What If Stalin Never Rose To Power
Joseph Stalin, the tyrannical dictator of the USSR, whose rule was built off of fear and ideological brainwashing. The legacy of his actions casted a shadow over modern history. He was a complex figure, he was a small, uninspiring, and sickly man was somehow able to rule the largest country in the world by sheer brutality. Him ruling at this crucial moment in history, changed everything. Without Stalin, the world?s thought on a lot of ideas would change. The question is, how did he rise to power? and what would happen without him?
At 1901, Stalin (when he was young) after reading the words of Vladimir Lenin (the leader of the revolution), he began running with a revolutionary Bolshevik movement, bent on bringing down a corrupt autocracy and became comrades with Lenin himself. The Bolsheviks at this time were very weak, so much so that they had to pull off a bank heist to fund their movement. For the next 17 years, the Bolsheviks slowly became prominent as anger and distrust rose against the tsar?s reign. It?s at the first WW when Russia was planning to attack the Germans, and then fail to do so. This brutal and pointless war leaves the tsar in a really bad predicament with the people.
1917 comes by and, Lenin who has been exiled for years returns back to Russia, and the revolution can begin. Russia drops
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Trotsky believed that Soviets must fund Socialist uprisings across the world to achieve Communism. Under Trotsky something called Soviet Democracy would?ve been established in the USSR. The USSR would?ve been made up of numerous democratically-elected workers? councils ( Soviets) who would elect their own representatives to the larger council. It?s almost like a union, a Soviet Union get it? This is what was meant by dictatorship instead of nobles, capitalists, or priests making the
- In 1905, workers started to rebel all across Russia, and starting 1917, Russia gets involved in World War I, which Lenin found it as a good chance to implement his Communist revolution. - The Russian army in Petrograd breaks up due to the Bolsheviks and so
It is true that Stalin’s rule positively affected Russia, after all, the Soviet Union did become a major military superpower under his government, and the economy also thrived. However, to fulfill these achievements Stalin acted as a harsh and cruel dictator. He ruthlessly killed people who opposed his form of government in his Great Purges. And his execution countless kulaks cannot be forgiven. Instead of protecting
Bolsheviks' Seizure of Power in 1917 There are many factors that help explain how and why the Bolsheviks managed to seize power in 1917. It was a combination of long and short term causes that together, created a revolution. The political system itself was long overdue for reform, but with a weak Tsar, the economic and social conditions became worse and worse. In 23 years, Nicholas II dropped from the glorious ‘Little Father of Russia’ to prisoners of his own country, hatred and despised by the majority, for the suffering and unhappiness he had helped create.
Almost everyone knows what a monster Adolf Hitler was, but most people do not know that one of the great ally leader of World War II, Joseph Stalin, had committed even greater atrocities than Hitler. Joseph Stalin was a ruthless and yet diligent dictator of the Soviet Union, whose rise to power influenced a multitude of major events in his country’s history. Due to Stalin’s impactful reign, he made the Soviet Union become a global superpower, underwent difficult hardships such as the Great Famine in the Soviet Union, and after his death, caused the Soviet Union to go through a process known as de-Stalinization.
In 1917, in the midst of the Great War, Russia faced one of the biggest political shifts that the Tsarist-ruled country had ever known-the Bolshevik Revolution. There are two significant time frames associated with the Bolshevik Revolution. In the February revolution Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his throne and a Provisional Government took control. In the October revolution the Bolsheviks took power by overthrowing the Provisional Government. How did the October revolution become a reality? What factors facilitated the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917? Two important factors were the July event at Taurida Palace, and the Kornilov Affair. Richard Pipes describes in detail how Lenin influenced the Bolshevik party throughout the
The events which led to Stalin’s rise to power were not simple and it was
Stalin was extremely ambitious and his initial taste of power had made him even more egotistical. Trotsky fled but was hunted down and eliminated to ensure Stalin retained power. The long term effects of this ensured that future opponents of Stalin would also be eliminated. With Lenin dead and Trotsky eliminated Stalin realized he was now able to concentrate on his own policies. He abandoned Lenin's idea of 'World Revolution' and adopted his own policy of 'Socialism in One Country'.
