Joseph Stalin’s Political Rise and Fall

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Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia in 1878 to a family of peasants. While his father was self-employed as a shoemaker, his mother took in laundry from neighbors and helped support the family. As a child, Joseph was subjected to physical violence at the hands of his alcoholic father. He went to mission school to learn the church’s principles, but he was ultimately kicked out because he refused to complete the required coursework and tests (Majkowski 23). A few years later, he became involved in political activism and supported those individuals motivated by the mission of bringing about societal change. During this period of activism, Stalin strongly accepted the beliefs and ideas expressed by the revolutionary Karl Max about the days when everyone would be liberated. Karl Max believed that the days when everyone would be free would come. If everyone got their fair share of resources in proportion to their effort, life would be much easier and have more purpose.

The sitting president of Russia at that time was removed from power and sent into exile in 1917 as a direct result of the ongoing anarchy that plagued the country. This resulted from rampant inflation, a precarious socioeconomic status, ongoing conflicts among the population, and widespread food shortages across the nation. Then came the establishment of the Bolshevik party, a revolutionary organization that Vladimir Lenin headed. The Bolsheviks grabbed government control and immediately formed the Red Army after seizing power. Vladimir Lenin appointed Joseph Stalin as General Secretary of the Social Workers’ Labor Party (Hughes 5). Stalin ensured that his presence and impact in political domains were felt, even though his position of influence was insignificant from the beginning. From the moment he was appointed until 1953, he was the organization’s General Secretary.

Joseph Stalin took advantage of his position in Vladimir’s government to recruit supporters of the government with whom he shared similar ideals. This was accomplished through Joseph Stalin’s exploitation of his position. Vladimir, who had faith in Stalin, bestowed upon him the authority to do as he pleased and let him ascend to the highest levels of leadership with complete autonomy. Nevertheless, as time progressed in his service, Stalin started exhibiting some dictatorial characteristics, which Lenin did not approve of (Barth et al. 55). As a result of this, he publicly harbored resentment for Stalin and the violent kind of force that Stalin employed to fulfill his political ambitions. After resigning from the government in 1922 for reasons related to his health, Vladimir had a devastating stroke in 1924, ultimately leading to his death.

Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union’s leader, used his “Five Year Plan” to boost the economy and spur fast industrialization in the 1930s. One of the key factors in Stalin’s revolution was the advent of industrialization. He saw that the country’s economy needed to be boosted to a higher level. He thought it would be an excellent way to strengthen ties between countries and grow the Communist party’s influence in the area. According to his report, “instead of a 31-32 percent increase, we had a 25 percent increase” (Nuti 2).” While the Soviet Union lacked strong leadership, he saw that all the “objective” prerequisites were in place. Stalin, the USSR’s long-lasting pioneer, confirmed that the country’s security required “cordial” regimes that could protect its people from the threat of encroachment from the west. Joseph won over the masses by establishing a stable government that advocated for the common people.

Joseph Stalin was widely regarded as one of the most effective leaders in the Soviet Union. When he was appointed the leader of the Bolshevik Party, which came to power in 1917, after the death of Lenin in 1924, his light began to shine brighter during his reign of Lenin and continued to shine stronger after his death (Nuti 4). However, he was disliked by other members of the party, who believed that he lacked the qualifications necessary to assume leadership of the party because he did not have the same level of education as other members. Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev were some of the party members who failed to assess Stalin’s capabilities properly. They considered him an irrational heir to Lenin, who had passed away then.

During the party wrangling in 1925, Stalin and Trotsky were on one side of the conflict, while Kamenev and Zinoviev were on the other. As a result, Stalin and Trotsky became the party’s only potential candidates for leadership. On the other hand, Stalin and Trotsky held contradictory perspectives on communism and socialism. Trotsky advocated for a communist revolution on a global scale, while Stalin favored the continuation of communism in communist countries while promoting socialism in other nations. The position taken by Stalin received approval from most party members (Nuti 8). Trotsky and other party members who felt their voices were being silenced due to this situation organized a public protest against Stalin’s popularity within the party. Amid the demonstrations, Stalin was able to achieve his goal of unifying the party by accusing Trotsky of working to bring about divisiveness because he was of Jewish descent. This was one of the factors that contributed to Stalin’s growing popularity. After that, in 1927, Stalin had his opponents, including Kamenev and Zinoviev, exiled from the Soviet Union.

