Question by Ham Superb: What positive progress did the Soviet Union gain from the leader Stalin?
Hi, I am studying the Russian Revolution, particularly Stalin. I am wondering what positive things the Soviet Union gained because of Stalin? I need accurate, thorough answers.
Thank you!
Answers and Views:
Answer by ammianus
Stalin’s Socialism in One Country program, in particular his 5 Year Plans, industrialized the Soviet Union.
Previous to this,the economy of Russia had been largely agrarian based.
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What do you think?
Spellbound says
Whilst it is not easy to find many good things to say about Stalin – deaths of millions, having his close comrades arrested & shot, abandoning one wife and so humiliating his second wife that she commits suicide and his reaction to his son's capture by the Nazis – he did one thing that everyone in the World should be grateful for; he defeated the Nazis.
True many other countries were involved, but the Soviets absorbed the greatest blow, and, largely through her own efforts, kicked them all the way back to Berlin. Had Stalin's Five Year Plans not involved the mobilisation of the entire country, and had he been too moralistic to use prisoners (effectively slaves) to build the new factories, then WWII would have ended very differently.
One other good thing that came out of Stalin's rule was the total discrediting of Stalinism as a political system. After Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech was published around the World, support for Communist ideas fell away sharply, never to fully recover.
For many Soviet people (obviously not those embroiled in his paranoid purges), live got immeasurably better: they got free health care, the country was totally electrified, free dental treatment, free education up to and including university, cheap housing in new apartments, and the prices for many basic goods, such as bread and tram fares, were set way below their real costs.