During the 1900’s the Russian Government made it extremely hard for the Bolsheviks to progress which made them revolt against the government making this a prime matter for the start of the Revolution. The Czarist government was ostracized by the common people of Russia so Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown by the Provisional Government, whom later on were overthrown by Lenin and shortly after the Bolsheviks took control over Russia. Russia was hard to develop because of the major leaders who had control; Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky. Almost overnight an entire society was destroyed and replaced with one of the most radical social experiments ever seen. Poverty, crime, privileged and class-divisions were to be eliminated, a new era of socialism
In 1917 the Russian revolution had began, this was the biggest factor in the fall of the Romanov dynasty. The white Russians arrested the tsarist and abdicated him from his throne putting Nicholas and his family on house arrest and he was no longer known as the Tsar, replacing him with a Bolshevik government. The red Russians had captured Nicholas and his family causing a civil war between the white and red Russians. In July 1918 Lenin and his red Russian squad had won the civil war, and shot Nicholas and his family, leaving Russia a communist country until the 1990’s.
Joseph Stalin, from the time that he was a low level revolutionary to the years that he spent as the dictator of the Soviet Union, always knew what he needed to do to achieve his goals. His organized rise to power allowed him to gain a steady flow of followers who would support him for decades to come. Stalin received a minor government position in 1917, but by the time a new leader was needed in 1924, he “had turned the largely routine post of Party general secretary into the most powerful office in the Soviet Union” (“Joseph Stalin) and “had built a personal empire for himself through his control over committee appointments at all levels . . . expand[ing] the leading Party organs with his supporters, who then voted against his rivals”
One of the most important reasons why Stalin won the power struggle is that he used his high positions in the Communist party and the power that came with it to his advantage. Several factors fall under this category. Firstly is how Stalin used his position as General Secretary, as well as jealousies between the leaders and Trotsky’s illness to stage-manage Lenin’s funeral. To the general public, it appeared that Stalin was very close to Lenin, and as a result
Joseph Stalin used his intellect, and power, to outmanoeuvre his rivals to become leader of the Soviet Union. Using carefully planned propaganda including, painting, statues, and a series of cultivated posters Stalin immortalised and glorified his leadership. These state-manufactured images created a ‘cult of personality' around him, subsequently, creating an image of a heroic worshipped figure, who was associated with every aspect of soviet society. Stalin controlled the media and according to the historian Moshe Lewin, Stalin single handily, ‘become the system,’ (Lewin in Pittaway, 2008, p.137.)
Yet it was Joseph Stalin who was eventually to emerge as leader of the party. This was largely because Stalin was a clever and astute politician, who was seen as being a man of the people. He was able to manoeuvre himself into a position of power through his role as General Secretary of the Communist Party. Once in power, he exerted an iron grip on the USSR. Stalin’s aims differed from Lenin’s in that he did not expect to spread Communism worldwide until Communism was secure in the USSR.
Once eliminating Trotsky, Stalin’s idea of, “socialism in our country,” inevitably meant that Russia needed strength. The productions in the USSR had almost reached pre-war levels by the mid-1920s, but the population of Russia had also increased by 20 million people. No matter, Stalin assured that maximum efforts and resources would be given to the expansion and strengthening of Russia herself rather than an effort to start a revolution elsewhere. This is explained in his famous 1931 speech, gaining power for himself. The people had nowhere else to turn to and needed a leader. Stalin was there and knew what to do to make the people interested in his ideas, thus acquired their trust and control. From these ideas, he created his first
To the Russian people Vladimir Lenin was an important historical figure and the creator of the Soviet System. Lenin was not always a radical revolutionary, but he transformed into one after reading the books that his older brother had in his library. Lenin’s older brother was executed as a radical by the regime which created an early hatred for the Tsar. Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik party and helped to rally support to the party even while in exile through the multiple pieces of writing that he produced. Lenin helped to promote the revolution in 1905 and was only stopped by the outbreak of World War One. While the tsarist Government survived the revolution in 1905 they would fail to do so in the February Revolution which occurred in 1917. After the Tsar fell a provisional government was set up which floundered and failed while Lenin and his Bolsheviks gained power. After being sent back to Russia by Germany, Lenin created his April Thesis which said that the power should be transferred to his soviet socialist party. At first, the Bolsheviks were a minority but by September 1917 they gained the majority and took the power from the provisional government in the October Revolution. After the Revolution, a civil war broke out between the Bolshevik Red army and the anti-Bolshevik White army. Which the Reds eventually won with the leadership of Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin.