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Joseph Stalin was the communist leader and head of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1924-1953. He turned an undeveloped and divided nation into a powerful and prosperous state. He was adored on a scale that few leaders have achieved. During his lifetime he was glorified in Russian newspapers, in statues, in films and in street and city names around the USSR. Under his leadership, the USSR caught up with her capitalist neighbours. By the end of the Second World War the Soviet Union had emerged as a super-power ranking second only to the United States of America. Under his talented leadership, life for ordinary people improved enormously through city housing schemes; universal health care along with pensions and sickness benefits. There was a strong emphasis on education, causing illiteracy to be reduced from about 50% in 1924 to 19% by 1939. From 1934 it was compulsory for children to receive 11 years education. Without any blueprint for communist production, every five years, the Soviet government under Stalin's instruction would set targets that industry and agriculture would have to meet. Production in factories grew to incredible levels and electricity was distributed throughout the country. Heavy industry enjoyed substantial development, impressive examples being the Moscow Metro; the Dneiper hydro-electric dam; the steelworks at Magnitogorsk, Gorky and Kutznetsk. Whole new industrial centres were built in Kuzbass and the Volga. |
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The Rapid industrialization meant peasants leaving the land and working in towns or industrial centres. These workers had to be fed, so agricultural production also had to increase. Stalin ordered the collectivization of farming. Peasants would work together on larger, more productive farms. Every year the amount of steel, coal, iron, railway lines and oil rose. At the time when countries including Britain and the USA were experiencing the Great Depression, the USSR was free from the unemployment and the hardship. Capitalist countries saw the achievements of socialism as an ideological threat to their continued rule and existance. A strong leader such as Stalin was needed to ensure continued successes and that law and order was maintained. The Soviet Union was in a condition of class struggle and war with the capitalist menace that surrounded her borders. Stalin is criticized in the west that in his drive to industrialize, adopting harsh methods; forced labour camps, removal of those who did not co-operate and punishments for those who failed to reach targets. It’s always easy to criticise, especially with hindsight, but the alternative would have been brought about something comparable with the anarchy and misery that today exists in the former USSR. |