Essay on The Rise and Fall of Mikhail Gorbachev

The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative

Josef Stalin (originally named Josef Djugashvili) was born in Gori, a violent town in eastern Georgia, on the twenty-first of December, in 1878, to his parents Ketevan Geladze and Besarion

Gorbachev told the Central Committee who elected him that when the people are elected, “the more consciencely they act, the more actively they support the party” (Steven White). With the knowledge of the past- information to define the good and the bad actions of the Soviet Union he believed the people would make a concerted effort in restructuring the economy and participating in reforming their country. Many a critic

Joseph Stalin, from the time that he was a low level revolutionary to the years that he spent as the dictator of the Soviet Union, always knew what he needed to do to achieve his goals. His organized rise to power allowed him to gain a steady flow of followers who would support him for decades to come. Stalin received a minor government position in 1917, but by the time a new leader was needed in 1924, he “had turned the largely routine post of Party general secretary into the most powerful office in the Soviet Union” (“Joseph Stalin) and “had built a personal empire for himself through his control over committee appointments at all levels . . . expand[ing] the leading Party organs with his supporters, who then voted against his rivals”

He was born on March 12, 1889 in the city of Kiev in Russian Empire, during his parents tour in Ukraine.

When analyzing the differences between these two figures, it is important to understand their backgrounds and how those backgrounds molded them into the men they later become. Beginning with Stalin, we see a child who was born into poor conditions, rise to become the one of the most powerful figures during World War II and The Cold War. Joseph Stalin was born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili on December 18, 1878 in Gori, Georgia, in Russia to a poor family. His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a laundress. Along with being a shoemaker, Stalin’s father was also an alcoholic and often beat his son. Later in Stalin’s life, he left school to become an underground political influence. Thus, was Stalin’s emergence into the life of politics. Later in his life, Stalin became more prevalent in Russian politics though. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922 and by this time, Joseph Stalin was

Joseph Stalin was a famous person in our world. He was born on December 18th, 1878. However, His original birth name is Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (in Georgian). He was born in Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Germany (Which is right now Georgia). When he was 7, he contracted Smallpox. Later in his life, he was in a carriage accident, which left his left arm slightly deformed.

     December 21, 1879 in Georgia, Joseph Stalin is born. Around the time of Stalin’s birth Georgia was not the best place to be. They were at a miserable level of poverty, there was no industry, and they had a 75% illiteracy rate and an increasing crime rate. Stalin was born to peasants. Both of his parents were illiterate and were born as serfs. His father was a rough, violent drunk who beat his wife and child, and found it hard to make a living. He

When Joseph Stalin was a young adult he decided to become an active member in the Bolsheviks. An organization started by Vladimir

Stalin’s used his position as general secretary to gain support and power. As the general secretary of the soviet communist party which controlled the membership of the party. Through a series of appointments, gained the power of patronage over many parts of the Bolshevik Party, between 1923 - 25 the Party had expanded by recruiting more members, this was called the Lenin enrolment. “It increased from 300,000 in 1922 to 600,000 in 1925”. The new members were poorly educated; they thought that promotion and party privileges came from loyalty to the person who appointed them which in this case was Stalin; also they had to be loyal to Stalin because if they went against him they would lose their job. The expansion of the Party increased Stalin 's power of patronage.

Iosif Dzhugashvili, more commonly known as “Joseph Stalin” or “the man of steel” was born in Gori Georgia, Russia on December 18, 1878. Stalin lived under the rule of Tsar Alexander II and Tsar Nicholas II (Joseph Stalin). Joseph Stalin’s dad was an alcoholic, while his mom was deeply religious. They were a poor family and Stalin was usually mistreated by his dad. It is believed this is why Stalin’s heart hardened and he became cruel and heartless (Ryan). Despite his modest background, he was destined to change the course of history. Joseph Stalin became the head of the Communist Party, ruled Russia as a totalitarian state, and was responsible for the deaths of millions

	At the Twentieth Party Congress, held February 1956, Khrushchev further advanced his position within the party by denouncing Stalin’s crimes in a "secret speech". Khrushchev revealed that Stalin had arbitrarily liquidated thousands of party members and military leaders and had established a cult of personality. With this speech Khrushchev not only distanced himself from Stalin, and Stalin’s close associates, Molotov and Malenkov, but also abjured the dictator’s policy of terror. As a result of the

For the majority of Nikita’s young life he learned to survive, taking on multiple jobs of a miner, cattle herder, and factory work at the age of fifteen. Through dismal conditions of his work, Khrushchev discovered the trouble that the middle class was facing and joined the Communist Party in 1918 to start his political career. Nikita was twenty-three when he was recruited for the Red Army to defend the new communist regime against forces trying to regain control of the government. After the war, Nikita Khrushchev was given a series of political assignments and received his first formal training in Marxism at a technical college. After graduation he was appointed to a political post in Ukraine, where Lazar Kaganovich, a protege of Joseph Stalin, was head of the Communist Party. Khrushchev oversaw Moscow’s subway system, where in 1939 he became a full member of

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

Following the death of Joseph Stalin, in March 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became First Secretary of the All Union Party. Khrushchev’s