How Did Joseph Stalin's Rule

Joseph Stalin was, and still is today, the world’s worst mass murderer, killing millions of Russians. Stalin was the ruler of the Soviet Union from 1929-1953. Stalin had wanted to create a perfect Communist state in Russia. Throughout his dictatorship he planned on industrializing Russia into what most other countries have already became. Many political, social, and economic changes occurred in Soviet life during Stalin’s time and there is much controversy surrounding his role.

Before Stalin could take rule of Russia, Russia had to first get rid of their Absolute Monarch (Nicholas II) and put in place Lenin, which created the Communist state. Many changes happened while Stalin was in control: political, economic, and social. Stalin had

planned to accommodate these changes through two five-year plans. During the first five-year plan Stalin would command the economy. Each industry in Russia had its own “goals” to reach in a short, five year period. Any and all money that the government had received was invested in energy, industry, and transportation. With the government focuses so much on business, the amount of consumer goods diminished. Once the first of the five-year plans had started the government took control of everyone’s everyday lives; the government decided where people work, where people live, and anyone who chose not to listen was killed. The goals of the first five-year plan were not met, which led Stalin to create the second plan to continue the journey to the goals. The second five-year plan started in 1933. The plan was set up very similarly to the first plan, except it had higher expectations. This plan focused on coal production, electric productions, and increasing the number of railroads. As a result of this plan fewer people were illiterate as time passed, everyone having to work required that everyone had some form of an education. More people being able to read had lead to an easier way to spread propaganda in favor of what Stalin was doing to Russia. While reading fluency may have increased people did not real the bible anymore as Stalin was against it. According to Stalin religion was frowned upon because it went against all of the propaganda that people just learned to read. The government was so concerned about industrializing that Russia’s standard of living greatly decreased. According to An Economic History of the USSR, the five-year plans were successful because everything (coal, oil, iron, steel, electricity, and cloth) had all increased in production greatly after the course of ten years.
Joseph Stalin’s rule is a highly controversial matter, whether what he did was right or wrong.

According to Nikolai Lenin’s directive to the Communist Party Leadership in 1922, Stalin could not properly use his power because he was rude and impatient. Many people may believe that Stalin was impatient, as he wanted to industrialize in ten years what other countries took a hundred years to industrialize. With a dictator that is impatient and rude, as he did not care about the lives of ordinary people, the way of living diminishes, as it did during the two five-year plans. However, other people may agree with Stalin’s actions because of the increases in production or even the increase in education. According to Literacy as Percent of the Population of RUssia/USSR, the literacy rate of Russian people nearly tripled from 1897-1979. This increase in literacy of Russian people made it easier for Stalin to spread propaganda, if people are influenced to do something that is less force that Stalin has to use. According to an official government pamphlet celebrating Stalin’s seventieth birthday, Stalin was a great ruler because of the victory he got of the Proletarian revolution, and the creation of a Social and State

system.
After Russia became a Communist state, political, social, and economic changes occurred in Soviet life during Stalin’s time and all of the changes are still, today debated over. Between 1929 and 1953 Stalin accomplished a complete industrialization of Russia, as it took other countries a hundred years to do. These changes that Joseph Stalin had done through the years increased education, decreased the way of living, and changed Russia forever.