Joseph stalin biography russian economy

During the second half of the s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge , a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party, the military and other parts of Soviet society from those he considered a threat. Additionally, Stalin built a cult of personality around himself in the Soviet Union. Cities were renamed in his honor. Soviet history books were rewritten to give him a more prominent role in the revolution and mythologize other aspects of his life.

Stalin was the subject of flattering artwork, literature and music, and his name became part of the Soviet national anthem. He censored photographs in an attempt to rewrite history, removing former associates executed during his many purges. His government also controlled the Soviet media. Cruel efforts under Stalin to impose collectivism and tamp down Ukrainian nationalism left an estimated 3.

Even the famous photo of Soviet soldiers raising their flag after the Battle of Berlin was altered. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland and Romania, as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He also launched an invasion of Finland. Stalin had ignored warnings from the Americans and the British, as well as his own intelligence agents, about a potential invasion, and the Soviets were not prepared for war.

As German troops approached the Soviet capital of Moscow, Stalin remained there and directed a scorched earth defensive policy, destroying any supplies or infrastructure that might benefit the enemy. The tide turned for the Soviets with the Battle of Stalingrad from August to February , during which the Red Army defeated the Germans and eventually drove them from Russia.

As the war progressed, Stalin participated in the major Allied conferences, including the Tehran Conference and the Yalta Conference His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet empire. Joseph Stalin did not mellow with age: He initiated a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labor camps and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign—especially Western—influence.

He established communist governments throughout Eastern Europe, and in led the Soviets into the nuclear age by exploding an atomic bomb. However, with great loss of life, the Soviet Union were finally able to prevail. When the German army was at the gates of Moscow in , Stalin refused to leave, and his presence in the city helped to maintain hope.

The Germany occupation of Western Soviet Union was brutal with millions being killed by the occupying forces. As the Russian army liberated their own country and saw numerous accounts of atrocities, they, in turn, committed atrocities in their conquest of Germany. He believed that many in the occupied zone had collaborated with the Germans.

After the end of the Second World War, Stalin became desperate to get the nuclear bomb, after seeing its devastating effects in Japan. Stalin was instrumental in creating the Eastern Block and Warsaw Pact — denying Eastern European countries the opportunity to pursue democratic self-government. Perhaps no other person has been so committed and so successful in achieving total power and control.

This week James is joined by Elisabeth Braw from the American Enterprise Institute to discuss the Finnish-Russo war of the 20th Century and its impact on geopolitics today. Listen Now. The Bolsheviks , leaders of the Russian Revolution, promised the people of Russia equality, opportunity and better living conditions. But Lenin was not a miracle worker.

Russia was engulfed in civil war for several more years, and things would get worse before they got better. However, the advent of electrification across Russia made the development of heavy industry possible and transformed the lives of millions of people. Eschewing capitalism, the state assumed control of the means of production, exchange and communication, with the aim of completing the process of collectivisation in the near future.

For many, they did not go far enough and Lenin found himself clashing with those who wanted more radical reform. The idea was to transform the new Soviet Russia into a major industrial powerhouse in a virtually unprecedented period of time. To do this, he would need to implement large-scale social and cultural reforms too. Newly collectivised farms, controlled by the state, transformed the lifestyle and existence of peasant farmers: as a result, peasants resisted the reforms much of the time.

Sometime between and Stalin presided over post-war reconstruction and the first Soviet atomic bomb test in During these years, the country experienced another famine and a state-sponsored antisemitic campaign culminating in the " doctors' plot ". In , Stalin died after suffering a stroke, and was succeeded as leader by Georgy Malenkov and later by Nikita Khrushchev , who in denounced Stalin's rule and initiated a campaign of " de-Stalinisation ".

Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Stalin was the subject of a pervasive personality cult within the international Marxist—Leninist movement, which revered him as a champion of socialism and the working class. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in , Stalin has retained a degree of popularity in post-Soviet states as an economic moderniser and victorious wartime leader who cemented the Soviet Union as a major world power.

Conversely, his regime has been widely condemned for overseeing mass repressions , ethnic cleansing , and famines which caused the deaths of millions. Stalin was born on 18 December [ O. In , Stalin enrolled as a trainee Russian Orthodox priest at the Tiflis Theological Seminary , enabled by a scholarship. During October , he worked as a meteorologist at the Tiflis observatory.

That month, he travelled to Batumi. In January , government troops massacred protesters in Saint Petersburg spreading across the Empire in the Revolution of Stalin married Kato Svanidze in July , [ 56 ] and in March she gave birth to their son Yakov. His operatives ambushed the convoy in Erivansky Square with guns and home-made bombs; around 40 people were killed.

In March , Stalin was arrested and imprisoned in Baku. After the October Duma elections , Stalin wrote articles calling for reconciliation between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks; Lenin criticised him [ 88 ] and he relented. The alias, which he had used since , is derived from the Russian for steel stal , and has been translated as "Man of Steel". The existing government of landlords and capitalists must be replaced by a new government, a government of workers and peasants.

