Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein's Recipe for Dictatorship

Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein's Recipe for Dictatorship

1. PROPAGANDA

   • Propaganda was a major tool used by Joseph Stalin to maintain control. Many posters of him smiling and reading with small children were posted in public places such as town squares, bus stops and classrooms. This gave the Soviet people the illusion that everyone was happy under Stalin's rule. Posters with slogans like, "Long Live the Red Army," "Under the Great Stalin's Leadership," and "We stand for peace!" Many of these kind of posters encouraged young men to join the army. Stalin and the Bolsheviks got Soviet writers to write books that supported communism and Stalin in order to keep the people from dissenting him.
   • Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath Party arranged for thousands of his portraits, posters, and statues to be placed in Iraq, causing the Iraqi people to worship him as if he were a God. As the people viewed him as a God or idol, they tried to please him by doing as he said. they published many illegitimate stories about the United States of America and all the glorious things that Saddam Hussein is doing for the country. Examples of messages distributed by the Party were: “American soldiers are afraid of the well trained Iraqi Army who is well trained thanks to their 10 year war with Iran.” and “American soldiers will break and run once they face the might of the Iraqi Army.”
   • Liberalism stresses the importance of individual rights and freedoms. However, the technique of Propaganda used by Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin prohibited people from thinking for themselves and having/expressing opinions. This technique rejects values of liberalism because it takes away people's rights and freedoms to express their thoughts, opinions or beliefs. If they did express and dissent towards the said leaders, they were brutally tortured and/or killed.

2. YOUTH GROUPS

   • Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Pary had an elite youth movement. Children were enrolled at the age of five. There were five levels of membership which continued into their late teen years. The failure of a child to participate actively in the organization was dangerous for his or her parents. They were beaten and interrogated to find out why their child has not been part of the youth group. The parents also had to be careful about what they say at home, because the children in the youth groups were trained to inform their directors about everything they hear outside. This included snitching on one's own parents. Parents were yet again brutally tortured if the Youth Group directors got a complaint from their child. Many of the children in these groups were orphans that were adopted from the streets and raised to be fanatically loyal to Saddam Hussein. These kids went on to become part of the military.
   • Stalin made it mandatory for youth to join organizations. These organizations were divided by age groups: Octobrists for 8 - 10 year olds, Pioneers for 10 - 16 year olds and Komsomol for 16 - 23 year olds. The children were extensively taught how to be good socialists/communists. These organizations placed importance on outdoor living and loyalty to Stalin. Strong hatred of Kulaks and all of Hitler's enemies was slowly instilled into the minds of the children. After the Komsomol, men were often sent to join the military. Kids in these groups were expected to expose any suspicious behavior or dissenters.
   • The technique of Youth Groups rejected values of liberalism. This is due to the fact that children, even at a very young age were forced to join organizations. There they were taught things that didn't necessarily interest them. Their individual rights and freedoms and self-interest are compromised. This is because they are not allowed to leave the organization or do what they want with their time.

3. FORCE AND TERROR

   • Stalin used the Force and Terror technique very well. This is due to his involvement in "The Great Purge," which took about a many peoples' lives including famous politicians, officials and civilians. His goals during that time were to get rid of any current or potential rivals to himself or The Soviet Union. And to also instill abundant amounts of fear in everyone so they would be obedient to him. Many of Stalin's political enemies were killed. Between 1937 and 1939, around 500 000 people were killed and about 3-10 million were sent to concentration camps. Also, Stalin and his Party forced the Gulag camp slaves to work on building sites. They were not paid but anyone who spoke against was brutally killed. So others followed suit and contributed to much of the infrastructure found in Russia today.
   • Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athist Party were very violent and militaristic; they committed thousands of murders and caused plentiful harm to many civilians and officials. Any form of dissent was not allowed; people would be tortured and killed; because of this, no one spoke out against Saddam Hussein or the Ba'athist Party. This fear was enforced by a secret police force that would capture anyone who spoke out against Hussein or the Party. Due to this, people were scared to object or oppose him as they would be subject to immense harm. In the image below, a young Iraqi man is getting arrested for saying unfavorable things about Saddam Hussein during a rally.
   • Liberalism calls for the importance of individual liberties, rights and freedoms. But the technique of fear and terror dictatorship completely took away all forms of rights and freedoms from the people. They were not allowed to speak out against the leader. They were to act one way and one way only. Period.

4. ELIMINATING OPPOSITION

   • For twenty four years (from 1979 – 2003), Saddam Hussein has successfully managed to rule Iraq as a single-party dictatorship. His party was the Ba’athist Party. All forms of political expression against the Ba’athist Party were restricted by the Iraqi Constitution. Elections were sometimes held in Iraq during this period of time, but they were basically just “mock” elections. This means that Saddam Hussein was the only candidate on the ballots. No actual free and fair elections were held in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s rule. Many of the commanders who survived Iraq’s war with Iran were methodically murdered to eliminate them as a potential political threat to his rule. Hussein has surrounded himself with a strong cabinet that supports his every move.
   • Stalin eliminated all political and social opposition in the 1930s by conducting the Great Purge. During this event, the Soviet Secret Police either killed or sent millions of people to concentration camps. Many of Stalin’s political enemies were murdered under the suspicion of being a threat to his rule. Stalin made Leon Trotsky look like an untrustworthy person and eventually got him killed.In 1929, Stalin announced the "Liquidation of the Kulaks as a Class." With the help of his Party and his secret police, Stalin broke the Kulaks' resistance, eliminated them as a class and collectivized 99% of their land by 1939.
   • Liberalism stresses the importance of human rationality. However, the technique of Eliminating Opposition takes away people’s individual rights and freedoms and rule of law. Innocent people were arrested/killed for simply opposing the leader. Other aspiring politicians also had their right to competition taken away from them due to this technique. No one was allowed to oppose the leaders.

5. CENSORING THE MEDIA

   • Censorship was probably Stalin's greatest weapon in keeping order, and making the people blind to the harsh realities of the gulags and his brutality. The people of Russia had to read what the state allowed, see what the state allowed and listen to what the state allowed. Stalin ordered that a new book called "A Short History of the USSR" to be used in all classrooms. Everything American was banned under his rule, like jazz music and Hollywood movies. Stalin and his party forced reporters to write that baseball, electric lightbulbs, telephones, televisions and submarines have all been invented in the Soviet Union. This was to show the people how great the USSR is; so they'd become more proud to be a part of their nation.
   • In Iraq, all broadcast facilities, television and radio, are owned and operated by the Broadcasting and Television Organization of the Government. The print media within Iraq is also largely owned and operated by the government. Al-Thawrah, the largest daily newspaper is published by the Ba’athist Party. Al-Jumhuriyah, another popular daily newspaper in Arabic, and the Baghdad Observer, a daily newspaper which is printed in English, are both published by the Ministry of Culture and Information. The Ministry of Defense publishes their own Arabic daily newspaper called Al-Oadisiyah while other ministries and agencies of the government sponsor some twelve weekly newspapers and magazines published in Iraq. So basically, almost every aspect of media is owned or operated by the watchful eyes of the Iraqi Government.
   • Liberalism is an ideology that supports people’s self-interests and their freedom of choice. Nonetheless, this particular technique of dictatorship forces people to give up their interests and freedom of choice. They have to do what they're allowed to do but not what they want to do.

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