was stalin a fair leader

"[590] He personally took a keen interest in the development of the weapon. [354] Nationalist sentiment among ethnic minorities was suppressed. [534] The Gulag system of forced labour camps was expanded further. [17] In September 1888, Stalin enrolled at the Orthodox Gori Church School,[18] a place secured by Charkviani. The Constituent Assembly was declared dissolved by the Bolshevik-Left SR Soviet government, rendering the end the term served. [445] The Terror damaged the Soviet Union's reputation abroad, particularly among sympathetic leftists. "[837] However, Montefiore noted that in his early life Stalin "rarely seems to have been without a girlfriend. [150] Their second child, Alexander, was born circa April 1917. [741], During his youth, Stalin cultivated a scruffy appearance in rejection of middle-class aesthetic values. [595] [68] During his exile, the RSDLP had split between Vladimir Lenin's "Bolsheviks" and Julius Martov's "Mensheviks". Furthermore, Hitler, in contrast to Stalin, was able to add the authority of "spiritual founder" of national socialism to that of party leader. Lenin was seen as the figure head of the Communist Party, Stalin used this to his advantage in winning over the Russia population. [187] He co-signed Lenin's decrees shutting down hostile newspapers,[188] and along with Sverdlov, he chaired the sessions of the committee drafting a constitution for the new Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. [320] Large numbers died during the journey. Instead, the KMT repressed the Communists and a civil war broke out between the two sides.[308]. [270] To bolster his image as a devoted Leninist, Stalin gave nine lectures at Sverdlov University on the "Foundations of Leninism", later published in book form. [279] In his private life, he divided his time between his Kremlin apartment and a dacha at Zubalova;[280] his wife gave birth to a daughter, Svetlana, in February 1926. [575], Stalin's health was deteriorating, and heart problems forced a two-month vacation in the latter part of 1945. They were similar in some respects and yet very different. [629] He was further angered by Israel's growing alliance with the U.S.[630] After Stalin fell out with Israel, he launched an anti-Jewish campaign within the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. Not the Last Word", "The Personality Cult of Stalin in Soviet Posters, 19291953", "Ukraine Court Finds Bolsheviks Guilty of Holodomor Genocide", Stalin Library (with all 13 volumes of Stalin's, Library of Congress: Revelations from the Russian Archives, Electronic archive of Stalin's letters and presentations, Joseph Stalin Newsreels // Net-Film Newsreels and Documentary Films Archive, Stalin Biography from Spartacus Educational, A List of Key Documentary Material on Stalin, Stalinka: The Digital Library of Staliniana, Electronic archive of Stalins letters and presentations, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Stalin&oldid=1133956104, This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 08:16. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the U.S.S.R. from the mid 1920s till his death in 1953. [539] Privately, Stalin sought to ensure that Poland would come fully under Soviet influence. Joseph Stalin's death in March 1953 ended his long and brutal reign as leader of the Soviet Union. It repels the effects of negativity, prevents abuse of power and of justice, is contagious and promotes self-accountability. [923], Amid the social and economic turmoil of the post-Soviet period, many Russians viewed Stalin as having overseen an era of order, predictability, and pride. [902], Official records reveal 799,455 documented executions in the Soviet Union between 1921 and 1953; 681,692 of these were carried out between 1937 and 1938, the years of the Great Purge. "[694], Stalin adhered to the Leninist variant of Marxism. Some might say he was a good. [292] At the 14th Party Congress in December, they launched an attack against Stalin's faction, but it was unsuccessful. [795] Other historians linked his brutality not to any personality trait, but to his unwavering commitment to the survival of the Soviet Union and the international MarxistLeninist cause. In April 1932, Nikolai Shvernik, the head of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, informed Stalin and Lazar Kaganovich that Soviet workers were rebelling against "starvation" rations implemented on the first of the month. [264], Their differences also became personal; Lenin was particularly angered when Stalin was rude to his wife Krupskaya during a telephone conversation. [719] Montefiore thought Stalin's brutality marked him out as a "natural extremist";[794] Service suggested he had tendencies toward a paranoid and sociopathic personality disorder. [622], At the end of the Second World War, 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 government in the south. [364] Religion retained an influence over much of the population; in the 1937 census, 57% of respondents were willing to admit to being religious. [844] When she died, Stalin allegedly said: "This creature softened my heart of stone. [666] A memorial service in his honour was also held at St George the Martyr, Holborn in London. [597] In contrast to his approach to the Baltic states, he rejected the proposal of merging the new communist states into the Soviet Union, rather recognising them as independent nation-states. [234] At the 9th Bolshevik Conference in late September, Trotsky accused Stalin of "strategic mistakes" in his handling of the war. [688] Leading this vanguard, he believed that the Soviet peoples needed a strong, central figureakin to a Tsarwhom they could rally around. [162] In April, Stalin came third in the Bolshevik elections for the party's Central Committee; Lenin came first and Zinoviev came second. [267], Lenin died in January 1924. [652] According to a report published in The New York Times, Stalin was poisoned with warfarin by his own Politburo members. Some of the photos may be from earlier dates, but it is believed that this photo of Stalin was taken in 1893. [689] He also believed that this proletarian state would need to introduce repressive measures