Who Is Joseph Stalin A Machiavellian Leader

The Russian’s loss in the Russo-Japanese war was the another way that they got the public to turn against the provisional government and strengthen the communist revolt. The revolt got stronger and stronger until the Bolsheviks finally revolted and took down the Russian Provisional Government. Because of this, civil war erupted all over the country. At the end of this war, in 1920, the Bolsheviks set up the USSR, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, under control of Vladimir Lenin. When Lenin died, Stalin aggressively worked his way up until he was the leader of the USSR. In his control, Stalin set up a “5 year plan” to advance the Russian economy from just farming to also having industry. In this plan, he would also advance the military and “cleanse the country of villains” or those he saw as villains. To “cleanse the country”, Stalin would have unfair trials that would have many on trial at once. These were called his “Show Trials”. The majority, if not all, of these people were found guilty and sent for execution. They were executed all at once, and the executions were called the Purges. To advance the Russian economy, Stalin would work the farmers to death… literally. When the farmers revolted, Stalin stopped sending them food and even more died from starvation. On the last of the purges, 16 men were put on trial and accused of acts of terrorism towards Stalin and the Soviet government. Two of them were Stalin’s allies after Lenin’s death, Zinovyev and

There are many different ways on how a prince or ruler could come into power and how they choose to rule once in power. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote the book The Prince based on his own personal opinions on how a prince should rule. Machiavelli writes all of his beliefs based on princes and the monarchy in England/France in the fourteenth century. The principalities that Machiavelli wrote about can be compared to many European leaders. One European leader that has some differences to what Machiavelli wrote is Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union. As said before many leaders come into power in different ways and the way Stalin came into power and what he did with that power is different from a Machiavellian ruler.

How does a leader gain and maintain the love of his people when he is killing them in mass numbers? Joseph Stalin was successful in this by following the political tactic of using fear to gain love. A tactic that was highly valued by Nicolo Machiavelli in his work The Prince. “In Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, the main character, and Old Bolshevik, Nikolaiz Rubashov, declares that “Number one” (Stalin) kept Machiavelli’s The Prince as his favorite night-table book” (Tisemanean). Stalin’s strategy of leadership can be closely compared to the strategies that Machiavelli describes in The Prince. A work that received much controversy over the lessons it preached to political leaders. It coined the phrase “the end justify the means” which follows as a consequence of considering vice a virtue. Stalin used many vices to gain and maintain his state till the day he died. Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn work, The First Circle, showcased how even on death’s door Stalin still used traits treasured in a Machiavellian prince. This paper will assess how Stalin follows Machiavelli’s guidelines for a prince in the areas of war, fear, crime, and in dealing with the people.

Question: How far did Stalin achieve and maintain what Kruchev described as “the accumulation of immense and limitless power”, in the USSR between 1924 and 1945?

Stalin wanted communism, power, and glory. He would do anything to get what he wanted. For people to obey and follow his rules he would do anything. Even killing people and their family. Stalin was a ruthless man with no remorse. He demanded respect and obedience from his people and anyone who turned against him were killed. No doubt about getting killed or sent to gulags if you wanted to disobey Stalin. If anyone wanted to rebel against Stalin’s orders then he would order his soldiers to kill them. No one got away with talking bad about Stalin or disobeying. Stalin would find out and would kill them. Soon the whole Soviet Union wanted to rebel against Stalin but he was too powerful to stop.

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.

This strategy disposed Stalin of any political opposition, which helped him sustain his power. Another major method that Stalin used to maintain his power was the use of propaganda to portray himself as a benevolent father figure. While at the same time he was committing mass murder. In Ukraine alone he killed ten million people in only two years! Many historians agree that Stalin killed over sixty million people. Why did he kill so much people? This can be traced back to Machiavelli’s The Prince. As discussed before, The Prince teaches that a ruler should have the fear of the people. Stalin slaughtered so many people to prevent any opposition to his reign. He eliminated all the strong people, both the intellectual and physical; therefore the few left would be too afraid and too weak, physically and mentally, to resist. Stalin did exactly what Machiavelli stated in the Prince, which was also stated above, “ And here it has to be noted that men must be either pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge fore small injuries but not fore grievous ones.” Stalin stated “ Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem.”, “ Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.”, and “ I trust no one, not even myself.” As it can be clearly seen, Joseph Stalin epitomises most of Machiavelli’s beliefs that are stated in The Prince. Therefore, Stalin can be consider Machiavelli’s ideal prince.

