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.
This quote show that like Napoleon's secret police of dogs would kill anyone who a threat to napoleon or disagreed with what he was doing would get kill just like the KGB would kill anyone who was against how stalin was ruling and people who disobeyed the
It’s been almost a year and 2 months since me and my family were sent to the Gulag. I’ve already lost two toes from the frost bite. My father ran a church for fifteen years and had a fairly happy life with my two sisters and mother. When “uncle joe’s” secret police came, they shot both my mother and sisters. My father knew that if he kept the church running and disobeyed the law, he would be killed.
Joseph Stalin was born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili on December 18, 1878, or December 6, 1878, according to the Old Style Julian calendar. Although, he later invented a new birthdate for himself: December 21, 1878. Joseph Stalin’s childhood has impacted him in many ways. He grew up poor with no siblings. His father was an alcoholic who was abusive to his son and worked as a shoemaker, and mother was a laundress who washed clothes.
“ Its primary role within Russia and the satellite republics of the Soviet Union was to quell dissent, by first identifying dissidents promoting anti-communist political and/or religious ideas and then silencing them. To perform this task, KGB agents often used extremely violent means” (“KGB: Meaning, Agents and Vladimir Putin - HISTORY”). Altogether, the KGB didn’t really have a restraining policy on how their spies were supposed to spy on Russians. Another impact the KGB had on Russia was that it caused neighbors to accuse neighbors for being spies, for having the most minute changes in their daily schedule. In turn, the KGB also took a lot of civilians to be trained to be spies as the KGB was an extremely extensive network.
The slaughterers, the pig’s companions, and worst of all the animals’ greatest threat; also known as the dogs are a great example of the KGB in the Soviet Union. The KGB was like the secret keeping bodyguards of Russia, specifically Stalin. The KGB’s functions and roles of the Soviet Union are greatly compared to the dogs in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. The KGB strengthened the Soviet Union by their affairs with many other countries and their amount of secrets kept.
After Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, totalitarian rulers with purportedly opposing ideologies, signed their 1939 pact to divide up Eastern Europe, one English diplomat remarked that “all the isms have become wasms.” In the Soviet Union, Sergei Eisenstein’s movie Alexander Nevsky, which showed war between Russians and Germans, was withdrawn from theaters, as were all other anti-German or antiNazi media. One memoirist recalls a friend lamenting, “Now I’ll never get to see Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator!”
Introduction Joseph Stalin is perhaps one of the most important and discussed people in Russian history. He was arguably a feared tyrant cursed and despised by many. At the same time, one finds sufficient evidence for the adoration and worship of Stalin that used to exist in the minds of the citizens of the Soviet Union. One reason for this worship was the existence of the so called ‘Cult of Personality’ where Stalin was celebrated as a wise leader, father of all people, and the architect of victory of the Second World War. In his book, The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power, Jan Plamper states that Stalin’s cult of personality was largely a visual phenomenon.
Stalin: An Economic Savior “We are fifty to a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do this or they crush us” (Joseph Stalin). When Stalin first became the leader of Russia in 1929, the economy was in shambles.
Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Communists in Russia, he was paranoid of opposition. That paranoia was what led to the Great Purge also known as the Great Terror, where millions of people were executed or sent to labor camps in Siberia. Stalin believed that the country had to be united with him as their leader if it wanted to be strong. His first purge was 1930 to 1933 and were aimed to kill those who opposed industrialization.
With power came the question of how to maintain it. In order to cement their leadership in their countries, both Hitler and Stalin employed the same method: eliminate political rivals and those they distrusted to strengthen their influence and further their interests. The Great Purge, also known as the Great Terror, occurred in the 1930s in Russia and had been a time of oppression and persecution. It began in 1935 when Sergey Kirov, a Communist leader and political rival of Stalin's, was assassinated. Then, anyone associated with Stalin's opposition would be charged with treason, espionage, and more by the NKVD, the Russian secret police, and sentenced to death.
Dictatorship: Is the type of government in which a person followed by a political party or a specific group is in the possession of all the power. Generally, patriotic propaganda is used to exalt people’s nationality and the dictator. Moreover, there’s lots of censor in the means of communication. Such regime intervenes directly in people’s daily basis, including: censorship, repression, massacre to the opposition, etc. Totalitarianism:
A little layer of pure white snow crunched under Leo's feet as his dark dress shoes moved along the street heading towards Grand Central Station , holding onto the briefcase, taking a look at the Americans who were walking to their jobs and wherever they wished to go. His eyes went from each one only to look at the buildings, to look at the extent of American resourcefulness that was somewhat distracting; what forced him to focus was a woman walking her way towards the station. That wasn't what got his full attention: it was the manner in which she walked through the crowd. Unlike in other women he’d met, she didn't become invisible when she didn't have anything her boss required. She conducted herself in a confident manner.
Stalinist terror not only killed and destroyed lives of innumerable innocent prisoners, but deeply affected also their closest relatives, wives and children’s. Nowadays, there are many books published in Russian from those who suffered excruciating pains during Stalin's purges, being members of families labelled "enemies of the people". The term appeared in 1926 and called for the punishment, not only for the perpetrator (or falsely accused of it), but for his wife and children. In August 15, 1937 there was an NKVD operational order number 00486: "On operations repression of wives and children of traitors". One wonders what happened to children who were in apartments after their parents had been arrested?
Both Stalin And Robespierre had secret police that had to find and jail or execute any enemies, for France this was the Committee of Public Safety
