Through the folds of history, the phrase “the end justifies the means” has appeared often in an attempt for leaders to degrade their terrible acts and exaggerate their achievements that resulted. In the late 1800s, during the repressive and absolute rule of Stalin, many Russian citizens argued however, that Stalin did not justify his end with his means. The death of tens of thousands of Russian citizens from both execution and starvation, which were a direct result from his goals of a perfect communist utopian society, is not an act that can be ignored when considering his ultimately ‘good’ goals of pulling Russia out of poverty and stagnant economic and political growth. Joseph Stalin was able to greatly boost the Soviet Unions economy by instituting the 5-year plans with a resulting goal of rapid industrialization, and by instituting collectivization.

Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron fist. Under the breadths of communism, Stalin reorganized the economy and changed labor prioritization. Executing a total of 3 individual 5-year plan installments, Stalin began to change the long ancient farmland based economy into an industrial superpower. These centralized economic plans were instated by a state planning committee that followed communistic economic principles. In this manner, the 5-year plans called for rapid industrialization through heavy industry. Joshua R. Keefe wrote for the Student Pulse:
“ . . . The need to industrialize was also a pragmatic matter of self-defense.