Was Stalin a Success?
Whether Stalin was a success can only be measured in two ways, his own
terms, in the terms of Russia or in the terms of Communism - meaning
whether what he did with 'Communist' Russia would have been seen as
Communist by Karl Marx. How much of a success was Stalin? - If at all
and from whose point of view was he a success or not.
Stalin being a success in his own terms that is what he would of felt
he achieved and what he believed made him a success. He was very
successful politically as he won the Struggle for power in 1917, this
he would have seen as a success, and he would have seen his life as a
resounding success in his own terms. The First Five Year plan, he
would have deemed a success as it achieved the crash industrialisation
and doubled the productivity of industry, which meant the working
class grew, which meant communism was growing as well. He managed to
collectivise the peasants so controlling the food supply for the
workers - a success (in his terms). The Great Terror 1936-38, he now
had total control over his people, government and army, he had created
a Totalitarian State through the Trotskyite - Zinovievite conspiracy,
which made people produce more and through the fear of being named as
a conspirator. Another success in his eyes was the performance of the
Red army in the WWII, as he believed they won by capturing of Berlin -
with the Russian tanks getting to Berlin first. After the Second World
War Stalin had steadily captured more and more of Eastern Europe
between 1945-1948, he had slowly dropped an iron curtain over Europe
and had also turned China communist. He used each country as a
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...at it, from his he was undoubtedly success, yet from Russia's
and the term's of Communism he was not a success. You could say
because he went against the ideals of Communism, with him being a
communist leader he was not a success because it went against
everything he was supposed to be leading. Stalin succeeded
politically, with his control over Russia, but he was not a success in
giving equality to Russia or freedom to every man. Stalin's
malevolence and the collapse of the Stalinist system in 1991 has
wrecked any belief of a Communist or even a Marxist one. He succeeded
in his own terms, but failed Russia and the values he was support to
stand for. Between becoming a communist and getting into power he must
have lost the Marxist values as he was only looking out for his own
personal gain, so overall he was a failure.
Communism, as Karl Marx puts it, is a world where everyone is equal, where there are no social class, where there are no private ownership, where work is used only to produce the necessities, the people are under a control in which allows them to be on the same level as everyone else. What Stalin wanted to do was create and fulfill the governmental system of Karl Marx and create and envision the utopia that Karl Marx was led to believe. Under Stalin’s rule we come to see that his vision of a utopia quickly warps into a dystopia.
In order to establish whether Lenin did, indeed lay the foundation for Stalinism, two questions need to be answered; what were Lenin’s plans for the future of Russia and what exactly gave rise to Stalinism? Official Soviet historians of the time at which Stalin was in power would have argued that each one answers the other. Similarly, Western historians saw Lenin as an important figure in the establishment of Stalin’s socialist state. This can be partly attributed to the prevailing current of pro-Stalin anti-Hitler sentiments amongst westerners until the outbreak of the cold war.
The Development of Totalitarianism Under Stalin By 1928, Stalin had become the undisputed successor to Lenin, and leader of the CPSU. Stalin’s power of appointment had filled the aisles of the Party Congress and Politburo with Stalinist supporters. Political discussion slowly faded away from the Party, and this led to the development of the totalitarian state of the USSR. Stalin, through.
death in 1953. But how is it that Stalin emerged as the new leader of
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.
Hook: Those in power become corrupt, but without the force that drives fear into the people, they couldn’t have achieved such power.
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.
...ense of worth in which they were as they had to change who they were to survive in a troubled time. Stalin in the end was not looking to eradicate or find a neat “final solution” because since his plan did not go as planned, he has to constantly try and adapt and tweak his idea till it became something completely different all together. The Russian people allowed Stalin to rein supreme over them, and if enough people had revolted, there could have been a different outcome. Most people accepted their fate and in the end they died from it.
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
"Analyse the methods used and the conditions which helped in the rise to power of Joseph Stalin“.
Two years later Karl and Friedrich received a request to write “The Communist Manifesto” from the Communist League in London. “In it, the two philosophers depicted all of history as a series of class struggles (historical materialism), and predicted that the upcoming proletarian revolution would sweep aside the capitalist system for good, making the workingmen the new ruling class of the world,” (“Karl Marx”). This book would cause social uprising across Europe. Now being kicked out of Belgium, Karl moved to London where he struggled to make a livable wage. He would eventually write “Das Kapital” his most famous work in economic theory. “In it he expressed a desire to reveal “the economic law of motion of modern society” and laid out his theory of capitalism as a dynamic system that contained the seeds of its own self-destruction and subsequent triumph of communism,” (“Karl Marx”). However, Karl’s ideas were stopped by the powerful governments of his time. He died in 1883 with little change on the world. But he did leave a seed, a seed that would grow and eventually sprout. This came in 1917 with the Russian Revolution. The revolution was based off of Karl’s ideas of society.”The revolution’s leader, Vladimir Lenin, built his new proletarian government based on his interpretation of Marxist thought, turning Karl Marx into an internationally famous figure more than 30 years after his
Stalin was a Russian dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929 to 1953. Though he grew up poor with an abusive father, under his direction, Russia was transformed from impoverished to a global superpower. He is well known for ruling with fear and violence, having killed millions of his citizens during his reign, but few people realize his great contributions during World War II. Joseph Stalin’s ignorant commands causing thousands of soldiers of the Red Army to be defeated during Operation Barbarossa, his act of signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact thus allowing the beginning of World War Two, and his series of counter-attacks at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1941, diminishing the power of German army forces, make Stalin a defining
Whether one thinks that the ideas of communism are good or bad, by taking a look a today’s society, we can certainly see the affect The Communist Manifesto and other books of its kind have had. Karl Marx’s ideas have shaped many programs and organizations to attempt following along the lines of equality.
Joseph Stalin was a realist dictator of the early 20th century in Russia. Before he rose to power and became the leader of Soviet Union, he joined the Bolsheviks and was part of many illegal activities that got him convicted and he was sent to Siberia (Wood, 5, 10). In the late 1920s, Stalin was determined to take over the Soviet Union (Wiener & Arnold 199). The main aspects of his worldview was “socialism
Marxism and Leninism According to most historians, “history is told by the victors”, which would explain why most people equate communism with Vladimir Lenin. He was the backbone of Russia’s communist revolution, and the first leader of history’s largest communist government. It is not known, or discussed by most, that Lenin made many reforms to the original ideals possessed by many communists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He revised Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles’ theories to fit the so-called ‘backwardness’ of the Russian Empire.