A man who gets things done
Joseph Stalin was, as history has proven, a man who gets things done. He really made a name for himself and he really did prove himself as ‘the man of steel’ from the get go. Stalin was a very persuasive man. He started becoming like this when he was working for ‘Pravda’, Bolshevik newspaper. He uses a form of propaganda to give the Bolshevik the upper hand when it comes to voting for a ruler.
Using terror
Stalin also did some very terrible things, even before it was thought that he would have dictatorship of the USSR. In 1901, Joseph carries on with his revolutionary activities, organizing strikes and protests. In 1907 Joseph steals 250,000 rubles (approximately $3.4m in US dollars) in a bank robbery in Tiflis to help fund the cause. Stalin even helps break Lenin out of prison in 1917.
As Lenin starts getting old, Stalin is already strategizing his way of beating Trotsky and gain favor from the citizens and the Bolshevik party. Once Stalin gained that favor, he had gotten Trotsky as soon as he had become dictator of the Soviet Union. Even from the start, he had used terror to get rid of his opposition or anyone that would cost him dictatorship.
Focusing on the right things
As cruel as Stalin was, especially to those that he opposed, he was a very smart man. And when he was leading the Soviet Union, he did focus on the right things. An example of this was the Five Year Plans, a system which Stalin created to modernize the country, improve the economy and make the Soviet Union an industrialized state. All of this was aimed at the agriculture and the industrialization.
Stalin had done a lot when it came to industrialization. With his ‘ Five Year Plan’, new towns had been created. There were many extensions of heavy industries like coal, steel, electricity etc. new roads, railways and canals were built for different modes of transport and transportation of goods. Stalin also focused on the school of children, and even allowed adult literacy classes to produce skilled work forces and improve people’s knowledge of different things.
All of this led to there being jobs available for most people, better health care and education, public entertainment, and better yet, he really improved the standard of living in the USSR.
The Great Terror
At the same time though, Stalin was a very ruthless man. In the 1930’s, he had instituted Purges or Great Terror. Millions of people were executed or sent to forced labor camps, sort of like concentration camps. He had show trials, where he would investigate the people who he thought were against him. Most of them were executed, the rest were sent to labor camps. Stalin had a purge of the communist party. Millions were expelled, the leaders were imprisoned or killed, and even Trotsky, was killed. He killed lots of different people, from officials to citizens that had opposed him. The sum of bodies was about 20 million people altogether.
The words that Stalin had said to his people really showed how much of a monster he is. One of Stalin’s famous quotes was “Death is a solution to all problems. No man – no problem”. These were the words said from Joseph Stalin, and these really showed the monster part of him as well. He showed that he thought that all the killing happening, was the right thing and it was supposed to happen.
A monster of a genius
With all the facts and information included, a conclusion can be given to the question ‘’Was Stalin a monster or a genius?’”. And as stated before, Stalin seems to be both. He does make USSR a leading industrial power, but at the same time, he gets this by killing 20 million Russians. So it is right to say that he is both. But if we had to say which one he is more of, he is definitely more a monster than a genius.
