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How did Stalin become the leader of the Soviet Union, what contributions did he make to the Soviet Union, and why did he insist on starting the Great Purge.
As a superpower that once competed with the United States during the Cold War, the Soviet Union was naturally very powerful.
But there has also been a frightening event in its history, and that is the Great Purge of the Soviet Union.
In just two years, this purge caused great damage to all walks of life in the Soviet Union, and the people lived in dire straits.
And the maker of this movement is Stalin, so why did he, as the leader of the Soviet Union, carry out the Great Purge in his own country.
Stalin's ascendancy
Stalin, as the second leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin, had outstanding talents in both political and military aspects.
During his administration, he led the Soviet Union through a series of reforms and survived World War II, which had a profound impact on the Soviet Union and even the world.
Born in an old Georgian town, his family was not wealthy, and his parents often quarreled over their livelihoods, so Stalin's childhood was not happy.
But fortunately, his mother sent him to the seminary, Stalin was able to learn knowledge, and with his intelligence and self-motivation, he soon got good grades.
As a young man, Stalin came into contact with Marxist ideas, and he soon threw himself into the movement, disgusted by serfdom.
And in 1903 he became a member of the Russian Bolshevik Party.
However, as the revolutionary movement grew, Stalin and others also came into the sight of the tsarist government, and were repeatedly arrested and exiled by them.
But fortunately, Stalin was able to escape in time and return to the political arena every time.
During the Russian Revolution of 1917, he returned to St. Petersburg and became a core member of the Bolshevik Party headed by Lenin.
In 1917, under the leadership of Lenin, Stalin also held a number of important positions, such as a member of the Politburo.
And as his position rose, Stalin became more and more ambitious, wanting to take ownership of the highest position, but he was not the only one who wanted to do so at home.
It was at this time that Lenin's health deteriorated sharply, and he wanted to find the next leader in the party, and Stalin was also in his choice, along with Trotsky, Zinoviev and others.
In 1922, Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee, and it can be said that he was only one step away from that highest position.
After Lenin's death in 1924, he officially took over the responsibility of building socialism in the Soviet Union.
During his time in power, he promoted the industrialization and collectivization of the Soviet Union, rapidly transforming the Soviet Union from an agrarian country to an industrial country.
Especially in heavy industry and the military industry, great progress was made, which greatly strengthened the power of the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the Soviet economy also achieved rapid growth, and many policies, such as agricultural collectivization, were implemented, which played a certain role in promoting the domestic economy.
During Stalin's reign, the Soviet Union's international status can be said to have been significantly improved, and it gradually grew into a superpower capable of confronting the United States.
At the same time, however, some of Stalin's "iron-blooded" methods were also criticized, especially the series of measures to strengthen the centralization of power in order to maintain his dominant position in the party when he first came to power.
For example, by tightening control over the Politburo and the Central Committee, the power of local party organizations has been gradually weakened.
In addition, there were not a few voices in the party against Stalin at that time.
In particular, Trotsky, Kamenev and others, who were also candidates for leadership at that time, often jumped out against Stalin's policies.
So, in order to suppress the arrogance of these opponents, Stalin consciously established a cult of personality in the Soviet Union.
Through the propaganda machine and the media, he portrays himself as a great leader and savior of the country, and even promotes the decisions he makes as unquestionable.
In the 30s, Stalin did a great event that shocked the whole country, resulting in the execution of 600,000 people in the Soviet Union.
The Great Purge
Why did Stalin start the Great Purge of the Soviet Union, in which 600,000 people were executed and millions arrested?
In 1934, under the leadership of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a campaign of political repression broke out on a scale rarely seen in the world, including all aspects of society, both inside and outside the party, and society.
At that time, the Soviet Union was in crisis, and Stalin's "Great Leap Forward" and agricultural collectivization movements that had been used to enable the rapid development of the country gradually revealed their shortcomings, resulting in a sharp decline in productivity.
The cumulative reduction in food and livestock led to the Great Famine in the Soviet Union between 1932 and 1933, which affected millions of people.
Against this background, the prestige that Stalin had managed to build up before was naturally facing a downward trend.
Some important political figures who had followed him in the past also began to realize the mistakes of Stalin's line.
As a result, a new opposition force was formed within the party.
Unlike Stalin, who pursued radical risk-taking, they preferred a moderate approach, and as time went on, the supporters of the new opposition became more and more numerous, and there was a faint momentum to replace Stalin.
One of the representative figures was Kirov, who outnumbered Stalin by more than 300 votes at the 17th Congress of the Communist Party of China in January 1934.
Although he was finally discovered by Stalin and secretly designed to change the number of votes, this incident still gave him a lot of shock.
Just as Stalin was pondering what to do next, on December 1 of the same year, Kirov was assassinated by a mob and died, giving him the best excuse to act.
