How Stalin Used the Four Techniques of a Dictator
             A dictatorship is a system of government where the power is centralized. There are four techniques dictators use to be successful; indoctrination, controlled participation, scapegoating and force. Using these four techniques, dictators can achieve their goals.
             The purpose of indoctrination is to create a like minded society that believes in the government's policies. When Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union, he used indoctrination in the area of religion. He strongly discouraged religion and closed down nearly 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 mosques. Church leaders were arrested and imprisoned. People who avoided getting arrested were forbidden to organize any religious activity in public. Stalin wanted everyone to believe in Atheism, so the Communist Party set up a League of Militant Atheists whose job it was to turn people away from their religious beliefs. They burnt religious icons, set up anti-religious museums and organized anti-religious propaganda campaigns. The League of Militant Atheists had over 5.5 million members, thus creating a lot of people who thought the same way about religion.
             Stalin also used indoctrination in the area of culture. All artists, writers, painters, composers, were kept on a strict watch by the Communist Party to make sure that they all supported the Party and the government. To be a writer in the Soviet Union, you had to join the Union of Soviet Writers. If you were a member of this organization, your writing had to follow a policy of 'socialist realism'. This meant that all writing including novels, filmscripts, poems, plays and journalism had to deal with the lives of ordinary working people and show the advancement of Communism. The same applied to all other creative artists. If you didn't conform, you would be sent to labor camps. Therefore, Soviet people were able to read only books that suppo...