To a great extent, Stalin used the process of collectivisation for his own political ends. Stalin used the policy of collectivisation to outmanoeuvre his political opponents and improve his public image. Stalin did this through supporting collectivisation over the failing NEP, by forcing peasant populations to come under his control when collectivisation began to fail, by moving away from it.
Firstly, Stalin used the failure of the NEP and his support of collectivisation to seize power in the Soviet Union from Bukharin. In 1926, Stalin had allied himself with Bukharin because of their mutual support of the NEP. Together, they ousted the left wing of the party Zinoviev and Kamenev. However, in 1928, the NEP was failing. A key aspect was that
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In 1929, Stalin ordered 25,000 industrial workers to “assist” in the process of collectivisation. Traditionally, the bolsheviks had seen much stronger support from the industrial worker population than from the peasant population. By sending the “socially conscious” young communists to help out on farms, Stalin sought to increase his support. This workforce eventually evolved into shock brigades in the latter part of 1930. The brigades were used to force collectivisation onto unwilling peasants. Any who refused could be designated as kulaks, saboteurs or rich farmers that were against the revolution, and were sent to forced labour camps. This removed open opposition to collectivisation, and ultimately to Stalin himself. Without any political opposition, Stalin greatly increased his own support. Collectivisation also saw the removal of private property, a key tenet of marxism-Leninism. By strongly supporting collectivisation and immediately ending private property, Stalin strengthened his support from key communist populations. Through this Stalin maintained his political support by rooting out opposition and strengthening support from other
boosted the USSR’s economy. Therefore Stalin had created a country which seemed corrupt at the time, but later on it improved by the hard work Stalin had forced upon them.
By 1928, Stalin had ousted Trotsky and the rest of the Left opposition. In four years, Stalin had single handedly taken major steps away from Lenin’s collective leadership and free inter party debate and replaced them with his autocratic dictatorship. Stalin began to secure predominant power over the communist party and the state by destroying passive opposition from the peasantry and former Lenin supporters. He won growing support from the working class who were impressed with the initial five-year plan. As it promised increased industrialization, which would lead to socialism in one country within their lifetime.
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 believed that there needed to be a dictatorship that regulated every aspect of its citizens’ lives in order to industrialize the Soviet Union. “His plans were in 5 year intervals in which the government took control over all businesses
Communism, as Karl Marx puts it, is a world where everyone is equal, where there are no social class, where there are no private ownership, where work is used only to produce the necessities, the people are under a control in which allows them to be on the same level as everyone else. What Stalin wanted to do was create and fulfill the governmental system of Karl Marx and create and envision the utopia that Karl Marx was led to believe. Under Stalin’s rule we come to see that his vision of a utopia quickly warps into a dystopia.
Lenin 's leadership was a crucial factor in consolidating Bolshevik power up until his death in 1924. His pragmatic leadership helped gain some initial support as well as giving him unquestioned authority within the party. Furthermore, his push for the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to help save the revolution from foreign invasion was crucial and his practicality was further exemplified through War Communism and the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP). The use of terror under Lenin 's rule was also highly effective in removing political dissidents and exerting Bolshevik authority through coercive measures like the Cheka and the Red Terror. The accumulation of these factors centred on Lenin 's leadership helped stamp Bolshevik power across the Soviet Union.
From the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century major historical events such as the Industrial revolution had occurred. During this period of time Europe was switching into an economy that is focused mostly in the industrial field. From this emerged two social-economic classes, the rich bourgeoisie and the poor proletariats. Furthermore tension brewed from the two groups since the bourgeoisie source of wealth was from the exploitation of the proletariats. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ book The Communist Manifesto responded to the situation and created a vision of an equal communist society. The Communist Manifesto was defined by the abolishment of the bourgeois sovereign rule that followed to a revolution against capitalism
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.
In the beginning Josef Stalin was a worshiper of his beloved Vladimir Lenin. He followed his every move and did as he said to help establish and lead the Bolshevik party. Much of the early part of his political career was lost due to his exile to Siberia for most of World War I. It wasn’t until 1928, when he assumed complete control of the country were he made most of his success. After Lenin’s death in January 1924, Stalin promoted his own cult followings along with the cult followings of the deceased leader. He took over the majority of the Socialists now, and immediately began to change agriculture and industry. He believed that the Soviet Union was one hundred years behind the West and had to catch up as quickly as possible. First though he had to seal up complete alliance to himself and his cause.
Joseph Stalin started a sequence of five-year plans in the 1920’s planned to change the Soviet Union from a society filled with peasants into an industrialized soc...
... into the Party system, outvoted Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky. Only under certain conditions, as listed above, and careful planing, Stalin was able to declare himself undisputed leader in 1929.
For a historian, the 20th century and all the historic events that it encompasses represents a utopia with endless sources of inspiration for the analysis of political figures, events and their consequences. Political figures such as Benito Mussolini of Italy, Adolf Hitler of Germany, Mao Zedong of China and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union are all names we are familiar with due to the time period that they influenced; this time period after the trauma and atrocities of World War I and the Great Depression led to completely new forms of government in Europe and beyond. These “manifestations of political evil”, commonly known as totalitarian states, should not be considered as mere extensions of already existing political systems, but rather as completely new forms of government built upon terror and ideological fiction. Therefore, this was also a time in which political philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, the author of the standard work on totalitarianism, “Origins of Totalitarianism”, could thrive. When looking at totalitarianism as a political philosophy, two initial questions have to be dealt with: what is totalitarianism and what kind of effect it had on countries ruled by totalitarian regimes. The reasons for its occurrence have briefly been mentioned above, although there are much deeper ideological, social and economic reasons including imperialism and anti-Semitism. In order to fully understand it, we must also contrast it to other political systems like authoritarianism and dictatorship, which are similar to a certain extent, but lack crucial elements that are in the core of totalitarian ideology. Out of the many examples of totalitarian regimes in the 20th century, Nazi Germany, Communist China and the Soviet Union stan...
The improvement of the economy was Stalin’s biggest priority. He intended to transform the soviet union into a superpower, equipping it with a huge industrial base. This radical change began in 1929 and continued until his death in 1953. The previous policy introduced by Lenin (NEP) allowed peasantry to attain a plot of land under licence, this policy had gained widespread support. However, a handful of people supported the idea of collectivisation particularly Trotsky. Stalin at first supported and favoured the continuation of the NEP. However by 1928 Stalin had reversed the policy, associating socialism in one country with collectivisation and industrialization.
Through this program, he ruled the minority nations of the USSR such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan more strictly. This policy of expansion also helped Stalin seize a large portion of Poland, and it was done under the guise that it was to "enrich the nation." Stalin established a secret police force which was unyielding and went about it's business with an iron fist, bringing down dissenters, revolutionaries, and those that cheated in collectivization.