Stalin And The Soviet Union

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

On the domestic front, Khrushchev worked to increase agricultural production and raise living standards. He also reduced the control of the Soviet Union’s feared secret police; released many immorally accused political prisoners, released control of artistic censorship, opened more of the country to foreign visitors, and commenced the space age in 1957 with the launch of the satellite Sputnik.

Khrushchev argued for a return to Leninism, and affirmed that Stalinism was separate from Lenin’s idea of socialism. This was the first attempt (post-Stalin) to redefine socialism in order to justify future reforms. He points out that, “Stalin acted not through persuasion, explanation, and patient cooperation with people, but by imposing this concept and demanding absolute submission to his opinion” (Khrushchev 212). This also implied that there were ‘good communists’ who disagreed with Stalin, yet, they were purged anyways. Khrushchev then addressed the Great Terror from 1936-1938 to point out that it hurt everyone in the country, including average citizens, the military, and party members. The biggest criticism regarded Stalin’s cult of personality. He wanted to emphasize that one many could not build socialism alone, it had to come from society (with guidance from the Communist Party) also called ‘collective leadership’. This is another attempt by Khrushchev to redefine the relationship between the party, people and state. Finally, Khrushchev wanted to push for reforms in political life (through decentralization), economic (focus on agriculture), and social (societal ‘thaw’, worker/educational reform). This speech had two main goals. First, it was to show the party that the days of Stalin and Stalinism was over;

This quote, in my opinion, does hold truth and historical context to it. Joseph Stalin indeed was a despot; a man who held complete control of the Soviet Union after Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924. While I would have to agree that his paranoid, tyrannical, and cruel demeanor of ruling the country played a large role in the rise of a term named for him, Stalinism, I do not think that was the only reason of why he managed to keep such an iron grip on the USSR for a period of almost thirty years. Another major of reason of why terror, violence, and oppression became so widespread and prevalent in Russia was because Stalin was so gifted in using the “cult of personality.” While Stalin may have truly been as this quote described; angry, vengeful, and power-hungry, that was not the image that many people in the Soviet Union had in their heads at the time. Stalin had totalitarian control of mass-media, propaganda, and news outlets, he established himself to appear in a certain way to the people, as a means to keep control of them. The State presented Stalin as the “father” or “uncle” of the USSR, who was devoted to the working class and to the Communist Party. Kind, benevolent and powerful, propaganda was a powerful weapon that represented him as their ideal and perfect leader, which people began to believe wholeheartedly, even with the events that would transpire later on in his leadership; such as the Great Terror. While Stalin’s actual personality may have been oppressive and

He had a complicated relationship with the West and argued that nations should not impose their system or political views on people by force. Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the first leader of the Soviet Union, never imposed his views by force, rather he tried to convince and patiently explained his opinions to others, which is what Khrushchev wanted to do. He implemented his policy of “peaceful co-existence”, which meant that countries could solve all major issues without a war or resorting to force by negotiating and compromising. He argued that we may fight but without the use of weapons, which led Western leaders to hope this meant the end of the Cold War. He understood that major issues could only resolve over time but wanted the issues fixed before it was too late. He saw only one thing standing in the way of peaceful coexistence —militarist and monopolistic circles. The Soviet Union has pushed peace throughout international relations but “the forces which profit from the maintenance of international tension are clinging to their positions.” Khrushchev states that even though there are only a number of individuals, they are strong and deploy strong influences on the policy of their respective

During his time he began to but heads with Trotsky, Lenin 's second in command and his rival for power. With Lenin 's death in 1924 Stalin began to centralize his power. He had Trotsky tried in a kangaroo court and exiled, leaving him with no rival to power. By 1928 he was in complete control and began phase one of five year plan. His five year plan was a series of nationalized plans for the economic modernization of the Soviet Union. He rapidly changed an agricultural society to an industrial power house. This lead to massive famine taking the lives of over 5million Russian citizens between 1932 and 1933(1). These changes were not without challenge. Anyone who spoke up against his changes would be exiled to Siberian work camps and worked to death. By 1934 Stalin had purged the rest of the Soviet party using mock courts, assassination, and “unfortunate” accidents. This left him as absolute ruler of the U.S.S.R.

