Post WWl, Russia was still not industrialized, suffering economically and politically and in no doubt in need of a leader after Lenin’s death. “His successor, Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator, seized power and turned Russia into a totalitarian state where the government controls all aspects of private and public life.” Stalin showed these traits by using methods of enforcement, state control of individuals and state control of society. The journey of Stalin begins now.
For example, Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union in 1878-1953 abused his power greatly following the Civil War. The Soviet Union was transformed from a nice, well-round society to a huge mess. The people feared for their lives. Another example that comes to mind for this type of government is Adolph Hitler. Hitler obviously wasn’t a very pleasant and tolerable individual.
Stalin and Hitler: Similarities and Differences Stalin and Hitler emerged at the time when political and economic instability had crippled the USSR and Germany. They began making improvements which encouraged their people to believe that prosperous times await them. This notion would unfortunately turn out as an illusion. Both figures would eventually rule by decree. Despite treading on different paths of ruling, both figures still find some commonalities.
Hitler is another example of a real world totalitarian leader. Hitler was a part of the National Socialist German Workers Party. (aka “NAZIS”) from 1920 and by 1932 he became the leader of Germany. Hitler’s government called the Third Reich quickly became a dictatorship. In WW2 Hitler betrayed Russia which was a big mistake that eventually, cost him defeat as well as his own life on April 30th, 1945.
On December 18, 1878, in the Russian worker town of Gori, Georgia, Joseph Stalin was born. The child of Besarion Jughashvili, a shoemaker, and Ketevan Geladze, a washerwoman, Joseph was a fragile child. At age 7, he got smallpox, leaving his face scarred. A couple of years after the fact he was harmed in a carriage accident which left arm somewhat twisted. The other town kids treated him badly, giving him a feeling that he useless.
Joseph Stalin was born December 18 1878 in Gori, Georgia and he died on Mardh 5 1953 at age of 74. Stalin had a really bad early life because his dad was an alcohol abuser. He was leader of the Soviet Union from 9129 to 1953. Under the rule of Stalin the Soviet Union was modernized from a peasant society into a a more industrial and military superpower. Stalin ruled very harsh and millions of citizens died while he was a leader.
A question that is often asked is whether or not Chairman Mao was a hero or villain. Although he killed many innocent Chinese during the Great Leap Forward, he did other things, including improving the economic status of peasant populations. However, despite the improvements that Mao made to China, he caused some vast destruction in China as a whole. During the Great Leap Forward, Mao caused an estimated 30 million deaths of Chinese peasants.
Once China became weak and poor Mao Zedong took power. In 1949 Mao got his power. In 1976 Mao passed away and lost power. Communist is a society where people 's properties are owned. People get paid according to their abilities.
Another myth was busted, that Hitler took power over by fear and force. Anti-Jewish and anti-Bolshevik speechifying played the German public well for the benefit of Hitler. Germans felt humiliated by defeat and bankrupt by recession, and Hitler blamed “the Jews” for both. Unlike Stalin, Hitler did not make a habit of murdering his closest allies. Nazis party never experienced the purges of the Stalin’s.
Joseph Stalin was and still is universally known for his harsh leadership in the Soviet Union. To examine the extent of his cruelness, World Civilization II: The Rise and Fall of Empires© 1500-present stated, "Stalin was not a communist; he was a sociopath. He enjoyed hurting people and ordering their deaths. In his time as dictator of the Soviet Union, he was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of his people, and the cruel torture and imprisonment of millions more" (Sattler, 71).
It means if I would have been in stalins position I would have ushered in the damn utopia instead of the genocidal massacres because i understand the doctrine of marxism and everything about me is good. Think again sunshine! You dont understand it! And youre not that good! And if the power was in your hands, assuming you had the competence, which you don’t, you wouldn’t have done any better, and even if you had, there would have been someone else waiting right behind you to shoot you the first time you actually tried to do anything good.
“Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power.”- William Gaddis. People take advantage of power when it is entrusted to them because of their own greed, which as a result lead to societal deterioration. In the story, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, the higher-ups from Gilead abuse the power that is given to them, ruining the life of the citizens in the society. This was the cause for the need of higher birth rates and fixing conflicts in the world, but this was handled immorally.
Stalin had a wide variety of political opposition mainly because of his urges against political parties and the rumours of his killing some of his own party members. Stalin launched the ‘Great Purge’ campaign in 1937 and removed political opponents such as Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and Trotsky. Additionally he removed experienced Red Army officers as they were loyal to Trotsky and replaced them with inexperienced younger officers who would ensure their loyalty to him. Anyone who was against Stalin would be arrested by the secret police, questioned and if found guilty would be executed or forced into a labour camp. [Historians view on Stalin’s involvement on the assassination?].
On March 5, 1940, the Soviet leadership under Stalin, approved an order of execution of more than 25,700 Polish "nationalist, educators and counter revolutionary" activists in the parts of the Ukraine and Belarus republics that had been annexed from Poland. This event has become known as the Katlyn Massacre.[21] In June 1941, Hitler broke that pact with Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union in operation Barbarossa. Although he was expecting war with Germany, he may not have expected an invasion to come so soon — and the Soviet Union was relatively unprepared for this invasion.
Power can have the persuasive action in undoing the moral ethics of one’s character. This can be seen throughout history, such as World War II and proven by the actions of Napoleon in the allegory, Animal Farm, by George Orwell. As Lord Acton said “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In history what was viewed as a villain, is never the same as the perception. A leader does not begin wanting to do wrong, they start with the best intentions, but power is a tricky thing.
