WH Writing Assignment XIII
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Nov 24, 2024
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Writing Assignment XIII: The Inter-War Period and Totalitarianism
Topic: Explain Stalin’s first “Five-Year Plan." What was the context? Who resisted Stalin and
why, how did Stalin respond, what was the result? (Lecture notes, textbook, Canvas materials)
With the Bolsheviks, or Red Army, emerging victorious from the Russia Civil War, a new leader
by the name of Vladimir Lenin will take control of the newly established United Socialist Soviet
Republic (U.S.S.R) or the Soviet Union. Lenin’s philosophy on running the country revolves
around the ideas formulated by Karl Marx, later developed into the political ideology of
Communism, a system based on government control and shared wealth. During his time in
power, Lenin would struggle to maintain control, however, his reign would be short lived due to
several strokes he had suffered which ultimately led to his death in January of 1924.
Before Vladimir Lenin’s death he implored his political advisors not to let Joseph Stalin rise to
power, but it appeared Stalin was very strategic. After Lenin’s death there were two potential
candidates for Premier of the Soviet Union, Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Although Trotsky was a
skilled speaker and seen favorably by the people, Stalin would win out as Trotsky lacked the
political prowess to rise to power. Stalin successfully used his secretary position within the
government to gain complete control of the country. (
The Essential World History, Volume II:
Since 1500 p. 616
)
Promptly upon entering office, Stalin would have his political opponents
imprisoned or killed, so Trotsky and his supporters were forced to flee the country. Leon Trotsky
would eventually be assassinated in Mexico by soviet spies in August of 1940.
One of Stalin’s most significant policies was his first ‘Five-Year Plan.’ The goal of this plan was
to turn the Soviet Union into an industrialized society in only five years, hence the name. This
would occur between the years of 1929 to 1933. But what does it mean to transform a nation into
an industrialized society? Well in layman’s terms, it is when the economy of that nation is
transformed from an agricultural one, to a manufacturing one. Typically, a country takes several
decades to implement policies, build infrastructure, and manufacture goods at a substantial rate.
The desire to transform the economy was directly related to the perceived need to catch up with
the western world. Yet the notion that a country could understand and deal with the consequences
of entering into a modern industrial age, yet alone on such a sped-up time frame, is short sighted
and dangerous.
Stalin’s plan began with the agrarian collectivization campaign where he wanted to industrialize
the farming process. This meant more jobs and more food. Again, the Soviet Union was
communist so this meant that the government would take control of this entire process. There
would no longer be privately owned farms, and this would result in what is known as the ‘Kulak
Resistance’, where the Kulaks were private Russian landowners. Kulaks resisted and refused the
idea of collective farming, so Stalin ordered the Red Army to forcefully remove them and take
the land. During this process, the government would organize around 200,000 state farms and
establish a crop area of around 21,000,000 hectares (
Primary Source Document: “Five-Year
Plan
). That is
2.1
×
10
11
square meters and as a student of mathematics, I can confidently say
this is an impressive feat! Whether Stalin knew of the significance of this action or not, famine
would inevitably sweep across the country and many people would starve to death.
During this period of industrialization, it was important for Stalin to silence his political
opponents, that included members of his own communist party or anyone who posed a threat to
his totalitarian rule. In what is referred to as the ‘Stalinist Purges’ in the lecture, Stalin would
have his political opponents either murdered or sent to gulags during ‘midnight arrests.’ This
terroristic purge would occur roughly between the years of 1935-1953 and this policy of
silencing the opposition would, in time, extend to ordinary citizens.
Throughout history there have been many rulers who reign over its citizens with an iron fist.
Nevertheless, reigning with terror will only get you so far. As a leader you need to surround
yourself with people who challenge your ideas because if you don’t, you will only have people
who tell you exactly what you want to hear.**
**Note: This ‘ruling with fear’ would absolutely come back to bite him due to the fact that when
he suffered his brain hemorrhage, his personal doctors were too afraid to treat him.
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