The existing pseudo-government which was not elected by the people and which is not accountable to the people must be replaced by a government recognised by the people, elected by representatives of the workers, soldiers and peasants and held accountable to their representatives. Stalin helped organise the July Days uprising, an armed display of strength by supporters of the Bolsheviks.

On 24 October, police raided the Bolshevik newspaper offices, smashing machinery and presses; Stalin salvaged some of the equipment. On 26 October , Lenin declared himself chairman of the new government, the Council of People's Commissars Sovnarkom. Having left his role as Pravda editor, [ ] Stalin was appointed the People's Commissar for Nationalities.

In December , Stalin was sent to Perm to lead an inquiry into how Alexander Kolchak 's White forces had been able to decimate Red troops there. The Bolsheviks won the main phase of the civil war by the end of The Soviet government sought to bring neighbouring states under its domination; in February it invaded the Menshevik-governed Georgia , [ ] and in April , Stalin ordered the Red Army into Turkestan to reassert Soviet control.

After the civil war, workers' strikes and peasant uprisings broke out across Russia in opposition to Sovnarkom's food requisitioning project; in response, Lenin introduced market-oriented reforms in the New Economic Policy NEP. Although concerns were expressed that adopting the new position would overstretch his workload and grant him too much power, Stalin was appointed to the post.

Stalin is too crude, and this defect which is entirely acceptable in our milieu and in relationships among us as communists, becomes unacceptable in the position of General Secretary. I therefore propose to comrades that they should devise a means of removing him from this job and should appoint to this job someone else who is distinguished from comrade Stalin in all other respects only by the single superior aspect that he should be more tolerant, more polite and more attentive towards comrades, less capricious, etc.

In May , a massive stroke left Lenin partially paralysed. Their differences also became personal; Lenin was angered when Stalin was rude to his wife Krupskaya during a telephone conversation. Upon Lenin's death in January , [ ] Stalin took charge of the funeral and was a pallbearer. As General Secretary, Stalin had a free hand in making appointments to his own staff, and implanted loyalists throughout the party.

In late , Stalin moved against Kamenev and Zinoviev, removing their supporters from key positions.

Joseph stalin biography russian economy

Stalin was now the supreme leader of the party and state. We have fallen behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years. We must close that gap in ten years. Either we do this or we'll be crushed. The Soviet Union lagged far behind the industrial and agricultural development of the Western powers. In early , Stalin travelled to Novosibirsk , where he alleged that kulaks were hoarding grain and ordered them be arrested and their grain confiscated, with Stalin bringing much of the grain back to Moscow with him in February.

In , the Politburo announced the mass collectivisation of agriculture , [ ] establishing both kolkhoz collective farms and sovkhoz state farms. By mid, he was unable to rally sufficient support in the party to oppose the reforms; [ ] in November , Stalin removed him from the Politburo. Officially, the Soviet Union had replaced the "irrationality" and "wastefulness" of a market economy with a planned economy organised along a long-term and scientific framework; in reality, Soviet economics were based on ad hoc commandments issued often to make short-term targets.

Many major construction projects, including the White Sea—Baltic Canal and the Moscow Metro , were constructed largely through forced labour. In , Stalin declared that class war between the proletariat and their enemies would intensify as socialism developed. Stalin desired a " cultural revolution ", [ ] entailing both the creation of a culture for the "masses" and the wider dissemination of previously elite culture.

Throughout the s, Stalin placed a priority on foreign policy. Wells , both of whom were impressed with him. In , Stalin's son Yakov unsuccessfully attempted suicide, shooting himself in the chest and narrowly missing his heart; his failure earned the contempt of Stalin, who is reported to have brushed off the attempt by saying "He can't even shoot straight.

Within the Soviet Union, civic disgruntlement against Stalin's government was widespread. The Soviet Union experienced a major famine which peaked in the winter of —, [ ] with 5—7 million deaths. In , Stalin oversaw the adoption of a new constitution with expansive democratic features; it was designed as propaganda, as all power rested in his hands.

Seeking better international relations, in the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations , from which it had previously been excluded. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July , the Soviets sent military aid to the Republican faction , including aircraft and tanks, along with 3, Soviet troops and 42, members of the International Brigades.

Stalin's approach to state repression was often contradictory. That same month, he called for the execution of workers at the Stalin Metallurgical Factory accused of spying for Japan. Repressions intensified further from December until November Stalin initiated all key decisions during the purge, and personally directed many operations.

As a Marxist—Leninist, Stalin considered conflict between competing capitalist powers inevitable; after Nazi Germany annexed Austria and then part of Czechoslovakia in , he recognised a major war was looming. As Britain and France seemed unwilling to commit to an alliance with the Soviet Union, Stalin saw a better deal with the Germans. The Soviets further demanded parts of eastern Finland, but the Finnish government refused.

The speed of the German victory over and occupation of France in mid took Stalin by surprise. Plans were made for the Soviet government to evacuate to Kuibyshev , although Stalin decided to remain in Moscow, believing his flight would damage troop morale. Going against the advice of Zhukov and other generals, Stalin emphasised attack over defence.

