Was he a successful leader/dictator? Give your views
Answers
Answer:
A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by ... They may hold left or right-wing views, or may be apolitical. ... military is a common one; many dictators take great pains to emphasize their connections ... For the weak dictator, it is usually not enough to "give their orders
Answer:
Explanation:
When you consider the context of what happened during the 1930’s it is almost miraculous what happened in order to stop Hitler and the Nazis.
Germany was one of the most advanced industrial economies in the world.
The USSR was a semi-feudal, peasant, agrarian economy with 30% literacy.
The race to industrialize was spurred on by the fear that capitalist countries would try to destroy communism in the USSR. At the First Conference of Workers in 1931, Stalin delivered a passionate speech, commanding workers to play a crucial role in industrialization. He said: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do it or they will crush us."[1]
But the USSR could not simply industrialize. It could not because its agricultural sector had a history of famines. Outputs were not enough to sustain people moving to the cities.
The kulaks were small landowners who had farmhands. The government planned on collectivizing agriculture, introducing modern farming equipment, and using economies of scale to end the hundreds of years old series of famines and increases outputs to permit people to move to the city for industrialization.
The kulaks hid grain. They encouraged people not to grow. They sabotaged things. They slaughtered half the amount of livestock needed to farm, guaranteeing another famine.
A massive famine resulted in Ukraine and surrounding areas. The kulaks wanted to keep what they grew and sell the rest at exorbitant prices. If people starved that wasn’t their problem. The government’s plan was to collect all grain and ration it and give it to all. The kulaks resisted.[2]
Thus began a battle that would decide the fate of millions. Would the individual rights of the kulaks to keep their own grain and lifestyle prevail, thus also causing no industrialization and the Germans to defeat the Soviet Union in the inevitable war?
The Germans had a Hunger Plan, which was to starve millions of people, and make the survivors slaves.[3]
Within the society arose a dispute. Bukharin and other ring wing people wanted to continue the current situation, Lenin’s NEP, which permitted some markets and small business. Stalin’s second wife sided with these people. Later it was discovered that there was a conspiracy in this group along with the military to overthrow Stalin and make peace with Germany and Japan by turning over land. During a dispute over this issue at a party Stalin’s drunken wife ran home and blew her brains out.
The intelligence services had informed the Politburo there were conspiracies afoot. The Great Purges were voted for by the workers. Everyone was terrified of enemies from within who came from the White Army. After the civil war they didn’t disappear. Trotsky was collaborating with members of the military and Germany and Japan to cede land to them in exchange for avoiding a war.[4] Foolish because Germany would have simply invaded them after the exchange. But they wouldn’t be able to effectively fight back because they wouldn’t have industrialized rapidly.
An important member of the government, Kirov, is assassinated. Later the assassin was caught. He said he was told to kill Kirov by a member of the NKVD. Turns out the killing of Kirov was ordered to help touch off the panic in society. One week later there was a failed assassination attempt against Stalin. During the purges a man named Iagoda was head of the NKVD. He was replaced by Yezhov, a man who was a conspirator. He started killing on a mass scale. He would tell Stalin and others that he was trying to get to the bottom of the conspiracy, but he was having a hard time doing it. In reality he was creating panic. People started blaming their political enemies to get rid of them. They would be tortured and told they had to “name names.” So they did. But these were unreliable. In all about 685,000 people were executed.[5] Later Stalin would find out about what was going on. Yezhov have falsified reports and data. He would later be tried and executed for his crimes. When Beria took over the killings dropped to 1% of the original numbers. Stalin ordered a personal review of those set for execution, and the legal requirements were increased substantially.[6]
The Trotskyite conspirators were uncovered and confessed. Bukharin confessed and he was not tortured in making his confession. The Moscow Trials were not show trials.[7]
The collectivization worked. People moved to the cities and the first 5 Year Plan resulted in enormous success. Within less than 9 years the Soviet Union industrialized and prepared itself for the inevitable German attack.
Even Hitler admitted that the manufacturing abilities of the Soviets caused his initial invasion to fail.[8]