Q2
Source D is a personal account written by Stalin in 1945. The source is a personal attack by Stalin on the victorious Communist government in 1945. It is directed towards the peasants and worthy classes.
Stalin talks about how he lived in exile in Siberia, immediately trying to get the reader to sympathise and understand that he has been through an unpleasant life. He goes on to say that when 30 men went to the river to carry out a timber and returned with just 29. It is important to note that he uses the word ‘comrade’, this is a communist word for brother. This shows that he thinks all men are equal and he is trying to be seen as a true communist here rather then a dictator. He immediately stood up and said that each life is precious more then anything. He then goes on to say that this incidents corresponds to leaders today, they do not show concern for the people.
This source seems very unreliable as all of Stalin’s actions when during his reign as dictator totally contradict that. Stalin was a man who believed that mans life did not matter, if this meant for Russia to progress economically and industrially. During his reign as dictator he was responsible for the death of tens of millions of Russians, which he now tries to justify. The way he justifies his actions is by saying, “When I told them off for having more concern for animals than men.” He tried to suggest here that unlike the deaths that he is responsible for, here he had very good reasons to confront these men. In a way Stalin tries to suggest here that the deaths he was supposedly responsible for weren’t appropriate to confront as there wasn’t a valid reason for not continuing with whatever caused their death.
Although this source contradicts everything that Stalin ever did, there is one aspect of it that agrees with it. In the source Stalin describes the death of that man as a tragedy. Stalin had a statement to make about deaths which was; “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” Here Stalin claims that a death of one man would matter very much and would be a great tragedy.
When judging Stalin’s character this source is useful as it shows him as a manipulative person. By showing that he cares for every man in the source he shows how manipulative he really was. Stalin uses the source to manipulate the USSR into thinking that he is in fact a person that cares for every man. In context that is of course not true as Stalin is the man responsible for the death of millions of people and therefore the source also shows him as a liar.
Source D doesn’t show very reliable information. However, the source shows that Stalin was a very calculated person; he knew what to publish in order to improve his image. Whether this information is true is unknown, but Stalin managed to convince the people of Russia that it is and that he is a man who cares about each and human being. The source shows some of Stalin’s characteristics of being manipulative and a liar.
Q3
Source E is taken from a speech by a writer to the Congress of Soviets in 1935. This speech was published in a communist party paper, called Pravda. It is an extremely exaggerated view of what the Russian people thought of Stalin at the time. It thanks Stalin for everything that he has done and will continue doing for the Russian people. In this source we see many points where Stalin is praised. Source F is taken from a speech by Bukharin, which took place in Paris in 1936. After Lenin’s death, Bukharin was heavily supporting Stalin, as opposed to Trotsky. Bukharin believed like Stalin that their should be one country communism, Trotsky believed in world wide communism. However, Bukharin did not stay a Stalin supporter for long and in 1929 fell into disgrace and was executed in the Purges in 1938. As this speech was held in 1936, Bukharin hated Stalin and therefore it can be assumed that his speech will be very anti-Stalin.
When evaluating which is more reliable source E or source F a few things should be taken into consideration. Source E is written by a communist party newspaper guarantees that there will be all positive towards the party. Without even examining the source it is obvious that it will be very pro-Stalin. It will of course be much censored as everything that was published in Pravda was greatly censored. Source F is an extract from a speech by Bukharin in Paris in 1936. . Bukharin was a supporter of Stalin and part of the communist party until 1929 when he was expelled. When Stalin got rid of Trotsky he didn’t see use in Bukharin anymore and Bukharin was eventually executed in 1938. The reason for this is said to be that Bukharin was good friends with Lenin and responsible for the NEP party. It could be said that source F is unreliable since it is by Bukharin who had a personal grudge against Stalin and therefore will be very much against him. However, Bukharin was one of the few old Bolsheviks and was a close friend of Lenin. This makes source F more reliable as Bukharin was present to see everything, since Stalin came into the Soviet Union.
