Soviet Union · 1928-1939

Stalin's Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin set out to turn the Soviet Union into an industrial power in ten years. New steel towns rose in the Urals, while peasants were forced onto collective farms and millions died in famine and terror. Students weigh progress against its human cost.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1938
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Joseph Stalin set out to turn the Soviet Union into an industrial power in ten years. New steel towns rose in the Urals, while peasants were forced onto collective farms and millions died in famine and terror. Students weigh progress against its human cost.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain what the Five-Year Plans and collectivization were meant to achieve.
  • Locate new industrial centers such as Magnitogorsk and the Dnieper dam.
  • Describe the human cost of Stalin's rule, including the famine of 1932-1933 and the Great Terror.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1938

A giant country

Open the map in 1938 and zoom out over the USSR. Find Moscow in the west and the Ural Mountains. Why would Stalin build new factories east of the Urals, far from the borders?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1938

Steel in the Urals

Zoom in on the southern Urals and find Magnitogorsk. Ask the atlas: "Why was Magnitogorsk built?" Who do you think did the hard work?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1938

Ukraine's farms

Travel to Ukraine, between Kyiv and the Black Sea. This was the richest farmland of the Soviet Union. Ask the atlas: "What was the Holodomor?"

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Stalin wanted to catch up with the West in ten years. Why was he in such a hurry?
  2. Peasants had to give up their land and animals to collective farms. Why did many resist?
  3. In 1932-1933 a famine killed millions of people, most of them in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Why did the state keep taking grain from the villages?
  4. Soviet posters showed happy workers building a new world. How can we tell propaganda from reality?
  5. Should Stalin be remembered for industrializing the country or for the millions who suffered? Can you do both?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Peter the Great, who also forced Russia to modernize at great human cost. Then compare: how were Stalin's methods in the 1930s different, and what did ordinary people pay?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.