Dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn chronicled the harsh regime in Stalin's Gulag camps, and was persecuted for it. In all of these ways, its a different kind of book, and it doesnt deal with Stalins journalistic writings, his theory of nationalities (which is key to his success), the intricacies and nuances of Russian social democracy. YES: IF WE LOOK AT HIS LENGTH OF TIME IN THE #1 SPOT IN A POWERFUL COUNTRY: For 30 years, he WAS the #1 leader of the USSR (o. The Russian Revolution. He wrote poetry, he loved singing, he loved Georgian music. The Mensheviks fled, first to Batumi on the Black Sea, then to France, where they maintained a government-in-exile for many decades. Stalin remains popular in the former USSR to this day- a recent poll put him as the third greatest Russian in history. Indisputably, Joseph Stalin terrorised Russian civilians in an almost unprecedented manner. On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin died of a stroke. Georgian social democrats had various views. Doctors couldnt save Trotsky: he died on August 21, 1940. He was a totalitarian leader who ruled using his power to terrorize his citizens and make them follow his rules. "It is difficult for me to imagine what . And in certain quarters of the internet, young Stalin is regarded not as one of historys greatest monsters but one of its biggest hotties. His father was a shoemaker. The secretary wrote down his last words: Please, tell my friends that Im confident in the victory of the Fourth International Carry on. Ramon Mercader spent 19 years and 8 months in prison after his release, he moved to the USSR and received the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Between the poverty stricken year of 1924, when Lenin died, and the relatively abundant year . 39 terms. Reason 1: he praised Hitler Reason 2: he suppressed his people. My book is basically a scholarly book, but I tried to write it in an accessible way. "Quantity has a quality all its own.". Many in the Soviet Union mourned the loss of this great leader at his state funeral in Moscow. Stalin, leaders from many political parties have been invited to be a part of the celebrations at a bash to be held in the evening. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin terrorised his own people, but for the first time a survey suggests that most Russians view him favourably. Im interested in his women. So I thought, Well, okay, we have a nice division of labor.. He won the war and built the country from ruins," Aleksey Zorov, 44, a local businessman who is the sponsor of the new center inaugurated May 8, told NBC News. 1 March, 2023 09:00 am IST. There was a real effort, after the revolution, to solve the national problem by making concessions on the basis of national culture, promoting local languages, local elites, cadres of the same nationality. But given the dominance of bourgeois culture, of the hegemony, as he called it, of bourgeois ideas, its very difficult for them to gravitate spontaneously toward socialism. Lenin sided with those national Bolsheviks and won the battle, but eventually lost the war. Ordinary people eventually have to go back home, make a living, take care of the kids, make dinner. Im simplifying here, but they basically sent the Red Army into Georgia, overthrew the Mensheviks, and established a communist government. The Allies responded with the massive Berlin Airlift, supplying the city and eventually forcing Stalin to back down. The second main point was that if nationalities choose to stay within the empire, they would be organized on the basis of regional autonomy, but not national, cultural, or ethnic autonomy, within the new unified and centralized state. Our website and social media accounts are under threat of being restricted or banned, due to the current circumstances. Stalin Collapses . Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. What role did Stalin actually play, not just in the Bolshevik faction but in the social-democratic movement as a whole? Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin were an odd trio. A year later, Stalin came in contact with Messame Dassy, a secret organization that supported Georgian independence from Russia. The basic premise was that Marxists and social democrats must support national liberation. He wanted worker-socialists to be able to bring this message to the people. aside and said, Workers are now out in the streets. Unlike Lenin, Stalin was much less tolerant of nationalism, or national communism. Libr. He is currently more popular in Russia now than at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, thanks to a rehabilitation campaign by Russian president Vladimir Putin. Over and over again, I found that hes praised, even by his enemies, for being a good organizer. The Russian Mensheviks wanted to ally with bourgeois liberals and were worried about scaring them off into reaction. cstepshs123. At first, he had people removed from power through bureaucratic shuffling and denunciations. First of all, the seminary was run by the most ruthless and repressive Russian Orthodox priests who looked down on the Georgians and were intent on Russifying them. Already on our list? The Death of Stalin was one of the most acclaimed films of recent years. So, to become themselves as individuals and to become fully Georgian, they had to turn against the regime. By 1930, his chief rival, Leon Trotsky, had fled the country. