Legacy of Communist Leaders

Throughout the 1920's and 30's Joseph Stalin was able to rise to power and build a totalitarian state. After Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, Stalin was able to maneuver his way to the top. Stalin was able to rise to power, build a totalitarian state, and was able to disrupt and transform soviet society by using propaganda.

“When there’s a person, there’s a problem. When there’s no person, there’s no problem” (Joseph Stalin). Who was Joseph Stalin, the man behind this quote? He was a communist leader who rose to the top using fear and intimidation. Well, what is communism? Communism is a type of government where the leaders control everything. Also, in communism the people have to share everything. It was founded by Marx and Engles in the late 1800’s. Overall, communism is a type of government where the leaders have complete power.

Joseph Stalin greatly influenced Russia in the years 1924 through 1932. His rise to this power can be explained by the Russian Revolutionary experience that allowed him to gain authority in Russia. Although historians often refer to Stalin as a ruthless, mindless dictator, he redirected the Russian Revolution to major economic development. Stalin’s character in Russia during the Revolution catalyzed the many events that took place during the time period. Because of Stalin’s ability to both appeal to the masses, and take advantage of events, like Lenin’s death, Stalin was able to rise to power. Essentially, the Russian Revolution fostered the development of Stalin’s dictatorship leading the country into a state of economic growth and influence. The Revolution fostered Stalin’s ability to maintain a central leadership, use violence to gain control, and regenerate a previously disconnected economy.

Communism is a political and social act where everything was controlled by the Government and the citizens having no say. Life in Russia has forever been different than that of Canada. Although Russia claims to be a democracy, its citizens do not fully know the idea of freedom. Joseph Stalin had a plan to make Russia the super power of the world but ultimately failed because communism never works. Stalin released new ideas that he thought would help improve the economy but never actually did. From the time that Stalin came into power in 1924, up until his death in 1953 he transformed Russia’s previously more week society into an active military and industrial superpower striking fear and terror into its citizens. Stalin did play a huge role in defeating the Axis power in WWII but is seen as a communist who was a ruthless ruler responsible for the deaths of over 20 million people. Although some people believe that Joseph Stalin’s plan for communism was good, in reality many horrors affected his people, the economy, and the future of Russia.

Following the timeline of Josef Stalin’s ruling as a leader of Soviet Russia, it can be seen that his positive accomplishments brought Russia from a period of

The assumption of power by Joseph Stalin was arguably one of the most significant periods of Bolshevik Russia’s history. Stalin is recognised as one of the most influential men to have ever lead Russia, and he did so through the largest war the world has ever faced, World War II, and through the beginning of one of the most tense periods of modern history, the Cold War. It is easy however, to get lost in the legacy Stalin left behind, and forget about the events leading up to his total control over the communist regime of the 20th century Russia.

The Russian history from 1922 to 1991 was actually history of the Soviet Union, which encompassed Russia, Ukrainian Byelorussian, and Transcaucasia republics. Communism was the main government for the first few years, which appeared to not work as they tried to centralize the economy during the

Stalin formed a centralized government that did not tolerate any other opinions. He wanted to control everyone and all parts of their life. Over the next several years, Stalin started to bring in all industrial and agricultural systems under control of the government. This was done under what was called Stalin’s Five year plans. One of the main things Stalin did was seize farmer’s lands and force them to give all of their produce to the government. The government would then sell the produce to other countries for profit and leave the farmers and their families with almost nothing. Stalin also took control over all parts of the government and military. He eliminated any leaders who did not agree with him and follow his commands. Stalin strengthened the Secret Police that had been created by Lenin, after the revolution, and all Russian citizens were afraid to say anything against Stalin and the communists because the Secret Police were

Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Putin are two of the most famous and influential figures of Russian history. Joseph Stalin’s iron fist ruled Russia from the mid-1920’s until his death in 1953. Under Stalin’s totalitarian government, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics played a pivotal role in several major conflicts, including World War II and the Cold War. Stalin’s main goal seemed to be expanding Russia and spreading the influence of communism. Contrastingly, Vladimir Putin has held power from 1999 to the present day. Under his government, Russia became increasingly corrupt with more aspects of a totalitarian government. Nevertheless, the Russian economy has grown at a steady rate of about seven per cent per year and poverty in Russia was halved. His overarching goal seems to be returning Russia to its former Soviet glory. Although definite differences exist between the two leaders, both leaders aim to expand Russia’s borders and power.

Between 1900-1960 CE, Russia/Soviet Union had undergone major developments in which their political ideologies progressed from an absolute monarchy to communism. Another major development in Russia was the change in the status of religion as the power of religion progressively decreased as communism arose. Although Russia’s political ideologies and the status of religion has changed, the forms of governance in Russia generally remained the same. Russia at the time were faced with millions of casualties from both World War I and World War II, this caused their government to be in turmoil which then lead to the major changes in the Soviet Union.

One of the many things that helped him accomplish this was his plan of Collectivization in the Soviet Union. Socialism is a system of government where everything is shared and controlled by the government, so no individual owns anything and everyone is equal. Joseph Stalin’s idea of collectivization in the Soviet Union has many similarities with a Socialistic government. Collectivization says that instead of all the land being divided up into individual farms owned by many different people, the government should own all the land and everyone shares the farms equally. On paper, collectivization was a very good idea, but in reality the plan had flaws. The government became greedy and began to keep most of the food and profits earned by using these government-owned farms. When the government began keeping more food and money than they should, the people became hungry, and thousands upon thousands of people died from

It can be argued that Lenin was the most significant leader of Russia and the USSR due to his revolutionary ideas, such as the implementation of socialist reforms, his New Economic Policy in 1921 and the transformation of the Bolshevik faction to the Communist Part of the Soviet Union leading to a huge Marxist-Leninist movement in the USSR. However, when assessing the ‘significance’ of a leader, it’s crucial that four main themes are taken into account, these being – economics, foreign policy, social change and leadership ability. It can be argued that other leaders of Russia and the USSR have been more

Russia before the Bolshevik revolution was an unsettling time. Coming out of the bolshevik revolution, Russia had undergone a change in government which would change its future forever. The Tsar had been overthrown and Vladimir Lenin, the head of the revolution, had risen to power. At the time, the ruling party was called the New All-Russian Communist Party which would later be renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After the death of Lenin, the power was held by Joseph Stalin. Although Stalin was the leader who kept his country in fear and had silenced millions to keep power, without him, Russia would not be the political and economic superpower that it is today if it were not for Stalin’s needed atrocities.

Stalin had built a totalitarian state in Russia, which employed all of the devised methods of control and persuasion. Stalin’s Soviet Union spreaded mass communication through propaganda and tricked his citizens into believing the lies the government had told. The social life of the soviet citizens were greatly improved as many citizens got a better education and many other developments. Although the new modifications helped the citizens it came at a price. Education was controlled by the Soviet Union and books were strictly censored by the state. The Soviet Union taught atheism at school while beginning to attack churches and destroyed them. (Which was ironic considering that Stalin was raised in the greek orthodox church.) Stalin then persecuted

Joseph Stalin’s three decade long dictatorship rule that ended in 1953, left a lasting, yet damaging imprint on the Soviet Union in political, economic and social terms. “Under his inspiration Russia has modernised her society and educated her masses…Stalin found Russia working with a wooden plough and left her equipped with nuclear power” (Jamieson, 1971). Although his policies of collectivisation and industrialisation placed the nation as a leading superpower on the global stage and significantly ahead of its economic position during the Romanov rule, this was not without huge sacrifices. Devastating living and working standards for the proletariat, widespread famine, the Purges, and labour camps had crippling impacts on Russia’s social