against foreign and domestic "enemies" to ensure the full crushing of the propertied classes,[690] and thus the class war would intensify with the advance of socialism. [236] Lenin joined Trotsky in criticising him, and nobody spoke on his behalf at the conference. [495] Responding to the invasion, the Soviets intensified their industrial enterprises in central Russia, focusing almost entirely on production for the military. Copy. [617] Across Eastern Europe, the Soviet model was enforced, with a termination of political pluralism, agricultural collectivisation, and investment in heavy industry. [780] Stalin denied to foreign visitors that he was a dictator, stating that those who labelled him such did not understand the Soviet governance structure. [859] There are unproven rumours that from 1934 onward he had a relationship with his housekeeper Valentina Istomina. [476], In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, initiating the war on the Eastern Front. [246] On this trip, Stalin met with his son Yakov, and brought him back to Moscow;[247] Nadezhda had given birth to another of Stalin's sons, Vasily, in March 1921. [183] Stalin's office was based near to Lenin's in the Smolny Institute,[184] and he and Trotsky were the only individuals allowed access to Lenin's study without an appointment. Serving in the Russian Civil War before overseeing the Soviet Union's establishment in 1922, Stalin assumed leadership over the country following Lenin's death in 1924. [804] Little of this was fiction,[805] although he could cite passages from Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Nekrasov, and Walt Whitman by heart. . [609] In March 1948, Stalin launched an anti-Tito campaign, accusing the Yugoslav communists of adventurism and deviating from MarxistLeninist doctrine. Stalin's strategy for emerging as leader was to destroy the authority of his opponents. [570] In the war's aftermath, some of Stalin's associates suggested modifications to government policy. [384] Historians have long debated whether Stalin's government had intended the famine to occur or not;[385] there are no known documents in which Stalin or his government explicitly called for starvation to be used against the population. 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. [70] Although he established a Bolshevik stronghold in the mining town of Chiatura,[71] Bolshevism remained a minority force in the Menshevik-dominated Georgian revolutionary scene. [9], Besarion was a cobbler who was employed in a workshop owned by another man;[10] it was initially a financial success but later fell into decline,[11] and the family found itself living in poverty. [412], Stalin often gave conflicting signals regarding state repression. [863] The other, Alexander, was the son of Lidia Pereprygina; he was raised as the son of a peasant fisherman and the Soviet authorities made him swear never to reveal that Stalin was his biological father. 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. [245] In mid-1921, Stalin returned to the southern Caucasus, there calling on Georgian Communists to avoid the chauvinistic Georgian nationalism which marginalised the Abkhazian, Ossetian, and Adjarian minorities in Georgia. [365], Throughout the 1920s and beyond, Stalin placed a high priority on foreign policy. Born: December 8, 1878 in Gori, Georgia. "[824] Conquest stated that although Stalin had Jewish associates, he promoted anti-Semitism. [603] [828], Friendship was important to Stalin,[829] and he used it to gain and maintain power. [555] Various East European communists also visited Stalin in Moscow. [754] His choice of favoured holiday house changed over the years,[755] although he holidayed in southern parts of the USSR every year from 1925 to 1936 and again from 1945 to 1951. "[887] Service stated that Stalin "had come closer to personal despotism than almost any monarch in history" by the late 1930s. There were two Five Year Plans - first from 1928 to 1933 and the second from 1932 to 1937. [377] Social unrest, previously restricted largely to the countryside, was increasingly evident in urban areas, prompting Stalin to ease on some of his economic policies in 1932. [259] Another disagreement came over the Georgian affair, with Lenin backing the Georgian Central Committee's desire for a Georgian Soviet Republic over Stalin's idea of a Transcaucasian one. From 1934 to 1940 Stalin had vast numbers of government, party, and army officials murdered to satisfy his paranoid delusions that everyone was out to get him. Video: Vladimir Lenin. At the funeral, thousands of mourners were crushed to death in the frenzy to pay respects to Stalin's body. [727] Service also noted that Stalin "would never be Russian", could not credibly pass as one, and never tried to pretend that he was. [601] In 1949, celebrations took place to mark Stalin's seventieth birthday (although he was 71 at the time,) at which Stalin attended an event in the Bolshoi Theatre alongside MarxistLeninist leaders from across Europe and Asia. Stalin, however, did this strategically, executing the murder of Vladimir Lenin in a guiltless manner. February 9, 1946. [743] From mid-1918 until his death he favoured military-style clothing, in particular long black boots, light-coloured collarless tunics, and a gun. [383] Government policiesincluding the focus on rapid industrialisation, the socialisation of livestock, and the emphasis on sown areas over crop rotationexacerbated the problem;[388] the state had also failed to build reserve grain stocks for such an emergency. [261] Stalin believed this would encourage independence sentiment among non-Russians, instead arguing that ethnic minorities would be content as "autonomous republics" within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. [323] Stalin's message was that socialism was being established in the USSR while capitalism was crumbling amid the Wall Street crash. [78] Stalin's squads disarmed local police and troops,[79] raided government arsenals,[80] and raised funds through protection rackets on large local businesses and mines. During a brief period back in Tiflis, Stalin and the Outfit planned the ambush of a mail coach, during which most of the group