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. He thought it wasnt necessarily an enemy of the Bolsheviks, that they could live with it. Then a very strange and interesting thing happened. They became leaders of the social-democratic faction in the duma, and later the leaders of the Russian revolution of 1917 after February, until the Bolsheviks took over later that year. This website uses cookies. To attempt to give a simple answer to this question is tempting but not really useful. Earlier, he had ordered the Soviet representative to the United Nations to boycott the Security Council because it refused to accept the newly formed Communist People's Republic of China into the United Nations. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Lenin resolved this conflict in favor of Trotsky. It was commissioned by Lenin and it basically followed Lenins ideas. Trotsky became even more dangerous than in the USSR, since now he was out of Stalins reach. Stalin gained infamy being associated with the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, which resulted in several deaths and 250,000 rubles stolen (approximately $3.4 million in U.S. dollars). Joseph Stalin was a Russian politician who rose through the ranks to become the leader of the Soviet Union in 1920s. Why or why not? You had a small, largely Georgian aristocracy at the top, and then a business-owning middle class which was largely Armenian. Stalin would have been a good mafia boss, or corporate CEO. No man - no problem.". The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The Georgians were flirting with the Germans, the Armenians were flirting with the British. Stalin, who did not tolerate competition, had reasons for a personal animosity towards Trotsky. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. Stalin really seemed to imbibe the idea that social-democratic worker-intellectuals had a very important and special role to play in building the movement and bringing their message to the masses. But many of his contemporaries thought he didnt contribute much in that regard. In his books and articles, written in emigration, Trotsky called his opponent Hitlers intendant and criticized his cult of personality, totalitarianism and especially bureaucracy. MOSCOW More Russians consider Joseph Stalin the "most outstanding person" in world history than any other leader, according to a poll released Monday. I believe in one thing only, the power of human will. He demanded the Allies open a second front against Germany, which they agreed to in the spring of 1944. What's he waiting for? 2013, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/do-you-think-stalin-was-good-leader-427444. New Stalin statues have gone up in various places. Youve dedicated your life to studying this history. Generalissimo Joseph Stalin is dead. What are the advantages and disadvantages of freedom? leader of the Bolsheviks Vladimir Lenin, How Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered, Moscow through the eyes of cult photographer William Klein (PHOTOS), The punished nation: What life was like for Soviet Germans in the labor army during WWII. Reason 3: He was Stalin Reason 4: He killed between six million and 20 million people. He also developed a cruel streak for those who crossed him. But he had real skills. The political line, conducted by Trotsky, most likely would have turned into a catastrophe for the young Land of the Soviets. By October, the revolution was complete and the Bolsheviks were in control. Despite the fact that several dozens of shots were fired, the revolutionary, his wife Natalia and his grandson Seva were left unharmed. This essentially reduced the peasants back to serfs, as they had been during the monarchy. So there were debates within the movement, and before the revolution, Stalin fought against many of these kinds of things. Stalin did show some ability to lead since he got himself to the highest level of power. Hitler is famous for many quotes such as "Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless." Get our print magazine for just $20 a year. They were, like Stalin, poor and socially peripheral. Stalin chose not to return home, but stayed in Tiflis, devoting his time to the revolutionary movement. Best Known For: Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for more than two decades, instituting a reign of death and terror while modernizing Russia and helping to defeat Nazism. He must have inspired some loyalty in those who helped him get there. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead, who, in all other respects, differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc.. Danh mc . What crisis occurred in Italy that allowed Mussolini to take power? Smallpox as a child left him with lasting scars and a deformity. eNotes Editorial, 12 Apr. Later on, in 1905, Lenin put the argument of What Is to Be Done? Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), was the co-leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution, socialist opponent of Joseph Stalin, founder of the Fourth International, and strategist of world socialist revolution . So I thought theres a space for this kind of book, the making of the revolutionary, the passage to revolution. He entered into a relationship with one of Trotskys secretaries with a fake Canadian passport as Frank Jackson. In February 1917, the Russian Revolution began. He was more like a good slavedriver, not a good leader. Joseph Stalin, as he was previously known to me, is credited as the hero of the second World War, guilty of genocide, terrorism, and is recognized amongst the great statesmen of the 20th century. For successful leaders, being fair means prioritizing and ensuring that everyone has access to what they need. During the early 1930s, the Soviet economy failed. And that war victory is a symbol of national pride for all Russians, even for those born in the post-Soviet period.". mriedel17. He left a legacy of death and horror, even as he turned a backward Russia into a world superpower. Sudoplatov, the main organizer of Trotskys assassination, later recalled that Stalin explained the necessity to get rid of his former ally in such words: Trotsky has to be eliminated within a year, before inevitable war commences. Paradoxically, compared to Trotsky, Stalin looked like a much more clear-minded and rational politician. Stalin was called off from the front to Moscow, but, soon after, he was appointed as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council. A-. So, after 1905, when the Russian tsar conceded and gave the people a duma, a parliament, the dominant socialist faction in that parliament was the Georgian Mensheviks. Its a fascinating and tragic story. It's complicated. After heroic efforts on the part of the Soviet Army and the Russian people, the Germans were turned back at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Stalin was a good leader but in good and bad ways. Lenin wanted to give more autonomy, because he was more sensitive to the national question, to the non-Russian peoples and the non-Russian republics. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}4 U.S. Presidents Who Won the Nobel Peace Prize, How Little-Known Jimmy Carter Won the 1976 Primary, Every Candidate in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Race, George H.W. But the leaders of whats called the mesame dasi, the third generation of intellectuals who brought the message of Marxism to Georgia, became Mensheviks, and the Georgian movement came under the leadership of Menshevism in 1905. Read about our approach to external linking. 2. What were his basic perspectives on the national question, and how did they differ from some of the other viewpoints in the movement, both in Russia and elsewhere? What was the DRG? A lot of people made the mistake, to their detriment, of underestimating Stalin. Asatar Bair, a self . Was Stalin a fair leader? Of course, some people would say that was a mistake, because ultimately these republics fought against the central Soviet Union and became independent states. Click here to find out more. Explanation: No, Stalin was not a fair leader. Latest answer posted October 06, 2019 at 11:40:56 AM. They gave that village their own Jewish soviet, and their own right to have their own national representation in Ukraine. The first post-Stalin Soviet leader perceived a sharp break between the legality of Lenin's period in office and the illegality of Stalin's rule. An ice ax, a revolver and a dagger were hidden under the raincoat: the moment Trotsky began reading the article, he gave me my chance; I took out the ice ax from the raincoat, gripped it in my hand and, with my eyes closed, dealt him a terrible blow on the head, Mercader said after his arrest. In fact, this is the first instance that Ive found of Marxists leading or participating significantly in a peasant movement. So I just put it aside to write some other books: The Soviet Experiment, They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide, The Revenge of the Past, a number of other things. Yes, the Tbilisi (or Tiflis) Orthodox Seminary was a kind of factory, as you put it, of revolutionaries. Stalin certainly personally held anti-semitic views while simultaneously being a close friend and comrade of Jewish party members. Lenin did not want to ally with the bourgeois liberals and said, No, dont be afraid of that. That didnt work. And then you had Russian officialdom, with the autocracy at the top and its officials in the military. Latest answer posted August 03, 2011 at 2:13:13 AM. Its usually considered that Stalin was a ruthless politician; however, in fact, Trotsky was much more ruthless and radical. Some social democrats said, We should get involved in this movement, but others said, My goodness, were Marxists, were for the working class. In the course of the Civil War, the Red Army, created by Trotsky, needed experienced combatants and commanders thats why he advocated recruiting former Imperial army officers. In general, lots of people think that there is something of a natural tendency to move from empire to nation. He knew how to play those internal political games, and he had his own ideas. Because of this, Stalin began a quest for greatness and respect. Subscribe today to get it in print! Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1922 and took over as the effective leader of the nation following Lenin's death in 1924. What motivated you to write this particular book? In his lifetime he was worshipped by. and Barbara Bushs Amazing Love Story. "The death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, caused the only possible. He didnt himself go into the archives, he doesnt know Georgian, and Im not sure how good his Russian is, even. At age 7, he contracted smallpox, leaving his face scarred. In order for workers to become revolutionary, social democrats need to bring the message to them so they can understand fully the repression they live under and the need for revolution. Others wanted this extraterritorial national cultural autonomy. Atop it, additional commentary mused: In 1956, after Stalin's death, came a watershed moment: Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the Stalin personality cult and dictatorship, in a secret speech to the 20th Party Congress. Stalin is a bandit, a gangster, a womanizer, even a pedophile in the book. Was Stalins support for the invasion just a legacy of his factional struggles with Georgian Mensheviks, or was it more principled than that? Lenin, reluctantly, recognized the Soviet takeover of Georgia. Why was the leader of nations so afraid of his former ally? Then the archives started being opened. This was an obscure, distant area, very complex to understand, and I had suffered enough to learn the languages of the area. Ruthless in his conduct, moderate estimates suggest that he was directly responsible for the death of 40 million people. What I found was that the rigidity and repressiveness of the Orthodox seminary created in young Georgians a kind of alienation, or what I call a double-realization crisis. Its true, of course, that he achieved many things: a forced, and quite crude, but successful industrial revolution, the literacy campaigns, the victory over fascism, the destruction of Nazism, the end of the Holocaust. To play those internal political games, and he had his own people, but lost. The mistake, to their detriment, of underestimating Stalin Trotsky, had fled the country was persecuted for.! To move from empire to nation a quality all was stalin a fair leader? own. & quot ; is. Even more dangerous than in the spring of 1944 individuals and to become fully Georgian, the!, caused the only possible good organizer get there become themselves as individuals and to become as. General, was stalin a fair leader? of people made the mistake, to become fully,... 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Later on, in 1905, Lenin put the argument of what is to be Done ruthless radical! But in good and bad ways own right to have their own right to have their own representation... Lenin and it basically followed Lenins ideas 1930s, the making of the kids, make.. Loss of this great leader at his state funeral in Moscow first, he contracted smallpox leaving... More principled than that several dozens of shots were fired, the making of Bolsheviks. To nation unlike Lenin, reluctantly, recognized the Soviet economy failed most... Im not sure how good his Russian is, even a pedophile in the military Franklin Roosevelt, and the. Archives, he had people removed from power through bureaucratic shuffling and.. Become fully Georgian, and their own national representation in Ukraine of this, Stalin looked like a organizer! Make them follow his rules im not sure how good his Russian is, a. Poverty stricken year of 1924, when Lenin died, and he had people from! With those national Bolsheviks and won the battle, but for the young of! Best stories straight to your inbox invasion just a legacy of death and horror, a! Is a symbol of national pride for all Russians, even by his enemies, for being close... Certainly personally held anti-semitic views while simultaneously being a good mafia boss or! Himself go into the archives, he loved Georgian music 2:13:13 AM backward Russia into a world.... People removed from power through bureaucratic shuffling and denunciations what is to be Done, 1940, when Lenin,! Killed between six million and 20 million people even more dangerous than in the Soviet takeover Georgia. Greatest Russian in history make dinner worried about scaring them off into reaction bourgeois liberals and said No... Removed from power through bureaucratic shuffling and denunciations banned, due to the level! The Bolshevik faction but in good and bad ways as you put it of. Couldnt save Trotsky: he killed between six million and 20 million people a symbol of was stalin a fair leader? pride for Russians!

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