Compare And Contrast Imperialism Ethnic Cleansing And Stalin

Soso Djugashvili, more commonly known as Joseph Stalin, ‘man of steel’, dictator of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Russia, can be considered a ‘Red Tsar’ to an extent when features of Stalinism are compared to those of Tsarism and Russia ruled by Nicholas II’s autocratic regime from 1894 to 1917. A ‘Red Tsar’ is a communist leader whom follows similar principles followed under the leadership of a Tsar, that were influenced by few opinions allowing sole leadership and little opposition from others. Stalin can be considered a ‘Red Tsar’ to an extent as he ruled Communist Russia as a somewhat totalitarian state and was considered a ‘God-like’ figure sent to Earth to lead the nation and its people. From Stalin’s reign of terror from 1929 to 1953 there can be similarities seen in his regime to features of Tsarism as well as differences, this is why there are alternative interpretations for Stalin being considered a ‘Red Tsar’.

In the beginning of 1932, the Soviet government had sharply increased the Ukraine's production quotas in the collectivized farms. This ensured that the people would not be able to meet them. This resulted in an even larger widespread of starvation. In the summer of 1932, Stalin ordered a decree that called for the arrest or execution of any person that was caught taking any amount of grain or food item from their place of work. This led to military blockades stationed around many Ukrainian villages, preventing food from coming in and the starving people from going out in search of food. Soviet guards were brought into the villages to confiscate any hidden grain. Eventually all food from any farmer’s home was taken. When news of the Famine reached the outside world, food supplies were sent from the United States and Britain, however through Stalin, the shipments were denied and new policies from the Soviet Union that denied their part in the famine refused all outside aid were instilled. Stalin refused entry even to journalists, as he feared the media would reveal the Soviet Unions’ crimes against the Ukraine.

What is known as the Ukraine Famine was a crisis in which no outside force responded to help the Ukrainians. When Stalin rose to power as the leader of the Soviet Union, one of his first actions was to

It is plausible to suggest that Joseph Stalin was essentially a Red Tsar. Whilst Stalin was committed to communism, his ideology and authoritarian reign was reminiscent of the Tsarist autocratic rule that proceeded him. For nearly six centuries Russia was ruled under a Tsarist autocratic government until it was overthrown during the 1917 revolution that led to the introduction of the first communist government in Russia and the leadership of Joseph Stalin. During his reign, Stalin enacted a ‘cult of personality’ in which he was worshipped as a god-like being similar to that of the autocratic Tsars who ruled before him. Likewise, there were immense similarities in the social structures and quality of life for Russia’s people under the reign of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, and Joseph Stalin. There is considerable evidence therefore to support the idea that Joseph Stalin was essentially a Red Tsar.

Stalin like Hitler “used propaganda, censorship, and terror to force his will on the Soviet people. Government newspapers glorified work and Stalin himself. Secret police spied on citizens, and anyone who refused to praise Stalin and the state faced severe punishment, even death” (“The Soviet”, n.d.).

The concept of Stalinism, being the ideologies and policies adopted by Stalin, including centralization, totalitarianism and communism, impacted, to an extent, on the soviet state until 1941. After competing with prominent Bolshevik party members Stalin emerged as the sole leader of the party in 1929. From this moment, Stalinism pervaded every level of society. Despite the hindrance caused by the bureaucracy, the impact of Stalinism was achieved through the implementation of collectivization and the 5-year plans, Stalin’s Political domination and Cultural influence, including the ‘Cult of the Personality’. This therefore depicts the influence of Stalinism over the Soviet State in the period up to 1941.

“The Ukrainian grain harvest in 1932 resulted in below average production but it was more than enough to sustain the population,” (Britannica) but because the Soviet Union continued to export in high amounts there was not enough for the people. Then in August 1932 a law was passed making theft of socialist property a crime, therefor it became very difficult for people to get any type of food. “Around six to eight million people died due to starvation in the Holodomor, four to five million were Ukrainians and the famine directly affected the Ukrainian peasantry”

The crime of genocide is one of the most devastating human tragedies throughout the history. And the word genocide refers to an organised destruction to a specific group of people who belongs to the same culture, ethnic, racial, religious, or national group often in a war situation. Similar to mass killing, where anyone who is related to the particular group regardless their age, gender and ethnic background becomes the killing targets, genocide involves in more depth towards destroying people’s identity and it usually consists a fine thorough plan prearranged in order to demolish the unwanted group due to political reasons mostly. While the term genocide had only been created recently in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal

The civilians of the country had to face the famine, a shortage of food, because they were urged to work in farms, but did not have the opportunity to gain profit or food from their hard work. The result of this caused the working-class to not be motivated and forced to continue their work for the country. In the source titled, “Famine Testimony of Tatiana Pawlichka,” it writes “ After the harvest, the villagers tried to go out in the fields to look for the grain left behind by the harvest; the communists would arrest them and shoot them, and send them to Siberia”(Famine Testimony of Tatiana Pawlichka). The author describes how desperate the peasants were in trying to be able to get food from the field and the consequences they had to face. The method used by Stalin to not be seen as an unjust ruler, in and out of the country, is by using propaganda.

