Stalin's Leadership The Soviet Union example essay topic

... t Communist leader, the longtime ruler who more tha if the United States had entered early into World War II if the United States had entered early into World War II What if the United States ha Steps Towards The Russian Revolution Steps Towards The Russian Revolution The quotation, 'I shall maintain the principle o The End of The Cold War The End of The Cold War by Rutvij Bhatt United States History II Mrs. Jacquelyn J. Ne Stalin- Did his rule benefit Russian society and the Russian Stalin- Did his rule benefit Russian society and the Russian I. Introduction A. The si More Sponsored Search Results... ne and a half million railway wagon-loads. This transportation of industry during the second half of 1941 and the beginning of 1942 and its rehousing must rank among the most stupendous organizational and human achievement during the war. This was an extremely important decision by Stalin, for in a modern mechanized army, even small drops in production or the loss of a few plants can mean the difference between victory and defeat. In 1942-43 the Soviet was industry not only caught up to the Germans in equipment quality but started to surpass them as well as the rest of the world. The La-5-FN proved to be better then any German fighter, the T 34 tank had earned the reputation as the best medium tank of the war and the new heavy JS (Stalin) tank was described as the best heavy tank in the world.

By 1943 ever facet of Soviet industry was running at full steam and everything that the Soviets had lacked at the beginning of the war they now had thanks to Stalin's industrialization plans. Stalin had planed for war but he had also played the diplomatic card to improve his chances as well. Stalin had attempted many different diplomatic solutions with both the Allied and Axis power and tried to delay the Soviet Unions involvement in the war as long as possible. Stalin absolutely did not want to involve his country his country in the war unless he absolutely had to and even then he wanted to maneuver it so the Red Army would only play a supporting role. Even long before the war, Stalin carefully distinguished between the aggressive powers (Germany, Italy, japan) and the non-aggressive powers (France, Britain, USA, Canada). For the early part of the 1930's Stalin really didn't have a firm foreign policy.

The only thing that his foreign policy did at the time was look out for the Soviet Union and nothing else. This can be best understood from an excerpt from one of his speeches to the sixteenth congress: 'We do not want a single foot of foreign territory, but we will not surrender a single inch of our territory either. ' this policy did not change until the late 1930's when the real threat of a Second World War became apparent. Stalin now wanted to create a firm foreign policy to better open up dialogues with neighboring countries as the rush was on to create alliances to better prepare for the imminent threat of war. The policy that was created was one that stressed defense as well as opening up and maintaining relations with other countries. The tasks of the Party in foreign policy were: 1-To pursue the policy of peace and of the consolidation of business relation with all countries. 2-To observe the greatest caution and not to allow our country to be drawn into conflicts by war provocateurs, who were in the habit of getting others to save them when they got in over there head.

3-To strengthen in every way the military might of the Red Army and Navy. 4-To strengthen the international bonds of friendship with the workers of all countries, workers whose interest it was to maintain peace and friendship among people. After the new foreign policy was created, Stalin set about to create protective alliances, which proved to be quite difficult to achieve. The first thing Stalin did was try and get treaties signed with those countries on the eastern front to try to create a buffer zone between Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland agreed to prolong her non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union but things were progressing very slowly with the southern countries. At the beginning Stalin wished to have his alliances with the Western powers and not the Germans.

Yet time after time the Soviet ideas of alliances with the West were discarded. What Stalin really wanted was a strong system of alliances that promised military support and mutual aid if one of the signatory countries was attacked. What the Western powers wanted however was a series of large alliances for a psychological effect and not real support. This was unacceptable to Stalin therefore he started to probe the Germans for a possible treaty.

The Soviet Union signed several treaties with France, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, and China but they were not really what Stalin wanted. In 1939 after numerous attempts for a grand mutual assistance treaty with the West, Stalin got the closest thing without even having to commit himself. On march 31, 1939 Chamberlain made his famous speech on Poland. Later that speech was also extended to Rumania and Greece. ' Rumania and Poland practically form a continuous front from the Black Sea to the Baltic, a front separating Germany from the USSR.

Germany cannot attack the Soviet Union without going through Poland or Rumania, i.e. without bringing into play the Western guarantee, and without having to commit himself, Stalin secured a Western guarantee in the East which he had sought in vain for ten year... Once again attempts were made for an Anglo- Franco-Soviet alliance but it was doomed for failure again mostly due to the fact that Poland would absolutely not let any Soviet forces through their territory even as German forces were about to invade. From this point on a deal with Hitler was almost certainly on Stalin's mind. Stalin sought a deal with Hitler so he could keep his country out of the war and then possibly be an arbiter in the aftermath, so preparation he began to make a deal with his arch-enemy. All of Stalin's actions were intended to protect Soviet Union. It must have occurred to Hitler that he did not want to risk a two front war, at least in the early stages of the war.

We can see this because all of a sudden his anti-Russian views changed to that of friendship. On August 23 a deal between Germany and the Soviet Union was hammered out. In the pact they undertook to remain strictly neutral towards each other if one of them should be involved in war. Stalin now had the breathing room and the time that he desperately needed.

Stalin did not believe this to be a permanent arrangement but he thought that the Germans would not break the pack, or at the vary least officially break off relations and declare war before attacking. Defense preparations were already underway but through Stalin's diplomacy he had bought the Red Army valuable time in which to turn itself into a modern mechanized army. Stalin may have saved the Soviet union from the Germans but that does not mean he was without fault, quite the contrary. Stalin ignored a great deal of evidence that the Germans were going to attack in June 1941 and did nothing to bolster border defenses. A German deserter actually gave the Soviets the exact time and date of the attack, Stalin ignored this. This enabled the Germans to capture more territory than they initially should have.

The army purges also contributed to the Germans winning almost all the opening engagements as the red Army had very few able Generals and officers. Others might point out to the lack of material and equipment. All of these things were done for very specific reasons, Stalin weighed the gains and losses before acting and ultimately made some vary hard but mostly sound decisions. Stalin did not give the deserter any credit because he believed that Hitler would not be foolish enough to attack the Soviet Union when Britain was still fighting and the Battle for Africa waged on as well indeed no one else thought that Hitler would attack the Soviet Union either. Stalin did not send masses of troops and equipment to the border because he thought that he could still negotiate and that Hitler would not risk a two front war. He did this because he knew that the border fortification would not be ready for another six months.

The army purges were done to limit the milit aries opposition against him so he could have greater control over the military. Stalin and many other truly did believe that the military was corrupt and compromised. As to the lack of equipment, Stalin had instituted a massive military industry at the beginning of the war and up-to-date equipment was starting to be delivered to the front. The movement of the war industry east contributed to the lack of material but proved to be the saving grace of the army in the end. At the end the Soviet war industries were producing some of the best equipment in the world. In the end I do believe that through Stalin's leadership the Soviet Union was saved.

Had it been under the leadership of the intended Communist bureaucracy it would have surely fallen. As we have seen in our country even simple matters can take forever to go into effect or get started under a bureaucracy. In that highly volatile and dangerous time period only an iron fisted rule could bring about change fast enough to due any good. True in the short term peoples right were trampled upon and millions died from famine, purges, and the war itself but in the end hundred's of millions were saved.