Stalin's Revolution Dbq

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.

Ukraine’s hope and will was in the hands of the dictator Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin instilled a totalitarian government into Ukraine’s society. Moreover, Stalin tried to cut any threats that would affect his plan in making Russia a communist utopia, by using the secret police. But according to document 1, the Ukrainian’s were independent, rebellious people who believed strongly in their culture and traditional ways consequently, this caused much controversy with Joseph Stalin and the Ukrainian’s, such as Ukrainian’s not being able to speak up about the collectivization and not being able to practice different religions because of Russification. Likewise, Stalin used propaganda for in an effort of gaining support for collectivization, this

‘The optimists believe that imperial Russia was ruined by the First World War. The pessimists maintain that the war provided merely the last mighty push to bring the whole rotten structure tumbling down.’ When Russia become engulfed in World War I, the Russian army mobilized 15.5 million men and suffered great casualties. This leads to the shortage of workers for the factories and farms and thus cause a widespread shortages of food and materials. As supply decreases and demand is increasing, this causes the prices of goods to increase dramatically, causing unrest among people, leading to revolt and labor riots. Soon, famine hit Russian cities. The worst of all is that Nicholas II held fast to his anachronistic political faith in unfettered

Change in itself is defined as neither positive nor negative. Rather it is defined as making the, “form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it [would have been had it been] left alone.” Thus, although General Secretary of the Communist Party, Joseph Stalin, did a relentless amount of damage during his reign over the USSR, he did make change, and alter the future of many individuals both in the USSR and internationally. Although most famous for his ruthless slaughter of over twenty million Russian citizens due to religious and political beliefs, Stalin also created a lot of positive and beneficial change for the citizens of the USSR. He modernized and urbanized a country still using early

Power and control are things most people crave and some are willing to go to desperate lengths to obtain and maintain it. Past monarchs and dictators alike have used fear, murder, and manipulation to ensure that their power was secure. Leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and King Henry VIII all used intimidation and their influence to gain power which they used to benefit themselves and commit atrocities. They rose to power due to weak societal conditions and then left a dark mark on their countries after their corrupt reign ended. Their corruption was caused by unlimited access to power which made them thirst for more and more, proving that 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'.

In the days that followed the German forces fought their way into Stalingrad against intense resistance. This was urban street fighting of the most brutal type, with vast losses on both sides. The ruins of houses and factories began to stink as hot winds carried the smell of decaying corpses into every hole and crevice (History.com 4). For simple reasons of morale, the Russians could not let this city fall just as the Russians could not let the Germans get hold of the oil fields in the Caucasus. Stalin issued an order that was “Not a step backwards” He also refused the evacuation of any civilians, stating that the army would fight harder knowing that they were defending residents of the city (Truman 1). The halted Germans was running short

Joseph Stalin (1878 – 1953) was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. In the eyes of many, Stalin’s rule was a time of terror and suffering. Stalin ruled by fear. Anybody that showed the slightest sign of objection or rebellion against Stalin could be sent away to the Gulags without ever returning. As leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin stopped at nothing to transform his country from a rural society that functioned with outdated and poor tools, into an international superpower. Under his reign, Stalin ruthlessly killed tens of millions of people. The main cause of death was forced labour. Some people see the time of his reign a time of great pride for the Soviet Union as it was under him that the nation became an international super power and helped defeat Hitler. However this is not the view of others. Others say that his reign was a time of only terror and suffering and that he was a man of pure evil.