When looking at source F without context it is very anti Stalin, it describes Stalin as a narrow-minded, malicious man. This will make source F just as reliable as source E without any context because they are both seen as just two different opinions.
Another reason of why source E is less reliable is because it was illegal to speak badly of Stalin in Russia in those times. People who spoke badly of Stalin, their family, their friends, their neighbours, etc. were put in exile and eventually put to death. For this reason no one would dare to say a bad word about Stalin in private, let alone publish it in a newspaper. Source F, however is from a speech in Paris where there is freedom of speech and Bukharin could say whatever he truly believed was true. Source E however could be false views who are written by someone who is just trying to get on Stalin’s good books.
Stalin is praised in the whole source; an example is “Generations to come will regard us as the happiest of people because we lived in the same century as Stalin, because we were privileged to see Stalin, our inspired leader.” Here Stalin is seen as a god, the source says that everyone who lived in the same time as Stalin and got to see him is a very privileged person. This is an example of the cult of personality as it shows how the people of Russia idolised Stalin almost like a god. Another example of where the source is exaggerating about how great Stalin is, is where it says that their children’s first words will be Stalin. “And when the woman I live presents me with a child the first word it shall utter will be: Stalin.” This shows how the Russians did not want their children’s first words to be ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’ as they think Stalin is much more important. The source continues to praise Stalin saying, “The men of all ages will call thy name which is strong, wise and marvellous.” Again, this shows how people worshiped Stalin, and did not have a bad word to say about him.
Bukharin claims that Stalin was very insecure with himself as every man that he saw as a threat was put to death Bukharin knew what Lenin really thought about Stalin, this frightened Stalin and made Stalin feel intimidated by this and falsely accused Bukharin for spying for Japan and Germany and also plotting with Trotsky. In this source the most important message that Bukharin is trying to convey is that Stalin was still trying to convince everyone else and himself that he is the greatest to ever walk the earth. Although most of it is true, it cannot be very reliable as at this time Bukharin knew that eventually Stalin was going to have him executed and therefore just tried to get him message across in the most exaggerated way possible. Bukharin’s main concern here is to reveal Stalin as an evil man, and therefore this source is biased.
Sources E and F both give a strong view on Stalin’s character. However, there is a huge contrast between them. In source E the impression of Stalin that the writer gives is of an ‘inspiring leader’ who is ‘strong, beautiful, wise and marvelous’, source F describes Stalin as ‘a narrow minded, malicious man’, he even goes so far as to say Stalin is ‘not a man, but a devil’. The sources are similar in that they both take their views to the extreme. Source E uses exaggerated, melodramatic praise of Stalin and source F uses strong language to the point of calling Stalin ‘a devil’. Ultimately source F is more reliable as it uses much less propaganda then source E, and it was given by Bukharin who knew Stalin very well.
Q4
Sources G and H were both written by Khrushchev, and both in 1956. Khrushchev would eventually become Stalin’s successor. Source G talks about how Stalin believed that using terror and executions were necessary when defending socialism and communism. However, Khrushchev doesn’t say Stalin was a wicked man, he does exactly the opposite. He says that the use of terror and executions for the defence of socialism and communism were considerations Stalin had to make when evaluating the best interests of the party and workers. He is trying to remain unbiased and give an argument understanding Stalin and his methods; because of this the information in the assessment of Stalin in this source can be trusted.
Source H however gives a completely different view of Khrushchev on Stalin. Here Khrushchev claims that Stalin’s paranoia is why so many Russians died. He claims that this paranoia led him to kill party members he had known and be friendly with for years.
Khrushchev was hoping to become Stalin’s successor, as he eventually did. In order to do that he wanted both the pro-Stalin people and the anti-Stalin people to support him. Here we see how he does that. In source G he gives a very understanding speech of how Stalin is not to necessarily to blame for the death of millions of Russians. However, he doesn’t specifically say that it is his fault, or that it is not his fault, he only says what Stalin considered right. Source H is much more extreme, as it directly attacks Stalin. Khrushchev again doesn’t blame Stalin or stands up for Stalin. Here he tries to explain Stalin’s paranoia which he believes led to the death of millions of Russians. However, in neither sources, does he clearly state that in his opinion Stalin’s ways of terror and execution were necessary or not necessary. For these reasons Khrushchev’s assessment of Stalin can be considered as not trustworthy. He was only trying to gain the votes of both the pro-Stalin public and the anti-Stalin public, not giving a trustworthy assessment of Stalin.
