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Stalin's leadership during World War 2
The social effect of stalin economic policies
The social effect of stalin economic policies
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Recommended: Stalin's leadership during World War 2
Noah Brandon
Ms. Osborn
World History Honors
12/2/16
Effects of Stalin on Social Aspects in Russia Due to World War I and other factors, Russia’s military was weak as two Revolutions in 1917 shifted the Russian Government from the Monarchy of Czar Nicholas II to the rise of the Bolsheviks and the rise of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks were a Marxist group led by Vladimir Lenin who with Soviet workers’ councils, overthrew the former government and formed the USSR. During all of this, Stalin was gaining power through the Bolshevik Party and gaining a political following in the process. He became Lenin’s Successor and made drastic changes in Russia. Stalin increased traditional education with a common core subject matter replacing the Bolshevik
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Under Lenin, divorce was made a lot easier and the importance of marriage was lessened. Laws were put into place that relaxed marriage. For example, to file a divorce, only one partner had to make a simple declaration without even telling the other partner. The structure of family and marriage had been completely dissolved. This resulted in many out of marriage births and most of these children ended up homeless. Stalin saw these homeless children as a stain on the perfect communist society that he strived to create. Stalin therefore put emphasis on family while maintaining the working equality of men and women. All jobs were open to women as they weren’t required to stay home and take care of the children like the traditional Mother. Families were also paid a child allowance by the State for staying a married couple. The changes that Stalin made to rebuild family structure included making divorce more difficult, restricting contraceptive methods, banning abortions, and increased penalties for criminal behavior by …show more content…
The two prior social factors discussed prior had been mostly positive changes while Stalin did not increase the overall health and wellbeing of his people. One of the most prevalent problems in Russia under Stalin was overcrowding. In the capital of Moscow, 94% of apartments consisted of only one room. This was shared among entire families consisting of Grandparents, parents, and children. Halls and stairways outside apartments were filled with people who were lacking any type of housing. Those who did have an apartment were sharing not only with their own family but with others. Almost everything in the apartments was communal including Kitchens (as well as cooking utensils, pots, pans etc.), washrooms, and toilets. Running water and electricity were scarcely available. All housing blocks were constructed almost effortlessly looking of very poor quality by Western standards. They were also maintained by the State and little to no effort was put to keep them in a sound state. Living conditions in the countryside were little better. While peasants may not have suffered the overcrowding of urban workers and food may have been a little more abundant, there was usually no electricity, running water or adequate sanitation available. In both the cities and country there was a flourishing black market in food and clothing but those found guilty of illicit trading were treated like
For centuries, autocratic and repressive tsarist regimes ruled the country and population under sever economic and social conditions; consequently, during the late 19th century and early 20th century, various movements were staging demonstrations to overthrow the oppressive government. Poor involvement in WWI also added to the rising discontent against Nicholas as Russian armies suffered terrible casualties and defeats because of a lack of food and equipment; in addition, the country was industrially backward compared to countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the USA. It had failed to modernize, this was to do with the tsars lack of effort for reforms. The country was undergoing tremendous hardships as industrial and agricultural output dropped. Famine and poor morale could be found in all aspects of Russian life. Furthermore, the tsar committed a fatal mistake when he appointed himself supreme commander of the armed forces because he was responsible for the armies constant string of defeats.
Around the early 1920’s, Stalin took power and became leader of Russia. As a result Russians either became fond of Stalin’s policies or absolutely despised them. Stalin’s five-year plans lured many into focusing on the thriving economy rather than the fact that the five year plan hurt the military. The experience of many lives lost, forced labor camps, little supply of food, influenced the Russians negative opinion about Stalin. Having different classes in society, many Russians had different points of views. For the Peasants, times were rough mainly because of the famine, so they were not in favor of Stalin and his policies; where as the upper classes had a more optimistic view of everything that was occurring. Stalin’s policies affected the Russian people and the Soviet Union positively and also had a negative affect causing famine for the Russian people.
When Stalin became leader of the USSR the quality of life and standard of living dropped considerably. For instance the people had no personal freedom. Meaning that they had to worship Stalin as all other religions had been abolished and most churches had been demolished. The people who went into those churches that were left standing were arrested or punished otherwise. Soon there were food shortages. Somewhere between 1932 and 1933 over 6 million people died of starvation. This was the greatest man made famine in history. The famine came as a result of Stalin’s unrealistic goals . Also, people had poor family lives. Abortions came a dime a dozen as did divorces. Wedding rings were banned. There was insufficient housing, as some people had to live in tents. This may be because of workers not working hard enough. Maybe if the workers worked harder they could have received better housing.
death in 1953. But how is it that Stalin emerged as the new leader of
Topic Sentence: Joseph Stalin was the leader of The Russian Revolution and made decisions that immensely impacted Russia’s people and the economy.
