According to Thoman Carlyle, a “great man” is one who shapes history and affects the course of the future. In the case of Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929-1953, one can perceive that through torment and brutal force, he was able to modernize a nation and oppress his own people.
One can argue that Stalin was a great leader of the 20th century. After all, he took an undeveloped country and molded it into one of the world’s greatest industrial and military forces. But, this transformation did not come at a small cost. Stalin was so paranoid that his Communist regime would be ‘crushed’ by one of the dominating Capitalist countries of the West that he became obsessed with the mass production of industrial and agricultural machinery, neglecting the production of basic goods needed to sustain human survival. In his mind, getting Russia’s industrial sector up to par was more important than producing adequate clothing and household goods. Setting completely absurd targets for increased production in agriculture, and of coal, pig iron, oil, and steel products in his three five-year plans did work well for Stalin, and other countries began to take notice. But, in history, very few leaders have forced their own people to make the kinds of sacrifices Stalin imposed on them.
To increase agricultural production, and bring in a surplus of food products, Stalin enforced and regulated his idea of “collective agriculture” – government control of farm land. In turn, the kulaks felt completely oppressed and were unwilling to give up the small amount of land they owned. Stalin would not tolerate opposition from anyone, and as a result, millions of kulaks and peasants were sent off to labor concentration camps, known as “gulags,” or were simply eliminated.
It wasn’t just the lower-class peoples that he wouldn’t tolerate opposition from. Stalin was known for having other political figures that could possibly pose a threat to his regime eliminated. In 1935, he began his “purges.” He would send out his secret police to arrest and either jail or execute those in political opposition of him.
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.
The first five-year plan, approved in 1929, proposed that state and collective farms provide 15 percent of agriculture output. The predominance of private farming seemed assured, as many farmers resisted collectivization. By late 1929, Stalin moved abruptly to break peasant resistance and secure the resources required for industrialization. He saw that voluntary collectivism had failed, and many “Soviet economists doubted that the first plan could even be implimented.”1 Stalin may have viewed collectivization as a means to win support from younger party leaders, rather than from the peasants and Lenin’s men. “Privately he advocated, industrializing the country with the help of internal accumulation” 2 Once the peasantry had been split, Stalin believed that the rural proletarians would embrace collectivization . Before this idea had a chance to work, a grain shortage induced the Politburo to support Stalin’s sudden decision for immediate, massive collectivization.
"Stalin, Joseph." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 8. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 86-87. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
During Stalin’s five year plan, he wanted to increase agriculture massively to feed the people working in industry as well as sell to strengthen the economy. Stalin began the genocide by annihilating “Ukraine’s cultural intelligentsia—not so much its engineers, doctors, and technicians, but its linguists, historians, artists, folk singers, and others whose work and professional lives suggested a separate cultural or historical identity for Ukraine” (History in Dispute). They had also included Ukrainian communists in the first objective. Stalin’s second objective was to destroy the economic and political relevance of individual peasant farmers. Most Ukrainian residents had their owns farms even when the serfs were in existence; prosperous on their own with the New Economic Policy from the 1920’s. Stalin’s plan would end the independent ways of living and prosperous peasantry.
Naimark depicts Stalin as the mastermind behind the dekulakization campaign; Stalin ordered the attack, oversaw the operations, and made it clear that the kulaks were to be “eliminated as a class: killed, displaced, deported, and scattered in special settlements” (58). Stalin was also well aware of the atrocious conditions at the special settlements and at times even reduced funding for the settlements, making life for the kulaks there even more unbearable. Naimark claims that Stalin’s “indifference to this suffering and dying was certainly murderous, if not genocidal” (53). While there is no doubt Stalin is a ruthless murderer, it is questionable whether Stalin intended to destroy the kulaks as a class. Overall, it seems that Stalin targeted anyone who challenged his policies thus the category ‘kulaks’ was really a group of dissidents rather than any particular social or political
When most people hear the name Joseph Stalin, they usually associate the name with a man who was part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. He was willingly to do anything to improve the power of the Soviet Union’s economy and military, even if it meant executing tens of millions of innocent people (Frankforter, A. Daniel., and W. M. Spellman 655). In chapter three of Sheila Fitzpatrick’s book, Everyday Stalinism, she argues that since citizens believed the propaganda of “a radiant future” (67), they were able to be manipulated by the Party in the transformation of the Soviet Union. This allowed the Soviet government to expand its power, which ultimately was very disastrous for the people.
