Stalin's Leadership (1924-45): Soviet Economy, Show Trials, and Wartime Alliances

Essay Plan

INTRO:

• Stalin as dictator of the USSR from 1924-45.
• Key aspects: economic transformation, show trials, and wartime alliances.
• USSR transformed into an industrial powerhouse and global superpower under Stalin's leadership.

BODY PARAGRAPHS:

1. Socialism in One Country.
2. Collectivisation
3. 5-year plans
4. Fear and terror
5. Format of show trials
6. Trial of Sixteen, Trial of Seventeen, and the purge of Red Army officers.
7. Impact of show trials
8. Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
9. USSR's role in WWII
10. Post-war consequences

CONCLUSION:

• Stalin's leadership marked by brutal policies, propaganda, and wartime alliances.
• Despite his oppressive rule, Stalin was seen as a strong war leader.
• His legacy led to the Cold War with the USA and eventual de-Stalinisation under Khrushchev.

Sample Essay

Stalin was dictator of the USSR from 1924-45 and his leadership was best exemplified by his policies surrounding the economy, show trials and wartime alliances. He transformed the Soviet economy from a backward and rural one into an industrial powerhouse and global superpower. He used political theatre and terror to gain more control over the Communist Party and the people. The USSR joined the Allies in WW2 to fight Nazi Germany, emerging victorious, showing the extent of Stalin's brutal leadership.

Stalin transformed the economy by dismantling Lenin's NEP and implementing a policy called Socialism In One Country. Its priority was industrialising Russia. It emphasised heavy industry and public work schemes and abolished private property as the state took control over farms. This created a large Proletariat working class and, therefore, a command economy that was easier to control. These policy changes proved Stalin's determination as a dictator. He also implemented collectivisation, abolishing private farms and merging small family-owned ones into large, mechanised, state-owned ones to increase efficiency and output. He established communist control in the countryside despite fierce resistance from Kulaks, which led to mass deportation, famine, and millions of deaths. Stalin's aggressive economic policy established him as a ruthless and totalitarian dictator.

Stalin also implemented 5-year plans, which promoted rapid industrialisation of the economy. The plans focused on coal, iron, and steel. The industry saw a 330% increase in output and high productivity rates. Iron and steel were produced at Magnitogorsk, and 4.5 million tons of iron and 5 million tons of steel were made by 1939. Public work schemes such as the Dnieper Dam construction were largely realised through slave labour, making Stalin a feared lender in the USSR. Stalin also governed through fear and terror, such as introducing rations which decreased wages and living standards. If production targets were not met, show trials would be held, and people would be evicted or sent to prison camps. The Stakhanovite movement took off, and the best workers were paid the highest wages. Man-made famine or Holodomor occurred when Russia abused Ukraine's grain output, leaving millions to die, all to solidify Stalin's brutal rule.

Propaganda was commonplace in Soviet Russia, as the Communist Party controlled all media. Any regime failures were blamed on spies or saboteurs. Stalin also developed a cult of personality and was referred to as Vohzd or "Father of Nations." Books, statues, and poetry were dedicated to him, as were cities like Stalingrad. History was rewritten to emphasise Stalin's small role in the 1918 October Revolution and idealised him as a strong and worthy leader. Propaganda was Stalin's most powerful tool during his regime. Stalin's "Great Terror" accused supposed 'enemies of the people' to offset the failures of his dictatorship. He aimed to gain further control over the Communist Party through fear and paranoia. Show trials, a form of political theatre, consisted of the torturing of defendants, blackmail, forced confessions and pre-decided guilty verdicts. The proceedings were made public, and convicts were often shot. Andrei Vyshinski was state prosecutor and ordered the deaths of many under Stalin's unrelenting leadership.

The Trial of Sixteen took place in 1936, in which all 16 leading Bolsheviks, including Lev Kamenev, were shot. The following year, The Trial of Seventeen occurred, where all defendants but Karl Radek were shot; Radek was sent to a prison camp where the NKVD murdered him. The same year, a purge trial killed 35,000 Red Army officers. In 1938, the "Anti-Soviet Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites" took place again, with most convicts being forced to admit guilt and facing execution. The trials made Stalin feared across the USSR.

As the Western world watched the defendants confess, they watched in awe and believed their guilt. Many socialists who visited the USSR in the 1930s believed the trials were fair. While many convicts confessed from fear or torture some were loyal communist martyrs. Out of 15 of the original Bolsheviks from 1917 were killed apart from Stalin and Trotsky, who was murdered by Stalin's agent in Mexico in 1940. The trials made Stalin a dictator, and they were a wake-up call to all party members and the population.

Stalin had a peaceful foreign policy in the 1930s, joining the League of Nations in 1934. He sought allies against possible German attacks, and communist parties worldwide were encouraged to form popular front governments. Hitler offered a pact in which Germany and the USSR would not attack one another for ten years and divide the land lost by Russia in 1918 along with Poland between them. Stalin allied with Hitler to form the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact in 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Hitler, however, soon broke the pact as he was losing Britain. Hitler's Operation Barbarossa went ahead very successfully initially due to the non-existent command structure of the Red Army. Russia now fought on the side of the Allies against Nazi Germany and was aided by US supplies of jeeps, fuel and radio. Soon, the war took a turn in the Soviet's favour after the battle at Stalingrad and the Germans were driven out of the USSR by 1944. Stalin's alliance with Hitler failed and led to a massive loss of life, but Russia still emerged victorious.

In conclusion, Stalin asserted himself as the supreme leader of the USSR from 1924-45 through brutal social and economic policies, propaganda, and his alliance with the Allies in WW2. He was still seen as a great war leader despite turning on his people. As historian Joe Lee stated, "Any disagreement with Stalin would be treachery" Ultimately, after Stalin's death, Premier Nikita Khrushchev led policies of de-Stalinisation, and the USSR entered into a Cold War with the USA due to its global superpower status, which developed from Stalin's brutal autocratic leadership.