As a dictator Stalin was very strict about his policies, especially with working. He created the centrally planned economy in the Soviet Union in order to expand its industries and become a modern industrial power, carrying out Lenin’s dreams of industrial development. What made Stalin what he is known today and throughout years is his childhood background, his sudden ride to power, his ultimate five year plans, and finally Stalin’s’ death controversies. Joseph Stalin had a rough childhood, being the only child and living with foster parents. “Stalin was born on December 21, 1879, in Gori, a town near Tbilisi, in Georgia, a mountainous area in the southwestern part of the Russian empire” (Dudley 15). Stalin 's real name was Losif Vissarionovich Djugshvil. In 1912, he was adopted by a family with the last name of Stalin, which means "man of steel". Stalin 's father was a local shoe maker and his mother worked as a washday. They lived in a small shack. Their first three children had died at birth, so Stalin grew as an only child. Stalin got the case of a horrible disease called the small pox, and was scared of life after looking at himself in the mirror.
Stalin 's parents sent him to a little church school in Gori. He spent five years there, and became a very intelligent child. Stalin got a scholarship to go to the religious seminary in Tbilisi. Stalin entered to study for the priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church. He married soon after, but his first wife died of tuberculosis within three years. Stalin married for the second time in l919, and had a son and a daughter. It is said that his second wife killed herself or that possibly Stalin murdered her. Stalin had a very rebellious nature, was arrested many times, and was banished to Siberia at one period in his life. Some said that Stalin was a professional revolutionary. He was ruthless, committing murder, robbery and uprisings in labor disputes, especially in the Baku working centers. Life for Stalin was not so superior, but slowly he began to rise in power. Having a dreadful life as it was, Joseph Stalin pursued his dreams of rising to power. He was determined that when Lenin dies he would succeed him as the leader of the Soviet Union. Later that year, Lenin wrote a “Testament” stating that Trotsky should become the leader after him and not the crude Stalin. In fact he also suggested that the Bolshevik leaders should figure out a way of dismissing Stalin. “However, when the will was given to Zinoviev and Kamenev after Lenin’s death in 1924, they had made an alliance with Stalin and decided not to publish it, because they did not want the unpopular Trotsky to take over” (Thompson). This would turn out to be their biggest mistake because, he got Nicholi Bhukarin and his conservative allies to kick off Zinoviev and Kamenev. Unfortunately the conservative allies were also ousted as part of Stalin’s plot to outmaneuver the party leadership. Stalin used manipulation and support throughout the country to undermine his opponents and back one against the other as well as a very devious five year plan. When Stalin achieved complete control of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s, he abandoned Lenin’s NEP and he used industrialization (5 year plans) and collectivization to change and modernize agriculture and industry to create a “Command Economy”. During the 5 Year Plan of industrialization each factory was given a target they had to reach each year, for a five year period. Accountants often lied about productivity so they wouldn’t be sent to their deaths. “Although the state’s industry produced four times as much in 1937 as it had in 1928, there was no improvement in the average standard of living and people often worked to their deaths”(Five Year Plan). Like in the novel called Animal Farm, Napoleon the pig was characterized as playing the role of Stalin on the farm. He made the animals work everyday on the windmill and reduced their rations if they refused to work extra hours when needed. Also Napoleon would kill those animals that refused to work, and mentioned the remembrance of Snowball (Leon Trotsky). Like any other human bean, there is a place and a time for death to approach. Stalin had suffered a series of minor strokes before 1953 and was generally in declining health. “On the night of February 28th he watched a film at the Kremlin, then returned to his dacha, where he met with several prominent subordinates including Beria, head of the NKVD (secret police) and Khrushchev, who would eventually succeed Stalin”(Wilde). They left Stalin early in the morning, with no suggestion that he was in poor health. Stalin then went to bed, but only after saying the guards could go off duty and that they weren’t to wake him. Stalin would usually alert his guards before noon and ask for tea, but no communication came. The guards grew worried, but were forbidden from waking Stalin and could only wait. There was no one in the Dacha who could counter Stalin’s orders. A light came on in the room late at night, but still no call. Eventually, plucking up the courage to go in and using the arrived post as an excuse, a guard entered the room and found Stalin lying on the floor in a pool of urine. “He was helpless and unable to speak, and his broken watch showed he had fallen at 18:30” (Wilde). The doctors found Stalin partially paralyzed, breathing with difficulty and in very critical conditions. They feared the worst but were unsure. The best doctors in Russia, those which had been treating Stalin, had recently been arrested as part of the forthcoming purge and were in prison. Representatives of the doctors who were free and had seen Stalin went to the prisons to ask for the old doctors’ opinions, who confirmed the initial, negative, diagnoses. Stalin struggled on for several days, eventually dying on March 5th. His daughter was later was questioned how her father died, and she described how he practically choked to death. It is unclear whether Stalin would have been saved if medical help had arrived shortly after his stroke, partly because the autopsy report has never been found (although it is believed he suffered a brain hemorrhage which spread). This missing report, and the actions of Beria during Stalin’s fatal illness, have led some to raise the possibility that Stalin was deliberately killed by those afraid he was about to purge them. There is no concrete evidence for this theory, but enough to spread the nation. Throughout history Joseph Stalin is known of many things, and could be called numerous of names, but he was still a dictator who made it throughout history. Being a cold-blooded leader who was power hungry and treated people very inadequately, he brainwashed the people to the extent that people were scared to even dispute to what they believed. Joseph Stalin began a miserable life as a child and ended it as the cruel dictator of Soviet Union.
