1. Context: Stalin & The nkvd
By Urvashi, Ambreen & Esthér

2. 'Dictatorships ultimately instigate psychological subservience through terror in order to flourish'
Explore this statement using both 'The Handmaid's Tale' and '1984', keeping contextual influences at the time in mind.
Class to discuss

3. Let's all Be reminded who Stalin is
Here, read the few points on Stalin's life & who he was etc
Talk about the major purges he was involved in – his increase in terror
His paranoia & then read a Stalin Joke to tie it off

4. Stalin… Use of colour red
'Heavy black moustache' masculinity, power – link to 1984
Military suit (shows terror side)
Propaganda, cult personality
Gigantism, huge statue of Stalin, Volga don canal littered with statues of stalin
Note how short Stalin actually is

5. Main medium of terror: NKVD (SECRET police)
Originally established around the October Revolution under the name of 'cheka' before being renamed as the nkvd in the latter.
They were based in the Lubyanka building which is where those who were arrested were taken, torture and executions were also carried out here.
During Stalin's time, there were two leaders, first Yagoda and then Yezhov.
Talk about how sick the leaders were
Torture methods like the hand glove and the rat in a bucket
Relates to Winston & his fear of rats

6. Purges under Stalin
Stalin was unbelievably paranoid, many people recognised this.
Once Stalin came into the power, he changed up the secret police and they became much more bureaucratic rather than dealing with the dissent from outside of the party.
Stalin recklessly purged party members.
He told party leaders to submit quotas of people to be arrested essentially and if it wasn't enough, he told the party leaders to submit their names as well
Put in some figures about the reform to the politburo.
Talk about the murder of Kirov and how he made links and incriminated people more & more.
Talk about Child 44 & how there was malice that caused the main character to be denounced.
Staged show trials – this has a LINK TO HOW THEY MADE PEOPLE TALK IN FRONT OF PEOPLE & CONFESS IN 1984.

7. 'Who controls the past controls the present…'
Censorship of images
Once people fell from power, their images, any traces of them removed, like with Trotsky and also Yezhov.
This certainly relates to winston and his role in the ministry of truth or 'minitru'.
'Who controls the past controls the present…'
Talk about Winston and how he replaces people 'unperson' & usually they end up being dead

8. One day, Stalin could not find his pipe, he had lost it so he made a call to the NKVD and told them 'I cannot find my pipe. Would you help me to locate it?' And they told Stalin 'Yeah sure'. But the following day, when Stalin was looking for it himself, he found it in his cupboard so he called the nkvd and told them not to bother, he had found it but they said 'but we've already arrested ten people for the theft of your pipe' and Stalin replied with 'let them go' But they couldn't because 'the 10 had all confessed to stealing the pipe' (Ba-dum tssshhhh)
Note how they were notorious in prying confessions out of people through torture and practically incriminating the people.
This often lead to others being caught out and denounced despite how they might've been innocent.
Link to 1984: O'Brien relates to Yezhov in terms of him torturing Winston then even how he gives Winston the book, he's all set up.

9. 'Yezhovshchina' or the Purges of the 1930s
Nikolai Yezhov otherwise known as the 'bloody dwarf'
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin.
He was head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, during the most deadly period of Stalin's Great Purge.
Note how he delighted in torture & acc found himself coming meetings with blood on his sleeves from previous people he had tortured hence the name 'bloody dwarf'

10. Plenary: taboo!
STALIN
Afterwards ask the class to put forward some links to 1984 and the Handmaid's tale that they found from the presentation & write the points on the board as a mind map
TBC

11. O’bRIEN

12. yezhovshchina

13. JOSEPH

14. trotsky

15. Questions?