Biography of Joseph Stalin and the Revolutionary Movement

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Joseph Stalin grew up believing in Marxist, which led him to devote his time to the revolutionary movement against the Russian Monarchy (World History in Context). In 1922, Stalin became general secretary of the Communist party and after Lenin’s death he promoted himself as Lenin’s political heir. After proclaiming his position of the political heir, Stalin officially became a dictator over the Soviet Union (World History in Context). Stalin was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century. Stalin’s reign of terror caused the death and suffering of millions, but he also oversaw the war machine that played a key role in the defeat of Nazism. It is said that Stalin is one of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history (World History in Context). Joseph Stalin would rule over the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953.
Once Stalin came into power after Lenin’s death he immediately got to work on how he was going to control the Soviet Union. "The triumph of one man turned into the tragedy of an entire nation."(Volkogonov) Joseph Stalin began collectivizing farming and had potential enemies executed or sent to labor camps. Many farmers did not like the idea of the government taking their farms and they refused to cooperate. Since the farmers wouldn’t listen to what Stalin was saying he had them shot or exiled. Also the forced collective farming led to a widespread famine across the Soviet Union and killed millions of people (BBC History 4). Since the Soviet Union was allied with the United States and Great Britain they did not pay much attention to Stalin and what was happening under his control. The whole world was so focused on what Hitler was doing and his labor camps that Stalin’s labor camps completely flew u...

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...cret negotiations with German officers, and the opening of a second front in the west (U.S.-Soviet Alliance). The most important disagreement of all these issues was the opening of the second front in the west. Stalin was already struggling to hold off the Nazi troops in the east. Although the alliance was rough between the two nations, in the end the defeat of Nazi Germany could not have been defeated without the Soviet Union and the United States working together. The Soviets and the U.S. were able to fight Germany on both sides of the country. By opening a two front war with Germany it was easier to defeat them because in almost any case where a two front war occurs it is very hard to win. The United States made the right choice to ally with the Soviet Union because it would have taken more than the United States to take out powerful Germany and the Nazi forces.

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