Russia 1905 - 1941

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GCSE History Coursework

Russia 1905 – 1941

1. Compare the characters and beliefs of Lenin and Stalin.

        

        There were many similarities in both character and beliefs of both Lenin and Stalin. Some people may think that, just because they led Russia, they were both Russian. Lenin was a middle-class Russian who was well educated; he also wrote many influential books and thesis. However, Stalin was a vulgar, Georgian peasant. He was expelled from his college in 1899 after failing to take his exams. One thing that these men shared was their concern with the ideas of Karl Marx. In the early 1900’s they were both exiled to Siberia until 1917, after the March revolution. These men are closely linked in the area of what they did, but in most cases they used it on different scales for different purposes. Labour camps were used by both of these powerful leaders, but for different reasons and there is also a huge difference on the scale on some of them. Lenin used labour camps for political prisoners. This was on a reasonably small scale in comparison with Stalin. Unlike Lenin, Stalin used his labour camps excessively. Opponents of the regime, political opposition and basically everyone who didn’t agree with or abide by the laws set by Stalin were put in these camps.

Both men used state terror. Again Lenin used it to ensure the revolution survived, where as Stalin used it for everyone who opposed him, Stalin used state terror to gain power, in a way the opposite of Lenin.

Lenin was driven by the want to ensure the survival of the revolution, where as Stalin was driven by the desire for power, some historians even go as far as calling him a megalomaniac. Lenin was a strong willed leader who was confident in his decision making and his ideas were based on the writings of Karl Marx, as was Stalin, but Lenin wanted to make Russia a fair and more just and equal society. Stalin was an insecure man who shows this through the purges, where millions and millions of Russian people died. During the purges Stalin got rid of what he called ‘enemies of the state’. He thought that these people would rise in the future and be strong opposition. Many of those purged were loyal communists who had years of service to the party.

So overall the characters of these two men were quite similar, where as the differences came into play when you talk about the scale of state terror, labour camps and execution.

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2. Asses the impact that Lenin had on Russia and the Russian people.

        During his life Lenin did many things to Russia, some for better, some for worse. In this question I will try to explain the impact of Lenin on the Russia and the Russian people. In the early years of his life Lenin was exiled to Siberia from 1900 and returned to Russia in April of 1917, after the Bolshevik revolution. During the civil war Lenin introduced a policy of war communism. This policy meant that the government ...

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