Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was born into a dysfunctional family in a poor village in Georgia in 1879. As a young boy, Stalin contracted smallpox, which left him scarred for the rest of his life—he also had a slightly deformed arm. These occurrences, along with an alcoholic father, led him to believe he was unfairly treated in life. Because of this, he developed a strong, romanticized desire for greatness and respect.
Stalin was sent by his mother to a seminary in Tiflis (now Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, to study to become a priest. However, he never completed his education. He was, instead, drawn into the city’s revolutionary circles. Stalin specialized in the routine of revolutionary activity, helping to organize workers, distribute illegal literature, and robbing trains.
Vladimir Lenin, ruler of the Soviet Union after he led the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war in Russia, valued Stalin’s loyalty and appointed him to various low-priority leadership positions. In 1922, Stalin was appointed as General Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. He used this new position to solidify power by controlling all appointments, setting agendas, and moving around Party staff in a way so that everyone who counted owed their position to him. After Lenin died in 1924, there were two men who competed for his position as leader of the Soviet Union: Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Trotsky and Stalin were both powerful members of the Communist Party and they had both helped organize the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Lenin to power. Stalin removed his competition by turning members of the Communist Party against Trotsky, forcing him into exile, and eventually having him killed in Mexico.
As leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin methodically destroyed all the old leaders of the Party. At first, these people were removed from their posts and exiled abroad. Later, when he realized they could still make a difference from afar, he began a reign of terror, accusing them as “enemies of the people” and having them executed. These “purges” extended beyond the leaders of the Party, reaching down into every local Party cell and nearly all of the intellectual professions.
Stalin did not allow any dissent within the Soviet Union. There was no outlet for people to express their discontent. Stalin’s secret police opened private mail, planted listening devices, and censored the press. Those who were caught criticizing Stalin or the Communists were sent to the brutal labor camps called the Gulag. Stalin also feared competition from within his own party (the Communists) and he launched the Great Purge in 1934 to remove any rivals. The primary target of Stalin and his secret police were Old Bolsheviks. These Communist leaders were sent to the Gulag. The purges increased Stalin’s power because the Soviet citizens saw the consequences of disloyalty. At the same time, however Stalin purged intellectuals, military officers, and leaders in economics, industry, and engineering.
Stalin also tried to control the thoughts and feelings of Soviet citizens. He used propaganda to bombard citizens with the glories of communism. The government controlled the arts and forced artists and writers to show communism and life in the Soviet Union in a positive way. The government also established atheism (or the belief that there is no god) as the official state “religion.” Stalin believed that Soviet citizens would worship communism rather than a god.
Stalin pursued an economic policy of mobilizing the Soviet Union to achieve the goal of rapid industrialization, so that it was equal to capitalist powers. He forcefully collectivized agriculture—taking back the land given to peasants by Lenin—because he felt larger, mechanized farms would produce more than millions of small, individually owned farms. When peasants resisted, Stalin responded with violence. Thousands of people were executed and many more were sent to a remote region in the Soviet Union, called Siberia. In Siberia, these Soviets worked, often dying, in a system of labor camps called the Gulag. Ukrainians especially resisted the collectivization of farms. Stalin punished them by refusing to send food to aid them when a famine struck in 1932. Millions of Ukrainians died.
Another part of Stalin’s plans for strengthening Soviet communism was to modernize the economy. In 1928, he devised a system: Five-Year Plans were introduced, in which the state set a goal that each factory and mine had to produce. As he had hoped, these plans did lead to increases in industrial output. During the first two Five-Year Plans, Soviet production of oil doubled, while coal and steel production quadrupled.
Stalin and the Communists developed two competing foreign policies for the Soviet Union. On the one hand, the Soviet Union wanted to gain support from other countries and form alliances in order to protect themselves. On the other hand, the Communists wanted to control a world-wide communist revolution. During this time period, many of the great powers felt threatened by communism (and the potential for a communist revolution), so they were reluctant to cooperate with the Soviet Union.
Stalin led with totalitarian rule, controlling all aspects of Soviets’ life. Children encouraged to join youth organizations, where they were taught the attitudes and beliefs he wanted them to have. Religion was discouraged. Portraits of Stalin decorated public places, creating an idealized image of Stalin.
