Annie Garbulinski

Mr. Palcsey

Honors English 10

4/22/18

Stalin’s Climb to Power

Russia has been built on power, aggression, and expansion for centuries. Josef

Stalin is one of the most formidable dictators in world history. Even though many people

are aware of the horrific actions Stalin committed while he was in power, most are

unaware of how he rose to power using intimidation and determination to become a

pivotal member of the Russian government under Lenin, and eventually the leader of

Russia.

The ideas of Marxism began to grow in Russia during the late seventeenth century

and gained great popularity when Stalin was a teenager. Born as Ioseb Jughashvili on

December 18, 1878 in the town of Gori, in present-day Georgia, Stalin had an interesting

childhood. Stalin’s father was an abusive alcoholic who would beat him and his mother.

When he was approximately nine years old, Stalin’s mother took him and moved in with

a family friend, Father Christopher Charkviani; Father Charkviani was able to enroll

young Stalin in the Gori Church School, which was usually reserved for close relatives of

members of the seminary. (Montefiore 29-31) Despite having a rough childhood, Stalin

handled this situation very well. He focused on his work, earned good grades, and

enjoyed creative work including art and reading literature. Even though Stalin excelled in

his classes, he constantly fought with other kids during lunch or while they were on

breaks, so he was “neither a good nor bad student” according to his teachers. (Montefiore
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45) Because of his love for literature and different forms of poetry, Stalin’s teachers

recommended that he join the seminary to become a priest. When Stalin got older, he

became less interested in what he was being taught by teachers in the seminary, and more

interested in revolutionary ideas. As a result of this, his grades declined and he joined a

forbidden revolutionary book club that studied the ideas of Karl Marx and focused on

other radical movements. (Montefiore 69) Marxist ideas were appealing to many in

Russia because they promoted equality between all genders and races while practically

guaranteeing peace and financial stability for everyone, which at the time was valued

because the Russian government was corrupt and unstable under the Tsar’s rule. Stalin

joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in 1898, which promoted

Marxist ideas to the Russian people through political platforms. (Montefiore 113) After

leaving the seminary in 1899, Stalin was already planning revolts against the current

Russian government. On May Day in 1900, Stalin gathered a group of workers to protest

and strike, but the secret police found out and attempted to arrest him for starting a major

riot. He managed to escape and stayed hidden from the authorities by using fake names

and sleeping in abandoned apartments for about a month. It was not long before the

police found and arrested him, which led to an eventual exile to Siberia. (Montefiore 78,

108-110)

Over time, Stalin gained an important role in the Russian Revolution that helped

him move up the political ladder, putting him in the position to take over for Lenin. When

Stalin returned to Georgia from Siberia, the Social Democratic Labor Party had changed.

The RSDLP had divided between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in 1903. (Service

59) Even though the Mensheviks had more power in Georgia, Stalin sided with the
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Bolsheviks, because he believed change would happen through action instead of

diplomacy. The Mensheviks had a democratic approach to communism, while the

Bolsheviks were much more radical and violent. However, Stalin acted like a great

salesman promoting the Bolsheviks to people who were open to the idea of communism,

but he showed great disdain and anger toward anyone who said anything against the

Bolsheviks. (Riasanovsky 492) To raise money for the Bolshevik party, Stalin went about

doing so in a very odd way. He stole from political enemies and raided people’s houses to

prove that the Bolshevik party was stronger than the Mensheviks or the Tsar. Stalin’s

ruthlessness and dedication to the Bolshevik cause grabbed Lenin’s attention.

(Riasanovsky 493) Stalin was elected as a member of the Central Committee, the official

Bolshevik political group, due to Lenin’s recommendation. The more Stalin got involved

with politics in St. Petersburg, the more well known he became. Stalin caused more

Bolshevik riots and was arrested again on May 5, 1912. This led to an exile to Siberia for

three years. After escaping exile, Stalin published an article addressing the minorities

within the Russian Empire, and how they would remain wanted and valued in a

Bolshevik led future. The article, Marxism and the National Question, was written to

prove the Bolsheviks cared about the minorities, and if the minorities joined the

Bolsheviks they would no longer be considered a minority. (Service 87) In 1913 Stalin

was exiled to Siberia for a third time, but was sentenced for four years. While he was in

exile, Russia entered WWI, but Stalin could not go to war because he had a crippled left

arm, which left him to spread the ideas of Marxism to the people in regional small towns

near him in Siberia. (Montefiore 270) After Tsar Nicholas II was abdicated, Stalin

escaped exile and was determined to help Lenin rule Russia.

