To move towards a socialist society: • According to Marxist theory, socialism could only be created in a society where the majority of the population were workers – but in 1928, only 20% were workers in the USSR. To establish his credentials: • Stalin wanted to prove himself was the worthy succession of Lenin. • He wanted to make the leading Bolsheviks believe the he was Lenin’s equal. • He believed he could do this through his economic plan – he believed that by taking the USSR towards socialism would prove this. To improve standards of living: • Stalin knew the USSR had a bad standard of living was poor compared to the West, and wanted to catch up with them.
Yet, for all of Stalin’s positive accomplishments, he also seemed quite the negative ruler, First, Stalin developed a system of collective farming that combined once privately owned farms into large farms, operated by the government. This put an end to individual profits. New he stressed, everything for the state must come first, the individual is
The Labour economy policies are also a reason why they lost. Gaitskell promised to increase public spending without increasing taxes. This put his credibility under question. Another reason is that although voters were happy with the nationalisation of electricity, gas, atomic energy and airline industries they thought public ownership of coal and the railways had been a failure when they were last in government and there was little enthusiasm for further nationalisation which Labour was committed to by Clause Four of the Labour Party Constitution. Another reason why Conservatives won is that in there manifesto they promised to stabilise the cost of living which would close the gap between rich and poor and double everyone’s standard of living.
This is because through the key events, his devious and scheming personality shone through, eventually gaining him the top position of authority. This is shown as soon as Lenin dies as it is said Stalin tells Trotsky the wrong date of Lenin’s funeral (his greatest opposition at the time.) Trotsky doesn’t show up, leaving Stalin to step up and show his loyalty whilst at the same time showing the people of Russia that he is a strong, caring contender, able to take Lenin’s position of leader of Russia. Moreover, Stalin’s position of a moderate ‘peace maker’ as the left side of the party tore themselves apart showed a personality of calm moderation which appealed to others within the party as the fight for leadership became bitter and often ruthless. This made Stalin’s personality shine through amongst the bitter personalities of others such as Trotsky, Zinoviev and
How important was Stalin's role in the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War? Stalin's role in the Soviet victory, and indeed the overall Allied victory over Nazi Germany, was certainly significant; he was, after all, both the General Secretary of the Soviet Union and its Supreme War Commander. If one were to take this at face value, then his importance would be without question. However, it can be argued that, especially at the beginning of the war, he played a role just as significant in almost losing the war, mainly due to his tactical mistakes as Supreme Commander and his own Stalinist system and purges leaving his appointed generals with a lack of knowledge of modern warfare and, indeed, a lack of initiative. Even when he grew into his self-appointed role of Supreme Commander and learned from his earlier mistakes, it can be argued that his greatest victories, such as the battles at Kursk and Stalingrad, were less down to him, but rather down to the expertise of his generals, such as Zhukov.
The New Deal was a complex strategy to help the American economy get back on its feet. This plan consisted of many Alphabetical Agencies. These were various economic program to boost the economy and provide for the "forgotten man". Controversially to Hoover's ideas, Roosevelt did not believe the "trickle down" theory, which declared that if the big businessmen get rich, it will eventually trickle down to the lower classes, was effective. "he long-range
As the U.S was trying to make more jobs to regulate the economy, Germany had to still pay all the money they owed before even thinking about making new job. The debt Germany owed was so much, that they were never able to pay it back. This was the major cause on why Hitler rose to power as smoothly as he did. He gradually got most of the countries
Joseph Stalin truly strengthened this nation to become a widely known superpower, although he carried out mass genocide and created a murderous dictatorship. Historians have viewed him in many different ways, including a psychotic power-driven killer, a military and communist genius, and also the man who transformed the Soviet Union into an industrial colossus. Joseph Stalin should have never taken the role of the USSR’s leader. Instead, Trotsky should have been the one to take Lenin’s place, which would have saved the lives of millions. Joseph Stalin put forth many positive attributes to the USSR, however; the only reason this was possible was through his brutal intimidation tactics used on the nation’s
He had seen the inroads made by Soviet propaganda in western Europe, particularly in 1947 through 1949, and believed that American will and policies had defeated the USSR’s efforts to sway elections and upset the Marshall Plan. The Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and, in the following year, Radio Liberation (soon Radio Liberty) became part of the institutional fabric of containment. [5] The president thought that he had learned correctly from recent history, and he went on to the next step of his strategy in the partnership between the public and private sectors: the moral suasion and power of faith. As leader of the strongest power of the free world, he aimed to harness and coordinate the world’s religions in an effort to stop the Communists and what he viewed as their elemental
The cause of the problem was that owners were selfish and very greedy. Most of the people at that time were not educated. As a result, workers went on strikes for higher wages and safer working conditions, but the owners were not going down with