Why Did Joseph Stalin Rise To Power

For his role in leading the Soviet Union through WWII, one of the worst crises that the country has ever faced, Joseph Stalin is remembered as a leader who held his nation together. Stalin however, is also responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviet Union citizens, ranging in ethnicity from Polish to Russian to Ukrainian. Abuses of power such as the Great Famine of 1932-1933 resulted in the deaths of 7-8 million people, due to Stalin implementing policies of collectivism that fitted his view of an ideal communist society (Midlarsky 265). Many similar instances of massive abuses of power, from executing and exiling political opponents to ethnic cleansing to prevent nationalistic uprisings, mar the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. His extremist ideology that advocated violent revolution, as well as a childhood filled with abuse and violence and a chaotic environment influenced him, creating the man that would terrorize and murder millions of people. He would not however, been able to abuse his power without first obtaining the authority and capability to do as such. Stalin’s political manipulation and shrewdness were peerless, and they granted him positioning to take over and consolidate power within the communist party, as well as establish himself as the legitimate heir to Lenin. Stalin’s establishment of a cult of personality around his past actions helped to eliminated future opposition to his power, and provided stability against potential overthrowing of his

Following the death of Vladimir Lenin, Stalin utilized the political divisions within the Russian government to gain power. Firstly, Stalin was given the position of Commissar of Nationalities, which entitled the power of patronage. After Lenin died, Stalin competed with other members of the Politburo for power, however he was able to use the power of patronage to extend privileges to his supporters and isolate his competitors. This power allowed him support himself within politics and attributed to his own rise in leadership. Also, Stalin utilized the political divisions between his fellow members of the Politburo, as seen by the triumvirate that he formed. This bloc within the Politburo consisted of Stalin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev and had the

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

In 1917, Russia was crumbling into pieces. The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia. However, in 1924, Lenin died and Josef Stalin assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, which was the name for the communist Russia. Stalin was a ruthless leader who brought

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).

As a detail, one of his changes to the USSR was to amplify the school education policies. You could almost say that this was a resurgence after all of the bad things Stalin had done to the USSR. A fact is, Stalin decided to change women’s education by equalizing it. Going along with this, Stalin had also granted a convenient education for smattering kids who were retained in orphanages. "Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." (Joseph Stalin; Inspiringquotes.us). As a last fact, after a solid, hard-working school day, kids were given the chance to go to a daycare after school if their parents weren’t home when he and/or she would come home from school. This highly benefited to both the parents and the kid since the kid wouldn’t have to sojourn home, and the parents wouldn’t have to worry about getting home early from work. To sum it up, Stalin had made various changes to the USSR when he rose to power. For example, Stalin had changed the USSR into a global superpower rather than it used to be, which was an agricultural country. Also, Stalin also never realized how many copiously lives were being risked because of this giant change, and how Stalin had to resort to collectivize farming to try and gain more food for the

During the years following the death of Lenin in 1924, there was an immense power struggle in the politburo of the Communist Party, as its leading figures competed to replace him. By 1929, Joseph Stalin had defeated his rivals - and therefore become leader of the party - through three stages: the defeat of the left opposition (and therefore Trotsky), the united opposition (Zinoviev, Kamenev and Trotsky), and finally the right deviation (Bukharin). Stalin gained power due to a number of factors, particularly his position as General Secretary of the party, along with his other roles, but also through errors made by the Bolsheviks, most notably their underestimation and dismissal of Stalin. However, his position as General Secretary gave

Joseph Stalin was a Russian that controlled the Soviet Union, and was also a world communist leader for nearly 30 years. Stalin was voted up as a member of the Tbilisi committee in 1901.  This committee was the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party.  In 1902, Stalin was arrested and sent to a prison in Siberia.  After Stalin escaped from prison, he started robbing banks and raided money transports during the revolution.  Later on, Stalin was an avid participator in the congresses of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party.  Stalin made a particular political system that worked for his people.  This political system included, "unprecedented severity in police control, bureaucratic centralization, and personal dictatorship" ("Joseph Stalin").   In 1929, Joseph Stalin took over the Soviet Union as the new leader of the Communist Party.  Stalin built a personal empire that was just for him.  This personal empire was established through his control over all levels of committee appointments.  Stalin then turned the people of the Soviet Union on his side so he could get them to vote against his rivals. In the 1930s and up, Stalin started to take charge of the political system he made, but took over as official leader of it in May of 1941.   During his dictatorship, one of his policies included having the Party maintain control over supplies so the Soviets could have a source of capital for industrialization.  Stalin then demanded that peasants should be executed, or killed off, so he could control the farms even more.  When the peasants resisted, tons of livestock were killed and tons of grain were burned so they wouldn't have to surrender their livestock or grain.  Stalin succeeded this by collecting 89.6% of the grain and having killed off 10 million peasants (“Ukrainian Famine”). Later on in his dictatorship, central planning was instituted, secret police carried out mass arrests, executions, and deportations.

