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 three fewer teaching days than I used to have, I had to leave out a few things, and I may have to skip 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 watched "Harvest of Despair" and it was a very disturbing video. I cannot see how anyone would let people starve when the Soviet Union has silos full of grain. Most of the time the grain would just rot and they would have to throw it away. I already knew that Soviet Communism had to do with the spread of Marxism and with the Bolsheviks. However, I did not know how bad Stalin actually was. No one ever hears about all of the starvation that happened in Ukraine. I could not believe my ears when I heard how many people had died under Stalin's reign. It was very disturbing. I think those who supported the flavor of totalitarianism: communism are absolutely insane. The people that supported this movement killed innocent people. They wanted to create a movement that had no money, no classes, no state social order, and etc. They basically wanted to run their country and people into the ground for power. I believe that communism survived longer and did more damage because Stalin was a very evil man, but he was an effective leader. The Bolsheviks also were also in charge with Stalin because they worked for him. They were the Communist Party. Communists eliminated any threat of nationalists who might get the idea to form together and try to seek their independence. Communism survived longer because there was no one to stop the movement. Stalin either killed them or shipped them off. People could not fight the movement.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel what happened in the Ukraine was wrong and disturbing. How could anyone keep nourishment from another human?! That's just unbelievable! If I were to do something like this, I would be ashamed of myself. I knew things like this happen everyday, but I didn't know to what extent -- 10 million people died, 3 million of them were children! I agree with Danica on those who supported the moving being insane. I just don't understand why anyone would want to watch another person suffer in any form! I would not let others fall to gain more power for myself. I don't like being in control. I would rather help them get back on their feet before I gained power over anything. I think communism survived as long as it did because Stalin and Lenin sort of worked hand-in-hand with each other, taking over the nation. Russian culture was not taught in the schools, making it hard for anyone to communicate as we do day.
ReplyDeleteI watched this movie on the "Harvest of Despair" and was shocked at what I saw. Before learning about this in class and this movie I never realized the harshness of Stalin and the Soviet Union. It is strange how you dont hear more about this act of genocide. with 10 million killed and 3 million of them being children; you would think that this would be more known knowledge and take away the image of stalin as a hero even if he did fight for the allies. With the death of all these Ukraniansas a cost for grain to Stalin how could he just do this to them and be so selfish to these people. Also if they didnt go along with the 5 year plan then you were considered against the state and killed or hauled of to prison camps which were basically just like the concentration camps from WW2. Also how they now can deny that there was famine when clearly thats what happened and it was from their own hands. As they say money is the root of all evil and Stalin was selfish and couldnt get enough of it thus making him evil especially by killing at least 20 million total throughout his life.
ReplyDeleteWatching this movie was both eye opening and rather depressing. It is unbelievable to hear some of the stories on Harvest of Despair. How could someone possibly make another human being walk knee deep through melting snow without clothing? I also was not aware that they did not only take the grain the people were producing; they also took the food out of their cellars and pantries. I do not see how anybody could support leaders that would intentionally starve 10 million people. It is amazing that they managed to keep this famine from the rest of the world. Stalin was a horrible person and I don't understand why a lot of people perceive Hitler as being the greater killer.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Wipf-
ReplyDeleteAfter watching "Harvest of Despair" helped me understand what was going on at that time. If you don't have a lot of history under your belt than it's a lot to take in and understand what's really going on. I guess learning about this time in history, my emotions run a lot deeper than in high school. How could the Soviet Union starve their own people, with the food they produced! Most of the time the food rotted. Stalin was an evil man he was responsible for killing numerous innocent people. It goes to show how destructive one individual can be when it comes to power. To say your own people are going against you and your state if they do not follow this 5 year plan. Also to hear their stories first hand made was disturbing and heart aching. No true human being could sit by and let this happen to his people or not. But I guess if it wasn't for these type of people there wouldn't be no such thing is history.
Kayla Perrion -
ReplyDeleteBefore watching the videos on the Harvest of Despair, I had no idea of how horrible the actions of Stalin and his government had been. My mom and I sat down and watched it this weekend, and even she didn't know of the terrible things that happened to the Ukrainians at this time during history. It brought tears to my eyes seeing the awful pictures of little children and their families dying of starvation. I don't understand how a person could do this to the people he governed, it is quite sickening. It really put things in perspective for me when they had interviews of people telling of their personal accounts through this time of terror in their lives. I couldn't believe the things that had gone on. 17 people dying every minute at one point in time. There were so many that corpses had to be picked up and taken away. Horses were fed and watered at night so people wouldn't steel there food/water. When asked why they cared more about the horses than their own people, the reply was that the horses were needed to haul sleighs that would carry the corpses away. They would go door to door asking if "they had any", meaning family members whom had died and needed to be taken away. It is rumored that people sometimes had even resorted to cannibalism. People would line up by the thousands just to buy bread at the store, one record was nearly 7,000 people lined up in the hopes of getting some bread to keep them and their family alive for the next couple months. Their grain was taken away and was put into bins, or sometimes just stored on the ground. However, the people were not allowed to take any of this, the worst part of it was that the officials just let some of it get rotten, not even caring that any one of these starving people would have gladly used it. The thing that was most appalling to me is that when certain political figures would come to visit, they would put on a show. There was a huge cover up and people didn't even know this tragedy was going on. It is a horrible event in history, and I do think that Stalin treated his people way worse than Hitler ever had.
