Was Stalin a success?

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Was Stalin a success?

In 1953  Joseph Stalin died, which left Russia in deep distress because they had lost a great political leader. I feel that with out a doubt Stalin was a success and there are three points which I will study to help prove this: Was he a success in his own terms?, was he a success in the terms of Russia? And was he Success in the terms of Communism?.  

. Stalin was a person you couldn’t get to know personally he had friends, but many which he chose to ignore. Throughout  Stalin’s Reign he was very ruthless. People say there was a reason why Stalin was so ruthless and that was because he beloved wife died when they were at the peak of there marriage and this left a hole in his heart which he would later take out on the people of Russia.

        Firstly, was he a success in his own terms?. There are six points which prove that he was a success in his own terms starting off with his struggle for is his struggle for power, which without a doubt was a great success, due to his ability to out maneuver the other candidates in the race for power (Zinoviev/ Bukharin). The second success was the introduction of the five year plan (1928-32). In the first five-year plan Stalin introduced Modernization agricultural USSR, which would give most peasants farms modern equipment such as Tractors, fertilizers etc. This modernization was vital Because the amount of food being produced by the farmers was ruffly 2million tons short of grain, which would be used to feed the workers. And if the workers weren’t feed the workers went on strike and didn’t work causing a knock on effect on Russia, which would have brought it crashing down. Stalin overcame this problem by introducing Collectivization of the peasant farms (1929-32). This plan would involves the joining of peasant farms to produce twice as much food in the same amount of time and the brutal methods such as the starvation of farmers as they watched the communist officials take all there food. It was unfair to starve the farmers but this ruthless behavior, shown by Stalin was the right attitude if he wanted to change the USSR. Throughout the first five year plan Stalin wanted to produce more capital goods such as clothes, shoes, etc which were all not that needed in Russia at the time. So if feel that Stalin had of followed Bukharin's plan, which involved producing a more balanced production of goods such as railways, trackers, lorry’s as well as capital goods (shoes, clothes etc). he would have succeeded a lot quicker in the five year plans. The third success was the introduction of  “ The Great Terror ” .In 1936, Stalin produces the “Great terror”, this was a plan which would diminish and clear out any opponents of the Russian policy and form a cult of Stalin. The great Terror came in Three main stages. The show trials: which Stalin set up to prove that any one who wishes to sabotage the USSR, will suffer with there lives. The Army purge: which eliminated any officer or soldier who wishes to think independently. And the set up of labour camps: which took anyone arrested by the NKVD. This mass terror was a success because it scared the people of Russia into obey Stalin 100%. The labour camps helped to industrialize the USSR because the people in them were used as slaves to build railways etc. The Army purge weakened the Russian army dramatically because most soldiers were untrained and unfit. However apart from the weakening of the Russian army the great terror was a success because it made the civilians of Russia give 110% obedience to Stalin.

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        The start of world war II was a shock for Stalin because Hitler was always a threat but when he introduced the attack plan of operation Barbarossa Stalin was worried. Operation Barbarossa involved 3 million German Soldiers in 153 divisions pouring across the frontier into the USSR. Within  the first three months the Germans destroyed  the entire air/ tank force in the USSR as well as taking 2million lives. By 1941 the German army was trying to siege Leningrad, and they had almost reached Moscow. Stalin was under threat in 1941, as well as being crushed by the German army ...

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