Assess the impact that Stalin had on Russia and the Russian people

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Assess the impact that Stalin had on Russia and the Russian people

Stalin came to power in 1928 after cleverly outsmarting his political opponents by playing them off against each other, while he remained an unlikely source of leader until only he remained. Stalin changed the economic footing of Russia enormously.  Industrialization, the development of industry was massive. After 13 years, production figures for almost all products flourished to a huge extent. Most increased by at least 1000%. However this cannot disguise the fact that people claimed that they had achieved quotas to avoid getting punished. They were also the figures published by Stalin and the USSR, and for this reason would have been doctored.

When industrializing a country it begins slowly and the ‘take-off’ point is achieved where a quantum leap is activated. This would explain the astounding rise of the economy.  There is no way that life in Russia was better than that in the advanced countries. However after the Depression of 1929, 15 million Americans were unemployed, many living in shantytowns made of rubbish, whereas in Russia there was no unemployment – every worker had a job.

In less than 10 years ruling Russia, Stalin had taken it from a backward country to one second only to the US in terms of industrial output. This was an incredible achievement and was remarkably sustained throughout the war.  This was strongly achieved due to the five-year plans, beginning in 1928, which set production, targets that industries had to reach, and if they didn’t they pretended they had reached.

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However these successes were achieved at high cost to the Russian public. Many mistakes were made but were covered up – the mistakes could not be admitted - and the blame was put on unlucky individuals who were “found” to have sabotaged production. The Russian people believed, through strong propaganda, that they were transforming Russia and building a better society for their children. Many of the workers were forced labour, made to work hard by compulsion, and prisoners did the really heavy work. The standard of living hardly improved – in fact the overcrowding in the cities got worse  - ...

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