All of the following were equally important reasons why Stalin was able to hold on to power in the Soviet Union. Economic Policies Propaganda and the cult of personality

Economic policies also depended on other factors to be succesful, like propaganda and the secret police, these were succesful, as the propaganda and cult of personality made people think Stalin was wonderful and if they felt otherwise they were puurged, an example of propaganda being succesful was that Stalin controlled what went out in the Media so people coldn’t know about some of what Stalin was doing, however an example of it failing was that people were still purged out of the country for being Anti-Stalin. The Secret police were police that Stalin hired, who went to peoples houses, and took them to be purged. An example of thieir success was that the number of complaints against Stalin decreased dramatically, however, the purges soon became out of control, and people were reporting otheres for farcical reasons. This suggests that economic policies alone could not have helped Stalin hold on to power and therefore supports the statement.

Another way that he held on to power was the purges. The purges were Stalins way of getting rid of the “undesirables” from the country. These started with the Show trials, where key bolsheviks were expelled on  almost comical terms, like trying to plot a coup on Stalin in a hotel that had been demolished for 10 years. After this, normal people went on to be purged, neighbours reported neighbors, their workmates, some even reported their family members, the fact that almost anyone could be reported and purged created an atmosphere of terror in the country which helped Stalin hold on to power.

Propaganda and the Secret police were pivotal to the purges, as the propaganda fooled everyone into believing that Stalin was a great visionary leader, so peoplewould report other people, and the Secret police were the ones who carried them out, so without them, then the purges wouldn’t have worked.

The cult of personality  was part of a wider propaanda campaign to make people see Stalin as more of a God than a man, and to hide his flaws. This was succesful because Stalin became a very popular leader with the people, and were distracted from the millions of countrymen dying of famine and purges around them, however it was unsuccesful, as some people noticed that he was putting imself in thingss that he had no right to be in like photographs , they raised this issue and more people began to notice it..They were purged from the country afterwards.

Stalin used a carrot and stick method to maintain his hold on Russia. The Purges and Show trials were harsh on the countrymen; these were his stick methods. However, propaganda/ Cult of personality and the economic policies all benefited the country in aid of industrialisation and they didn’t harm the country. These were the carrot methods.

I don’t feel that any one factor alone could have kept Stalin in power, as they are all closely intertwined, if he didn’t uses, say, the secret police, then his purges would have had no-one to carry out the purges, or if he didn’t use propaganda, then people would have seen all of his shortcomings and he would have been quickly overthrown.