Work Cited
Dudley, William. Russia: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: David L Bender, 2001.
Five Year Plan. 7 January. 2000. .
Joseph Stalin. 10 December. 2001. .
Wilde, Robert. The Death of Stalin. 13 March. 2001. .
Cited: Dudley, William. Russia: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: David L Bender, 2001. Five Year Plan. 7 January. 2000. . Joseph Stalin. 10 December. 2001. . Wilde, Robert. The Death of Stalin. 13 March. 2001. .
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Joseph Stalin established a modern totalitarian government in Soviet Russia. He is known as the “Man of Steel”. A totalitarianism is a type of government that takes total, centralized, state control over every aspect of public and private life of their people. His rule had changed the people of his empire in numerous ways. Stalin had total control over economic needs. According to document 6 “By 1940 Russia produced more pig iron than Germany, and far more than Britain or France. Numbers of cattle grew in the 1920s, but fell increasingly during the collectivization of agriculture after 1929, and by 1940 hardly exceeded the figure for 1920. Since 1940 the industrial development of the Soviet Union has been impressive, but agricultural production has continued to be plumiding”. The document illustrates how pig iron had significantly increased as a result of the “Five Year Plan”, however heavy industry led to expense of food supplies. This would cause limited production of consumer goods. It caused a step back because of the severe shortages of housing, food, clothing as well as other necessary goods. The Five Year Plan didn’t help much to excel their economic as Stalin hoped, it impacted by creating famine. Stalin rising to power promised an economic boom for Russia however, in that process many people suffered and died of starvation. According to document 5, “The purge began its last,…
- 1113 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia on December 21, 1879. His name given at birth was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. From 1902 to1913, Stalin was arrested eight times and was imprisoned in Siberia. He escaped seven out of the eight times while in prison. While in prison, inmates nicknamed him “Stalin” which translates to "Man of Steel." (“Joseph Stalin”) .He felt this would be a good name for his image.…
- 1499 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Stalin presented himself as if he were greater and more powerful than everyone else (DOC 10.) Unfortunately for him the people of Russia didn’t see this characteristic; Stalin’s methods damaged the Russians. His act of collectivization was found to be extremely unfair and hurtful. Numerous actions were taken place…
- 517 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Nikita Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894 in Kalinovka, Russia. Khrushchev was the politician who led the Soviet Union in part of the Cold War era. Khrushchev joined the Communist Party and fought in the Red Army during the Russian Revolution in 1918. He quickly rose up the party ranks, becoming a member of the Central Committee in 1934. On September 14, 1953, Khrushchev succeeded Joesph Stalin after his death in the beginning of the year. In a 1956 “secret speech,” Khrushchev talked about Stalin's crimes for the first time, starting a process called “de-Stalinization. Khrushchev was known to be a talkative, sociable, tough, shrewd and a man with great self-confidence. He was open to and established a reformed version…
- 356 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
He did well in in school and later was awarded a scholarship to go to seminary school in Tiflis in 1894. While in Tiflis he came in contact with a secret society that that pushed for Georgia’s independence from Russia. This group also led Stalin to discover the writings and teachers of socialist thinkers like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Although he excelled in seminary school, he dropped out in 1899. No one really knows why, the school records say it was because he no longer had the money to pay for tuition but it is more likely that the school asked him to leave because of his political views that challenged the tsarist regime.…
- 1335 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
In order to compare these men thoroughly, one must begin with their roots which bear resemblance to each other. Stalin, born to a washerwoman and cobbler, grew up in the Russian ruled country of Georgia. Hitler, too, spent much of his early life in Austria, not Germany, a country in which he was not a citizen but would play a large role in its history later in his life. Both lived their early lives in relative poverty, and their fathers abused them as children and often beat them. As a young man, Stalin traveled to Tiflis, the Georgian capital (now renamed Tbilisi), on his religious mother's orders to become a priest; however, he abandoned his studies, turned to the writings of Karl Marx, and joined a socialist group. From then on, he would…
