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Effect of Stalin's policies upon the Soviet people
Effect of Stalin's policies upon the Soviet people
Effect of Stalin's policies upon the Soviet people
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“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is statistic”. This quote from Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Union of Soviet Republics (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 captures the values and morals of Russia under his rule. Stalin utilised the concept of terror and repression carefully to ensure that the people did as they were told. Death was a common fate, with an estimated 20, 000, 000 people dying from purges or man-made famine. The lives of Russian citizens were greatly impacted, as culture and education were altered to support Stalin’s views. While the processes were inhumane, Stalin successfully utilised the concept of terror and repression, stopping all opposition and activities perceived as threats to the regime. Before Stalin became dictator,
Joseph Stalin said, “Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don 't let our people have guns. Why should we let them have ideas?”. Stalin was a dictator of the USSR from 1929 to 1953. Under his dictatorship, the Soviet Union began to transform from a poor economy to an industrial and military based one. While still a teen, Stalin secretly read Karl Marx 's book the “Communist Manifesto”, and became more interested in his teachings. When Stalin gained power, he ruled his nations using terror and fear, eliminating those who did not comply with his governance.
In conclusion, many soviets citizens appeared to believe that Stalin’s positive contributions to the U.S.S.R. far outweigh his monstrous acts. These crimes have been down played by many of Stalin’s successors as they stress his achievements as collectivizer, industrializer, and war leader. Among those citizens who harbor feelings of nostalgia, Stalin’s strength, authority , and achievement contrast sharply with the pain and suffering of post-revolutionary Russia.
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.
Originally platformed by Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin took control of the communist party in 1924 when Lenin died of a stroke. Communist ideals were heavily in opposition to classical liberal values; Whereas Liberalism stressed the importance of the individual, Communism sought to better the greater good of society by stripping many of the individual rights and freedoms of citizens. Communism revoked the class structure of society and created a universal equality for all. This equality came with a price however. Any who opposed the communist rule were assassinated in order to keep order within society. Joseph Stalin took this matter to the extreme during an event known as the Great Purge. The Great Purge, also known as The Great Terror, began in 1936 and concluded in 1938. During these two years, millions of people were murdered and sent to labour camps in Siberia for opposing the Communist party and the ultimate dictator, Stalin himself. In some cases, even those who did not oppose the regime were killed. Sergey Kirov was a very popular member of the communist party and Stalin saw this as a possible threat to his ultimate power. As a result, Stalin order Kirov to be executed. Stalin furthered his violation of individual rights by introducing the NKVD who worked closely with the russian secret police force. One of the primary goals of the secret police was to search out dissidents who were not entirely faithful to the communist regime. This violation of privacy caused histeria en mass in the Soviet Union and millions were killed as a result. The Soviet union resisted liberalism to such an extreme that it resulted in the deaths of millions of people, leading to some of the darkest days in russian
Stalin’s leadership of the Soviet Union can be best described as a period of terror and censorship. In other words, he was very strict, considering the fact that he created the totalitarian government. In order to create this type of government, Stalin used fear and propaganda. He took part in The Great Purge, which was a campaign of terror that was supposed to eliminate anyone who threatened Stalin’s power. He also relied on secret police, who would arrest and execute any traitors. The online blog, “The Reasons For the Failure of The Russian Revolution”, brings up information on how Stalin planned to rule as dictator of Russia. It has been noted, “This ‘reshaping’ had three main aspects: the elimination of all dissent; the liquidation of all forms of democracy and of working class organisation; the slashing of the living standards of the working class and the physical annihilation of millions of peasants” (Text 5). This quote explains how Stalin wanted to industrialize Russia, which includes the deaths of several peasants of Russia. The Russians did not just die from The Great Purge, but also from Stalin’s Five-Year Plan. The Five-Year Plan was an attempt to industrialize the Soviet Union. It was also a plan for increasing the output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity. He had control over economic resources, including farms and
People say that the Stalin’s Great Purges could otherwise be translated as Stalin’s Terror. They grew from his paranoia and his desire to be absolute autocrat, and were enforced the NKVD and public show trials. When someone went against him, he didn’t really take any time in doing something about it. He would “get rid of” the people that went against industrialization and the kulaks. Kulaks were farmers in the later Russian Empire. (“Of Russian Origin: Stalin’s Purges). There were many reasons as to what caused the Great Purges but the main one seems to be Stalin. He believed that the country had to be united under the circumstances that he becomes the leader if it was to be strong. The Soviet Union was industry was weal and in the decline, obviously lacking the capacity to produce enough meal and heavy machinery for the imminent war.
