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| GLORY TO STALIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | |||
| '''Joseph Stalin''' (] - ]) was the second leader of the ]. His real name was '''Josif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili''', and he was also known as Koba (a ] folk hero) to his intimates. The name "Stalin" (derived from combining Russian ''stal'', "steel" with "Lenin") originally was a conspiratorial nickname; however, it stuck to him and he continued to call himself "Stalin" after the ]. Stalin is also reported to have used at least a dozen other names for the purpose of secret communications, but for obvious reasons most of them remain unknown. | |||
| '''Childhood and early years''' | |||
| Born in Gori, ] to illiterate peasant parents (who had been serfs at birth), his harsh spirit has been blamed on undeserved and severe beatings by his father, inspiring vengeful feelings towards anyone in a position to wield power over him (perhaps also a reason he became a revolutionary). His mother set him on a path to become a priest, and he studied Russian ] until he was nearly twenty. | |||
| His involvement with the socialist movement began at seminary school, from which he was expelled in 1899. From there on he worked for a decade with the political underground in the ]. He soon followed ]'s ideology of centralism and a strong party of "professional revolutionaries". His practical experience made him useful in Lenin's ] party leading up to the 1917 ] (in which he played no direct part). | |||
| '''Rise to power''' | |||
| Stalin spent his first years after the revolution secretly building his post as general secretary into the most powerful one in the communist party. After ]'s death in ], a triumvirate of Stalin, ], and ] governed between ] (on the left wing of the party) and ] (on the right wing of the party). Soon after, Stalin switched sides and joined with Bukharin. Together, they fought a new opposition of Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev. By ] (the first year of the ]s) Stalin's supremacy was complete. From this year, he could be said to have exercised control over the party and the country (although the formalities were not complete until the Great Purges of ]-]). | |||
| The final stage of Stalin's rise to power was the ordered assassination of Trotsky in ] in ], where he had lived since ] (he was exiled from the ] in ].). Indeed, after Trotsky's death only two members of the "Old Bolsheviks" (Lenin's ]) remained - Stalin himself and his foreign minister ]. | |||
| '''Purges and mass murders''' | |||
| Stalin consolidated his power base with the ] against his political and ideological opponents, most notably the old cadres and the rank and file of the ]. Measures used against them ranged from imprisonment in work camps (]) to assassination (such as that of Leon Trotsky and ]). Several show trials were held in Moscow, to serve as examples for the trials that local courts were expected to carry out elsewere in the country. There were four key trials from 1936 to 1938, The Trial of the Sixteen was the first (December 1936); then the Trial of the Seventeen (January 1937); then the trial of ] generals, including Marshal Tukhachevsky (June 1937); and finally the ] (including ]) in March 1938. | |||
| Under the pretext of constructing `] in one country', Stalin terrorized large segments of the Soviet population, such as the ] (prosperous farmers), who were disinherited when agriculture was collectivized. He also orchestrated a massive famine in the ] in which an estimated 5 million people died. It is believed that with the purges, forced famines, state terrorism, labor camps, and forced migrations, Stalin was responsible for the death of as many as 40 million people within the borders of the Soviet Union. According to former National Security Advisor to US President ], ], Stalin murdered an estimated 20 million people. | |||
| '''World War II''' | |||
| In ] Stalin agreed to the ] with ] which divided ] between the two powers. The official Allied version has been: In ], however, ] broke the pact and invaded the ] (see ]). Under Stalin's leadership the Soviet ] put up fierce resistance, but were ineffective against the advancing ] forces. | |||
| Stalin was, up to this point, very wary of the Germans, and would not permit his armies even to assume defensive positions for fear of sending the wrong signals to Hitler. Up to the final moment, and the invasion by the Germans, he held out hope that the Molotov-Rippentrop Pact would buy him time to modernize and strengthen his military forces (recently weakened by purges). | |||
| The Germans reached the outskirts of Moscow in December 1941, but were stopped by an early winter and a Soviet counter-offensive. At the ] in 1942-43, after sacrificing an estimated 1 million men, the Red Army was able to regain the initiative in the fighting. With military eqipment aid from their allies the Soviet forces regained their lost territory and pushed their over-stretched enemy back to ] itself. | |||
| From the end of 1944 large sections of eastern Germany came under Stalin's Soviet Union occupation and on ] 1945, the German capital city ] was taken. | |||
| By some estimates, ''one quarter'' of the Russian population was wiped out in the war. There was, then, a huge shortage of men of the fighting-age generation in Russia. As a result, to this day, World War II is remembered very vividly in Russia, and ], Victory Day, is one of its biggest national holidays. | |||
| '''Post-war era''' | |||
| Following ] Stalin continued his genocidal policies while exerting ruthless control over the Soviet Union and its satellite states until his death (5 March ]). | |||
| Over fifteen million Germans were removed from eastern Germany and pushed into central Germany (later called GDR (])) and western Germany (later called FRG (])). Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs and others were then moved onto German land. Other ethnic groups, like the ] ] and the ] Germans, were moved to the Asian part of the Soviet Union. Millions of German ]s and Soviet ex-POWs were sent to the Gulags. The eastern European states occupied by the Red Army were established as communist ]s. | |||
| '''Policies and accomplishments''' | |||
| Stalin is often credited with successfully industrializing the Soviet Union. What can be said without controversy is that by the time of ], the Soviet economy had been industrialized to the point that the Soviets could resist the German invasion. That Stalin or his policies are to be credited for this is contended. | |||
| Stalin is also generally credited with destroying the concept of communal socialism (communism) and with "stealing the revolution" (although Lenin started this work). | |||
| See also: | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| Other topics to be added: | |||
| *Family life | |||
| *Opinions | |||
Revision as of 10:38, 16 December 2002
GLORY TO STALIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!