How did Stalin change society in the USSR?

Answer 1

Stalin did a number of things:

• He industrialized the USSR, therefore making them an industrial super-power and giving the country much-needed jobs.
• He greatly expanded the USSR military, making them one of the military super-powers of the world.
• He re-gained several territories that the USSR had lost in the First World War.
• He modernized the USSR, greatly improving their efficency and their domestic production.

Answer 2

Under Stalin, the worst types of coercion and executions took place. His five year plans caused famines. His most useful tool in maintaining control of the Communist Party, the population in general, and even among people who thought Stalin "liked them" was the use of fear. He was a master of using fear and the secret police to enforce his policies. Stalin's tenure as an absolute dictator was the longest one in the 20th century. And as with all people of great power, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.