Joseph Stalin

Stalin was a brutal and callous dictator; however, he did only what was necessary and nothing more, to achieve all the radical changes that were taking place in the U.S.S.R at the time. All the deaths that Stalin can be held responsible for were necessary. They could have been dealt more peacefully, Stalin, however was brutal and the deaths were a result of his harsh, coarse character.

The resistance of the kulaks determined their fates, not Stalin's iron will. Their persistence and tenacity drove Stalin to take extreme action and exterminate them. The frantic rush towards collectivisation was being held stagnant by the Kulaks, who refused to assimilate with the other peasants. The Kulaks were not only holding the movement up, they were also sabotaging herds and becoming, to a degree, terrorists, terrorising the lower class peasants, sending the movement in a negative direction. In order to achieve his goals for the U.S.S.R, Stalin needed to eliminate this class entirely, which would remove the idle state that the movement was in. In his speech to the party congress in 1929 Stalin claims, "We must break the resistance of the Kulaks and deprive this class of its existence. We must eliminate the Kulaks as a class." Stalin had two options in this case. He could be patient and wait try desperately to make the Kulak class come to terms, thus compromising the 'collectivisation' movement. Or he could irradicate the problem that stood in his way. Due to Stalin's brutal and unyielding personality, and the time frame that he was working around, Stalin chose to eliminate the opposition.

Through Stalin's reign he produced propaganda, as did all leaders, for necessary purposes. He produced propaganda such as Source B to imply to the public that he was a kind & caring man. In this billboard Stalin is depicted as a gentle man, a quality that he did not posess, this is determined by the children placed in the photo. Stalin did this to reassure the people, and keep their trust and faith in him. This was a necessary factor in the radical changes that occurred in the U.S.S.R. If the trust of the peasants was lost, Stalin's plans would have crumpled. Stalin created propaganda such as 'Source B' in order to keep the peasants trust in tact.

However, Stalin needed to reinforce his iron will and standards that he set. 'Source C' was used to remind the general public that Stalin was not kind to those who disobeyed him. The grim looking prison camp depicts soldiers and uniformed men, suggesting an institution. The brutal and cruel actions that occurred in these camps have been omitted from the photo so as not to scare the public or give Stalin a bad look. If the general public was exposed to these

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