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On the life and rise to power of joseph stalin of the soviet union from his birth through 1942
Joseph stalin biography essay
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The Great Terror, an outbreak of organised bloodshed that infected the Communist Party and Soviet society in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), took place in the years 1934 to 1940. The Terror was created by the hegemonic figure, Joseph Stalin, one of the most powerful and lethal dictators in history. His paranoia and yearning to be a complete autocrat was enforced by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the communist police. Stalin’s ambition saw his determination to eliminate rivals such as followers of Leon Trotsky, a political enemy. The overall concept and practices of the Terror impacted on the communist party, government officials and the peasants. The NKVD, Stalin’s instrument for carrying out the Terror, the show trials and the purges, particularly affected the intelligentsia. The NKVD, transformed by Stalin from the original secret police set up in 1917 known as the Cheka, was a secret police service formed in 1934 with Genrikh Yagoda as executive until 1936. The NKVD was a law enforcement agency of the Soviet Union that had direct power over the Communist Party. This secret police organisation was no longer controlled by the party, but rather it controlled the party and only Stalin stood above it. Although the agency contained a regular, public police force of the USSR that included traffic police, firefighters and border guards, the agency ultimately directed mass executions that were not legally authorised, directed labour camps, inhibited resistance and were responsible for mass deportations to deserted regions. The main role of the NKVD was to enforce Stalinist policy, impacting society as people became frightened of the police, rather than feeling safe, until it dissolved in 1946. ... ... middle of paper ... ...cruited by French writer, Andre Malraux, a spy for France. Babel was tried by an NVDK troika, a commission of three persons who issued sentences, and was prosecuted for being a spy for the French, Austrians and Leon Trotsky. Babel was imprisoned in Butyrka Prison and was shot on January 27th 1940. The Great Terror that occurred from 1934 to 1940 greatly impacted Soviet society due to the enforcement of the Stalinist policy by the NKVD. The implementation of the policy through the purges of innocent individuals and government members, the forced convictions of the innocent during the show trials from 1936 to 1938 and the effects this all had on groups in society such as the intelligentsia, greatly affected the lives of Soviet people making them fearful for their safety and their future. The Terror not only removed dissent from society but also made people fearful.
The effect of Stalin's totalitarian rule was great on the Russian people. All people who did not agree with Stalin were prosecuted. Documents 6 and 7 show that Stalin tried to wipe out all who disagreed with him.
They could arrest anyone on suspicion of being an enemy of the state without any evidence. But Stalin used the NKVD as a central control to a bigger extent than the Tsar. During the purges (1934-38) the NKVD were vital. They arrested twenty million people in 1937 and created fear amongst communist workers, which became their biggest motivator.
... to collapse. So what was the idea of the Stalinist autocracy? How many people died by the will of the tyrant, as he created the machine of repression? From 1929 to 1953, victims of Stalinist repression were millions of Soviet citizens. Of these, at least a third have been sentenced to death or died in camps and exile. After the war, society in the socio-political level acquired some new features of dark bureaucratic, police character. Stalin managed in every possible way to maintain outer enthusiasm, selfless people, who believed that the same shining peaks were about to appear. Instead, they had the constant threat of individual or mass terror.
Joseph Stalin. The second most infamous dictator named after Hitler during the era of World War 2. History and the international community have judged Stalin as a villain for all the horrible crimes he had committed. There has also been some debate whether he was really a villain or a hero. So, is this judgement fair? I am going to be inspecting, history’s judgement of Stalin and his actions. The key idea is that Stalin was not always a villain as he had too brought many great benefits for the country of Soviet Union. I will use the accurate historical sources which I have collated from my research to test the credibility whether Stalin was indeed more of a villain than a hero in the eyes of history. This would then help us to learn more about the hidden secrets of Stalin which people are oblivious of and hopefully to provide a balanced view on this issue. In this essay, I will discuss the impact of what Stalin’s policies had on the country of Soviet Union, both good and bad, weighing them to give the true judgement. This essay will also show what Stalin had promised the poor peasants for the elimination of kulaks and how Stalin managed to help end the gruesome World War 2 by being victorious at the last battle of Berlin in 1945.
