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Emergence of Stalin in Russia
Emergence of Stalin in Russia
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The Ukranian Genocide "When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics"-these are the words of Joseph Stalin, a man who understood that "killing was a tool; properly used it could eliminate enemies, terrorize survivors into submission, and overwhelm outsiders beyond their ability to intervene" (Altman 41). The Soviet government claims that the famine of 1932-1933 was due to "conditions beyond human control," that it was an unfortunate but unintended consequence of the collectivization effort (Altman 47). The reality is that this disaster was not the result of inflation, crop failure, natural disasters, nor war. The shocking truth, which has been buried under sixty-five years of Soviet propaganda and Western corruption, is that the famine was engineered by Stalin and used as a weapon to annihilate between seven and ten million Ukrainians. Realizing that the Soviet Union was fifty to one hundred years behind the advanced countries, Stalin devised a Five-Year Plan to industrialize the nation. Modernization was expensive, and in order to fund his new project, Stalin knew that the Soviet Union needed to increase its agricultural exports. To accomplish this he outlawed the private ownership of land and organized collective farms. Stalin demanded collective workers give a huge majority of their crops to the government. The Ukrainians, a fiercely independent group, opposed Stalin's plan. Many refused to surrender their land. Some burned their crops and slaughtered their cattle in protest (Glennon 207). Millions more left the farms for cities, seeking jobs in the developing industry, which drastically hurt food production. Penalties for resisting the collectivization drive were forced labor camps ... ... middle of paper ... ...tressing lesson of Stalin's Ukrainian famine is that even great crimes against humanity can happen again if the world ignores or denies them" ("Denying the Terror Famine" 5). Bibliography: Bibliography Altman, Linda Jacobs. Genocide: The Systematic Killing of a People. N.p.: Linda Jacobs Altman, 1995. Beers, Burton F. World History-Patterns of Civilization. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Inc., 1990. Glennon, Lorraine, ed. Our Times: The Illustrated History of the 20th Century. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1995. Procyk. The Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33. N.p.:n.p., 1981. Puddington, Arch. "Denying the Terror Famine." National Review 25 May 1992: 1-7. Magazine Article Summaries Full Text Elite Ver. 5.0. CD-ROM. Ebsco. Jan. 1984-May 1996. "Spiking the Ukrainian Famine, Again." National Review 11 April 1986: 33-36.
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.
Holodomor is a Ukrainian word meaning “Genocide Famine” in English [holodomor.org]. The Holodomor ultimately began in 1928 when the then current leader of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin introduced a program which would lead to the collectivization of agriculture within the Soviet Union. In order to do this, farmers would have to give up privately owned farms, livestock and equipment. These farmers would have to join state owned collective farms as they would no longer have their own farms to run. These collective farms would need to produce large amounts of grain along with feeding their own workers. Ukrainian farmers refused to join these farms, as they considered it a returned to the serfdom of centuries past. In response, Stalin
Some countries were well behind others in industrialization, such as Russia. Rapid industrialization was necessary in Russia, and Joseph Stalin tried to change their circumstances, he introduced two five-year plans, which increased Russia’s industrial production, their heavy industry improved, the output of iron, steel, electricity, oil, and coal rapidly increased, opportunities were given to women and they could start working as doctors and scientists etc. Although Stalin did industrialize Russia, he did it forcefully and through terror. Millions of people died from famine, others were sent to camps, which were horrific, he took away the lands and farms that were given to the peasants by Lenin. Anyone who did not 100% support Stalin was considered an enemy, and anyone who was a potential enemy, such as Trotsky, was exiled. Trotsky was a member of the central committee just like Stalin, he was another candidate for Lenin’s replacement, and he was well suited for that position, but Stalin rose to power quicker and gained power by
Naimark depicts Stalin as the mastermind behind the dekulakization campaign; Stalin ordered the attack, oversaw the operations, and made it clear that the kulaks were to be “eliminated as a class: killed, displaced, deported, and scattered in special settlements” (58). Stalin was also well aware of the atrocious conditions at the special settlements and at times even reduced funding for the settlements, making life for the kulaks there even more unbearable. Naimark claims that Stalin’s “indifference to this suffering and dying was certainly murderous, if not genocidal” (53). While there is no doubt Stalin is a ruthless murderer, it is questionable whether Stalin intended to destroy the kulaks as a class. Overall, it seems that Stalin targeted anyone who challenged his policies thus the category ‘kulaks’ was really a group of dissidents rather than any particular social or political
The famine in Russia alone led the peasants to become angry and fed up with the Russian government, suggesting a future revolution. Because of the peasants’ unrest, they began to break the law by as stealing food for their families and shouting in the streets. Russia had attempted revolution before, and a fear of an uprising was feared again. Their everyday routi...
