What impact did Stalin have on young people and the arts? Alexis Bolden, Rosalyn Jackson, Ashley Dawkins, and Demarcus Oglesby

Komsomol ●The Komosomol was the youth organization of the Communist Party ●Originally started under Lenin, it became a formal body for young people in 1926 ●The Komosol was primarily a political tactic for spreading communist teaching and preparing future members of the Communist Party ●The purpose of the Komosol was to engage in health services and sports, education. publishing activities and various service and industrial projects ●Result: Members were supportive of five-year plans

Transformation ●The most important aspect of the transformation was the propagation of the ‘cult of Stalin’, the implementation of the Terror, and changes to the role of women and the family, literature and the arts, education, religion and the nationalities. ●Using the party’s control over the media, Stalin was presented as the ‘Supreme Genius of Humanity’ – the true successor to Lenin. His face now began to appear everywhere – in photographs and paintings, on the sides of houses and buildings. Cities and towns were named in his honour. Children were taught to give thanks to him for their happy lives.

Stalin’s Influence ●Stalin also arranged for history to be rewritten to emphasize his own role in the Revolution and the Civil War. According to this new version, it was he who organized the Bolshevik takeover in 1917, and who devised the strategy to defeat the White army. It came to define what new party members knew about Russian history. ●Managers, doctors, scientists, artists, workers – all were subjected to the dead hand of Stalin’s secret police ●Failing to comply led to death ●Reportedly 18 million people were killed in Russia in the 1930s ●Stalin’s aim was to intimidate the population into total submission, and in this he was very successful. Fear terminated every level of society, and trust all but disappeared. People were left with little choice but to accept Stalin’s claims that a giant conspiracy was taking place against himself and the Revolution – particularly since so many senior Communists were confessing to this. As such, many people did not blame Stalin for the Terror. In fact, most supported him, and believed that the ‘traitors’, ‘spies’ and ‘saboteurs’ deserved to die

Stalin the Terrible Not only did media play a huge role in whom Stalin controlled and killed, but it was also one of the things he changed the most and used to his advantage. He molded the Soviet Union members of society to best fit his perfect image and ensured they would have no say in their own daily life.

His Lasting Effect Churches were closed, destroyed or converted into museums. The Godless League, which was responsible for this campaign, organised activities to demonstrate the non- existence of god (such as flying people above the clouds to show there was no god there). At its peak in 1932, the League had five million members. Stalin changed the culture of Russia to conform the society to his liking.