Additionally, the Bolsheviks asserted control by exerting a mixture of ideology and terror, aimed to subdue or cow the vast population into submission to their ideology. Soviet-era historians view that the increasing authoritarian measures had to be taken during the Civil War and were simply necessary responses to rises in desertion and external military threats. Erik C. Landis also believes that terror was a necessity, especially in the case of the Green Army, which consisted of armed peasants engaging in resistance to Bolshevik rule, noting that these ‘disturbances’ occurred at critical breaches on the front line. Trotsky also stated that events, such as the Tsar’s execution were justified, to ‘not only frighten, horrify and instil a sense of hopelessness in the enemy, but also to shake up our own ranks, to show that there was no retreating.’ Service comments on the high level of public executions as an opportunity to cement Bolshevik control over the provinces, as
After the Second World War, the Soviet system revolted and reformed due to the population’s need for a change from the violence attached with communism. While rehabilitation occurred, every act was criticized or revised and many criminals reentered society. Due to the increase in crime rates, the general population 's faith in communism dwindled and the idea of Stalin was less supported. This was a change from the beginning of World War II, where the population thought that communism was the only way out of the bad economy then.
As Stalin desired to portray himself as a 'God-like' figure; this made him a sequestered leader who tolerated no criticism or reproach, similar to the style of ruling under the Tsars. Furthermore, both leaders dismissed ministers at their own will and chose to act on their own personal emotions (“To what extent does Stalin deserve the title of Red Tsar when assessing his rule in the context of Russian government from 1855- 1964”). Stalin's key weapon in imposing terror on his country was the secret police. The NKVD infiltrated all aspects of Soviet life and performed monitoring roles with power to eradicate any opposition to Stalin’s party. The historical significance of NKVD is that it coordinated political murders, kidnappings, and assassinations. In addition, the NKVD hired internal spies and civilian informants to find protest leaders or protesters. The organization has also hired provocateurs to stimulate political rivals to commit illegal acts against the government, and this facilitated Stalin to have a motive for their arrests. Akin to Stalin’s NKVD, the tsarist society had their own form of secret police known as the Okhrana which was utilized to
To deal with opposition directed towards his policies and ideology, Stalin used terror to eliminate any dissent while masking it with propaganda to illustrate his regime as legitimate and righteous by put blame upon others and creating distrust within the state; effectively keeping himself in power.
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. Under Stalin’s leadership, the Ukraine suffered from a famine so great that it was considered by many to be an act of genocide by Stalin’s government. During the time of the famine, Stalin also ordered purges within the Soviet Union of any person to be an enemy of the state. It is estimated the total number of deaths during Stalin’s reign ranged from 10 million to 60 million. However, Stalin was not always an evil person. He was born the son of a poor shoe maker. As a young man he was trained to be priest and after becoming dictator acquired many titles over the years that included “Father of Nations”, “Brilliant Genius of Humanity”, and “Gardener of Human Happiness.” Throughout Stalin’s tenure, the Soviet Union became a world power and even acquired a brief technological lead in space exploration. By the age of 34, he had become a professional revolutionary and a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Party. It was here where Stalin was influenced by people and politics that changed him into the type of dictator that he became.
