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Stalin social policies
Stalin social policies
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After the Second World War, the Soviet Union spread their political ideology among the countries of East Central Europe. Instantly, Josef Stalin spread Stalinization across each of the countries to assert Soviet control. He created totalitarian governments with limited freedoms for its citizens. Following the death of Stalin, the new leader of the Soviet Union, Nika Khrushchev, began changing the repressive policies of Stalin, opening the doors to the countries of East Central Europe to challenge the rule of the Soviets. Using the Soviet Thaw as an opportunity to reform the system of government, many countries including Hungary and Czechoslovakia had uprisings against Soviet Rule. The Hungarian Revolution and the Prague Spring were uprisings against the Soviet Union that both ended in defeat with Soviet Union. However, the outcomes for both countries differed in many ways because of the differences in the motives for the uprising, the loss of life and the differences in the leadership of the uprisings. One difference between the Hungarians and the Czechs was the effects of nationalism on the uprisings. Rooted in their history from 1848 Revolution against the Habsburg Empire, the Hungarians sought independence with the death of Stalin. Matyas Rakoski, a Stalin protégé, came to power as General Secretary of the Hungarian Worker’s Party in 1949. Using his authority as General Secretary, Rakoski oppressed the people of Hungary including purging political dissidents and killing 2,000 people of the total population. He used the State Protection Agency to carry out the purges bringing in an administration of absolute control and fear to the people of Hungary. But, the Hungarians would not completely abandon their nationalist hop... ... middle of paper ... ...e from any opposition, which crippled the country’s economy. The loss of life had profound effects on the aftermaths of the revolutions because it limited any vocal opposition of the Soviet Parties. It was not until the end of Soviet rule that citizens could try to reform the government. The Hungarian Revolution and the Prague Spring were attempted uprisings against the Soviet Union that ultimately ended in defeats. The Hungarians and the Czechs tried to undermine the power of the Soviets when the respective countries were affected with economic downturns and civil oppression. Although these uprisings differed in leadership, nationalism and loss of life, the Soviet managed to continue asserting their control of these countries until the fall of communism in 1989. The two uprisings set the foundation of the collapse of communism within the to respective countries.
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.
During the 20th century, the rise of communism sparked rage in people throughout the world. More towards the end of the 1900's the fall of communism and dictatorships was just the beginning of what would eventually be a large democratic change for several countries. 1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War's End, speaks about the change brought to several different countries from the 1980's-1990's and plans to show "the global transformations that marked the end of the cold war and shaped the era in which we live"(Pg V). During the cold war, communist had power and control over a large area and spread communism throughout several continents. This book specifically hits on six different studies of where communism and dictatorship affected these areas and what they did to stop it. Poland, Philippines, Chile, South Africa, Ukraine, and China throughout the end of the 20th century created revolutionary movements which brought them all one step closer to freeing themselves and creating democratic change.
This gave the people a lot more rights and a national parliament, the Duma. All seemed well, but there was one. problem. Then there is the problem. The Mensheviks, who were the less radical majority of the Social Democratic Labour Party, argued that the revolution had gone.
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.
lt of a variety of factors and reasons but the far-reaching effects of the war were to have devastating results in both social and economic quarters. Moreover, the war on help increase the opposition to the government and led to their downfall in October 1917. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World (1919) [2] Maxim Gorky, letter to his son (April, 1917) [3] E.H. Wilcox was very impressed with Kerensky and praised him in his book, Russia's Ruin (1919) [4] Morgan Philips Price, My Three Revolutions (1969) [5] Extract from an interview of Alexander Kerensky by Harold Williams [6] Extract from an interview of Alexander Kerensky by Harold Williams [7] Leon Trotsky, statement made to the Petrograd Soviet (24th October, 1917)
The first underlying cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union was the deterioration of the Soviets regimes moral standing. There was a growth of important dissident movements. For example, many key Soviet people, such as Andrei Sakharov, the father of the Russian nuclear bomb, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who is arguably the greatest writer that Russia produced in the 20th century, both became dissidents. Sakharov was banned to a closed town in the Soviet Union and Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country. Although, Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn were not the only dissidents in Russia, as there many more prominent Russian figures. For example, the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, became a dissident. Other prominent figures, such as Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin’s only daughter even became a dissident and left the country. Nikita Khrushchev’s son Sergei even left the country. There were a distressingly large number of people like Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, Kasparov, Khrushchev and Alliluyeva that were either kicked out or snuck out. All of the dissidents concluded that they could not live in the Soviet society any more. However, this wa...
