Joseph Stalin Failures

In 1928, Joseph Stalin started his “five-year plan” for the Soviet Union (USSR). His aim was to change the USSR structure both economically and politically. To achieve this he had to maintain his power and strictly control his population. According to historian Robert Conquest (Robert Conquest, Historian Who Documented Soviet Horrors, nytimes.com), who documented “Soviet Horrors”, states: “The scope of Stalin’s purges was laid out: seven million people were arrested in the peak years, (1937 and 1938). One million executed and two million dead in the concentration camps. Mr. Conquest estimated the death toll for the Stalin era at no less than 20 million.” Thus, the evidence of how terror and control took place in the Soviet Union is clear and

According to , the book characteristics that were considered “harmful” to the Soviet Union were: Failure to promote the worker’s class consciousness and willingness to work hard, religious propaganda, pro-tsarist ideas, opposition to revolutionary class struggle and promoting national hatred.” Books that contained these materials were all censored. According to , at least sixty percent books were eliminated in the libraries. And about 779,579 books were lost. Instead of treating books as enlightenment it was a source of propaganda. The purpose of censoring books was to protect the party image and made sure no other Soviets would have an idea of anything else, other then the policies in the USSR. According to , in schools only one history book was used and it was written by Stalin himself. All the material in books related to Old Bolsheviks was removed. Children in schools were given new pages to paste in their books to cover photographs of party officials that have been executed. Ida Slavin describes the arrest of her father, IIia a leading figure who had joined the Bolsheviks in 1921. It was the 5th of November 1937. The NKVD arrived at 1;00am. Second Paragraph: Looking around my father’s office, the NKVD officer (I shall always remember his name: Beigel) would sigh from time to time: “What a lot of books you have. I am a student and I don’t have this many books.” Leafing through the books he would stop whenever he found one with an inscription to my father, pound his fist on the table and demand in a loud voice, “Who is the author?” Then Biegel told me to bring my German textbook. He turned into an article by Karl Radek at the end of the textbook. With a grand gesture Beigel tore the pages out of the textbook, lit them with a match and said, “Be thankful that this thing has been destroyed and that I don’t have to take you away with your daddy. “I was