Stalin's Totalitarianism
One of Stalin's goals for Russia was to reach a state of continual revolution, i.e. perpetual improvement: this could only be accomplished if the society was completely reformed. He aimed to create a new breed of people – true socialists – who would obey him completely and work always for the state.

This plan would involve a certain degree of "brainwashing" by introducing state-glorifying propaganda and controlling the public media outlets. The idea was to make people want to work for the state. Failing that, dissenters needed to be removed from the picture. The usual process of removal was execution; banishment to Siberia was also not uncommon. Finally, everything had to be owned by the state: Stalin believed that the abolishment of private property would create a new kind of human personality.

A major feature of Stalin's totalitarianism was unrestrained police and secret service powers. The policy adopted by the police was known as terrorism, in the sense that they would use "terror" (the threat of physical harm, banishment, or death) in order to coerce dissenters to obeying state orders. No-one – save Stalin himself – was safe from suspicion. Oftentimes people were arrested for expressing state-negative opinions; other times, innocents were victimized for no apparent reason. The arbitrariness of the terror system was, perhaps, its most frightening feature.

Censorship of the Arts
Totalitarianism places an emphasis on the use of both psychological and physical tactics to control the populace. In addition to controlling the general media, the arts (including the fine arts, music, literature, etc.) must be censored in order to establish and maintain a state-friendly attitude in all citizens.

Stalin insisted a policy of "socialist realism" in all artwork in his regime. The term refers to art that depicts a positive hero reaching a positive conclusion – all to the backdrop of red flags. Painters were expected to produce bright, colourful paintings depicting real-looking people in happy situations. The intended effect was to draw attention away from the suffering that the citizen was forced to endure in his struggle to survive.

In music, subjectivism was to be avoided, national character was to be developed in all works, and only well-known musical forms could be used. In short: all music must glorify the state. There is no allowance for experimentation. Avant-garde was grounds for execution. "Formalism," a term that was, in Stalinist Russia, basically synonymous with "elitism," was also to be abolished. Works of art were meant to be accessible to all citizens.

The result of totalitarian censorship was a stifling of creativity and artistic expression.