Soviet Union Leader: Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin’s three decade long dictatorship rule that ended in 1953, left a lasting, yet damaging imprint on the Soviet Union in political, economic and social terms. “Under his inspiration Russia has modernised her society and educated her masses…Stalin found Russia working with a wooden plough and left her equipped with nuclear power” (Jamieson, 1971). Although his policies of collectivisation and industrialisation placed the nation as a leading superpower on the global stage and significantly ahead of its economic position during the Romanov rule, this was not without huge sacrifices. Devastating living and working standards for the proletariat, widespread famine, the Purges, and labour camps had crippling impacts on Russia’s social progression by 1938. Subsequently, the economic and political benefits of Stalin’s policies were annulled by the severely damaging costs it had on the people of Russia, who were to pay with their freedom and lives.
In particular, Stalin’s Five Year Plans beginning in 1927, were rewarding to the nation’s heavy industry, but pitiless and demanding, at the expense of the workers. Claiming that the USSR was up to one hundred years behind the advanced nations, Stalin threatened that if this deficit was not caught up in ten years, Russia would face imminent annihilation by capitalist powers. Targets were set for each industry which were to be met in five years. In 1937, after the second Five Year Plan, although many targets were not reached, achievements were significant; employment rates doubled and gross industrial production was five times the levels in 1927 (Downey, 1989, p. 20). In this respect, Stalin had a profound impact on the modernisation of Russia, transforming the agrarian country into a p...

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...uinous impacts of his policies far outweighing any political or economic gains. Although the Five Year Plans accelerated a successful industrial movement, they considerably hindered the social progression of the workers. Moreover, the failure of the collectivisation campaign, although beneficial to the modernisation of the nation, not only saw a steep decrease in agricultural production, but also in the freedoms of the proletariat. The devastating famine, the inexcusable forced labour camps and the ruthless purges- all instigated by one man- killed millions of people. Historian Alan Jamieson’s statement may be somewhat accurate, however there was no mention of the millions of murders committed, nor of the brutal suffering inflicted on the people of Russia. Therefore the implications of Stalin’s regime on Russia as a nation were digressive and undoubtedly negative.