Joseph Stalin and his Five Year Plans

We chose our topic based on our shared interest in the darker times of history. Genocides,
licentious political figures--they were all abstractions that fascinated us. Initially, our topic
selection was to be Elizabeth Bthory However, we quickly realized that although she possessed
a gruesome legacy, she was hardly a leader. We took it upon ourselves to look up a series of
potential topics that might interest us, especially focusing on foreign leadership. Eventually, we
decided to conduct our research on Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union. Specifically,
we focused on Stalin's economic leadership, especially his Five Year Plans and his subsequent
impact on both Ukraine and Russia. We chose Stalin because his actions, brutality and oppressive
policies, are commonly unacknowledged by the public. At the end of the day, what we sought to
accomplish was to bring awareness to the people.

In order to conduct our research, we used numerous resources to support our topic. Our group
resorted to information online. We used databases from our public library's website, which has a
great selection of information that we obtained. There we found primary sources such as the
British embassy report. We then read books with focused on that time period, such as Crowls
Angels in Stalins Paradise. Also, our group arranged interviews with professors that possessed
great knowledge about Stalins rule. As we accumulated our research, we organized the
information into sections; Stalin's legacy, his leadership, and the Ukrainian genocide. This helped
us pinpoint his leadership and his legacy.

We decided to work on a website together because we felt like it would be the best way to
present our project. We would be able to present our primary sources and post videos. We also
wanted to challenge ourselves by creating a webpage, as opposed to a poster board. A website
was a convenient way for us to all work on the project because we were able to work on our
project from any location. We separated the research equally among ourselves and added
components of our research on our webpage. We would review each others work and then help
each other by giving advice/suggestions. This was an interesting and creative way to work on our
project.

Stalin and his economic policies pertain to the theme of leadership and legacy. His Five Year
Plans were a direct catalyst of the Ukrainian Genocide, which decimated the nation at a grand
scale. Ukrainians fertile soil was rendered a barren wasteland and depopulation became a
normalcy. The impact of Stalins rule in Ukraine is felt in current times. On November 28, 2006,
the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, passed a law that recognized the Holodomor as a
deliberate Act of Genocide. It made public denial of the Ukrainian Genocide illegal. The
Holodomor Memorial Day Act, called for the fourth Saturday in November to be a day of
remembrance.