How Did Stalin Use Terror In The Russian Revolution

Introduction Joseph Stalin is perhaps one of the most important and discussed people in Russian history. He was arguably a feared tyrant cursed and despised by many. At the same time, one finds sufficient evidence for the adoration and worship of Stalin that used to exist in the minds of the citizens of the Soviet Union. One reason for this worship was the existence of the so called ‘Cult of Personality’ where Stalin was celebrated as a wise leader, father of all people, and the architect of victory of the Second World War. In his book, The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power, Jan Plamper states that Stalin’s cult of personality was largely a visual phenomenon.

Post WWl, Russia was still not industrialized, suffering economically and politically and in no doubt in need of a leader after Lenin’s death. “His successor, Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator, seized power and turned Russia into a totalitarian state where the government controls all aspects of private and public life.” Stalin showed these traits by using methods of enforcement, state control of individuals and state control of society. The journey of Stalin begins now.

1917 was an extremely volatile year for Russia, during which two complete revolutions of government took place within the space of eight months, and a formerly staunch and inflexible hereditary empire of over two hundred years was completely dismantled. The Russian Empire of the Romanovs was one of the largest in the history of the world, and experienced the implementation of one of the most sophisticated systems of government and civil service, one of the fastest and most far-reaching expansions of national infrastructure, and one of the most feared military forces of the time. Yet by the time of the outbreak of the Russian revolution in February of 1917, the idea of uprising had seemed rather obvious to those both inside and outside of Russia’s

Orwell uses the character of Napoleon as a symbol for Joseph Stalin in order to show that power can be gained through manipulation and maintained through fear. Stalin was able to come to power with the use of his manipulation. With the use of propaganda, Stalin was able to sway the people of Russia by making him seen as a god-like figure, displaying images of himself next to sacred statues. He was also referred to as “Comrade Stalin”, to be viewed as one of the people. Throughout his leadership in Russia, Stalin was known to enjoy living lavishly while his people lived in famine.

“ What challenges and/or difficulties did the tsarist government of russia face and why did the russian citizens want to end the Tsar's Autocratic government?” Is the question I will be discussing within this Argumentative Essay about the Russian revolution of the year 1917. The Russian revolution was ongoing during the end of World War I and was the cause of one of the first countries that replaced its monarch state and began a Communist state. During the Russian revolution a rebellion under the name of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin started to remove the Tsar Nicholas II out of power and to put an end to the tsar government.

Consequently, as time progressed during Stalin’s Soviet Union, near the outcome of Stalin and his beliefs, “by 1939 every admiral, three of five Red Army Marshals, and roughly half the officers of the armed forces had been shot,” (Brooman, 1988). Why will a positive outcome occur if Stalin is eating the USSR from inside, trying to create a successful Soviet Union? This particular source of information is very relevant to the topic as it highlights the appropriate outcome for the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule. Additionally, by investigating the success of Stalin’s Soviet Union in 1939, a staggering amount of “1,548,366 detained persons, of whom 681,692 were shot – an average of 1,000 executions a day were to be seen,” (Budanovic, 2016). Since the Great Purges from 1936 to 1938, number of deaths and casualties were nearly countless.

During Stalins reign (1879-1953) the citizens of Russia were subjected to insane poverty, hunger and distress. They had a constant threat of getting thrown into the Gulag if they spoke against Stalins way. During our discussion a very good point was raised about how Russia itself was almost like a Gulag. The citizens were not allowed to speak their own opinion in fear of being

The author gives a lot of good arguments regarding his position of the Russian Revolution. Figes first shows that, whatever the hypotheses of counterfactual history might be, practically speaking the tsarist framework was bound by its defects. The disappointment of the 1905 Revolution did not pick up tsarism much time, and regardless Nicholas II attacked his most able pastor, Stolypin; and even his reforms; also how the 1914 war might at first have put off such an upheaval, yet from there it quickened it. The thought that tsarist Russia was making a course for a thriving liberal free enterprise, and was redirected just by the war, is a dream as the author well mentions. The author also, has made a critical contribution to our comprehension

The first victims of this purge were Zinoviev and Kamenev which were arrested on false charges in which Stalin’s secret police brutally beat them until they confessed to killing Kirov. After them the leader of the trade union, Mikhail Tomsky, committed suicide. Then former Red Army chief Mikhail Tulchaehevsky was arrested and shot. Stalin’s purge killed more than 40,000 Red Army officers. No one was safe from Stalin so that put terror in everyone’s hearts much like Ivan the

Mr. Conquest estimated the death toll for the Stalin era at no less than 20 million.” Thus, the evidence of how terror and control took place in the Soviet Union is clear and

The Russian Revolution, which was started by Lenin and his followers, was a rebellion that occurred in 1917 which forced higher powers to act to the needs of the lower class. For instance, many citizens were worried for their protection in consequence to the lack of survival necessities due to an early drought. Furthermore, their current czar during the time was incapable for his position as a czar and made horrendous decisions as czar. For example, when the czar, Nicholas, entered in World War I, he sent untrained troops into countless battles of failure which costed in mass amounts of lost life (paragraph 23).

As for Lenin’s ideology one source that has provided significant information for my paper is author Victor Sébastien’s unique look at Lenin through letters documents and interviews. Lenin's personal letters and those of many leading political figure were made available to view, Sebestyen gives a compelling analysis that conceived a story of how Lenin came to power and ran his rebellious state. During this time violence and tyranny and corruption where the norm in Russia which prompted Lenin to sanction the deaths of many who were perceived as enemies. Lenin devised a plan based on the idea that political terror was justified.

The February and October Revolutions of 1917 produced a world that would be governed by Marxism and set the stage for an armed struggle that would shape the second half of the Twentieth Century. In the traditional telling of the history, the working class people rose up to remove the shackles that had kept them oppressed by the capitalists and the monarchy. However, Richard Pipes with the benefit of access to classified records contends that the Revolution came about because of a series of accidents that would alter the world and produce catastrophic results for the Twentieth Century. In his book, Pipes presents three why question of the Revolution and goes into each one individually. The Three Why’s of the Russian Revolution are; why did the

Grabbing their guns, they headed for the streets, and began their rioting. The police attempted to maintain order, but their efforts failed. The revolution was no longer just about food; it had evolved into something much more serious for the citizens of Russia. There was anarchy in the capital and the government was failing. The people were revolting against the police and the monarchy

Russian’s upper class was not astonished by the new form of government. Communism made the poor people happier and glad that the government made the upper and lower class equal and not on different levels/classes. “The bond of the tsar and the Russian people had been broken. Governmental corruption and inefficiency were rampant in the Russian Revolution of 1917.”