Russia became recognized as a world power in in 1721, under the rule of Peter the Great, when it was declared an Empire. Peter the Great ruled and passed on his rule to his daughter, Elizabeth.
Joseph Stalin was born on December 18, 1878 in Gorgi, Georgia. Joseph Stalin’s birth name was Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili. He was the son his mother, Ketevan Geladze, and his father, Besarion Jughashvili. Joseph Stalin’s father was a cobbler and then became an alcoholic which turned him abusive to his family and caused him to fail on the business standpoint. When Joseph’s mother enrolled him into an Orthodox Priesthood school, which his father was against, went on rampage and was banished from Gorgi for beating up a police chief. He then, moved to Tiflis, leaving Joseph Stalin and his mother on their own.
Joseph Stalin had it rough in his early childhood. He was born with two adjoined toes and then at the age of 7, he had caught smallpox. He was permanently scarred by it for the rest of his life. Five years after catching smallpox, he severely injured his left arm on a horse drawn carriage and his left arm remained shorter and stiffer for the rest of his life.
At the age of 16, Georgian Orthodox Tiflis Spiritual Seminary in Tbilisi offered Joseph Stalin a scholarship which Joseph Stalin had been a generally good student, but he was expelled from the school in 1899 after skipping his final exams. He was also not able to pay his tuition fees. Georgian Orthodox was Joseph Stalin’s religion before he got kicked out of school. Once he got kicked out, he became atheist.
Joseph Stalin discovered Vladimir Lenin’s writings and was intrigued by them. He decided to join the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. When Lenin formed the Bol...
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...hings. He asked for assistance and an aid pact against the Germans and after the war, Soviet Russia would receive more countries. The British agreed to the assistance and aid pact, but denied Soviet Russia to gain more countries after the war. Joseph Stalin, desperate for help, accepted the offer a a couple years later in 1942.
Soviet Russia fought back, but on December 5, they launched a major counter offensive pushing the Germans back 40 to 50 miles away from Moscow. From there, Soviet Russia gained control and stopped the Germans from invading more.
The war ended when Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. A few days after the suicide, the rest of the Germans surrendered. Throughout the war, Soviet Russia casualties reached 35 million with one in every four Soviets killed or wounded. 14.7 million Soviet Russians were killed, captured, or went missing.
In order to establish whether Lenin did, indeed lay the foundation for Stalinism, two questions need to be answered; what were Lenin’s plans for the future of Russia and what exactly gave rise to Stalinism? Official Soviet historians of the time at which Stalin was in power would have argued that each one answers the other. Similarly, Western historians saw Lenin as an important figure in the establishment of Stalin’s socialist state. This can be partly attributed to the prevailing current of pro-Stalin anti-Hitler sentiments amongst westerners until the outbreak of the cold war.
As a dictator Stalin was very strict about his policies, especially working. For instance. Stalin had set quotas very high , as they were very unrealistic. The workers had very long days, and under the rule of Stalin most people worked many hours in overtime, and resulting in no pay. Stalin treated workers very, very harshly. Those who did not work were exiled to Siberia or killed. Some may say you got what you deserved in Stalin’s time. Those who worked very hard for Stalin sometimes got bonuses such as trips, or goods likes televisions and refrigerators. The workers had to conform to Stalin’s policies . Stalin’s harsh treatment of workers received a very unwelcoming response, but in fact the liberal amount of goods that the workers had made, had in fact
death in 1953. But how is it that Stalin emerged as the new leader of
Joseph Stalin was a realist dictator of the early 20th century in Russia. Before he rose to power and became the leader of Soviet Union, he joined the Bolsheviks and was part of many illegal activities that got him convicted and he was sent to Siberia (Wood, 5, 10). In the late 1920s, Stalin was determined to take over the Soviet Union (Wiener & Arnold 199). The main aspects of his worldview was “socialism
Russia entered the war when Nazi Germany executed Operation Barbarossa. They missed their start date by 3 months and that would lead to one of the many problems Nazi Germany faced during the war on the Eastern front. Russia delivered Germany their biggest defeats including The Battle of Stalingrad and the battle of Kursk. Without these two battles Germany would not have had the significant personnel and supplies lost they faced for the final 3 years of the war.
Lenin’s pragmatic leadership was the most considerable factor in helping to fortify Bolshevik power. His willingness to take power in October/November 1917 and the successes of the move, through his right-hand man, Trotsky, was critical as it helped give him unquestioned authority within the party despite members of the Central Committee i.e. Zinoviev and Kamenev who suggested industrialisation needed to occur first. This highlighted Lenin’s communist ideology in practice which was essential to the Bolsheviks maintaining power. Following the failure of the Provisional Government, Lenin recognised that it was the Bolshevik’s priority to legitimise their government. As a result, issues of ‘Peace, Bread and Land’ were addressed through the issuing of a number of decrees in late 1917 including decrees on land, peace, Workers’ Rights as well as reforms to marriage and religion. ...
