Joseph Stalin Cult Of Personality Case Study

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Q1 Response: What was the cult of personality?
Stalin’s cult of personality was a deliberate method that he used to cast himself as an infallible, all-knowing leader who could do no wrong and, furthermore, could accomplish whatever he chose to attempt. These supposed leadership traits were drilled into the minds of individual soviet citizens who were expected to worship Stalin and never think ill of him in any manner. One example of his cult of personality was the role that Stalin took in military and historic films. Stalin was the only actor in the films, completely omitting the role that the government should have portrayed. He uses false premises in the films to portray himself as a hero.
Q2 Response: In what sense was Stalin’s style of rule a violation of Marxist-Leninist theory, according to Khrushchev?
Stalin exhibited a depraved character and practiced brutal actions as contrasted to Lenin’s modest leadership style. Stalin imposed his will on citizens and demanded submission to his ideas whereas Marxist-Leninist theory advocated the principal …show more content…

Those who opposed Stalin were removed from the party and often murdered. Stalin invented the phrase “enemy of the people” to diminish the power of individuals and marginalize their views and opinions. He used arrests, executions and deportations to create an environment of insecurity and fear. He deported entire Russian cultures, like the Karachai, the Chechens and the Balkars, from their land in the early 1940’s
Stalin made serious military blunders. For example, he involved the Soviet Union in a prolonged, bloody war with Germany in WW II when he ignored repeated warnings from Britain that Germany was grouping military units on Russia’s border in advance of an imminent attack. He ignored his own military officer’s warnings about a German attack in the 1942 Battle of Kharkov, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Russian

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