Why Stalin launched his second revolution
In this answer I shall be evaluating the evidence, and stating how far I agree or disagree with the view that Stalin launched his second revolution in 1929 to defeat rivals for soviet leadership.
In 1927, the power struggle within the communist party was over. Stalin had gained full political power. Stalin believed that rapid industrialisation and collectivisation or agriculture would transform Russia into a rich and powerful socialist state that would set an example to the rest of the world, showing that socialism within a country could work. Stalin would then set about taking over various countries and adding to the USSR, dictating and imposing their socialist views upon the country. Stalin did not want his leadership or plans to be disputed so during the second revolution Stalin imposed various laws and policies alongside removing various potential political opponents in order to ensure that his absolute power could not be disputed.
The Term Paper on Joseph Stalin: The Iron Power
... runs the country and who should be followed. In the long years of his leadership, Stalin had excessively used the power of the ... Tsar rule after it invaded by Russia further intensified Stalin’s desire for revolution. Due to his rebellion activities he was expelled from ... why they were attracted by the ideals of communism and revolution. Since education was such of importance to Russia; the well ...
Stalin insisted on the absolute supremacy of the communist party, and to ensure that no group of peasants ever rose up and became powerful enough to overthrow him; Stalin removed peasants’ private ownership of land as a potential base of opposition and instead dedicated Communists from big city factories to run the collective farms, guaranteeing support for Moscow’s policies.
By developing heavy industries, Stalin hoped that Russia could free herself from dependence on capitalist states for machinery and manufactured goods. This freedom would mean that Russia could finally rival the likes of the United States and Germany in industrial production and would achieve Stalin’s major aim, by proving a socialist society could be just as successful as a capitalist one.
Up until 1928 the Russian agricultural system had remained somewhat backward so to modernise and enhance Russian agriculture, Stalin used the method of collectivisation. This meant that private farms were abolished in place of large farms which could in theory produce more than private farms. The kind of crops and the amount of production were decided by the needs of the district and the state, this extra production was also aided by the introduction of machinery into Russian agriculture.
Stalin proved highly efficient in removing his actual and potential enemies, making himself the undisputed dictator, ruthlessly using the secret police (OGPU and the NKVD) to instil terror and by sending hundreds of thousands of political opponents or doubters to the ‘Gulag’; a vast network of colonies where survival rates were low. During the second revolution, Stalin also executed tens of thousands of old Bolsheviks in the purges thereby replacing the historic party revolutionaries with a younger generation of bureaucrats who all conformed to the policy of ‘communism in one country’ and would be a lot less likely to oppose Stalin and be a threat to his absolute power.
In conclusion I believe that although there were other factors that contributed to Stalin launching the second revolution, Stalin’s need to remove rivals that were a threat to his power was paramount. This was so important as Stalin’s paranoia led him to believe that if he didn’t remove what he saw as a threat to power then his dictatorship would be constantly undermined by political rivals opposing his views and policies.
The Essay on Animal Farm And Russian Revolution
Animal Farm and Russian Revolution Comparison: Highlights, Events, Characters, Themes The novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is an anti-utopian story of animals taking over a farm in England. There are many parallels between the events and characters in Animal Farm and those of the Russian Revolution. As in the Russian Revolution the animals in Animal Farm strive to create a better life for ...
