Pros And Cons Of Joseph Stalin

758 Words2 Pages

As Warren Bennis, a scholar on the subject of leadership, once said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” This statement certainly holds true no matter what type of leader you look at. From cruel dictators such as Joseph Stalin, who fought and killed to stay in power, to peaceful leaders like Mohandas Gandhi, who used nonviolent tactics to emancipate India from the United Kingdom, to Jesus Christ, who started a religion and spread his message of love and forgiveness far across the globe, they all had a vision of how they wanted to change the world, for the better, or for the worse. Widely considered to be one of the most ruthless and cruel dictators of the twentieth century, Joseph Stalin was responsible for an estimated …show more content…

He implemented a tremendous amount of forced labor camps, called the GULAG. These camps were where citizens would go to serve time for their crimes. If a peasant was caught stealing anything, arriving late to work three times, or making jokes about high ranking Communist officials, they would be sent off to the concentration camps to serve as punishment (“Gulag”). These camps and strict policies were a large part of the reason that Stalin was considered to be so feared. No one every opposed him or tried to revolt because of his reputation for being so …show more content…

This meant that neither Germany, nor the Soviet Union, would invade the other country. This pact was made because the USSR wanted to remain at peace with Germany and secure time to build up their military, however, the pact did not last long (“Nonaggression Pact”). On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union without provocation. This lead the Soviet Union to join the Allied side of the fight. They were accompanied by the United States, United Kingdom, France, and many others. Although Stalin had led his country into joining the Allies, there were always underlying tensions between the countries. The tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were always slightly apparent, but they drastically worsened in 1950 when Stalin gave permission to Kim Il Sung to invade South Korea. The United States had been backing South Korea and the USSR were backing North Korea. This caused the outburst of the Korean War, a war that continues on to this

Open Document