A leader is defined as a guiding or directing head. Stalin was the leader of the party that was in charge of the Soviet Union. He created a totalitarian regime which brought great suffering to the Russian people. The individual Russian played two distinct roles under Stalin. One role would be that of a person who under Stalin’s system was no different than the person who is standing next to them. Everyone was treated equal in all facets. The other role the individual Russian played was that of a victim. We are able to see by many different accounts that an individual had different roles to play and under Stalin, each role came with a price that sometimes lead to death. The role of the individual Russian played a huge role in Stalin’s aim …show more content…
The individual was to be Indoctrinated into the philosophy and meaning of what the regime wanted to convey. When someone stepped out of line and spoke ill of Stalin or the government, even if it was the truth, they would be removed from society. The government did away with individuals who were troublesome to the regime. These individuals were not who the government wanted, they wanted someone who would be obedient, not free thinking and do over anything, what was needed for Stalin and the Soviet Union. More and more individuals were being sent to the gulags just because they disagreed with the regime. Individuals would get years or decades as a sentence for publishing a poem or paper. There would be false charges, confessions, and sentences just to fill the void of workers in the camps by anyone unlucky enough to be singled out (Ulam 312). Military men would go from being in service on day, to being a prisoner the next. No one was safe and everyone lived in fear that at any time, their lives could be changed and they could be sent away. Stalin’s plan was not to create a “final solution” for his people. Stalin had a vision, a grand plan that would bring the Soviet Union to the forefront of the world and make other countries recognized the collective success that he did for the Soviet Union and its people. The individualized person was a means to an end. Stalin had the man power to finalize his grandiose vision. If a person though did not
Joseph Stalin was a callous dictator who governed the Soviet Union for nearly thirty years. He rose to power as the General Secretary of the Communist Party and became the dictator of Russia after Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924. Stalin was known for his Marxist-Leninist ideology, but his policies soon became known as Stalinism. He rose through the ranks and became one of the most powerful leaders and communist revolutionaries that Russia had ever seen. A few of Stalin’s policies did in fact benefit the social, political and economic prosperity of the country, but overall, his leadership was detrimental to the Soviet Union and its people.
For his role in leading the Soviet Union through WWII, one of the worst crises that the country has ever faced, Joseph Stalin is remembered as a leader who held his nation together. Stalin however, is also responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviet Union citizens, ranging in ethnicity from Polish to Russian to Ukrainian. Abuses of power such as the Great Famine of 1932-1933 resulted in the deaths of 7-8 million people, due to Stalin implementing policies of collectivism that fitted his view of an ideal communist society (Midlarsky 265). Many similar instances of massive abuses of power, from executing and exiling political opponents to ethnic cleansing to prevent nationalistic uprisings, mar the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. His extremist ideology that advocated violent revolution, as well as a childhood filled with abuse and violence and a chaotic environment influenced him, creating the man that would terrorize and murder millions of people. He would not however, been able to abuse his power without first obtaining the authority and capability to do as such. Stalin’s political manipulation and shrewdness were peerless, and they granted him positioning to take over and consolidate power within the communist party, as well as establish himself as the legitimate heir to Lenin. Stalin’s establishment of a cult of personality around his past actions helped to eliminated future opposition to his power, and provided stability against potential overthrowing of his
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.
One of the most brutal mistakes made by Stalin was the creation of a GULAG. It is difficult to give a precise characterization of its purpose. The aim of this work is to answer the question, “Can we generalize why certain people were able to survive the Gulag more than others?” To survive the Gulag, many prisoners had to fight with others for food, shelter, and simple medical care. Certain prisoners went into religious and intellectual meditations to preserve at least the appearance of intelligence. The survival required willpower, strength of mind, skills, mercilessness, and a lot of luck.
The Soviet Union Gulag was a massive system of forced labor camps to which those who were imprisoned were sent to. People could be incarcerated in a Gulag camp or prison for crimes such as unexcused absences or late from work, petty theft or anti-government jokes. Throughout its history, about 18 million people passed through its camps and prisons. About half of the prisoners were sent to Gulag camps without trials so many times it was innocent people. Many people died of hunger, cold and hard labor, but the exact number of deaths is still unknown, it is speculated for it to be over
Joseph Stalin was the political leader of the Soviet Union during the twentieth century. Stalin’s leadership style was most commonly defined as brutal due to him abolishing private ownership, as well as his numerous political purges that resulted in the deaths of thousands of officials within the communist party. While in the end Stalin did lead the Soviets to win World War II, a large number of lives were lost in the process.
