Stalin and Mao. Compare and contrast the domestic policies of two rulers of single party states, each chosen from a different region.

     Next, Stalin and Mao both utilized reform programs in their single party states, but some of their political, economic, and social reforms differed. Initially, although both Stalin and Mao purged any dissenters with political reforms, Stalin had a focused campaign of military ad intellectual purges whereas Mao extended his executions and simply eliminated anyone that challenged his power. Stalin enforced public show trials from 1928-1934 that was designed to intimidate anyone that tried to oppose Stalin politically while Mao executed counterrevolutionaries such as Feng Jicai or essentially anyone suspected of disloyalty to the communist party in addition to any political threats. This demonstrates that Stalin only saw threats only in individuals that could challenge him politically and Mao was paranoid that anyone in China could take away his power and did not keep his watch on an individual group of people in China. Because of this difference, Stalin and Mao adjusted their social reforms accordingly, making their domestic policies differ. Additionally, although both leaders undertook industrial reform programs, Mao chose an alternative to Stalin’s heavy industry model. Stalin enforced three five year plans in 1928, 1933, and 1938 that focused on heavy industries that caused more machinery to be produced and a hold on consumer production whereas Mao enforced a five year plan in 1953 that aimed to end Chinese dependence on agriculture and the Great Leap Forward of 1958 that focused more on agriculture and not heavy industry. This shows that in terms of economic reforms, Stalin focused more on industry to compensate for war whereas Mao sought to better China in terms of self-dependency, thus making their domestic policies differ. Next, while Mao endorsed an official policy of social reform, Stalin did not. Stalin’s social reforms came as a byproduct of his economic and political reforms which included women’s working rights in 1917 while Mao created the cultural revolution from 1966-1969 that encouraged the young people of China to publically persecute adults to help Mao single out counterrevolutionaries. This fact demonstrates that Mao had an emphasis on social reform in his domestic policies whereas Stalin only focused on economic and political reform in his domestic policies.

     In conclusion, both leaders built themselves up through propaganda to mask their reform programs that failed and cost their states millions of lives. Both leaders also eliminated their rivals and dissenters and undertook rapid industrialization programs. In terms of domestic policies, however, Stalin was more focused on making the country self-sufficient through his economic and political reforms while Mao was more dedicated to endorse support of the communist regime with his domestic policies.