Khrushchev proved to the Russian people that he very much agreed with Stalin when he got in power. Khrushchev was a very ambitious man and had great aspirations for the Soviet Union; he later used vicious and brutal methods to fulfil his dreams for the Soviets. This shows that in actual fact Khrushchev agreed with Stalin’s methods, although he does not admit it.
Source G is a speech by Khrushchev to the Soviet Communist Party. Khrushchev had to remain slightly pro-Stalin so that he gains the support of the Soviet Communist Party. Khrushchev assessment cab be said not to be trust worthy as he is still careful not to praise or criticize any of Stalin’s method. In source H, Khrushchev is not speaking to a specific group that supports or is against Stalin. Thus it is not in his interest to agree or disagree with Stalin’s methods, just to get the support of the people he speaking to.
Although Khrushchev tried to remain unbiased he still offers slightly different opinions in both sources. Source G is more pro-Stalin, source H is more anti-Stalin. Both sources can only be trusted to a certain degree, because Khrushchev main interests weren’t to explain if Stalin’s methods were correct or incorrect. His main interest was to gain the support of all the Russian people, and therefore had to try not to offer his own opinion of Stalin.
Q5
Source I and Source J go a long way in agreeing on the show trials. Source I is an American cartoon and source J is a French cartoon published in the late 1930’s. Source I shows how ridiculous the show trials were, whilst source J shows the Stalin’s changes to the constitution and how he changed the law.
Source I is an American cartoon about Stalin’s ‘show trials’. At that time America was particularly against the Soviet Union, and there was an increasing fear of the rise of communism in America. The cartoon is mocking Stalin and his ‘show trials’ The men who are put on trial are seen happy and sarcastically admitting what they have been accused of.
Source J is a cartoon published in France in the late 1930’s, the title of the cartoon is ‘The Stalinist Constitution’. The cartoon shows the new seating arrangements in the Supreme Soviets. The source shows Stalin as every person in the Supreme Soviets showing the result of Stalin’s show trials. It represents how all the men left in the Supreme Soviets after the show trials think exactly like Stalin and act exactly like Stalin. In the background of the cartoon there is gallows, as the gallows was already prepared a pointless impression is given as the outcome had already been decided.
Stalin getting rid of party members began in 1934 when Kirov, the leader of Leningrad was murdered. Stalin used this murder to get rid of the people who opposed his views in the party. Some even believe that Stalin was the person who arranged Kirov’s murder so that he would be able to justify getting rid of part members who did not agree with him. Stalin managed to purge many leading members of the party by confessing of being traitors and were executed. Then, 500,000 were arrested, most were executed, but some were sent to labour camps.
In source I Stalin seems to be the judge, the defendants are Yagoda, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin. All these men were executed during the 1930’s. Yagoda was falsely accused of spying for Japan and Germany, and plotting to kill Lenin. Zinoviev and Kamenev were two men who helped Stalin come into power, but after Stalin did not require their services anymore he accused Zinoviev of plotting with Trotsky and Kamenev of murdering Kirov and plotting to kill Stalin. Stalin expelled Bukharin from the communist party and falsely accused him of plotting with Lenin.
The cartoon is used to show how ridiculous the trials were, it does this through sarcasm. The defendants are being sarcastic of their confession, which shows that men were forced into confessing but it was false. In the background of the cartoon there is a gallows prepared, which shows that no matter how much the defendants would defend themselves, the verdict was already decided.
