David Askew

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jTEACHER COMMENTS

Packet #1:STALIN

Assertion 1 Idea: The Rise of Joseph Stalin

Question 1: What was the state of Russia prior to Joseph Stalin coming to power?
EV: Nicholas lost the support of the army The outbreak of World War One in 1914
temporarily strengthened the monarchy, with Russia allied to France and Britain against AustriaHungary and Germany. In mid-1915 Nicholas made the disastrous decision to take direct
command of the Russian armies. From then on, every military failure was directly associated with
him and had no alternative but to abdicate. A shaky provisional government was established.
The tsar and his family were held in various locations, eventually being imprisoned in
Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
In October 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government. Following a harsh peace
treaty with Germany in March 1918, Russia descended into civil war. On 17 July 1918, as antiBolsheviks approached Yekaterinburg, Nicholas and his family were executed. This was almost
certainly on the orders of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

WHY DID THEY OVERTHROW CZAR NICHOLAS II / WHY DID THE PPL REBEL?
REDO THIS ONE
Source #: 8 BBC
Citation: Anonymous
Question 2: How did Joseph Stalin move up through the ranks of the communist party?
APPROVED EV: In April 1922 Stalin ascended to the position of General Secretary of the ruling
Communist Party, a post that gave him control over all party appointments, promotions, and
demotions. This enabled him to fill the ranks of the Party with his allies and thereby solidify an
enormous power base. He appointed only loyal communists to leadership posts in local trade
unions, cooperatives, and army units; all appointees reported directly to Stalin, who kept detailed
files not only on them, but also on all party members and industrial managers.
Source #: 6
Citation: Anonymous, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
Question 3: How did Joseph Stalin solidify power and ultimately become dictator? (if you
dontknow what solidify means, google it)

EV: After Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) died, Stalin outmaneuvered his rivals
for control of the party. Once in power, he collectivized farming and had potential enemies
executed or sent to forced labor camps. Stalin aligned with the United States and Britain in
World War II (1939-1945) but afterward engaged in an increasingly tense relationship with the

West known as the Cold War (1946-1991). After his death, the Soviets initiated de-Stalinization
process.

Source #: 5
Citation: History.com Staff

EV: For several years after Stalin took over the Party, he spent time and resources to ensure
complete dominance over the country. He achieved this by having powerful people near him
eliminated. Historians argue over how many people he had liquidated (killed), but it would be safe
to assume 10 million Russians were arrested during the 1930s. Of these, millions were executed
or died in his special "gulags" detention camps located around the country. Stalin used force and
terror to create the new Soviet state and drive his plans for the country forward.

Source #: 4
Citation: Anonymous, #3
EV: As head of the Politburo, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power in the 1930s with a Great
Purge of the party, justified as an attempt to expel 'opportunists' and 'counter-revolutionary
infiltrators'. Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from the party, however more severe
measures ranged from banishment to the Gulag labor camps and to execution after trials held by
NKVD operatives.The Purges commenced after the assassination of Sergei Kirov, the popular
leader of the party in Leningrad. Kirov was very close and loyal to Stalin and his assassination
sent chills through the Bolshevik party. It is disputed among historians whether Kirov's
assassination was masterminded by Stalin due to Kirov's growing popularity. Stalin took
advantage of the Kirov assassination to begin tightening security, (and in effect to remove those
who might have threatened Stalin's leadership). He initiated efforts aimed at identifying alleged
spies and counter-revolutionaries.
Source #: 7
Citation: New world Encyclopedia
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Assertion 2 Idea: Joseph Stalins maintenance of power

Question 1: How did Joseph Stalin improve/take steps to improve the economy?
EV:APPROVED Stalin realized that the USSR needed rapid modernization to survive. At stake
was communisms boast that it could create a powerful, modern state to rival any created by
capitalism. One hundred years of industrial revolution were crammed into intensive Five-Year
Plans. Vital heavy industries such as, coal, iron, steel, electricity, oil and machinery were
established. By 1937, the USSR was the largest industrial power in the world, just behind the
United States.
Source #: 2
Citation: Ritchie, #25
The first Five Year Plan introduced in 1928, concentrated on the development of iron and steel,
machine-tools, electric power and transport. Joseph Stalin set the workers high targets. He
demanded a 110% increase in coal production, 200% increase in iron production and 335%
increase in electric power. He justified these demands by claiming that if rapid industrialization did
not take place, the Soviet Union would not be able to defend itself against an invasion from
capitalist countries in the west.
Every factory had large display boards erected that showed the output of workers. Those that failed
to reach the required targets were publicity criticized and humiliated. Some workers could not cope
with this pressure and absenteeism increased. This led to even more repressive measures being
introduced. Records were kept of workers' lateness, absenteeism and bad workmanship. If the
worker's record was poor, he was accused of trying to sabotage the Five Year Plan and if found
guilty could be shot or sent to work as forced labour on the Baltic Sea Canal or the Siberian
Railway.
Source #: 3
Citation: John Simkin
Question 2: How did Joseph Stalin use his military to maintain control/expand his reign? (if you
dont know what reign means, google it)