Joseph Stalin was born into a dysfunctional family in a poor village in Georgia in 1879. As a young boy, Stalin contracted smallpox, which left him scarred for the rest of his life—he also had a slightly deformed arm. These occurrences, along with an alcoholic father, led him to believe he was unfairly treated in life. Because of this, he developed a strong, romanticized desire for greatness and respect.
Stalin was sent by his mother to a seminary in Tiflis (now Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, to study to become a priest. However, he never completed his education. He was, instead, drawn into the city’s revolutionary circles. Stalin specialized in the routine of revolutionary activity, helping to organize workers, distribute illegal literature, and robbing trains.
Vladimir Lenin, ruler of the Soviet Union after he led the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war in Russia, valued Stalin’s loyalty and appointed him to various low-priority leadership positions. In 1922, Stalin was appointed as General Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. He used this new position to solidify power by controlling all appointments, setting agendas, and moving around Party staff in a way so that everyone who counted owed their position to him. After Lenin died in 1924, there were two men who competed for his position as leader of the Soviet Union: Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Trotsky and Stalin were both powerful members of the Communist Party and they had both helped organize the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Lenin to power. Stalin removed his competition by turning members of the Communist Party against Trotsky, forcing him into exile, and eventually having him killed in Mexico.
As leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin methodically destroyed all the old leaders of the Party. At first, these people were removed from their posts and exiled abroad. Later, when he realized they could still make a difference from afar, he began a reign of terror, accusing them as “enemies of the people” and having them executed. These “purges” extended beyond the leaders of the Party, reaching down into every local Party cell and nearly all of the intellectual professions.
Stalin did not allow any dissent within the Soviet Union. There was no outlet for people to express their discontent. Stalin’s secret police opened private mail, planted listening devices, and censored the press. Those who were caught criticizing Stalin or the Communists were sent to the brutal labor camps called the Gulag. Stalin also feared competition from within his own party (the Communists) and he launched the Great Purge in 1934 to remove any rivals. The primary target of Stalin and his secret police were Old Bolsheviks. These Communist leaders were sent to the Gulag. The purges increased Stalin’s power because the Soviet citizens saw the consequences of disloyalty. At the same time, however Stalin purged intellectuals, military officers, and leaders in economics, industry, and engineering.
Stalin also tried to control the thoughts and feelings of Soviet citizens. He used propaganda to bombard citizens with the glories of communism. The government controlled the arts and forced artists and writers to show communism and life in the Soviet Union in a positive way. The government also established atheism (or the belief that there is no god) as the official state “religion.” Stalin believed that Soviet citizens would worship communism rather than a god.
Stalin pursued an economic policy of mobilizing the Soviet Union to achieve the goal of rapid industrialization, so that it was equal to capitalist powers. He forcefully collectivized agriculture—taking back the land given to peasants by Lenin—because he felt larger, mechanized farms would produce more than millions of small, individually owned farms. When peasants resisted, Stalin responded with violence. Thousands of people were executed and many more were sent to a remote region in the Soviet Union, called Siberia. In Siberia, these Soviets worked, often dying, in a system of labor camps called the Gulag. Ukrainians especially resisted the collectivization of farms. Stalin punished them by refusing to send food to aid them when a famine struck in 1932. Millions of Ukrainians died.
Another part of Stalin’s plans for strengthening Soviet communism was to modernize the economy. In 1928, he devised a system: Five-Year Plans were introduced, in which the state set a goal that each factory and mine had to produce. As he had hoped, these plans did lead to increases in industrial output. During the first two Five-Year Plans, Soviet production of oil doubled, while coal and steel production quadrupled.
Stalin and the Communists developed two competing foreign policies for the Soviet Union. On the one hand, the Soviet Union wanted to gain support from other countries and form alliances in order to protect themselves. On the other hand, the Communists wanted to control a world-wide communist revolution. During this time period, many of the great powers felt threatened by communism (and the potential for a communist revolution), so they were reluctant to cooperate with the Soviet Union.
Stalin led with totalitarian rule, controlling all aspects of Soviets’ life. Children encouraged to join youth organizations, where they were taught the attitudes and beliefs he wanted them to have. Religion was discouraged. Portraits of Stalin decorated public places, creating an idealized image of Stalin.