Joseph Stalin Case

Joseph Stalin

When most people think of leadership that consisted of absolute horror and terror, the man that comes to mind is former Soviet Union leader, Joseph Stalin. Stalin is a man who abused his power to the full extent. He was beyond determined, and did not let anything, nor anyone, stand in between him and the goals he set, even if this meant he had to kill or imprison. Stalin and his policies for the Soviet Union consisted of rapid industrialization, central control of the economy, collectivization of agriculture, and overall terror that left lasting impressions on the Soviet Union that allowed Russia to be the world superpower it is today.

Joseph Stalin was born in 1978 in the town of Gori, Georgia. Stalin grew up in poverty and despair. His father suffered greatly from alcohol addiction which led him to often beat Joseph and his mother. When his father wasn’t drinking, he was making shoes for very little money. Stalin later joined the local seminary, but was later kicked out. He then decided to join the Bolsheviks, which was a military section of the Marxist Social Democratic movement led by Vladimir Lenin, the future first head of the Soviet State. While part of the Bolshevik’s, Stalin was arrested numerous time for crimes such as bank robberies. After 10 years of being part of the Bolshevik’s, in 1912, Stalin was promoted by Lenin to be first Central Committee of the Bolsheviks until Russia was taken over by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Now that Lenin was head of the new Soviet Union, Stalin worked his way up until Lenin died in 1924. He was now the leader of the Communist party and the new Soviet Union dictator. From the day he was announced leader of the Soviet Union in 1928, to the day he died from a stroke in 1954, he left a lasting impression on the Soviet Union.

Joseph Stalin is always going to be remembered for his terrorizing actions to carry out his aspirations for the Soviet Union. Stalin took advantage of his power and used it to terrorize his people because he believed that everything could be used as an example to threaten those who disobeyed. Stalin would often launch purges which would be periods of punishment to those who did not listen to his laws. These purges were mostly directed towards opposing government officials, those of the capitalist party, peasants, or anyone who he believed could threaten his power. He would carry out his purges by using an agency he created called the secret police. The secret police were spies that searched for citizens that disobeyed Stalin and worked towards the counter-revolution. These spies would then inflict punishment on those who were “traitors”. The punishment would range from execution to deportation to labor camps. 97% of all Soviet Union families are believed to have been affected by Stalin for varying reasons. Joseph Stalin personally signed over 40,000 executions, but there were over 800,000 recorded during his reign. Gulag and Kulak were two of Stalin’s most famous deportation camps which were held towards the North of Soviet Union to make climate conditions even tougher for the people living in them. Kulak recorded 390,000 deaths as Gulag recorded 1,700,000. By the time Stalin passed away, he was known to have killed up to 60 million people, many of which are people who most would view as innocent. These actions clearly represent absolute horror and terror, but to Joseph Stalin they represented examples which lead to success.

Stalin’s terror and pride carried over to the battlefield also where he did not accept “no” as an answer which led him to unbelievable tactics. During Stalin’s years, his greatest battle was World War II. During World War II, most of the Soviet Union’s conflict had to do with Germany. At the time, Germany was also ruled by a ruthless and terrorizing man, Adolf Hitler, who was similar to Joseph Stalin in many ways. At first, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin signed a nonaggression pact between their two countries in 1939 that forbidden any invasion or acts of violence between the two. Though in 1941, Adolf Hitler and his German troops broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union. It was at this time that Germany wanted to seize Moscow in hope to gain power and the supplies that Moscow harbored. German troops were marching towards Moscow which lead Stalin to do something that may seemed dumb to many, but was very effective. Stalin knew Germany was coming to Moscow, so he burnt the entire city. He did this in hope to destroy any supplies or food that the German army could take to help them. Now the German army was without food, supplies, and shelter, and on top of that they were dealing with frigid temperatures that they had never been exposed to. Then in February of 1943, the Soviet Union army forced Germany out after a victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. Though some of Stalin’s war tactics were looked upon as crazy, nothing surprised anyone since Joseph Stalin was behind it.

In less detail, what Joseph Stalin strived for during his reign was complete control of the Soviet Union’s economy. Stalin believed that if he could conquer the Soviet Union’s economy, that they would soon be a world power. By completely controlling the economy, the Soviet Union would now be self-sufficient. If Stalin could get his country to be self sufficient then he would no longer need other countries. This meant that he would not have to maintain strong ties with countries, which meant that if necessary, he could take act aggressively when necessary. Another reason Stalin pushed for central control of the economy was to create a stronger army. In order to be a world superpower, the Soviet Union had to have a dominating army. In order to achieve complete control, he would have to achieve communism, pushing out capitalism, and creating a Socialist State. Stalin’s two main factors that he used to achieve central control of the economy were the 5-Year Plan and the New Economic Policy. The 5-Year Plan consisted of two subtopics that worked together to give Stalin complete control. The two subtopics were collectivization and rapid industrialization. The 5-Year Plan forced farmers out of their farms and into industrial jobs owned by the government.