Joseph Stalin Dbq

When Lenin, the founder of the Russian communist party died, Joseph Stalin was accepted as the next leader in May 1924. Stalin was a loyal supporter of Lenin and was appointed to be his secretary. When Stalin introduced a new theory of socialism, Zinoviev and Kamenev disagreed because they believed it opposed the ideas Lenin proposed. This caused the Triumvirate to break apart while Stalin formed an ally with Bukharin. With people disagreeing with Stalin, he grew afraid of rivals which caused him to remove Trotsky from the government and from his position in the Red Army. Zinoviev and Kamenev kept disagreeing with Stalin and Bukharin, causing them to be removed from the Politburo. In 1926, the Kulan Grain Strike occurred, in which peasants became wealthy and

stopped selling their grain, causing the price of grain to rise alarmingly. Zinoviev, Kamenev, and others then formed an ally with Trotsky, forming the United Opposition and caused them to lose their position as leaders of the Communist Party.

In 1927, grain prices finally lowered but rumors say that there could be a war with Germany, which was why people were buying more grain than last year. When Stalin did not accept the NEP in 1928, Stalin split with Bukharin and planned against him by removing Bukharin supporters from the party. Stalin proposed an idea of grain requisitioning to the peasants to decrease grain production but this quickly stopped when Stalin lost to Bukharin, making him stoping the requisitioning. In October of 1928, Stalin proposed his idea of his Five Year Plan, which states his hopes of increasing iron and steel production. To do this, Stalin made sure workers won’t slack off by forcing them to work, even if they’re sick. Anyone who did not follow this was supposedly to be working against the state and could be either executed or imprisoned. In 1928 Stalin published “The Year of the Great Turn” which outlined the end of Lenin’s ideas of NED. Near the end of 1928, many farmers were forced to work to maximize production under the watch of 25,000 industrial

workers. By december of 1928, Stalin made a speech outlining the mistakes of Lenin, making a statement of Lenin’s Russia is over and that his Russia is beginning. In 1930, about a quarter of all farm animals were slaughtered or eaten by peasants because they were against becoming collective. Because of this, Stalin published an article “Dizzy with Success” which stated that collectivism will come to a temporary end and that his goals has already been reached. On April 25 1930, the gulag officially started. Forced labor camps where now named and those who seemed like a threat to the Soviet State where thrown into these camps, which was also used to house kulaks.