The Great Purge was a period of extreme oppression in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Previous purges involved the persecutions of upper class peasants. The Great Purge is characterized by imprisonments and executions of not only of the
DICTATORS of hermetically sealed nations do terrible things to their people to retain power. Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot are perhaps the most infamous examples in recent history of despots who controlled every waking moment of their subjects' lives from inside the impenetrable boundaries of their countries.
Stalin was very harsh and strict about his rules as a leader. He went too far when anyone who didn’t agree with his rules were sent away to Siberian ¨work¨ camps, and for the Ukrainians who wouldn't give up their farms they got all of their crops confiscated. Causing the starvation of 10 million Ukrainian people. When the depression hit Japanese exports to the USA and Europe stopped because they had to focus on their own industries. That cost a lot of jobs in Japan, silk farmers suffered and the rice crops also failed and caused famine. People became frustrated and started to blame the government.They were angry and needed to do something about it. Japan went too far when they invaded Manchuria in 1931. Hitler was a very powerful influential
Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union after Lenin died. While in power he instituted a reign of terror, but at the same time he was also modernizing Russia and helped to defeat Nazim. Stalin played a big part during the war, along with changing the Russia to more of a collectivism state. Stalin rose to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party, this gave Stalin control over all party members appointments (“Joseph Stalin”). After Lenin died in 1924, he rose to take over Lenin’s position, and started exiling people to Europe and the Americas. Stalin then began his reign of terror, he would have people arrested and purged on, these purges went to extend past the party elite to local officials.
The Gulags of the Soviet Union have been compared to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, but in reality they were worse. The Gulags were isolated prison camps peppered across Siberia. Death, torture, and disease raged within their walls, while endless work went on outside. Gulag personnel were cruel and unfeeling, using terrible punishment methods and playing senseless games that cost prisoners their lives. Political enemies of the Bolshevik party made up a significant portion of the prisoner population, with most sent to the infamous camp system Kolyma. Liberation was painfully slow, but by 1960, all of the Gulags were gone.
Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from 1922-1953, when he died. He was responsible for one of the most notable and devastating genocides, the Great Purge. His vicious reign took the lives of around 20-60 million people by his rigid and cruel treatment. Through his exploitation of the lower class and his manipulative abuse of power, Stalin created one of the worst examples of leadership in history. It takes an interesting character to be able to execute the cruelties displayed in his regime and the traits that Stalin developed into his cult of personality were likely acquired as a child and adolescent.
Joseph Stalin was a ruthless dictator who killed millions of his own people. Stalin maneuvered his way through the ranks until he was the leader of the Communist party. He then proceeded to attempt to gain complete control on the country through the government. Stalin was involved in World War II with Germany until Hitler turned on Stalin. In the end, all Joseph Stalin accomplished was tearing apart the U.S.S.R.
Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the USSR from 1929 to 1953 (Findley pg. 85). Joseph Stalin during his reign changed the Soviet Union from a civilization of peasants into an industrial superpower. He dictated causing disaster, death and terror. Many of his own citizens died during his dictatorship. After the death of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Stalin surpassed his rivals for control of the Soviet party (Findley pg.85) During Stalin’s reign, he set out to mass together farming to try to make his plans of making the Soviet an industrial superpower. He had people who opposed him or who gave the impression of being the enemy executed or sent to forced labor camps (Findley pg. 86-87). Stalin during the years of 1939 to 1945 allied with the
Born in December 21, 1879 Joseph Stalin the dictator of the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics, grew up in Gori, Russia to become the ruler of the Soviet Union and the leader of the world's communism for around 30 years. Stalin was known for his crude and cruel ways. He was known to kill anyone who threatened power. His pitilessness was astonishing and his casualties ended the lives of several millions of Soviet individuals. Not to mention, he also drove a worldwide battle to "socialize" the world, which brought about the deaths of many millions around the world. He was the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (USSR) after Vladimir Lenin who died in 1924. Stalin led the Soviet Union until he passed in 1953. The USSR founded in December 30 1922 and dissolved in 1991. Until 1989 the Communist party secretly