Stalin: His accomplishments and failures

[Geddan]

Everyone with an opinion on ol' Joe could tell me please, and I will tell you mine:

Joseph Stalin indeed had all the power in the Soviets, and everybody had to follow his orders. He exterminated the Trotskyites and some party members, and that is indeed questionable. However, I think that he deserves some respect, due to the things he actually did.

He industralized Russia and brought it up from the dust, and made it an economic power to be reckoned with. He dealt with the counter-revolutionary bourgeoise in an effective way I have to say, and he collectivized the farms of all Soviet and stole the kulaks' non-deserved power. And at last, Joseph Stalin did some mistakes in the defence questions, but he was the one who awoke the Russian bear and made it smash the Nazi enemy once and for all.

However, his mistakes mustn't be forgotten. He had all power in his hands, and since he was a man like everyone else he made mistakes. I think that expelling trotskyites, Lev Trotsky himself, purging different ethnicity in Soviet and purging political opponents were fatal mistakes. This might have caused the Soviet reverting to capitalism, with him destroying the worker's democracy, but it could also have begun when Lenin stunted the freedom of opinion in the Russian party.

Joseph Stalin's ideology is something which I don't know (as many other people's ideologies) but I see that he had some ideology about "Socialism in one country". Did this mean that he wanted to concentrate on building socialism up in Russia before spreading the revolution? What other traits are Stalin's political traits?

To summarize:

Joe Stalin did something good, but he did something bad too. Every dead man in a revolutionary state is a failure.

Now what is your opinion? Correct me if I stated something wrong. I'd like to say that I am not "Stalinist" if someone would like to put it that way.

[Saint-Just]

"Socialism in one country"

He believed it was possible to operate an autonomous economic system. An economic system which did not reyl on outside trade to survive and grow. This is entirely possible in a large country with great resources.

[chamo]

Russia did have a large amount of resources, especially coal and steel so Stalin was completely right to think that he could achive socialism within national boundries and without outside trading. The 5 year economic plans were quite spectacular in that they gave a huge boost to the country's economy.
One failure of Stalin was his purgings. One different between Stalin and Hitler is that Hitler's attrocities were based on hate. He hated Jews, blacks, communists and homosexuals. Stalin's attrocities were done to the people that stood in his way, Stalin purged his oppressors, Hitler purged who he hated and his oppressors. I am not saying that I support either, I hate each of them as much as I hate the other, I am just stating the facts.

[Rastafari]

If Trotsky could have followed instead of Stalin, as Lenin intended, the USSR would probably be the most powerful nation in the world. Stalin found the Lenin's will before anyone else, and changed it. Stalin did some good things, however, and much of the Russian country that lived during his tenure still remembers and loves him. Stalin killed millions of people, though, and did not form an alliance with Mao, which made it easier for capitalism to destroy the seperated nations.

[Iepilei]

My question is, how well would have Trotsky performed in WW2? Would his experience helped Russia to grow and take out the Nazi threat before they pushed too far in - destroying most of the countryside? Would he have trusted the Germans initially - as Stalin did? Afterwards, would he have turned the Red Army to a labour army, like he had wanted?

Alot of questions come to mind whenever you think about the what-if's of history...

[VI Koba]

Stalin was responsible for keeping the USSR inline with Marxist principles and ensuring the class traitors didnt seize power. His five year plans industrialized the nation and prepared the nation for the inevitable war... If it wasnt for Stalins shrewed understanding of politics and peoples it would be most likely The Great Patriotic war would initially only be fought by Germany and the USSR with Britian and USA only coming in to 'liberate' the defeated nation.

I have spoken to countless peoples who were alive during the Stalin era and they have said their lives were the best during Stalins tenure... they were given many things in which they never thought possible.

Hardships in the Stalin era revolve around the reactionary Kulaks and their exploitation of peoples hunger so they could become wealthy on the peoples needs. Stalin however organized the plan to enforce collectivisation and ensure this bribery could not continue as it did throughout the early years of the USSR.

[Spartaco]

I'd like to point out we're talking about somebody who killed more people than Hitler did!

plus stalin set up an extremely burocratic state with no transparency, in which the people had absolutely no say, where there was only one party in which there was no dialogue but only one official line which had to be followed. Because of that also now there are some people who associate communism with dictatorship (of course im not saying capitalist media doesn't have a part in it).

i also think that socialism in one state especially when that state was russia that, also if rich in resources, was practically a pre-capitalist country, is completly absurd. Only one socialist country will easily we crushed by outside capitalist forces.

An important merit i have to give stalin is that of having industrialized the country.

[Geddan]

Spartaco, new research say that the people killed in a way Stalin was partially responsible (assassinations, overworking) were 3 million people. A failure indeed, but only half of Hitler's jew pogroms.

[Spartaco]

Geddan the number of people killed by stalin has never been calculated with precision and so depending on where you look you'll find different numbers. However the most accredited numbers right now are around 8-9 million.

[Saint-Just]

To some extent, anyone that died as a direct result of Stalin is more likely to have been a bourgeois reactionary than any individual killed by Hitler.

[Edelweiss]

I'm strictly anti-Stalinist, but I would never deny the most important accomplishment of Stalin and the glorious red army: Stopping the Nazi's in Stalingrad.

[Edelweiss]

#Moderation Mode



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