Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia, on December 18, 1879 and died on
March 5, 1953. He was educated in a church school in Georgia. Joseph Stalin got the
smallpox at the age of seven and this left his face scarred and his left arm a little
deformed, and because of this, children were mean to him and treated him differently
which made Stalin yearn for respect and greatness. He also had a bad temper to those
who crossed him. Stalin's mother wanted him to be a priest which is why she put him in
the Church School, which Stalin did very well in school and got a scholarship to Tiflis
Theological Seminary in 1894. Even though Joseph did well in Seminary school he
dropped out in 1899, school records show that he was unable to pay the remaining
tuition, so he was forced to withdraw.
Joseph Stalin was a small guy, he was about 5'4. But that did not stop him from
becoming one of the most powerful dictators in history. Stalin was the absolute ruler of
the Soviet Union for 30 years, the Soviet Union was not a fun place to be, Stalin was
responsible for many crimes against innocent people, such as, expulsions, imprisonment
in labor camps, murder, and famines. He killed an estimated amount of twenty million
people. If this figure is correct that would mean Stalin killed 1,830 people a day.
This was just during the time he was trying to make himself the supreme ruler of the
Soviet Union. He would also be responsible for another twenty million deaths as a result
of this role in World War II. The cost of people's lives was not a detriment to Stalin's
desire for more power and land under Soviet control.
Never was this more prevalent than during the Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam
Conferences. These were the ...
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...st own enemy. It can never be argued that he was one of the world's most evil men.
Nothing could sum this up more tham his own words, "One death is a tragedy; one
million is a statistic."
Source 1: http://www.biography.com/people/joseph-stalin-9491723#early-life&awesm=~oDwSnyf3hu5z5o
Source 2: by: Mevedev, Aleksandrovich. http://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-people-did-joseph-stalin-kill-1111789
Source 3: http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htm
Source 4: http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSstalin.htm
Source 5: http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1707/were-there-any-attempts-to-assassinate-joseph-stalin
Source 6: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/531904/Khrushchevs-secret-speech
Source 7: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/26/russia.theobserver
Source 8: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/josephstal137476.html
In conclusion, many soviets citizens appeared to believe that Stalin’s positive contributions to the U.S.S.R. far outweigh his monstrous acts. These crimes have been down played by many of Stalin’s successors as they stress his achievements as collectivizer, industrializer, and war leader. Among those citizens who harbor feelings of nostalgia, Stalin’s strength, authority , and achievement contrast sharply with the pain and suffering of post-revolutionary Russia.
Stalin was “born in Gori, Georgia” as the third and only surviving child of a “cobbler and ex-serf”(Compton’s 403). His true name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. “In 1912 he took the alias of ‘Stalin’, from the Russian word stal, meaning ‘steel”, hence his nickname “Man of Steel”(Compton’s 402). Stalin began his studies at the seminary as a devout believer in Orthodox Christianity, where he was soon exposed to the radical ideas of fellow students. In 1899, just about the time of graduation, he gave up his religious education and to devote his time to the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy. In 1902 Stalin was hunted down and arrested by the imperial police for organizing a large worker’s demonstration. A year later he was sentenced to “exile in the Russian region of Siberia, but soon managed to escape and was back in Georgia by early 1904”(Archer 58). When the Russian Social Democratic Party split into Menshevik and Bolshevik factions, Stalin sided with the Bolsheviks, who just happened to be led by Vladimir Lenin. Stalin immediately became a staunch follower of Lenin, studying his every move. He did marry in 1905 but his beloved bride died of tuberculosis two years later. Their son, Yasha, died later in a Nazi Prison camp during World War II. After the Bolshevik’s Civil War victory, Stalin became highly organized and was elected secretary of the Communist Party. “After Lenin’s death, Stalin gradually isolated and shunned his political rivals, especially Leon Trotsky, and by the end of 1929 Joseph Stalin had succeeded in eliminating his opponents and became the supreme leader of the USSR” (Compton’s 404).
...ding his goals, but the results do in no way justify the horrible number of deaths and suffering that came from Stalin’s rule.
	"Russia’s War - Blood Upon the Snow" brought into view a more detailed, personal account of Stalin’s atrocities. People recalling memories they had of what it was like to live under Stalin’s paranoid rule. During his five-year plans to become a more industrialized nation, Stalin had thousands of people forced into building the White Sea Canal. They were made to continue working until they dropped from exhaustion. When it was completed in 1933 the workers who were still left were drowned in the canal. Another paranoid act Stalin ordered to be carried out was the murder of over a thousand members of the seventeenth congress. When Stalin held a vote to elect who the general secretary would be, three hundred votes were against him. He feared that he would be overthrown by Sergei Kirov, who only received three votes against him. Joseph Stalin, over a short period had Kirov murdered as well as one thousand out of nineteen hundred sixty-six committee members and ninety-eight out of one hundred and thirty-nine central committee members.