- 156 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhuhashvili or the world knows him, Joseph Stalin, was born on December 18th of the year 1879. He is an important figure in history and made some changes, though I must admit not for the best. He can be classified as one of the most powerful leaders and dictators of the Soviet Union. He was the leader of the Soviet Union for twenty five years and in this period of time made so many changes and killed millions of innocent people that stood in his path. Joseph Stalin also made use of different weapons that would eventually lead to the fall of Nazism.…
- 673 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
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.…
- 1117 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Knowing Stalin, he was a brutal man, he wanted to become the main power nation to rule. He would go out of his way trying to convert nations into the Communist power. Over 20 million people all over would die during Stalin's tyranny. “Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem.…
- 541 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Joseph Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovitch Dzhugashvili in 1879 in the Russian province of Georgia. The infant Dzhugashvili contracted smallpox, a disease that left him with permanent facial scarring. At the behest of his mother, Dzhugashvili entered a seminary to train for the priesthood – but he was soon expelled for behavioural problems and not paying his school fees. In 1903 he took a liking to the communist theories of Lenin and joined the fledgling Bolshevik movement. Dzughashvili was tasked with raising funds for the party through criminal means: he organised and led bank robberies, initiated kidnaps and ransom demands, and used threats and violence to extort money. Dzhugashvili soon became a wanted man: he was arrested several times and sent to Siberian labour camps, though he invariably escaped. In 1912 he adopted the revolutionary name Stalin, meaning ‘man of steel’.…
- 1080 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Stalin did have a good course for his life before he got corrupted by power. When stalin tried to industrialize the soviet union the ones who resisted he had their land and everything taken from them. Stalin then conducted a series of purges that would kill millions. The ones he killed in these purges were the “Scum” of the country. Stalin had actually even worried lenin before he died and there is the fact that lenin did not actually appoint stalin he chose leon trotsky but stalin had taken the power and exiled leon then after that he had him assassinated in…
- 467 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Vladimir Lenin was born on April 22, 1870 in Simbirsk, Russia to a humble family. His mother was the daughter of a doctor and his father, son of a serf, had earned a college degree and eventually worked as a school superintendent. At home,…
- 1305 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Joseph Stalin was the authoritarian leader of the Soviet Union for 31 years between 1922 and his death in 1953. During this time, he revolutionised the Russian economy with a combination of rapid industrialisation and centralised economic collectivism, reforms that in some instances caused massive devastation in rural parts of the country (including the famine of 1932-1933, in which up to 6m people starved to death). A hugely controversial figure on the global political stage, Stalin carried out ruthless purges of the Soviet military, political and judicial classes (Applebaum, 2004), sending political opponents to work in work camps (or gulags) in Siberia from which few ever returned.…
- 997 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
He had planned to create the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower country. Stalin did in fact do this, and his industrial movement was massive. He turned a weak, struggling country into one of the world’s most industrialized and powerful country. He introduced the policy of “collectivized” agriculture. Collectivized means that now private land owners were now owned by other people or the state. Now land was taken away from peasants, reducing them to serfs again. A serf is just another word for slave, and in this case, a peasant was now working for a lord. Although Stalin was criticized for this policy, it created an agricultural boom in the Soviet Union. Another big accomplishment of Stalin was that he stopped Hitler from expanding Germany into parts of Russia. Stalin and Hitler had a pact that divided Poland between Russia and Germany, and neither of them would meddle with each other. Hitler broke this pact, and attacked. Stalin had took control over his army, and Stalin successfully stopped the Germans from expanding into Soviet territories ("Accomplishments of Joseph…
- 713 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
essay will look at Stalin’s rise to power and the success of his Domestic policies.…
- 1320 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays