Communism is one of the three "flavors" of totalitarianism we will be talking about this month. It is the most widespread and, in a certain sense, most successful flavor of totalitarianism--and probably the most important for you to understand.Normally, I show in class a video called Harvest of Despair. With fewer teaching days than normal, I've had to leave out a few things, and I'm skipping the video this semester. It would be great if you could watch the video online. Unfortunately, the sound quality of the YouTube version is pretty poor. The best YouTube version is in six parts:
Harvest of Despair, Part I
Harvest of Despair, Part II
Harvest of Despair, Part III
Harvest of Despair, Part IV
Harvest of Despair, Part V
Harvest of Despair, Part VI
There is a better quality DVD version in the NSU library. A group of you might want to check the DVD out and watch it together. I'll give you extra credit for your response to the prompt here:
What did the Harvest of Despair video teach you about Soviet Communism that you didn't know before? What insights did you gain on the motivations and methods of those who supported the movement? Did anything here help you understand why this particular flavor of totalitarianism survived longer (and did more damage) than other totalitarian systems?
I remember discussing that it took place greatly in Ukraine, but I guess I didn't realize how many (7,000,000) people were essentially killed, and even more, that three million were children. I thought it was interesting that Russia claimed that everything was fine even though they noted that Germany was under famine. Along with this, I was surprised that so many British soldiers reported back that everything was alright in Russia. I think that all the lying and hiding of how big of a deal this "harvest of despair" was was truly the reason this system lasted longer than other totalitarian systems.
ReplyDelete-Alexis Ward
I can't believe at what had happened during that time period. I have got to say that the Germans and the Russians were doing some messed up things during the world wars. Today's society should definitely watch these six parts of these videos and we really should not take life for granted. It really was a "harvest of despair" for these people.
ReplyDelete-Tyler Smith
The "Harvest of Despair" video stated that this was the forgotten Holocaust. millions of people died from starvation and none of it was caused by war or natural disaster but by cruel decree. I found it crazy that little was known about the terrible things that were happening to these people and that the government did nothing to stop it. I feel as though this totalitarianism system lasted longer than any other because it was kept silent and no one knew what was happening. If it was known that all those people were dying it probably would have been stopped.
ReplyDelete- Melayna Waisanen
I had to take a break while watching this film. The further I got into the film the more I felt the need to puke. Part 1 said that 3million children in the Ukraine died of starvation. Watching this film actually made me question if Stalin was worse than Hitler. Something I learned about Soviet Communism that I hadn't know before was the brutality. I knew that the Soviet Union was terrible and I had heard about the terrible things done by Stalin, but I could never comprehend them until now. The use of "pravda" is absolutely amazing to me. In part 4 of the film a woman talks about reading a headline about how Russia is doing great and then she takes pictures outside of the corpses. Little children are quoted as " walking over dead bodies".
ReplyDeleteThe only motivation I could see was from fear. The fear that the people of the Ukraine would rise against Russia because they had their own language, arts, culture and their own Orthodox faith. In a totalitarian society, people having different cultures, beliefs and even languages can destroy the regime even if those people support it because there is not a solid identity to unite them.
From what I have seen from this video and from other studies I have done on communism, this type of totalitarianism survives because no one can fight it. Not even members of the system. In the video, a Soviet General talks about seeing his own father begin to swell from the affects of starvation. Also, the use of propaganda prevents the outside world or the people inside from seeing the true damage that is being done. The world had no idea about these poor people because it was too busy fighting Hitler. What is more, even if the world did know, they wouldn't have intervened because Stalin was necessary to defeat Hitler. We couldn't have swayed him anyways. He murdered his first wife and let his own son die in a Nazi POW camp.
Starting with the first section of the video made me sad and angry that Stalin thought treating his people like this was right. By killing seven million people by not feeding them, or putting them in prison, or just killing these innocent people. Stalin put people in concentration camps, just like Hitler did. And to this day everyone knows what the Holocaust is but I doubt they know how bad Stalin treated these people during his communism fight. The second part of the video he starts taking down churches, destroying them and hurting the people inside. I think this problem in the Ukraine kept going on because people had so much fear they would die if they spoke out. Thats exactly where their motivation came from, fear.
ReplyDeleteIts crazy to think about how Ukraine was suffocated from the world by Stalin and the Soviet Union. I thought everything Hitler did during his reign of terror was awful and was complete senseless violence. Now that I realize how bad Stalin was as a leader/dictator, I think he might be worse than Hitler in some aspects. Just knowing that during the "Harvest of Despair" killed more than 10 million people, 3 million of them children is just crazy to see. The second segments of this film was very shocking to watch how Stalin starting taking down churches and trying to destroy religions so he could unite his people in his communism. I believe that the sole reason for this totalitarian system lasting longer than any of the other ones were because during this time the world was more worried about Hitler and what he was doing. I couldn't even imagine the suffering until really watching this clips and realizing the true agony of these people.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Dietz