Stalin's Life in the Revolution Much like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin was one of the most ruthless and diabolical people in the history of the world. Hitler once said of Stalin, " He is a beast, but he's a beast on a grand scale who must command our unconditional respect. In his own way, he is a hell of a fellow!" (Stalin Breaker of Nations, p.xvi) What Hitler said of Stalin is only his opinion, and it is not a valid one at that. For you must consider the source, it takes a beast like Adolf Hitler to know a beast and Stalin was a horrible beast. He was also a murderer. Stalin abused his people when he starved them to death, and systematically murdered them. Stalin also abused his country by halting Russia's progress and economic growth. Stalin was a breaker of nations. Stalin first enter the Russian political system in the early nineteen teens. With the help form Lenin, Stalin proposed an answer to the National Question, which was self determination. Stalin's ruthlessness is first discovered by Lenin, when Stalin is sent to Georgia to convince the Georgia leader not to practice self determination. When the leader does not agree with what Stalin has to say, Stalin punches the man out and threaten to kill them all. Years after that incident Lenin end up dying and Stalin takes over as the leader of Russia. Because Trotsky was hated by many of the influential political figures in Russia, Stalin becomes the leader of Russia even after Lenin's dying last wishes. 1929 was the first of many years in which Stalin stunted Russia's growth. In that year the "Engineer Trials" were held. During these trials the Russian elite was brought f... ... middle of paper ... ...nties, on being Poland. In Poland during the Great Terror, Stalin ordered the Katyn Massacre to occur. The top 15,000 officers in the Polish army were rounded up and killed in the forests of Belarus. This was a deep wound, the stunted the Polish progress, since now there were would be no more experienced leaders in Poland's future, since Stalin killed most of their military elite. Once again Stalin had broken another nation. During all this time, Stalin was also methodically killing off all of his political opponents, or anyone who posed as to be the most remote of a threat to him. Unlike what Hitler thought of Stalin, the opposite is true. Stalin showed mercy to no one, he evil incarnate, killing innocent Russians and severely damaging any possible of future progress for Russia. Stalin had broken the Russian nation.
Trotsky's Contribution to the Success of the Bolsheviks Up to 1922 1.a) Trotsky’s contribution to the success of the Bolsheviks up to 1922 was mainly through the military; Trotsky was a close friend of Lenin which helped Trotsky get the place at the head of the Military Revolution committee of the Petrograd soviet. Under Trotsky’s leadership, the military revolutionary committee was actually planning to seize power of the government in 1917. Trotsky was placed in a very powerful position in the Military and he desperately wanted to take power of the government. Trotsky then helped the Bolsheviks take power, and then an anti-communist group known as the whites had formed an army to fight against Trotsky.
The question of whether or not Stalinism was a logical continuation of Leninism is a difficult one. Stalinism did take significantly more drastic measures than Leninism did. There were differences in policy. But in spite of these, Stalinism still found its basis in Leninism. Even Trotsky, a friend of Lenin and a staunch opponent of Stalin, grudgingly admits that "Stalinism did issue from Bolshevism" (Trotsky). Stalin's policy of socialism in one country, his use of terror to eliminate opposition, and his suppression of democracy and the soviets were all characteristics of Lenin well before they were characteristic of Stalin. Although some of Stalin's policies were different from those of Lenin, what difference Stalinism did show from Leninism were either policies which Lenin had called for but never put into action, or logical continuations of Lenin's original principles, but modified to suit the demands of the time.
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.
was able to hold on to leadership of the Soviet Union. He was able to
At the start of the 20th century, Russia began to rapidly change. The Czarist autocracy that was previously in place was overthrown and the most influential family, the Romanovs, were no more. The Russian Revolution was soon in full swing and people were needed to take charge. One of the leader who emerges as a result of this is Joseph Stalin. Starting out as a simple countryside peasant, he quickly rose to a position of power. Eventually reaching the position of dictator, he implemented new policies that would further industrialize Russia as well as further progressing his goal of having total control over the Russian people. These policies include his 5-year plans as well as the creation of a totalitarian state. Joseph Stalin is, by many, considered one of the most ruthless leaders in the history of the world.
