Why Did The Soviet Union Stay In Power Essay

562 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of propaganda in the First World War

The length of time the Soviet regime ruled over Russia was quite remarkable for how oppressive the government was to its own people. There are numerous factors that played a role in how the Soviet Union stayed in power for so long, but I think there are only a few reasons that established its power for the 74 years. The first factor that helped the Soviet regime to stay was the fear and terror that was installed in the citizens of Russia at this time. When the gulags became popular during the Stalin era everyone in the country had to be somewhat concerned of being arrested. People would have to continually prove their loyalty to communist Soviet Union or people would think they are a “foreign agent”. I think an important quote from Lovell is “… all members of Soviet society were guilty until proved innocent” (p.43). Lovell also says that just because you proved your innocence once and that you are loyal doesn’t mean you are in the clear. You have to …show more content…

The government would arrest anyone if they had the slightest suspicion that they were going to go against the government in any way. Any opposition to the government at this time was not tolerated. Most of the time if there was an opposition rising the Soviet government would try to shut it down as fast as it could so it wouldn’t grow anymore. The state also controlled the press and everything they saw including the propaganda. So essentially the entire Soviet population was being in a sense brain washed by their own government. In their propaganda, the Soviet would always try to create an enemy from something. During World War II this would have been the Nazis and during the Cold war it would have been the United states and other capitalist states. The propaganda would also create an illusion that ordinary working people had political power within the government which tried to create more

Show More
Related

  • DBQ: Cold War

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both the superpowers have made use of the propaganda to fight the Cold War. Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause of point of view. Especially, the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics efficiently manipulated the prop...

    Read More

  • How The United States Contained Communism in the Cold War

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    The United States, led by President Truman, wanted to form democracies in Europe and create a capitalistic society to build economically strong nations that would complement the American economy through trade. In contrast, the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, wanted to rebuild itself and spread communism through Europe and Asia. In a desperate attempt to rebuild, many countries devastated by war fell under Soviet influence and resorted to communism. The Soviet Union called these nations satellite nations and hoped that they would serve as?buffers? nations, preventing invasion from the West.

    Read More

  • Russia in the 1930s

    1648 Words  | 4 Pages

    “ The constitution promised the Soviets freedom of speech, conscious, press, assembly, and demonstrations in conformity with the interest of the working people and in order to strengthen the socialist system.”20 In fact the Soviet people never saw any of these rights. The Constitutional rights could only be used to support the regime, not to criticize it.

    Read More

  • Resistance To Liberalism Justified

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    Originally platformed by Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin took control of the communist party in 1924 when Lenin died of a stroke. Communist ideals were heavily in opposition to classical liberal values; Whereas Liberalism stressed the importance of the individual, Communism sought to better the greater good of society by stripping many of the individual rights and freedoms of citizens. Communism revoked the class structure of society and created a universal equality for all. This equality came with a price however. Any who opposed the communist rule were assassinated in order to keep order within society. Joseph Stalin took this matter to the extreme during an event known as the Great Purge. The Great Purge, also known as The Great Terror, began in 1936 and concluded in 1938. During these two years, millions of people were murdered and sent to labour camps in Siberia for opposing the Communist party and the ultimate dictator, Stalin himself. In some cases, even those who did not oppose the regime were killed. Sergey Kirov was a very popular member of the communist party and Stalin saw this as a possible threat to his ultimate power. As a result, Stalin order Kirov to be executed. Stalin furthered his violation of individual rights by introducing the NKVD who worked closely with the russian secret police force. One of the primary goals of the secret police was to search out dissidents who were not entirely faithful to the communist regime. This violation of privacy caused histeria en mass in the Soviet Union and millions were killed as a result. The Soviet union resisted liberalism to such an extreme that it resulted in the deaths of millions of people, leading to some of the darkest days in russian

