The death of the creator of the Soviet Communist Party and founder of the USSR, Vladimir Lenin, left the young Soviet Union craving the leadership from a man of the same stature. At first, the brilliant leader of the Red Army and also the appointed candidate by Lenin, Trotsky, seemed to be the one to take control of the USSR. Instead, Joseph Stalin took control of the Soviet Union, using many vindictive political moves and his position as General Secretary. As the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin strengthened and stabilized the structure of the nation to become a world superpower and industrial colossus. In many ways, Stalin transformed himself to replicate Lenin by adopting his ideas and goals, although the way in which he met these goals are highly controversial by historians.
Essay Proposal: Q. proposal - Maintaining Power Through the use of Terror: Stalin. Introduction/Agenda This essay will show how power was maintained by Stalin once he had established himself as the single leader of the USSR. The essay will mainly focus of the most effective method; use of terror, coercion and fear. And how he is used this to control the party and state and eliminate his opponents The essay will explore who Stalin believed he faced opposition from including from within his own party, how effectively he dealt with them and the role his own paranoia played. Finally the essay will look at the effectiveness of the use of terror but also the international repercussions for Stalin and communism.
There can be no ignoring the effect that World War I had on Russia, with the crippling affects of a major war and the resulting breakdown of infrastructure within the Russian Empire. From 1903 when the Bolsheviks were formed a rising threat had emerged to Tsardom, The Marxist intellectual Vladimir Lenin was emerging as an influential light in the revolutionary movement. His earlier pamphlet entitled ‘What is to be done?’ outlined his need for more organisation, discipline, and leadership within the socialist parties. His idea of having a tight-knit exclusive organisation of professional revolutionaries showed he had the coherent theories to be a real threat to Tsarism. According to Alan Wood, Lenin described the 1905 revolution as a ‘dress rehearsal’.
After World War two, the world split into two distinct camps. Propaganda was use to justify or condemn about such as the United States and the Soviet Union became engaged in proxy wars against one another. As a result, propagandists ought to portray an enemy nation as harboring all the qualities that were adverse to their own conception of liberty and progress. The differences between American capitalist democracy and Soviet socialist totalitarianism came from their systems. The American government went out of its way to portray communists as scarier and more not the same as what Americans were.
A change in society occurred in June of 1918 with the introduction of War Communism. War Communism meant that all industry was nationalised, private sales were forbidden as personal profits became illegal, strict working rules were put in place, and a class based rationing system was introduced. War Communism brought about major changes to Russian society but in order to assess how successful it was in its changes, each aspect of its original goals must be looked at. As described by David Christian, one of the two pressures that lead to War communism was ‘the need to fight the civil war’. In this aspect the changes brought about by this policy were successful as it resulted in a Bolshevik victory in the war as it ‘...did the job of supplying towns and armies with just enough food and supplies to keep providing war material and to keep fighting.
Revolutionary Leadership USSR 1924 – 1957 What methods of control did Stalin use during the 1930's? How did these methods During the 1930's, Joseph Stalin used many brutal but effective methods of control to gain a hold on the USSR and keep his power. “To gain a victory and be feared was a triumph for him.” (Joseph Iremashvilli, on Stalin) These methods affected the Soviet Union in many ways. Such as a rapid decrease in living standards, famines resulting in countless orphaned children, and the Gulag system of forced Labour camps. Stalin and his associates in the Politburo and the NKVD influenced the Soviet people with these methods so much that in some cases the lowest class of people would exclaim statements like: “When the woman I love gives me a child, the first word I will teach it shall be 'Stalin'” (A.O.
Tony Judt argues that Stalin ruled with ‘uncompromising rigidity and confrontational tactics’, this is somewhat supported by source 8 as it highlights that the ‘personality of Stalin’ was a significant internal factor in the USSR. Stalin’s persistent drive to achieve security by creating a buffer zone meant that agreements between the two powers were difficult. However, his policy on Poland, 1945, and the Stalinisation of Eastern Europe, 1945-48, reflected a genuine desire to protect the USSR from any future Western attack. Stalin was also ‘uncompromising’ over the reparations for Germany, he was determined to strip the Soviet zone of raw materials, and this worsened relations with the West at
The people are expected to be totally loyal to the state and to the person at the head of the government. Stalin ruled as a dictator, commanding his people with absolute power. He conducted many purges against his rivals and introduced a new constitution which reinforced his power. The secret police and even a cult helped to build up his image and keep him in power. Also, the totalitarian state supports extreme nationalism.
Sandra Dunmore 2118 U.S. Hist.1311 The Cold War The Cold War by Jeremy Isaac and Taylor Downing is a book about the history of the U.S. In this book the author talks about how communism has been a part of U.S. history since the eighteenth century. Soviet Union leaders, such as Marx, Lenin, and Stalin continued to spread communism to other nations. The Cold War was not a war of weapons but a war to stop the spread of communism. The book goes into details about how the United States used every media outlet to convince the public of the horrors of communism.
America viewed Communism as an evil belief to kill the rights and liberties of all mankind. Both sides believed that the other was seeking to dominate each other and the world. It was at this time that containment was made, and the United States began to add to the containment strategy. The U.S drafted its strategy for meeting the Soviet threat in 1947. George Kennan, an American serving