Some of the most tragic moments in Russian history occurred during the tumultuous period between the death of Vladimir Lenin and the rise of Joseph Stalin during the 1930s. This was a time of massive devastation during which almost 5 million peasants died of starvation due to the failures of collective farming. Thousands of men and women were also falsely accused of anti-patriotism and sent to Siberian labor camps in which they experienced rampant disease, physical and emotional abuse, and often execution. Vasily Grossman endeavors to discern who is to blame for these injustices through his novel “Everything Flows”. Grossman’s main character, Ivan, has just been released from almost a thirty year imprisonment following the death of Stalin. Through Ivan’s recollections of camp life and assimilation into Post-Stalinist Russia, Grossman reveals the forces he believes are at fault. However, his understanding of this guilt is far more complex as revealed through the means by which he evaluates the culpable factors. Grossman uses a method of assessment similar to a bottom-up analysis by beginning with the individual elements of the Communist Party and progressing to a larger holistic view of Russian civilization. This method allows for multiple factors to bear some of the blame without undue bias holding one entirely accountable. Thus, Grossman is arguing that the slave identity embedded in Russian history was responsible for the development of certain characteristics in Lenin 's

After years of violent wars in which Russia was almost always defeated, the climax of tension within the Russian state came to a peak in the year 1917. The series of wars came at the price of great discontent from the Russian citizens as the country 's economy and government began to drastically suffer. The wars, plus a coexisting population boom, was too much stress on the agricultural land available to the lower class for their farming, and many people began starving. The rise of the bourgeoisie class also caused more discontent as they were put to work under poor conditions and for low wages. The Tzar, Nicholas II, was not intuitive enough to do anything to benefit his citizens, and his disregard for the issues happening in his country resulted in a loss of faith and respect towards him. It was at this point in time that the idea of Marxist socialism began to emerge, gaining great interest from the masses in the country. Through Lenin 's charismatic and motivational speeches, the Russian working class began to organize itself, resulting in the February Revolution of 1917. The society 's revolt during the first world war, made it easy for the Duma and the military to work together and force Nicholas to assent to abdicate his position as Tzar. It has been suggested that Nicholas II was ignorant of the extent to which the Russian state had deteriorated, therefore giving higher priority to international affairs, namely the World War in which he was currently engaged.

For three centuries before the revolution, life in Russia was not peaceful. It was cold, hard, and bitter instead. “The end of serfdom was a major event in Russia; yet it just wasn 't enough.”, in 1861. Serfdom, under feudalism, is the the status of peasants in which they are bound to a lord, or master, works on their land, and can be sold like property. Despite serfs being given ‘freedom’, Russia was mostly ruled by the czar and nobles. The average person was, and stayed, poor. Therefore, World War I was not the main cause of the Russian revolution. This outdated feudal class structure, inability to modernize, lack of peace, and czars’ inept leaderships lead to the Russian Revolution.

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 has proven to be a difficult figure to place in history. Some choose to view him as one of the most influential political leaders in history, while others allow him to fade off into the past. Lenin’s image also greatly depends on where one lives. In the western half of the world, Lenin is viewed as a man of destruction, and Winston Churchill called him “The Grand Repudiator.” In other parts of the world, he is viewed as a man who tried to make the best out of a failing situation.

In my opinion Stalin was not as intelligent when it came down to politics but opportunistic. As you mention, he utilized people to achieve his goals; for instance, Stalin first created an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev. According to Trotsky, “They [Zinoviev and Kamenev] far excelled their then allies, including Stalin, in the theoretic understanding of the processes taking place. Herein lies the explanation for their attempt to break with the bureaucracy and to oppose it.” Once Stalin did not needed Zinoviev and Kamenev anymore he discarded them; Zinoviev acknowledged that “his mistake in waging a struggle against Trotsky was even ‘more dangerous’ than his mistake in 1917!” Lastly, Stalin rise to power was done by intimidation

Stalin was able to rise to power under the cover of a divided Russia in terms of political ideology between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The divided country of Russia opened an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to gain control (out of the two groups) forming the communist party, which ultimately resulted in Stalin taking control in the single-party state. Throughout the development of the single-party state in Russia, it became apparent that there both political and economical problems influenced the impact of World War One (WWI), the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, and the Civil War of 1918 to 1921. Stalin used his political stance in the Communist Party under the single-party state as a cover for his upbringing and reign into power

(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.