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Why did Stalin become General Secretary of the Communist Party?

When Lenin takes power he appoints Stalin to be General Secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin gains new skills working as a mediator for officials throughout the party. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin begins ruthlessly promoting himself as his political heir.

How did Joseph Stalin consolidate power?

Ruthless and cunning, Stalin—born Iosif Djugashvili—seemed intent on living up to his revolutionary surname (which means “man of steel”). In the late 1920s, Stalin began to consolidate his power by intimidating and discrediting his rivals.

Where did Stalin take his troops after Hitler conquered France?

Months later, Stalin’s troops marched into the Baltics and Bessarabia. Before the signing of the non-aggression pact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned Stalin that “it was as certain as that the night followed the day that as soon as Hitler had conquered France he would turn on Russia and it would be the Soviets’ turn next.”

How did Stalin react to Hitler’s invasion of Europe?

When Hitler’s armies easily defeat France and Britain retreats, Stalin ignores warnings from his generals and is completely unprepared for the Nazi Blitzkrieg attack of June 1941, which tears through Poland and into the Soviet Union. The Soviet Army suffer huge losses.

Who described Stalin's life as a bank robber?

David Reynolds describes Stalin's life as a Bolshevik bank robber. Clips from World War Two: 1941 and the Man of Steel (BBC Four, 2013).

Why is Stalin a hero?

He is hailed as a hero when he helps Lenin to escape from the Tsar’s army into Finland and is appointed to the inner circle of the Bolshevik party. When the Tsar is toppled the country descends into civil war. Stalin, like other the hardliners within the party, orders the public execution of deserters and renegades.

How did Stalin modernize agriculture?

Stalin modernises agriculture by instigating collectivisation – the grouping together of farms to be owned by the state. It is opposed by millions of ordinary farmers who resort to killing livestock and secretly hoarding grain. Around five million die in a series of famines. Nevertheless, Stalin believes the end justifies the means and millions of small holders are killed or imprisoned. By the late 1930s farming is fully collectivised and productivity increases.

How many children did Stalin have?

In 1919 Stalin marries his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva and they have two children – Svetlana and Vassily.

How much money did Joseph steal from Stalin?

Lenin is impressed by this 'ruthless underground operator'. In 1907 Joseph steals 250,000 rubles (approximately $3.4m in US dollars) in a bank robbery in Tiflis to help fund the cause. David Reynolds describes Stalin's life as a Bolshevik bank robber.

What was Stalin's plan for the Soviet Union?

1928-1938. Rapid industrialisation. In the late 1920s Stalin instigates a series of five year plans to turn the Soviet Union into a modern industrialised country. He is afraid that if the Soviet Union does not modernise then Communism will fail and the country will be destroyed by its capitalist neighbours.

What was Stalin's nationalist ideology?

Stalin, however, develops his own nationalistic brand of Marxism – "Socialism in One Country" – concentrating on strengthening the Soviet Union rather than world revolution. When Trotsky criticises his plans, Stalin has him exiled. Stalin’s ideas are popular with the party and by the late 1920s he becomes dictator of the Soviet Union.

What were some interesting facts about the Soviet involvement in the Spanish Civil War?

5 facts about the Soviet involvement in the Spanish Civil War that you (probably) didn’t know. Three T-26 light tanks made in the Soviet Union travel through a field during a battle in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. Spain's brutal civil conflict gave the Soviet military an opportunity to test its combat readiness in the event ...

What was Franco's grudge?

Franco's grudge allowed the Soviets to win (on the soccer pitch) The Soviet Union's involvement in the Spanish Civil War had negative consequences for Moscow-Madrid relations for many years afterwards.

What did Franco hate?

For the rest of his life, the Spanish leader Francisco Franco harboured a deep hatred for all things Soviet, making no exception for sport . At the 1960 European Nations’ Cup soccer tournament (the forerunner of the European Championship), the Soviet team was due to face Spain in the 1/4 finals.

What did the Spanish boycott mean?