Taking advantage of the party and the nation's grief over Kirov's death, Stalin pointed the finger at the opposition in the party, claiming that the murder was related to the Zinoviev opposition and advocating the start of a campaign to check the party card.
In July 1936, the secret letter issued by the Central Committee of the Soviet Union to various places became the beginning of the Great Purge.
Its contents, which are mainly based on confessions made by torture, enumerate the fact that Trotsky and Zinoviev collaborated to carry out terrorist activities.
The persons involved, mainly members of the opposition, were sentenced to death on 24 August 1936.
This also meant that the majority of the party's opposition to Stalin was about to cease to exist.
But apparently this did not end there, and there were three trials in the Great Purge.
The first was the aforementioned opposition led by Zinoviev, and the second time Stalin targeted the economic managers.
At that time, Stalin pursued a series of five-year plans, and in order to achieve these goals, efficient economic management and professional personnel were needed.
However, they believe that the existing economic management is not up to the task, and that there are "oppositionists" and saboteurs among them, so they hope to remove such resistance through a purge campaign.
The third trial, which took place in 1938, focused on a number of senior economic executives and government officials, with the main defendant being Pyatkov, a former senior official in the Soviet aviation industry.
The aim was to further consolidate Stalin's power, eliminate any possible threats, and to be a public warrior that Stalin showed no mercy to the "internal enemy".
The purge, which lasted only two years, resulted in the execution of some 600,000 people and the arrest, exile or imprisonment of millions more.
The victims ranged from high-ranking officials of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to intellectuals and even ordinary citizens.
The consequences and implications have been discussed in recent years.
Who will judge whether it is right or wrong?
Behind the ins and outs of the "Great Purge of the Soviet Union" and the execution of 600,000 people, whether Stalin was for his own selfish purposes or not, whether he was wrong or right.
In fact, the legitimacy of the Great Purge in the Soviet Union has been controversial over the years, and proponents believe that it was a necessary measure taken by Stalin to maintain the stability and unity of the Soviet Union.
After all, according to the international situation at that time, the World War II forces of Germany and Japan in the 30s had begun to take shape in Europe and Asia.
This means that the Soviet Union, which has been isolated for a long time, will face the danger of being attacked on its back.
At the same time, Britain, France, and other countries have repeatedly adopted a compromise attitude towards fascist aggression, which has made the situation even more precarious.
Under the threat of war, as a Soviet leader, he had to be highly sensitive and vigilant in the face of imperialist espionage.
But many more disagree, arguing that it is a catastrophe that poses a serious threat to human rights.
After all, a large number of innocent people died in the campaign, and the stability and trust of Soviet society were undermined as a result, which had a negative impact on the long-term development of the Soviet Union.
And this is exactly what happened, especially after Khrushchev came to power, and the consequences of the Great Purge became apparent.
The first problem is the brain drain, especially in the political, military and other fields, where many experienced and skilled officials are persecuted.
Many people even paid with their lives, which dealt a serious blow to the development of science and technology and economic management in the Soviet Union.
The second is that the economic development of the Soviet Union has been seriously affected, and economic managers and experts have been purged in large numbers, resulting in chaos in order, production efficiency has naturally continued to decline, and the economy has fallen into a state of stagnation.
There was also a certain weakening of the army, thousands of officers on the instructions of the Stalin regime.
In particular, high-ranking officers were charged, which directly affected the combat effectiveness and command ability of the Soviet army and a significant decline.
Especially in the long run, the Great Purge had an indelible impact on both the Soviet Union and the social structure and psychology.
It undermined trust between people and caused widespread social panic, which inevitably aggravated the fear and obedience of individuals to the state, negatively affecting the healthy development of Soviet society.
But it is difficult to judge the rights and wrongs of this, even Russia, which has inherited most of the Soviet legacy.
What they can do now is to learn from history and learn from it to promote their own better development.
For example, in October 2008, Putin visited the memorial sites of the Great Purge to mourn those who died, saying that this history would be remembered and not allowed to repeat itself.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the international situation changed rapidly, and the shadow that shrouded the hearts of the people of the former Soviet Union has long since become a part of history.
However, its impact on the Soviet Union and even the world is indeed very far-reaching, and it is also worthy of people's study and reflection.
Bibliography:
Putin: We should always remember this historical lesson Source: Phoenix Weekly 2008-01-15
How did Stalin rise to the top of power? Source: People's Daily 2015-04-24
On the Reasons for the Great Purge of the Soviet Union in the 30s Author: Sun Guojun Source: Journal of Liaoning Normal University (Social Science Edition) Time: 2010-03-20 Journal
The Great Purge of the Soviet Union (I) Author: Ma Longshan Source: Encyclopedia Time: 2011-01-15 Featured Journals
The Great Purge of the Soviet Union (II) Author: Ma Longshan Source: Encyclopedia Time: 2011-02-01 Featured Journals