The Soviets allied with the UK and U. In April , Stalin overrode Stavka by ordering the Soviets' first serious counter-attack, an attempt to seize German-held Kharkov in eastern Ukraine. This attack proved unsuccessful. By November , the Soviets had begun to repulse the German southern campaign and, although there were 2. In Allied countries, Stalin was increasingly depicted in a positive light over the course of the war.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt , together known as the "Big Three". Using the idea of collective responsibility as a basis, Stalin's government abolished their autonomous republics and between late and deported the majority of their populations to Central Asia and Siberia. In February , the three leaders met at the Yalta Conference.

Churchill, concerned by this, unsuccessfully tried to convince the U. After the war, Stalin was at the apex of his career. Despite his strengthened international position, Stalin was cautious about internal dissent and desire for change among the population. In this he recalled the Decembrist Revolt by Russian soldiers returning from having defeated France in the Napoleonic Wars.

About half were then imprisoned in labour camps. By January , three percent of the Soviet population was imprisoned or in internal exile, with 2. The NKVD were ordered to catalogue the scale of destruction during the war. Stalin allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to retain the churches it had opened during the war, [ ] and academia and the arts were also allowed greater freedom.

In the post-war period there were often food shortages in Soviet cities, [ ] and the USSR experienced a major famine from to In the aftermath of the war, the British Empire declined, leaving the U. The U. He initially refused, leading to an international crisis in , but relented one year later. In , Stalin edited and rewrote sections of Falsifiers of History , published as a series of Pravda articles in February and then in book form.

Written in response to public revelations of the Soviet alliance with Germany, it focused on blaming the Western powers for the war. After the war, Stalin sought to retain Soviet dominance across Eastern Europe while expanding its influence in Asia. Churchill observed that an " Iron Curtain " had been drawn across Europe, separating the east from the west.

Stalin suggested that a unified, but demilitarised, German state be established, hoping that it would either come under Soviet influence or remain neutral. Initially Stalin refused to repeal the Sino-Soviet Treaty of , which significantly benefited the Soviet Union over China, although in January he relented and agreed to sign a new treaty.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States divided up the Korean Peninsula, formerly a Japanese colonial possession, along the 38th parallel , setting up a communist government in the north and a pro-Western, anti-communist government in the south. The Soviet Union was one of the first nations to extend diplomatic recognition to the newly created state of Israel in , in hopes of obtaining an ally in the Middle East.

In his later years, Stalin was in poor health. From until his death, Stalin only gave three public speeches, two of which lasted only a few minutes. It sought to provide a guide to leading the country after his death. On 1 March , Stalin's staff found him semi-conscious on the bedroom floor of his Kuntsevo Dacha. Stalin left neither a designated successor nor a framework within which a peaceful transfer of power could take place.

Stalin claimed to have embraced Marxism at the age of 15, [ ] and it served as the guiding philosophy throughout his adult life; [ ] according to Kotkin, Stalin held "zealous Marxist convictions", [ ] while Montefiore suggested that Marxism held a "quasi-religious" value for Stalin. I stand on the ground of the latter". Stalin believed in an inevitable " class war " between the world's proletariat and bourgeoisie [ ] in which the working classes would prove victorious and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat , [ ] regarding the Soviet Union as an example of such a state.

Stalin adhered to the Leninist variant of Marxism. Stalin viewed nations as contingent entities which were formed by capitalism and could merge into others. Ethnically Georgian, [ ] Stalin grew up speaking the Georgian language, [ ] and did not begin learning Russian until age eight or nine. Described as soft-spoken [ ] and a poor orator, [ ] Stalin's style was "simple and clear, without flights of fancy, catchy phrases or platform histrionics ".

Trotsky and several other Soviet figures promoted the idea that Stalin was a mediocrity, [ ] a characterisation which gained widespread acceptance outside of the Soviet Union during his lifetime. Stalin lacked compassion, [ ] possibly exacerbated by his repeated imprisonments and exiles, [ ] though he occasionally showed kindness to strangers, even during the Great Purge.

Rees believed it was psychopathy that bred Stalin's tyranny, citing a diagnosis by neuropathologist Vladimir Bekhterev that described him as a "typical case of severe paranoia". Stalin had a keen interest in the arts. Stalin married his first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze , in Volkogonov suggested that she was "probably the one human being he had really loved".

She died and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity. In exile in Solvychegodsk in , Stalin had an affair with his landlady, Maria Kuzakova, who in gave birth to his alleged second son, Konstantin Kuzakov , [ ] who later taught philosophy at the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute , but never met Stalin. She gave birth to their alleged son, Alexander Davydov , in around April He was raised as the son of a peasant fisherman; [ ] Stalin later came to know of the child's existence but showed no interest in him.

Stalin's second wife was Nadezhda Alliluyeva , whom he married in ; theirs was not an easy relationship, they often fought. The historian Robert Conquest stated that Stalin perhaps "determined the course of the twentieth century" more than any other individual. According to Service, Stalin strengthened and stabilised the Soviet Union. Stalin's necessity for the Soviet Union's economic development has been questioned, and it has been argued that his policies from onwards may have been a limiting factor.

A vast literature devoted to Stalin has been produced.