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Cold War

    1408 Words  | 3 Pages

    Russia, as a communist state, wanted to spread communism. This is seen through Document 6, where Stalin is portrayed asking the question- who should be freed from freedom next? In other words, who should the Russians free from democracy, or spread communism to? America felt a communist world is dangerous, and thus stood obstacle in the Soviet Union’s path to spread communism. Just as the Soviets wanted to spread communism, the United States wanted to contain communism. Document 4 effectively portrays this policy. The Document is the speech where President Truman is explaining the Truman Doctrine in which the US is to protect any nation battling communist pressures. The speech splits the world into communist and democratic camps, intensifying the nations’ thirsts for more power and stifling the other’s power. Within Document 3, Kennan states that the only way to influence the Soviet Union is through force. One way this force took form was through international organizations. The democracies of the world, fearful of communism’s spread, created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Those who made up the organization were to aid each other if attacked. In this way, they could fight the spread of communism through force, in turn, influence the Soviets. The US, as a part of NATO, was now taking direct steps against the Soviet Union, and thus steps toward the Cold War. To counter NATO, the communists formed the Warsaw Pact. This had same purpose as NATO, and hence was also a step toward the Cold War. The different beliefs of the Soviet Union and the United States incited the Cold

    Read More

  • Space Race: A Reflection of the Cold War Rivalry

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    The political ideologies of the USA and of the Soviet Union were of profound significance in the development of the Cold War. Problems between the two power nations arose when America refused to accept the Soviet Union in the international community. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was filled with mutual distrust and hostility. Many historians believe the cold war was “inevitable” between a democratic, capitalist nation and a communist Union. Winston Churchill called the cold war “The balance of terror” (1). Cold war anxieties began to build up with America and the Soviet Union advancing in the arms race for world dominance and supremacy. America feared the spread of Communism

    Read More

  • Reasons that Enabled Stalin to Hold onto Power in the U.S.S.R.

    393 Words  | 1 Pages

    Reasons that Enabled Stalin to Hold onto Power in the U.S.S.R. There were many reasons which enabled Stalin to hold on to power in the USSR. One of the many ways which helped Stalin to control the USSR was the use of the NKVD (secret police). The Secret police was Stalin’s own police force which he used to execute opposition, secure oppositions of which he thought enemies and beat civilians which refused to follow his command. This helped Stalin to gain virtually all power over the people of the USSR due to normal civilians being scared to oppose Stalins laws and simply people decided to obey him. Another key factor which gave Stalin power was Stalin’s control over the Judges and the courts rulings.

    Read More

  • Cold War

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Soviet Union believed the United States had a lead in nuclear weapons and would have a monopoly if controls were approved. The Soviet Union pictured itself as a defender of peace and accused the United States of planning a third world war. During the late 1940's and the 1950's, the Cold War became increasingly tense. Each side accused the other of wanting to rule the world (Walker 388).

    Read More

  • Overview of The Cold War

    516 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Soviet Union and the United States served as Allies during World War II. At the end of the war however each side wanted to deal with the aftermath differently. The United States was in favor of a peaceful and cooperative relationship with Germany and their Allies. The Soviet Union wanted revenge on the crimes and atrocities that were committed against them. The United States wanted to push democracy in Eastern Europe yet the Soviets countered this by saying the United States was hypocritical, since at that time the United States supported the Latin countries that were governed by dictatorships. The Soviets were under the impression that this was an effort to boost the UNITED STATES economy.

    Read More

  • Everyday Stalinism

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Individuals During Stalin's Regime

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Great Terror in Russia

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Communism In The Soviet Union And Why It Failed

    1552 Words  | 4 Pages

    revolution in which there is a break up and elimination of the state and no

    Read More

  • The Collapse of the Soviet Union

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1). fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government needs a strong economy to maintain its power and influence, but in this case the economic planning of the Soviet Union was just not working, which had an influence in other communist nations in Eastern Europe as they declined to collapse. The economic stagnation led to the frustration of the workers because of low payments, bad working conditions, inefficiency, corruption and any lack of incentive to do good work. There were lots of frustrations among the workers in the working field who began to express their feelings and emotions towards the Soviet government.

    Read More

  • The Media Effects in the Cold War Between USA and Soviet Union

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to Karrington (2007), "During the Cold War, both American and the Soviet Union used propaganda in order to ensure that their populations would hate the enemy and support the government,” (1).... ... middle of paper ... ... Volume 4, Number 1, Winter 2002.

    Read More

More about Why Did The Soviet Union Stay In Power Essay

Open Document