Joseph Stalin and Totalitarianism

After Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924, the two major contestants of political power were Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was a gifted orator and a dedicated communist. Stalin was a talented organizer. Although Trotsky was a popular choice for the job of leader as the head of the new communist state, Stalin was also the party’s General Secretary. This job held a lot of power because Stalin appointed regional and local party posts in the government which allowed him to appoint those who would support his bid forever. By setting his minions deep into the political ladder, Stalin eventually became the official dictator of the Soviet Union.

Totalitarianism is the operating of a centralized government system in which a single party without opposition rules over political, economic, social, and cultural life. Basically, its dictatorship or tyranny. In the case of Stalin, he was totalitarianism. He controlled all details of public and private life. He made all the decisions. Stalin made the “Five Year Plans”. The goal of this plan was to transform the Soviet Union from an agricultural state to an industrial one within five years. This plan emphasized maximum production of capital goods. It succeeded in quadrupling the production of heavy machinery, doubled oil production, increased steel production and hard copal output. The cost of this, socially and politically, was quite heavy. Due to industrialization, many families lived pitiful lives, wages declined; there was child labor and strict laws limited workers’ freedom of movement. Also, since they were industrializing, the goal was to stop private farming and introduce collective farms. Farmers who resisted this program only led Stalin to be stricter with his policies. Many people died due to starvation because of the hoarding of food and slaughter of livestock.

The “Great Purge” was basically another Reign of Terror. Stalin killed anyone who opposed him. He became paranoid and killed important members of his party, people he once called supporters. Most of the people shot were colleagues of Lenin, original members of the party. Stalin’s dictatorship held great control over the general population of the country. Propaganda campaigns were made to indoctrinate the country with Communist thoughts and Stalin wanted to convert everyone into “Soviets”. He wanted everyone alike, to the point where he converted all languages into Cyrillic alphabet. Stalin had “secret police” known as the NKVD hunt down anyone who he suspected of “counter-revolutionary crimes. Stalin died of a stroke at age 73 on March 5th, 1953.