The rise of Stalin can be attributed to various factors. Even though Stalin was an illiterate man who studied for the priesthood in the small village of Georgia, he managed to gain total control over one of the greatest nations in human history (Library of Congress). Historical documents, such as the comment of Trotsky about Stalin, revealed that the control over the Soviet Union was established through bureaucratic manipulations and violence (Library of Congress). However, the more direct explanation of Stalins influence is that he was helped by dedicated people and a fanatical secret police force (Library of Congress). This influence was exploited to establish a dictatorship which fueled his ambitions.
Stalin used the help of secret police for various means, which enforced his ideology and suppressed dissent. Initially, he used police repression on every figure within the Communist Party, which could threaten his power (Library of Congress). Consequently, prominent faces of Russian bureaucracy such as Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, Grigorii Zinoviev, and Nikolai Bukharin were expelled, and Stalin attained absolute power (Library of Congress). Nevertheless, these expulsions and repressions later transformed into mass purges within the communist regime in the 1930s, which are now Called the Great Purges (Library of Congress). They continued for a long time and spread terror across the entire country as numerous arrests and executions followed the rule of Stalin. These purges were excessive and cannot be described as the logical solution for the future of the USSR. This leads to the question of the reasoning behind such atrocities.
Numerous scholars attribute the Great Purges to the paranoia and insatiable ambitions of Stalin. During the Cold War and after it, historians argued that Stalin was relatively insecure in a dysfunctional system despite his influence (Suny, 2018). His political rivals utilized the unleashed terror to fortify their political positions (Suny, 2018). At the same time, Stalin engaged in eradications within the Red Army. According to Peter Whitewood, they were the result of Stalins grave misperceptions about the gravity of security threats (Suny, 2018). Whitewood argued that Stalin acted following the conviction that foreign enemies infiltrated the Red Army ranks and organized a deep-rooted conspiracy (Suny, 2018). In the analysis of Whitewood, Marxist ideology plays a significant role because it led to the distortion of Stalins foreign and domestic level of threat (Suny, 2018). Marxist ideology led to the perception of the Red Army as the primary target for foreign agents and counterrevolutionaries between the 1920s and 1930s (Suny, 2018). Thus, feeling cornered and trapped, Stalin resolved to a single viable solution purging and mass operations against former kulaks, criminals, and national minorities (Suny, 2018). This is the result of ungrounded paranoia built upon the insecurities and unstable political situation.
However, it is also possible to perceive the Purges to ensure Stalins prolonged and absolute dictatorship. The actions of Stalin are akin to the attempt to establish a nationalistic rule or dictatorship. He prioritized his allies and people with matching ideology which formed a tight community with common institutions, traditions, language, and customs. It is well known that communist rule in USSR operated on censorship and ideological oppression. Religion was banished, and people with liberal ideas were oppressed. The ideology was a distinguishing factor to identify those in favor of Stalin and against him. The purges are known to be enacted against possible threats and sometimes even fabricated to eliminate unwanted elements. Given the fact that the level of danger was high, purges are a solid although cruel solution. Hence, the oppression of national minorities and kulaks can be considered an attempt to eliminate the enemies whose ideology clashed with Stalin. National minorities searched for independence and liberation from the Soviet Union, and kulaks had the influence to facilitate the seeds of revolution. Therefore, the Great Purges can be attributed to both the massive paranoia and great ambitions of Joseph Stalin.
Introduction: Looks at the events just before Stalin assumed power immediately after Lenins death
Body: Looks at how Stalin came to power and how he tightened his grip using government machinery as well as how he eliminated his opponents all the way through the World War and how he managed to secure Victory over Germany after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union without warning.
Conclusion: This part looks at the final major events before the untimely death of Stalin and the different theories that explain how he died.
Introduction
Until he died in 1953, Joseph Stalin was the communist party of the Soviet Unions Central committee General Secretary since 1922. After the death of Lenin in 1924 Stalin ascended to the top most position of the Soviet Union authoritatively. He had a hard-line stand against the opposition and Lenin didnt particularly like his strategy towards Georgia. Lenins association with Stalin went to an all time low after Lenin had to go into semi-retirement after he suffered a severe stroke. This paper looks at Stalins rise to power between the years 1924 to 1929.
On January 21, 1924, Lenin died due to a heart attack. Immediately after his death, Stalins disagreement against Kamenev and Zinoviev got even worse prompting him to closely associate himself with Nikolai Bukharin. Instead of extending the revolution as Zinoviev, Kamenev as well as Trosky had always opined, Stalin reasoned that the Bolsheviks should concentrate more on building communism in countries under their control. The trio, Zinoviev, Kamenev as well as Trosky eventually got evicted from the Central Committee due to their views then eventually got driven out of the party.
Trosky ultimately got banished from the Soviet Union while Kamenev and Zinoviev got readmitted into the party once again. In total disregard to the then Lenins New Economic Policy, Stalin advocated for central management of the economy as well as a much faster industrialization process of the Union. Since factionalism was totally prohibited then in the Soviet Union, Stalin exploited it to his advantage. Stalin was the Supreme leader by the first year of the Five-year plan in 1928 leading to the banishment of Trotsky in the Soviet Union the following year, (p,33).
After the death of Lenin due to a heart attack on the 21st of January 1924, his funeral arrangements were bestowed upon none other than Stalin. Against his wishes, Lenins body was embalmed and put out for public display in a lavish funeral organized by Stalin. Because the immense power and influence Zinoviev and Kamenev enjoyed in the central committee, they made sure Lenins critical testament written about Stalin was never made public.. Finally Lenins testament was made public to the provincial leaders only during a party congress meeting. This was one rare opportunity Trotsky could have seized to ask for Stalins Removal from his powerful position but he didnt, (p,45).
Stalins difference of opinion with both Zinoviev and Kamenev several months after Lenins death deepened facilitating Stalin to closely associate himself with Nikolai Bukharin whom in the thirteenth party congress got elevated to the Politburo. In December 1925, Stalin launched an open attack on both Zinoviev and Kamenev at the Fourteenth Party Congress acknowledging openly how both of them requested for his assistance to get rid of Trotsky from the part,. (p,58).
Rather than stretching the revolution to other territories under the Soviet Union, Stalin was in favor of Bolsheviks promoting communism in countries under his control. Like-minded members of the party were drawn to Stalins side while on the other hand Zinoviev, Kamenev and now Trotsky were all ideologically opposed to Stalins approach. This led the three forming an opposition that was against everything Stalin proposed. This led to Stalin denting the image of his new found enemies by stating that both Zinoviev and Kamenev voted against the revolution while Trotsky was not a Bolshevik before the revolution, (p,59-62).
Many party members were in agreement with Stalins policy of central economy control as well as swift industrialization unlike Lenins previous economic policy that was not very popular with the party members. In 1927, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trosky were expelled from the party after their sustained opposition to Stalins policies. However after tendering open apology letters after six months of expulsion, both Kamenev and Zinoviev got accepted back as party members with the exception of Trotsky, (p,68-69).
