Joseph Stalin Essay Examples

This article presents some preliminary empirical findings about the impact of the great terror in Leningrad (city and oblast’). The sheer scale of the purges makes a quantitative analysis of their impact viable, even within a very limited time span and within a defined geographical region. Leningrad itself offers an interesting case study because of […]

To answer this question with total understanding as to Orwell’s vision, we must first be aware of his personal feelings towards the revolution that took place in Russia, and translate it to, in ‘Animal Farm’, the rebellion of a group of farm animals. And in ‘1984’ Watson’s need of rebellion. Orwell’s vision of society in […]

The government in USA was deeply unhappy with the Communism’s expansion to eastern Europe, which seemed to go further and further, threatening the power of capitalism. Traditionally America’s policy was based on isolationism, but the threat of Communism expansion made the Americans realise that this was no longer possible if it wanted to have a […]

In the 1920’s the soviet economy was failing disastrously the revolution and the civil war had devastated the soviet economy and the economic output was less than that under the Tsar. There were Famines followed by high prices and hyperinflation and major crises like the scissors crisis. Stalin instigated a series of vast five year […]

Many millions of simple peasants were unnecessarily caused untold misery by Stalin’s collectivization policy, which is widely believed to have ruined Russian agriculture. The focus of this essay is to assess whether Stalin’s collectivisation programme during the 1930s was a successful “revolution from above” as he claimed, or an excessively ruthless and ineffective policy. “Revolution […]

Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia in 1879. Stalin was educated in a religious college but was expelled for revolutionary activities. He then became a member of the Bolshevik Party, he used to organise bank robberies and was jailed a few times. After the November revolution Stalin was given more power and was promoted by […]

Through the 1920s peasants provided the Soviet government with many problems. The argument about the future of NEP was largely to do with how the government should treat the peasants. It was an argument that had already split the politburo in two.Early in 1928 Stalin announced that the USSR was 2 million tonnes short of […]

1. Explain why according to Source D “four to five million people perished”?Richard Service states in Source D that four to five million people perished “from ‘dekulakisation’ and grain seizures.” Dekulakisation refers to the annihilation of the entire class of kulaks, which were ‘rich peasants’. Kulaks were peasants who were somewhat better off than other […]

Stalin’s economic policies can be seen as a significant success, because they achieved their overall goals of modernising and improving Russia as quickly as possible, in order to catch up and compete with the other European powers and America. The first of the Economic policies are the Five Year Plans. Stalin’s main ideas were to […]

Stalin was in control of Russia for nearly 30 years, from 1924, after the death of the Bolshevik leader, Lenin, to 1953, when Stalin, himself, died. He was incredibly brutal, and sent many innocent people to their deaths, or to “gulags” (Russian concentration camps). He had his critics tortured, or removed and was the cause […]

These purges were his method of removing those who had previously opposed him and also those he believed may oppose him in the future. These alleged criminals against the state were either imprisoned, exiled or shot and ranged from high party officials and members of the military through to ordinary citizens. The purges began in […]

Question 1 Source A portrays Stalin negatively, as it was made by one of his adversaries. The image is a satirical travel poster showing stacks of human skulls, with Stalin inviting people to “Visit the USSR’s pyramids.” The caption has dark humor and irony, as the mentioned “pyramids” are actually made up of human skulls. […]

Operation Barbarossa had many major and some more minor factors which led to the early success and eventually the ultimate failure of the invasion. The Germans initial quick invasion using their Blitzkrieg tactics and the element of surprise against the Russians allowed them to get very close to Moscow. However the most important reason for […]

From 1917 to 1940, Leon Trotsky, a highly influential Marxist figure, experienced a series of significant events in Russia and the Soviet Union. These events included arrests, exile sentences, and aligning with the Mensheviks. However, after Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown during the Russian Revolution, Trotsky returned to Russia in May 1917 and joined Vladimir […]

Humans always have had a tendency to allow the poor and miserable to suffer, even while the wealthy continue to fatten and flourish in needed yet often unshared resources. The social order has shaped a distinctive hierarchy composed of the High, the Middle, and the Low in an exceedingly flawed and callous structure. This system […]

What if the animals ran the world? George Orwell tried to answer this question on a smaller scale in his 1945 novel, Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a satire on Stalinism and the Russian revolution. Orwell wrote this novel at a time when communism was on the rise and Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron […]

In the time before Lenin’s death and in the years after, Stalin seemed to have a disadvantage compared to his rivals. People doubted his role in the Revolution and questioned his skills as a Party leader. However, several factors played a part in Stalin ultimately becoming successful, although their significance differed. Despite the odds appearing […]

Stalin was in many ways a superb tactician; cool, rational, intelligent and utterly ruthless. However, his grasp of international relations was never the strongest of his talents. On occasions his miscalculations had disastrous implications, both for the immediate and long-term security of the Soviet Union. To begin with the problem was one of ideological rigidity. […]

The cold war dominated international relations throughout the world for over 35 years. It showed political and military tension between the Western and Eastern powers. Some people suggest there was a thaw (improved relations) in the cold war between 1953 and 1960 while others suggest there wasn’t. One the one hand it could be said […]

The Berlin Blockade and Airlift began on the 23rd of June 1948 and ended on the 12th of May 1949. It was the first major conflict to occur during the Cold War between USA and the USSR. During this conflict Western Berlin who was under the control of the Western Allies was blocked off from […]

Leszek Kolakowski, a famous philosopher referred to collectivisiation as ‘probably the most massive warlike operation ever conducted by a state against its own citizens. ‘ Collectivisation aimed to achieve socialism in the countryside by converting privately owned farms into collectivised farms which were to be run amongst the peasants, requiring them to hand over produce […]

We are first introduced to Snowball after the pigs take charge of spreading Old Major’s message on the farm. We learn, “Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character” (2.2). It is hard to know exactly what the […]