Source related questions on Joseph Stalin

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Balraj Singh

Humanities Coursework

Stalin

Balraj Singh 11BCC

Does the Cartoonist Who Drew Source A Think Stalin is a Good Leader? Explain Your Answer Using Source A And Your Own Knowledge.

Source A is a cartoon drawn by David Lowe and was published in the London Evening Standard on the 27th November 1930. David Lowe was a British illustrator who had no remorse for Stalin. As David Lowe lived in Britain, he was able to write negatively about Stalin and get away with it. Had he have done this cartoon in Russia, there would be no doubt that David Lowe would have been murdered. The cartoon shows Stalin standing in a prison with a gun set up to kill him if he pulls a string. The cartoon was drawn in the 1930’s and in the bottom right corner says ‘prophecies for the future’. Therefore, you get the idea that David Lowe has drawn what he expects to happen in the future. David Lowe has also written ‘Old Low’s almanac’ in the bottom left corner. This adds humour, as people who viewed the cartoon would have heard of ‘Old Mow’s Almanac’, a book released every year telling people of prophecies for the following year. ‘Old Low’s Almanac’ is David Lowe’s prophecies for the future and is also a play on words.

As well as having Stalin in a prison cell with a contraption set up to kill himself, there are also two ministers dead in the corner. To add to that, there is also a group of 3 reporters, looking terrified as they report on what they are viewing. Behind the gun Stalin has set up, there is a stool with books on top and a statue of Karl Marx on top of them. The statue has been set up in such a way that it seems as though Marx is killing Stalin. Finally, there is a caption to the cartoon at the bottom of the picture in the centre.

I know that Stalin is the man in the picture as the moustache symbolises him. To add to that, Stalin has got a hunch back and a deformity. The deformity is shown physically, but is referring to Stalin’s mental deformity. The mental deformity is not Stalins mind, but the way his policies worked in Russia. Stalin’s hunch back resembles the hunch back of Richard III. Richard III was a very evil man, and I believe that the reason David Lowe drew Stalin with a hunch was because he wanted people to think Stalin was an evil man. The public would all have already known about Richard III being evil and having a hunch back.

In David Lowe’s cartoon, there are 2 men who are dead, as I have already mentioned. I presume the two men are politicians, but in fact one of the men was Stalin’s foreign secretary. It was not against the norm for Stalin to kill people close to him, as he had previously made allies with Trotsky, until the time came when Stalin did not need him and had him exiled and then murdered. Litvingee (Stalin’s foreign secretary) was not actually murdered, but as the cartoon was prophecies for the future, it shows that David Lowe expected Litvingee to be murdered.

As well as having Trotsky killed, many people in the USSR suspected him of killing his wife, although nobody was willing enough to come out in public with their thoughts. Nadezhda (Stalin’s wife) was behind him all the way in whatever he did. In 1931, she attended The Institute of Commerce, and it was there when she discovered that people were terrified of Stalin. After this, the relationship between Stalin and Nadezhda disappeared and in 1932, Nadezhda was either murdered or committed suicide, with nobody sure of what happened. Many people believed that Stalin murdered his wife. Relating back to the cartoon, this shows that it was Stalin who had the 2 politicians murdered in the bottom right corner of the cartoon. To add to that, to clarify just how cold hearted Stalin really was, Stalin will forever be remember3ed for this quote. ‘One death is a tragedy; a million is just a statistic’. As a result of this quote, Stalin maybe trying to say that if he kills himself, it will be a tragedy.

David Lowe may be referring to the prison as the loss of freedom fort the public of the USSR. The public were afraid to behave or speak their mind in case they were not seen as supporting Stalin. Not supporting Stalin would lead to the death of who ever was against him. To add to that, the only way Stalin would like a member of the public was if denounced citizens whose behaviour was anti soviet. They feared Stalin immensely and had no freedom of speech, which is represented by the prison in the cartoon.

Life was very hard for civilians of the USSR around this period, as new cities were being built to manufacture goods and try to get USSR to become a powerful force once more. Magnitogorsk was a steel city which was built. People who worked on the sites were often volunteers or peasants who needed money and gladly offered to work. Other people who offered to work were prisoners, slaves and kulaks. Many people died as they froze and were over worked, as they had to meet five year plans which were ludicrous and unrealistic. People would have to live off scraps and lived in poor housing. To add to that, the air around them was heavily polluted and there was no coal or wood to start fired. The only reason many people put up with the conditions was because they had no other choice and were thinking to themselves that everything would be alright the next day, even though they knew it was unlikely. It was in truth their only hope and gave them an incentive to work towards. To add to the living conditions and jibs, previous to Stalins reign, each family was given a plot of land to grow food for their family from, but once Stalin took over they lost this land as Stalin wanted to adopt the collectivisation approach. This mean all land was collected in and made into huge farms in a bid to improve the amount of food grown. As a result of losing land, millions of people died of starvation, although the production of food did increase. From this, you can gather what live was like for many people of the USSR. They had to do as they were told and did not get a say in anything at all. This is represented by the prison as it shows Stalins mind. Stalin is closed to any new ideas and changing his policies. Stalin loved to be in control of everything and did not like being told what to do. Therefore, he did not take any advice and ran the country the way he wanted to. Although Stalin was a very lazy leader, he was very clever in the way he did things. Stalin used his position as secretary general (before he became leader) to appoint people in party positions who would support him. To add to that, Stalin stopped the publication of Lenin’s will, in which he said that Stalin was ‘rude’. Stalin was also very clever in the way that he gave Trotsky the wrong date for Lenin’s funeral. Trotsky and Stalin were both fighting to become the new leader after Lenin’s death, and the fact that Stalin was at Lenin’s funeral and Trotsky was not ultimately meant that the public favoured Stalin already. When Stalin took over from Lenin, he had a one track mind, and this is shown in the cartoon as Stalin blanked out everyone else and did as he pleased. Stalins aim once he took over was to allow for the USSR to catch up with the capitalist world in 10 years. In order to do this, he created farcical 5 year plans. The plans were so precise that they were narrowed down to how much one worker should achieve in a shift. If they did not achieve what they were supposed to, they would be murdered, showing just how ruthless Stalin was.  In order to keep control over the public, Stalin would use the following methods. He would use fear, as the public would not dare to say anything about Stalin as it would probably have led to them being murdered. To add to that, he would use propaganda. History books glorified Stalin’s contribution in the revolution and posters and leaflets were made to portray Stalin as a kind and successful leader. To add to that, streets and town squares were named in his honour and he also had songs written about him. The final piece of propaganda he used was censorship. Stalin would only allow for books to be published if they were approved by some of his officials.

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Another method he used was indoctrination. All religions were not allowed to be worshipped to, and everyone had to worship to Stalin. Teachers who were not good communists were also sacked. His final method was repression. He would use the MKVD to spy on people and had opponents executed or exiled for crimes they had not committed.

From all of the above, you can understand the kind of leader Stalin was, and how he had no feelings for anyone but himself. You can see this in the cartoon as he killed two politicians. Stalin was in his own world, and ...

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