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Joseph Stalin Essays

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Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1954. He is widely recognized as a dictator, an oppressor, and a ruthless ruler who took the Soviet Union from economic shambles to a superpower, but with the high cost of human sacrifice and his paranoia of opposition. Stalin saw himself as the natural successor of Leninism-Marxism, but in actuality he created a system of his own which did not go according to the philosophy of Karl Marx and Engels. Stalin’s early political career began just like everyone else who gained prominence in the Bolshevik takeover of the Russian Empire. Lenin had successfully launched his revolution in October, 1917 and became the leader of the Russian Communist Party until his death in January …show more content…

Stalin’s form of Marxism was based on a totalitarian system of power in the hands of one leader, Stalin and the Communist Party which was run by him. The economic policies of Stalinism forced industrialization and collectivization as the two main tools for boosting the Soviet Union onto the world stage. Also, the population of the Soviet Union was controlled by the party and Stalin with the use of propaganda, and Stalin’s cult of personality. Any opposition would be repressed, including deportation to gulags which were labor camps in Siberia and other republics of the Soviet Union and most of the time, the opposition would face death by Stalin’s purges and the NKVD, the secret police organization lead by Lavrentiy Beria. An example of Stalin’s economic policies was the five year plans that were bestowed upon the large peasantry class of the Soviet Union. Unlike Stalinism, Karl Marx and Engels explained in their works such as the Communist Manifesto that popular revolution would be key to economic, social, and political reform. There was no mention ever of a single person who would lead the revolution and proclaim him to be the most powerful and rule a communist state as a dictator. Eventually, Communism would turn itself into Socialism, and the proletariat class would rule themselves in favor of national interest for all. Karl Marx held the notion that class struggle

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