In the book The Red Scarf the dictator of the Soviet Union ,Joseph Stalin, said “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic,¨ (Furnivall 1). He acted as a vicious leader that desperately wished to modernise the Soviet Union. During the 1930s Russia was falling behind the other nations, and the only way to catch up was through the brutal suffering of humans in industrial labor. Stalin preached No matter what it takes, no matter how many people die, Russia will become victorious. Joseph Stalin was a dictator that sacrificed his own people for the better of the nation and by doing that improved the Soviet Union’s industrial output.
Joseph Stalin was born on December 21, 1879 in Gori, Georgia, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. His birth name was Iosif Vissarionovich, but later changed it to Joseph Stalin. Stalin means ¨Man of Steel¨ because he was the leader of the industrial powerhouse of the USSR. Joseph Stalin grew up in the depth of poverty. Both of his parents had mediocre jobs and barely maintained enough to support the family. Stalin’s father Besario ,a cobbler, was an extreme alcoholic who beat stalin and his wife Keke. When Stalin was 9 years old his father left the family and as a
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Stalin denied civil rights, and health care to all suspected ¨enemies¨. Millions were imprisoned, enslaved, deported, or executed. Famine was used as a tool as genocide. More than 6 million died from the famine and countless children were abandoned when their parents could not pay for them anymore. The great purge is a series of killings from 1934 - 1938. He killed the leader of the Bolshevik revolution during this time. After stalin died Nikita Khrushchev tried to help his people but many families were broken and had a hard time rebuilding their lives. 1.2 millions soviet citizens were executed, 6 million citizens were exiled, 17 million were placed in labor camp and 10% died