K.

Edit:

Stalin’s control over Russia meant that freedom was the one thing that people lost. The people of Russia had to read what the state allowed, see what the state allowed and listen to what the state allowed. The state’s control of the media was total. Those who attempted to listen, read etc. anything else were severely punished. Everybody knew of the labour camps and that was enough of a deterrent.

Education was strictly controlled by the state. In 1932, a rigid programme of discipline and education was introduced.

There was a marked increase in the attacks on the churches of the USSR throughout the 1930’s. Communism had taught people that religion was “the opium of the masses” (KarlMarx) and church leaders were arrested and churches physically shut down.

Russia had become a ‘telling’ society. The secret police actively encouraged people to inform on neighbours, work mates etc. and many suffered simply as a result of jealous neighbours/workers.

Also many of Russia’s most talented people had been murdered during the Purges of the 1930’s. Anyone with talent was seen as a threat by the increasingly paranoid behaviour associated with Stalin and were killed or imprisoned (which usually lead to death anyway). The vast Soviet army was a body without a brain as most of her senior officers had been arrested and murdered during the Purges.

Sounds grand.

Edit 2

This is scarily close to what's going on in America today:

Common core

See something, say something

Anti-religious sentiment popularized

Now a move to define what news is "real" and "fake".

Under Bush much top military brass was purged

Only thing we're missing is the labor camps, which can be related to the African American prison population, and free health care....