Joseph Stalin Dbq Analysis

STALIN Stalin had both positive and negative effects on the Soviet Union during his time of rule. He brought forth many great ideas, but these ideas also affected the Union in a negative way. The five year plan was a system that Stalin came up with. This meant that they would follow a plan for five years, then when that five years was up, they would follow a different plan. He believed that this would help the Soviet Union keep up at a pace that the rest of the world was moving.

Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1914, Joseph Stalin took up his position as leader of the Soviet Union. After rising to power, Stalin made drastic changes to Russia that was still torn from war at the time. With his power, Stalin aimed to bring Russia to the top of the world. In the end, while he pushed the Soviet Union’s economy to new heights, his methods were cruel and had negative impacts. After the war, Stalin was determined to turn Russia into a great industrial power.

Joseph Stalin embarked absolute power over the USSR upon the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. Stalin’s primary goal as ruler of the nation was to launch a revolution from above. In order to achieve this, Stalin emphasised on rapid industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. With the growth of these two economic factors, Stalin hoped for the USSR to gain superiority amongst the world. Joseph Stalin and the Five Year Plan developed a beneficial impact to the USSR due to the industrial advancements and collectivization of agriculture, the nation obtained throughout Stalin's position in power.

His goal of industrialization had damaged his people and like torture to a dying man he also took away their rights.

Stalin’s iron fist totalitarian leadership is often viewed with negative connotations by historians today, although many of his policies advanced the Soviet Union at a rapid rate to become the United State’s primary competition in the years following his death. The use of five year plans by Stalin caused for many people to parish due to the all or nothing mentality put forward by him, causing for the U.S.S.R’s achievements to be reviewed in the future by historians as ruthless and questioned if the brutality used by Stalin was necessary. During his reign as leader, Stalin caused for the people of rural Russia to live lives filled with famine and immense abuse when they failed to hit quotas set out by the government in an effort to feed the

Under the shadow of the great industrial powers of the west, the Soviet Union was forced to rush the process of industrialization in order to catch up with it’s advanced neighboring states. Japan was in a similar position during the 20th century, though Japan’s reaction to the pressure was much more successful than Soviet industrialization. Japan’s industrialization was more prosperous and smooth than Russia’s because of the differences in treatment of factory workers, and adaptations to the developed foreign trade market, which ultimately diminished the efficiency of Russian industrialization. Russia was well aware that the state was in need of great change, even more specifically, the russian finance minister, Sergey Witte, had been writing

Introduction Russia is generally apportioned the benefit of having introduced a political phenomenon that basically provided an alternative for capitalism; communism. Since this concept was only set in motion at the turn of the 20th century, we can therefore deduce that, to a large extent, Russia is, to most people, synonymous with leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev. This supposition is entirely based on the premise that the Russian revolution of 1914 inherently altered the socio-cultural and socio-political direction of the nation, bringing into birth a never before envisioned era where Russia was not ruled by the Tsars, but by simple men; men who spoke to and articulated the needs of the masses. To this extent, communism,

Bertrand Russell once stated, ”The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” The era of World War 2 proves this quote to be correct. Joseph Stalin was the foolish dictator of the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler was a fanatic responsible for the Holocaust, and Dwight Eisenhower was a wise US General that planned Operation Overlord. These three leaders show why the quote is accurate. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union as a foolish dictator.

Imagine living in a society brainwashed by propaganda, where you only can think what you are told. From 1929-1953, citizens of the Soviet Union had to endure this under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union in 1929 right after the death of Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union. From the moment he came into power, Stalin started instilling fear in the population, and those he viewed as a threat were sent to his gulags or labor camps.

Almost immediately after the war, Stalin began to taunt the United States. His Red Army quickly moved in on Europe and many diplomats including Churchill feared that Stalin would attempt to take over the continent. The most notable incident of Stalin’s attempt at expansionism was after WWII when Stalin made territorial demands against Turkey and requested Soviet bases in the Turkish Straits. Stalin knew that Great Britain supported Greece and Turkey economically and militarily; yet, Stalin continued to intervene in Greece and

The increased industrial production brought profits for the growing country but at the same time, the agricultural production took a lot of lives and left many people starving and hungry for days and even weeks. Although history has it that Stalin was a brutal general and always looked for his self-interest, he did do some good things which made Russia the strongest nation at that time. Along with giving women equal rights and creating the first completely literate society, he defeated Nazi Germany and “through a series of conferences with

However, this strong beginning came to an abrupt halt when the Germans invaded and broke the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Although the Soviets suffered major losses at the Battle of Stalingrad it was still a turning point in favor of the Soviets as they did drive out the Germans. The Soviets seemed to only go uphill after this as their Military industrial output skyrocketed from 1941 to early 1943 (because of Stalin’s strategic movement of the factories to the East of the front, which was away from the Germans) and the Red Army grew to 11 million in 1942 when it was 5 million to

The USSR’s GNP (Gross National Product) was significantly lower than the United States, but the USSR still spent over thirty billion more dollars on their military program. The Soviet Union had more of everything, besides money. The military was known as the “Red Army,” and they had more troops, tanks, artillery guns, and nuclear weapons than any other nation on the planet. In Document E, Time Magazine compares the USSR’s Nuclear Arsenal to that of the United States, and its more than double the size. The USSR went to extreme lengths to have the most powerful army in the world, yet it greatly damaged their economy years before it collapsed.

To begin, Stalin transformed Russia into a Totalitarian state and began his Five-Year Plans for development of economy. Then, he later implemented one of his policy. Stalin put in practice the policy of Collectivization, in which the goal, were to increase the production of goods, shift from farming to machinery, and to form a collective farm. Stalin wanted to close all private farms and force all peasant farmers to be a part of the collective farm. In order, increase the food production for the state.

However, this only scratches the surface of what Stalin put the Soviet Union through. Stalin was a very persuasive man, his writings make it seem as if he is in the right and is innocent. To support this statement, two pieces of Stalin's writings were