1. Mikhail Gorbachev lived in a poorer environment. His father was sent to war and came back wounded but still took care of their farm. Gorbachev also helped with the uptake of the land but then saw his grandfather taken during the Great Purge but return home. None of this prohibited him from learning, he was so passionate about it he got into Moscow University along with free accommodations.
2. He was young, even at 54, when given leadership of the USSR. This made him have a more youthful and optimistic insight into the countries relations. It also came with the plus that he would live longer than his two predecessors who died, leaving short term leaders in their wake.
3. Glasnost was a policy which gave the Soviet Union new rights it did not have before. One included the right of speech which freed the press. Next, countless amount of political prisoners were set free. This had led to the people to communicate more freely and opened Gorbachev to more criticisms, which he did know would happen but still went through.
4. Perestroika can be described as a movement in the Comm...
How would you feel if you defected to another country and spent the rest of your life under Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) protection out of fear of Soviet reprisals? This is exactly what Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko faced in September of 1945 when he and his family defected to Canada. Igor Gouzenko stole over 100 documents that he had accumulated from his time working as a cipher clerk at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. These documents implicated that Canadians were involved in espionage against their own country and detailed the efforts of a Soviet spy ring in Canada. Subsequently, I will emphasize Igor Gouzenko’s life, Canada’s involvement in the early Cold War period when he defected to Canada, and his involvement in some of the central events at the beginning of the Cold War in this
death in 1953. But how is it that Stalin emerged as the new leader of
...lped educated the Russians. He even helped turn Russia from a Back ward agricultural state into the world's second greatest military and industrial power- Stalin modernized Russia.
Khrushchev rose steadily up the party ladder, always combining his talents as an administrator with his technical training. After assignments in the Ukraine, he became head of the Moscow regional party committee, and in 1934 he became a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist party. In these positions he directed the construction of the Moscow subway. Although increasingly influential, Khrushchev was never an intimate associate of Joseph Stalin; he concentrated on technical rather than political accomplishment. After World War II he was brought back to Moscow, where he became ¡¥one of stalin¡¦s top advisers¡¦. When Stalin died in 1953, Khrushchev used his wit to thrust all his opponents for leadership, including Malenkov. He became both Party Secretary and controlled the government through his associate Marshal Bulganin, who he named Premier. He ruled from 1956 to 1964.
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.
With humble beginnings, as Vladimir himself put it in his autobiography, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born October 7th, 1952, within St. Petersburg, Russia. Raised by his mother Maria, who was a factory worker, and his father Vladimir, who was a conscript. Putin was dead set on joining the KGB, the Committee for State Security. In his autobiography he says he was “a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.” But he also says that most of this “notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories” In short, he never knew what he was getting into. To follow...
It could be argued that this increasing power for the single leader drawn from his party was due to the need for fast, decisive and unquestioned leadership of the type needed in battle. After all, Russia was portrayed by the Soviet propaganda machine as being at war with its own industrial backwardness as workers were urged to industrial fronts'. If the period of the 1930s is considered, it was a time of crisis. The building tension due to the rise of Nazi Germany making European foreign politics a risky place to navigate, the economic onslaught at home in Russia and the economic depression in the rest of the world making the times harsh. This change then could be argued as being beneficial to the USSR as only a single individual can provide the strong leadership needed, amongst a large group of individuals disputes would hinder the decision making process.
A comparison of these two are Both leaders saw that changes were essential, they knew that without reforms, the Soviet Union would grow weaker and weaker. Khrushchev’s and Gorbachev’s reforms were wide and touched almost all important aspects of the government. One important aspect is how Khrushchev and Gorbachev saw the past and future. When Khrushchev came to power he had a big problem how to replace Stalin and how to rule the country after him. Stalin ruled through a cult of personality and many people thought that he was irreplaceable. At “the Twentieth Congress of the Khrushchev attacks Stalinism and the Cult of Personality in the secret speech, he denounced Stalin and the terror of his regime, everything Stalin did or said was incorrect,
boosted the USSR’s economy. Therefore Stalin had created a country which seemed corrupt at the time, but later on it improved by the hard work Stalin had forced upon them.
"Analyse the methods used and the conditions which helped in the rise to power of Joseph Stalin“.
...change of industrial leadership crippled Russia's mechanization efforts and it is still argued today if the effects are still felt. By removing these people from the Soviet society both the biologist theories of Nature verses Nurture were challenged at best and destroyed at worst. For the argument of nature being the greatest influence on learning ability most of the intellectuals and brightest leaders were removed from the gene pool. In contrast to Nurture these people could not influence society any longer. Through these changes in society Stalin has forever made his mark. His pollicies effected every area in Russian culture.
... In conclusion, the chaos that was encountered by the Soviet Union together with the ideas the new leaders brought to enlighten Eastern Europe about communism. This made the countries understand their freedom and rights through the Glasnot. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the freedom and independence of many Soviet states. They were no longer a world super power and with the difficulties it faced economically, politically and socially, led to its own downfall.
Gorbachev’s basics for Glasnost were the promotion of principles of freedom to criticize; the loosening of controls on media and publishing; and the freedom of worship. His essentials of perestroika were, a new legislature; creation of an executive presidency; ending of the ‘leading role’ of the communist party; allowing state enterprises to sell part of their product on the open market; lastly, allowing foreign companies to own Soviet enterprises (Baylis & Smith, 2001). Gorbachev believed his reforms would benefit his country, but the Soviet Union was ultimately held together by the soviet tradition he was trying to change.
To the party audiences he appeared devoid of personal grudge and rancour and even seemed to be a detached Leninist, a guardian of the doctrine who criticized others only for the sake of the cause. Stalin always adopted policies that were broadly approved by the majority of the Communist party. Hence, using his political dexterity, he maintained a good reputation within the party. Stalin also made full use of Lenin?s funeral to advance his position. He tricked Trotsky into not attending the funeral by letting him know that he would never make it on time (of course this was not true).
Joseph Stalin is a polarizing figure. Decades after his death his legacy still continues to create debate about his tumultuous years as the leader of the Soviet Union. This is evident throughout the four documents while some praise Stalin as impeccable others criticize his policies and lack of political, economic, and social progress during his regime. Even though Stalin was behind various violations of human rights he was able to maintain the Soviet Union during a time of turmoil both domestically and internationally as a result he has earned notoriety as a great leader and advocate for Marxist ideology.