Preview

Stalin's Influence on Russia

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1694 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Stalin's Influence on Russia
Stalin’s Influence

How can one person convince an entire nation that he is necessary for the growth and success of communism in Russia? After the death of Lenin in 1924, Russia was faced with Joseph Stalin who ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist for 24 years. Stalin rarely appeared to be what he really was and consistently was underestimated by his opponents, allowing him to gain support and create fear in the Russian people’s lives. Although Stalin faced much opposition, his manipulating ways allowed him to bypass this through purges, control on media, and his use of propaganda. Stalin pushed the Soviet Union into world power, but with this power he forced his nation upon one of the most ruthless reigns in history.

As Stalin gained power in Russia, his opposition grew within the Communist party. Initially Stalin was a mediator, between the two main factions, in the debate about when to replace the New Economic Policy, and what to replace it with. The left of the party, Trotsky, and his supporters, wanted the New Economic Policy to be replaced, as soon as possible with a centrally planned economy, and for all farms to be collectivized. The right of the party, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin, wanted to maintain the New Economic Policy, and a gradualist approach to collectivization.
After the defeat of Trotsky and the Left Opposition, Stalin shifted his position to the left - taking most of Trotsky's ideas and re-framing them as his own. Bukharin supported Stalin as he began to demolish the Right Deviation of Zinoviev and Kamenev, and their supporters. During the second half of the 1920s, Joseph Stalin set the stage for gaining absolute power by employing police repression against opposition elements within the Communist Party. In order to defeat any major political figure opposing Stalin, he commenced an act that became known as the purges, or the elimination of any unwanted competition. Stalin killed millions of Russians, forcing people to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The most important individual in bringing about the change in influence is Vladimir Lenin, who brought about a sudden sharp rise in the party’s popularity. Following the 1917 October Revolution, Lenin became the leader of the Communist Party and greatly increased the party’s political influence with his ‘one party state’. Lenin’s creation of the Politburo in 1919, which was a group of eight high profile party members who influenced any decision being made, demonstrates the party’s increased political influence by showing their domination of governmental bodies. Public support of the party is obvious in the increase of RCP membership, March 1919 to March 1920, from 250,000 to 612,000. This may have been due mainly to Lenin retaining his power through the 1918 civil war. In 1921, Lenin introduced his New Economic Policy, aimed at gaining peace with the peasant class, which resulted in the ending of armed resistance to the communists. This support increased the Russian Communist Party’s (RCP) public influence greatly, backed in rural areas as well as urban working class districts. Due to all these factors, Lenin is the most important individual in changing the influence of the Russian communist party between 1905 and 1945.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Josephe Stalin DBQ

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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
  • Good Essays

    Stalin Dbq

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In 1917, Russia was crumbling into pieces. The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia. However, in 1924, Lenin died and Josef Stalin assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, which was the name for the communist Russia. Stalin was a ruthless leader who brought many changes to the Soviet Union. Stalin’s goal was to transform the Soviet Union into a modern superpower and spread communism throughout the world, and he was determined to sabotage anyone who stood in his way. He used many methods such as collectivization, totalitarianism and five year plan’s to achieve his goals. Stalin’s rule brought both harmful and beneficial consequences to the Soviet Union; however, the negative factors were so terrible, that they overwhelm the positive factors.…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although Stalin was a progressive in the economic aspect that he implemented the First and Second Five-Year Plans, which developed industry in Russia, as well as in the social aspect that he put forth a new education system, Stalin more so portrayed elements of conservatism. Stalin’s social, economic, and political policies and actions that conserved parts of Lenin’s regime including the NKVD secret police that executed and exiled opposition to Stalin, slave labor in Gulag camps, the Great Purge which removed many members of the Communist Party and Red Army, and the continuation of Lenin’s New Economic Policy were more important than his progressive changes because they influenced his government the most.…

    • 2296 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Was it the acts of Truman and Churchill rather than that of Stalin that brought the cold war to a start?…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One may argue that Stalin's aims were clear. He had launched the so-called ‘revolution from above' in November 1927, which had laid down two distinct aims for soviet domestic policy. These were rapid industrialisation of Russia and the collectivisation of agriculture. Stalin, it may be argued, had wished to erase the traces of capitalism resulting from the New Economic Policy and instead wished to transform Russia as quickly as possible. He had wished for the modernisation and expansion of Russian…