Lenin made a series of policies throughout the beginning of the Revolution and through his short time in public office that came to be collectively known as ‘Leninism’. There were many things that influenced Leninism, such as Karl Marx. Lenin had read Karl Marx and his...
A power struggle for control of the Bolshevik party began after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924. Among the several contenders, two of the most important names in this struggle were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Ultimately, Stalin was able to secure power and vote out Trotsky. In the following essay I will discuss the reasons why Stalin rather than Trotsky emerged as the leader of the USSR in 1929.
Son of a poverty-stricken shoemaker, raised in a backward province, Joseph Stalin had only a minimum of education. However, he had a burning faith in the destiny of social revolution and an iron determination to play a prominent role in it. His rise to power was bloody and bold, yet under his leadership, in an unexplainable twenty-nine years, Russia because a highly industrialized nation. Stalin was a despotic ruler who more than any other individual molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of Europe after World War II ended in 1945. From a young revolutionist to an absolute master of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin cast his shadow over the entire globe through his provocative affair in Domestic and Foreign policy.
World War II was seen around the globe as a war to end all wars. Combat like this had never been experienced before and it was the largest scale battle in recent history. The death tolls for all sides skyrocketed to heights that had never been reached in any battle ever before. There was one man at the center of it all, one man who came to personify the root of living, breathing evil. That man was Adolf Hitler and to the rest of the world, he was a superhuman military machine who had no other goal but to achieve world domination through destruction. But the roots of the Battle of Stalingrad all began in 1941 when Hitler launched operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s powerful army marched across the east, seemingly unstoppable to any force. Stalin’s Red Army was caught completely off guard and their lines were completely broken apart. A majority of the country’s air force was destroyed when airfields were raided and many of the planes never even got the chance to leave the ground. Hitler’s army finally came to Leningrad where the city was besieged. The city held for 900 days and never gave way to the relentless Germans. At the cost of 1.5 million civilians and soldiers, the Red Army stopped Hitler from advancing further and postponed his plan to sweep over the south. Another cause for the retreat of Hitler was the brutal Russian winter, which Hitler and his army were completely unprepared for and the icy cold deaths would continue to haunt the Germans.
After Lenin died in 1924, he was followed by Joseph Stalin, one of the most heartless humans to ever hold power. Stalin had to trick his rival Leon Trotsky, into missing Lenin’s funeral; resulting in his support from the people of Ukraine to be Lenin’s successor. Stalin’s trick on Trotsky led the people to belie...
Stalins rise as a dictator over the USSR in 1929, was a struggle for power. It was set by Lenin, in his testament, that Stalin was not to takeover control as the party leader, and to be removed from his position as General Secretary, as Stalin in Lenins eyes had lack of loyalty, tolerance, and politeness. However, different factors, such as Lenins funeral, Stalins position as General Secretary and the rise of bureaucracy, and Stalins relationship to Kamenev and Zinoviev, made it possible for Stalin to become the undisputed leader over the USSR in 1929. This essay will discuss the methods and the conditions, which helped Joseph Stalin rise to power.
Joseph Stalin's Leadership Through World War Two Stalin (1927-1953) led the Soviet State through the challenges of World War II. Although the war was a terrible drain on the already impoverished and exhausted society, it resulted, paradoxically in strengthening the Soviet dictatorship. The war distracted the Soviet people from Stalin's excesses in previous years and generated patriotism and national unity. It also greatly strengthened the Soviet military. The Soviet Union emerged from the war as second in power only to the United States.
Inspired by the works of Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin nonetheless drew his ideology from many other great 19th century philosophers. However, Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” was immensely important to the success of Russia under Leninist rule as it started a new era in history. Viewed as taboo in a capitalist society, Karl Marx started a movement that would permanently change the history of the entire world. Also, around this time, the Populist promoted a doctrine of social and economic equality, although weak in its ideology and method, overall. Lenin was also inspired by the anarchists who sought revolution as an ultimate means to the end of old regimes, in the hope of a new, better society. To his core, a revolutionary, V.I. Lenin was driven to evoke the class struggle that would ultimately transform Russia into a Socialist powerhouse. Through following primarily in the footsteps of Karl Marx, Lenin was to a lesser extent inspired by the Populists, the Anarchists, and the Social Democrats.
According to most historians, “history is told by the victors”, which would explain why most people equate communism with Vladimir Lenin. He was the backbone of Russia’s communist revolution, and the first leader of history’s largest communist government. It is not known, or discussed by most, that Lenin made many reforms to the original ideals possessed by many communists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He revised Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles’ theories to fit the so-called ‘backwardness’ of the Russian Empire. Lenin’s reforms were necessary to carry out a socialist revolution in Russia, and the contributions he made drastically changed the course of history. It can be assumed that, the Soviet Union would not have been as powerful if it was not for Lenin’s initial advocacy of violence and tight organization.