Joseph Stalin the prominent leader of the Soviet Union had a vision to transform the Soviet Union into an industrialized economy. Through the works of Stalin he implemented “The Five Year Plan” which included methods and goals that were very important in the arrival of his goal. Though, hard labor, terror, struggle, and work was put on the peasants and kulak class that was key in Stalin’s plans to achieve a Communist society. Through the utilization of terror and repression, Stalin’s Five Year Plan transformed the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrialized superpower.

As a child, Stalin was subject to hardships ever since his birth. Born December 1878, in an impoverished Georgian village called Gori, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Stalin) was the only child of an abusive, alcoholic father and a mother who worked as a servant. His father regularly beat his wife and son from frustration of his failing business and drunkenness. As said from one of Stalin’s childhood friends, he states, “Those undeserved and fearful beatings made the boy as hard and heartless as

From the start of World War II in 1939, until the year of 1953, Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union. Hitler, who was a ruthless leader of Nazi Germany from 1934-1945. He initiated WWII and oversaw fascist policies that resulted in millions of deaths ( Adolf Hitler Biography 2016). Stalin and Hitler were the two brutal leaders during this time period and the both of them took many lives and caused fear all across the nation. Joseph Stalin’s ruthless leadership defeated Natzism in Russia, but it created a brutal climate that increased the stronghold communism in the USSR and increased fear across the world.

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.

“Trotsky called for a continuing world revolution that would inevitably result in the dismantling of the Soviet state. He also criticized the new regime for suppressing democracy in the Communist Party and for failing to develop adequate economic

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.

When Joseph Stalin came into power the Soviet Union was a large and under developed country. Mostly agriculture, a high producer of grain but without industry. Only the capital Moscow had started to industrialize but in a very centralized area in small and slow steps. The Russian people had just been through World War 1, two revolutions in 1917, civil war and famine by the time Stalin took the reigns of the country. All which had massive impacts on the state of the economy. Stalin saw Russia as weak compared to her counterparts and wanted to strengthen Russia and bring her to the world table as a dominant power. Stalin knew that the greatness of a country came with severe suffering however the suffering could not be forced, and the devastation that comes with success should not be planned. Stalin tried to force Russia to greatness, which he accomplished for a short period of time but can be seen as temporary as Russia struggles today in economic sectors. Stalin believed that the Soviet Union should start to build from within and strengthen internally. The turn toward national communism was a shift from the previously held Marxist position that socialism must be established globally. The theory of socialism in one country was adopted by the Soviet Union as state policy in 1925. This was going to be the beginning of Stalinism we know today. His concept of socialism and how he tried to achieve greatness with his country by the means of changing economic policy,

After Stalin's death, the Soviet leader Khrushchev denounced Stalin's purges and the expulsion of minorities, lashed out at his policy bring the disaster of agricultural , also attacked his incompetent military command, and in the last said to return to the route of marxism-leninism. Much of the abuse of power was done under Stalin's instructions, regardless of the party's guidelines and the Soviet rule of law. Stalin was a man with a sick suspicion. When Stalin said that someone should be arrested, you should believe that he is the enemy of the country, in the state security organs the evil Beria gangs would have tried all ways to prove that arrest people are criminal and they are the correctness of the fabricated materials. The judges

He was ready to manipulate his way towards more power. He wisely used his new position to develop power this way. He started controlling all appointments, setting agendas, and moving around Party staff in such a way that everyone eventually owed their position to him. By the time anyone had figured out what Stalin had done, it was too late, for Stalin had all his people in place. There was one person, Lenin, who had the moral authority to challenge him, however he was on his deathbed. Stalin had so much power and control that he even had access to who could talk to the leader. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin went about destroying all the old leaders of the party, using their weaknesses to divide and conquer them. First Stalin removed them from their posts and spread them abroad. Stalin switched tactics after realizing that from far away their sharp tongues and pens were still capable of protesting against him. The Soviet Union was drained of its brainpower, and Stalin was left as the sole intellectual force in the