The Spanish boycott meant that the Soviets received an automatic bye. Having waltzed past Czechoslovakia in the semis and overcome Yugoslavia in the final, the Soviet players were crowned champions of Europe — largely thanks to Franco.

What was the Spanish Civil War?

Spanish Civil War = Russian Civil War 2.0. The Russian Civil War (1918-1922) split the country into several irreconcilable camps, but roughly speaking, most combatants sided either with the “Reds” (Communist) or the “Whites” (pro-Tsarist and anti-Communist).

How many Russians fought in the Spanish Civil War?

More than 300 Russians fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. After the war, most were interned in camps in France. By no means all of them longed to return to the now Bolshevik Russia, but for the few dozen that did, the Soviet consulate issued exit permits.

What happened to the Soviet tank in 1938?

In March 1938, a Soviet BT-5 light tank found itself outnumbered by a group of German T-1s. Damage to the sight and observation instruments meant that the Soviet machine could no longer fire effectively at the enemy. It was then that Commander Alexei Razgulyaev decided to turn his tank into a battering ram.

Why did Stalin get expelled?

His parents took him to a seminary in Tblisi hoping he would become an Orthodox priest. However, Stalin got expelled in 1899 after failing to observe the rules. He began to flirt with Marxism and later on joined the Bolsheviks who were against the Tsarist regime.

What actions did Stalin take in the Soviet Union?

Some of these things included: Three "five-year-plans" that took place between 1928 and 1941 and were designed to expel capitalism from the Soviet Union and create a centralized farming community (called "collectivization").

What were the consequences of Stalin's rule?

Stalin is a controversial ruler in history. His rule had some devastating consequences for the people of the Soviet Union, including: 1 Workers who failed productivity targets were sent to work camps (called gulags) or even executed. 2 His attempt at mass farming resulted in famine, which caused the deaths of millions of people. 3 He renamed the city "Volgograd" to "Stalingrad" (much like Lenin had done with Saint Petersburg, which he called "Leningrad"). 4 Stalin ruled as a dictator. His portrait hung across homes and public spaces across the Soviet Union. 5 In World War Two, the Soviet Union suffered devastating losses at the hands of Nazi Germany at Operation Barbarossa. Many blame the cutbacks that Stalin had made to the Red Army's underperformance and defeat.

Where was Stalin buried?

He was buried at the Lenin Masoleum and Nikita Khrushchev took over, changing many of the policies that Stalin had put in place.

How did Stalin die?

How Did Joseph Stalin Die? A stroke in 1953 killed Josef Stalin while he was alone in his Dacha on March 5, 1953. However, some historians claim that Stalin did not die of a stroke and was actually poisoned. His death was announced by the state broadcaster and embalming was done to preserve his body.

What did Stalin mean in Russia?

Later on in life, the man who was born Josef Djugashvilli would adopt the name Stalin, meaning "Man of Steel" in Russia.

When did Stalin rise to power?

Rise to Power. When the Bolsheviks managed to capture power in 1917, Stalin was released from prison to take up the post of Secretary General of the Central Committee in 1922.

How did Stalin consolidate his power?

In the late 1920s, Stalin began to consolidate his power by intimidating and discrediting his rivals. In the mid-1930s, claiming to see spies and saboteurs everywhere, he purged the party and the general populace, exiling dissidents to Siberia or summarily executing them after staged show trials.

Who was executed by Stalin?

Bukharin was convicted on trumped-up charges and was executed in 1938. Trotsky, who had fled abroad, was condemned in absentia and was assassinated in Mexico in 1940 by one of Stalin’s agents. Those who remained lived in fear of the NKVD (a forerunner of the KGB ), Stalin’s secret police. Joseph Stalin, 1950.

What was Gorbachev's policy in the 1980s?

In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev ’s policies of glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”) began a new liberalization of Soviet society. Yet the ghost of Stalin was not exorcized completely until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the effective demise of the CPSU in 1991.

What happened after Stalin died?

