik three leading communists.

However, as you can see any of the three images each time one of these members of the party fell out of favour with Stalin.

He would have the image reproduced without them in it.

And old images of them would be destroyed.

This allowed Stalin to change the way people viewed history.

To make Stalin seem more important and to remove his opponent's existence.

Now you're going to find out more about how the cults of personality were created in Germany and the Soviet Union in today's reading.

In a minute also you'll be able to complete this to answer today's comprehension questions.

So I'll briefly talk you through them now.

So first question asks, what were the aims of creating a cult of personality? The second question asks what methods were used to create Hitler and Stalin's cult of personality? The third asks how was Hitler presented in propaganda in the 1930s? And forth asked why was Stalin often presented with Lenin in propaganda during the 1920s? Remember Lenin was the first Soviet leader.

And the challenge the question today is what impact did the Second World War have on Stalin's cult personality? So I'd like you to now pause the video, complete the reading and answer the questions at the end.

There is glossary to provide you some definitions of the keywords, if you need it.

And once you're finished, you can return to the video to check for your answers.

Welcome back everybody.

Brilliant work for completing those questions.

So we'll now go through these answers together.

Remember that my answers made it different to yours, which is absolutely fine.

You may want to pause the video after each question to check through your work or to make any changes.

So the first question was what were the aims of creating a cult of personality? So an acceptable answer could be for people to admire the leader and to support their actions.

A good answer will put these two aims into full sentences such as, one aim of creating a cult of personality in totalitarian states was to encourage the population to publicly admire and support their leader.

Another aim of the cult of personality was to give people confidence in their leader so that they supported government actions.

Question two asks what methods were used to create Hitler's and Stalin's cults of personality? So there's a few acceptable answers here, you could have had posters, paintings, rallies, history books.

Sculptures is also in there as well.

So a good answer would again put these into full sentences such as there were several methods used to Hitler's and Stalin's cults of personality.

This included the use of propaganda, such as posters, paintings, and history books to present the leader in a positive way.

How was Hitler presented in propaganda in the 1930s? So again a number of acceptable answers here.

You could have had that he was presented as a strong and powerful leader, a father like figure or a god-like figure.

Good answer could be that Hitler that was presented as a strong powerful leader in the 1930s.

He was also presented as a god-like figure who was capable of restoring Germany to greatness.

So in that good answer giving a couple of ways he was presented.

Four, why was Stalin often presented with Lenin in propaganda during the 1920s? So you could have had to present him as Lenin's successor or as a legitimate ruler.

A good answer could be that Stalin was often presented with Lenin and propaganda during the 1920s, as he needed to be viewed as the rightful successor to Lenin.

Therefore he was often portrayed in posters and paintings with Lenin to suggest that they were close friends.

And your challenge question was, what impact did the Second World War have on Stalin's cult of personality? So an acceptable answer could be that it made it stronger.

A good answer could be that the Soviet victory in the Second World War strengthened Stalin's cult of personality as he was now presented as the god-like saviour of the Soviet Union.

So he was presented this way because the Soviet Union had been victorious in the Second World War.

So you may want to spend a few minutes now adding some extra detail to your answers, and if so pause the video here and again very well done for completing those questions.

So for the final task of today's lesson, I'd like you to look at the similarities and differences between Hitler and Stalin's cults of personality.

Firstly, I'd like you to use your knowledge from today's lesson to complete the table here, by writing down some examples of similarities on the left and some differences on the right.

For example, for one similarity between the two cults of personality, I have written that Hitler and Stalin were portrayed as father like figures because this happened in both Hitler's and Stalin's cults personality.

On the differences column, I've written that propaganda presenting Stalin and positively was introduced gradually.

Whereas this was not the case for Hitler.

So I'd like you to see if you can maybe get three similarities and three differences at least to complete your table.

And then following this to challenge yourself after completing this task, I'd like you to write a paragraph, summarising the similarities between Hitler and Stalin's cults of personality.

For this task I have given you two sentences starters at the bottom of this slide to help you structure your response.

So you can now go ahead and pause the video and complete these tasks.

Okay welcome back everybody and very welcome for completing your tables and paragraphs today.

You have now completed this lesson and this inquiry on totalitarian states, you should not be able to explain how people were controlled in totalitarian states using examples from the last four lessons.

Thank you so much for your hard work today, and every last few lessons you've worked extremely hard.

Please now complete the end of lesson quiz to check your understanding and I look forward to teaching you in a new enquiry scene.