The two sources agree with each other to as they are both absurd, Stalin controls the Soviets in both of the sources the cartoons. However they are also different, source I is a process where a member of the USSR is purged and eventually executed. Source J is practical, it shows the Supreme Soviets as it really was, everyone agreeing with Stalin and claiming that what he believed in was true. However Source I only shows how ridiculous the show trials were, source J goes as far as showing the new constitution after Stalin’s show trials were over.
Q6
Sources L and M are both extracts from two biographies about Stalin published about 30 years after his death. Source L is a biography published in Britain in 1983. This source is not biased to any particular side, anti or pro Stalin. When this was published Stalin had already died so there was no control over what could be published and therefore it is more genuine. It was also towards the end of the cold war, and relations were improving, yet still fragile, between the opposed Soviet Union and Britain, hence the fact that it wouldn’t be a time to print the faults, just facts, of the Soviet Union. Source M is an extract from a biography published in Britain in 1974, at the height of the cold war. At the time there was complete distrust between the Capitalists (USA, Britain, and France) and the Communists (Soviet Union) so it is likely to be very much opposed to. It could even be said that the source is too strict because it is utterly biased towards the Capitalists.
The two sources are similar in some ways but yet are still different. Source L focuses on Stalin’s actions not his personality, source M focuses on Stalin’s personality and not his actions. Source L is not blinded by the time and therefore can give the facts as they were, Stalin was a gifted politician but also an evil man. Source L is still contradictory to many other beliefs of him, most historians believed that he ruled through terror and that being able to control people doesn’t make Stalin a gifted politician. Source L states that Stalin was ‘one of the greatest political figures’, the source acknowledges Stalin’s achievement and again promoted him as a very skilled and intelligent man. With that, Source L still acknowledges that Stalin was an evil man, ‘he had a dark and evil side to his nature.’ However, as more positive things were said over the negative it gives a message that the ends justify the means.
Source M focuses on Stalin’s personality and not his actions, it explains that Stalin was corrupted by power and wouldn’t not have been an evil man had he not had that power. Using his power as a dictator Stalin was corrupted by power in a lot of cases, an example of one would be the purges. Stalin was a very paranoid man and as a result of that launched the ‘purges’. When he got into power he was worried that some of his rivals might overthrow him. Due to Stalin’s paranoia the Communist Party had purged its membership getting rid of all the members who were suspected of being disloyal. This is a prime example of how Stalin was corrupted by his power. The source attempts to justify Stalin’s actions and claims that ‘the terror was necessary, not only to keep men obedient, but even more to make them believe in him.’ The source claims that had Stalin not used terror, then people would have noticed what a bad leader he was.
The sources are both different in the way they examine Stalin, source L shows Stalin to be a good politician regardless of his evil side. However, source M shows him to be a bad politician whose dreadful leadership is overshadowed by his use of terror. Both sources are correct, however more information has to be given about the authors in order to understand why they chose to focus upon different elements of Stalin’s life.
Q7
It is complicated to come to a final conclusion of whether Stalin was a man or a monster. Stalin is the man responsible for the industrialization of Russia, however he is also responsible for the death of millions of Russians. Different opinions about Stalin can be assumed when examining different sources as most use propaganda to get their message through.
Every moved that Stalin made from Lenin’s death to him coming into power was planned. Stalin was a very deceitful man, he knew he was running against Trotsky to succeed one of the greatest leader in Russia’s history and therefore focused less on showing the public that he can be as good as Lenin was, but showing the public that Trotsky cannot. He informed Trotsky of the wrong date to Lenin’s funeral and therefore Trotsky never showed which made him look bad. However, Stalin still saw Trotsky as a threat and was determined to get rid of him. After Lenin’s death Stalin did not emerge by himself, but with two other communist leaders, Zinoviev and Kamenev. Stalin accused Trotsky of splitting trying to split the Communist Party and one by one stripped Trotsky of his position. After that Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and sent into exile, however Stalin still felt threatened by Trotsky and eventually forced Trotsky into exile in Mexico. A few years later Trotsky, with Zinoviev and Kamenev (who Stalin later turned on) were accused of being spies and eventually shot. This is an example of how Stalin’s paranoia will go as far as executing MP’s in order for Stalin to feel secure; it shows that Stalin was willing to do horrific acts to get what he wanted.