Stalin had to act swiftly to implement collectivization of agriculture after a crucial deficit in grain supplies towards the end of 1927. This led to Stalin personally going to Siberia to supervise the forceful seizure of hoards of grain from helpless kulak farmers. Despite strong condemnation of the act from both premier Rykov as well as Bukharin, majority of the party members applauded the seizures. Bukharin was against Stalins idea of using kulak farmers money to implement his swift industrialization policy. With the support of other Politburo members, Bukharin was eventually evicted from the politburo after Stalin blamed him of capitalist tendencies as well as factionalism towards the end of 1929, (p,79).
Widely looked at as a positive antidote to war, Stalin embraced and focused on building Socialism in One Country which eventually earned Stalin a popular appeal from the less privileged section of the society as a man of the people as majority of the Russians were indeed worn out from both the civil war as well as the world war, (p,83-85).
Stalin imposed a ban on factionalism and turned it into law getting rid of anyone who could dare oppose him or his policies. In 1928, Stalin had become a very powerful leader and eventually sent Trosky into exile due to his opposition against his policies. Stalin was in control of both party as well as the country after having outsmarted Bukharins Right Opposition and firmly pushing for his policy of collectivization as well as industrialization, (p,86).
As other leaders like Sergei Kirov as well as the Ryutin Affair gained popularity, it was until the Great Purge of 1936 till 1938 that Stalin did achieve supreme power. Stalin guided a very powerful secret police as well as intelligence agencies that would be his ears and eyes on the ground. Stalins intelligence network were strategically positioned in all major countries around the world and was referred to as Rote Kappelle spy ring (p, 157)
Stalin never differentiated between propaganda, espionage nor state-sanctioned violence and incorporated all of them into NKVD. To make sure that all foreign communist parties stayed loyal to both the Soviet as well Pro Stalin, he infiltrated agents by exploiting the Communist International Movement. Just to test how well his secret police and foreign espionage could work together, Stalin gave an order to have Trotsky killed in Mexico by the secret police in 1040.
Sergei Kirovs increasing popularity in the 1930s became a cause of worry for Stalin after Kirov got only 3 nay votes that turned out to be the least for any candidate against 1,108 Stalins nay votes. Its widely believed that Stalin was involved in the killing of Kirov due to his increasing popularity and then implicated Trotsky, Kamenev and Zioviev who were then opposition leaders. During the investigation into Kirovs death, Stalin further put antiterrorist laws in place that had left no room for defense lawyers, prosecution or appeals but punctuated with swift with executions, (p,99).
After these new laws were firmly put in place throughout the country, several military leaders, high ranking officers as well as Red Army officers were accused of treason and quickly executed under Stalins orders. All these atrocities led to Trotsky to say that river of blood is what separated Lenins era to that of Stalins. Stalin eventually got rid of his final opponent from the previous party leadership Trosky who was living in exile in Mexico in 1940. The killing went on with the NKVD undertaking several operations that targeted mainly foreign nationals such as Koreans, Ethnic Germans as well as Poles who were eventually incarcerated and swiftly executed in their thousands.
As the executions went on, no effort was spared to rewrite the textbooks of the Soviet history that gradually ended up focusing on only two individuals, Lenin and Stalin. The prominent people executed by the NKVD were erased from the history books as though they never existed. nearly 700,000 people had been brutally killed at the end of the execution terror with many of them who were just simply ordinary citizens doing ordinary jobs. Its believed that the actual figure of the victims is twice as much. (p,106).
A cult of personality was created in the Soviet Union by Stalin that revolved around himself as well as Lenin by renaming most of the cities, villages as well as towns after his name. Stalin Prize and Stalin Peace prize were also started in his honor. He also offered himself a prominent role in the revolution in an effort to rewrite the Soviet history. Despite Stalin being between 5 ft 5in and 5 ft 6 in, he had statues created to portray him at Alexander the 3rds size as well as height, (p,183).
The cult of personality reached unbelievable proportions and even harshly criticized by Trotsky when Stalins name was integrated into the new Soviet national anthem. It became over emphasized so much so that films, paintings, music, poetry as well as literature entirely concentrated on Stalin that almost equated him to god-like stature especially when he implied he single handedly won the Second World War. Stalin simply couldnt get enough of the cult that encircled him.
After the death of over 160,000 citizens of Lithuania, Latvia as well as Estonia, the three states were incorporated into the Soviet Union by June 1940 when Stalin asserted that he will solve the Baltic problem , however, the Soviet Union was granted 10% of the Finnish territory (eastern region of Karelia after entering an interim peace when Soviet Union faced a solid resistance when it tried to invade Finland. After the failed invasion of Finland, Stalin had to strengthen his military by improving its propaganda methods as well as modifying its training, (p,81).
Despite having received tip offs from his generals as well as spies, Stalin still believed that the Soviet Union cannot be attacked by Germany until they had defeated Britain. After the initial stages of the German attack, Stalin hesitated and retreated to his dacha thinking it was a rogue General who must have authorized the attack but not Hitler since they had an agreement. It turns out it was Hitler who authorized the attack and at the end of 1941, the Soviet military not only had 4.3 million casualties but the Germen forces were 1,050 miles inside the Soviet Union. (Lynch)
To be able to counter the Germans, Stalin had to talk to the British diplomats who partly agreed to Stalins agreement of mutual assistance and aid pact. With the British assistance, Stalin was able to push back the German troops that were 20 miles within of the Kremlin to 40-50 miles from the Kremlin resulting in Germans major defeat since the invasion. The Soviets had regained half of its territory that the Germans taken by the end of 1943. The final victory for the Soviet Union was achieved when the Red Army along with the allied forces outnumbered Hitler and his German forces with Hitler eventually committing suicide while German soldiers surrendered shortly thereafter, (p,168).
After the war, Stalin was out to have political power in Eastern Europe in 1945 at the conference at Yalta; however Churchill and Roosevelt convinced Stalin not to split Germany. Apart from asking for political power in Eastern Europe, Stalin also wanted to keep Poland which again both Churchill and Roosevelt resisted and eventually Stalin opted to re-organize the existing communist puppet government on a wider democratic basis.
Conclusion
In an effort to dominate Central Europe under Stalin, the Soviet Union, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia as well as Bulgaria founded the Comecon in 1949. On suspicion that the Soviets were behind the Greek Communists, Britain and the United States backed the anti-communists in the Greek Civil War, however the suspicion was not valid since Stalin was not involved in Greece as he thought the movement was still premature. Stalins one major last foreign policy he made before his death was his wish for German reunification and disengagement of superpower from central Europe but unfortunately the US, Britain and France turned his wish down due to apprehensions they had about Stalins intentions.
After an all-night dinner at his Kuntsevo home on 1st march 1953 along with his interior minister Lavrentiy Beria as well as his future premiers, its said Stalin suffered a stroke that could have paralyzed his body on the right side since Stalin never emerged from his room. On the other hand, the other theory suggests that Stalin was assassinated by Beria who bragged of taking him out after poisoning him.