After Stalin’s death in 1953, there was a slow liberalization within the CPSU and in Soviet society at large, though the Cold War with the West continued. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s crimes in a secret speech to the 20th Party Congress in 1956. Khrushchev himself was deposed in 1964, after which a succession of Soviet leaders stifled reform and attempted to impose a modified version of Stalinism. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev ’s policies of glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”) began a new liberalization of Soviet society. Yet the ghost of Stalin was not exorcized completely until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the effective demise of the CPSU in 1991.

What was the second feature of Stalinism?

A second feature of Stalinism was its cult of personality. Whereas Lenin had claimed that the workers suffered from false consciousness and therefore needed a vanguard party to guide them, Stalin maintained that the Communist Party itself suffered from false consciousness (and from spies and traitors within its ranks) and therefore needed an all-wise leader—Stalin himself—to guide it. This effectively ended intraparty democracy and democratic centralism. The resulting cult of personality portrayed Stalin as a universal genius in every subject, from linguistics to genetics.

What countries did Stalin install communist regimes in?

After World War II, as Winston Churchill famously remarked, an Iron Curtain descended across Europe as Stalin installed communist regimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Albania, and Soviet- occupied East Germany as a buffer zone against an invasion from western Europe.

What was Stalin's first reliance on dialectical materialism?

The first was its reliance on dialectical materialism as a way of justifying almost any course of action that Stalin wished to pursue. For example, in a report to the 16th Congress of the Communist Party in June 1930, Stalin justified the rapid growth of centralized state power as follows: Read More on This Topic.

How did Stalin rule the Soviet Union?

Over the next few years, Stalin isolated his major opponents in the Communist Party, eventually throwing them out, and became the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union. He officially ruled the country from 1924-1953. In his early years as leader, Stalin revamped the Soviet Union’s economic policy, replacing Lenin’s New Economy Policy with a highly centralized command economy controlled by the state, which rapidly industrialized the country. However, the quick transition from agriculture to industry disrupted food supply and caused a massive famine lasting from 1932 to 1933. Simultaneously, people deemed to be political enemies began being imprisoned in labor camps or deported to remote areas of Russia. In 1934, actions against political enemies, including members of the Communist Party who disagreed with Stalin’s policies, intensified with the start of the Great Purge. About one million people were executed from 1934 to 1940 under Stalin’s orders.

Who was the father of communism?

The Father of Communism, Karl Marx, a German philosopher and economist, proposed this new ideology in his Communist Manifesto, which he wrote with Friedrich Engels in 1848. The manifesto emphasized the importance of class struggle in every historical society, and the dangerous instability capitalism created.

How did communism affect Russia?

Communism was adopted in Russia after the Russian Revolution, a series of revolutions that lasted throughout 1917. For centuries leading up to World War I, Russia was ruled by an absolute monarchy under which the lower classes had long suffered in poverty. This tension was exacerbated by the nationwide famine and loss of human lives as a result of World War I. The first revolution began when the Russian army was sent in to control a protest led by factory workers who had recently lost their jobs. However, the army did not follow the Czar’s orders and many soldiers defected and protested in solidarity with the workers. The military quickly lost control of the situation, and the Czar was forced to abdicate. The Imperial Parliament formed a provisional government, but Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik party overthrew it in October 1917. Bolshevik leaders appointed themselves to many high offices and started implementing communist practices based on Marx’s ideology.

Why did Vladimir Lenin return to Russia?

Video: Vladimir Lenin. Vladimir Lenin. When the Czar was dethroned, Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia after being exiled for anti-Czar plots. Other revolutionaries including Leon Trotsky also returned to Russia to seize the opportunity.

What was the communist movement?

As envisioned by Marx, Communism was to be a global movement, inspiring and expediting inevitable working-class revolutions throughout the capitalist world. Though the book had not yet been published, these revolutions had already started in early 1848 in France. The new urban working class that lived and worked in terrible conditions throughout Europe got fed up with their life of squalor as they saw upper-class citizens (the bourgeois as Marx labeled them in the Manifesto) living lives of luxury. The ideas and goals of communism appealed strongly to the revolutionaries even after the 1848 revolutions collapsed. For the next several decades, fed-up lower class workers and peasants held tight to the legacy of the 1848 revolutionaries and communist ideology waiting for the right moment to capitalize.