although not Stalin were apprehended by the authorities. It comprised the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Ukrainian Social Republic, the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic. [504] Comintern was dissolved in 1943,[505] and Stalin encouraged foreign MarxistLeninist parties to emphasise nationalism over internationalism to broaden their domestic appeal. [115] He escaped to Saint Petersburg,[116] where he was arrested in September 1911 and sentenced to a further three-year exile in Vologda. [799] He enjoyed listening to classical music,[800] owning around 2,700 records,[801] and frequently attending the Bolshoi Theatre during the 1930s and 1940s. Initially Stalin refused to repeal the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1945, which significantly benefited the Soviet Union over China, although in January 1950 he relented and agreed to sign a new treaty between the two countries. [577] He demoted Molotov,[578] and increasingly favoured Beria and Malenkov for key positions. [507] While Red Army generals saw evidence that Hitler would shift efforts south, Stalin considered this to be a flanking move in a renewed effort to take Moscow. [941] Nonetheless, some churches have kept religious icons showing Stalin at least since 2008. It sought to provide a guide to leading the country after his death. [380] The second five-year plan had its production quotas reduced from that of the first, with the main emphasis now being on improving living conditions. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as global superpowers and entered a period of tension, the Cold War. [290], In late 1924, Stalin moved against Kamenev and Zinoviev, removing their supporters from key positions. The question that needs to be asked is whether a mental illness can explain Stalin's ability to engage in such behavior. [206] At the same time, he disregarded orders and repeatedly threatened to resign when affronted. [457] Stalin saw this as an opportunity both for territorial expansion and temporary peace with Germany. [714] Ultimately he believed that all nations would merge into a single, global human community,[714] and regarded all nations as inherently equal. On the one hand, you can argue that Stalin was clearly an effective leader. [86] Although Stalin held Lenin in deep respect, he was vocal in his disagreement with Lenin's view that the Bolsheviks should field candidates for the forthcoming election to the State Duma; Stalin saw the parliamentary process as a waste of time. [321] By July 1930, over 320,000 households had been affected by the de-kulakisation policy. 227 in July 1942, which directed that those retreating unauthorised would be placed in "penal battalions" used as cannon fodder on the front lines. [373] In November 1932, after a group dinner in the Kremlin in which Stalin flirted with other women, Nadezhda shot herself. A+. [355] Priests, imams, and Buddhist monks faced persecution. This article reassesses Stalin's attempts to construct legitimacy through the development of a 'cult of personality', built through an overt co-option of the charismatic authority generated by Lenin's revolutionary leadership. Some weeks after the controversy, the Patriarchate of Moscow forced Zhakov to remove the icon of Stalin from his parish. "[884] In both the Soviet Union and elsewhere he came to be portrayed as an "Oriental despot". [149] In or about December 1914, their child was born but the infant soon died. [381], The Soviet Union experienced a major famine which peaked in the winter of 193233;[382] between five and seven million people died. First, it is necessary to recognize the factors involved in this decision that will affect you. [192] He took Nadezhda Alliluyeva as his secretary[193] and at some point married her, although the wedding date is unknown. [628] When the Israeli ambassador Golda Meir arrived in the USSR, Stalin was angered by the Jewish crowds who gathered to greet her. He was a true believer". [652] He was moved onto a couch and remained there for three days. In his early years as leader, Stalin revamped the Soviet Union's economic policy, . [919] After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the first President of the new Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, continued Gorbachev's denunciation of Stalin but added to it a denunciation of Lenin. [665] The Chinese government instituted a period of official mourning for Stalin's death. [213], In December 1918, Stalin was sent to Perm to lead an inquiry into how Alexander Kolchak's White forces had been able to decimate Red troops based there. [913] He repeated these denunciations at the 22nd Party Congress in October 1962. [557] Aware that these countries had been pushed toward socialism through invasion rather than by proletarian revolution, Stalin referred to them not as "dictatorships of the proletariat" but as "people's democracies", suggesting that in these countries there was a pro-socialist alliance combining the proletariat, peasantry, and lower middle-class. [525], In November 1943, Stalin met with Churchill and Roosevelt in Tehran, a location of Stalin's choosing. Because Stalin was not diagnosed during his life, we can never be sure. [684] According to scholar Robert Service, Stalin's "few innovations in ideology were crude, dubious developments of Marxism". [467] In June 1940, the Red Army occupied the Baltic states, which were forcibly merged into the Soviet Union in August;[468] they also invaded and annexed Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, parts of Romania. [130] In late 1912, Stalin twice crossed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire to visit Lenin in Cracow,[131] eventually bowing to Lenin's opposition to reunification with the Mensheviks. [378] Like its predecessor, this plan was repeatedly amended to meet changing situations; there was for instance an increasing emphasis placed on armament production after Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. [554] Germany was divided into four zones: Soviet, U.S., British, and French, with Berlin itselflocated within the Soviet areaalso subdivided thusly. 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