JOSEPH STALIN Instructor: Ms. Wideen Course: World History

Joseph Stalin The outstanding characteristic of Stalin’s personality was his total ruthlessness. No consideration of sentiment or pity seems to have influenced him in the slightest. It is hard to disagree. Stalin left a wake of suffering and death that boggles the mind. Stalin instituted “purges”, sending millions of people to lives of misery in forced-labor camps. He sent millions more to their deaths. Many historians think that this one man was responsible for the deaths of some of 20 million people. The only thing that stopped his killing was his own death. Just before he died, he was planning yet another wave of mass arrests and executions. Stalin is quoted as saying. “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.

Early life  Born to poor family in the small town of Georgia  Studied for priesthood as a child  By1900 Joseph joined the Bolshevik underground and taken the name Stalin = “man of steel”  Organized robberies for the party  Organizing workers  Distributing illegal literature

Early Career  By the1920’s Stalin became general secretary of the party under Lenin’s leadership  After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin fought for his position against Trotsky = Brilliant Marxist thinker  Eventually Stalin put his own supporters into the top political jobs and isolated Trotsky within the party  Trotsky would be stripped of his party membership and would flee the country

Stalin’s policy  Stalin turned the Soviet Union into a Totalitarian Sate  To ensure obedience, Stalin’s communist party used secret police censorship, violent purges and terror.

Stalin’s Five-Year Plan  In 1928, Stalin proposed his “five year plan” that aimed at industrializing The Soviet Union  To achieve this goal, the economy was brought under government control  This was known as “command economy” where government officials made all basic economic decisions  Government owned all businesses

Stalin’s Five-Year Plan  His plan set high production goals  Between larger factories, hydroelectric power stations, and oil, steel and coal production grew  Although there was great progress, standards of living remained poor  Wages were low, consumer goods were scarce

Revolution in Agriculture  Stalin also brought agriculture under government control  Stalin forced the farmers to give up their private plots of land in fearing they were a threat to the state  Farmers were allowed to keep their houses, but all of their resources (animals and implements) were to be turned over to the collective  Outraged, many farmers resisted collectivization by killing their animals and destroying their tools and burning crops

Revolution in agriculture  The government responded violently to this protest  Stalin sought to destroy the wealthy farmers  The government seized the land and forced them into labor camps  Thousands were killed or died from overwork  This ruthless policy, combined with poor harvest, led to a famine  Feeding the population would become a major problem

The Great Purge  Living in fear of a rebellion Stalin launched the great purge  In 1934, he had his secret police crack down on Old Bolsheviks, party activists, army heroes, industrial managers, writers and ordinary citizens  These victims would be sent to labor camps, tortured or executed