What did Lenin promise to the people?

Lenin also promised “Bread, Land and Peace” to the large populations affected by the famine, further increasing the party’s popularity. However, when the Bolsheviks gained only 25 percent of votes in the 1917 elections, Lenin overturned the results and used military force to prevent democratic assembly.

What is communism in politics?

Communism is a political ideology and type of government in which the state owns the major resources in a society, including property, means of production, education, agriculture and transportation. Basically, communism proposes a society in which everyone shares the benefits of labor equally, and eliminates the class system through redistribution ...

How did Stalin increase the number of his subjects?

He thus increased the number of his subjects by about a hundred million. But in 1948 the defection of Titoist Yugoslavia from the Soviet camp struck a severe blow to world Communism as a Stalin-dominated monolith. To prevent other client states from following Tito’s example, Stalin instigated local show trials, manipulated like those of the Great Purge of the 1930s in Russia, in which satellite Communist leaders confessed to Titoism, many being executed.

What did Stalin do as a war leader?

As war leader, Stalin maintained close personal control over the Soviet battlefronts, military reserves, and war economy. At first over-inclined to intervene with inept telephoned instructions, as Hitler did, the Soviet generalissimo gradually learned to delegate military decisions. Britannica Quiz.

What meetings did Stalin attend?

Stalin participated in high-level Allied meetings, including those of the “Big Three” with Churchill and Roosevelt at Tehrān (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945). A formidable negotiator, he outwitted these foreign statesmen; his superior skill has been acclaimed by Anthony Eden, then British foreign secretary.

What battle did the Red Army stop the Germans in?

In the Battle of Stalingrad (1942–43), the advancing Germans were finally stopped by the Red Army in desperate house-to-house fighting. From The Second World War: Allied Victory (1963), a documentary by Encyclopædia Britannica Educational Corporation.

Why did Stalin instigate local show trials?

To prevent other client states from following Tito’s example, Stalin instigated local show trials, manipulated like those of the Great Purge of the 1930s in Russia, in which satellite Communist leaders confessed to Titoism, many being executed.

What was Stalin's role in World War 2?

During World War II Stalin emerged, after an unpromising start, as the most successful of the supreme leaders thrown up by the belligerent nations. In August 1939, after first attempting to form an anti-Hitler alliance with the Western powers, he concluded a pact with Hitler, ...

What does the text on the Soviet propaganda poster mean?

Joseph Stalin on a Soviet propaganda poster, 1952; the text translates to “Forward to the victory of communism!”

Who is the author of Stalin's Genocides?

Naimark, author of the controversial new book Stalin’s Genocides, argues that we need a much broader definition of genocide, one that includes nations killing social classes and political groups. His case in point: Stalin.

What was the most similarity between Hitler and Stalin?

In his book, he concludes that there was more similarity between Hitler and Stalin than usually acknowledged: “Both chewed up the lives of human beings in the name of a transformative vision of Utopia. Both destroyed their countries and societies, as well as vast numbers of people inside and outside their own states.

How many kulaks were killed in the 1930s?

In the process of collectivization, for example, 30,000 kulaks were killed directly, mostly shot on the spot.

How many times did Stalin appear on the cover of Time magazine?

Time magazine put Stalin on its cover 11 times. Russian public opinion polls still rank him near the top of the greatest leaders of Russian history, as if he were just another one of the powerful but bloodthirsty czars. There’s a reason for Russian obliviousness. Every family had not only victims but perpetrators.

How many people did Stalin have executed?

Stalin had nearly a million of his own citizens executed, beginning in the 1930s. Millions more fell victim to forced labor, deportation, famine, massacres, and detention and interrogation by Stalin’s henchmen. “In some cases, a quota was established for the number to be executed, the number to be arrested,” said Naimark.

What was the term for the crime of genocide?

The term “genocide” was defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The convention’s work was shaped by the Holocaust – “that was considered the genocide,” said Naimark. “A catastrophe had just happened, and everyone was still thinking about the war that had just ended.

Who vetoed the definition of genocide?

