Behailu1

Hiwot Behailu

Ms.Vannucci

CLUE 5th period

05 March, 2019

Joseph Stalin

Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili later known as Joseph Stalin was “the man of steel”

that would go down in the history books. Ioseb slowly transformed himself from a child into a

ruthless and cruel man of steel known as Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin had a bitter childhood, was

a powerful leader, and transformed Russia economically.

Iosif Dzhugashvili was born on December 18th, 1879 in Gori, Georgia, a Russian

Empire. Iosif’s mother, Ekaterina, a devout russian orthodox christian whom was illiterate and a

peasant, wanted Iosif to become a priest so she sent him to the theological seminary in Tbilisi,

Georgia. However Iosif started secretly reading the writings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin

and joined the Marxist group in 1898. In 1901, he joined the social democratic labor party and

organized protests and strikes against Czarism which led him to being sent to prison a year later.

Soon afterwards he joined the Bolshevik party and impressed the leader Vladimir Lenin with his

impressive skills to organize meetings and strikes. Lenin was also impressed by Iosif’s ruthless

techniques to raise money for the party such as kidnapping and robbery. Iosif also changed his

name to Joseph Stalin or “man of steel” this name was believed to suit him extremely well in his

later years when he treated people with such disregard and cruelty. The Russian Revolution had

soon come to an end in October of 1917.

Behailu2
 Now that the Russian Revolution was over, Ukrainians were beginning to celebrate their

new-found independence from the czars. However, Vladimir Lenin had something completely

different in mind for the land previously claimed by the czars. Lenin planned to claim all lands

previously claimed by czars, especially the extremely fertile Ukraine. This didn’t bode well with

Ukrainians resulting in a four year civil war in which Ukrainian national troops fought against

Lenin’s Red Army and Russia’s White Army. The Russian White Army was a term used to refer

to describe troops whom were still loyal to the Czar. The civil war ended in 1921 with another

Soviet victory. Lenin immediately began to send out huge shipments of grain to the hungry

people of Moscow and other large russian cities. Unfortunately this caused drought and famine

to spread in Ukraine leading to resentment towards Lenin and other soviets. This concerned

Lenin so he decided to decrease the amount of grain sent out and he even encouraged free-

market exchange of goods.

In 1922, Joseph Stalin was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party, but he

used his manipulative skills to put him in a position of extreme power. This position however

didn’t last long for Stalin. On January 21st,1924, Vladimir Lenin died. His death caused a major

rift in the communist party because they didn’t know who was going to be the next leader. At

first it was assumed that Leon Trotsky was going to be the leader, but this wasn’t going to

happen while Stalin was around. Stalin devised a master plan in order to achieve leadership. He

planned to let the two sides of the Communist party fight it out and while they were doing that,

he would assume leadership. Stalin realized that Trotsky was his main opponent, so he couldn’t

attack him head on, so he developed an unofficial triumvirate or alliance with Kamenev and

Behailu3
Zinoviev. Kamenev and Zinoviev would do all of Stalin’s work which worked out perfectly in

his favor. Trotsky would (and did) underestimate Kamenev and Zinoviev (since he didn’t know

that they were working with Stalin) making it easier for Stalin to take the victory. One of

Trotsky’s biggest mistakes was not publishing Lenin’s will stating that Stalin should be kept out

of office (leadership). Stalin won leadership with this speech at Lenin’s funeral.

When Stalin took leadership he developed three five year plans that would turn the Soviet

Union into an industrialized and modernized country. Coal, oil, steel, and electricity production

increased massively, but at what cost? Anyone who disobeyed Stalins rule was either executed in

some form or sent to the gulags. The Gulags were labor camps deep in the middle of Siberia with

a barbed wire fence, watch houses, and huts. Besides industrial increase there was also an

increase in food production. In order to make mass amounts of food, stalin used collectivisation.