Works Cited
Lynch, Michael. Access to History Stalins Russia 1924-53. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924), Joseph Stalin (1878 – 1953), Nikita Khrushchev (1894– 1971), and Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) are among the most important figures in the establishment and development of socialism as a major social, political, and economic system in the history of humanity. All of these men were instrumental in the history, progress, and the eventual demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), having played their roles in the events surrounding that nation at various points in its historical progression from its establishment to eventual end. Therefore, these men are of historical importance in the rise of Communism and Socialism as major economic systems in the world. However, historical documentation of the activities and opinions of Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev and Gorbachev indicates that the four leaders had various points of disagreement on the role, nature, and execution of the ideals of Socialism, despite emerging from common ground. This divergence indicates that a theoretical discussion among the four, regarding issues of revolution, ideology, the economy, the involvement of the citizens in politics, and the types of sacrifices one should make to achieve a better society, would precipitate a range of outcomes both alike and unalike.
In a theoretical discussion, the four Soviet leaders may express a range of similarities and differences in their opinions regarding the issue of revolution. Distinct social, economic, and political situations establish the backdrop of each of the Soviet leaders’ ascensions into power and their exercise of authority upon gaining their leadership positions. Lenin led the Communist Party to power in Russia through a revolution in an attempt to implement the Marxist ideals of a classless, egalitarian society that was guided by the principles of voluntary cooperation (Kort 286). This goal indicates that the ideals of revolution would be important to Lenin. Additionally, he experienced relative ease in leading the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Party to victory in the revolution against the Romanov dynasty. In 1917, the revolution led by Lenin, through the participation of hundreds of thousands of tired and exasperated Russian workers, occurred with relative ease and speed that makes it remarkable when compared to other mass rebellions in the pursuit of social change (Kort 95). Furthermore, Lenin, despite being willing to use extreme force against the dissenters of his regime, decided to end the war. He applied communist policies to resolve the peasant wars of the 1920s to safeguard the ideals of the revolution (Valentino 102). These elements may further result in Lenin having a stronger opinion on the importance of revolution in achieving the reform goals when compared to the other three leaders of the Soviet nation.
In comparison to Lenin, Stalin would likely avail a differing set of opinion regarding the importance of revolution in enacting social change. Unlike Lenin, who ascended to the Soviet leadership in the wake of a revolution that had established a major power vacuum, Stalin was already a well-established and powerful member of the Bolshevik party when he became its leader. Stalin, upon the death of Lenin, rose to the top position in the party, which allowed him to consolidate his power greatly and purge the organization of any strong dissenters (Kort 189). Such actions and measures indicate that Stalin was not a proponent of popular revolution and, instead, primarily focused on amassing power for its own sake. However, the actions and policies enacted by Lenin aided Stalin’s rise across the political ranks in Russia. For instance, Lenin, while attempting to bolster the capabilities of the Bolsheviks, did not allow any significant criticism of his policies from within the party, and he instituted measures aimed at strengthening his authority, resulting in his regime failing to deliver on its promise of actual reforms (Kort 172). The results of such measures led to the transformation of the Russian Communist Party from a tool of delivering the goals of the revolution to a dictatorial entity focused on serving the power needs of its leadership.
Khrushchev and Gorbachev may also present a range of opinions regarding the role of revolution in a socialist nation. Nikita Khrushchev, after becoming the First Secretary of the Communist Party, instated a de-Stalinization campaign to introduce various reform agendas to satisfy the national need for change, including the demands for improved living standards, enhanced security, and better management of the party and state (Thomson 83). In response to these reform needs, Khrushchev emerged as a Soviet leader concerned with the welfare of the population, establishing him as a person who was conscious of the goals of the revolution. Similarly, Gorbachev identified the need of instituting reforms even at the expense of personal power, as indicated by his supposition that he could have remained at the helm of the Soviet leadership for much longer had he not enacted his reform policies (Thompson 83). These actions suggest that both Khrushchev and Gorbachev would have been relatively favorable to the idea of revolution as a tool for social change.
The four Soviet leaders also expressed a varying range of approaches regarding the issue of the communist ideology throughout their terms. Lenin, in his ‘April Theses,’ states that Soviet workers must guide the post-revolutionary government, with the socialist party dispensing all of the economic activities in the country to establish a regime of social control of production and distribution of the produced goods (Blaisdell 229). Additionally, Lenin called for the confiscation of all land estates, elimination of classes, police force, and the military; instead, the government was to dispense the control of these resources and execution of the services to workers and peasants directly (Blaisdell 229). Therefore, Lenin initially envisioned a situation where the workers and the peasants were adequately empowered, and they would control the means of production in the country. These sentiments indicate that Lenin initially focused on establishing a government guided by the principles of Marxism with the aim of implementing meaningful social reforms in the country. However, the subsequent actions of Lenin, through the implemented ‘Leninism’ policies, indicate a gradual shift from these early perspectives. As the leader of the Bolshevik faction, Lenin demanded the attainment and sustainment of absolute power, a goal that only a comprehensive dictatorial regime could attain (Kort 115). This aim indicated a shift in Lenin’s perspective, from building a government controlled by the workers in the country to the implementation of an authoritarian dictatorship that involved a few people holding most of the power and authority in the country.
Various factors may have precipitated the shifts in the leadership goals of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. For instance, the party anticipated that the resistance to the ideals and policies of war communism would primarily emerge from the wealthier citizens; instead, the majority of the peasantry formed the greatest opposition to the redistribution of the products of their labor (Valentino 102). This miscalculation primarily resulted from the fact that the peasants were the ones who suffered the most from the requisitioning efforts of the Bolsheviks since the regime effectively consumed a significant proportion of their meager resources. Lenin anticipated strong support from the agrarian peasants, since his regime promised them access to farming land; he thought that the tradition of collectivism among the peasantry would make them more compliant to a socialist regime (Defronzo 46). The resultant conflicts would force Lenin to undertake a number of concessions that undermined the ideological foundations of the Soviet Republic.
By 1921, with the elimination of the trade unions from industrial management, the abolition of factions within the Party, and the enunciation of the ‘New Economic Policy’ (NEP) with its concessions to the individual profit motive, the Communist leaders had completed their adaptation of a late-industrial program to early-industrial conditions. The occasion for the introduction of the NEP, which indicated a reversal of several ideological and practical goals of socialism such as allowing the practice of limited private enterprise, was a growing state of economic crisis and mass dissatisfaction, coming to a head in armed rebellion against the Soviet regime (Valentino 103). This policy indicated a key ideological retreat by Lenin’s government.
Stalin would continue the ideological revisions of Leninism principles. Stalin began reinforcing his position within the Communist Party well before the demise of Lenin, utilizing the flaws and failings of the Leninist policies, alongside the political weaknesses of his opponents, to his own advantage (Kort 184). Therefore, from the onset of his leadership of the country, Stalin exhibited an ability to manipulate doctrine to make it accord with pragmatically decided action. He extensively utilized the political tools implemented by the Lenin regime to purge the party of any potential opponents to suppress the occurrence of any meaningful internal criticism and rid himself of any serious opposition (Kort 185). These elements allowed Stalin the ability to institute the absolute right of the party to pass definitive judgment on any question, leading to the establishment of totalitarian thought control soon after the achievement of his personal rule in 1929.
Stalin further did not believe that the position of Russia in the pre-World War II era could allow the country to support meaningful Socialism revolutions around the world. Unlike Bolsheviks such as Trotsky, Stalin held the view that rather than pushing for Socialist revolutions in other countries, the Soviet Union should focus on enhancing its own industrial and agrarian capabilities to entrench its ability to defend itself against potential capitalist interventions (Defronzo 51). This cautiousness indicates that Stalin was more interested in the pragmatic goal of developing and controlling a country with superior industrial and technological ability rather than in the general ideological perspectives of Socialism.
