Joseph Stalin Research Paper

Soon to be dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Joseph Stalin, was born as Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili. Although he grew up in a poor family, Joseph earned a scholarship to study for priesthood. However, because of lack of interest, he left school to take part in politics. To do this, he began to be involved in the Bolshevik Party, where Vladimir Lenin eventually appointed him Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Joseph’s interest in the Bolshevik Party was partially because of its size; the party grew as they promised land and peace to the desperate, starving population. Stalin continued to rise in power, as did the Bolshevik Party in Russia. However, before he became Secretary General

Stalin, in great desire for a more industrialized country, in 1921, stated in one of his many speeches, “Do you want our socialist fatherland to be beaten and to lose its independence?” (Keefe 2009). In this statement, Stalin refers to Russia as ‘our socialist fatherland’ and addresses that, without industrialization, Russia will lose its independence. Of course to keep such things from happening, he also believed that his ways of life must be followed. While other influential people, such as Trotsky, believed communism should be spread world-wide immediately, Stalin completely argued against so. What was wise in his mind was to take time in building a strong sense of socialism in one country first. Because most followed in Stalin’s steps, Trotsky became enraged at Stalin’s power. Stalin saw his chance and used Trotsky’s protest against Stalin to claim that his opponent was attempting to split the Bolshevik Party. With a law in place passed by, previous Soviet Union leader, Lenin, of “ordering unity in the party”, Trotsky became unpopular as he was now known to try to split the party apart (Keefe 2009). Stalin used his power that he has gained over the years, along with the dislike of Trotsky that was building amongst the people, to exile him to Mexico where he would be murdered under Stalin’s command. Now that Stalin was in complete

Despite Stalin’s impact, so many people know Adolf Hitler to be the cruel, ruthless man that killed thousands of innocent Jews throughout the century. When his name is mentioned, it is usually followed with a face of disgust for the actions he has taken. In times of sorrow, when today’s society thinks of all the lives that were lost in the twentieth century, blame is put on Hitler, which is partially true. However, it is often overlooked at how many lives were lost due to Stalin’s heartless deeds. As Timothy Snyder, author of “Hitler Vs. Stalin: Who Was Worse?” in the New York Review Daily, puts it best, “Stalin was also worse, because his regime killed far, far more people—tens of millions” (Snyder 2011). These citizens were treated poorly by experiencing starvation, unjust labor, and often times, murder. Through all the types of torture that was had, “[t]he largest human catastrophe of Stalinism was the famine of 1930-1933, in which more than five million people starved” (Snyder 2011). If Stalin being the cause of over five million deaths due to starvation isn’t bad enough, think about how he impacted Western civilization with the other millions of lives that were lost because of other, crueler causes. When the twentieth century of Western civilization is looked upon, Stalin’s rise in power, followed by his twisted decisions, should be at