User:Seanskiver

Sean Skiver										DBQ

Joseph Stalin is arguably one of the most powerful leaders in the world. From 1928 to 1941 he turned the Soviet Union from an inconsequential country into an all-powerful benchmark of the world. His ruling consisted of mass agriculture, industrialization, great purges, and elimination of resistance. Stalin, while creating a very powerful nation, also condemned his citizens to an absolute uniform. Stalin ruled a complete totalitarian state. He used many methods to control everybody in his country. The speech in document 1 states that if a country falls behind economically, or militarily, it will be beaten. Stalin would never want his country to fall behind. He talks about how old Russia fell behind, and was beaten. He tells his people that if they stay underdeveloped they will fall behind, thus being beaten. He insists that they must begin the development of a Socialist economy, and that is the only way. The method he used to egg on the development to formation of a Socialist nation was using threats to get to people. He states that there is no other way to be a stable government other than forming a Socialist economy. In his speech he directly states “Do you want our Socialist fatherland to be beaten?... If you don’t want this, you must end our backwardness. You must develop a real Bolshevik tempo in building our Socialist economy. There is no other road.” Notice how he says “there is no other road.” He is directly stating the unidirectional status of switching to a Socialist economy. He also makes the speech more directed towards individuals. By using the word “You,” instead of “we” he seems more directed to each individual listening. In document 4, Stalin gives a speech that tells people that the kulaks, or wealthy farmers must be eliminated. He tells people that the kulaks must eliminated because they are resisting the state-owned farms. He does this to change the agricultural base of the economy. By doing this, he would be one step closer to a Socialist economy, and totalitarian government. Stalin’s main strategy in forming a Socialist economy was called “The Five-Year Plans.” Introduced in 1929, these plans he created a modern, industrialized nation, and emphasized heavy industry and farming instead of consumer goods. These may seem like good things, but there were also many disadvantages to these plans. Stalin created state owned farms, and because these farms were owned by him, he could set prices and production quotas for supplies. This means he could set a low production rate and outrageous prices for supplies. Document 2 shows a table of the goals set for the Five-Year Plan. The goals set compared to the current condition of things such as Electricity, coal, and oil were doubled, if not tripled. Document 5 shows charts of the agricultural production during the first and second five year plans. The livestock and wheat both take a drop in production. The reason for this was because Stalin controlled all the farms. So the kulaks killed their livestock so the government wouldn’t take it. This is why Stalin wanted all the kulaks eliminated (as shown in document 4). Document 7 talks about the struggle between the kulaks, and the Soviet Union. The kulaks did whatever they could to eliminate the collectivist party. It seems as though the kulaks were the only people against Stalin’s rule. This shows that Stalin created a Totalitarian country that some people resisted, but many people obeyed. In conclusion, Joseph Stalin is arguably one of the most powerful leaders in the world. From 1928 to 1941 he turned the Soviet Union from an inconsequential country into an all-powerful benchmark of the world. His ruling consisted of mass agriculture, industrialization, great purges, and elimination of resistance. The documents listed show the actions he took, and the techniques he used to gain absolute power over Russia. Stalin ruled a totalitarian state where very few disobeyed him.