Who Was Joseph Stalin's Fault

In a repressive regime, many people cannot conclude whether it was the fault of the people or the fault of the ruler. Without taking the people into consideration, new rulers come into the government, knowing how they want things to go, regardless of how the people feel. Stalin used his power, and fear to be sure that they were going to do what he wanted. Although while Stalin was getting power, the people were not aware of what was going on. The people were at fault because they sat back and watched the events unfold. Stalin used gulags and labor camps to scare the people. The people were afraid of being sent to the gulags so they did not do anything about it. Gulags are “systems of labor camps maintained in the former Soviet Union from

The Great Purge was from 1936 to 1938. It was a series of mass murders by the secret police. False accusations were made against people, and forged documents were used. People were numbed by fear. They were afraid that their lives were going to be taken from them. During this time, approximately 1,548,366 were detained, 681,962 were shot and over 1,000 executions per day. It is known that over four million people died during the great purge, but historians say this this number could easily be doubled. Survivors of the great purge claimed to have been threatened and tortured. Along with the Great Purge, Stalin also came up with a five-year plan. This was in place from 1928 to 1932. During the five years, the government took control of farms; whoever refused was shot or exiled. Since people had no control over their farms, they had no food. Famine led to many deaths. Stalin wanted a better industry so he was trying to turn the Soviet Union into an industrial superpower. They had agricultural needs, along with needing oil, coal, steel and

Not all the blame can be placed on the people though. There were many ways that Stalin kept gaining power and the people never knew about it. In 1912, Vladimir Lenin put Stalin on the central committee of the Bolshevik party. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922, giving Stalin more power. He then became the secretary of the communist party. Lenin continued to give Stalin power and the people could not do anything to stop it. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin had complete control over the communist party. By the late 1920s, he was the dictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin kept finding way to get more power and the people were not able to do anything to fix