The Soviet delegation vetoed any definition of genocide that might include the actions of its leader, Joseph Stalin. The Allies, exhausted by war, were loyal to their Soviet allies – to the detriment of subsequent generations.

Who warned Stalin that if Hitler conquered France, he would turn on Russia?

Before the signing of the non-aggression pact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned Stalin that “it was as certain as that the night followed the day that as soon as Hitler had conquered France he would turn on Russia and it would be the Soviets’ turn next.”.

What did Hitler ask Stalin to do?

In a telegrammed letter rushed to Joseph Stalin, Hitler asked the Soviet dictator to arrange for a meeting between German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov, as soon as possible.

What did Stalin say to Hitler?

A smiling Stalin was as bubbly as the Crimean sparkling wine that he raised in a spontaneous toast to Hitler. “I know how much the German nation loves its Fuhrer,” he said. “I should therefore like to drink to his heath.”.

How many German troops crossed the border with Poland?

Hours later, more than a million German troops crossed the border with Poland. World War II had begun. Within weeks, the Soviets occupied eastern Poland under the guise of protecting its residents from the Germans. Months later, Stalin’s troops marched into the Baltics and Bessarabia.

Which two countries took a carving knife to Poland with the Germans taking the larger western slice?

The two countries took a carving knife to Poland with the Germans taking the larger western slice. The Soviets were given a free hand in Bessarabia in southeast Europe and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Finland, while Lithuania fell into the German sphere of influence.

When did Hitler break his deal with Stalin?

The words proved prescient when on June 22, 1941, Hitler unilaterally broke his deal with Stalin and launched the largest surprise attack in the history of warfare. Watch full episodes of World War II: Race to Victory.

Who pulled Ribbentrop aside?

Before Ribbentrop left the Kremlin, Stalin pulled him aside. “The Soviet Government take the new pact very seriously,” the dictator said, and he could guarantee on his “word of honor that the Soviet Union would not betray its partner.”.

Why did Stalin prefer to work during the night?

Stalin was afraid to die while sleeping. That’s why he preferred to work during the nights. Only when physically and psychologically exhausted did he fall asleep. Soviet officials hated the fact he worked while everyone else was sound asleep as they could be summoned at any moment during the night.

Who asked Stalin to taste wine first?

Even during drinking parties with his closest and trusted comrades Lavrenty Beria and Anastas Mikoyan, Stalin asked them to taste the wine first.

What aircraft did Stalin fly to Iran?

Stalin refused to fly in any Soviet aircraft and arrived in Iran’s capital on an American Douglas C-47 Skytrain (belonging to the Soviet Air Force) with an escort of 27 fighters. 2. Toxicophobia. AP, Russia Beyond.

How many times did Stalin take to the skies?

From time to time he even banned leading officials from traveling by plane. Those who ignored him were severely reprimanded. However, there were two times when the Soviet leader took to the skies.

What did Stalin fear most?

The truth, however, was very different: The leader of the USSR was held back by fears and phobias. 1. Aerophobia.

Why was Stalin afraid of flying?

The “Father of Nations” preferred to travel by train. His fear was made worse by frequent air catastrophes of 1920-1930s, in which leading Soviet political figures were killed.

Was Stalin paranoid about food?

Despite Stalin’s every meal undergoing numerous tests by his security force to make sure it wasn’t poisoned, he was still very paranoid. During the Great Purge in late 1930s his paranoia became worse.

The Soviet Military Played A Decisive Role in The Defense of Madrid

The Soviet Military Performed The World's First Tank Ram

Spanish Civil War = Russian Civil War 2.0

Franco's Grudge Allowed The Soviets to Win

• The Soviet Union's involvement in the Spanish Civil War had negative consequences for Moscow-Madrid relations for many years afterwards. For the rest of his life, the Spanish leader Francisco Franco harboured a deep hatred for all things Soviet, making no exception for sport. At the 1960 European Nations’ Cup soccer tournament (the forerunner of th...

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Early Life of Joseph Stalin

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Rise to Power

Stalinism

How Did Joseph Stalin Die?