Stalin’s desire for enhanced industrial and technological capabilities in the Soviet Union resulted in shifts in the way the regime handled their approach and management of the workers and the farmers, who formed the basis for the initial socialist revolution. Stalin’s drive for rapid industrialization resulted in the government demanding increasingly greater proportions of peasant production to trade for the capital resources required in the establishment of industries (Defronzo 52). This diversion of assets resulted in severe food shortages in the country, leading to suffering and death among the people. Additionally, Stalin’s drive for increased industrialization resulted in the subjection of the industrial workers to harsh conditions, restriction of the freedoms of labor unions, and a general decline in the living standards of the populace due to the insistence on heavy industry over consumer production (Defronzo 52). These decisions indicate that Stalin was not a true adherent to the collectivist ideals developed from the Marxist ideology.
The post-Stalin era contained a varying range of ideological approaches in the leadership of Russian Socialism. Scholarly reviews indicate that far from embroiling the true edicts of Marxist ideologies, a succession of ineffective economic policies has led to the entrenchment of corruption that has resulted in a small group of business elites enriching themselves at the expense of the country (Aslund 64). This trend has resulted in the extensive pilfering of public resources, in opposition to the communist principles. Daniels posits that the promise of the communist utopia in actuality failed within months after the Revolution rather than with the fall of the USSR in 1991 (34). A series of ideological reversals and the drive for increasing political powers among the socialist leaders are among the main causes of the collapse.
Therefore, in a discussion among Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev, one would expect them to avail a range of opinions regarding various aspects of socialism, drawing from their experiences with the ideology. While the four led a party that had a common origin, they evidently took differing approaches in the implementation of its founding ideals to diverse outcomes. Their experiences with the implementation of the socialist mandate in the Soviet Union are likely to influence their approaches in the theorized discussion.
As a man who claimed 20 million lives during his dictatorship, Joseph Stalin has quite the record of how much terror was used on civilians throughout history. Though while Stalinist terror was taking place, Nazi Germany was taking the main focus leaving Stalin’s regime out of the picture. In the early years of the U. S. S. R, it became acceptable for basic soviet administration practices to be based around state violence and state terrorism. Using terror was one of the crucial strategies to controlling the Stalinist state. Without violence, the Stalinist administration would not have been able to control civilians how they wanted to. When looking at the historical case of Stalinist Russia, Stalin’s fear of external and internal enemies provoked the use of terror as an ideology by threatening civilians and forcing their support of his regime, as well as repression and random imprisonment as tactics of social control. Stalin used terror as an ideology to send a message to potential opponents and repress individuals seen as threats.
During the beginning of Stalin’s rule, he created a five-year plan which included forced industrialization and collectivization. This forced collectivization led to a widespread famine called Holodomor which left millions of people dead. The difference in this repression from others is how the state authorities responded. Although they were the force that drove the peasants to join collective farms and deliver fixed quotas of grain, they blamed the poor harvest on the enemies of the state. Therefore, they went door to door confiscating food, livestock, and seeds. Then, they punished the farms by not allowing them food purchases or credit. On top of that, they banned private farming, household gardening, fishing, and began internal passports which prevented villagers from getting food anywhere else. By using this tactic of punishing villagers for something they did not start, it handed Stalin and his officials even more power and control. Following Holodomor, Ukrainian villagers had even more support for the Soviet regime than previously. However, when being threatened with retribution for anti-Soviet behaviors, Ukrainians were more loyal than when threats subsided. Though it may seem confusing how civilians who were terrorized by Stalin’s administration were more loyal to them afterward, it is out of fear that they may have terrorized them again. Although it would seem as if people’s natural reaction to repression would be opposition, the Ukrainians pro-soviet attitudes only encouraged Stalin to further his acts of terror.
While forced collectivization did not turn out well, neither did force industrialization. Stalin’s goal was completely unrealistic, but he did not think in terms of reality so he believed it could work. He wanted rapid expansion on industrial development and heavy industry which he enforced with quotas given to industrial managers. However, this only caused workers to perform poorly and managers having to falsify production figures (flowers). The response to this failure in management structure was intensified centralization which did not work. According to Flowers, “…the more centralized the system, the more anarchic it became, as total control is not possible” (flowers). As a response to the inability to control the economy like Stalin believed he could, he used terror to coerce the workers and managers (flowers). There is a pattern that Stalin followed which concentrated on lack of control. When he lost control of something external such as the economy, he would make even more irrational decisions to try and control what he could. This pattern continued throughout his rule and is the reason for so many harsh orders.
As part of ‘The Great Terror” also known as “The Great Purge”, Stalin sent dissenting members of his regime and any other people he considered a threat to what is known as The Gulag. This was the imprisonment of innocent people. Stalin’s goal was to create equality among all socioeconomic classes. Therefore, incarcerating repressed opponents and ‘socially alien elements’ such as wealthy farmers and priests was a necessary tactic for his regime. According to Miller and Smith, “Imprisonment was used primarily as an instrument of political power, with people being punished for ideological reasons”. Along with these civilians, people could be imprisoned for absence, laziness, or idleness in the workplace. Although the main goal was to prevent any internal enemies opposing the soviet regime and create equality among socio-economic classes, the economic use of prison labor became a byproduct of the main goal. An interesting point made by Miller and Smith was that “Stalin was afraid of hidden enemies and unconscious enemies” meaning enemies who did not even know they were anti-Soviet yet. This explains the extremities of this imprisonment tactic because Stalin’s paranoia led him into a rabbit hole of “what ifs” and used that as a viable reason to incarcerate innocent people.
Stalin was always ahead of the game for the sole purpose of his dictatorship and control of his people. However, he almost connected too many dots creating many conspiracies of internal enemies out to get him. He used the famine and forced incarceration as a way to repress individuals who could be potential spies, signed a non-aggression treaty with Poland at the same time he commenced collectivization, created non-regime and regime designated areas where certain people were allowed to work and live, and he also created the internal passports mentioned earlier. The majority of peasants were not allowed to leave their areas or have access to an internal passport. The reason for this external conflict linking with internal conflict is due to Stalin’s loss of power. While he could not control what was going on outside of the Soviet Union, he could control what was going on inside of it. Therefore, he used that power to his advantage.
The Great Terror, according to Getty, ‘illustrates the unpredictability and incoherence of the Stalinist system’, which was ‘unable to plan or to efficiently carry out any kind of operation’.31 Terror was ‘defensive, not pro-active, which partly resulted ‘from a complex of perceptions that fall into the categories of anxiety and fear’. Getty contends that the Soviet leaders, Stalin among them, were ‘frightened little men terrified of their surroundings, ‘frightened little men with big weapons’.
Although the terror started off as directed terror towards groups of people, Stalin lost control and directed the terror towards the majority of innocent civilians. This tactic of killing everyone was provoked by internal terror within Stalin. To this sources point, Stalin was truly a frightened little man with weapons.
