Research Essay
Vladimir Lenin officially took power of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic in 1917 with the Communist Party. The USSR broke into a civil war in 1918 occurring between the Red Army, consisting of Bolsheviks, and the White Army. The Red Army defeated the White Army by 1921 and the Communist Party gained complete power. Eventually the USSR was under War Communism, which further diminished its economy.
After Vladimir Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin took control of Russia in 1924. He considered himself a Marxist. Stalin was a strong believer in Bolshevism and supported Lenin, until he came into power. Stalin eliminated everyone close to Lenin and established himself as dictator of Russia. He obliterated any opposition or anyone that challenged him. During the Great Purges of 1930s, Stalin executed or imprisoned 35,000 soldiers along with killing close to all significant leaders of the time. Though Stalin supported Lenin as a dictator, after Lenin’s death he stripped Russia of Lenin policies. Stalin began to form his own policies, which he enforced upon the people of Russia, under his dictatorship.
Research Stalin’s policy of collectivization. How did Stalin change Lenin’s policy? How did the Kulaks resist collectivization? What were the consequences of their resistance? Did the ends justify the means?
Joseph Stalin’s policies largely modified the Soviet Union between 1924-1941. He wished to grow Russia’s industry to be as developed and technologically advanced as countries such as Germany. His policy of collectivization was composed of the act of joining together farms to form large shared, or collective, farms. Stalin established policies to eradicate the rich farmers, known as Kulaks, of the Soviet Union. The...
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5. George Beers, “Master and Margarita,” Russian Collectivization. Accessed on January 29. http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/estore/pdf/eren003_beers.pdf (Non-internet)
6. O. A. Narkiewicz. Stalin, War Communism and Collectivization Soviet Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jul., 1966), p. 20 http://www.jstor.org/stable/149830 (Non-internet)
7. Naum Jasny. The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Feb., 1950), pp. 92-99 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20099624 (Non-internet)
8. Massimo Livi-Bacci. Population and Development Review , Vol. 19, No. 4 (Dec., 1993) , pp. 743-766 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2938412 (Non-internet)
9. Naum Jasny. The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Feb., 1950), pp. 92-99 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1928283 (Non-internet)
Tucker, Robert C. "Stalinism as Revolution from Above". Stalinism. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. New York: American Council of Learned Societies, 1999.
Though it existed for over 70 years, many of the Soviet Union’s structures were put in place before and during Stalin’s reign. Milovan Djilas succinctly summarized the general Soviet system in his book, The New Class when he wrote “There is no fundamental difference in the Communist system between governmental services and party organizations, as in the example of the party and the secret police. The party and the police mingle very closely…the difference between them is only in the distribution of work” (Djilas, pg 73). The system Djilas described was one where the Bolshevik party was in absolute control of the government and all its functions. This included the bureaucracy, and secret police, as well as the military. As a result, the Bolshevik party was in total control of all the Soviet Union’s levers of power. It was effectively an autocracy of the Communist party, at the head of which rested Joseph Stalin, whose power was absolute and as close to god-like, as anyone had ever had. Nikita Khrushchev testified to Stalin’s autocratic power in his book, Khrushchev Remembers, when he wrote, “Stalin adapted all methods of indoctrination to his own purposes. He demanded unthinking obedience and unquestioning faith” (Khrushchev, pg 8). Khrushchev was undoubtedly politically biased against Stalin, but his statement seems to be in line with the latter’s record of achievements. The purges of
Princeton, 1963. Hailstone, Thomas and Rothwell, John. Managerial Economics, pp. 93-95. Prentice Hall, 1993.
Joseph Stalin was the son of a poor shoemaker from a backward province with a significantly minimum amount of education. Stalin had always had a place for faith in the destiny of the Russian social revolution and an incredible amount of determination to play a role in it. Stalin’s rise to power was remarkable and deadly, yet in an unexplainable twenty-nine years of leadership he turned Russia into a highly industrialized nation. Stalin was a tyrannical ruler who played the most significant role in shaping the direct of Europe at the end of World War II in 1945. He went from a young revolutionist to an absolute leader of Soviet Russia. His involvement with domestic and foreign policies cast his shadow upon the world at the end of World War II with his radical ideals. The policy of socialism, the Five Year Plans, and the collectivization of Agriculture were all of Stalin’s key methods of casting this impactful shadow on the world.
The Ukrainians, a fiercely independent group, opposed Stalin's plan. Many refused to surrender their land. Some burned their crops and slaughtered their cattle in protest (Glennon 207). Millions more left the farms for cities, seeking jobs in the developing industry, which drastically hurt food production. Penalties for resisting the collectivization drive were forced labor camps ...
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.
25 Nov. 2013. “Economy.” CQ Researcher. 15 June 2013. Web.
Joseph Stalin became leader of the USSR after Lenin’s death in 1924. Lenin had a government of abstemious communist government. When Stalin came into government he moved to a radical communist society. He moved away from the somewhat capitalist/communist economy of Lenin time to “modernize” the USSR. He wanted to industrialize and modernize USSR. He had overworked his workers, his people were dying, and most of them in slave labor camps. In fact by doing this Stalin had hindered the USSR and put them even farther back in time.
2 nd. Ed. London: Routledge, 2004. http://www.routledge National Statistics Online -. 08 Jan 2004.
Lenin, Vladimir Il'ich. Lenin: On Culture and Cultural Revolution. University Press of the Pacific, 2001. Print.
A. Soviet History. Marxists.org. 2010. Web. The Web. The Web.
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)"
O'Sullivan, A., & Sheffrin, S. (2005). Economics. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
The 'Standard' 1971. The. Comparison of the economic systems. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Sahlins, Marshall D. 1974.
Janos, Andrew C. “What was Communism: A Retrospective in Comparative Analysis.” Communist and Post- Communist Studies Volume 29 (1996): 1-24. Print.