Joseph Stalin set up events intended to cause a famine in Ukraine to protect his rule. Despite the fact that the long-awaited opportunity for independence had come in 1917, the people Ukraine’s new-found freedom was brief, due to Stalin’s uncontrollable overtake of Vladimir Lenin’s power. Stalin’s rule caused chaos and conflict followed by Ukrainian troops fighting Lenin’s Red Army, Russian White Army (troops devoted to the Czar), as well as the invading forces from Germany and Poland. At the same time, Stalin enforced the Soviet system of land management known as collectivization, resulting in the taking over of private farms. Joseph Stalin caused a famine in Ukraine as a terrible punishment for the people of Ukraine’s desire to gain independence, causing the death of many. After Lenin died in 1924, he was followed by Joseph Stalin, one of the most heartless humans to ever hold power. Stalin had to trick his rival Leon Trotsky, into missing Lenin’s funeral; resulting in his support from the people of Ukraine to be Lenin’s successor. Stalin’s trick on Trotsky led the people to belie...
Starvation was crucial during the Holocaust, which separated you from life or death. This affected most of the prisoners from doing their tasks. In the book Ellie says, “ Bread, soup - these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.” Elie Wiesel was starving at some point of every day since he was forced into labor and torture. He talks about how these two items were his whole life, because that's all the food they received. With only focusing on food they must have been in the ultimate stage of starvation. When in the ultimate stage of hunger you become “prone to Muscle spasms and twitches happen when the potassium level becomes dangerously low. Extreme
Communist Ideology's Influence on Stalin's Decision to Implement Collectivisation in 1928 Collectivisation was the agricultural policy, which Stalin adopted and began work on in the summer of 1928. The main features included, as Stalin quoted in Pravda "The transition from individual peasant farming to collective socialised farming," and the process of De-kulakisation. It was an agricultural policy necessary to try and combat the problem with the poor provision of grain by the peasants, a problem that had always been evident in Russia's agricultural management. The heavy cost and brutality has led historians to offer a variety of explanations for why Collectivisation was used. Some pragmatists argue the original aim was to increase the tempo of industrialisation by increasing the grain procurement.
Trotsky was a Marxist revolutionary and theorist, and a Soviet politician who built the exchange of all political energy to the Soviets. When Lenin died, Trotsky and Stalin had to compete for the leading spot. In the end, Stalin came out on top by using propaganda techniques making it seem like Trotsky was a spy. After Stalin won, he kept Trotsky alive for a whole year just to blame social and economic problems on him. Joseph didn’t realize “The biggest problem with scapegoating a government is that it makes it much harder to solve social and economic problems,” (Douglas, governmentisgood.com). Trotsky was a very disliked person and was kicked out of multiple states, he even survived a machine gun attack on his home. Eventually, Stalin banished him from the USSR and had him assassinated by a Spanish communist, Ramon Mercader, in Coyoacan, Mexico on the 21st of August, 1940. Just like how Goldstein was demonized in society, Trotsky was
During Stalin’s five year plan, he wanted to increase agriculture massively to feed the people working in industry as well as sell to strengthen the economy. Stalin began the genocide by annihilating “Ukraine’s cultural intelligentsia—not so much its engineers, doctors, and technicians, but its linguists, historians, artists, folk singers, and others whose work and professional lives suggested a separate cultural or historical identity for Ukraine” (History in Dispute). They had also included Ukrainian communists in the first objective. Stalin’s second objective was to destroy the economic and political relevance of individual peasant farmers. Most Ukrainian residents had their owns farms even when the serfs were in existence; prosperous on their own with the New Economic Policy from the 1920’s. Stalin’s plan would end the independent ways of living and prosperous peasantry.
Trotsky played a key role in the Bolshevik party, encouraging revolution, which saw the Bolsheviks gain power in 1917. He built up a strong Red Army during the civil war, used to ensure the survival of the Bolshevik government and was seen by many as the most likely candidate to take over as leader after Lenin’s death, showing the significance he was held in by Russians. However, evidence suggests that after Lenin’s death he lost his a considerable amount of power, eventually being exiled from the Communist party. In the short-term it is clear that Trotsky had a huge significance in the development of Russia, shown clearly through both his letters and documents, and the opinions of those close to Trotsky. The significance is obvious through his role in the build up to the October Revolution, his negotiations with Germany through the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, his contribution to Bolshevik success in the civil war and his attitude towards terror and his failure to out maneuver Stalin to succeed Lenin.
Leon Trotsky experienced one of the most brutal assassinations of all time, death by an ice pick, and to make matters even worse his assassination was unjustified.Trotsky supported the middle class citizens as a Marxist theorist. He was most known for his time in the Russian Revolution defeating all opposing forces of the Bolsheviks. As leader of the Workers’ Revolution, and he defended what he believed in the Bolsheviks, who had a more communistic drive. He may have made many controversial decisions during his time in power and expressed his unpopular opinions towards Joseph Stalin. But in the long run none of his actions should have resulted in an assassination. In the end his death was tragic yet,
The Russian revolution of February 1917 was a momentous event in the course of Russian history. The causes of the revolution were very critical and even today historians debate on what was the primary cause of the revolution. The revolution began in Petrograd as “a workers’ revolt” in response to bread shortages. It removed Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, replacing Russia’s monarchy with the world’s first Communist state. The revolution opened the door for Russia to fully enter the industrial age. Before 1917, Russia was a mostly agrarian nation. The Russian working class had been for many years fed up with the ways they had to live and work and it was only a matter of time before they had to take a stand. Peasants worked many hours for low wages and no land, which caused many families to lose their lives. Some would argue that World War I led to the intense downfall of Russia, while others believe that the main cause was the peasant unrest because of harsh living conditions. Although World War I cost Russia many resources and much land, the primary cause of the Russian Revolution was the peasant unrest due to living conditions because even before the war began in Russia there were outbreaks from peasants due to the lack of food and land that were only going to get worse with time.