Stalin was growing more worried that his enemies would try to overthrow him and ended up ‘purging’ the Communist Party, leaving only members that he believed were loyal and that he was not threatened by. In 1934 Stalin had Kirov murdered and then purged Zinoviev and Kamenev which resulted in them being arrested and later that year shot to death. Later, Stalin decided to use the purges not only on leading figures in the USSR. It is estimated that about 500,000 party members were sent to labour camps as they were accused of being anti-Soviet or accused in engaging in anti-Soviet activities. After this Stalin took his attention to the red army and removed 25,000 officers were removed from their position. This is very contradictory to what Stalin showed on the outside as in source C Stalin is seen in a photograph congratulating the red army wives. He was very calculated and knew what he had to do in order to get rid of who he didn’t want. Congratulating the wives of the red army and then removing 25,000 of the red army shows how Stalin was a deceitful man. By 1937 an estimated 18 million people had been in labour camp and 10 million of those had died. He left the Communist Party with people who were just agreeing with every single word he said, this can be seen in source J. The text at the bottom of the cartoon reads ‘New seating arrangements in the Supreme Soviet.’ The cartoon shows all the member of the USSR as Stalin, which represents the way Stalin controlled them into believing in whatever he believed was right and how no opposition would be able to exist.
Stalin’s aim was overall to have total control of the Soviet Union. He did this through the use of propaganda, informers, prison camps and the cult of personality. The secret police used informers to spy on people, the army of informers were used in schools, factories and farms, and children were also encouraged to informer on their parents. This made Russian people stop talking freely to other people in fear that they are informers. Another method Stalin used to gain control over the Soviet Union was using the prison camps. The luckier victims so to speak, who were not executed for their ‘crimes’ were sent to labour camps. The conditions in the prison camps were inhospitable, prisoners were forced to work in all weather conditions, they were not supplied with a satisfying amount of food and the camp guards used violence against them. Several millions of the prisoners had died because of the remorseless conditions. Stalin used propaganda to make the people believe in his views. Newspapers, radio and films were only allowed to showcase work which reflected well on the USSR and on Stalin himself. The Soviets controlled all of the media which was published and even what was taught in school. The final method Stalin used to gain control of the Soviets was using the cult of personality. As Stalin used propaganda to make himself look like a god he was getting no criticism. The worship created by the propaganda is called the cult of personality, which is why an evil dictator was worshiped by millions of people.
With all the monstrous and horrific acts that Stalin was responsible for, he as also the man responsible for major economic changes in Russia. In 1928 Stalin forced some changes on agriculture and industry. In order to improve agricultural production Stalin introduced collectivisation. This meant that peasants were to work together on collective farms. This of course was rejected by the peasants as they wanted to own their own land. As good as the idea sounded to Stalin, many peasants and especially the kulaks resented it, and the plan failed.
In order to improve the industry Stalin introduced a series of five year plans. The industry would set itself unreal targets that could have to be completed in five years. In a decade the Soviet Union had become one of the greatest industrial powers in the world. Stalin helped Russia a lot with the five year plan; he made unemployment almost non existent and made Russia one of the greatest industrial powers in the world. During the first five year plan the conditions for the workers were horrible; workers did not even have enough to eat which resulted in rationing being introduced. Despite the way the workers were treated, Stalin still managed to industrialise Russia from the low economy it was, this made Stalin look like a great man.
Stalin used monstrous acts to industrialise Russia and take control of the Soviet Union. Stalin was always aspiring to be better then everyone else and did this by removing every person who posed as a threat to him. In source F Bukharin is speaking about Stalin’s ambition to be the best, ‘If someone speaks better then he does, the man is for it! Stalin will not let him live, because that man is a constant reminder that hem, Stalin is not the first and the best.’ Bukharin speaks about how he believes that Stalin is a malicious man who was only shown as being the best at everything as he had destroyed all of his competition. Source K is an extract from a biography of Stalin published in 1947, it claims that Stalin was a great man, ‘Stalin is the brilliant leader and teach of the Party and military commander, and guide the Soviet state. Everybody is familiar with the clarity of mind, his iron will, his devotion to the party, his ardent faith in the people, and love for the people. The source is clearly blinded by propaganda as it was published in 1947. It sees Stalin as the people of Russia saw Stalin, not aware of what his real acts were. The source claims that Stalin had love for the people, yet he was responsible for the death of millions of them. Source K is an example of how Stalin was seen to the public but not of what he was really like.
