Does this source provide any useful evidence about Stalin?

Page of 2 pages. Philip. Gonsalves

07/05/07

GCSE History Coursework Assignment 2.

2: Does this source provide any useful evidence about Stalin?

I think this source tells us about Stalin’s character and personality. I think Stalin told this story because he wanted to portray an image of himself to the public. He tries to portray a nice and caring image of himself. But I think that what Stalin says is not true, because during Stalin’s purges and famines, which caused millions of Russian people die, why would he care if one person died when he was in Siberia.

During the 1930s Stalin used the five-year plans to revolutionize Russia’s industry, but to do this he first needed to feed his work force in the cities. He found that old farming methods were inefficient and were too small to make efficient use of tractors and fertilizers. He managed to improve Russia’s agriculture using collectivization. Collectivization was when peasant farmers had to abandon their old methods of strip farming, then 4 – 5 peasants would have to join together to form one big farm. This new farm could produce a lot of food quickly and efficiently using tractors and fertilizers. But the peasants didn’t like the ideas of collectivization and revolted against it. Soviet propaganda tried to turn the peasants towards collectivization, but failed. Then requisition parties simple came and took whatever food the government needed, leaving the peasants to starve. They often revolted by burning their crops and killing their animals; because of this they were arrested and sent to labour camps. Not surprisingly food production fell, and their was a famine in 1932 – 1933, millions of people died in Kazakhstan and the Ukraine, Russia’s richest farming regions. Prior to this Stalin also caused a man-made famine in the Ukraine just so he could kill them.

Stalin also murdered millions of his own people during the purges in the 1930s. In his purges he killed people that he saw as a threat to him. When the leader of the Leningrad communist party Kirov, was murdered, Stalin used this as an opportunity to purge the party, or to get rid of his political opponents. In the show trials loyal Bolsheviks were forced to confess to being traitors of the state and sentenced to death. Estimates say that 500,000 party members were murdered in this way. Stalin also purged the army including 25,000 officers; university lecturers, teachers, ...

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Stalin also murdered millions of his own people during the purges in the 1930s. In his purges he killed people that he saw as a threat to him. When the leader of the Leningrad communist party Kirov, was murdered, Stalin used this as an opportunity to purge the party, or to get rid of his political opponents. In the show trials loyal Bolsheviks were forced to confess to being traitors of the state and sentenced to death. Estimates say that 500,000 party members were murdered in this way. Stalin also purged the army including 25,000 officers; university lecturers, teachers, engineers and many ordinary people were killed. It is estimated that Stalin killed 10 million people in his purges by 1937. So Stalin by 1945 when source D was written was responsible for the deaths of 15 million plus, people. So when he says in the source that he was concerned about the missing man and that he told them off for having more concern for animals that a person, I think it is just a lie as for in the 1930s he had killed many millions of people so why would he care about one drowned exile. Also there is hypocrisy in the last sentence of the source where Stalin says that the lack of concern of our leaders towards the people is the same as the attitude he met far off in Siberia. This is hypocrisy because he says that the leaders have a lack of concern for life, when actually he is the one who has ordered the murder of millions of Russians.

I think Stalin feels the need to lie about his character to the Russian people because he wants them to continue to support him, and believe that he is a kind and caring person. So he tells this story about his time in Siberia and tries to influence the public’s thought to believe this story and think that he is a nice person. I think he did this to make the people stop thinking that he is responsible for the purges and put the blame on who he calls “Our Leaders”. This source also tells us how Stalin rules Russia with lies to try to keep the public supporting him, and if they appose him they will end up in dead, or in a labour camp. Russia during Stalin’s time as leader was a totalitarian State, this meant that no opposition to him was allowed. So, yes this source tells us useful information of Stalin. It tells us that he is insecure person, and he feels the need to lie to the people to hide what he is really like and portray a fake image of himself.