After he had expelled all who were not faithful to him, Stalin was in complete control. He started placing persons who were close to him into critical government positions to enable him to keep full control of the party leadership and to carry out his ideas. As time passed, many of those who had served in the previous government that Bukharin led began to recognize that Stalin had become a dictator. They started speaking out against the Stalinist ideology and leadership style (Barth 55). Bukharin favored a gradual approach to modernization, which stood in contrast to Stalin’s objective of achieving rapid industrialization. Those farmers who did not want robust industrialization were either put to death or banished to hard labor camps during its implementation, which was done by force.

Stalin ordered that everyone who had disagreed with him was to be executed, resulting in Bukharin being expelled from the party. He dispatched a hitman to Mexico, where Trotsky had taken exile after being banished from the Soviet Union by Stalin, to carry out the murder. After some time had passed, Kamenev, Bukharin, and Zinoviev were brought before a legal tribunal and charged with committing crimes against the state (Barth 57). Another person who fell prey to Stalin’s assassination efforts was Lenin’s widow, who passed away under mysterious circumstances. A system that came to be known as the Gulag system put other opponents to work for the state against their will. His rule encompassed the practice of residents interrupting one another in addition to the employment of undercover cops.

He then launched several campaigns to bolster the party’s position against its detractors. Stalin also changed history in the USSR by having cities renamed after him, and books were rewritten to eliminate references to people who were executed during his reign (Fischer and Paul 94). Stalin was the one who was responsible for both of these activities. In addition to having power over the media, he managed to get his name inserted into the national song.

When World War II first broke out, Joseph Stalin was at the vanguard of allying himself with Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany. 1939 saw the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact between the two countries. After that, Stalin attacked several nations, including Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Finland, despite warnings from both the British and Russia’s intelligence agency (Mason 63). In 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in defiance of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, catching the Soviet Union off guard and catching them unprepared. In the end, the Soviet Union, under Stalin’s leadership, defeated the Germans and won the war in 1943. In 1943 and 1945, respectively, Stalin engaged in other ally agreements with Tehran and Yalta. After the war, he intended to increase the size of the Soviet empire.

Stalin’s lack of compassion was evident throughout his administration, as he routinely executed his political rivals publicly. The economy, which had been improving, worsened even further under his watch. In the 1930s, there was a lot of violence and deaths because of Stalin’s authoritarian management style, as detailed by Majkowski 25. Stalin’s lust for dictatorship drove him to nationalize all privately owned property and turn it over to the state (Barth 57). To consolidate power, the government has nationalized all privately owned land. He also oversaw the forcible recruitment of peasant workers to increase agricultural output. Despite his best efforts, Stalin was eventually forced from power due to widespread social unrest and large rallies. Stalin, however, would continue to brutally murder his closest rivals and rule with an iron fist, so all of the attempts were ultimately fruitless.

Joseph Stalin was completely concerned with the notion of gaining ultimate control over the Soviet Union, and he was resolved to maintain his position as a leader no matter what. Stalin successfully negotiated his way around all the atrocities and even led the Soviet Union into World War II (Majkowski 30). This was accomplished despite the declining trend in the market economy and the ever-growing civil unrest. A significant number of anticipations regarding the involvement of the Soviet Union in World War II were brought forward in anticipation of the potential collapse of Stalin’s rule. Despite this, he ensured that his territorial limits were impenetrable and highly guarded (Barth 58). It is possible that his decision to fight on the side of the allies throughout the war, which ultimately resulted in Germany’s defeat, was one factor that led to his lack of popularity among the people of the Soviet Union in the end. Joseph Stalin served as the General Secretary of the Bolsheviks organization throughout this time. Joseph Stalin maintained his position as leader of the Soviet Union until 1953 when he passed away after suffering a catastrophic heart attack.

Works Cited

Barth, Rolf F et al. “What Did Joseph Stalin Really Die Of? A Reappraisal of His Illness, Death, And Autopsy Findings.” Cardiovascular Pathology vol. 40, 2019, pp. 55-58.

Fischer, George, and Paul Hollander. The Soviet System: Models of a Political Society. Routledge, 2017. Web.

Hughes, Patrick. “The Rise of Stalin and Mussolini: The Importance of Historical Context in the Study of Leader Emergence,” 2017.

Majkowski, Jakub. “How successful was Joseph Stalin in establishing the Soviet Union as a superpower?.” Journal of Education Culture and Society, Vol. 8, no. 1, 2017, pp. 23-31.

Mason, David S. Revolution in East-Central Europe: The Rise and Fall of Communism and the Cold War. Routledge, 2019. Web.

Nuti, D. Mario. “The rise and fall of socialism.” DOC Research Institute, 2018.

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Joseph Stalin’s Political Rise and Fall

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