Among the measures for which Stalin is best remembered was his widespread use of slave labor
camps, or Gulags. (Gulag is an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagere, which is Russian for
Main Camp Administration.) These camps swelled both in size and number throughout the 1930s,
providing Stalin with the manpower he needed for his massive construction projects in various
regions of the USSR. Whereas in 1929 there had been approximately 55,000 prisoners in these
Gulags, by 1935 their number stood at 965,000 (725,000 in work camps and 240,000 in work
colonies). For the most part, each camp specialized in putting its slaves to work on one particular
task, such as: cutting wood, building railroads, constructing roads and bridges, mining coal or gold,
extracting petroleum, carrying out agricultural projects, or digging canals. In 1935 one railroad
construction project enlisted the toil of 150,000 prisoners organized into thirty divisions; in 1939,
some 138,000 prisoners extracted fully 35 percent of all the Soviet gold produced that year.[31]
Source #: 6
Citation: Anonymous, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
Question 3: How did Joseph Stalin maintain control over the people?

EV: Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose
him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and
had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps. During the second
half of the 1930s, 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.
MORE
Source #: 9
Citation: Barter, #
Question 4: How did Joseph Stalin manipulate the people to maintain his control?
EV: Over time the procedure was greatly simplified and delegated down the line of command.
People would inform on others arbitrarily, to attempt to redeem themselves, out of envy and plain
dislike, or to gain some retributions or benefits. A worker would report on his boss, son on his
father, and a young man on his brother. The flimsiest pretexts were often enough to brand
someone an "Enemy of the People," starting the cycle of public persecution and abuse, often
proceeding to interrogation, torture and deportation, if not death. Nadezhda Mandelstam, the
widow of the poet Osip Mandelstam and one of the key memoirists of the Purges, recalls being
shouted at by Akhmatova: "Don't you understand? They are arresting people for nothing now?" The
Russian word troika - initially a sledge driven by the power of three horses - gained a new
meaning: a quick, simplified trial by a committee of three subordinated to the NKVD. Often
perpetrators of the purges - NKVD staff - used it as an opportunity for promotion, to enrich
themselves, settle old grudges etc. Since entire families were swept away, women often became
object of sexual abuse during interrogation process and in labor camps.
EHHHH
Source #: 7
Citation: New world Encyclopedia
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Assertion 1 Idea: Joseph Stalins involvement in WWII
Question 1: Who did Joseph Stalin ally himself with at the beginning of WWII? Why?

EV: APPROVEDOfficially a non-aggression treaty only, the Pact had a "secret" annex according
to which Central Europe was divided into the two powers' respective spheres of influence. The
USSR was promised an eastern part of Poland, primarily populated with Ukrainians and
Belorussians in case of its dissolution, as long as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were
recognized as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence. Another clause of the treaty was that
Bessarabia, then part of Romania, was to be joined to the Moldovan ASSR, and become the
Moldovan SSR under control of Moscow.Both Stalin and Hitler intended to outwit each other.
While Wermacht and Red Army had joined small scale tactical exercise and maneuvers, Stalin
tried to get some time to prepare Red Army and raise new leadership, and Hitler wanted to free
his hands for Europe and delude Stalin. While Russia was sending trainloads of provision,
nonferrous metals and other important raw materials to Germany, Germany was developing
Operation Barbarossa.
Source #: 7
Citation: New world Encyclopedia
Question 2: Who did Joseph Stalins ally himself with later on in WWII? Why?
EV: In so doing, Stalin secretly pursued an insidious double alliance, one with England and
France against Germany and the other with Germany against England and France. Such a
complex yet potentially risky diplomatic posture appeared to guarantee a victory for the Soviets
regardless of which side won.
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Source #: 9
Citation: Barter, #55
Question 3: How did the nations involvement in WWII Joseph Stalin affect the country as a
whole?
EV: APPROVED Domestically, Stalin was presented as a great wartime leader who had led the
Soviets to victory against the Nazis. By the end of the 1940s, Russian nationalism increased. For
instance, some inventions and scientific discoveries were reclaimed by ethnic Russian
researchers. Internationally, Stalin viewed Soviet consolidation of power as a necessary step to
protect the USSR by surrounding it with countries with friendly governments, to act as a cordon
sanitaire (buffer) against possible invaders (while the West sought a similar buffer against
communism).He had hoped that American withdrawal and demobilization would lead to increased
communist influence, especially in Europe. Each side might view the other's defensive actions as
destabilizing provocations and these security dilemmas frayed relations between the Soviet Union
and its former World War II western allies and led to a prolonged period of tension and distrust
between East and West known as the Cold War.
Source #: 7

Citation: New world Encyclopedia