Topic > Joseph Stalin – The Father of the USSR

The country has many conflicts and needed someone to lead it, but for Russia that leader became Joseph Stalin. When Stalin came to power he aimed to make Russia a strong communist country. He felt that Russia needed to become more industrial because it was a century behind all the other advanced countries. With the development of heavy industry, agriculture was to be collectivized as part of achieving Stalin's goal of making Russia a stronger state. Collectivization meant eliminating individual farms and placing them under government control. After the First World War Russia was extremely unstable. They had withdrawn from the war before the Allies won. They had lost ground and their army was weaker than it already was. That was until Stalin involved the Soviet Union in international affairs. They had won against German oppression and had also joined the League of Nations under Stalin's control. When Stalin was in power, there was no doubt that millions of innocent people died as a result of his strategies to make Russia more powerful. But despite his cruel methods, Joseph Stalin deserves the title "father of the USSR", for having industrialized the country, collectivized agriculture and made the Soviet Union more active in international affairs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay In 1928, one of Stalin's goals was to rapidly develop heavy industry. Stalin wanted to make the Soviet Union an industrial fortress and a strong nationalist state. He thought that for Russian communism to succeed, industrial power was immediately needed. This had to be achieved by creating a planned economy, which meant that industry was forced to industrialise. Lenin had previously destroyed the power of private enterprise to create a manageable industry. Therefore, when Stalin came to power, most of the major industries were already in government hands. Stalin had claimed that the Soviet Union was behind advanced societies and that they needed to industrialize rapidly before "enemies" crushed them. Heavy industry was essential for defense and for the supply of agricultural tractors and combines. Stalin believed that equality and democracy should wait until the Soviet Union had a thriving industrial economy. In 1928, Stalin replaced Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP) with the first Five Year Plan. Where over five years each company was assigned an objective to achieve. The punishments for not achieving the goal were extremely severe. Many people were forced to work against their will, but Stalin believed that policy was essential. The first three Five-Year Plans from 1928 to 1941 increased production by about 400%. By the mid-1930s Russia had surpassed the iron, coal and oil production figures of 1913. Never has a country industrialized so rapidly. As a result, unemployment was abolished. As Stalin was industrializing the country, he felt it was necessary to collectivize the country's farms. With the development of heavy industry, agriculture had to be collectivized. Collectivization began in 1929. There would no longer be individual farms and there would no longer be individual farmers selling their products independently. Every year the farmers had to deliver a certain quantity of product to the state. The young socialized, large-scale agriculture, which?