Deshefy-Non-Fiction

Adam-Desh Block 5 Laurencot __Joseph Stalin__ By James Barter

In the time of the 1940’s many feared the name Hitler. Though he was a terrible dictator there was someone far worse than him. He is Joseph Stalin, Communist leader of Russia. This man killed over 20,000,000 people without people taking notice in places like the United States. This is why I chose the book __Joseph Stalin__. Little is known about Stalin himself but his acts of cruelty are documented well. Joseph Stalin was a large figure in Russia because of his rough childhood, his climb to power, and what he did while in power. Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Or Stalin) grew up in a poor and abusive family in Georgia, Russia and both of his parents never received an education. His father was an abusice heavy drinking boot maker which made Stalin grow a great hate for him. “On one occasion, Joseph threw a knife at his father, prompting Keke (his mother) to hide her son at a neighbor’s house until calm could be restored”. Stalin’s father took him to work once when he was seven but he hated the work as well as his father. Keke dreamed of Stalin to become a priest and Stalin did enter a school to become a bishop. Yet he did not become the perfect student and often got into fistfights with his classmates. Stalin was never happy during this period except one day where he had gotten word of his father getting beaten to death in a drunken brawl. After this many terrible physical abnormalities would haunt Stalin for the rest of his life. First off he ended up very short never growing past 5 foot 4 inches, also his face was scarred from a smallpox outbreak he suffered, and a case of blood poisoning shrunk his left arm so it was smaller than the other. Stalin was able to graduate surprisingly near the top of his class which led him to Tiflis Theological Seminary. At this school he learned of Marxism named after Karl Marx, this philosophy was actually an early form of communism. Which is where his childhood ends, and his rise to power begins. In 1897 his campaign for communism begins as well as his rise to power. At this time he starts to call himself a Marxist and organizes many riots and strikes. During 1899 Stalin was expelled from his priest school due to the insulting of a high priest which he only saw as a supporter of the czar. When he reached 20 he only put his thoughts to a revolution. Stalin led to be a good speech giver and event organizer. This caught the attention of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the group known as the Bolsheviks. Like Stalin they were a Pro-Marxist group and Lenin became a father figure to Stalin. Day after day Stalin grew higher in the Bolshevik ranks and gained a good favor from Lenin which is all he needed to grow in power. In 1906 Stalin lost his love for people when his wife Kato died of typhus. But Stalin continued on with his work and was made to write articles for //Pravda// a Bolshevik newspaper and took on the actual name Stalin meaning “Made of Steel”. “Stalin used the paper to target a handful of Bolshevik leaders whom he believed stood in his path for greater success.” The paper became his weapon to knock off the heads of the main Bolshevik party. In 1917 Stalin’s greatest dream came to be, a Russian revolution took place where Bolsheviks and czarist soldiers fought in the streets of Moscow and many other Russian cities. The czar was abdicated from his throne and the family evicted from the palace. Lenin than took charge and changed Russia to a Marxist country. Stalin though planned on ruling with two other men, Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev when Lenin passed on. On January 21, 1924 Lenin died of a stroke and when the three rose to power Stalin went and betrayed them becoming the lone ruler and began his treacherous reign of terror. Stalin looked and noticed that many people still conspired, criticized, and or refused to conform to him. Stalin sent out secret police and eliminated and or arrested millions of Russians. Over the years Stalin pushed laws to turn Russia into a modern nation and seized all private businesses. Peasants of Russia began to rebel to his actions and thousands were killed in the process where Stalin sent in armed agents to deal with them and enforce policies. Some farmers had trouble adjusting as well as Stalin made a quota which they could not fill and Stalin sent agents to raid the houses for all their grain and if they found hidden supplies they beat the farmers. Stalin began to become power hungry and then started “The Great Purge”. Where he killed all who supported any but his ideas in the Bolshevik party even if it was 10 years ago. This “Purge” killed over 2,800,000 people due to this low belief in Stalin or in the labor camps he had made them move to. Stalin’s worse times ranged from 1934 to 1938, he began to lose all rational sense. Normal citizens were taken from the street and thrown into gulags (labor camps) and or killed with no trial. Also he began to turn his suspicion to the military and began to purge the army high command. He murdered many of his leaders making the soldiers confused and susceptible to invasion. World War II began and Stalin began to lose land and he saw the only reasonable act to side with Hitler until he could fight back. He dispatched spies and heavy artillery around trying to take advantage in Russia’s harsh winters. Hitler caught on and counter acted causing many harsh losses to the Russian army. Stalin furious began to strike out at his generals executing many of them. Stalin than turned to the allied forces of England and the U.S. which turned the tides of war and then the inevitable end of German rule. After the war at least 20 million Russia soldiers and citizens were killed leaving the rebuilding process very weak. All of the P.O.W.S. who returned was killed by Stalin as he marked them “traitors.” Stalin also began to dispatch his secret police once again which began to refill the gulags and eliminate traitors in his eyes. After many years of touchier and craze Stalin died of a stroke in 1953 but it isn’t entirely believed that he died of a stroke. Joseph Stalin was a large figure in Russia because of his rough childhood, his climb to power, and what he did while in power. He was a large influence to many countries like china that became communist but we hope they don’t end up killing millions of people like Stalin. Stalin did Russia many goods and many wrongs but it is hard to tell if he was a hero. Though many Russians actually saw him a villain, when the Germans invaded Russia they saw them as liberators from Stalin’s wrath. But, Stalin will be known as leader of the Russians, yet a very dark and psychotic man. Like in this book he is really seen as what I also believe, Joseph Stalin: The Enigma.