Stalin’s race to become the all mighty ruler fully started after Lenin died of a stroke on the 21st of January 1924. With Lenin gone, Stalin started to eliminate the other members of the Communist Party: Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Rykov, Tomsky and Bukharin. He very cleverly switched between the left wing and the right wing, by making alliances with one wing the suddenly breaking with them, only to join the other wing, going against everything that they had just achieved. Stalin knocked out all other party members along the way even those who were considered to be his friend. His violent childhood, misguided early life and the death of his first wife caused him to lose all sense of emotion turning

This determination greatly affected Stalin’s rise to power, and allowed him to completely decimate all opposition to his leadership. Originally, Stalin was a powerless citizen of the USSR, yet he managed to quickly rise to the top of the political field. He began his role in politics by joining the Bolsheviks in 1903. Due to his thirst for power he steadily rose through the ranks of the party and was soon the General Secretary. The Bolshevik insurrection to Russian leadership was successful and placed Stalin in a position of great power. He then used his power to isolate members of the party in an attempt to take away their power and popularity. Determined to gain absolute dominance over the other members, he caused the dismissal, and possibly the deaths, of several of his political opponents. This left him in total rule over the Communist party,

Joseph Stalin, born December 1878, was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, which was created in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik revolution. They overthrew the new Russian provisional government and he was appointed the General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party’s central committee in 1922. After many years of suffering, Vladimir Lenin passed away on January 21st, 1924. After Lenin’s death, there was a massive power struggle, which resulted in the majority of the Politburo either exiled or executed by Stalin. At the end of his rule, nearly 55 percent of the population considered it an end of terror. However, support for Stalin has actually increased since the end of the

He adopted the name Koba, after an anecdotal Georgian outlaw-legend, and joined the more activist wing of the Marxist Social Democratic development, the Bolsheviks, drove by Vladimir Lenin. While there he started furtively perusing the work of German social Democratic and "Comrade Manifesto" creator Karl Marx, getting to be occupied with the progressive development against the Russian government. In the wake of leaving school, Stalin turned into an underground political activist, tuning to labor exhibits and strikes. In 1899, Stalin was ousted from the theological college for missing exams, despite the fact that he guaranteed it was for Marxist publicity. In 1912, Lenin, leader of Switzerland, appointed Joseph Stalin to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922, with Lenin as its first leader. Stalin had kept on climbing the political ladder, and in 1922 he got to be secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, a part that empowered him to choose his acquaintances to government officials and grow a base of political backing. In the late 1930s, Stalin founded the Great Purge, a progression of battles intended to free the Communist Party, and the military and different parts of

Like Napoleon, Stalin came from humble beginnings. Born into poverty, Stalin became involved in revolutionary politics and outmaneuvered his rivals for control of his political party. Napoleon did the same when he used his hound dogs to drive his rival and potential enemy, Snowball, off of the farm and convinced the animal that Snowball was a villain and wanted the farm not succeed. Once in power, he collectivized farming and had potential enemies executed, which is similar to how Napoleon used his vicious dogs to excecute innocent animals that had been manipulated into feeling guilty to the point to where they confessed to fake crimes. Starting in the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin launched a series of five-year plans intended to transform the

Joseph Stalin was the political leader of the Soviet Union during the twentieth century. Stalin’s leadership style was most commonly defined as brutal due to him abolishing private ownership, as well as his numerous political purges that resulted in the deaths of thousands of officials within the communist party. While in the end Stalin did lead the Soviets to win World War II, a large number of lives were lost in the process.

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