Group+10-+Stalin's+Reign+of+Terror



__Cult of Personality__

A cult of personality happens when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Joseph Stalin used this in his reign of terror. He came from a poor background and was not intellectual. These characteristics would make you think that he would not be popular with the public, but these qualities made him well liked among the [|communist]Russians. The people felt that he represented them and knew what they wanted. Stalin worked his way up the ladder of politics until he was at the head of the politburo, as General Secretary.

Stalin was the successor of Lenin, and happened to fit into Lenin cult of personality. It was believed that Stalin possessed the same sort of nobility as Lenin had, as he had worked with Lenin in the politburo. Because of this belief he was instantly a hit with the crowds. He seemed larger than life. People saw him as a superhero with qualities similar to those of a god. He is held in honor because during the Holocaust he was the leading force against Germany and developed Russia. He was the face of Russia and led them to victory, but he also grew paranoid and sent many officers and people to their deaths. Stalin was as deadly an enemy to the Soviet population as any external invader was.

Stalin was feared and loved. Although he modernized the USSR he was greatly feared as well, especially in the country side. He starved and put the peasants out of work and requested that the class be liquidated in order to keep up with the rapid industrialization of other countries. They feared his oppression to such an extent that when the Germans invaded the USSR they put up no resistance and were happy to see them. He was terrible to his people but they all saw the best in him and what he did for the USSR. He modernized them with his 5 year plan, and it worked.



In current Day society his imprints are still around. Many are shocked that his reign is not as well known as Hitler’s was. People look back on his reign without hate but rather with a sense of nostalgia. Many things are named after Stalin to honor him such as the Stalin peace prize, countless cities within Russia, and even other countries (the countries changed their names back after a few years.).

By virtue of his success in gaining an iconic status, he grew steadily more paranoid. He began to have destructive bouts of paranoia and it was due to his cult of personality, he thought he was going to loose it. It lead to his ultimate downfall.

__Politburo__ A politburo (originally, Lenin's inner circle in the 1920s) was a Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Its members where the highest ranked members of the Central Committee. The politburo made major policy decisions and over saw the central committee. This power influenced the government as well because the members of the party were also major members within the government. The first politburo only lasted two weeks in 1917. It was used to decide the course of action to take when the Bolsheviks staged a successful coup in Petrograd, and they elected a political bureau for political leadership during the revolution. this Politburo's members were: Lenin, Zinov'ev, Kamenev, Trockij, Stalin, Sokol'nikov and Bubnov. After the coup it ceased to function.

The second politburo was reformed then the The Eighth Party Congress decided that the politburo was to decide on questions too urgent to await full Central Committee deliberation.



When Stalin came into power of the politburo the leadership (General secretary) of the politburo was determined hierarchical. The General Secretary deduced who and how it was composed rather then the reverse. Stalin also managed to expel all original members of the politburo and he managed to achieve political dominance over this body by eliminating all political rivals. In 1952 Stalin changed the party charter and replaced it with a larger Presidium.The Politburo Changed back to the original duties of the polituro after stalins death in 1953.

__ Secret Police __ From the beginning of their regime, the Bolsheviks relied on a strong secret, police to enforce their rule. The first secret police, called the Cheka, was established in December 1917 as a temporary institution to be abolished once Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks had came to power. The original Cheka, headed by Feliks Dzerzhinskii, was empowered only to investigate "counterrevolutionary" crimes. But it soon acquired powers of summary justice and began a campaign of terror against the propertied classes and enemies of Bolshevism. Although many Bolsheviks viewed the Cheka with hatred and spoke out against its actions, its continued existence was seen as crucial to the survival of the new regime. Once the Civil War (1918-21) ended and the threat of domestic and foreign opposition had receded, the Cheka was disbanded. Its functions were transferred in 1922 to the State Political Directorate, which was initially less powerful. However, under party leader Joseph Stalin, the secret police again acquired its powers and in 1934 was renamed the People's Comissariat for Internal Affairs, NKVD. No longer subject to party control or restricted by law, the NKVD became a direct option for Stalin for use against the party and the country during the Great Terror of the 1930s. Stalin used the Secret Police to enforce his laws and intimidate the Ukrainian peasants so they would join his collective farms. Anyone peasant who would refuse to join Stalin’s collective farms would most likely be killed by the NKVD. The secret police remained the most powerful and feared Soviet institution throughout the Stalinist period. Although the post-Stalin secret police, the KGB, no longer inflicted such large-scale purges, terror, and forced depopulation on the peoples of the Soviet Union, it continued to be used by the Kremlin leadership to suppress political and religious dissent. The head of the KGB was a key figure in resisting the democratization of the late 1980s and in organizing the attempted putsch of August 1991.



