Monique Stanford

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TEACHER COMMENTS

Packet #1:STALIN

Assertion 1 Idea: The Rise of Josef Stalin

By 15 March 1917, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated from the Russian throne, World War I
had been raging for three years and the Russian people were tired and demoralized. For
nearly eight months of 1917 (3 March to 25 October) Russia was ruled by a Provisional
Government consisting at first mainly of leading liberals from the State Duma (which itself
ceased to function), and later of coalitions including more socialists alongside liberals. The
first Prime Minister was Prince George Lvov, who was followed by Alexander Kerensky from
July onwards. But successive cabinet reshuffles could not conceal the fact that this was an
administration precarious and ineffectual in the extreme. Lacking any proper legal basis, the
new government was never conceived as more than a caretaking body entrusted with power
only until such time as a Constituent Assembly could be elected by the people as a whole.
From the beginning considerably more potential influence was wielded by a rival power
centre: the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies, which had been created on the
model of the 1905 St Petersburg Soviet and was vaguely supported by a nation-wide
organization of regional Soviets. It was to the Soviets, and not only to the Provisional
Government, that the Petrograd garrison (already the decisive force in mounting one
revolution) owed its allegiance, and the Soviets might consequently have seized power from
the Provisional Government at any moment <-EXPLAIN WHY The Bolsheviks finally
came to power on 7 November 1917 but it was neither a smooth transition nor a smooth ride
once they were in power, for when Russia withdrew from World War I in 1918, the Bolsheviks

had to fight a bitter civil war with the White Army who were Tsarist sympathizers. WHY
DID THEY HAVE THE CIVIL WAR?
Source #: 1, 2
Citation: Shelley Klein / PG 44-45, Ronald Hingley / PG
Question 2: How did Josef Stalin move up through the ranks of the communist party?

EV:

It was during this time WHAT TIME WAS THIS? that Stalin was given a series of
relatively minor positions such as acting Inspector General of the Red Army and Cabinet
Minister for Nationalities. These were not posts of any great influence and would not have
brought him much notice within the party, but he worked with them methodically and, as ever,
enjoyed the organizational side of the job. In fact later historians have argued that it was the
very mundanity of his early career that ultimately led him to take over the Bolsheviks party
because none of his rivals took him seriously, thus allowing him to work quietly in the
background, biding his time. Another reason why Stalin was so successful during this early
period was that he never deviated from Lenins policies - quite the opposite, in fact. Stalin
made it his duty to back Lenin in everything he said and did. And the ploy worked, for in
March 1919 he joined Lenin, Leon Kamenev (the chairman of the Central Executive
Committee), Trotsky and Kretinsky on the inner directorate of the party, which was by then
called the Politburo. Rather than push himself forward, Stalin preferred to remain in the
background and thus was quite happy heading up the Orgburo (Organizational Bureau) whose
main concern was friends and political allies as he could,nearly always choosing men who
came from humble backgrounds and who had little or no education because these men were
more easily manipulated. BRING IN STALIN AS GENERAL SECRETARY
Source #: 1
Citation: Shelley Klein / PG 45

Question 3: How did Josef Stalin solidify power and ultimately become dictator? (if you dont
know what solidify means, google it)

EV:

On August 23, 1939, Stalin and German dictator Adolf Hitler signed (on Hitlers
initiative) a nonaggression pact stating that each country pledged not only to refrain from
attacking the other for a period of at least ten years, but also that neither would come to the aid
of any nation that the other might invade. So momentous was this pact, and so dramatically did
it shift Europes balance of power, that Time Magazine named Stalin its Man of the Year for
1939, for having signed what Time called this world-shattering agreement. Without the
Russian pact, said Time, German generals would certainly have been loath to go into military
action. With it, World War II began.
Source #: 3
Citation: DiscovertheNetwork.org / World War II

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Assertion 2 Idea: Josef Stalins maintenance of power
Question 1: How did Josef Stalin improve/take steps to improve the economy?
EV:

Stalin forced rapid industrialization and the collectivization of agricultural land,

Source #: 2
Citation: bio / Synopsis
Question 2: How did Josef Stalin use his military to maintain control/expand his reign? (if
you dont know what reign means, google it)

EV:

