Joseph Stalin : A Leader Of The Soviet Union

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.

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.

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 German leader was a tyrant dictator that control Germany with an iron fist. A man known for his widespread evil and the 11 million people that died because of his choices, his name was Adolf Hitler. This man was the most well known cause of World War II. He was the one to gain control of Germany once it was in utter chaos and lead it to become the most well known evil force in history. We would gain the support of the people and join the newly establish Nazi party. Which this party would be responsible for acts against human such as killing six million Jew in the holocaust.

Joseph Stalin was the very powerful leader of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. He brought socialism to Russia, which was the central tenet of the soviet society. Under Stalin’s rule, the Soviet Union played a huge role in taking down Nazi Germany and Hitler. Although Hitler and Stalin signed the non-aggression pact I didn’t stop them from fighting.

Stalin’s “revolution from above” reshaped the Soviet Union through his many policies including his Five Year Plans, industrialization and collectivization. The Soviet Union was transformed from technologically backward to industrialized. Carter’s view that history is driven from above or from below relates to Fitzpatrick and Bailes’ essays because they show that Stalin’s policies to create a new elite were prompted by the social mobility of the working class. The education of the working class and the fact that the Communists were mainly working class prompted Stalin to put anti-intelligentsia policies in place in order. The working class became more educated and technically skilled while also being promoted to higher, more powerful administrative positions. Praktiki were those who were promoted without being formally educated because they were loyal to Stalin and had practical experience. This shows that the new elite was created through the upward mobility of the technically educated and those who were not. Stalin’s polices were created as a result of what was happening in the working class. The creation of the new elite shows that while this elite acted as the administration and policy makers of the Soviet Union, they had come from below, the working class. The social mobility of the lower classes may have caused them to be more supportive of the government and this would influence the history of Russia as a whole. The elite was created by Stalin and was aimed to

Stalin ruled up until his own death in 1953. He was known as a brutal leader who was responsible for the deaths of over 20 million people.

Stalin really never knew any other life than the constant chaos and violence that surrounded him. Much of Stalin 's violent temper stems from his childhood where violence and poverty were dominate. "The root of Stalin 's inexhaustible cynicism is sought to be here.. in his formative years where all parts of society seemed to treat him cruelly so he turned his back on society and became anti social.” In his early years, Stalin suffered from beatings by both of his parents for no apparent reason. At age 7 he contracted smallpox, which left his face scarred and his arm slightly deformed. Because he looked so different, other children called him names and treated him cruelly. This is what instilled his inferiority.

Communist leader Joseph Stalin once promulgated “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” Attesting to the manner in which war assimilates the mind into accepting death, Stalin’s words came to fruition in the minds of leaders during the American Civil War, a four year strife over sectionalism. While both sides suffered heavy losses, the Union was ultimately able to defeat the Confederates States of America in 1865 after the Confederates surrendered. Nonetheless, such defeat could have been avoided in the case that the South held true to their values and exhibited the resilience which many believed characterized the South. All in all, the Civil War could have become a victory for the Confederates States of America, in retrospect, on the basis that they would have obeyed the principle delineated by noted war General Sun Tzu which reads “If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”

After the death of Bolshevik leader and revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin, in 1924, it was decided that Joseph Stalin would become the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. Stalin’s views on the strength of the Soviet economy and the institution of the Marxist-Leninist ideals in the society were that it was in a dire state. He believed that through a series of Five-Year Plans, the Soviet Union would be able to reach the economic and technological levels of the further advanced countries of the time, stating that it would need to be within ten years, otherwise they would fall too far behind.

By the eruption of the First World War, Czarist Russia “resembled a pressure cooker under which the flames of revolutionary unrest had been steadily building for decades, but on which the conservative czarist monarchy up until that time had kept the lid” (Black). For the first time ever, a major world country would be under the control of a party dedicated to the ideology of Marx’s illiberal communism. Over time, the course of events would dictate that this new country, bound to the ideological premise of eradicating capitalism and the class that supported it, would face major opposition both within and without. Condoleezza Rice attempts to explain the Soviet strategy and development during the years after the First World War until Stalin’s death, the early stages of the Cold War. This paper will expound and develop her argument that Soviet strategy assumptions were based in the consolidation of power by the Bolshevik party via the military, the personal decisions and consequences of Joseph Stalin, and the use of continual struggle and inevitability of war to maintain and propagate the Soviet experiment.

Joseph Stalin, leader of Russia (1928-1953), created a Five-Year Plan that included methods and goals which were detrimental to Russian agriculture in 1928. Stalin wanted to transform individual farms into large collective farms because he saw that the government was losing money to private traders. This required that the majority of farmers would have to work and live together on large state-run farms. Through these farms Stalin hoped to increase agricultural productivity, to create grain reserves for Russia, and to free many peasants for industrial work in the cities. In order to begin collectivization Stalin had about 5 million wealthier peasants, or kulaks, deported and/or killed and their equipment and livestock sent to collective farms.

Vladimir Lenin was the founder of the Russian Communist party. Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution. Vladimir Lenin did not have that good of health and had many strokes. On January 21, 1924 Vladimir died of a stroke. Russian communism still stayed around after Vladimir’s death.

(2)Stalin period was a significant period that his leadership had led the Soviet Union to develop in a very different way that contradicted to the thoughts of Lenin and Marx. Suny argued that Stalin constituted a “revolution from above,” which meant Stalin as a leader, led the people to make lots of changes by giving orders from the top of the hierarchy. The people were following him instead of initiating the changes and reforms. The industrialization, collectivization, and cultural conservatism (or cultural revolution, which was a term later China borrowed and used in a similar way) were Stalin’s major policies or ideologies that presented his “revolution from above” and a discontinuity between him and former Communist leaders.

Joseph Stalin is now remembered as one of the most ruthless and powerful dictators of all time. His regime was one of terror and oppression, and resulted in the deaths of millions of Soviets.