Assignment B: Stalin: Man or Monster

Study sources E and F.  Which of these two sources offers the more reliable view of Stalin?  Explain your answer.

Sources E and F are two very different views on Stalin’s government.  Source E is very congratulatory of Stalin beginning, ‘thank you Stalin’ and makes Stalin sound like the perfect leader.  However, source F shares a view that is very much against Stalin.  It was written in 1936 by Bukharin, at that time an enemy of Stalin after the losses of key Bolsheviks who were killed in the ‘Purges’.  Bukharin himself was a victim and was tried and executed in 1938.  The author of source E is unknown but seeing how extreme it is, ‘ the first word it shall utter will be: Stalin’ and how we now know of the terrible murders of the 1930’s this is quite unbelievable and may have been written by the Bolsheviks as propaganda since it appeared in the party newspaper, Pravda.  Bukharin had been betrayed by Stalin after he helped Stalin to become the leader over Trotsky.  Not only Bukharin but Zinoviev and Kamanev, former allies of Stalin were said to be traitors to communism during the Purges and were executed.  Source F can therefore be seen as reliable with Bukharin stating that Stalin was ‘not a man, but a devil’.  Stalin was regarded as a very suspicious man which is also stated in source F.  Even though we now see that Stalin was a tyrant, people in Russia may still have seen him as a very successful and powerful man.  We can see this from his propaganda.  Therefore we can see that source E could be authentic even if it is very extravagant.

Using the sources and your own knowledge of Stalin, explain how far the sources in this paper support the view that Stalin was ‘a monstrous tyrant.’

Stalin has been known in history to be a tyrant to be feared during his 30 years of communist power.  However, he was a determined man who turned Russia into a powerful industrial and military power to even rival the USA.  He also led the country through the 2nd world war in which 20 million Russians lost their lives.  

Stalin however, still remains one of the biggest tyrants the world has ever seen killing millions during his ideas of collectivisation and his cull of great men during the Purges.  He betrayed Bukharin, Kamanev and Zinoviev in the 1930’s as we can see in source F, after allying with them in 1926 against Trotsky who he also killed in 1940.  His own party was torn apart by his suspicions, with half a million being forced to work in labour camps or were just executed.  Stalin seemed to destroy the lives of everyone in Russia since it is said that every family in Russia lost someone during the Purges.  By 1937 over 18 million people were in labour camps all because of Stalin and his secret police. He affected all areas of society, even the army where one in five officers were removed from their posts including Marshal Tukhachevsky, the supreme commander of the army.  Stalin’s policies are echoed in source A with the pyramids of skulls.  Stalin’s suspicions murdered great leaders and thinks which can be seen in source G, ‘Stalin was a very distrustful man.  

Another reason where we can see Stalin as a tyrant is that he created his New Constitution in 1936 where Stalin introduced free speech and free elections.  However, these were not what they seemed, as these were only offered for communist party members and only communist newspapers were published.  This was just one of Stalin’s propaganda ideas to plague the mind of the people, he also published articles such as source E to make people believe that Stalin was the most important thing in their lives, even religion was banned, ‘the first word it shall utter will be: Stalin’.

Collectivisation also made Stalin seem more like a tyrant.  He tried to make all the farms mass into big ones, owned by the state.  This was necessary as by 1928 the country was 2 million tonnes short of grain.  However, the kulaks, wealthy farmers who had made healthy profits during the time of Lenin’s NEP policy, did not want to give up their land.  It was difficult to persuade the peasants even with perks such as free seed.  Stalin again used propaganda against the kulaks when they continued to disagree.  Many kulaks were arrested and sent to labour camps.  Before the requisition groups came to claim the crop, the kulaks burnt their produce and slaughtered their animals.  This led to a famine in 1932-3.  Millions died.  Stalin said, ‘one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic.’  When the Germans arrived Stalin was so unpopular that at first they were welcomed. Stalin did erase all the Kulaks by 1934.  Collectivisation did not achieve a lot only human lives.  Stalin did not seem to care

However, on the other hand Stalin did successfully make Russia a leading industrial power.  His five year plans could be argued to have saved the Soviet Union from the Nazis. Stalin successfully used Russia’s rich raw materials to his advantage.  Unemployment was almost non-existent.  Women were allowed to work (40% of workers) and bonuses were given for overachieving.  Even with his great successes, the human cost was huge.  Discipline in factories was harsh with punishments including death.  Workers were not allowed to travel between cities and there were many deaths.  100000 people died in the Belamor canal, the same may have died during the making of the dam in source B.  You can see from source C the might of Stalin’s industrial Russia but you don’t see the human cost that was made to make it.

Stalin in his time was seen by many as a good leader this may have been upheld by fear of his labour camps and his secret police; he did get the job done.  He is however, without doubt, a tyrant who killed many men to achieve his goals and stay in power.  Source I shares my view that even if he was a successful leader, he did have ‘a dark and evil side to his nature’.