Chief among those identified as enemies of the people by Stalin were landowning
peasants or kulaks. Professionals such as managers and bourgeois engineers were also targets,
and in 1928 the government fired thousands of them from their jobs; deprived them of ration
cards; denied them the right to receive medical care; and drove many of them out of their
homes. The following year brought more of the same, as thousands of civil servants were
purged on charges of right-wing deviations, sabotage, or membership in a socially alien
class. Acting on direct orders from Stalin, the State Political Directorate, a secret police
known by the acronym GPU, fabricated false dossiers demonstrating the supposed existence
of a Peasant Workers Party that allegedly served as an umbrella for a network of antiSoviet groups conspiring to overthrow Stalin and the Soviet regime. By 1930 the GPU had
developed an elaborate system of concocting evidence to implicate as terrorists any
opponents of Stalins authority. The years 1928-1931 saw some 138,000 civil servants
stripped of their jobs and civil rights 23,000 of them on charges that they were enemies of

Soviet power.

Source #: 3
Citation: DiscovertheNetworks.org / Economic Programs and the First Purges
Question 3: How did Josef Stalin maintain control over the people?
EV:

However, he ruled by terror, and millions of his own citizens died during his brutal
reign Starting in the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin launched a series of five-year plans intended
to transform the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. His
development plan was centered on government control of the economy and included the
forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, in which the government took control of farms.
Millions of farmers refused to cooperate with Stalins orders and were shot or exiled as
punishment. The forced collectivization also led to widespread famine across the Soviet
Union that killed millions. Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to
eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police,
encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the
Gulag system of forced labor camps. During the second half of the 1930s, Stalin instituted
the Great Purge, a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party, the military and
other parts of Soviet society from those he considered a threat. Additionally, Stalin built a
cult of personality around himself in the Soviet Union. Cities were renamed in his honor.
Soviet history books were rewritten to give him a more prominent role in the revolution and
mythologize other aspects of his life. He was the subject of flattering artwork, literature and
music, and his name became part of the Soviet national anthem. His government also

controlled the Soviet media.

Source #: 1
Citation: History / THE SOVIET UNION UNDER JOSEPH STALIN
Question 4: How did Josef Stalin manipulate the people to maintain his control?
EV:

Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who
might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy
on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor
camps. During the second half of the 1930s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge, a series of
campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party, the military and other parts of Soviet society
from those he considered a threat.

Source #: 1
Citation: History / THE SOVIET UNION UNDER JOSEPH STALIN
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Assertion 1 Idea: Josef Stalins involvement in WWII
Question 1: Who did Josef Stalin ally himself with at the beginning of WWII? Why?
EV:

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Joseph Stalin and German dictator Adolf Hitler(18891945) signed a nonaggression pact. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland and Romania,
as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He also launched an invasion of
Finland.

Source #: 1
Citation: History / Josef Stalin and World War II

Question 2: Who did Josef Stalins ally himself with later on in WWII? Why?
EV:

In May 1942 a British-Soviet accord was agreed upon, thereby fulfulling British Prime
Minister Winston Churchills wish for a grand alliance between his country, the Soviet Union,
and the United States. For the second time in four years, Time Magazine named Stalin its Man of
the Year this time for stopping the German army in its tracks and, by joining forces with the
U.S. and Britain, increasing the chances for an Allied victory in Europe.
The winter of 1942-43 marked the military turning point of the war in Europe, when Soviet troops
scored a major victory against the German army at Stalingrad. Ordering his troops to take not one
step backwards, Stalin gave his second-line forces strict orders to gun down any front-line soldier
who attempted to flee.

Source #: 3
Citation: DiscovertheNetworks.org / World War II
Question 3: How did the nations involvement in WWII Josef Stalin affect the country as a
whole?
EV:

Though his popularity from his successes during World War II was strong, Stalin's health
began to deteriorate in the early 1950s. After an assassination plot was uncovered, he ordered the
head of the secret police to instigate a new purge of the Communist Party. Before it could be
executed, however, Stalin died on March 5, 1953. He left a legacy of death and terror as he turned
a backward Russia into a world superpower. Stalin was eventually denounced by his successor,
Nikita Khrushchev, in 1956. However, he has found a rekindled popularity among many of
Russia's young people.

Source #: 2
Citation: bio / Death and Legacy