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Russia under Lenin’s rule was seen as a great change to many Russian people,

and Stalin was determined to convince every man and woman that the country would be

run most efficiently through communism. Lenin planned to overthrow the Provisional

Government that was set up after the abdication of the Tsar, but he needed help from both

Stalin and Leon Trotsky, a fellow Bolshevik leader. On October 25, 1917, Stalin met with

Lenin and other Bolsheviks to have a meeting about the October Revolution, which was

later known as the day that the Bolsheviks overtook the Provisional Government. Despite

their differences, Trotsky and Stalin worked together to formulate a plan to get rid of the

Provisional Government, and Lenin approved it even though other Bolsheviks rejected it.

(Service 124; Conquest 68) The Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government with

ease, and Stalin became an important member of the Bolshevik leadership. Stalin was

directly under Lenin, and Stalin’s job was to eliminate newspapers and disband groups of

people that spread any information against Lenin and the Bolsheviks. (Service 149) Stalin

also had the position of People’s Commissar for Nationalities. As People’s Commissar,

his job was to make all minorities comfortable under Lenin’s government. Shortly after

the October Revolution, Russia broke out into a civil war. People that supported the old

Tsarist government fought against the Bolsheviks in an attempt to restore the government

to how it was before Lenin was in charge. During the civil war, Stalin was sent to

southern Russia as the People’s Commissar to make sure that the people had enough

food, but he was also there to promote the Bolshevik side of the civil war through bribery

and different forms of propaganda. (Service 173)

After the Bolsheviks won the civil war, Russia adapted to communism and grew

to admire Lenin as a leader. While Lenin was building up the Bolshevik government, he
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put War Communism into action. Genevieve Burke, history teacher at Cardinal Wuerl

North Catholic High School, taught the Honors World History classes that War

Communism is the economic process of the state gaining control of all businesses, all

banks, all industrialization, and all farming. War Communism was deeply rooted in

Marxist ideas, and was supported by many government officials. Many Russian people

were happy about War Communism since no one would become rich or poor, they just

helped each other and the government. The downside to War Communism was that it

damaged Russia’s economy. Factory output decreased and farmers were not producing as

much food as they needed to since they knew the government would take it, and therefore

they wouldn’t profit personally. Lenin decided to create a New Economic Policy, which

took elements of capitalism and combined it with Marxist ideas. The New Economic

Policy allowed industry and farms to thrive, while permitting some forms of personal

gain, which improved Russia’s economy. Lenin died in 1924, leaving the main leadership

position of Russia open. The two main candidates for Lenin’s replacement were Stalin

and Trotsky. Compared to Stalin, Trotsky was more educated and supported the main

goal of communism, which was to eliminate capitalism on a global scale. Stalin said that

his main goal as leader of Russia would be to focus on restoring complete communism

within Russia by repealing Lenin’s New Economic Policy. Since the New Economic

Policy had capitalist influences, true Marxists agreed with Stalin’s plan, but they

followed Trotsky since he was promoting the main Marxist goal of converting the entire

world into a single communist society. Trotsky and Stalin’s goals were different, but they

both promoted communism, just in different ways. (Tucker 57) Stalin was not a gifted

speaker like Trotsky, but he was a successful politician and used intimidation tactics to
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threaten other government officials into eventually firing Trotsky from his job as

People’s Commissar for military and naval affairs. (Khlevniuk 81) After Trotsky was

fired, Stalin was the only reasonable choice to take over as leader of Russia. When Stalin

became the leader of Russia he abandoned the New Economic Policy and brought War

Communism back into action. As the years went by, the Russian people were completely

influenced and controlled by Stalin’s propaganda, which promoted extreme government

involvement in the people’s lives and made him seem like a god that was always there to

better Russia. In reality, Stalin was only using his power for personal gain to promote his

self-image. Even during the beginning of World War II, Stalin promoted his own image

to the world by making him seem like an ally that hated fascism, but back in Russia he

was busy sending people who he did not trust to gulags in Siberia. (Beckett A8)

Stalin was as an arrogant, obnoxious young man that used his rebellious nature to

help overthrow an ineffective government by committing crimes, protesting, and bringing

attention to his cause. Even though he helped institute a system that would temporarily

satisfy the majority of the Russian people, it would harm them later on in history,

especially when Stalin’s own ego got in the way of his ability to lead and protect the

people of his country. Stalin thought that communism would benefit all Russian people

and make everybody equal, but he ended up only caring about himself, and used the

Russian people’s ignorance and frustration to increase his own power.