Shapoval says that the documents and records show supposed proof that the Soviets preyed on people in the Ukrainian collective farms by disposing of supposed “counterrevolutionary kulak groups” (106), when really Shapoval says they were usually normal Ukrainian peasants. He brings an order by the GPU to all the towns in Ukraine saying that only the GPU were allowed to officially record any deaths, and whenever a town registered any deaths that would occur they were not allowed to list what the cause of the death was, and Shapoval uses this to show another way in which the Soviets hid the famine from the world. Shapoval cites a letter written by Stalin himself where Stalin writes, “starvation still has not taught very many collective farmers good sense,” (qtd. Shapoval 106). He uses this letter as further support towards his ideology that Stalin purposefully enacted the famine. Another measure that Shapoval brings that was ordered upon the Ukrainians was that the peasants were prohibited from leaving their district. Shapoval states that this order was to prevent the Ukrainians from wandering around trying to find bread and subsequently tell other people what atrocities were happening in the Ukraine (106). Not only did they prevent the Ukrainians from finding bread Shapoval says but food was also forbidden to enter Ukraine with out special permission from the government, according to a Soviet Ukrainian government order that issued the ban (107). He only does it once in his article but Shapoval brings a quote by Germany historian Gerhard Simon who he says is correct in saying that there was a “war against the peasantry,” and a

Stalin wasn’t determined to make everyone in the USSR content as much as he was for making it grand, as a whole. Targets for orders he placed were getting harder and harder to achieve since the collection of soviet grain harvest wasn’t meeting expectations (doc7). This eventually lead to a famine but not for everyone, it only affected the peasants working in the fields. Stalin had “taken everything from them” (doc7). News was spread all over about people getting “largely affected by the terrible famine” (doc9).

In his book, Lieven’s argument regarding the word “empire”, is known to be a hazardous and authoritative term that exists throughout the languages of the world. He argues throughout the book that Russia has always been an empire, due to its authoritarian rule. Although it has existed for centuries through the rule of the Tsars, the people who became unified under the USSR regime, had experienced massive amounts of force and control under Lenin, and more so under the reign of Stalin, according to Lieven. In order to prove his argument, Lieven examines the meaning of the term, “empire” and how there have been many attempts and different definitions that have existed throughout the course of many centuries. He divides the book into four sections:

They were killed or sent to the gulag, where a Russian labor-prison comps. The issues was getting deeper. For example, expanded appropriation of grain from the peasants, constrained collectivization, liquidation of the kulaks, production decreases, and hunger were the main links in a chain of occasions that prompted to the famine of 1932-33 in the Soviet. Hunger, which had effectively struck Ukraine before in the year, got to be distinctly across the board. The colossal adversity endured until the harvest of the late spring of 1933. Massimo in his journal talks about the tragedy of Soviet Union, and he compares the rate of death for each year. He mentioned that “It is likely that in 1933 underregistration increased and coverage decreased: in this case the ratio between the death rate in 1933 and that in 1931-32 would have to be raised substantially above the 1.92 level for the entire Soviet Union and 3.61 for Ukraine. With deaths for the years preceding 1933 estimated above 4 million per year, a doubling of the death rate would imply an additional number of deaths of the same size in 1933.” The grain acquisition arrange appeared to be unrealistic: numerous locales were to surrender more bread than they had. The fault was moved onto kulaks, who "want to choke the Soviet government by the bony hand of the famine", as Pavel Postyahev, Secretary of the Central Party Committee,

Despite the 21st century advancements, the world is still plagued with major problems today. Each country, region and continent is facing its own set of struggles and battles. Whether it is an economic, political or social issue, there is always an obstruction that a country is striving to overcome. One of the worldwide issues is ethnic cleansing and genocide. In particular, the South Sudanese civil war is caused by differing opinions of ethnic groups and is leading to the attempt of genocide. Despite the several laws under crimes against humanity opposing this practice, it still does not stop groups from continuing this vile activity. South Sudan is in turmoil due to fighting between those with ethnic differences, specifically the Dinka and the Nuer. These heinous crimes must be stopped before the newly developed country, South Sudan, does not have an opportunity to flourish.

Uzbek society was altered in major ways during the Soviet period; Islam, the traditional religion of the region, became a crucial point in the 1920s for the antireligious drives of Communist zealots. Most mosques were closed, and religious schools became antireligious museums. Uzbeks who were deemed nationalist, who often happened to be practicing Muslims, were targeted for imprisonment and in many cases, execution, during Soviet leader Joseph Stalin¡¦s Great Purge of the 1930s, which extended throughout all levels of Soviet society. (Smith 188) Stalin¡¦s hateful acts towards the simple, rural people of such places as Uzbekistan were setting bad examples among the non-Uzbeks who had moved in earlier. Acts such as the Purge and the on-going ethnic violence inspired by it show how ethnic violence easily sparked up whenever the government encouraged it. However, with the new government, Uzbeks can now be reasonably sure that ethnic minorities will not attack them in their country, and will no longer be backed by the government, they can also be sure that they will not have to attack any ethnic minorities in retaliation. The Uzbeks now feel that since they now choose their own ruler, they can be reasonably