Although his actions may seem to say otherwise, Stalin was not racist like Hitler. He cared for politics more than himself or anyone else. Therefore, the acts of terror he committed towards minority groups did not stem from his own hatred towards certain ethnicities of people, but for the sake of his regime. Robert C. Tucker labeled him as a “neo-tsarist Marxist” combining both ideologies he valued. According to source 8, “He re-interpreted Marxism in his own way and presented his understanding as ‘creative Marxism’, demonstrating his capacity to adjust to new conditions and, accordingly, to re-interpret and re-invent his ideology”. He created his own ideology which valued the equality of socio-economic classes but also put his own terrorist twist on it. Stalin would refer to himself in the third person out of respect for his regime.
Stalin was more than just a person, it was an ideology based around terror and Soviet control. This overarching ideology became so powerful in the Soviet Union that Stalin ultimately became the totalitarian dictator he always wanted to be.
Another reason for Stalin’s terror is centered around the idea of being this heroic figure who saved his people creating more power in his hands. Although he began the terror in which he would “save his people”, this was a sensible tactic in his mind. In hindsight, his tactic worked since he achieved victory after the repression while creating the soviet’s regime under his image and control. His regime’s ideology broke away from his predecessors and promoted him as the “sole legitimate heir of the October revolution”. To this day communist and nationalist politicians try to avoid talking about Stalin’s terror by saying they were difficult times or blaming civilians for what happened. People who currently believe in the imperial ideology are very apologetic of Stalin and called “Stalin’s vulgar defenders” or “sophisticated apologists”. Despite what happened in the Soviet Union civilians will continue defending Stalin as a key figure in the success of the soviet empire.
While we know Stalin’s character was not filled with great intentions, he was increasingly more irrational as he gained more power. According to flowers, “The Stalin of 1934 was considerably more vengeful and suspicious than the Stalin of 1929, let alone that of 1924 and before that” (flowers). Though he was obtaining more control of his society, he was losing control of the world around him. With this problem arising, it caused him to create even more irrational plans. Considering the economic process was controlled by neither a rational plan nor the market, he did not learn that being irrational was not a viable solution. This spiral of false reality that Stalin lived in engulfed the entire Soviet society and nearly destroyed it before it was reined in.
Not only did Stalin’s power and terror remain influential on civilians at the time of his rule, but also at civilians today. Studies have been conducted to see how many people vote and which types of people vote for political parties in Russia. According to Zhukov and Talibova, “Localities exposed to higher levels of state terror are significantly less likely to vote today, even after accounting for several important contextual factors and econometric concerns”. This data shows that fewer people will vote due to concern for terror to arise or to be targeted with violent attacks. The Soviet authorities ensured there would be punishment passed down from generation to generation by applying the principle of ‘guilt by association. Therefore, civilians who experienced the repression and Stalin-era terror will choose to opt-out of voting out of concern for their families. Findings from Zhukov and Talibova also suggest,
For other community members not directly victimized, but who potentially witnessed their repressed neighbors’ plight, the message was clear: political participation is dangerous; expressing the ‘wrong’ political preferences can ruin your life; if you oppose the regime, it is better to keep quiet.
Though Stalin is no longer alive, his power remains throughout contemporary Russia. While his terror was particularly not favored by anyone, this encompasses the reason for the terror. He had so much power at the time and yet even in his grave he has power over people who are sons and grandsons of people who lived under his reign.
As Stalin’s history of terror remains, so does his memory of him. Stalin’s rule displays how power in the wrong person’s hands can destroy an entire society. Terror was not simply for his own enjoyment, but to motivate people to follow his regime. Stalin wanted civilians to worship him. These tactics are also about control. Although Stalin was already irrational, he became even more unjustifiable when issues outside of his control arose. This lead to a need to control what he could. When he already repressed, imprisoned, and killed most of his society, he knew he could control them however he wanted. Though some would call him a psychopath, he would refer to himself as a powerful dictator in which he did everything in his power to be.
The main idea of this paper is Joseph Stalin and the USSR. While researching my topic, I had a few questions. What was the USSR? The USSR was a collection of 15 different countries under the rule of Joseph Stalin, and previously Vladimir Lenin. Who was Joseph Stalin? Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953. He proceeded with title of the dictator after Vladimir Lenin passed. What did Stalin do to help Soviet Russia? Although there were both pros and cons to his campaign and actions, many believe he was neither a hero nor a monster. Stalin turned a backward and enormous rural country into one of the world’s two superpowers in only thirty years, but this came at a dangerous cost which included millions of lives. It took many other countries centuries to do something like this; take China as an example, the country had multiple dynasties and people in power for centuries. Stalin did many centuries’ work in only thirty years, and I find that remarkable. There are many people involved in the Soviet Stalinist Era. These people include Stalin, the secret police (NKVD), other countries like Germany and America, all the peasants & industrial workers, and his political opponents/friends. I came to a conclusion that there were both pros and cons of the Soviet Union, but we must learn from our past and prevent any mistakes made in order to make a better future for all.
Joseph Stalin was someone who changed Russia for the better but at a great cost of millions of people’s lives. Joseph Stalin’s real name is Josef Djugashvili, and he was raised in a poor family environment. His father was always drunk and beat his son and wife, but his parents soon parted ways. According to the quote “Undeserved beatings made the boy as hard and heartless as the father himself”, it implies that there was some sort of trauma that developed Stalin’s personality. His father wanted him to learn a trade and work in a shoe factory, while his mom wanted him to go to school. His father later left him, and he was the top student at school. Stalin originally studied religion but then switched to revolution.
The Soviet Union wasn’t just one country, it was a group of them. It became one of the most powerful nations in the 20th century and was the world’s first communist nation. Communism is a system in which the government controls everything in society and wealth is shared equally among the people. The USSR was enemies with America, and they had a war called the Cold War. In the 1980s the Soviet Union was facing problems and eventually deteriorated completely in 1991.
A secret police organization to monitor the progress and plans of all of his opponents. He made sure that none of them were more successful than him. The organization was so powerful & intimidating that no one would go against it.
A series of forced labor camps that the NKVD set up forced labor camps that punished anyone who broke the law(s). An example would be treason. Treason was defined so broadly that almost anyone could be arrested and taken to the camps. After imprisoning millions of people, Stalin and the OGPU forced their prisoners into labor like building railways or working in the mines.
During the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, communism was widely promoted using propaganda. Stalin wanted to get rid of regular citizens who owned any land and wanted to sell wheat internationally so that he can use the money to buy technology for one of his projects. ‘Collectivization was an attempt to get rid of the ownership of land by ordinary people.
Stalin wanted to destroy kulaks (people who were prosperous because they enjoyed the freedom and didn’t agree with his policies.) Two types of farms were introduced to the country; a State Farm, (sovkhoz) where all the land was owned by the government, all produce went to the government, and workers were paid wages. Then, there was the Collective Farm (kolkhoz) where workers were allowed to keep some of the lands for themselves. All farms were supplied with new tools, seeds, and tractors by the government. Most poor people weren’t able to use the machinery that was supplied, and many tractors didn’t work. Large numbers of kulaks resisted and destroyed crops and animals. Because of this, a large famine took place from 1932 to 1934 in which about 5 million people died. By 1937, the process of collectivization was almost accomplished, and wheat production went up. Some advantages because of collectivization were; Education and housing improved, and literacy increased, the availability of doctors and medical treatment went up, and industrial workers were given higher pay and rewarded w/ medals; some social security benefits. There was also an idea called the Five Year Plan. The Five Year Plans was a system of planning economic growth over a period of time. The main focuses were collectivizing agriculture and developing heavy industry, but as a result of this, there was a downfall in consumer goods. Collectivization led to famines in Ukraine (and Russia), that cost millions of people their lives. It improved the production of military weapons and equipment along with heavy military development which made the Western Powers mad.
