preview

Who Was Joseph Stalin A Good Leader

Good Essays

JOSEPH STALIN
Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the U.S.S.R. from the mid 1920s till his death in 1953. Joseph Stalin used savage tactics to keep his powers. He used no principles, no mercy, and no ethics. Stalin contained a lot of bad leadership characteristics but I have cut it down to some of the worst in my opinion.
The Great Purge started in 1934 and ended in 1940. In order to upset any budding power bases or alliances that might work against him, Stalin went on a spree of executing, imprisoning, and firing many officials at many levels, especially the highest levels. Officers removed from office one way or another: 3 of 5 Marshalls, 8 of 9 Admirals, 13 of 15 Army Commanders, 50 of 57 Corps Commanders, 16 of 16 Army Commissars, …show more content…

Stalin, against his word, invaded Poland after the Polish army was completely engaged with Germany, Stalin claimed a portion of Poland for his self. In early 1940, over 25,000 of Poland’s best military leaders were executed by Stalin’s command. When the Soviets retook Poland in 1944 the Soviets pretended the Nazis had committed the Massacre. The Soviets finally reported that they were behind the Katyn Massacre.
During Stalin’s several year reign, no free press, freedom of speech, or really any freedoms were enjoyed in the Soviet Union or any country controlled by it. People were given propaganda created by Stalin and the Soviet government. People were also denied the news and cultural influence from the western countries. Just as Hitler and the Nazis, Stalin and the Soviets jailed or killed anyone that spoke contrary to his preferred viewpoint. After World War II Stalin failed to give the European countries the right to choose their own government and their own way of life and instead had the U.S.S.R.’s communism forced upon them. Making these countries have communist governments whether the people wanted it or not, and restricting movement in or out of the “communist block” made this mass of people little more than slaves, creating an even bigger Soviet empire than that of before the …show more content…

Stalin ordered the intentional starvation of Ukraine and killed as many as 7.5 million Ukrainians. Although the Ukraine is considered the “breadbasket” of the Soviet Union where the most productive farms are, the food produced was removed for residents of other parts of the country and Ukrainians were left to starve. The widespread and horrible scale of the starvation led people to eat the dead, and 2500 were convicted of cannibalism. The independence minded people of the Ukraine were starved into submission, pure and simple. Soviet propaganda denied the famine for many years, refusing to admit Stalin’s psychotic willingness to kill people or allow the world to think people in Ukraine could possibly starve. Soviet propaganda also spread into western countries with false messages that the famine was natural and not planned. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian and Ukrainian officials were somewhat more forthcoming, but the issue remains a hot topic between Russia and Ukraine.
From my research I have no doubt that Stalin is just as bad, if not worse than Hitler. Stalin just didn’t get the publicity from it because of the Soviet propaganda and lack of freedom of press. Stalin is no doubt, one of the worst leaders in the aspect of morals and values. Joseph Stalin was a violent, uncaring, and vicious leader who used violence to take and keep his

Get Access