Stalin - Biography and Government
Lenin was very popular as a representative of a party, an ideology. Josef Stalin , his successor, benefited from the "personality cult", arousing the Russian people an affection whose excess has marked the history of the USSR.
Son of a simple craftsman, Stalin never left Russia, was born in 1879, a small town in Georgia. With 18 years he was released in revolutionary action, organizing meetings and attacks and writing revolutionary articles in clandestine newspapers. In 1917 it was the perfect example of a militant revolutionary, becoming a prominent figure.
His revolutionary ideas were based on disbelief in an immediate revolutionary outbreak in the world: the victory of socialism would be slow and depend even temporary setbacks, with capitalist characteristics in their progression tocommunism.
Government of Stalin
When Stalin came to power in 1924, Russia was going through a period of uncertainty and internal conflicts, mitigated by the enthusiasm that was created around economic development works in favor. Moreover, the opposition was suppressed. Trotsky's supporters were shot or exiled. The country's national minorities were incorporated into the Union.
Developed the industry in the Caucasus; if explored deposits - particularly oil (Karaganda) - Central Asia; They rose up cities in Siberia.However there were still difficulties related to the road to collectivization.
From 1928-1931, Stalin, with the support of the masses, it was decided to break the rigidity of the "revolutionary style", while considering socialism. Certain aspects of the old regime, as respect to the military hierarchy, reappeared.The full socialization of the economy was not claimed so vigorously, and emerged new types of private property. The prison regime for political opponents became violent; a special police state was created.
In 1936, it drew up a constitution that kept government agencies but proclaimed new principles. So, if extended to all Soviet some previously reserved rights for workers - such as the possibility to vote and to receive education. Freedom of expression, thought and assembly, the inviolability of domicile and correspondence were guaranteed. Personal property was authorized.
These measures provoked personal opposition to Stalin and some political rivalries. From 1934, taking advantage of the murder of an important Bolshevik leader (Kirov), Stalin unleashed a relentless wave of eliminating his opponents: the police made mass arrests, and a number of processes allowed the firing or deportation of enemies to prisons in Northern Siberia.
Economics Planned
The NEP, which will permit the restoration of the Russian economy after the civil war, would have utility in achieving the goal of Stalin: the industrialism. Then the USSR entered the era of five-year plans, with a new mentality: successively develop energy production, the major basic industries, manufacturing industries and the manufacture of consumer goods.
The First Plan (1928-1932) aimed mainly to the transformation of the conditions of industrial production. The private sector disappeared in state advantage. One third of the investments were in the electrification and the development of heavy industry: in five years, electricity production should be quintuplicada, and metallurgical, tripled.
In the agricultural sector, planning faced some difficulties: it was necessary, first, to regulate the ownership of land. The NEP allowed the peasant ownership of the goods it produces, while the collectivization plan prepared in 1929 proposed the formation of kolkhoz (collective farms) and sovkhozes (state farms cultivated with the guidance of technicians). It was also ensured the mechanization of agriculture.
The Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1937) was less ambitious than the first, intended mainly to develop light industry, consumer goods. The USSR, developing metallurgy, was launched in the systematic manufacture of automobiles, buses, tractors and locomotives. During this period the Stakhanovite movement emerged, which consisted in the launch of advertising campaigns able to instill in employees the stubborn desire to carry out the government 'splans.
The planned economy showed exceptional results, and the USSR was the only country that has not suffered the crisis of 1929 : closed in on itself, living on internal trade, did not know or overproduction or unemployment.
Energy productivity has grown considerably: coal production has tripled, reaching 165 million tons in 1940; the country became the world's second largest oil producer. In the metallurgical industry, it came to occupy the third position in the world, after the United States and Germany. In eleven months, there were large plants in the desert steppe, where a small village became a major manufacturing center, receiving the name of Stalingrad.
The Cerealista production also grew, but did not cover the country's needs. Transport remained a weakness of the Soviet economy: the railroads were increased 35%, inland navigation has been improved, but the roads were insufficient.
The third Five-Year Plan aimed to develop the chemical industry but was not executed due toWorld War II , when the USSR enter the war against the Germans, who broke the non-aggression pact.
Conclusion
The war devastated the USSR, which in four years has managed to restructure its economy.
In 1953 Stalin died, leaving a highly centralized and extremely powerful state in relation to society.
Nikita Khrushchev, the strongest member of the Communist Party took power, initiating the process known as de - Stalinization . The political and the judicial system were reformed, the Soviets and the trade unions, rehabilitated, Stalin's opponents, amnestied, and co -religionist of Stalin, away from the center of power.
During the XX Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, Khrushchev made a series of accusations against Stalin, accusing him of committing abuses and arbitrary policies that prevented the advance of socialism.
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