The dichotomy between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky is pivotal in understanding the power hierarchy in the Bolshevik party and their successful attempt at revolution in 1917. When considering the various schools of historiography examined, the views on the two political figures differs greatly depending on the sources school and therefore biases. However, generally Stalin is presented far more negatively in most historiographies being depicted suspicious and threatening, rapidly gaining power through deceptions and generally antagonizing the political climate of Soviet Russia, only being seen as truly pure in pro-Stalinist propaganda. Contrastingly, Trotsky is presented as cunning but never conniving, a prestigious and unparalleled military
In this situation, Joseph Stalin killed Sergey Kirov only to eliminate a political rival that opposed his idea of government. Joseph Stalin did not want to give people even an option to join or support another political party other than his. Joseph Stalin was cruel and represented a totalitarian government because of the killing of millions that included Sergei Kirov. Joseph Stalin also had created a massacre that unfortunately caused a lot of lost lives. This act of terror is also known as the great purge and according to, “The Purges in the USSR,” Stalin asked the Politburo for its support and to give itself cover to purge the party of threatening elements to the Stalin regime. The policy was used to give legitimacy to the killing of millions of Russians during his rule and eventually the great purge took place, “the first people rounded up were labelled ‘Trotskyites’. They were put in prisons run by the People’s Commisirariat for Internal affairs or NKVD who, according to the very few that survived this experience, used both physical and psychological torture to gain information about other ‘traitors’ to the cause.” Stalin sent his enemies to prison often sending them to hard
Stalin would kill anyone who disagreed or disapproved of him and his ways (“The Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin” np). During the seconf half of the 1930s, Stalin created the Great Purge, which was campaigns used to get rid of the Communist Party (“The Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin” np). Stalin’s ego was growing and he started to have cities named after him, history books written about his “gallantry” personality, and people made lies about life (“Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin” np). He was the subject of masterpeice artwork, literature, and music (“Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin” np). His name even became part of the Soviet national anthem (“Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin” np). THe government was in control of the Soviet media (“Soviet Union Under Joseph Stalin” np). While leaders would try to defeat Nazism, Stalin became associates with Hitler (“How Did Stalin Get Away with Murder?” np). He was a ruler for twenty-five years, a quarter century, and enjoyed it very much (“How Did Stalin Get Away with Murder?” np). Still keeeping to his roots, he married women from poor families (“How Did Stalin Get Away with Murder?: Man of Steel” np). The Plan was piut intp place which caused a transformation in the economy and the death of millions (43, np). This caused purges to happen which led to thousands of people being
The currently named KGB was founded by Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky in 1917 under the name of the "Cheka." This Cheka was the name of Russia's first secret police after the rule of the Tsar's. The full name of these secret police was "All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution, Sabotage and Speculation" (Deriabin, KGB: Masters of the Soviet Union XI). The Cheka would eventually evolve into the KGB in 1954. However, between the years of 1917 and 1954 the KGB was given a variety of different names. Next in line, after the Cheka, was the OGPU. This lasted from 1926 to 1934 and was headed by Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky. In 1934 it became the NKVD which lasted until 1941 when it was named the NKGB. The NKGB only lasted seven months until it was renamed has the NKVD and it kept that name for another two years. Through the years of 1943 and 1954 it was called the MGB until it finally adopted its final name, the KGB, which has laster to this day since 1954. No matter what the name given to it, or the year the name was given, the KGB was still the same thing once one got down to the hardcore facts.
Joseph Stalin’s regime was fabricated upon, fear, propaganda, and exclusively governing the empire's economy. Stalin needed to do this in order to maintain control over the Soviet Society, and direct the USSR in the manner he desired. Stalin’s cult of personality manufactured dogmas that had an adverse consequence on his empire. Several of these dogmas were enforced to ameliorate the overall standards of the Soviet society, instead, these dogmas ensued chaos and resulted in the loss of millions of lives. Stalin's personality cult was an addition of an already existing cult of Lenin and the members of the Politburo, aimed at maintaining the loyalty of the people.[1] Stalin’s utilization of his “Cult of Personality”
Although Stalin’s intentions were somewhat heroic, his actions were villainous, this is so because he was responsible for forced labour and labour laws (punishments involving labour), millions murdered by his secret police, NKVD, if they questioned authority in any way, and used horrific tactics to manipulate Russia so he could obtain power. Stalin promised a flourished and amazing nation by the end of his reign, but instead inflicted pain that will be with Russia’s people forever. Stalin had dreams to modernize and industrialize Russia to make it great, but instead killed off his own people in the process. As that person walks down that street in Russia, fear creeps up their back. A fear of the face on every poster in the town, Stalin. One wrong word, move, look, death was near, ready to pounce at any given momen