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.
Although Stalin’s intentions were somewhat heroic, his actions were villainous, this is so because he was responsible for forced labour and labour laws (punishments involving labour), millions murdered by his secret police, NKVD, if they questioned authority in any way, and used horrific tactics to manipulate Russia so he could obtain power. Stalin promised a flourished and amazing nation by the end of his reign, but instead inflicted pain that will be with Russia’s people forever. Stalin had dreams to modernize and industrialize Russia to make it great, but instead killed off his own people in the process. As that person walks down that street in Russia, fear creeps up their back. A fear of the face on every poster in the town, Stalin. One wrong word, move, look, death was near, ready to pounce at any given momen
... to collapse. So what was the idea of the Stalinist autocracy? How many people died by the will of the tyrant, as he created the machine of repression? From 1929 to 1953, victims of Stalinist repression were millions of Soviet citizens. Of these, at least a third have been sentenced to death or died in camps and exile. After the war, society in the socio-political level acquired some new features of dark bureaucratic, police character. Stalin managed in every possible way to maintain outer enthusiasm, selfless people, who believed that the same shining peaks were about to appear. Instead, they had the constant threat of individual or mass terror.
Another defining feature of Stalinism was the liberal and unchecked usage of state violence against so-called enemies of the state, saboteurs, foreign spies and any and all individuals that were deemed, almost always arbitrarily, as being harmful to the state. Class violence was another unique feature of Stalinism; with the single-minded persecution of the bourgeois, the elite and all those, which the party decided was ‘an enemy of the people’. Although Stalinism is often viewed as inseparable from the image of Communism, it was not always so and in recent years historians and scholars have started ruminating over whether Joseph Stalin’s vision of what Communism should be was necessarily what the founders of the ideology would have shared. Was Stalin the natural inheritor of Lenin?... ...
The Development of Totalitarianism Under Stalin By 1928, Stalin had become the undisputed successor to Lenin, and leader of the CPSU. Stalin’s power of appointment had filled the aisles of the Party Congress and Politburo with Stalinist supporters. Political discussion slowly faded away from the Party, and this led to the development of the totalitarian state of the USSR. Stalin, through.
During Stalin’s reign, he didn't kill so many million Russians because of some evil inborn of his nature but because he had to eliminate those who refused to willingly turn over property and wealth to the state. Thus, the people who supported industrialization are as responsible for the death of those millions because they failed to understand that such violence would be the ending result.
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...
The Great Terror, an outbreak of organised bloodshed that infected the Communist Party and Soviet society in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), took place in the years 1934 to 1940. The Terror was created by the hegemonic figure, Joseph Stalin, one of the most powerful and lethal dictators in history. His paranoia and yearning to be a complete autocrat was enforced by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the communist police. Stalin’s ambition saw his determination to eliminate rivals such as followers of Leon Trotsky, a political enemy. The overall concept and practices of the Terror impacted on the communist party, government officials and the peasants. The NKVD, Stalin’s instrument for carrying out the Terror, the show trials and the purges, particularly affected the intelligentsia.
“Death solves all problems - no man, no problem,” said Joseph Stalin, one of the most infamous political leaders in history. Joseph Stalin reigned over the Soviet Union for over thirty years and his political tactics, as seen from the quote, were barbaric. He changed Russia from an agricultural society into a modernized and industrial nation that wielded great military power. At the end of his reign, he killed millions of his citizens in order to bring his view of “positive” change to Russia. Stalin's legacy can be described as effective yet brutal; he brought much-needed modernization to Soviet industry and equal gender roles but murdered millions of people in the process with his totalitarian ruling.