 A Meghan Petipren Feature Presentation

 Joseph Stalin was originally named Joseph Djugashvili but changed his last name to Stalin, which means “man of steel.”  By 1900 Stalin joined the Bolshevik underground. During his time there he organized robberies so that he could gain money for the party, because of this he spent time in prison.  But in the 1920’s Stalin became the general secretary of the party. He used the position so that he could gain more loyal followers from the people that owed their jobs to him.

 As early as 1922 Lenin, the leader of Bolshevik, had expressed many doubts about Stalin. He thought of him as to ambitious.  When Lenin died Stalin and Trotsky both wanted the position. But they both had different views on most issues.  Trotsky was a Marxist, he urged for the support for a worldwide revolution against capitalism.  Stalin wanted to concentrate on building socialism at home first.  Stalin put his supporters in top jobs, which isolated Trotsky at the lower levels. The Party stripped him of his membership and Trotsky fled to Mexico in Later a Stalinist agent found Trotsky and murdered him.

 When Stalin was in power he wanted to make the Soviet Union into a modern industrial power.  In 1928 Stalin proposed the first of several “five year plans.” The plans were designed for building heavy industry, improving transportation, and increasing farm output. For this to work and achieve economic growth, he brought all economic activity under government control.  The Soviet Union established a command economy, in which government officials made all basic economic decisions.  In his five year plans Stalin set high production goals, mostly for heavy industry, and transportation. The way they met these goals was by giving those who succeeded a bonus and punish those who didn’t.  Between the years of 1928 and 1939 large factories, hydroelectric power stations, and huge industrial complexes arose in the Soviet Union. The production of oil, steel, and coal grew. Mining expanded and new railroads were built.

 Even though there was mass improvement in some areas of the Soviet Union, there were still other places that hadn’t made much progress.  The standard of living stayed low. Wages were low and consumer goods were scarce. But some peasants did become skilled factory workers or managers.  Central economic planning was inefficient. This caused a shortage of products in one area and a surpluses in another.  The managers of factories were worried about making their production quotas, so they turned out low quality goods.  While and even after Stalin was in power the Soviet Union continued to produce well in the heavy industry.

 Stalin forced the peasants to give up their land and move onto state owned farms or collectives. A collective is a large farm owned and operated by peasants as a group. The reason for this is that he thought that peasants owning their own land was inefficient and a threat to the state power.  On the collectives the government gave the peasants tractors, fertilizers, and better seeds. They also taught them new farming methods so they could increases production.  The peasants resisted collectivization by killing farm animals, destroying tools, and burnings crops. The governments responded to this with brutal force.  Stalin targeted the kulaks; or wealthy peasants. He wanted to eliminate them as a class. The government would take their land and send them to labor camps. There many thousands were executed or worked to death.

 Angry peasants would grow just enough grain that they could live off of. But when the government caught wind of this they apprehended their grain so they would have to starve. This combined with poor harvests caused a terrible famine.  Between five million and eight million people died in the Ukraine alone because of the famine. Millions more died in the other parts of the Soviet Union.  Collectivization gave Stalin much power but it didn’t improve the farm output.  In the 1930’s grain production increased by a small amount but meat, vegetables, and fruit remained scarce.

 In 1924 Stalin launched the Great Purge.  He told his secret police to crack down on the people, especially the Old Bolshevicks. Later he started to go after army heroes, industrial managers, writers, and ordinary citizens. He charged them with a wide variety of crimes.  Between 1936 and 1938 Stalin put on many public trials. During these trials Communist leaders confessed to many different crimes against the government. The confessions were made because the leaders were tortured or they wanted to save friends or family. But some of the purged party members were just sent to labor camps or executed.  Secret police files showed that at least four million people were purged and of those people almost 800,000 were executed.  The older generations of the party were taken out because of this and new, younger, members took their place. The new members owed their loyalty to him. So Stalin gained absolute power.  About 90% of the people that were purged were the nations military officers. This would come back to haunt Stalin when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union.