Soviet technology was highly developed in the fields of nuclear physics, where strategy planners set aside materials for research in order to compete with the West in an arms race. This makes the Soviet Union was the second nation to develop an atomic bomb, four years after America. In addition, the Soviet Union detonated a hydrogen bomb in 1953, a ten months after the United States.. In October 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit; and in April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.
In 1934, Stalin’s last opponent was assassinated. The order was carried out by the secret police (OGPU). Genrikh Yagoda was a secret police official who served as director of the OGPU (the Soviet Union’s security and intelligence agency) from 1934 to 1936. He was not aware of the order, so Stalin no longer trusted him and moved him to another role. After this, Stalin had changed the name of the organization to the NKVD and placed another man in charge Nikolai Yezhov. After the appointment, the Purges had started. The NKVD arrested and executed many people, exact victims will never be known, but more than 20 million Russians were affected by it. High-profile “traitors” were brainwashed and tortured until they had confessed to their crimes. Some “traitors” were put on radio or television programs and were interrogated, these were called “show-trials”. Even the leader Nikolai Yezhov was arrested and shot in 1938 and was also blamed for the excess murders of the Purges. The Great Purge was a political campaign started by Joseph Stalin, to get rid of members of the Communist Party who disagreed with any policies introduced by Stalin and anyone else who was a threat. Soviet citizens were bombarded with posters and propaganda of Stalin’s political campaign. The program became very successful in the end because not a lot of people were protesting against him, nor his policies. Most people believe at least 750,000 people were executed from 1936-1938. Over a million other people were sent to labor camps. As a result of Stalin’s cruel ways, fear and horror were constant throughout the country.
The Soviet Union improved many things when it came to politics. Firstly, women’s equality. American women were sewing military uniforms and doing other low-status jobs, whereas Russia had female snipers on the borders during WWII. The Russians also sent women to be cosmonauts and paid both genders equally regardless of their occupation. Secondly, centralized economy: The Soviet Union got things rolling for Chinese, North Korean, Cuban, and Vietnamese centralized economies. A centralized economy is a system in which the government makes economic decisions rather than the consumers and businesses. Last but not least, nuclear power. Unlike America that nuked Japan before the world war’s end, the Soviet Union acted very maturely and showed everyone how a strong country like itself should act in a multiracial environment.
There will be a little introduction about Stalin and where he came from his real origins. As part of Stalin’s history, there will be underlined few major points for starters his life outside of his powers his wife’s and kids. Then we will move on to talk about Stalin’s power in “Russia under Stalin”, then there will be talked about Stalin’s death.
For starters let me introduce you to Stalin and talk about his back gourd for a little bit. We knew Joseph Stalin because of his political power in Russia but not many people are aware of his personal life about his wife, his kids, and where he came from. Well Stalin was born in “Gori, Georgia on 6th December 1878 according to many articles but specifically to a book that was written about Stalin says that he was born in December 1879 a year earlier than what it is presented, maybe he is trying to present himself being young. Stalin was actually born into a peasant “estate” at the time, his father Vissarion and his mother Ekaterina both were born serf” (Kuromiya, 2013). Photograph from Stalin’s ruling time as a leader of Soviet Union 1878-1953 (Vdovin, 2012).
Despite where Stalin came from, he made into Russia’s history by becoming a politician. Stalin may have become a well know politician but there is a side of his life that no one or at least not many people are aware of. Stalin’s marriages and kids. Stalin may have been married twice and had kids from both partners. But, Stalin’s first marriage did not last long, when he was married to Ekaterine ‘Kato’ Svanidze or her “Georgian name Ketevan Semyonovna Svanidze” from 1906-1907 there is not much to know about their marriage together as she died on December 5th, 1907 due to “acute weakness and typhus”. She gave birth to their first child Yakov Dzhugashvili and Stalin’s oldest son a few months after marriage, after Ekaterine’s death Stalin was devastated which lead him to make a decision and “abandon his son Yakov to be raised by a family of Kato” (Thefamouspeople.com, 2019). His first son Yakov became a soldier and was an officer in “Red Army”, later “Yakov has been captured by Nazi Germany when they invited the USSR during World War 2” Germany did this to get a deal with Stalin to give them “marshal field” which Stalin refused this trade and any trades presented to him, it was because he did not believe that Yakov has been captured (Russell, 2018). The picture of Ekatrine (Manaev, 2019).
Moving on to Stalin’s second marriage with Nadezhda Alliluyeva with whom he had two kids a son named Vasily Stalin and his first and only daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. This marriage was the longest from 1919- 1932 she married Stalin at the young age of 17 and died at only 31 years of age. The photograph shows Stalin’s second wife Nadezhda and Stalin together (Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo, 2019). Their marriage was unhappy as Stalin has been unfaithful in their marriage having affairs with other women which lead Nadezhda to develop a “mental condition” (Thefamouspeople.com, 2019). Later in 1932 she was arguing with Stalin and that same evening she went to her room where her body was found the following morning by the servants reportedly, she killed herself (Thefamouspeople.com, 2019). Image of Stalin and his kind, son Vasily and daughter Svetlana from his second marriage (Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo, 2019). His daughter is best known out of all his children.
As Stalin had several affairs with other women meant that he has more than three children in fact he has one son from his first marriage, one son and daughter from his second marriage and one adopted son from his affair, and an illegitimate son also from his different affair.
While many people from Russia have been supporting Stalin’s ruling and the things he did during his ruling. However, there were things that people disliked and disagreed with Stalin especially farmers. Farmers disagreed with some of Stalin’s plans and when Stalin wanted to take control over farms many farmers refused, they got punished either “shot or exiled” (HISTORY, 2019). This happened because Stalin’s development plan was “cantered on government control of the economy and forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture” meaning that Stalin wanted to make Russia great by growing its economy and its National Gross Profit (HISTORY, 2019). He also ruled by terror and anyone who disagreed with his believes, he eliminated anyone who opposed him. Therefore, he expanded the powers of secret police such as spy to spy and get secret information for instance information about what citizens of Russia think about his ruling and decisions. But eventually, Stalin has built a great personality for himself that even cities were named after he and statues were built to honour Stalin. Even though Stalin killed millions of people for not obeying his orders, many such farmers give up their farms and let Stalin take control over them. Although Stalin tried to make Russia more industrialized, he completely overlooked this own citizen the ones that have been starving, the ones in the peasantry villages, the people who starved to death because they did not have food and because Stalin did not take their starvation into account. On that note in Russia slowly started grain more working-class people where more and more peasants moved to a bigger city to find a job to support themselves and their families.
