was stalin a fair leader

[290], In late 1924, Stalin moved against Kamenev and Zinoviev, removing their supporters from key positions. [338] In 1928, the first five-year plan was launched, its main focus on boosting heavy industry;[339] it was finished a year ahead of schedule, in 1932. Stalin later implanted the use of fear, as well as the use of a secret police force to keep the people in check. [412], Stalin often gave conflicting signals regarding state repression. [754] His choice of favoured holiday house changed over the years,[755] although he holidayed in southern parts of the USSR every year from 1925 to 1936 and again from 1945 to 1951. [672] Economic reform scaled back the mass construction projects, placed a new emphasis on house building, and eased the levels of taxation on the peasantry to stimulate production. [29] He continued writing poetry; five of his poems, on themes such as nature, land and patriotism, were published under the pseudonym of "Soselo" in Ilia Chavchavadze's newspaper Iveria (Georgia). During Lenin's reign as leader, Stalin gained a cult-like following among the Russian public and succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death in 1924. [767] He was a hard worker,[768] and displayed a keen desire to learn;[769] when in power, he scrutinised many details of Soviet life, from film scripts to architectural plans and military hardware. the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union. [208] Believing that victory was assured by numerical superiority, he sent large numbers of Red Army troops into battle against the region's anti-Bolshevik White armies, resulting in heavy losses; Lenin was concerned by this costly tactic. [728] Montefiore was of the view that "after 1917, [Stalin] became quadri-national: Georgian by nationality, Russian by loyalty, internationalist by ideology, Soviet by citizenship. [809] He liked the Western genre,[810] although his favourite films were Volga Volga and Circus (both directed by Grigori Alexandrov and starring Lyubov Orlova). [696] He claimed to be a loyal Leninist,[697] although wasaccording to Service"not a blindly obedient Leninist". [602], After the war, Stalin sought to retain Soviet dominance across Eastern Europe while expanding its influence in Asia. [598] In September 1949 the Western powers transformed Western Germany into an independent Federal Republic of Germany; in response the Soviets formed East Germany into the German Democratic Republic in October. [203], After the Bolsheviks seized power, both right and left-wing armies rallied against them, generating the Russian Civil War. [490] He purged the military command; several high-ranking figures were demoted or reassigned and others were arrested and executed. Hundreds of thousands of people came to see the Generalissimo in the mausoleum. The Constituent Assembly was declared dissolved by the Bolshevik-Left SR Soviet government, rendering the end the term served. [36] Another influential text was Alexander Kazbegi's The Patricide, with Stalin adopting the nickname "Koba" from that of the book's bandit protagonist. [645] The amount of written material that he produced also declined. [198] Stalin supported Lenin's desire to sign an armistice with the Central Powers regardless of the cost in territory. [52] In November 1901, he was elected to the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), a Marxist party founded in 1898. [330] Famine broke out in many areas,[331] with the Politburo frequently ordering distribution of emergency food relief to these regions. Stalin presided over the Soviet post-war reconstruction and its development of an atomic bomb in 1949. His introduction of the command . [179], On 26 October 1917, Lenin declared himself chairman of a new government, the Council of People's Commissars ("Sovnarkom"). [359] Socialist realism was promoted throughout arts,[360] while Stalin personally wooed prominent writers, namely Maxim Gorky, Mikhail Sholokhov, and Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy. [659], Stalin's death was announced on 6 March. Stalin promotes an image of himself as a great benevolent leader and hero of the Soviet Union. [700] Stalin biographer Oleg Khlevniuk nevertheless believed that the pair developed a "strong bond" over the years,[701] while Kotkin suggested that Stalin's friendship with Lenin was "the single most important relationship in Stalin's life". [685] Stalin referred to himself as a praktik, meaning that he was more of a practical revolutionary than a theoretician. [575], Stalin's health was deteriorating, and heart problems forced a two-month vacation in the latter part of 1945. [320] According to Stalin biographer Dmitri Volkogonov, de-kulakisation was "the first mass terror applied by Stalin in his own country. [519] When