Why Did Stalin Use Terror Tactics

The Russian’s loss in the Russo-Japanese war was the another way that they got the public to turn against the provisional government and strengthen the communist revolt. The revolt got stronger and stronger until the Bolsheviks finally revolted and took down the Russian Provisional Government. Because of this, civil war erupted all over the country. At the end of this war, in 1920, the Bolsheviks set up the USSR, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, under control of Vladimir Lenin. When Lenin died, Stalin aggressively worked his way up until he was the leader of the USSR. In his control, Stalin set up a “5 year plan” to advance the Russian economy from just farming to also having industry. In this plan, he would also advance the military and “cleanse the country of villains” or those he saw as villains. To “cleanse the country”, Stalin would have unfair trials that would have many on trial at once. These were called his “Show Trials”. The majority, if not all, of these people were found guilty and sent for execution. They were executed all at once, and the executions were called the Purges. To advance the Russian economy, Stalin would work the farmers to death… literally. When the farmers revolted, Stalin stopped sending them food and even more died from starvation. On the last of the purges, 16 men were put on trial and accused of acts of terrorism towards Stalin and the Soviet government. Two of them were Stalin’s allies after Lenin’s death, Zinovyev and

Stalin’s policy priorities were not building a ‘worker’s paradise’ or a classless society, but protecting Russia from war and invasion. In 1928, Stalin launched the first of two ambitious five-year plans to modernize and industrialize the Soviet economy. These programs brought rapid progress – but also significant death and suffering. Stalin’s decision to nationalize agricultural production dispossessed millions of peasants, forcing them from their land to labor on gigantic state-run collective farms. Grain was sold abroad to finance Soviet industrial projects, leading to food shortages and disastrous famines in the mid-1930s. Soviet Russia was dragged into the 20th century, transforming from a backward agrarian empire into a modern industrial superpower – but this came at extraordinary human cost.

Throughout his life Stalin completed his dream of power and ambition. Though most people know him as a ruthless tyrant dictator, he improved Russia through industrialization and military might. He lived up to his name “steel” and made his mark in Russian history both good and

Once eliminating Trotsky, Stalin’s idea of, “socialism in our country,” inevitably meant that Russia needed strength. The productions in the USSR had almost reached pre-war levels by the mid-1920s, but the population of Russia had also increased by 20 million people. No matter, Stalin assured that maximum efforts and resources would be given to the expansion and strengthening of Russia herself rather than an effort to start a revolution elsewhere. This is explained in his famous 1931 speech, gaining power for himself. The people had nowhere else to turn to and needed a leader. Stalin was there and knew what to do to make the people interested in his ideas, thus acquired their trust and control. From these ideas, he created his first

Almost everyone knows what a monster Adolf Hitler was, but most people do not know that one of the great ally leader of World War II, Joseph Stalin, had committed even greater atrocities than Hitler. Joseph Stalin was a ruthless and yet diligent dictator of the Soviet Union, whose rise to power influenced a multitude of major events in his country’s history. Due to Stalin’s impactful reign, he made the Soviet Union become a global superpower, underwent difficult hardships such as the Great Famine in the Soviet Union, and after his death, caused the Soviet Union to go through a process known as de-Stalinization.

In the novel, the Soviet citizens were forced to look up to Stalin when he actually made them suffer. Nowadays, people think of Stalin as a bad person and leader, they immediately think of how awful he was and what he did. People have changed their view on communism and their type of leadership. As an example, in the novel Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Sasha the main character looks up to Stalin as a leader. A passage from the book is, “When I imagine Comrade Stalin reading my letter, I get so excited that I can’t sit still.”pg. 4 This shows that Sasha really looks up to Stalin. When I told my mom the title of the novel, she immediately thought about the bad things Stalin did. This is an example of how social changes occurred from when Stalin was a leader to today when he is known as a bad

Stalin like Hitler “used propaganda, censorship, and terror to force his will on the Soviet people. Government newspapers glorified work and Stalin himself. Secret police spied on citizens, and anyone who refused to praise Stalin and the state faced severe punishment, even death” (“The Soviet”, n.d.).

Life for citizens under Stalin’s rule was ruthless. Stalin’s policies and ideas proved that he probably was not a competent leader, which is why he resorted to full-blown communism or “Stalinsm.” Freedom was an idea dangled in front of citizens, but never was a real option. Stalin relied on fear and empty promises. Life under Stalin is interpreted different for everyone due to status and the classes they were divided into, but it was all about censoring them. Multiple sources support that life under Stalin’s rule was not the idea life style and the people did not always agree with Stalin himself, unless they benefited from his rule, but that is debatable as well.

The strive for socialism goes far beyond the torture and rape of an unfortunate few, rather the idea that everything under communism was free and that there was no such thing as selling products for profits would lead to “the greatest human disaster in Europe since the Black Death.” Still, many more unfortunate others found themselves on market displays to be sold as food. Even with the prospect of cannibalism and the terror that Lenin’s secret police caused, the masses still believed that he was their savor and didn’t know anything of the horrors that occurred under his rule. Many families worshipped Lenin as a god and to speak otherwise was seen as a great disrespect. The amount of hope that they poured into Lenin and his idea of communism just serves to show how desperate the Russian people had become.

“Stalin’s leadership was unbelievably poor and wholly amateurish” (Rubinstein 2012). While Joseph Stalin and his followers were the ones who ended up on top at the end of World War II, Many believe that had Hitler not decided to delegate needed soldiers and weapons to the threats coming from the western allies than he would have had a much greater chance of winning over Stalin. “…arguing that Nazi Germany almost won its war with the Soviet Union. Hitler might well have won. Germany consistently suffered a tiny fraction of

When Joseph Stalin took over Russia after Lenin by 1928, the country 's policy on how it was going to industrialize changed. Stalin said," We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall go under."12 Stalin believed that if the USSR did not industrialize then it would be the death of them because they will be vulnerable both economically and militarily. Stalin said, "Everything can be achieved, everything can be overcome, if there is a passionate desire for it."13 By saying this Stalin is reassuring the people with doubt that this goal can be accomplished. In order for this seemingly impossible task to be accomplished passionate soviets would be

Joseph Stalin was the Soviet leader of Russia for over 25 years. Stalin was very paranoid and executed anyone he deemed to be a threat. In 1934, Kirov, the leader of the Communist Party and also a workplace colleague so to speak, was murdered, probably on Stalin's orders this is widely acknowledged as the even that started the ‘Purges’. Stalin used Kirov’s death as an example to order massive purges in which anybody suspected of being disloyal was murdered, sent to prison camps known as ‘Gulags’ or exiled to Siberia. This example Stalin used at the start of the purges demonstrates the length Stalin was willing to go to achieve his goals and the level of his paranoia.

He was pushing for collectivization. He was breaking up the Kulaks, which meant he was making their life harder than it was. In 1928(CITE) he raised taxes for Kulaks. The government was demanding impossible quotas of grain from the Kulaks. Stalin raised grain production by forty-four percent.

Joseph Stalin was one of the biggest terrors in the time of world war 2.

Stalin is well known for his evil deed such as massacring people, cause the World War II. It is fact that he was the dictator who abandoned his friends, family, and his humanity. However, can we just say Stalin was the villain? It is beyond dispute that massacring people can’t be forgiven with any reasons; however, he also developed Russia into the one of the most powerful countries in the world and led victory in World War II. If we compare Adolf Hitler to him, both of them were dictators who had ultimate power; however, Stalin didn’t fall into delusion of grandeur or satisfy his selfish interests and desires. Ironically after his death, Soviet Union achieved ideal socialist state. Even though, his 5 year plan was completed by sacrifice of