Collectivisation is when you seize land and reorganize it into a collective farm. This increased

food production, but it also brought famine and millions died. However, Stalin viewed this

tragedy as a stepping stool to achieve his five year plan. Not only did the mass food production

cause famine, but it also decreased the amount of food the people had. Ukrainians were

beginning to starve, so the went to Stalin and asked for smaller demands for grain. Unfortunately

they were just rushed off. Stalin then ordered the borders of Ukraine to be sealed off making

Ukraine one big labor camp. Soviet soldiers stationed in Ukraine also began to go into homes

and seize any food that they might have stashed away for themselves. This didn’t help the

starving situation at all. This were getting so bad that mothers were throwing their children on

the top of trains going to bigger cities in hopes that someone will take pity on their child, but that

Behailu4
wasn’t the case. Even the people in the bigger cities were dropping dead due to famine and being

starved.

As time went on Stalin began to get more and more paranoid. He was always on the look-

out for someone that might be trying to overthrow him or kill him. It was getting to the point

where pictures/posters of him were everywhere. He demanded that everyone praise him and his

portrait was everywhere from schools to factories. He had ordered an execution of 81 of the 130

soldiers in the red army and 20 million citizens of the Soviet Union were sent to the Gulags. In

later years to come, Stalin would realize that this decision would cost him greatly.

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and the Red Army wasn’t prepared. The int

1930’s Stalin had gone on a massive purge and killed many skilled officers because they

“threatened” his power. Since the skilled officers had been killed, he had given many

(undeserved) promotions to unskilled officers. When the German force began to move east,

Stalin refused to give up Moscow and told soldiers to defend it at all costs. This was the major

turning point to holding back the Natzi forces. The rivalry of communism and capitalism also

had Stalin on edge and made him even more paranoid.

Now The Cold War was beginning. The stress that was put on Stalin didn’t help his

deteriorating health. He had recently been a target of an attempted assassination which didn’t

help his paranoia at all. The doctors taking care of him especially noticed this when he started to

torture them into false confessions. Later on he ordered the head of the secret police to

investigate a new purge of the communist party. However, before this could even happen Stalin

died of a stroke on March 5th, 1953. There were huge crowds of people at his funeral who

Behailu5
wanted to pay their respects despite the cold-hearted leader that he was. 500 hundred people

were crushed due to the massive amounts of people coming inside.

Stalin had left such an impression on Russia that George Orwell wrote a book about him.

However the book wasn’t a biography but an allegory. An allegory is something that can reveal

some sort of hidden meaning or message. Animal farm was about animals that wanted to revolt

against humans because of the cruelty to humans. When Old major (Vladimir Lenin) died there

was a debate about who should lead the animals. The two main runners were Napoleon (Joseph

Stalin) and Snowball (Leon Trotsky), but Napoleon used his powers to manipulate the debate so

he’d win. The overall message showed that the animals started off resenting humans, but by the

end of the book, they had basically become them. This was George Orwell’s way to voice his

unpopular opinion of the Russian Revolution.

Overall, Joseph Stalin left a mark on Russia forever. Many people were killed and

tortured at his hand and he used his master manipulative skills to get what he wanted all the time.

Russia’s economy was booming, but the only person who truly got to enjoy that luxury was

Stalin, but everyone else was left in the dust.

Works Cited

Hingley, Ronald Francis. “Joseph Stalin.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., 1 Mar. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Stalin.

“Stalin's Forced Famine .” The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline,

www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/stalin.htm.

Behailu6
“Why Did Stalin, Instead of Trotsky, Become the USSR Leader? - International Baccalaureate

History - Marked by Teachers.com.” Marked by Teachers,

www.markedbyteachers.com/international-baccalaureate/history/why-did-stalin-instead-of-

trotsky-become-the-ussr-leader.html.

“Joseph Stalin Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, Advameg, Inc.,

www.notablebiographies.com/Sc-St/Stalin-Joseph.html.

Editors, History.com. “Joseph Stalin.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 25 Jan. 2016,

www.history.com/topics/russia/joseph-stalin-video.

Editors, History.com. “Joseph Stalin.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Nov. 2009,

www.history.com/topics/russia/joseph-stalin.