Sadly, Joseph Stalin died March 5th, 1953 from a stroke. Stalin’s death was a quiet one as no one knew about his death until days later when his body was found by one of his guards. Many people knew Stalin for his ruling and may have not noticed a slight change in his heath as his doctor Vladimir Vinogradov, the doctor told Stalin before his death to take things easy as it may cost him his health. “However, Stalin did not believe in his doctor’s words, and instead of taking his advice Stalin got Vladimir arrested, that same thing happened to several other doctors that tried to warn Stalin about his health but has been ignored and arrested. Many of them were Jewish” (Cavendish, 2003). Stalin’s death and how he really died is not much talked about in Russia, it is almost a different topic but with less data, the media does not talk about Stalin’s death and how he died in detail. Stalin’s death was announced throughout radio stations across Russia and the Russian colonies. Moreover, 6 months after Stalin’s death the person who became Russian political leader was “Ukrainian born, Nikita Khrushchev from 1953-1960” (HISTORY, 2019). Picture of Nikita Khrushchev a new leader of the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death (Alamy.com, 2019).
To conclude, we now know Stalin’s where Stalin really came from and his personal life, his two wife and children. We also know how long each of the marriages lasted and how they both ended, also briefly mentioned Stalin’s affairs in his second marriage. Then we moved on to briefly talk about Russia under Stalin about Stalin trying to make Russia more industrialized lastly, we talked about Stalin’s death that took citizens by surprise but not Stalin.
The USSR from 1929-1953 experienced a great extent of social and cultural changes under Joseph Stalin that impacted various groups both positively and negatively within the Soviet Union. Russian society and culture became more uniform than ever before in Russian history, where ‘discipline’ and ‘conformity’ were heard time and time again during that period. The modifications made to these aspects of life under Stalin fulfilled his vision which was to have the total subsumption of individuals to state service through propaganda, censorship, and other means. This was evident in social and cultural features of Soviet life such as health, women in society, arts, religion, and conservatism.
These changes were part of a wider revolution that Stalin Institided in the 1920s, the entire Soviet state was modified so that ‘Stalinism’ touched the lives of all. Education was an area that had a significant impact on society when reformed under Stalin’s regime. Soviet education during the 1920s fell into disarray, the party wanted the youth to challenge bourgeois values and exercise their revolutionary zeal. Teachers became the new party target as the civil war and revolution had been won, many teachers had lost their jobs and thousands of students did not attend classes. As a result, the teachers decided to help peasants in the countryside to read and write. By the end of the 1930s, the system had reverted back to a more traditional and conservative basis, such as compulsory pigtails for girls. This new approach was taken as there was a need for engineers, scientists, and other specialists as the economic transformation took hold. The curriculum was tightened and teachers were given greater authority, non-political subjects like chemistry and mathematics were emphasized. History was used as party propaganda to promote ‘Russification’. An official view of Soviet history was enforced where Stalin’s role was played up and he was said to have a ‘close’ relationship with Lenin, and no mention of Trotsky. John Reed’s 1919 book Ten Days that Shook the World, was not used as it did not mention Stalin, whereas in 1938 Short History of the USSR by AV Shestakov became a compulsory text. Students were forced into the Komsomol (Communist Youth Leagues) when not learning ‘useful’ things and the ‘correct’ view of Russian history, they were taught Marxist thinking and to love Stalin. The quota system which had been implemented in 1929 and was abolished in 1935. The system allowed entry to higher education based on social class, 70% of places were reserved for people of working-class origin. That quota was achieved only once, it lead to a massive increase in the number of dropouts as many students failed. So this change had a great impact, and so the emphasis was placed on quality rather than quantity.
Education was not only for school-aged children, there was an expansion of part-time schools and courses for all adult members of Soviet society. These courses were aimed to raise literacy levels and teach them basic skills to help with industrialization. This had a beneficial impact on the Soviet Union as Historian Shelia Fitzpatrick referred to from a survey taken at the Stalin Auto Plant in 1937 “… A woman of peasant origins uprooted by collectivization… perceived that education was the ticket to a decent life… ‘Without that piece of paper (diploma) you are an insect, with it, a human being’” Which displays the attitudes towards these changes and the massive impact it had on many lives, just like that peasant that had the opportunity to turn her life around. The role of women and their perception changed in society, this social alteration had a drastic impact on the Soviet Union. During the 1920s and part of the 1930s, there was a great emphasis on women’s rights, equality, and feminist thinking. This was accredited to Alexandra Kollontai and her collaboration with Lenin’s wife; Krupskaya in the Zhenotdel (Women’s department). Their achievements included making divorces easier for women, legal equality, and abortion was legalized. During the civil war women even fought in combat units, the new regime sought to reform the old society and it impacted means thinking in the long term. Under Stalin’s regime, women were given better educational opportunities and female workers in factories during the economic transformation were a common sight. This kind of thinking was encouraged in novels by Kollontai “… I do hope that this book will aid in combating the old, bourgeois hypocrisy in moral values and show once more that we are beginning to respect women”.
In the 1930s the Soviet Union was experiencing negative effects of these changes, divorce becoming easier meant there were more broken homes, and Soviet societies were inundated with widespread juvenile crime and homeless children. The Soviet birth rate was declining which wasn’t good for future economic growth, this resulted in Stalin enforcing a range of conservative measures upon women. Sheila Fitzpatrick suggests that this difference was not only social but ideological “As far as lower-class women were concerned, however, it was the duty to family, not the duty to husbands”. This was a new approach was known as ‘the great retreat’, most of the liberal reforms of early Soviet government were reversed and there was a ‘more serious outlook on marriage, family, and child-rearing. In 1936 a new family code was implemented: Abortion was outlawed (unless detrimental to the health of the mother), laws were passed against prostitution, homosexuality, and illegitimacy was looked down on, an increase of child support benefits, the more children women had- the more benefits, class differences were still evident under Stalin despite his propaganda which claimed it did not, was evident in the ‘Wives’ movement’ which appeared in the mid-1930s highlighting the gap between the wives of elite members like party officials and working-class women.
Joseph Stalin born on December twenty-one, 1879, was the ruler of the soviet union for over twenty years once the death of Vladimir Lenin. people believe that he was a villain and associated him with violence as a result of he was chargeable for the reason for the death of many of his own people; however, he additionally helped defeat the Nazis and remodeled the soviet union from a peasant society into a military world power. Joseph Stalin was a good facilitate to his country as a result of he helped defeat the Nazis, raised the standards of living, however, he additionally forced labor on the Soviet people for his own advantage.
Many people assume that Joseph was a foul and corrupt leader as a result of the signed a foreign policy accord with Adolf Hitler, and it had been called the Nazi-soviet written agreement. The written agreement was that European countries and also the soviet union united to require no half in a group action against one another for the ensuing 10 years. The written agreement was additionally viewed by Joseph Stalin as some way to stay the peace between the 2 countries; however, once Hitler desecrated the Nazi-soviet written agreement and invaded the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin and his allied forces went against Hitler to prevent the Nazis.