Stalin's Assault on Agriculture in 1930 The heart of the issue in assessing why Stalin embarked on this policy of aggression is in asserting whether, collectivisation and the war on the Kulaks was an economic necessity or an act of sheer brutality designed to break the peasantry into submission. In 1929, the party moved in favour of collectivised agriculture - large state-organized farms in place of small private peasant plots, and the destruction of independent market in agricultural products. Mass collectivisation began in October; a month later Stalin announced what he called the “The Great Turn” in the process of building a modern, socialized agriculture. He saw the crisis as central to revolutionary survival: “Either we succeed,” he told the Central Committee plenum, “or we go under.” On 27 December 1929 Stalin finally called for an uncompromising policy of “liquidating the Kulaks as a class”.
Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were similar in what they claimed to be, but in actuality they were very different people. Although Stalin claimed that he followed Leninism, the philosophy that Lenin developed from Marxism, he often distorted it to follow what he wanted to do. While Lenin wanted to make a unified society without classes, with production in the hands of the people, while Stalin wanted to make Russia into a modern industrial powerhouse by using the government to control production. Lenin accomplished his goals through violence, because he thought achieving Communist revolution was worth using violence, with a ‘The ends justify the means’ mentality. Stalin also used violence to accomplish his goals, however Stalin used much more violence than was often necessary to accomplish his goals. Stalin continued even once he was successful in accomplishing those goals, as he did not stop hurting people, but if anything it gave him more power to hurt people even more. But, at the end of the day, although Lenin ruled for only a very short time, he did raise the standard of living, though there maintained a large amount of hardship. Stalin, however, transformed the USSR from a peasantry to an industrialized nation in less than a decade, he did it on the backs of his millions of victims, who died because of his harsh policies and many purges.
The Great Famine of 1845 lasted for many years in Ireland. During this time, many people of Ireland suffered in numerous ways. In such devastating and dark times “deaths began to mount and tragic horrific scenes ensured all over Ireland: Mass Graves, Corpses gnawed by rats, hunger marches, and roadside deaths” (Kelley 137). In these grey times for Ireland, the country battled many hardships to overcome this era. The Great Famine was historically dated from 1845-1851, although the effects of the Famine lasted until 1852 (Kelley 136). The major cause of the Famine was a disease called the blight, but there were many other aspects that caused the catastrophe in Ireland.
Stalin’s leadership of the Soviet Union can be best described as a period of terror and censorship. In other words, he was very strict, considering the fact that he created the totalitarian government. In order to create this type of government, Stalin used fear and propaganda. He took part in The Great Purge, which was a campaign of terror that was supposed to eliminate anyone who threatened Stalin’s power. He also relied on secret police, who would arrest and execute any traitors. The online blog, “The Reasons For the Failure of The Russian Revolution”, brings up information on how Stalin planned to rule as dictator of Russia. It has been noted, “This ‘reshaping’ had three main aspects: the elimination of all dissent; the liquidation of all forms of democracy and of working class organisation; the slashing of the living standards of the working class and the physical annihilation of millions of peasants” (Text 5). This quote explains how Stalin wanted to industrialize Russia, which includes the deaths of several peasants of Russia. The Russians did not just die from The Great Purge, but also from Stalin’s Five-Year Plan. The Five-Year Plan was an attempt to industrialize the Soviet Union. It was also a plan for increasing the output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity. He had control over economic resources, including farms and
Stalin was able to damage Trotsky’s reputation and political prestige, by tricking Trotsky for not showing up at Lenins funeral. After Lenins death, on the 21st of January 1924, on over three days, about three and a half million people queued to see Lenins body. Although many people felt hatred towards the regime, many felt a bona fide affection towards Lenin, which was comparable with the affection the people had to the Romanov dynasty, before the October Revolution. Throughout Lenins funeral, Stalin hoped that he could strengthen his position in the Party and remove Trotsky from his powerful position, which he was in. Trotsky turned ill just before Lenin’s death, and had settled in the south of Russia, to recover. Stalin contacted Trotsky about Lenins death and meant that Trotsky would not make it to the funeral. For Trotsky not attending the funeral, caused his reputation and political prestige, within the party, to be damaged. During Lenins funeral, Stalin made a speech referring t...
The result of rationing food led to the death and disease which proves the ineffectiveness of many labor camps. There would be many deaths because of starvation, but thousands more of prisoners would then enter the system to replace them. The same problems occurred during the collectivization period in the late 20’s and early 30’s, and millions of people would because of starvation and lack of food. Those who over-fulfilled the plan in the Gulag system would receive special food, but rewards like these treat these prisoners as less than humans whose only purpose is to accomplish the work the government has given. Many diseases affected the prisoners, and this prompted Mochulsky to require a crew full of guards to relook over the inspections
After the death of Lenin, his chief lieutenant Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin fought for control of the country. Stalin was able to win out over Trotsky and gain control of the Russian government. He felt that Lenin and Trotsky’s socialistic ideas were flawed in that they were to wait for other countries to revolt and become socialistic as well. Staling believed that a single country could make socialism .
Joseph Stalin ruled the USSR from 1929 until his death in 1953. His rule was one of tyranny, and great change from the society that his predecessor, Lenin, had envisioned (Seton, 34). Stalin put into effect two self proclaimed "five-year plans" over the course of his rule. Both were very similar in that they were intended to improve production in the nation. The first of these plans began collectivization, in which harvests and industrial products were seized by the government and distributed as needed. The government eliminated most private businesses and the state became the leader in commerce. Stalin also initiated a process called "Russification". (Great Events, 119)"