Stalin's Rise to Power

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the life and accomplishments of Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin. The writer of this paper examines Stalin's role as the leader responsible for the conversion of communism in the Soviet Union from an egalitarian revolutionary movement into that of an authoritative bureaucratic governmental system, while focusing on his political and military career between 1921-1932. Stalin began his political career by joining the Social Democratic Party of Georgia in 1901. This well-researched paper discusses the views of numerous biographers who have described Stalin as a plodding figure with brutality as his main distinguishing feature. Stalin is considered the man responsible for the deaths of some 20 million people of which more than 14 million died needlessly from hunger. Stalin also deported, exiled or imprisoned in work camps more than nine million people. It is estimated that five million of the people sent by Joseph Stalin to the Gulag Archipelago never came back alive. This paper explores Stalin's intellectual strength and cunning which was first noticed upon his appointment as General Secretary of the Communist party in 1922. The rise of Stalin to power was a mix of factors as well as fate. These factors include his character and his relentless quest for power, the revolutionary zeal of Leon Trotsky, the rise of the bureaucrats and the role played by his comrades in power. The writer explains how all these factors impacted on Stalin's leadership style.

Table of Contents
Introduction
The Rise of Stalin
Conclusion
References

From the Paper:

"The strength of his intelligence and cunning was to be seen that when he came to become a General Secretary of the Communist party in 1922, he cultivated the bureaucracy and by using his maneuvering and administrative skills ensured that his potential rivals in the party were marginalized and it was this amassing of power by Stalin that made Lenin worry about the role of Stalin and call for his removal that did not take place as Lenin did not live long enough after that to see that Stalin did not utilize this accumulation of strength in the party as the means to get to the top of the existing power system in the Soviet Union. It could be said that fate also played a part in assisting the rise of Stalin to power by removing Lenin from the scene by his death. In the earlier days Lenin was the idol of Stalin and they built up a friendship that was to aid Stalin in his initial rise to power in the Communist Party. Stalin used this platform that was built on his looking on Lenin as an idol and the friendship that started between the two of them as his launching pad to power."

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