Stalin As a Hero of the Russian People as Well as a Villain
Many people believed that Stalin was a hero; many even want as far as
thi8nking he could improve people's love lives, but on the other hand,
many believed he was evil villain like dictator. Looking at the
evidence I will examine which "title" Stalin should really have, hero
or villain?
Starting of with the best idea that Stalin had was the five-year plan.
This had a major affect on the industry and the people. The changes
that he made lowered the amount of unemployed people, and it let more
people have access to free education and medicine. This idea of
Stalin's laid out a new path for Russia and the future looked bright
at the other end, showing him as a hero.
But it wasn't all perfect for the Russian people. In 1929 the
government introduced what it called an "uninterrupted" week. Instead
of working for five days, they would work for seven days straight,
with a fifth of the workers having their day off on any one day.
Also the wages where incredibly low for employment, people where
working longer shifts and where working in terrible conditions.
Next came the purges. Any one that was over heard criticising Stalin,
was denounced NKVD as a Trotskyite. This made peoples life's hell,
they had to watch what they said all the time, because they knew that
if they were heard saying anything bad about Stalin they would be
executed.
People thought that he was doing it to rid the streets of criminals so
that they would be safe, but he is really just eliminating any threats
that he might have. They would see him as a hero here.
Propaganda influenced the mass media and the state controlled
everything they produced. The state's messages where everywhere. Even
artists were only allowed to produce work that reflected the glorious
achievements of communism.
He also tried very hard to show his face everywhere, to get the
message across that he was the leader.
the Party and bureaucracy was able to extend his personal authority. and the Party’s control over the people. The cult of personality was a bizarre semi religious institution that emerged following Stalin’s assumption of power. Stalin helped further the cult of personality by institutionalising art and culture. Artists and workers were either forced to join the Union of Soviet artists, or otherwise operate illegally.
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.
The impact Stalin has had on the world is immense and at some periods in history devastating. Contrasting, Unknown Stalin by Zhores Medvedev and Stalin:Breaker of Nations by Robert Conquest, to gain different historical perspectives of Stalin. Medvedev does not go into much detail into Stalin’s rise to power in the beginning of the book but starts with his death. He takes an approach giving a historical portrayal of Stalin that focuses not only on how callus and brutal he could be, but how all of his success was made possible by his patience and intelligence . In contrast, Conquest’s book he begins with Stalin’s birth, like many biographies, and his rise in the ranks in the Bolshevik party, but his book is more intimate as it explains his emotional states. Conquest argues that Stalin's main goal was the preservation of his vision of Maxist-Leninism and the removal people he deemed as enemies of that vision. These books take different paths to understanding Stalin as a person and as the Head of State of the Soviet Union. Is Stalin's portrayal as a megalomaniac with an insatiable lust for control, fear and power accurate and how must we use his other social positions, husband, father, friend, and fellow revolutionary, to answer this question. Looking through these two books we can find the sides ignored by many and the sides that were rightly feared of Stalin.
For most people that know who Joseph Stalin was, they can agree on one thing: Stalin was one of the most brutal and ruthless leaders that mankind has ever seen. He is known as the instigator and leader of the Reign of Terror, which incorporated extremely horrifying purges. These purges have been estimated to have killed five times as many people as the Holocaust. The purges also helped him establish his power base, which allowed him to build one of the most powerful countries in its day and age. But he was not born evil, in fact, when he was a child, family and friends said he was shy. This does not mean he didn’t have a bad childhood, which happened quite often in rural Georgia. The pain of his childhood built as the years went by. Growing up admiring people like Karl Marx, Machiavelli, and Ivan the Terrible only stoked the fire even more. I believe that Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror can be traced directly back to his brutal childhood and complete belief in Marxist principles.
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. Lenin made a series of policies throughout the beginning of the Revolution and through his short time in public office that came to be collectively known as ‘Leninism’. There were many things that influenced Leninism, such as Karl Marx.
The Great Terror that occurred from 1934 to 1940 greatly impacted Soviet society due to the enforcement of the Stalinist policy by the NKVD. The implementation of the policy through the purges of innocent individuals and government members, the forced convictions of the innocent during the show trials from 1936 to 1938 and the effects this all had on groups in society such as the intelligentsia, greatly affected the lives of Soviet people making them fearful for their safety and their future. The Terror not only removed dissent from society but also made people fearful.
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.
Around the early 1920’s, Stalin took power and became leader of Russia. As a result Russians either became fond of Stalin’s policies or absolutely despised them. Stalin’s five-year plans lured many into focusing on the thriving economy rather than the fact that the five year plan hurt the military. The experience of many lives lost, forced labor camps, little supply of food, influenced the Russians negative opinion about Stalin. Having different classes in society, many Russians had different points of views. For the Peasants, times were rough mainly because of the famine, so they were not in favor of Stalin and his policies; where as the upper classes had a more optimistic view of everything that was occurring. Stalin’s policies affected the Russian people and the Soviet Union positively and also had a negative affect causing famine for the Russian people.
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
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.
...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.
the peak of there marriage and this left a hole in his heart which he
George Orwell represented Joseph Stalin in his book, “Animal Farm” with a character named Napoleon. In his book he was telling the story of the Russian Revolution in a satirical way when he changed the story he made it to where all the important people or group of people were represented through one animal. Napoleon, a pig, was Joseph Stalin; Orwell represented him by relating all the events that occurred into a reverse reality where it was put into an easier form to show how the events happened. To show this relation even more Joseph Stalin’s history must be revealed, how he relates to Napoleon, and if George Orwell did a good job representing Stalin.
In order for it to work, Russia had to become an industrial power at all costs. Stalin removed anyone he though could possibly turn against his plan and stay in the way. Over the next few years, he executed many of the old Bolsheviks who had led the revolutions as well as many military officers.
Discussion on Whether Stalin Was a Necessary Evil Marxism was a doctrine formulated by Karl Marx about the elimination of economic inequality and class conflicts. According to Marxism social and political relationships depend on economic factors because whichever group in society controls the "means of production" also has political control. Marx believed that historical change was a series of stages that were influenced by economic forces and that each stage had to be completed before the next could begin. In a classes and stateless society, co-operation will replace competition and this final and perfect stage of human history would be communism.