How Did Joseph Stalin Rise To Power

Richard Boyer
Mr. Shoughrue
8/13/14
Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin was born on December 18, 1879, in Gori, Georgia. Stalin was the Soviet Union dictator for over two decades. Joseph Stalin rose to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party. When Vladimir Lenin died Stalin took power as the Soviet Dictator. Stalin’s Red Army helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. Joseph Stalins’ birth name is Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. He changed his name later on in his life he changed his name to Joseph Stalin, Stalin meaning man of steel. In 1939 war broke out in Europe. Stalin made a quick a smart move and signed a nonaggressive pact with the Nazi warlord, Adolf Hitler. On August 23, 1939 Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggressive
pact with Adolf Hitler and Germany.
This surprised the whole world. What the nonaggressive pact did was to guaranty that they wouldn’t attack each other. They both were able to gain a lot by signing this pact. Germany had benefited by protecting themself from having to fight a two front war, meaning that they didn’t have to protect two different sides of their boarders, in the war Hitler was on his way to beginning, known as World War II. Stalin was able to receive land from this deal, including parts of Poland, which Stalin was after anyways, and the Baltic States. Unsurprisingly Hitler launched a surprise attack in 1941 breaking the nonaggressive pact that was signed just a few years earlier. Due to Stalin’s poor leadership and lack of readiness, despite most of the world seeing it coming, the Soviet Unions army, also known as the USSR, suffered huge losses. Most of the world seen this attack coming but Stalin was blind
to what was going on around him. Hitler thought that the USSR would be an easy run through knowing that Russia wasn’t ready or prepared to fight in any type of war, and Germany wasn't prepared to fight a long war against Russia, which posed many problems, including Germany's infamous lack of winter equipment. Stalin came up with a brilliant plan to hold off Germany. He had all the farmer retreat and burned their food supplies and houses down. Germany didn’t come in with much food thinking they would run through and be able to pick up food as they advanced. Eventually, Russia was able to mobilize and industrialize, and was able to halt and later drive back Hitler's armies.
The allies landed in France, and Hitler was too busy with the situation going on in Russia to fully devote his army to completely repelling the allied invasion. Hitler’s plan to stop a two front war blow up in his face when he invaded Russia and ignored the allied army. Eventually the allies, along with the help of Russia, were able to beet Germany back. When World War 2 ended, Stalin was successful in take over many states, which his armies had freed from the Nazis. Stalin was driven by one overpowering fear, a fear of a future attack of his western border. Throughout history Russia and the Soviet Union had been repeatedly attacked from the western boarder, so Stalin’s fear was no surprise. Stalin's absolute insistence upon Soviet domination of Eastern Europe following the war's end was not entirely without justification. After all, Germany had invaded Russia via Eastern Europe during both World Wars, at a cost of tens of millions of Soviet lives. In Stalin's view, only Soviet control of the nations of Eastern Europe, including East Germany, could ensure that there would not be another repeat. Americans, however, viewed Stalin's power grab in Eastern Europe—which crushed millions of people's dreams of self-determination. Stalin wanted to have large buffer zone of Eastern European countries to be under his control. He wanted them to protect the Soviet Union from invasion from the West. Because of this, he was determined to keep control of Eastern Europe after WWII. His determination to dominate Eastern Europe helped to scare the West and push it to take a more aggressive anti-communist line. Stalin’s actions, such as the blockade of West Berlin, helped to solidify the antagonism between the two sides. He captured eastern European states, so that they could act, as a shield this became known as the Iron Curtain. This isolationist behavior and expansion of Communism fostered distrust on the part of the West, Scaring many Americans, and brought about the Cold War.
The Cold War was a war that never fired a single shot.
Never the less, the world feared this war more then any other. They believed that if Russia and the United States broke out in to war, they would just fire atomic bombs at each other. The atomic bomb was developed during and used to end World War II by the United States. Stalin was able to place spies on what was suppose to be a project not even the vice president wasn’t even informed about. Not that long after World War II ended Stalin was able to develop the second atomic
bomb.
During the Cold War Stalin gave permission to North Korea to attack the United States. He also supported North Korea during a war known as the Korean War. In 1953 Stalin’s run came to an end when he died. After being paranoid during his last few years he dies after having a stroke. He was 74 at the time of his death. It has been estimated that Joseph Stalin has been responsible for more then 20 million deaths around the world. His successor’s name was Nikita Khrushchev. He took over as soon as Stalin died and tried to keep Stalin’s same polices till his death in 1971.
Stalin was a brutal man. Abused as a kid he brought his wrath upon the world. Stalin never slowed down once he got going. He never showed signs of weakness despite his age. He ruled with an iron fist and did not let anyone tell him what to do. He played it smarter during his second half after the conflict with Germany. His people suffered under his rule. On the other hand he was smart and influenced many different people around the world. He was able to influence many leaders to do what he wanted them to do. He was one of the world’s greatest minds. He has gone down in history as an evil mastermind. He was intelligence was beyond belief knowing he had a rough childhood.

Work Cited

"Joseph Stalin." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 15 Aug. 2014.

Staff, History.com. "Joseph Stalin." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 13 Aug. 2014.

Staff, PBS. "Joseph Stalin." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 12 Aug. 2014.