Was Stalin a Great Man? :: essays research papers

According to Thoman Carlyle, a great man is maven who shapes business relationship and affects the course of the future. In the case of Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929-1953, one base perceive that through torment and brutal force, he was fitting to modernize a nation and oppress his avow people.One can argue that Stalin was a great leader of the 20th century. After all, he took an undeveloped country and molded it into one of the worlds superior industrial and military forces. But, this transformation did not come at a small cost. Stalin was so paranoid that his Communist regime would be impoverished by one of the dominating Capitalist countries of the West that he became preoccupy with the mass production of industrial and agricultural machinery, neglecting the production of basic goods infallible to sustain human survival. In his mind, getting Russias industrial empyrean up to par was more important than producing adequate clothing and domicile goo ds. Setting completely absurd targets for increased production in agriculture, and of coal, hogg iron, oil, and steel products in his three five-year plans did work well for Stalin, and other countries began to wear notice. But, in history, very few leaders have forced their own people to make the kinds of sacrifices Stalin imposed on them.To increase agricultural production, and pick out in a surplus of food products, Stalin enforced and regulated his approximation of collective agriculture government control of farm land. In turn, the kulaks felt up completely oppressed and were unwilling to give up the small add up of land they owned. Stalin would not tolerate electrical resistance from anyone, and as a result, millions of kulaks and peasants were send off to labor concentration camps, known as gulags, or were apparently eliminated.It wasnt just the lower-class peoples that he wouldnt tolerate opposition from. Stalin was known for having other political figures that coul d possibly pose a holy terror to his regime eliminated. In 1935, he began his purges. He would send out his mystery police to arrest and either jail or execute those in political opposition of him.