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.
This played well with the workers and soldiers and made it difficult to criticise the new government. As a result, Lenin’s introduction of the Cheka (1917) and the emergence of the Red Terror (1918) ensured his rule was absolute not only within the party but across the Soviet Union. It is the accumulation of these factors that highlighted Lenin’s leadership and practicality following the seizing of power as well as changes to society with War Communism and the NEP and the use of terror which were all vital to consolidating Bolshevik power.
The main fact that must not be forgotten when answering this question is that Russia emerged successful from the Second World War, despite its problems. It could not have done this without the achievements and developments of the industrial 1930s. An industrial decade underpinned by the violence of the Great Terror. Without this motivating fear, neither the Five Year Plans nor collectivisation could have succeeded to the extent that they did, and as a consequence the Soviet Union would have been defeated. Politically, dictatorship and the purging of factions created unity and brought tighter control over the party.
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.
In 1905 , Russia had a prerevolution that was put down of the Czar. Instead of learning from this prerevolution, Czar Nicholas II, made a very big mistake by in not introducing some reforms to correct the problems. So because of his actions, the situation grew worse. In 1917, the Russians were fighting in World War I. A good majority of the Russian people were weary and uncontent with the way the war was going and with the Czar's rule. This uncontent along with economic hardships caused riots and demonstrations to break out. The Czar called for the army to put down the revolution as they did in 1905. But the army joined the revolt and the Czar was kicked out of power soon afterwards. A temporary government was set up to decide on what kind of government Russia was gonna set up. Two political parties were set up. The Bolsheviks were one of the two. The leader of the Bolshevik party was a man named Lenin. Lenin was a firm believer of the theories and ideas of Karl Marx. So with his slogan of "Bread, Peace and Land", Lenin gained the support of the peasants and gained control of Russia and setup a communist state.
Identified within this study is the argument that whilst many of Lenin’s theories and practices were continued under Stalin, many were in fact developed and extended to new levels, possibly reflecting different motives: what Pipes refers to as Stalin’s ‘personality of excesses’. Although for many years, numerous historians including both members of the Western school of thought (such as Pipes), along with the official Soviet historians of the time believed that Stalin was the natural heir of Lenin, opinions have changed with time. As more evidence came out of Stalin’s mass atrocities, the Soviet historians soon began to see Stalin as the betrayer of the revolution as Trotsky had always maintained, and in an attempt to save Lenin’s reputation, they were also keen to point out how Lenin himself was unsure about
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...
Over the next few years, Russia went through a traumatic time of civil war and turmoil. The Bolsheviks’ Red Army fought the white army of farmers, etc. against Lenin and his ways. Lenin and the Bolsheviks won and began to wean Russia of non-conforming parties eventually banning all non-communist as well as removing an assembly elected shortly after the Bolshevik’s gain of power. Lenin’s strict government, however, was about to get a lot stricter with his death in 1924.
Families were broken apart because of the gulags. Husbands and wives. Mothers and fathers were separated from their kids. This was all part of striking fear into the communities of the Soviet Union. Here’s an example. Maria Tchebotareva had to feed four starving children. The reason is because in the early 1930’s there was a famine. She stole three pounds of rye from a collected field. (it was her field to start but it was taken away during the period of collectivization which is when the Soviet Union collected every individuals farms.) She served until 1945 and then had to live in exile until 1956. When she came back home she was never able to find he kids the rest of her life (What Were Their Crimes?, n.d.). This happened all over the Soviet Union. This cause multiple children to be without parents. People always say that the reason why there is so much crime in the United States is because they don’t have a father or mother figure. In the Soviet Union they take away the parent figure so this causes multiple problems. One problem come for taking the parents away from the kids is that the child doesn’t know what is going on. They don’t receive love or nurture. Which cause a problem because they don’t know how to act around people. They don’t know how to show love because they were never given
Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik or the “majority” faction of the ‘Russian Social Democratic Party’. Lenin had played a major role in the establishment of the USSR. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) came into being after the Socialist Revolution in Russia in 1917, which was led by Lenin. The revolution was inspired by the ideals of Socialism, as opposed to Capitalism, and the need for an egalitarian society. This revolution was one of the biggest attempts in human history to remove the institution of Private Property, led by the Provisional Government, and establish a society based on the principles of equality. In doing so, the makers of the Soviet Union gave importance to the state and the institution of the party. The Soviet political system centered on the Communist party, and no other political party or opposition was allowed. The economy was planned and controlled by the state. This group of countries, including the East European countries that the Soviet armies had liberated from the fascist forces and came under the USSR, was called the ‘Socialist Block’. After the Second World War, the Soviet Union became a great power; it had complex communication networks, vast energy resources, and an efficient transportation system. The Soviet Economy was then more developed than that