Putin enjoys going against the grain and fits Machiavelli’s words as someone who “must by as sly as the fox and as brutal as a lion.” Putin is never afraid to strike down groups with force, but his reputation in Syria is one of vicious swiftness. What makes Putin even more of a Machiavelli Leader is his ability to fly under the international radar, usually including the United Nations, with his motives. Another quality that Putin possesses is his manner of striving to be feared rather than revered by his people. For example, in his time in office, Vladimir Putin has struck fear into the hearts of countless Russians; with the ban of homosexuality. Not only is Putin feared by his people but he also has approval ratings of nearly eighty percent in the most recent years. This fits Machiavelli’s words in The Prince, “the wise prince makes himself feared in such a way that, if he does not gain love, he escapes hatred.” This in totality, makes Putin the ideal Machiavelli Leader because of his ability to properly blend fear and the ability to not be hated.

Throughout the history of the world there have been many leaders taking power and doing an extremely bad job of leading their people. Two leaders that are examples of people who abused their power are Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the disgraceful holocaust where he used his power to take the lives of over six million innocent jews. Josef Stalin on the other hand was so power hungry that he lead a mass killing of many of his government officials because he was so paranoid that all of his followers were against him. These two men together did some of the most terrible things with their power, so the question may be raised, how did they get their power in the first place?

In “the Prince” Machiavelli says to be loved and feared but if it comes down to it to be feared. Joseph Stalin was the ruler or dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929 to 1953. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was transformed from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower. However, he ruled by terror, and millions of his own citizens died during his brutal reign. USSR suffered 56 to 62 million deaths during that period, with 34 to 49 million claiming all to be because of

Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952. In 1939, Stalin made a pact with Hitler to remain neutral in WWII. This changed when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Stalin worked to get Poland on his side during the war as it was the only country between The Soviet Union and Germany. Our side of the war, Stalin was a brutal dictator that mirrored some of the ways of Hitler. Stalin would so crucial things including making a list of names that were to be killed or sent to camps. Although Stalin is seen as the worst dictator Russia has ever had, it is to be said that he strengthened the country's military and helped the country keep order after WWI.

What was the Russian government under Lenin like? What kinds of tasks did it attempt to achieve: Vladimir Lenin chose the timing of the communist takeover perfectly. The Russians were so tired of fighting that when the takeover took place it faced hardly any resistance. The problem was that this passive demeanor wouldn't last long. Communism is such a radical jump of ideologies you cannot expect everyone to suddenly embrace it with open arms. Consequently, this led to the Bolsheviks becoming dictators in order to maintain rule.

Stalin broke the Soviet people, ruined the Soviet economy, and reduced Soviet culture and intellectual life to slavish dependency on the state--and the consequences of his terrible rule still reverberate all across Russia and the former Soviet Union. He tortured and killed so many of his own people, with guns or famine, that the exact number can never be known--Russians today refer to the victims as the "Twenty Million," and even that may be too low an estimate. His belligerent policies helped to unleash the Cold War that locked our planet into a "balance of terror" for some forty years. He supported and inspired copycat dictators, from Kim Il Sung in North Korea to Pol Pot in Cambodia, whose own toll of victims reaches into the millions. He was a destructive force, perhaps the most destructive human being of this long and bloody century--more destructive even than his great rival, Hitler, whose own regime went down under the boots of the Red Army. He was a political genius with the soul of a sadistic thug, a paranoid and cruel man with his hands on the reins of a great nation; the shadow that he casts, even today, is long and dark and full of

Joseph Stalin life ended bearing a reputation of being a brutal dictator that killed, destroyed his people. His wish for a new start meant inevitable death for millions. Stalin ruled for nearly three decades in which he transformed the Soviet Union from an agricultural economy into an industrialized society, He led his country during WWII and played a major role in the defeat of Germany’s Hitler. The Soviet Union was turned into a superpower to stand beside the United States. But Stalin’s dark side was apparent in immeasurable arrests, purges, deportations and executions which earned him the reputation the cruelest leaders in modern history.

The Prince is a political novel written by Niccolo Machiavelli, a famed Italian political theorist. In the novel, he does an extended analysis of how to acquire and maintain political power. Machiavelli’s words have influenced many leaders throughout contemporary history. For example, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Putin are all Machiavellian leaders. They applied his concepts to their power, therefore helping them to rule more effectively. This essay will look at three different Machiavellian quotes, and connecting them to the leaders listed above.