It is almost embarrassing to admit but just about everything I saw in the DVD Harvest of Despair was new to me. It was also very distressing and disturbing. Stalin was well on his way to eliminating an entire race of people for nothing more than control and greed. He effectively isolated the people in the Ukraine then systematically enforced laws that would create such horrible conditions, millions of people would die of starvation in a fairly short period of time. Many that tried to fight the absurd laws were brutally killed. As Stalin worked his dirty deeds on the Ukraine, he saw himself as successful in keeping his evil acts in the closet. He controlled the media and promoted propaganda that completely concealed the horror and death that was happening. There were even visits to the Ukraine to determine if rumors of famine were true or not and what the outsiders saw was exactly what Stalin wanted them to see…a land of farmers working happily along to support him and this image was a big, fat lie. What I learned about Soviet Communism is a bit on the cynical side. The more I learn, the more I am convinced that when it comes to communism or democracy or just a government in general, neither one is any better than the other. Too many of the same kinds of horrors inflicted on the Ukrainians were enforced in this country all in the name of democracy…starvation, brutality, genocide and effective cover up of the crimes against humanity are all horrors the U.S. was founded on. One of the negative results in this country is the 3rd world areas known as Indian reservations. History has shown me that progress for some is ultimately destruction for others. Whether it is Soviet Communism or democracy, a whole race of people suffered unmentionable brutality at the hands of the oppressor and it has been that way it seems since the recording of time. So it makes me as myself, is it the form of government that is evil or just the fact that mankind is implementing it and man is inherently evil?
ReplyDeleteSamantha Sabers
Watching this movie really opened my eyes to the horrible events that occurred during Stalin's reign. I honestly had no idea about this genocide until it was mentioned in class and until I watched this film. It really amazes me how this is so unknown around the world when more people died in this genocide than the famous Holocaust. It astounded me how people could watch others starve to death when the country had more than enough food to spare. It just did not make ant sense. The torture the people endured is inhumane and more people should be educated about this awful occurrence.
ReplyDeleteRiley Nooner- after watching all the parts of "Harvest of despair" it was shocking that people would let their own government kill hundreds of people that love their nation. From hundreds of deaths, they assumed they were getting food to help their families, but ended up starving to death anyways. it is sad and tragic no one did anything about it. i feel that each nation should be kept a close look at it and how their people are treated. The title of genocide should be changed and when it looks like it or close to it, other nations should intervene. History like this should be explained more and more taught in schools at a younger age, since the world is still growing and history is still in the making, its only time before someone makes the same mistake in history.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching "Harvest of Despair" helped me understand what was going on at that time. If you don't have a lot of history under your belt than it's a lot to take in and understand what's really going on. I guess learning about this time in history; my emotions run a lot deeper than in high school. This is where Self-concept tries to chip in to deal with the total individual as an organized whole. Behavioral is believed to be a function of individual’s perceptions of events and the frames of reference of harvest of despair must be internal rather than external. Manipulation of external stimuli defined in the video would tend to overlook the fact that the subjects respond in terms of own individual perceptions and that at subjects structuring of environment may be different from that of other person how could the Soviet Union starve their own people, with the food they produced! Most of the time food rotted. Stalin was an evil man he was responsible for killing numerous innocent people. It goes to show how destructive one individual can be when it comes to power. To say your own people are going against you and your state if they do not follow this 5 year plan. Also to hear their stories first hand made was disturbing and heart aching. No true human being could sit by and let this happen to his people or not. But I guess if it wasn't for these type of people there wouldn't be no such thing is history. Europeans used the human urge to grow, develop and reach maximum potential. Actualizing is present from birth onwards according to the video and is not concerned with achievement in a narrow sense but has a broader meaning and describes holistic of all aspects of a person including the spiritual, emotional, physical and creative dimensions.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching “Harvest of Despair” really allowed me to compare what we talked about in class. It is shocking to actually see what was actually taking place; hearing about is one thing but there are way more emotions involved while watching it. Stalin was a nasty man. People were walking through snow with no clothing on for miles. There were people endless lines lined up outside stores trying to get bread to feed their families. Stalin not only took all the grain but took food that was already in peoples cellars. He ended up killing millions by starvation producing famine across the country. It is ridiculous how people were able to stand behind the government while these terrible things were happening, but then again they probably had no other choice and were scared themselves what would happen if they didn't. This doesn't make it okay by any means. Stalin was a horrible man and went against all humane ways in order to be in power.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching part of this video last year in my English class before we read the book "Animal Farm." our teacher wanted us to watch it because some of the certain characters represented Stalin and his followers. We only watched a small part of it and I didn't really quite grasp that it was such a terrible time for the soviet union. I knew that Stalin was a communist but I had no idea to what extent. Our teachers always emphasized how terrible Hitler was but never really touched on Stalin, even in my history classes. In some ways this movie showed me that Stalin was probably a worse leader than Hitler was. At least Hitler had the mind set that he was going to be helping his society, helping his people get jobs. I know that Hitlers original plan was just to push the Jews out of Germany but then Hitler kept gaining more land so he ended up killing them because they didn't really have anywhere else to go (this being said in a somewhat humane way). Stalin, however, had the intention of staving his own people. There was no uprooting them he just barricaded them in, starved them, and let them die. And what's worse is that people let him. I know that people let Hitler kill Jews too but this seems different. I feel really disgusted that we never even went over any of this in my history class because I feel like this was kind of a big deal and maybe we should have known about it.
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