Question: How far did Stalin achieve and maintain what Kruchev described as “the accumulation of immense and limitless power”, in the USSR between 1924 and 1945?
Between 1924 and 1945, Joseph Stalin was able to emerge as the leader of the USSR and maintain what Kruchev described as “the accumulation of immense and limitless power”. Stalin's rise to power was a combination of his ability to manipulate situations and the failure of others to prevent him from taking power, especially Leon Trotsky. Stalin ruled the USSR from 1929 until his death in 1953. His rule was one of tyranny, a great change from the society that his predecessor, Lenin, had envisioned. During his time of reign, Stalin put into effect two self-proclaimed "five-year plans". 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. By these, and many more ideas, Stalin was able to collect limitless and immense power with no one to stop him.
In 1925, according to historian V. Serge1, LeonTrotsky did not take advantage of several opportunities, which would have helped him to crush Stalin politically. When he failed to take advantage of these opportunities, Stalin maneuvered himself into a stronger position within the party by allying with Zinoviev and Kamnev. He manipulated them into crushing Trotsky, thus eliminating the strongest opponent in his path to power. Stalin cleverly avoided potential political diminishment when Lenin formulated his Testament in December 1922.
Lenin's Testament2 described what he thought of the future of the Party and Party leaders, especially Trotsky and Stalin. Lenin warned the people of a potential split in which Stalin and Trotsky would be the head factors. When describing Stalin, Lenin felt that he had showed "…unlimited authority… in his hands and whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution." The content of Lenin's Testament eventually became more damaging to Trotsky than Stalin, allowing Stalin to accumulate even more power.
Together with Lenin unintentionally praising Stalin, Stalin manipulated the content of the Testament to enhance...
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...e 1930s. He decided and persuaded the people that the former leaders and allies, such as Kamenev and Zenoviev, were plotting against the Party with Trotsky. The purpose of the purges, according to N. Mandelstam4, was not to secure power Stalin’s position, but to intimidate the nation. So, all opponents were imprisoned. In January 1937, several other prominent Bolshevik leaders were trailed for treason and executed. The climax of Stalin’s purges came in March 1938 when 21 leading Bolsheviks, including Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda were similarly accused and killed. This demonstrates Stalin’s immense power, for he could simply eliminate anyone standing in his way!
Between 1924 and 1945, Stalin proved that he could, “accumulate immense and limitless power” in the USSR, mainly because everyone was either scared or inspired by him. Many of the poor peasants thought that he could give them what the wanted. Many of the kulaks were afraid to face Joseph and those who did were imprisoned. Even the Party members who did not give Stalin his way were eliminated. Because of his immeasurable amount of power and strength over the nation, Joseph Stalin would not be opposed by anyone until his death!
Joseph Stalin said, “Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don 't let our people have guns. Why should we let them have ideas?”. Stalin was a dictator of the USSR from 1929 to 1953. Under his dictatorship, the Soviet Union began to transform from a poor economy to an industrial and military based one. While still a teen, Stalin secretly read Karl Marx 's book the “Communist Manifesto”, and became more interested in his teachings. When Stalin gained power, he ruled his nations using terror and fear, eliminating those who did not comply with his governance.
In this situation, Joseph Stalin killed Sergey Kirov only to eliminate a political rival that opposed his idea of government. Joseph Stalin did not want to give people even an option to join or support another political party other than his. Joseph Stalin was cruel and represented a totalitarian government because of the killing of millions that included Sergei Kirov. Joseph Stalin also had created a massacre that unfortunately caused a lot of lost lives. This act of terror is also known as the great purge and according to, “The Purges in the USSR,” Stalin asked the Politburo for its support and to give itself cover to purge the party of threatening elements to the Stalin regime. The policy was used to give legitimacy to the killing of millions of Russians during his rule and eventually the great purge took place, “the first people rounded up were labelled ‘Trotskyites’. They were put in prisons run by the People’s Commisirariat for Internal affairs or NKVD who, according to the very few that survived this experience, used both physical and psychological torture to gain information about other ‘traitors’ to the cause.” Stalin sent his enemies to prison often sending them to hard
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.