A communist revolution is inspired by ideas of Marxism whose main purpose is to replace capitalism with communism also considered socialism. “Marxists believe that the workers of the world must unite and free themselves from capitalist oppression to create a world run by, and, for the working class (Britannica).” The Russian Revolution began in 1917 and consisted of two periods of revolts; the February Revolution and the October Revolution. It has been said that the 1905 Russian Revolution prompted the February Revolution due to “the massacre is Saint Petersburg, Russia known as Bloody Sunday. A council of wo...
...sful 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. This must have been a benefit during the war. It is the social cost that is difficult to justify and indeed it can not be. The huge human and psychological cost to the people could not have helped morale during the war years. However, politically and economically the purges strengthened the Soviet Union despite the undesirable nature of the technique.
It also marked the end of cold war between the Soviet Union and United States leading to reformed political, economic and military alliances worldwide. Upon its formation, outcome of Bolshevick Revolution of 1917, Soviet Union adopted Socialism later transforming to Communism. The main objective for Socialism and eventual Communism was to create a unified state based on centralized economic and political system. This ideology later transformed into totalitarian state. The underestimation of resistance from non-Russian ethnic groups (which was more than 50% of total population), and failure of the communism system to meet economic needs of the people were some of the reasons which to led to the decline of the USSR economy and arms competition with United States. Despite the Government’s effort to instill the ideology of communism to its people, it never took firm roots and Government ended up losing the grip of the people. With the political and economic stagnations caused by the communism, there was no choice but to change the way of doing things leading to dissolution of USSR in December 1991. The fifteen newly formed countries had overwhelming tasks of developing the economy, reorganizing the political systems, and settling the territorial disputes created earlier. There has been wars in the boundaries of the former
Throughout history, revolutions have developed in response to a variety of conditions. These revolutions have often resulted in significant political, economic, and social change. As the 1900’s rolled in, European nations were at peace, that is until the darker forces were pushing Europe toward war. Those darker forces included nationalism and alliance systems that would help fuel the Great War or World War I. The effects of World War I were massive including the Treaty of Versailles and the enormous amount of human casualties as well as economic losses. During World War I, another revolution broke out in Russia, removing Russia from the war and transformed the Russian empire into the first Communist state. There were many causes of the Russian Revolution including the weakness of the Czar and World War I. Finally, there were many effects of the Russian Revolution, two of which included the establishment of a communist government as well as a new economic policy.
Causes such as poverty, Soviet power, and change of Hungarian life ultimately led to the primary uprising known as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. This event not only portrayed the initial precursor of instability, but also rebellion inside the Soviet Iron Curtain. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 included effects such as a massive decrease in the global Communist party, an increase of the policy Containment in the Western Hemisphere, and polarization of the Cold War. In the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, The U.S.S.R. principle of peaceful negotiation greatly faltered due to the Soviet practice of intervention and immense destruction of the Hungarian people.
Janscak, Csaba. The Spark Of Revolution (1956)-The Association Of Hungarian University And College Students. Budapest: University of Szeged. Print.
...change of industrial leadership crippled Russia's mechanization efforts and it is still argued today if the effects are still felt. By removing these people from the Soviet society both the biologist theories of Nature verses Nurture were challenged at best and destroyed at worst. For the argument of nature being the greatest influence on learning ability most of the intellectuals and brightest leaders were removed from the gene pool. In contrast to Nurture these people could not influence society any longer. Through these changes in society Stalin has forever made his mark. His pollicies effected every area in Russian culture.
The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union also led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe as the countries became democratic. Works Cited Holt World History of the Human Journey. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003.ebookhttp://myhrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=0030667186. Macro History and World Report. Frank E. Smitha, 2000-2011http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch33-5.htm.
In 1948, communism was the only political party in Czechoslovakia. The communist take-over was a very popular movement. The first reason why it was a popular movement is because Joseph Stalin signed an agreement with Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt that the Red Army, which would then lead to pro-communism, would liberate Czechoslovakia. The second reason why it was a popular movement is because the people of Czechoslovakia remembered what it felt like to be betrayed by the West at the Munich Agreement, where most of Czechoslovakia was surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1938. (www.wikipedia.com).