Son of a poverty-stricken shoemaker, raised in a backward province, Joseph Stalin had only a minimum of education. However, he had a burning faith in the destiny of social revolution and an iron determination to play a prominent role in it. His rise to power was bloody and bold, yet under his leadership, in an unexplainable twenty-nine years, Russia because a highly industrialized nation. Stalin was a despotic ruler who more than any other individual molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of Europe after World War II ended in 1945. From a young revolutionist to an absolute master of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin cast his shadow over the entire globe through his provocative affair in Domestic and Foreign policy.
They obeyed.” This would be because of the fear of punishment from the leaders and in Stalin’s case his favored way of punishment would’ve been a Gulag, a Russian hard labour
People say that the Stalin’s Great Purges could otherwise be translated as Stalin’s Terror. They grew from his paranoia and his desire to be an absolute autocrat, and were forced to join the NKVD and public show trials. When someone went against him, he didn’t really take any time to do anything about it. He would “get rid of” the people that went against industrialization and the kulaks. Kulaks were farmers in the later Russian Empire.
During Stalin’s regime, the individual Russian was the center of his grand plan for better or worse. Stalin wanted all of his people to be treated the same. In the factory the top producer and the worst producer made the same pay. He wanted everyone to be treated as equals. His goal to bring the Soviet Union into the industrial age put tremendous pressure on his people. Through violence and oppression Stalin tried to maintain an absurd vision that he saw for the Soviet Union. Even as individuals were looked at as being equals, they also were viewed as equals in other ways. There was no one who could be exempt when the system wanted someone imprisoned, killed, or vanished. From the poorest of the poor, to the riches of the rich, everyone was at the mercy of the regime. Millions of individuals had fake trumped up charges brought upon them, either by the government or by others who had called them o...
Under a backdrop of systematic fear and terror, the Stalinist juggernaut flourished. Stalin’s purges, otherwise known as the “Great Terror”, grew from his obsession and desire for sole dictatorship, marking a period of extreme persecution and oppression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. “The purges did not merely remove potential enemies. They also raised up a new ruling elite which Stalin had reason to think he would find more dependable.” (Historian David Christian, 1994). While Stalin purged virtually all his potential enemies, he not only profited from removing his long-term opponents, but in doing so, also caused fear in future ones. This created a party that had virtually no opposition, a new ruling elite that would be unstoppable, and in turn negatively impacted a range of sections such as the Communist Party, the people of Russia and the progress in the Soviet community, as well as the military in late 1930 Soviet society.
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
As a dictator Stalin was very strict about his policies, especially working. For instance. Stalin had set quotas very high , as they were very unrealistic. The workers had very long days, and under the rule of Stalin most people worked many hours in overtime, and resulting in no pay. Stalin treated workers very, very harshly. Those who did not work were exiled to Siberia or killed. Some may say you got what you deserved in Stalin’s time. Those who worked very hard for Stalin sometimes got bonuses such as trips, or goods likes televisions and refrigerators. The workers had to conform to Stalin’s policies . Stalin’s harsh treatment of workers received a very unwelcoming response, but in fact the liberal amount of goods that the workers had made, had in fact
Joseph Stalin once said, “Death is the solution to all problems. No man-no problem.” He followed his philosophy throughout his rule. Joseph Stalin was a cruel Russian man who ruled the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) from 1941 to 1953, many have idolized Joseph Stalin, while others have hated him. Joseph stalin grew up extremely poor and by his ultimate determination to transform the USSR, he became a ruler of a very powerful union. His goal was to positively transform the USSR from a peasant society to an industrial superpower. Joseph Stalin ran a government of fascism, killed millions, ruled in terror, took over agriculture by killing millions, and focused on running a government with complete power and turn it into an industrial
Among the first policies enacted toward economic prosperity and industrialization were the Five Year Plans. The first Five Year Plan included rapid collectivization of the villages in the countryside in order to make enough agricultural profit to fund industrialization efforts. This period was plagued with violence, unattainable production targets and the destruction of traditional village life. The Second Five year plan began in 1933, in 1935 the term stakhanovite began to be used to identify those workers who developed new innovation that allowed them to greatly surpass average production. The term was named after Aleksei Stakhanov who was a miner.(Fitzpatrick and Slezkine 2000) “Speeches of Stakhanovites” is comprised of several speeches given at national Stakhanovite meetings that included member of the Politburo and Stalin himself. From these speeches we can see that there was a very positive image of Stalin among the Stakhanovites.They all begin and conclude by praising Stalin and the party. This shows that they clearly supported the policies of the Five Year Plans even though they demanded overoptimistic goals of produ...