Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili was born in 1879 into a poor family from eastern Georgia. He was otherwise known as Josef Stalin, a nickname picked up from imprisonment; it means ‘man of steel’, this is highly ironic as one his most successful projects in terms of production was the steel city of Magnitogorsk. He was an active member of the Bolsheviks and was arrested 8 times and exiled on several occasions. Despite this, he still managed to become one of the most significant, authoritative leaders of the Soviet Union. Stalin used many ways to gain power and control over his people, for example Collectivisation and the Mass Purges, but were these the only reasons?

One of the many ways that Stalin gained power over the Soviet Union was by Censorship. This means that he could limit what the public read about politics and the state of their country. He could censor books, newspapers, radio broadcasts and films. Even paintings had to portray Stalin’s achievements. By controlling the Soviet this way, he could gain their support because they wouldn’t know the bad things happening in government.

He also used propaganda to constantly persuade people to support him and his regime. Examples of such propaganda were edited photographs of Stalin and Lenin sitting together to show that Stalin was close to Lenin. This would encourage Russian people to champion Stalin because they held Lenin in high regard and it would reassure them that Stalin was close to him. Stalin made many speeches stressing how vital it was for him to carry on Lenin’s policies. There were paintings commissioned displaying Stalin’s prominent role in the events of 1917 to 1921, towns were named Stalingrad, Stalino and Stalinabad. Various parades were held to celebrate Stalin ‘the great leader’ and impress the Soviet Union and the rest of the world. The Soviet people were consistently reminded of Stalin’s authority, forcing them to support him. Other consequences of the propaganda Stalin used were that Trotsky, Stalin’s main opposition was portrayed to be a Jewish intellectual who was threatening to undo the work of idolised Lenin. Stalin probably felt that this would demolish all rumours that people would prefer Trotsky as their leader. Another intelligent use of propaganda was the expensive construction projects to illustrate the success of Stalin’s regime. For example; the Moscow Metro, the Dnieper Dam and the steel city of Magnitogorsk.

The Great Purges and Show Trials were one of Stalin’s ways of securing power. C.P Snow; a British writer and politician, thinks that ‘Stalin was the subject of persecution mania to an extent which went a long way beyond reason’. The word ‘purge’ previously meant ‘dismissal from the party’, however it soon came to mean dismissal and either imprisonment or death. Like C.P Snow, many people thought that these purges were due to Stalin’s possible madness or paranoia of younger, more radical people succeeding as leader or supporting Trotsky. For Stalin the purges were a useful way of excusing failures of his existing policies. If the targets weren’t met, it could be blamed on sabotage, and the Soviet people would never know any different. Some even suspected that the purges were a way to provide manpower for labour camps. Fyodor Dan, a Menshevik, thought that Stalin was a sadist, and enjoyed the execution of the purged workers. Allegedly, one of his hobbies was to cut sheep’s throat in his country home, this strongly supports Fyodor Dan’s theory. There is a very strong piece of evidence in the fact that Stalin’s daughter felt that the Mass Purges were due to his weaknesses. Other famous communists such as Zinoviev, Bukharin and Kamenev were either persuaded or tortured into confessing to plotting with Trotsky or capitalist governments to take over the USSR, they were then executed. By effacing these people, Stalin could ascertain that no other strong oppositions could overthrow him.

To enforce his control and increase his power, he introduced Economic Polices such as Collectivisation and the Five Year Plans. From Stalin’s Collected Works, 1931, he stated ‘We must create in our country an industry which would be capable of re-equipping and organising not only the whole of our industry, but also our transport and agriculture. We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in ten years. Either we do or we will go under.’ There were many great benefits from these Policies, there was no unemployment, and the Soviet Union didn’t suffer from the Great Depression of 1929. There was an increase in heavy industry and growth in consumer goods due to the five year plans, meaning that the Soviet people had more resources therefore supporting Stalin’s leadership. The workers could train for higher paid jobs; their children subsequently got free education, medical care and even day-care in some places like Magnitogorsk. This encouraged the women to join the men at work so production was certain to increase. Pensions and sickness benefits were guaranteed due to more doctors per 1000 people than major countries from the West. 50% of people were illiterate in 1924, this was reduced to 19% in 1939, and this must link to children getting free education. All of these positives meant that Stalin was attaining more reliance from the public. However, in his desperate aim for Russia to become a modernised country, he sacrificed quality for quantity. The training the workers received was poor because Stalin had purged the best people of that trade, so the workers were not learning how to do that job to the best of their ability. This consequently affected the success of some production. Also these workers had few rights and little or no freedom. If they injured themselves on machinery, they were suspected of sabotage and punished harshly. The living conditions for most people were very poor, for example; 40% of families in Moscow were living in a single room. The prices for basic needs rose and food shortages were becoming increasingly imminent. To travel from one part of the country to another, you needed an internal passport. This was the government’s way of making sure people were not finding other work without their permission. Light industries and some consumer goods were ignored as they were not as productive as other trades. This left the workers of those industries in severe poverty and meant the public did have much access to the products they were making. It is not surprising that the statistics were altered to make it appear as if nothing was going wrong, when in fact, there were a great deal of people against Stalin and his regime.