According to Medvedev, Joseph Stalin’s leadership style was one that was molded from his need to control the situation and paranoia. Stalin did rely on his close network of political allies to effectively rule, but decisions that could affect the U.S.S.R must be authorized by him and no other person. (Medvedev 115) This made party members very nervous and also very repla...
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
After Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist, died, Stalin outmaneuvered his rivals and won the control of the Communist Party. In the tardy 1920’s he became dictator of the Soviet Cumulation. Then he wanted to industrialize the country because at the time the economic was farming. Millions of farmers reluctant to be apart of Stalin’s orders and were killed as penalization. The civilization led a widespread famine across the Soviet Coalescence and killed millions of people. Stalin wanted to kill anyone who opposed him of his orders. He engendered an army of secret police, and inspirited citizens to spy on others which had many people killed or sent to a labor camp. Virtually everyone around Stalin was considered a threat to him, even the Communist Party, the military, and components of the Soviet Coalescence society, s...
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.
A power struggle for control of the Bolshevik party began after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924. Among the several contenders, two of the most important names in this struggle were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Ultimately, Stalin was able to secure power and vote out Trotsky. In the following essay I will discuss the reasons why Stalin rather than Trotsky emerged as the leader of the USSR in 1929.
Trotsky was out-manoeuvred by Stalin, and Trotsky criticised the leadership of the Comintern, writing ‘Under the treacherous blows of the Stalinist bureaucracy’. The two presented themselves as mortal enemies , and their fight over power made this very clear. Lenin expressed in his testament that ‘Stalin is too rude, and this fault is intolerable… appointing another man who is more patient, more loyal, more polite and is considerate to his comrades’ . There was a general distaste and lack of trust towards Stalin before he even came to power, making the political party an uncomfortable place to be during his rise to power. An alliance was formed between Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin to try and stop Trotsky coming to power, however neither Zinoviev nor Kamenev were very impressed with Stalin as a leader either. Kamenev described Stalin as ‘a small town politician- a good administrator with no ideas or ambitions of his own’ . This suggests that Stalin never had any real support from other politicians, and the only real support came from the public, mostly due to the fact that many people in Russia at the time were very poorly educated and because of this, Trotsky was a very intimidating figure to them . However after Trotsky was defeated and had his position of leader of the Red Army taken from him, Stalin had no need for his alliance with Zinoviev and
In the late 1920’s, living in Lenin’s shadow, Stalin decided that the New Economic Policy would introduce the Five-Year Plan.
In the beginning Josef Stalin was a worshiper of his beloved Vladimir Lenin. He followed his every move and did as he said to help establish and lead the Bolshevik party. Much of the early part of his political career was lost due to his exile to Siberia for most of World War I. It wasn’t until 1928, when he assumed complete control of the country were he made most of his success. After Lenin’s death in January 1924, Stalin promoted his own cult followings along with the cult followings of the deceased leader. He took over the majority of the Socialists now, and immediately began to change agriculture and industry. He believed that the Soviet Union was one hundred years behind the West and had to catch up as quickly as possible. First though he had to seal up complete alliance to himself and his cause.
By 1928, Stalin had ousted Trotsky and the rest of the Left opposition. In four years, Stalin had single handedly taken major steps away from Lenin’s collective leadership and free inter party debate and replaced them with his autocratic dictatorship. Stalin began to secure predominant power over the communist party and the state by destroying passive opposition from the peasantry and former Lenin supporters. He won growing support from the working class who were impressed with the initial five-year plan. As it promised increased industrialization, which would lead to socialism in one country within their lifetime.
Under the rule of Joseph Stalin, millions of people were killed. They were also tortured in cells called the GULAG and they were brainwashed to kill others. Stalin also killed many high-ranking officials and rivaling army members during his purges. Stalin struck fear in everyone around him and could not be trusted, but was so powerful that everyone respected him. They knew what he could do to them and they did their best to listen to all of his commands. With all the deaths that Stalin caused and how he governed his people actually alerted followers to implement this type of
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.
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.