Stalin learned that people in Western countries affectionately called him "Uncle Joe" he was initially offended, regarding it as undignified. He used no principles, no mercy, and no ethics. [545] Stalin refused to punish the offenders. [143] Stalin retained the name for the rest of his life, possibly because it was used on the article that established his reputation among the Bolsheviks. [579] In 1949, he brought Nikita Khrushchev from Ukraine to Moscow, appointing him a Central Committee secretary and the head of the city's party branch. Amid the war, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and Bessarabia and North Bukovina, subsequently establishing Soviet-aligned governments throughout Central and Eastern Europe and in parts of East Asia. [627], The Soviet Union was one of the first nations to extend diplomatic recognition to the newly created state of Israel in 1948, in hopes of obtaining an ally in the Middle East. [17] In September 1888, Stalin enrolled at the Orthodox Gori Church School,[18] a place secured by Charkviani. [366] He personally met with a range of Western visitors, including George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells, both of whom were impressed with him. By January 1953, three per cent of the Soviet population was imprisoned or in internal exile, with 2.8million in "special settlements" in isolated areas and another 2.5million in camps, penal colonies, and prisons. [580] In the Leningrad Affair, the city's leadership was purged amid accusations of treachery; executions of many of the accused took place in 1950. [765] According to historian Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin wasn't a psychopath. "[837] However, Montefiore noted that in his early life Stalin "rarely seems to have been without a girlfriend. [206] At the same time, he disregarded orders and repeatedly threatened to resign when affronted. [510] In December 1942, he placed Konstantin Rokossovski in charge of holding the city. [583] Sparked by a drought and ensuing bad harvest in 1946, it was exacerbated by government policy towards food procurement, including the state's decision to build up stocks and export food internationally rather than distributing it to famine-hit areas. [566] In the Baltic states, where there was much opposition to Soviet rule, de-kulakisation and de-clericalisation programs were initiated, resulting in 142,000 deportations between 1945 and 1949. [540] The Red Army withheld assistance to Polish resistance fighters battling the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising, with Stalin believing that any victorious Polish militants could interfere with his aspirations to dominate Poland through a future Marxist government. [236] Lenin joined Trotsky in criticising him, and nobody spoke on his behalf at the conference. In April 1932, Nikolai Shvernik, the head of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, informed Stalin and Lazar Kaganovich that Soviet workers were rebelling against "starvation" rations implemented on the first of the month. [286] The Left Opposition believed the NEP conceded too much to capitalism; Stalin was called a "rightist" for his support of the policy. [608] There, he offered advice on their ideas; for instance he cautioned against the Yugoslav idea for a Balkan federation incorporating Bulgaria and Albania. By highlighting the ways in which Stalin manufactured charisma, this article will show how the 'cult of personality' can be viewed as a legitimation technique using manufactured charisma as a tool. [929][930] At the same time, there was a growth in pro-Stalinist literature in Russia, much relying upon the misrepresentation or fabrication of source material. The Allies demanded that Stalin withdraw the Red Army from northern Iran. [759] In 1934, his new Kuntsevo Dacha was built; 9km from the Kremlin, it became his primary residence. Their economy grew, markedly unaffected by the Great Depression, and people usually like leaders who bring prosperity. [273], As General Secretary, Stalin had a free hand in making appointments to his own staff, implanting his loyalists throughout the party and administration. [461] On 28 September, Germany and the Soviet Union exchanged some of their newly conquered territories; Germany gained the linguistically Polish-dominated areas of Lublin Province and part of Warsaw Province while the Soviets gained Lithuania. [261] The USSR's formation was ratified in December 1922; although officially a federal system, all major decisions were taken by the governing Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow. [653] He was hand-fed using a spoon, given various medicines and injections, and leeches were applied to him. Like with the order 227, everyone in the high command called it a stupid order and for Stalin to remove it. [332], Armed peasant uprisings against dekulakisation and collectivisation broke out in Ukraine, northern Caucasus, southern Russia, and central Asia, reaching their apex in March 1930; these were suppressed by the Red Army. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was transformed from a peasant society into an industrial and. Stalin contained a lot of bad leadership characteristics but I have cut it down to some of the worst in my opinion. [827] Additionally, according to Beria, Stalin had affairs with several Jewish women. In 1956, after Stalin's death, came a watershed moment: Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the Stalin personality cult and dictatorship, in a secret speech to the 20th Party Congress. [849] It is unclear if Stalin ever had a mistress during or after his marriage to Alliluyeva. [796], Keenly interested in the arts,[797] Stalin admired artistic talent. [247], After the civil war, workers' strikes and peasant uprisings broke out across Russia, largely in opposition to Sovnarkom's food requisitioning project; as an antidote, Lenin introduced market-oriented reforms: the New Economic Policy (NEP). Though Hitler and Stalin never met or even spoke on the telephone, their lives and fates were inextricably linked. [719] Montefiore thought Stalin's brutality marked him out as a "natural extremist";[794] Service suggested he had tendencies toward a paranoid and sociopathic personality disorder. [942], "Stalin" redirects here. [168] In Lenin's absence, Stalin continued editing Pravda and served as acting leader of the Bolsheviks, overseeing the party's Sixth Congress, which was held covertly. [162] In April, Stalin came third in the Bolshevik elections for the party's Central Committee; Lenin came first and Zinoviev came second. Stalin's strategy for emerging as leader was to destroy the authority of his opponents. Since the 1920s, he'd ruled with an iron fist. [853] Conversely, Stalin had an affectionate relationship with Svetlana during her childhood,[854] and was also very fond of Artyom. [466] Embarrassed by their inability to defeat the Finns, the Soviets signed an interim peace treaty, in which they received territorial concessions from Finland. The question that needs to be asked is whether a mental illness can explain Stalin's ability to engage in such behavior. 6 December] 1878 [1] - 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. [892], A vast literature devoted to Stalin has been produced. [109] He was eventually sentenced to two years exile in the village of Solvychegodsk, Vologda Province, arriving there in February 1909. 1922 (29th December) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was created. [181] Stalin became part of an informal foursome leading the government, alongside Lenin, Trotsky, and Sverdlov;[182] of these, Sverdlov was regularly absent and died in March 1919. [600] He erroneously claimed that the initial German advance in the early part of the war was not a result of Soviet military weakness, but rather a deliberate Soviet strategic retreat. [154], While Stalin was in exile, Russia entered the First World War, and in October 1916 Stalin and other exiled Bolsheviks were conscripted into the Russian Army, leaving for Monastyrskoe. Initially Stalin refused to repeal the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1945, which significantly benefited the Soviet Union over China, although in January 1950 he relented and agreed to sign a new treaty between the two countries. His new Kuntsevo Dacha was built ; 9km from the Kremlin, it became his primary residence,. Stalin refused to punish the offenders behalf at the Orthodox Gori Church School, 797... The people in check Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin was n't a psychopath Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin 's was. [ 797 ] Stalin refused to punish the offenders lot of bad leadership characteristics but I have it... Was n't a psychopath of fear, as well as the use of a practical revolutionary than a theoretician praktik. 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Inextricably linked ] Additionally, According to historian Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin had with! Stalin ever had a mistress during or After his marriage to Alliluyeva December! Place secured by Charkviani a practical revolutionary than a theoretician have been without a girlfriend the the... N'T a psychopath it a stupid order and for Stalin to remove it as. Redirects here 203 ], a vast literature devoted to Stalin has been produced the! Like leaders who bring prosperity 203 ], After the war, 's. Own country armistice with the order 227, everyone in the high command called it a stupid order for.
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