Question by : Who is Joseph Stalin?
VERY VERY VERY simply, who is Stalin? what did he do? and how did he rise to power?
Answers and Views:
Answer by anuj
he was a soviet union’s leader.
Answer by Aya
He was a Russian Dictator during the 1940s. He was total comrades with Hitlah. 😀
During his reign, he took over many countries neighboring Russia. Sadly, Russia ruled them with such a strict rule, that even now they look like 3rd world countries. You have the beautiful west side of europe. And then you have the countries that were once territories of Russia. It’s quite sad, really.
Answer by Spellbound
Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union (not just Russia) from 1928 until his death in 1953.
He was born in 1878, the son of a drunken cobbler and a devout seamstress. His early life was marked by extreme poverty, sporadic violence and religious observation. As a young man he was a bank robber, extortionist and professional revolutionary, and as an adult he was a master manipulator – something he learnt on the streets of Tiflis and at seminary school – and a voracious reader with a phenomenal memory.
He left school and became a professional revolutionary – organising bank robberies and extortion across the Caucasus region. In 1905 he meets Lenin for the first time at the Bolshevik conference in Tammerfors in Finland. He quickly becomes a leading Bolshevik – through his writings and his willingness to act as enforcer for Lenin.
When the October Revolution takes place he is at his desk, his job was to provide Lenin with a safe-house and passage out of the country had the revolution failed.
In 1917 becomes the Commissar for Nationalities.
In 1922 he becomes the General Secretary of the party.
After Lenin’s death he vies for position with several rivals, notably Trotsky, he defeats them all by 1928, becoming the undisputed ruler of the country.
Main policies:
Five Year Plans:
The FYPs came as Stalin was busy destroying opposition to his rule in the Party. The Left Opposition of Trotsky and his supporters had been defeated, expelled from the party, exiled or executed as had the United Opposition of Kamenev and Zinoviev and their supporters.
The FYPs were Stalin’s chance to mold the party and the country in the way that he wanted. He was able, through them and through the political climate that they engendered to push through social and economic changes that enabled the Cult of Personality to flourish.
Collectivisation:
Farms were taken over by the state, farmers had to hand over their land, livestock, grain reserves and machinery. They then were paid wages and became workers.
WWII
He organised the Soviet armed response to the Nazi invasion of the USSR, his armies push the Nazis back over 1000 miles from the Volga to Berlin.
Post War
Organised the countries that his troops liberated on Soviet lines – creating the satellite countries. Established the Warsaw Pact as a response to NATO. Organised the Berlin blockade to try to force West Berlin to merge with East Berlin – failed.
I haven’t covered his death toll, as that would require a much lengthier answer.
For more information see:
Stalin, A Biography by Robert Service
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUScollectivization.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stalin_joseph.shtml
The Captive Nations – Patrick Brogan
Answer by Joseph Dillon
I tried to use Google, but it is down, so here goes. Joseph Stalin is the most maligned of any historic figure on earth. He was a sincere, well-balanced gentleman and his greatest contribution to humanity was that he understood that if you deleted a human being in say 1948, you could save the world from overpopulation in 2088.
His love and concern for the future generations of children, therefore is unsurpassed.
The greatest leader of all time will not be the one who toppled governments, but that towering giant who thought the future and did something about it. Stalin’s non-use of headstones for his chosen contributors has saved the earth from a slower revolution, thus saving us from Global Warming until 2025 or further.
Futurists have indicated that Joseph Stalin will likely end up as the finest example of courageous concern for the future inhabitants, far outpacing characters who vied for the leadership race slots of an era quite misunderstood, due to primitive viewpoints about the actual value of human life.
Answer by Blankego
He is the most powerful man of the communist world. He came from Georgia, and rose to power by mercilessly defeating and eliminating all his political rivals. He industrialized Soviet Union rapidly at a price of great famine. He made a pact with Nazi Germany and partook the carving up of the eastern Europe. And he fund numerous leftist revolutionary forces, which eventually took over a bunch of Countries, particularly the Communist party of China, which became and remains as major power of Stalin-style communism.
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