Some people believed that Stalin: was greedy, corrupt, and will do everything for his own benefit; but, Joseph Stalin believed that if people place their minds on one thing and specialize in achieving it they’d be ready to have it away. “I believe in one thing only, the power of the human will.” that is how he was ready to raise the quality of living for the Soviet people, and he did it by increasing the utilization of recent technology throughout the soviet union, he was ready to create energy supply more accessible to the soviet union’s. Joseph Stalin might have raised the living standards of the soviet union however he additionally, forced labor on his folks for his own profit.
Some might argue and say that Joseph Stalin was a villain which is also correct as a result of he did forced labor on his people once he introduced the gulag camp to them. The gulag camp was a system of forced labor cramps created by the soviet union government. He launched a series of five-year arrange within the late Twenties and His development arrange was focused on government management of the economy and enclosed the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, within which the government took management of farms. once farmers refused to collaborate with the orders they’d be shot as a penalization and that is how he was chargeable for millions of deaths of his very own citizens. Joseph Stalin dominated by terror and with a totalitarian agenda so as to eliminate anyone who would possibly oppose him; but, once he launched the series of five-year arrange within the late Twenties his sole motive was to reconstruct the soviet union from a peasant society into an industrial world power and he did simply that.
When Joseph Stalin was the previous ruler of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics he pushed its people: into impoverishment, misery, and death however he did all that to higher his country and switch it to a powerful military world power it’s nowadays.
However, there is an alternate hypothesis, suggesting that Truman had an ulterior motive for his intervention in Korea, which was to expand America’s influence in East Asia. Ambrose argues Truman had several aims in 1950: to extend containment in Asia; to support Chiang; to retain US bases in Japan and to rearm the US and NATO. As previously mentioned, the Truman administration agreed that Connolly’s chain of defence in the Far East was an absolute necessity. Acheson stated in his Press Club Speech that maintaining their military position in Japan was required, both in the interest of our security and in the interests of the security of the entire pacific area. In Japan the US were orchestrating a peace treaty, but after a series of violent demonstrations organised by the Japanese Communist Party, Japan was less inclined to agree this. Thus, Truman needed an excuse to maintain the bases in Japan. Ambrose argues Truman and Acheson were under intense pressure to resume funding to Chiang. In a radio address, Robert A. Taft claimed Truman was willing to turn China over to the Communists, in order to see the downfall of nationalist China. Robert J. McMahon argues that Acheson considered it foolish to continue throwing away military aid on a lost cause. At a time where the Red Scare and McCarthyism was at its height, this was perceived as the Democrats going soft on communism. Therefore, due to the domestic political pressure, Truman felt he had to prove to Republicans and the general population, that he would stand firmly against communism. Ambrose’s thesis is that the aims of the NSC 68 and Truman’s agenda could be wrapped up and tied with a ribbon by an Asian crisis. Therefore, Truman needed another crisis. On the 25th June 1950 these needs were met.
Within an hour, Truman had already made the decision to intervene in the events in the Far East and was ready with countermeasures. In the hours that followed he instructed General McArthur to send supplies to South Korea; sent the U.S. Seventh Fleet to the Formosa strait, to prevent any attack against Chiang; and pledged additional assistance to the French against Ho Chi Minh in Indochina and to those fighting the Huks, in the Philippine Insurgence. An emergency United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting was called, in which they approved a US sponsored resolution, labelling the DPRK as the aggressors. This was the first time an international body had taken concrete steps to halt and punish aggression. Gaddis argues that the US troops already stationed in Japan and Stalin’s boycott of the UNSC meetings, allowed Truman to intervene with little difficulty. Ambrose observes how, despite UN involvement supposedly leading the defence for Korea, the bulk of the equipment and Non-Korean troops were American. On the 27th June Truman publicly announced that the Truman Doctrine had officially been extended to Asia, outlining the US’s involvement in Indochina, the Philippines, China and Korea. Since 1941 America had a policy of avoiding US ground troops on mainland Asia. Ambrose states that Truman believed under advice from Air Force Military planners, a bombing campaign alone would be sufficient to restore peace and border; the arms provided and financial support to the French would be enough to quash Ho Chi Minh and the Seventh Fleet could save Chiang. Ambrose describes this as wishful thinking, founded from the racist attitude that Asians could not stand up to western guns. But by this point Truman had already committed himself to the Far Eastern Problems.By August, Truman had successfully obtained from congress a $12 billion military budget for American action in Korea. By the end of the Korean War over 1,789,000 American troops had served in Korea, this was 31% of the active troops the US had worldwide from 1950-53; all evidencing the measures Truman took to involve himself in East Asia.
Korea was a mere piece in Truman’s jigsaw of solving the wider Asian question. His aims clearly aligned with those set out in the NSC 68; Korea was the perfect opportunity to address domestic pressures, maintaining a chain of defence, containing communism and appeasing the NSC. Moreover, the obscene amount of American input in Korea, compared to the contributions of everyone else within the UN and the RPK, evidently demonstrated Truman’s role in the outbreak. These factors drove America to a higher level of intervention in their support of Rhee, which in turn, transformed a localised skirmish into the first proxy conflict in the Cold War.
The extent of Stalin’s responsibility for the Korean War continues to be debated and reinterpreted by historians. The debate around whether the internal Korean influences were responsible for the outbreak of the conflict contains some merit. Syngman Rhee’s unpopularity and incompetence had forced him onto a trajectory heading straight for a collapse within his own government; Kim was impatient and wanted to send his army to conquer South Korea, this combination left tensions rising dangerously high within Korea and it became inevitable that an attempt at reunification, whether political or military, would occur. However, without the American military support and UN’s backing, the PRK had not the military strength to adequately defend itself. This potentially meant only an invasion of South Korea could take place, as the PRK would not have the arms nor manpower to engage in a war. Stephen Ambrose raises many valid questions of the nature of the relationship between the US and PRK and the US’s intentions. Odd Arne Westad’s develops this view with his claim that Washington and Moscow wanted to exploit the Korean developments, to further their own interests or thwart those of their adversaries. Together, these perspectives capture the essence of the argument, that both Stalin and Truman held some level of contempt for the people of Korea, using their Nation as a pawn on the board of Eastern Asia. Truman needed an Asian crisis, finding the Korean tensions convenient for fulfilling his agenda: responding to domestic concerns over the Democrats response to China, and thus their outlook towards Communism; maintaining the defensive perimeter; expanding the Truman Doctrine to East Asia; and satisfying the goals set out in the NSC 68. Furthermore, the effort Truman went to, to ensure that a UN resolution was pushed through the UNSC, labelling the DPRK as the aggressors, demonstrated Truman’s intentional desire for a proxy war. Nonetheless, Stalin’s intentions for joining the war effort, in order to create a buffer zone, led Stalin to enable Kim to initiate a war effort against the South.
Both Truman and Stalin wanted to maintain and expand their ideological influence, in order to create some sort of defensive security zone. Their failure to unify Korea in a post WWII effort, and their subsequent establishment of the 38th Parallel, ignited the internal Korean factor. Stalin’s endeavours to provide Kim with all the financial and arms provisions Kim felt necessary, in order to invade RPK, demonstrated Stalin’s desire for a Korean conflict. Ultimately, Stalin enabled Kim-Il-Sung to invade the DPRK, but it was Truman who was responsible for escalating a localised conflict into the Korean War.
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.
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.