Stalins Journey to Power

Czar Nicholas was born on May 18th and inherited the throne from his father. After his fathers
death, Nicholas II created a voted in legislature. His handling of Bloody Sunday and [WWI]. . .
led to his abdication. (Nicholas II Biography), he was executed in Russia in 1918 by Bolsheviks.
Vladimir Lenin lead the Bolsheviks in rebellion against the new government created by Tzar
Nicholas II. They viewed the new government as hopeless and ineffective. After a successful
revolution, Lenin became the leader of the Bolsheviks and renamed them the Communist Party.
In 1918, he and his new party then subscribed to. . . ideologies of socialism and communism.
Fridell 69-71 Stalin quickly rose through the ranks of the Bolshevik party by meeting all of
Lenins standards [He] worked hard and steadily and remained in the background until 1922,
when he became general secretary. . . (Fridell, 72), an influential position of the Central
Committee. Imaginably, Lenin viewed Stalin as a threat and made him General Secretary of the
party. Keeping your enemies close did not apply to Lenins situation. Before Lenin could realize
the mistake he made- upgrading Stalin's position, he had many strokes which gave Stalin the
opportunity he had always craved and. . . he swiftly took charge of the party. Klein, 46. Stalin
was leader of the SU once Lenin passed away. To make sure no one could protest his authority,
[he] consolidated his power by murdering or secretly discrediting his rivals. (Lansford, 31) The
communist leader continued to dispose of anyone who objected his power. After Lenins death,
Stalin begin to develop his own power. Stalin planned to make members of the party skeptical of
one another, causing them to eliminate each other. As this was in play, Stalin was busy
inserting his own followers in position to support him. Fridell, 72. Stalin planned for the
impoverished Soviet Union to change into a huge industrial country.Stalin quickly decreed that
the Soviet Union would be industrialized and modernized. Fridell, 75, this would help rival
capitalist unions.
The Soviet union had limited factories and limited money to go along with the poor economy.
Consequently, Stalin moved his revolution along [by initiating] five-year national economic
plans Fridell, 75, these plans set goals for certain things, such as crops and goods, that needed
to be produced. Stalin predicted that these plans would raise agricultural and industrial
manufacturing. Stalin takes advantage of artists and writers by using them to help in creating his
so called cult of personality. The artists and writers helped Joseph Stalin reach his goals of
power through misleading publicity. His goal was to To [become powerful] . . . [so] that no one
would . . . [disobey] him. Fridell, 77 ,or even think of having an opinion other than his.
Like Lenin, Stalin also inflicted Terror upon the poor country of Russia. He did this by censoring
all books and movies, allowing those that glorified himself and the Communist Party. Anyone
that opposed to this was punished with prison or death. There was an outbreak of purges and
the residents of Russia started to become afraid of other Russians. This fear and suspicion. . .
was Stalins way of increasing his. . .power. Torchinsky, 36-37. No one knew where to turn
except to their leader, Joseph Stalin.
With the knowledge that Europe was soon to enter yet another battle, Stalin agreed to sign a
nonaggression pact with Hitler. He saw the agreement as a way to keep his nation on peaceful
terms with Germany Milestones: 1937-1945 This, he thought, would also give him the time he
needed to build his own military. Hitler, on the other hand, used the pact to ensure that Germany
could invade Poland without much opposition. Stalin proved to be wrong about the pact,
because less than two years later, Nazi forces invaded the S.U.
Prior to the second world war, the countries of the S.U and the U.S. had pretty farfetched
associations. That being said,the U.S.-Soviet alliance. . .was marked by a [ton]. . . of
cooperation (Milestones: 1937-1945) because it was necessary for the destruction of Nazi
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Germany. If this alliance of 1941-1945 had never been, Great Britain and the United States
wouldn't have had such a good chance at defeating Germany. After World War 2 resources
[were] destroyed, and industrial and agricultural output. . .fell short (Reconstruction and Cold
War), Russias economy struggled desperately.The government accepted credits from both
Britain and Sweden. The country refused money from the U.S. under the Marshall Plan- a plan
created by George C. Marshall to recover Europe. The part of Eastern Europe inhabited by
Soviets helped supply machines and raw material. Germany and former Nazi satellites made
reparations to the Soviet Union. Reconstruction promoted industry whilst ignoring much needed
goods for consumers. By 1953, the year in which Stalin passed, the production of steel had
increased by double its level 10 years before. Stalin tightened domestic controls by executing or
sending people that lived abroad during the war to prison camps. It didn't matter if the people
were betrayers or just ordinary and loyal men and women, they lived abroad while war was
happening; therefore, they had to pay. The standards for anyone wishing to join the party were
made more rigid. Some members already in the party that joined during the war were killed. The
previous limited freedoms granted in wartime. . .were revoked. (Reconstruction and Cold War)
and Stalin used the possible start of another war as an excuse for all of these new restrictions
and actions.