Stalins Terror in Russia - Essay Example

Stalin’s Terror in Russia Introduction: Over the period leading to the Second World War, two men, Adolph Hitler and Stalin were on opposing sides and had been victorious in rising to power using their individual power politics not heir respective nations. Both their success stories can be contributed to some common factors related tot heir innovative ideas in politics and striking fear was one of them. Stalin’s rule: Iosif Vissarionovich Djhugashvili, better known as Joseph Stalin, was born in the month of December 1878. In 1907 during the Fifth Congress of Russian Total Democratic Labor Party, Stalin came across with Lenin and was entrusted to raise fund through bank robberies for the Bolshevik Party. Joseph Stalin through this success of raising funds through bank robbery gained popularity and became a part of the Central Committee in January 1912. When Stalin came to power, it was his ability to manipulate situations as well as others’ failure to prevent him from terrorizing entire Russia that contributed towards his stay in power in the political scenario. In the year 1922, Stalin was selected as the general secretary of the communist party. Stalin used this apparently unimportant post to place his own man into different spheres of the party. In 1924 Stalin got involved with a self created propaganda along with Sverdlov, Dzerzhinsky, Uritsky, and Bubnov. Stalin at this point of time topped Lenin’s list of disliking and in 1924 Lenin said that Stalin was dangerous and should be banned from the party. During the early 20s (1920s) Stalin was totally off colored by Leo Trotsky. At that point of time, Trotsky was reckoned as the immediate successor of Lenin. Trotsky as the forthcoming leader of communist party had its own set of positive and negative points. First of all, no doubt, Trotsky was a brilliant leader, but interestingly he was bereft of any popularity. When Lenin died, Stalin cleverly provided Trotsky with a wrong date of funeral. So, Trotsky was absent at the funeral and that made him more unpopular. Furthermore, Stalin convinced the other party memebrs that Trotsky’s world revolution would ruin Russia. When Stalin came into power, then in his initial days, the Russia political scenario was clearly divided into two halves. The leftist represented by Zivovieve and Kamnev wanted revolution and to abolish the N.E.P.(New Economic Policy) they hated Trotsky as they thought Trotsky is too ambitious. On the other hand the rightists represented by Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky wanted to continue with N.E.P. until the USSR became stronger. The political uprising of Stalin is marked with ‘Tropica’. Stalin made an alliance with Zinovieve and Kamnev to cover up Lenin’s will and to get Trotsky dismissed. This happened in the year 1925. Stalin believed that Trotsky’s presence within the USSR would only make Stalin’s existence vulnerable. Guided by this thought Stalin forced Trotsky into exile in the year 1928. Stalin believed that USSR should be strong and then try to bring a world revolution. He always advocated for socialism in one country. Stalin, after dismissing Trotsky in 1925, joined hands with the rights and dismissed Zinovieve and Kamnev in 1927. At this time Stalin was cleverly putting his followers into the Politburo. After Zinovieve and Kamnev moved aside from the main political scenario Stalin went on to declare N.E.P as non-communist and after that dismissed his so called friends at that time, Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky. The communist party of Russia, after the dismissal of Rykov, Bukharin and Tomsky was more or less a one man shows headed by Stalin but perhaps Stalin wanted to be surer of the existence and continuity of his regime. Therefore, in the so-called great purge of 1930, Stalin wiped out the rest of the party leaders. In 1934, popular leader Sergei Kirov was killed. Stalin used his death to wipe out the rest of the opposition. The Great Purge often came as an allegation over a group of people bearing treachery towards the nation. A combination of first Moscow trial in 1936 and introduction of NKVD troikas in 1937 and the introduction of Article 58 – 14 "counter-revolutionary sabotage" in the same year has been used to cover the rivals of Stalin within the Bolshevik party. All these combined helped Stalin to be always ahead of his fellow Russian politicians and ultimately outsmart them to reign Russia for a long time. Hitler’s dictatorship: Germany under the Nazi power became a dictatorship led by Adolph Hitler. Hitler’s rise to power began from the time of elections held in 1933 after the Great Depression and defeat of Weimar Republic. The nation headed towards a coalition government. The election was held in January 30, 1933 when he was appointed chancellor and by the end of March 1933, he acquired greater powers than his predecessors. Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party who won the election and became the Third Reich. When president Hindenburd died in August 1934, Hitler seeked for chances to become the president and incorporate similar attributes. During the the appointment of Hitler, german was a democract with fair election procedures. No one had the right to abuse one’s voting right. Within Reischag in Germany, around 50 percent of the seats belonged to the Nazis. Hitler was also busy claiming that he was the one to save the men from the disaser of economic depression and also spread words against communalism or the fear of government. Hitler had promised the citizens a general election in March 1933 in order to show the other politicians that he was loyal to the people. However, one week prior to the elections, the building of Reichstag was burned down. Now, he seized the opportunity to pass on the hint that it was the indication of communist takeover of the nation. He had actually planned to convince the president Hindenburg to lend him some emergency powers as it was stated in the Weimar constitution. One week before the election was due to take place, the Reichstag building burned down. Hitler immediately declared that it was the signal for a communist takeover of the nation. Hindenburg used the constitution to pass on the Law for the protection of the people and the state to Hitler who now got what he wanted. However leaders were arrested from both the parties – communists and Socialists who took part in the campaign. In order to maintain peace (in his own way) the men beat up the people who opposed Hitler openly. The 12 million people who voted were effectively members of two outlawed parties. After Reichstag was burnt down, there was hardly any place for the politicians to meet. The Kroll Opera House of Berlin was selected. The building was a small round one and was perfect for meetings. The elected officials had decided to meet in order to discuss about Hitler’s Enabling Law but when they neared the building they found the house surrounded by the SS and SA ruffians trying to ensure that only the Nazis gained entry into the house. The law stated that any bill only needed to be signed by Hitler in order to get converted into law. This law gave a great amount of power to Hitler. Therefore it was important to have only Nationalists or Nazis inside during the poll such that the other elected officials did not veto it. The Enabling Law of Hitler was passed easily with only Nazi members inside. This gave him the dictatorial power and whatever he wanted became the law in Germany in a day after he signed it. On 7th April 1933, Nazi officers in the provinces occupied all the local government offices. On May 2nd 1933, trade unions were destroyed and their funds snatched. Hence their leaders were put into prisons. By July a law was passed to snatch away the scope for the formation of any other political party except the Nazi, which therefore became the sole party. There was close monitoring over every household and every person on the streets were also under strict watch. Anything out of place or offensive was reported to the authorities and the person concerned would be punished or killed. The Nazi police was notorious and so was the secret police force led by Himmler. Hence no one dared to cause any offence. People preferred to keep their thoughts to themselves in order to avoid any troubles. The nation was scared of their government and Hitler’s diplomacy and ruthlessness created a one party state within a few months after coming to power. Thus, Hitler managed to gain power during the period of crisis after World War I with the use of propaganda, charismatic oratory, nationalism, anti semitism, arrest and murder of political rivals. He restructured the economy, rebuilt the army and structured a dictatorship which was guided by the principles of totalitarianism or fascism. With an aggressive foreign policy and goal of lebensraun (extra living space) his objectives were furtehr satisfied. Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and this triggered the second world war. Hitler also invaded the British and French Empires. Besides establishing a single-handed dominion, his practice of racial subjugation added to the misery of common people. He brought the death and destruction of around six million Jews in a mission, which is now known as Holocaust. This genocide will always remain a shame to the human race that was brought about by the ruthless and unquestioned power of Hitler. A comparison: Although these two politicians were similar in many ways, we may pick out three reasons – ability to use propaganda and to brainwash the people, their unethical methods and strict control leading to a totalitarian state of governance and their desire to build their country more strong, powerful and expansive. Both of them were successful in their mission up to a certain point. However in the process they brought a huge blow to human race in terms of humanitarian values, faith and love amongst the human race. Although the two leaders hated each other; they were akin in many ways. They were ambitious and could do anything to meet their goal irrespective of ethics. They were manipulative in situations and knew the power game politics quite well. After all the notoriousness on behalf of Stalin, a comparison may be laid between Hitler and Stalin. Regarding the death toll that had been improved on the society Hitler enjoys an advantage. As we have previously mentioned the death toll under Stalin’s regime, Hitler had brutally mutilated around 900000 Jews in Ukraine, 245000 Jews in Belarouge and 228000 Jews in Baltic. Stalin kept millions in prison at Gulag and Hitler on the other hand deported around 2.7 million slaves from Soviet territory to Germany. Hitler was almost a lunatic suffering from racism. Stalin also deserves some appreciation as education system as well as employment opportunities received a boost under Stalin’s regime in Soviet Russia. Even the farmers who managed to overcome a gruesome period of collectivization received ample help from government afterwards. As a whole, comparing between the two it can be said Hitler’s regime of torment was more brutal and left a deeper impact on the contemporary world, as it was not confined within the geographical boundaries of Germany, rather haunted the other nations over the ocean and territorial boundary. 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