Collectivisation was yet another way to accumulate support and power, while still being able to modernise Soviet agriculture. During the Communist Party conference in 1927, Stalin said ‘The way out is to turn the small and scattered peasant farms into large, united farms based on the cultivation of the land in common – not by pressure, but by example and persuasion.’ These ‘united farms’ were otherwise known as ‘Kolkhozys’. They were managed by a communist party member and the aim of them was to provide a fixed amount of food to the government. If they had produced more than the government wanted, which was very rare, they could share out the leftovers if they had paid of the debts for using the machinery. The conditions were satisfactory, and some had schools and hospitals. On the other hand, in 1935 the output could only be increased if the workers were allowed to have their own small plots of land to grow crops or keep animals on. The most opposition the government had to collectivisation, were the Kulaks. I think this is because they were earning much less under the new policy, so they burned crops and killed animals instead of handing them over. There were threats of food shortages so Stalin brought in bread rationing in 1928 and started to seize grain from the peasants. This must have worried the peasants because they may think a return to War Communism was approaching. Collectivisation was as much of a political policy as an economic one; it enabled the totalitarian rule over Russia that Stalin strived for.

To maximise Stalin’s power and turn his country from a mainly inefficient agricultural society, into a leading industrial country he constructed the Moscow Metro, the Dnieper Dam and the steel city of Magnitogorsk within The Five Year Plans. These plans were an underhand way for Stalin to oversee and control the people of his country. The state planning authority called Gosplan, set targets for industries that had to be met in a limited time. During the first plan; 1928 to 1932, Oil, Coal, Iron and Steel were to double their production within the 5 years. After that, the industrial output increased three times as much. The second five year plan, from 1938 to 1941, focused on the heavy industry again, but more tractors were manufactured for use in agriculture. There was an increase in household goods, such as radios and bicycles. 100 new towns were built and there was a sevenfold increase in electricity. The way most of these targets were met was by the development of the Moscow Metro, the Dnieper Dam and Magnitogorsk.

Magnitogorsk was a very successful, man-made city covering an area of 54 square miles. The scale of the city was immense, holding 17 great blocks of buildings, each with its own department store, school, restaurant and crèches. Each of the apartments in the buildings had running water, electric light, gas and central heating. For the peasants coming from the bad conditions of collectivised farms, this was exceptional or them. There were 35 different nationalities and during the first Five Year Plan, nearly 250,000 people came to Magnitogorsk. However, with the abundance of people, it must have been difficult for the conditions to stay as good as they were. During the winter of 1932 to 1933, the riggers; men who worked at the very top, received no meal, butter and almost no sugar or milk. They were only given bread and little cereal. This undernourishment and constant overwork, was the case for most people living at Magnitogorsk. Despite the fact the conditions were appalling; the mills had turned out 10 million tons of cast iron by 1934. This grew to 14.5 million tons by 1937. The steel production increased 9½ times to 17.5 million tons or more. The motive for most of these workers would be remuneration and a role model called Alexei Stakhanov, who cut 102 tonnes of coal, which was 14 times the usual amount in one shift. Creating this astounding city enabled Stalin to sustain his authorisation while carrying out his promise.

The reason Josef Stalin became so influential, is because of terror. The conditions were always poor, the production increase was never beneficial to the Soviet people, Stalin’s economic policies enraged great amounts of people and his personality was near unbearable. When Sergei Kirov was murdered after giving a highly successful speech at the 17 th Party Congress in Leningrad was when the Stalin Terror really began. Knowing how paranoid Stalin was about an overthrow of his power, there were strong suspicions that the murder was on his orders. The Mass Purges were the main reason that Stalin had so much control over Russia, because the people were living in fear of being executed like Kirov. L.B.

Who was more to blame for raising cold war tensions in the period 1945-1949, the US or the USSR?

America (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) were both to blame for an increase in Cold War tensions between the years 1945 and 1949. This report will discuss why both countries were to blame and will conclude with a justification of who was more to blame.