__ Stalin’s Control: Purges and Genocide __ In 1917, after the Russian revolution had succeeded; Stalin returned from exile and in 1922 was named General Secretary. Although this was hardly an important administrative position, Stalin used it to start his power base and control over the bureaucracy of the ruling communist party. When communist leader Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, a struggle for control broke out that pitted Stalin against his nemesis, Leon Trotsky. Stalin’s victory was slow and hard-fought, but in 1927 he had succeeded in having Trotsky expelled from the party and, in 1929, the country. By 1928, Stalin was entrenched as Supreme Soviet leader, and he wasted little time in launching a series of national campaigns. “The Five-Year Plan” was aimed at collectivizing the peasantry and creating the social order and economic system demanded by communist ideology. For the first five-year plan Stalin forced farmers and industry to modernize. The Soviet economy was concentrated in agriculture. By the mid-1920’s there were about 25 million farms in the Soviet Union but many produced only enough to feed the families who worked them. The more successful peasants were called kulaks. In 1929 Joseph Stalin introduced a campaign to liquidate the kulaks as a class in order to “collectivize” agriculture. He felt that once the peasants saw the benefits of modern agriculture, they would join the state-run collective farms. They were more stubborn than Stalin expected. They were unwilling to sell their products at the low prices. They destroyed their livestock, tools and burned their crops or let them rot in the fields. Between 1929 and 1934 the number of cattle in the country dropped from 58 million to 33.5 million. The number of horses dropped from 32.6 million to 17.3 million. Stalin was unhappy with this so he sent diplomats or just sent secret police or army units to deal with resisting cities, towns, or villages and got them to “persuade” the farmers. By 1930, percentage of peasants working on a collective farm was at 58% and by the end of the 1930’s 99%. These labour camps were implemented in an extraordinarily brutal fashion; leading to the deaths of millions of Ukrainian peasants (convict labourers). Stalin justified all this as part of the industrialization it takes to turn the USSR into a powerful industrial state. In 1932-33, Stalin engineered a famine by massively raising the grain quota that the peasantry had to turn over to the state. This famine killed between six and seven million people and broke the back of Ukrainian resistance. The Ukrainian famine was one of the most destructive genocides of the twentieth century. Stalin was a leader whose callous disregard for human life was matched only by his consuming paranoia; Stalin next turned his attention to the Communist Party itself. Many in the Communist Party were now calling for reconciliation with the peasantry, and de-emphasizing of industrial production and greater internal democracy. For Stalin, these dissident viewpoints represented an unacceptable threat. Anyone who was not unquestioningly loyal to him had to be “weeded out”. The Communist Party would be rebuilt in the image of “Great Leader”. This was the origin of the “cult of personality” that permeated Soviet politics and culture, depicting as infallible.

__ In your opinion, explain how Russians both loved and feared Stalin? __    The Russians both loved and feared Stalin. He was a tyrant leader and was viewed in many different ways. People in the communist party loved him and believed in what he was doing. Some people thought that if he hadn’t been the leader of the USSR World War II might not have been won and the Russians would not have had their freedom. The people also loved him because under his reign they knew he would do whatever it took to keep them as a powerful nation and make sure that they would never be invaded. However, with all this said he led purges against his own people and killed millions with his power obsessed paranoia. He may have loved his country and would do anything for it but he did not like all the people in the country. He discriminated against the Ukrainian peasants and tortured them through famine and labour camps until they could no longer take it and would die. These are the reasons that the people of Russia feared Stalin. They knew that at any moment he could change their lives for the worse and even have them killed. Stalin’s approach was simple you either did it his way or the highway. Those who were with him felt safe and were liked by Stalin, however; those you tried to revolt against him were killed and lives made unlivable, and were therefore forced to like him and go along with what he did. __ Q: By 1939, USSR was ready for war. The soviet people paid a heavy price for this growth. Was it worth it? __

A: After the preparation for the war and the rapid industrialization the Russian paid dearly. During the second five year plan in 1933-1937 the plans were originally to focus on light industries and more consumer goods, but as the threat of war seems imminent they shifted focus to heavy industry and the production of a great amount of armaments. It resulted in a famine that cost the country five million lives. By 1936 the electricity production was 16 times then it had previously been in 1913, and the production of coal a, steel and iron was also greatly upped. During this period they were paid low wages and often lacked daily necessities and consumer goods. In my opinion the price the Russians paid was great, but in the end it was necessary for them to develop quickly to keep them afloat in the capitalist world, and also essential to the war efforts. If they had not rapidly produced as they had, they would have lost to Germany in world war two. At the end of the war they were at par with Germany with production output. This would insure that they would not suffer from lack of resources and ammunitions. The stead fast rule of the communist leaders made it possible for the brutal five year plan to prepare the USSR for war. The preparations were worth it for the Russians, even through the hardships of the times.

__Bibliography__

"Totalitarianism in Europe (1919 - 1939)." //TheCorner//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. . "Gendercide Watch: Stalin's Purges." //Gendercide Watch - main page//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. . "Five Year Plan." //Spartacus Educational - Home Page//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. . "Joseph Stalin : Biography." //Spartacus Educational - Home Page//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. . "Stalin and the "Cult of Personality"." //The History Guide -- Main//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. . Tuffs, E. Alyn;, and R. Joanne Mitchner. //Global Forces of the Twentieth Century//. Canada: Nelson Thomson Learning, 2003. Print. "politburo: Definition from Answers.com." //Answers.com: Wiki Q&A combined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedias//. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. .

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