Joseph Stalin was ruler of the Soviet Union from 1929-1953. While he
was in power the Great
Depression devastated the world economy, the Nazis invaded the U.S.S.R., Berlin was cut
off from the rest
of the world, and the Cold War began. In many countries his philosophies were believed to
be highly
effective, but some of his actions are just being uncovered , and denounced, in
“Western” countries like the
United States. One part of Soviet history, only now being recognized for what it really
was, is the “Great
Purge” Stalin initiated to rid the country of all people who didn’t support him
as “the supreme ruler of the
Soviet Union”.
Stalin was born on December 21, 1827 in Gori, Georgia, and
given the name Joseph
Vissarionovich Djugashvili. He adopted the name Joseph Stalin later in his lifetime.
(World Book 825;
Groilers-Stalin,Joseph) His father was an alcoholic, beat his wife, as well as, Stalin.
Stalin’s father died in a
fight when his child was only eleven. His mother wanted Stalin to become a priest, so she
sent him to
seminary school when he was 14 years of age. (Groilers-Stalin,Joseph) At the school,
Stalin learned about
revolutionaries and became one himself. Eventually he quit school and became “a
full-time revolutionary”
against the Czar and the Russian monarchy. He was arrested in 1904 and joined the
Bolsheviks. Stalin was
arrested and exiled four more times between 1906 and 1913. (World Book 825)
When Stalin escaped from exile he met Lenin and joined
the Bolsheviks. In 1912 he was
appointed to the Bolshevik Central Committee. Arrested and exiled by the Czar in 1913, he
returned in
1917 after the “November Revolution”. (Groilers-Stalin, Joseph) Stalin was
appointed secretary of the
Central Committee in 1922 and became “power hungry”. Before his death, in 1924,
Lenin wrote a not
saying that Stalin was reckless and needed to be removed from power. The leading
Bolsheviks ignored the
note and continued increasing the amount of power Stalin had. Between 1924 and 1928,
Stalin used his
position to remove his opposition from “the Party”; he was the unchallenged
leader of the Soviet Union by
1929. (Groilers-Stalin, Joseph) As leader of the Soviet Union he ordered the creation of
the collective farms
to aid in the rapid industrialization of the country. Poor management of the farms caused
thousands of
people to die in a famine; Stalin continued collectivization at an increased rate after
the famine. (World Book 826)
Stalin’s purge began after the death of Sergei Kirov. It is
believed that the “murder was probably
arranged by Stalin as a pretext for eliminating all opponents.” (Groilers-Great
Purge) Stalin used Kirov’s
death as an excuse to charge Party members and Army generals with treason or conspiracy
and sentence
them to death. Almost all of the members of the Central Committee and the 17th Congress
were killed or
arrested; some were sent to labor camps known as Gulags. At first, the purge was secret;
show trials in
Moscow were evidence of the purge’s existence, later on.
The purge spread from high-ranking officials to people associated with
Lenin and then to common
workers and farmers.
Anyone perceived as a threat to Stalin’s power was killed. The
“officer-corps” were
so Stalin would have total support in the lower ranks of the armed forces. (Groilers-Great
Purge) Everyone
was considered a suspect by the secret police. During this time Stalin began to produce
his own personality
“cult”. Some people used this cult as a way to avoid being killed by the secret
police. (Groilers-Stalin,
Joseph)
During the purge the secret police ordered spying on important
industrialists. They also ordered
neighbors to spy on each other, children to report on heir parents, children to watch
their siblings, and
adults to spy on their employers/employees. (World Book 826) With so may people being
arrested or
killed, or just disappearing, many began to lose faith in Stalin’s leadership. Not
many spoke openly spoke
out against Stalin for fear of their lives and Western nations did not find out the true
extent of the purge
because it was not discussed in public. (Soviet Political System 28) One of the most
adverse affects of the
purge was that when World War II began, many of the Soviet Union’s best generals had
been killed off. the
lack of capable generals was a contributing factor in many of the Soviet Union’s
early defeats in the war.
(World Book 827)
Stalin’s purge disillusioned many devoted Communists, and
rocked Western faith in the Socialist
system that was used by the Soviets. The purge “liquidated” many faithful
Communists and struck fear into
the hearts of Stalin’s opponents. (Time Almanac-Man Of The Year) This fear prevented
challenges to his
rule of the Soviet Union, but to prevent challenges Stalin initiated atrocities that were
wider ranging than
the Nazi’s World War II Holocaust. the Great Purge is a bleak spot in Soviet history
that many of the
Soviet Union’s leaders and citizens would like to put behind them.