    • 3200 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the time, Stalin seemed like he was the greatest person on Earth. He made himself seem as if he was above everybody, both physically and mentally. After all of the revolts that were occurring in Russia, he just took over. He went into power right after Lenin had died and took his place, over Trotsky who also wanted to rule over Russia. Well he didn’t and we can’t change that. All we can do is remember Stalin and remember all of the things he did to make people support him and his cause to industrialize Russia.…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the second half of the 1920s, Joseph Stalin set the stage for gaining absolute power by employing police repression against opposition elements within the Communist Party. The machinery of coercion had previously been used only against opponents of Bolshevism, not against party members themselves. The first victims were Politburo members Leon Trotskii, Grigorii Zinov'ev, and Lev Kamenev, who were defeated and expelled from the party in late 1927. Stalin then turned against Nikolai Bukharin, who was denounced as a "right opposition," for opposing his policy of forced collectivization and rapid industrialization at the expense of the peasantry.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the beginning of the struggle for power after Lenin died Stalin formed an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1923, this was purely to keep Trotsky out of power. However in early 1925 Zinoviev and Kamenev split from Stalin, he joined with Bukharin instead because Stalin said he was in favour of NEP. Zinoviev and Kamenev were removed from the party because they were against NEP. However in 1928 Stalin ended his alliance with Bukharin and rejected NEP; he had more communist ideas which appealed to young communist followers which helped him win the vote in 1929 which meant he won and became the leader of Russia. During the beginning of the struggle for power he was neither left not right wing (of communist ideas, all members of communism were left wing) – Stalin stayed in the middle. By doing this he didn’t seem like a threat to anyone as he slowly crept up to have power.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hitler vs Stalin Essay

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The 1920s was an important point in history, Hitler rose to power in Germany while Stalin rose to power in the Soviet Union, although they rose to power during the same time, they achieved this in two different ways. Hitler became head of the Nazi party and was able to convince the German people to vote him as chancellor, when he achieved this he took the power all for himself, he banned all other parties and ensured that he couldn’t be stopped. Stalin’s rise to power wasn’t as easy, he may have been one of the top communist leaders but he wasn’t the favourite. Leon Trotsky stood in Stalin’s path to power, Stalin overcame this obstacle through using his ruthlessness and trickery. Once he was the undisputed leader he did the same as Hitler, he took ultimate control, eliminating anyone who would oppose him.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    And this was completed without threat of the gulags, without the threat of imprisonment and without the threat of murder – political prowess gained him victory alongside other factors. It would be ignorant to solely admire Stalin for his climb to power – he was helped along by luck as the death of Lenin came along at an advantageous time, the weaknesses of his opponents in terms of Trotsky tearing himself apart at some points of the struggle and the help of his early allies Zinoviev and Kamenev, who were key to the dismantling of Trotsky in the early years of the struggle. But all along Stalin had ensured he was allied with the stronger players and continued to build up his powerbase through the trickiest of times. Although there were other factors associated with Stalin, for example he was loyal to the proletariat and excruciatingly cunning and the position of General Secretary was absolutely paramount to his rise to power after Lenin’s death as it gave him the ability to appoint whoever he liked to the Politburo. Without this patronage, Stalin would most likely have not gained the power of the USSR and would have been overcome at many an…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout his control over Russia, Stalin showed his willingness to use fear to govern the people. In Stalin’s view, the survival of the regime was most important. Russia had no shortage of people, so they could afford to sacrifice some in the name of industry. During the period of collectivization, dissenters were punished severely. Stalin sent enforcers and secret police to search and seize from the peasants’ houses.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1924-1953. Many political, social and economic changes occurred during this period. Joseph Stalin was a follower of Communism. He was actually thrown out of school for studying Marxism. Joseph Stalin was a communist. Stalin had rose to power by physically getting rid of his rivals. Joseph Stalin had killed many people. Some people say he killed more people than Hitler. He had killed his own people because they refused collectivization. Joseph Stalin came to power after the death of Vladimir Lenin. Joseph Stalin also came up with the Five Year Plans. Stalin made many changes. Some people thought they were good, but some thought it was bad.…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life in Russia was hard, but with Stalin in control it got a lot harder for the people. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union in Russia from 1920-1953 until he died. Stalin was known for his views of industrialization and wanting a socialist economy. He had a goal of making the Soviet Union one of the most powerful industrial countries ( 5 year plan notes). To get to his goal he made a 5 year plan that resulted in many positives and negatives.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Joseph was exiled to Switzerland. In 1912 Lenin sought out to Stalin and appointed him to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. November, 1917 Bolsheviks take power in Russia. In 1922 the Soviet Union was formed, Lenin was its first leader. Through the years Stalin climbed up the ladder. After Lenin passed in 1924, Stalin officially came to power of the Soviet Union. In the first few years Stalin launched a series of five-year plans to help transform the Soviet Union to an industrial superpower. He tried to take over farms too, but many refused and those who did either got shot or exiled to Siberia. The forced collectivization led to famine and this killed millions. Stalin was a totalitarian leader, he lead under terror, manipulation, and propaganda. Anyone who stepped out of line under his rule had another thing coming. He sent out secret police to spy on civilians, he had civilians spy on civilians. Stalin was out to eliminate anyone who talked bad about him. In the second half of the 1930s Stalin instituted the “great purges” to try and eliminate what was left of the communist party. In 1941 Germans broke the Non-aggression pact they signed with Russia. Russia and Germany became enemies. After this Russia started to side with Allied powers to help take down the Germans. Some time later Hitler killed himself and the Nazi empire fell. Russia and the U.S. had no common enemy. Tension…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays