Question by Heavy Weapons Guy: What changes did Stalin make in Russia to help maintain power?
If anyone could cite sources that would be great. I understand the Five Year Plans helped him to maintain power but how exactly?
Regards.
Answers and Views:
Answer by W.C. Felcher
1. Assassinated political leaders who had more intellectual clout than him.
2. Filled the government apparatus with his appointees.
3. Intermittently purged political opponents and their apparatchiks. Conducted show trials with confessions by opponents.
4. Secret police and Gulag prison system used to intimidate the general population and to eliminate rivals and dissidents. Appointed sadistic secret police chiefs to terrorize everyone.
5. Starved Ukranians and transported ethnic minorities en masse to the Far East
6. Created a cult of personality to instill awe and devotion in Soviet citizenry.
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Slava T says
Stalin conducted social eugenics disguised as his idea of "intensification of the class struggle" in the USSR of 1930s-beg of 1950s. He built a political system that effectively rooted out all potential opponents or their potential supporters.
Read some of his speeches (find the link below) to understand and compare what he meant and the way it was fulfilled in the USSR.