Joseph Stalin Dbq Essay

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Leaders are trusted by their people to uphold high standards of diplomacy and to make citizens’ lives less burdensome. The Soviet Union needed a figure who would help improve and strengthen the country. Joseph Stalin took this role, promising to get the country out of World War I, paying debts, and giving land to the citizens. While he followed through on a few of his promises, he ultimately betrayed his people by lying to them. Through his leadership, Stalin made many decisions to help the Soviet Union, but he made even more choices that harmed individual people due to his abuse of power. One way that Stalin caused irreversible damage was by harming his people. Three years after he took leadership the Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian …show more content…

Just a few years after the Ukrainian genocide, Stalin purged his own army. He executed 596 out of 856 political and military officers (Document 5). When Stalin took leadership, he killed these men because they were not loyal to him. He also felt that his power was threatened because of them. The officials and officers were then replaced by men who were committed to Stalin. This is an example of how he removed freedom of speech. The men were not allowed to speak or act poorly towards Stalin. He also ran a totalitarianism government. Totalitarianism is a strict form of government with no means of privacy. People had to be careful of what they said and did because they never knew if they were being watched. This is a huge exemplification of loss of freedoms because the people had no privacy from the government. Another freedom that Stalin removed was religion. He stated that “the party cannot be neutral towards religion, and it conducts anti-religious propaganda against all religions because it stands for science” (Document 4). Stalin claimed that he wanted the Soviet Union to be non-religious because it contradicts with science. Though it is more likely that he did not want religion because the church could give people ideas of individualism. CLOSING