How did Stalin use his economic and political policies to rise to power in the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

Although Lenin and Stalin were very different they still had some similarities. When Lenin gained rule, the first couple of years, all he yearned for was to put down the civil war. He wanted to help and repair both the state and economy after it was basically destroyed after World War 1, both revolutions, and the long, hard years of the civil war. He tried to accomplish this by doing many things, and started with the government. First they came up with something called the Supreme Soviet which gave all the citizens 18 and older, the right to vote. This helped because it allowed more people to be involved and gave people an opportunity to put their input. Also, Lenin tried to create a new government which brought a lot of the old Russian Empire in the Soviet Union together. He was able to succeed in some things, but after he retreated from policy of war communism, this almost brought down the entire economy to an end. After this, things began to go in the opposite direction. Peasants refused to work and factories and mines outputs had dropped. But he was able to fix the problems by compromising with capitalism which assisted the soviet economy to recover. That being said, the lifestyle of the people improved. Unfortunately, in the year 1924 Lenin passed away suddenly. After this, Stalin decided to take over. Before Lenin's death, he did speak his mind about Stalin. He described him as rude and not a good leader. Stalin was a sharp political operator. After becoming the general secretary of a communist party, he decided to take advantage of that position by forming a group of communist officials. He wanted to focus his time on building socialism at home. Stalin was a very violent leader though. Trotsky, who also wanted to be leader but lost to Stalin, fled after being isolated by Stalin. Stalin then sent one of his agents to murder him, and Trotsky was killed. This shows that he was a violent leader. Another one of Stalin's aims was to make the Soviet Union into a modern industrial power. In order to help his wishes to be granted, he came up with something called the five-year plan. This was meant to build a strong industry and to have transportation progress. Later he decided to put everything under government rule. Things did begin to progress but still economy was bad, and wages were low. The food was scarce and workers had little to show for their sacrifices. Stalin killed thousands of peasants after they refused collectivization. They killed animals, destroyed tools, and burned the crops and in return Stalin either sent people to murder them or had them die from overworking. But still Stalin was not satisfied. He feared that rival parties were plotting against him, and to take care of that he created the purge. Although the purge increased his power, it hurt his army which he paid for later when Germany attacked.

Seeing this, it is easy to conclude that Stalin and Lenin were different but similar at the same time. They were similar for many different reasons. Both Lenin and Stalin were communist rulers of Russia. They both had favored communism and had everything to be government related. They also both practiced undemocratic strategies in order govern the nation. They both wished to have a socialist state and they both aimed to rebuild Russia and were marked by civil war. They both aimed and concentrated greatly to improve the economic system of Russia and tried to make it progress everyday such as the NEP, the New Economic Policy which was by Lenin, and the command economy which was by Stalin. And lastly, they both had good intentions, which was to make Russia the best it could be. So yes they did have similarities but yet they were so different. What was most different between Lenin and Stalin was the way they dealt with situations and they're mentality. This includes war tactics and etc. Lenin first off, did not like Stalin at all and made that clear before he passed away. He said that he had doubts about Stalin's "ambitious nature". Lenin thinks that although Stalin was sharp, he only focused on maintaining a lot of power and was not sure that he was able to use it sufficiently. He also did not think that Stalin was tolerable, loyal, polite, or considerate. The mentality that Stalin uses when he rules was much more different than the mentality that Lenin uses. Stalin uses fear and Propaganda to scare the people into following his rules and listening to what he says. He also did not give the people that much freedom such as forcing them to be atheist, and punishing them with cruel punishments. Lenin on the other hand was more considerate, and liked to hear what the people had to say. This is why he supported the Soviet Supreme in which anyone 18 and or older was able to vote and express their opinion to the public. Stalin's rue was marked by cruelty and way and Lenin's was marked with good intentions. Lenin instituted many reforms such as a socialist state and gave peasants land. Stalin did not care for the peasants, and when the peasant upset him he killed thousands and thousands of them. Stalin's motives were different than Lenin's. Stalin had a more socialist perspective on rebuilding the nation, and his tactics on rulings were different than Lenin's as well. Also, Stalin did not have a guilty conscience at all. Lenin had more democratic point of views. Stalin, however, was more of a totalitarian. People described Stalin as more of a dictator because of the way he handled situations. He was very violent and rude, and when he was worried of things not going his way, he handled them in a violent manner and many of the situations with Trotsky, the peasants, and the purge. Although Stalin and Lenin were similar as to their goals as leaders, they were very different when it came to their personalities and who hey dealt with situations.