Lecture Notes: Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union

Early Life

• Born: December 18, 1878, in Gory, Georgia, Russian Empire
• Family Background: Poor family
• Health: Contracted smallpox at age 7, resulting in a pockmarked face
• Religious Influence: Mother was a devout Russian Orthodox Christian, wanted him to become a priest
• Education: Sent to Tiflis in 1895 for religious studies
• Political Awakening: Began reading Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin; joined a secret organization for Georgian independence

Political Involvement

• Social Democratic Labor Party: Joined in 1901
  • Organized protests and strikes against czarism
• Arrest: In 1902 for coordinating a strike
• Bolshevik Party: Joined and participated in guerrilla warfare during the 1905 Russian Revolution
  • Impressed Lenin with organizational skills and ruthlessness
  • Robbed a bank in Tiflis in 1907 to fund party activities
  • Adopted the name "Stalin" meaning "man of steel"

Rise to Power

• Russian Revolution 1917: Ran the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda
• Civil War Outcome: Bolshevik victory
• General Secretary: Appointed in 1922, manipulated role to secure power
• Leadership: Ensured opposition removal, exiled Leon Trotsky
• Dictatorship: Became de facto leader

Policies and Reforms

• Industrialization: Introduced three five-year plans (1928-1938)
  • Focus on coal, oil, steel, electricity
  • Severe penalties for failing production targets
• Collectivization: Seized peasant lands, reorganized into collective farms
  • Resulted in mass famine and millions of deaths
  • Viewed as necessary for Soviet transformation

Cult of Personality and Repression

• Cult of Personality: Propaganda emphasized his image
• Paranoia: Increased political purges
  • 1934: Sergei Kirov assassinated
  • 1930s: Purged Communist party members and military officers
  • Millions sent to gulags or executed

World War II

• Non-Aggression Pact: With Nazi Germany in 1939
• German Invasion: 1941, Red Army initially unprepared
• Turning Point: Battle of Stalingrad in 1942
  • Red Army began to push Nazis back
  • Liberation of Eastern Europe

Post-War Tensions

• Conferences: Yalta and Potsdam, 1945
• Cold War: Emerged from ideological differences with the West
  • Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe

Later Life and Death

• Paranoia: Increased in early 1950s
  • Suspected doctors and initiated new purges
• Death: March 5, 1953, from a stroke
• Succession: Nikita Khrushchev took over
  • Initiated de-Stalinization

Conclusion

• Joseph Stalin's rule was marked by rapid industrialization, ruthless purges, and significant impacts on Soviet society and world history.

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