Stalin implemented a Five Year Plan in order to build up the industrial production of the Soviet Union. In order to keep the illusion of a successful Five Year Plan, production quotas were constantly made known well before they had been attained. He also announced another Five Year Plan before the last Five Year Plan was completed. According to Lyotard, Stalin and his Communism tried to give the proletariat a reality beyond that of the working class still bound to national traditions and differential claims, but unfortunately it would never be recognized for the legitimacy of any local power. Stalin to maintain power in his totalitarian regime, he purged his party of those who might oppose him and opportunists who might make the attempt to replace his regime. His use of terror was able to deceive people as long as it did because it seemed to be working toward the realization of the socialist republic. Terror became one of the key features of the government. Stalin, through his totalitarian power, got Russian workers many benefits like free education, free medical services and pension. The unemployment rate decreased and there was a great possibility for personal advancement. To advance in this society y...
Paradigms of Genocide: The Holocaust, The Armenian genocide, and Contemporary Mass Destructions, 156-168. Sage Publications Inc., 1996. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1048550
Joseph Stalin set up events intended to cause a famine in Ukraine to protect his rule. Despite the fact that the long-awaited opportunity for independence had come in 1917, the people of Ukraine’s new-found freedom was brief, due to Stalin’s uncontrollable overtake of Vladimir Lenin’s power. Stalin’s rule caused chaos and conflict followed by Ukrainian troops fighting Lenin’s Red Army, Russian White Army (troops devoted to the Czar), as well as the invading forces from Germany and Poland. At the same time, Stalin enforced the Soviet system of land management known as collectivization, resulting in the taking over of private farms. Joseph Stalin caused a famine in Ukraine as a terrible punishment for the people of Ukraine’s desire to gain independence, causing the death of many.
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.
... then five more, one after another… they allowed themselves to eat those bodies… They said, ‘it was the great unbearable famine that did it.’” The struggle to find food was real. It was a heavy burden for people to bear. The need to stay a live became a daily struggle many civilian and soldiers.
“So long as there are Kulaks there will be sabotage of our grain needs. The effect will be that our towns and industrial centers, as well as the Red Army, will be threatened with hunger. We cannot allow that. We must break the resistance of this class and deprive it of its existence.” – Stalin on Collectivization, 1928
Stalin took control over the farms and factories trying to “reorganize” the economy. However, it led to less production resulting in famine. Unrealistic quotas were set (Adams 5). He used collectivization, a policy of forced consolidation of individual peasant households onto collective farms. The use of collectivization led to many farmers death due to them protesting. Stalin’s overall goal for Soviet Union was to create an industrial power with all production under government control. Agriculture was bought under government control and forced peasants to live on group farms. The standards of living were poor during his rule (“Stalin’s Economic Policies” 1).
Joseph Stalin ruled the USSR from 1929 until his death in 1953. His rule was one of tyranny, and great change from the society that his predecessor, Lenin, had envisioned (Seton, 34). Stalin put into effect two self proclaimed "five-year plans" over the course of his rule. Both were very similar in that they were intended to improve production in the nation. The first of these plans began collectivization, in which harvests and industrial products were seized by the government and distributed as needed. The government eliminated most private businesses and the state became the leader in commerce. Stalin also initiated a process called "Russification". (Great Events, 119)"
Stalin implemented new policies such as the Five Year Plan and collectivization. He knowingly made impossibly high quotas on wheat for the Ukrainians, which was then sold on global markets at extremely low prices. These prices were so low that it even harmed the Canadian economy as they couldn’t match the Soviets’ prices. Each year the quota for wheat would increase. Eventually the Soviet Union had so much grain that it was impossible to export it all. The surplus was invested into alcohol production or left to rot in warehouses.