Eventually, nations collapse and kingdoms fail, termination can occur through many causes. Whether through being ruled by a sequence of out of touch men, engaging in war, having too many enemies, or an amalgamation: no nation is safe. Russia in the year of 1910 was in an immensely horrible situation, she had all of these problems. If it was not for Vladimir IIich Lenin, Russia would not have existed by 1920.
...e had none. He was not a compassionate Russian leader worthy of statutes within the countryside. He was an ambitious man driven by power and ideology; whom repeatedly relied on chance. A murderer of many, and a lover of few, Stalin will always be compared to the likes of Hitler, and Napoleon. Maybe in some sadistic way we needed a man like Stalin to remind us of the perilous courtship between ambition and power. Whatever the case may be, Stalin's place in history will always be a sick-minded tyrant who is responsible for the execution of half a million people. Conquest questioned his psyche, calling him paranoid or even crazy. Psychologist might claim Stalin was a classic example of a Napoleon complex with power. I however, find it ironic how a teenager a few months short of becoming a priest, gets so dizzy with success, that he damn near becomes Lucifer himself.
On March 3, 1918 Russia lost 1/3 of its fertile farm lands, 1/3 of its
“The man who turned the Soviet Union from a backward country into a world superpower at unimaginable human cost (Joseph Stalin).” “Stalin was born into a dysfunctional family in a poor village in Georgia (Joseph Stalin).” Permanently scarred from a childhood bout with smallpox and having a mildly deformed arm, Stalin always felt unfairly treated by life, and thus developed a strong, romanticized desire for greatness and respect, combined with a shrewd streak of calculating cold-heartedness towards those who had maligned him. “He always felt a sense of inferiority before educated intellectuals, and particularly distrusted them (Joseph Stalin).”
at age 26. He no idea what was involved, what to do and went along
Stalin, a paranoid ruler, always feared his political opponents, military officials and even common citizens. In his mind he felt they were...
Isaac Murrin Mr. J. Pharion Freshman English 20 February 2013 The Similarities and Differences between Lenin and Stalin 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 the 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.
In George Orwell’s 1984, the strategies used by Oceania’s Political Party to achieve total control over the population are similar to the ones employed by Joseph Stalin during his reign. Indeed, the tactics used by Oceania’s Party truly depicts the brutal totalitarian society of Stalin’s Russia. In making a connection between Stalin’s Russia and Big Brothers’ Oceania, each Political Party implements a psychological and physical manipulation over society by controlling the information and the language with the help of technology.
After establishing himself as Lenin’s successor, Stalin ruthlessly increased his power and pushed forward with all his policies. What resulted was an extreme totalitarian dictatorship. Stalin imposed his stamp on Russia. He employed greater control over the communist party, and to guarantee its longevity, he unleashed a flood of fear and coercion which had never been seen before. He eliminated any threats to his position via the NKVD and the purges which resulted in the death of millions of soviet people. This also enabled him to proceed with his major economic changes in the form of collectivisation and industrialisation through three, Five Year Plans. These plans were merely reactivating the earlier ideas and policies of the Bolsheviks, policies which Stalin had condemned Trotsky to exile.
The Conditions for Workers and Peasants Under the Bolsheviks and Under the Tsar's Rule Conditions for workers and peasants were deplorable under the rule of the Tsars, but not to the extent they were under the Bolsheviks. Despite the Bolsheviks claiming their policies were entirely in favour of the proletariat, peasants were forced to face horrific famine and a vast decline in living standards under rule by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. When Alexander II came to power in 1855 he realised that in order to modernise Russia and improve the weakening economy he needed to make dramatic reforms. In 1861 Alexander issued his Emancipation Manifesto, proposing 17 legislative acts that would free the serfs in Russia. Even though this new-found freedom in some ways seemed to place a greater burden on the peasants due to heavy redemption payments on their land and little improvement regarding agricultural methods in Russia, the act made the now-freed serfs feel that progress was being made towards a fairer social system in Russia and gave them some hope for more affirmative reforms in the future.