One of the reasons that raised Cold War tensions was the Ideological differences between the US and the USSR. The US was a capitalist country at this time and the USSR was a communist country. This caused the US to be afraid of the spread of communism throughout the world. During the civil war, there was a lot of support for anti-communists. In the US, Harry Truman encouraged anti-communism. This made the USSR tense since Stalin, president of the USSR during the Cold War, believed that capitalism was evil.

Another Ideological difference between the US and the USSR was that the US was the first country to develop the Atomic Bomb. Since Truman had not made the USSR aware of the development of the Atomic Bomb, they were very angry. The development of the Atomic Bomb also made the USSR tense since they had no nuclear weapons; this made them a less powerful country. However the USSR had the largest army in the world which caused the US to be frightened of their army. This army was called the Red Army and was strengthened further during the Cold War; the army also developed their own Atomic Bomb, following the development of the Atomic Bomb in America, which created tensions in the US.

An additional reason to why the USSR was to blame for raising Cold War tensions was historic tensions that had taken place in the past. An example started with the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1939; Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany and known as the “Fuhrer”, attempted to persuade Stalin to join forces with Germany and not with America and Britain. However, during WW2 the USSR did join forces with America and Britain, making Hitler very angry. The USSR found having their alliance with Germany and America very beneficial to them since they used it to expand into Eastern Europe; the Soviet expansion. During WW2 the USSR claimed Eastern Europe and set up communist governments. This caused the US to be very angry with the USSR since they were spreading communism intentionally.

An additional reason why the USSR was to be blamed for raising Cold War tensions was the Blockade of Berlin. The Blockage of Berlin took place in 1948. Stalin decided to block Berlin since he was annoyed that Berlin was a capitalist country in the middle of a communist zone, Stalin also wanted to control Berlin. However the Blockade caused major problems; since people living in West Berlin became communists, they did not have enough fuel and food to survive. In order to solve this problem allies sent in aircraft to deliver necessities for West Berliners, this was very successful since 8000 tons of fuel and food were flown in every day.

The US was also to blame for raising tensions during the Cold War, as well as the USSR. An example is The Marshall Plan and The Truman Doctrine. Marshall Aid was created by the Americans and aimed to help Europe recover from WW2. The Americans mainly set up the Marshall Plan in order to prevent Europe turning to communism, and also meant that Europe would become a strong trading partner for the US. The Truman Doctrine accompanied the Marshall Plan. In March 1947 Truman made a speech and announced that America would help any nation threatened by communism. This speech was made in order to prevent communism spreading throughout the World.

“Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty desperation and chaos. Any country that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full co-operation on the part of the US government.” George C. Marshall, the US Secretary of State, June 1947

 However, the USSR rejected Marshall Aid since Stalin believed the Marshall Plan was set up as an attempt, made by the US, to control Europe. The US was angry that the USSR withdrew their applications for Marshall Aid and Cold War tensions were increased due to this.

Another reason why the US was to blame for raising cold war tensions is the Iron curtain speech made by Winston Churchill. The speech was made on the 5 th March 1946 at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri . During the speech Churchill stated “... an Iron curtain has descended across the continent. ” The Iron curtain divided Eastern Europe from Western Europe in order to divide Communism from Capitalism and as a result the USSR was closed up from the rest of Europe. During the speech Churchill also stated that communist parties “have been raised to power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control” and that communism does not allow peace. The Iron curtain speech caused tensions to rise since Churchill spoke against communism and therefore against the USSR, making them very angry. One of the differences between Stalin and Churchill is that Stalin saw the Iron curtain as a protective shield and Churchill disagreed with this. At the end of the speech Churchill stated “This is certainly not the liberated Europe we fought to build”. Here, Churchill is criticising Stalin, this caused tensions to rise.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why the US was to blame for raising tensions during the Cold War. These reasons include the Iron curtain speech, the development of the Atomic Bomb and the support for anti-communists. However, there are more reasons why the USSR was to blame for raising Cold War tensions. These reasons include the USSR withdrawing their applications for Marshall Aid and the USSR claiming Eastern Europe. Additional reasons include the Hitler-Stalin pact, the Red Army and the Blockade.

Therefore, from the information included in the report, I believe that the USSR was more to blame, than the US, for raising tensions during the Cold War.

Bibliography

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir2/ideologicaldifferencesrev3.shtml

 http://www.churchillspeeches.com

 http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/09/

 “Modern World History” textbook (page 48 and 49)

 Document: “Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech”