Stalin's Impact On The United States

Stalin’s iron fist totalitarian leadership is often viewed with negative connotations by historians today, although many of his policies advanced the Soviet Union at a rapid rate to become the United State’s primary competition in the years following his death. The use of five year plans by Stalin caused for many people to parish due to the all or nothing mentality put forward by him, causing for the U.S.S.R’s achievements to be reviewed in the future by historians as ruthless and questioned if the brutality used by Stalin was necessary. During his reign as leader, Stalin caused for the people of rural Russia to live lives filled with famine and immense abuse when they failed to hit quotas set out by the government in an effort to feed the

The first five year plan outline key concepts which Stalin’s U.S.S.R would need to accomplish at all costs in order to reach the same level of power as many western nations during the 1920’s and 30’s. The first goal of the five year plan was to heavily industrialize the Soviet Union by building many factories and moving the rural population to an urban living area. This essentially helped to create the large cites of Russia. Another goal of the first five year plan was to find a means of managing food for the urban population. This ended up creating the need for agriculture to be collectivized with the creation of collective farms. The shift of agriculture to a collective structure was extremely smart in allowing for urban populations to revive the food they desired but it caused for the government to require near impossible quotas from the farmers. The creation of collective farms also caused for families to be forced off of land they held for years and created state owned

In terms of agricultural output the government reported that it rose from 48% in 1928 to 70% in the final year of the five year plan (1932). This deep development in a short few years came at the cost of many citizens due to the creating of a rural famine from a sweeping government. The Soviet government challenged and later removed many general freedoms awarded to farmers under prior governments in favour of a strict communal farming style based entirely on reaching high state quotas. Although changes implemented by the new socialist government caused for rural famine and decrease of living quality they allowed for the Soviet Union to expand rapidly. Without the ruthless tactics and strict policies implemented by Stalin none of these changes would have been able to occur in the timely fashion they