Totalitarian Leaders: Stalin, Marx, and Mustapha Mond Essay

Propaganda flourished in the public as posters, newspapers, and other print media all praised Stalin, communism, the military, and his ideals. Soviet schools were controlled by Stalin from nursery to college. [“Censorship under Stalin.”] Industrialization allowed women to gain more rights in the workforce (factories). Other groups were not as lucky. From 1941-1949, Stalin ordered mass deportations and sent 3.3 million Ukrainians, Poles, Koreans, Greeks, Bulgarians and Jews to Siberia and Central Asian Republics. [Languages Of The World, 10 Mar. 2015,] Collectivism and industrialization were his two biggest economic policies under his Five Year Plan implemented in 1928. The idea of collectivization was meant to allow peasants to grow crops on the farms using machinery tractors from the state. Peasants would be compensated and they would keep a small plot of land near their homes for personal use. Stalin wanted to see increases in the USSR’s crop growth quickly. By the end of 1931, the goal set for grain was met but there was a drop in the grain production. Many factors that caused this. Stalin’s activists did not have a wide range of farm knowledge or the skills. Also, the amount of animals were not enough to pull the plows because the hungry peasants ate them. A drought occurred throughout large parts of the USSR and Ukraine during 1931-32. Because all of this, collectivism ultimately failed.

There were other ways that he took advantage of how Communism was--"the omnipotent and omnicompetent boss was still the norm in a society so recently under Czarist authority" (Pereira, 5). Because of this, Stalin could easily claim supremacy over the people of Russia, because they were used to this.

Once eliminating Trotsky, Stalin’s idea of, “socialism in our country,” inevitably meant that Russia needed strength. The productions in the USSR had almost reached pre-war levels by the mid-1920s, but the population of Russia had also increased by 20 million people. No matter, Stalin assured that maximum efforts and resources would be given to the expansion and strengthening of Russia herself rather than an effort to start a revolution elsewhere. This is explained in his famous 1931 speech, gaining power for himself. The people had nowhere else to turn to and needed a leader. Stalin was there and knew what to do to make the people interested in his ideas, thus acquired their trust and control. From these ideas, he created his first

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”

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.

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.

Although Stalin did do everything he promised, he did it with cost. As aforementioned before Stalin caught up to capitalist countries within five years which seems almost impossible. The reason it happened so fast is Stalin was a totalitarian, he punished anyone who argued with him by sending him to the Gulag prison or was executed. (Doc 9) He was a ruthless leader and nothing stood in his way. Most historians could debate that the Russian revolution wasn’t better for Russia. Saying that the death and death and changes weren’t worth having a stable

Joseph Stalin is known to be “one of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history” (bbc.co.uk). Stalin became general secretary of the Communist Party, which had given him the control that he had been looking for (bbc.co.uk). Soon after, he was granted dictatorship of the Soviet Union after Vladimir Lenin had died (historyplace.com). Many people did not like the way that Stalin was ruling. People wanted their own independence from Stalin and he did not take that very well. In 1929, Stalin had believed that many Ukrainian scholars, scientists, religious leaders, etc. were planning a riot against him. Without even being listened to during a trial, they were killed or deported immediately to prison camps (blogspot.com).

He accomplished many things, he was a good leader in industrializing and implementing his ideology even at the expense of the many human lives. Joseph Stalin was a prospering leader in apace rising the Soviet Union’s economy as shown in Document 3. Document three, a chart that shows steel and coal production throughout Stalin’s five years plans. Coal production quickly raised. By the end of his second plan it went up to a hundred and fifty million metric tons, that's five times the initial quantity.

Stalin used the media in order to convince the Russian citizens that there were saboteurs and spies within Russian population. Stalin used the secret police and military forces to carry out the arrests of so called

Thus, the “Cult of Personality” was flourishing. Propaganda glorifying Stalin and Soviet ideals brainwashed the minds of Russian people. Stalin successfully impressed his socialist philosophies on millions of workers and peasants. Over time, socialism transformed into Stalinism, and it took hold. Stalin was able to hypnotize people towards one belief, the love of Stalin. When they saw Stalin being portrayed heroically everyday in the news or on posters, they began to idolize him. Stalin is like Big Brother; he was the main focus and had total power over the people and their actions.

He lead people to believe he was able to better their lives and give them a richness they had not experienced. He convinced his people that they had the power to be world leaders and they had the weapons to win any war should it come about. He believed that the USSR we the leaders of the world and the most dominating country of all. The policies he made had many flaws in them but his people were unable to see recognise these flaws due to his influential communication style. Also after what they had been through in the Stalin era the country was not one to speak out against their

Totalitarian is political, social, and cultural control over their subjects. In the book between the shades of gray it about a young girl and her family and they are living in lithuania and they are being told what to

I interpret this as meaning that people who wish to leave a nation or overthrow the Communist state will have their property confiscated. I see how this could help a Communist state to thrive because it would prevent a mass exodus from the state is people weren’t sympathetic to the new government. Also, it would help with the transition of private to public property. This principle does have cause for concern though, in that it limits the rights of people who wish to leave, but (more importantly) it is a means to silence critics of the government. It is understandable that to form a stable Communist state, dissenters have to be dealt with, but for fear of losing property (or possibly other repercussions), it is possible that “rebels” would

Two totalitarian regimes which are both political systems and influenced society significantly are Communism and Nazism. They influenced and changed people’s rights, their views on things and people in general. Communism and Nazism are the two totalitarian systems I’m going to talk about. They were spread in different areas, but both of them caused big consequences. Communism started in Russian and spread around in Eastern Europe and Nazism started in Germany and spread in that area. People have gone through many bad times when those two totalitarian systems were in power, but we can’t always say that people’s lives were better before they were in power.