However, many people in Russia at the time believed that Stalin was a man, this of course was mainly because of propaganda, but there were other reasons for it. Stalin originally came from the peasant class which made him very popular with the peasants. Stalin also represented the ideas of ‘Socialism in one country’ as opposed to ‘continuous revolution’ and this had a greater appeal.
Stalin was also seen as a great man by some people, he improved science in Russia tremendously. Although no great theoretical contributions were made from Stalin’s linguistics, neither were there any apparent mistakes in Stalin’s understanding in linguistics. However, Stalin made a great influence on science which relieved Soviet linguistics from the sort of ideologically driven theory that dominated genetics.
Stalin also made major economic changes which gave the impression that he was a great man. Stalin aided the cause of women’s rights and women were given education and were employed to work. Stalin also destroyed the fear of , , and . For the first time health care and education were provided and as a result there were less diseases and the Russian people lived longer lives. Women were able to give birth in hospitals and therefore they would give birth safely. This made Stalin look excellent to the Russian public as he was the man responsible for the great health care and education in Russia.
In my opinion Comrade Stalin was a malicious and evil man who can only be compared to a monster. Although Stalin did improve living conditions in Russia he achieved that by overworking the workers to achieve unrealistic goals in a short amount of time in poor conditions. Stalin ruled through terror, he cannot be described as a good man because of this. The simple fact that he is responsible for the death of millions can only show him as nothing but a monster.
Q8
There is often a disagreement about Stalin and if he was really a man or a monster. Some people believe him to be a great politician, whilst others think he used terror to overshadow his bad political skills. The main reason why there is a disagreement about Stalin is because when looking at sources today there is a lot of propaganda used. Very rarely will a source include both the good and the bad things that Stalin did at a particular situation.
Source C is a prime example of this, as it shows Stalin being polite to the wives of the red army and reaching down to them which shows that he was very positive towards the army. This will give a very good impression of Stalin, however, in actual fact Stalin went on to kill 25,000 men from the red army which is not included in the source. The source therefore gives a mistaken and misleading impression of how Stalin treated the red army.
Another example of where propaganda is used is in source E. Source E is an extract from a speech by a writer of the congress of Soviets which was published in the Pravda, a newspaper of the Communist Party. The source praises Stalin and all his accomplishments, it praises Stalin like he is a god, ‘generations to come will regard us as the happiest people because we lives in the same century as Stalin, because we were privileged to see Stalin, out inspired leader.’ The source is totally biased, it will only mention good things that Stalin has done and disregard the many immoral things that he has done. The source is therefore misleading as propaganda is used.
Sources that come from Russia, such as sources E and K, will be completely unreliable as the Soviets controlled the media and only printed pro Stalin articles, published pro Stalin books, etc. Sources that come from out of Russia like sources A, F, J, etc. are also unreliable as they were mostly written by people who were exiled by Stalin and were his enemies.
A main reason why there has been confusion about Stalin is because of what point of view the historians had. In source L for example the point of view of the historian is focusing upon is Stalin’s political skills. Another source might focus on his terror and show him as an evil man which would create confusion. Stalin is portrayed differently in every source as a result of the different point of view of the historian and what area of Stalin’s personality the historian decides to focus upon.
Sources that suggest different opinions about Stalin are because of different accounts when Stalin was in power. Some see Stalin as a monster, whilst others see him as a great man which creates confusion. The reasons for this confusion were mainly because the use of propaganda and what area of Stalin’s personality a source would focus on.