Stalin’s hunger for power and paranoia impacted the Soviet society severely, having devastating effects on the Communist Party, leaving it weak and shattering the framework of the party, the people of Russia, by stunting the growth of technology and progress through the purges of many educated civilians, as well as affecting The Red Army, a powerful military depleted of it’s force. The impact of the purges, ‘show trials’ and the Terror on Soviet society were rigorously negative. By purging all his challengers and opponents, Stalin created a blanket of fear over the whole society, and therefore, was able to stay in power, creating an empire that he could find more dependable.
The many men and women Joseph Stalin killed or had killed were because they either
boosted the USSR’s economy. Therefore Stalin had created a country which seemed corrupt at the time, but later on it improved by the hard work Stalin had forced upon them.
Stalins rise as a dictator over the USSR in 1929, was a struggle for power. It was set by Lenin, in his testament, that Stalin was not to takeover control as the party leader, and to be removed from his position as General Secretary, as Stalin in Lenins eyes had lack of loyalty, tolerance, and politeness. However, different factors, such as Lenins funeral, Stalins position as General Secretary and the rise of bureaucracy, and Stalins relationship to Kamenev and Zinoviev, made it possible for Stalin to become the undisputed leader over the USSR in 1929. This essay will discuss the methods and the conditions, which helped Joseph Stalin rise to power.
...change of industrial leadership crippled Russia's mechanization efforts and it is still argued today if the effects are still felt. By removing these people from the Soviet society both the biologist theories of Nature verses Nurture were challenged at best and destroyed at worst. For the argument of nature being the greatest influence on learning ability most of the intellectuals and brightest leaders were removed from the gene pool. In contrast to Nurture these people could not influence society any longer. Through these changes in society Stalin has forever made his mark. His pollicies effected every area in Russian culture.
Joseph Stalin killed many people in order to provoke a government of fascism.With his obsession in changing the USSR from a backward, peasant-centered, agrarian nation to an industrial superpower, Stalin developed a totalitarian government that ruled over individual lives, striking fear in the converted and threatening death or hard labor camps for the unconverted. The totalitarian rule under Joseph
After Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist, died, Stalin outmaneuvered his rivals and won the control of the Communist Party. In the tardy 1920’s he became dictator of the Soviet Cumulation. Then he wanted to industrialize the country because at the time the economic was farming. Millions of farmers reluctant to be apart of Stalin’s orders and were killed as penalization. The civilization led a widespread famine across the Soviet Coalescence and killed millions of people. Stalin wanted to kill anyone who opposed him of his orders. He engendered an army of secret police, and inspirited citizens to spy on others which had many people killed or sent to a labor camp. Virtually everyone around Stalin was considered a threat to him, even the Communist Party, the military, and components of the Soviet Coalescence society, s...
Stalin’s policies were both a success and a failure whether as a result of his direct orders or as a result of his policies. Nethertheless, the success they achieved came at a huge price with nearly 20 million death’s during his reign; It was seen as a small price to pay as Stalin achevied what he set out to do, turning an undeveloped nation into an industrial super power, it was due to his policy’s that Russia became one of the most powerful nations in the world.
Also, his citizens enjoyed free water supply. electricity and near to nothing rent. He provided free health care and education. To conclude, I feel that Stalin improved Russia but at a great cost. and disregard for human life.
Stalin was also politically skillful and cunning. In the Politburo, when matters of high policy were being discussed, Stalin never imposed his views on his colleagues. He carefully followed the course of the debate and invariably voted with the majority. To the party audiences he appeared devoid of personal grudge and rancour and even seemed to be a detached Leninist, a guardian of the doctrine who criticized others only for the sake of the cause. Stalin always adopted policies that were broadly approved by the majority of the Communist party. Hence, using his political dexterity, he maintained a good reputation within the party. Stalin also made full use of Lenin?s funeral to advance his position. He tricked Trotsky into not attending the funeral by letting him know that he would never make it on time (of course this was not true).
(Catherwood 1). Clearly, Stalin wanted to achieve his goals of making the Soviet Union slowly become a superpower. In the process of achieving his goal, Stalin eliminated anyone that he considered might be a threat to him. Furthermore, Stalin was overly paranoid that he might be overthrown; in return, he sent millions of people to the gulag so he won’t be overthrown.