Stalins Corruption free essay sample

He certainly did have cause to believe in the power of a humans will as he experienced it in himself firsthand, having had extraordinary willpower and perseverance (He didnt call himself Man of Steel for nothing, folks), rising up from the lowly station of alcoholics son in Georgia to one of the biggest monsters in human history, supposedly killing more than Hitler. Exactly how did he do this? Why? And how did his corruption reach such extents as to do all this for power? Josef Stalin (originally named Josef Djugashvili) was born in Gori, a violent town in eastern Georgia, on the twenty-first of December, in 1878, to his parents Ketevan Geladze and Besarion Jughashvili. He lived for seventy-four more years, and in his time living became the totalitarian dictator over all of the Soviet Union. By the time he died in 1953, he was extremely corrupt. How, in these seventy-four years, did he get so corrupt? This essay answers this. Stalin took advantage of the weakness of the early Communist system to attain power. He did this because of his ambitious and power-hungry personality which, in part, had been caused by his troubled personal history. The corrupt actions of Joseph Stalin were made possible by the newly employed and therefore rather weak political system of Communism but were mostly caused by his power-hungry personality and troubled personal history, which led to the power having an extreme effect on him. The actual power did the corrupting, but these personal factors primed him for it. Stalin took advantage of the youth of the Communist system to gain power. He gained power from this because the rules of Communism werent set in stone, firmly established, and not everybody was thoroughly educated about Communism, and this way he could lie about the systems rules or develop his own to suit himself. In other words, Stalin got an almost clean slate to work off of. Stalin taking advantage of Communisms novelty is shown when he  simplified (or, perhaps more accurately, simply lied about) the words and works of Lenin. As it says in a well-informed articleIn bringing the message from the stratosphere to the ground, Stalin did for Lenin what, in a different context, Lenin had done for Marx (Pereira, 2). What did they do? Simplify. Twist meanings. Each time the message got into new hands, the meaning changed a little bit to suit their interests, but they still credited the respected people before them, so that they would seem like these people. Stalin took concepts over common folks heads, and brought it down to be understandable, in black and white without any gray tones, basically paraphrasing Lenins works (tweaking a bit here and there), making it simpler and easier for mass consumption. He gave people junk food speeches. He did this because he didnt care whether people were actually informed about the system they were living in, as long as they had reverenceaccording to Isaac Deutscher, he believed in information being pushed down their [the peoples] throats (Pereira, 4). Some of the key words in all of this are tweaking a bit, because tweak, Stalin did. After Lenin died, Stalin played the part of impromptu spokesperson for him, giving speeches like the famous oath of devotion to the just-deceased Lenin in which he said that In leaving us, Comrade Lenin ordered us to hold high and keep pure the great title of member of the Party. We vow to thee, Comrade Lenin, that we shall honourably fulfil this thy commandment In leaving us, Comrade Lenin ordered us to guard the unity of our Party like the apple of our eye. We vow to thee, Comrade Lenin, that we shall fulfil this thy commandment, too In leaving us, Comrade Lenin ordered us to guard and strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat, etcetera. In this speech he made many feel-good generalizations, similar to the propaganda technique Glittering Generalities, using words and terms like honourably, pure, great, and apple of our eye, and all the while complimenting himself and flattering his audience. By acting as if his words were indirectly Lenins, Stalin could say almost any number of things with the people agreeing out of respect for Lenin. This relates to the propaganda technique Testimonial. There were other ways that he took advantage of how Communism wasthe omnipotent and omnicompetent boss was still the norm in a society so recently under Czarist authority (Pereira, 5). Because of this, Stalin could easily claim supremacy over the people of Russia, because they were used to this. Part of what helped Stalin attain so much power and therefore get so corrupt was all of this taking advantage of not completely set rules. But why did he want to take advantage of this for power? He did this because of his power-hungry personality. Stalins having a power-hungry personality is a big part of what made him corrupt, and is also a part of his corruption. Not many will dispute this, especially once faced with evidenceStalins craving for power is evident in many areas. He certainly had a lot of will-power to do as much as he did! One such example of this is accentuated by him opportunism and likeness to a chameleon; he would do almost anything to attain power, not having scruples or paying attention to ideals (although he harnessed those of the people to gain power! Stalin performed his great turn-about in late 1927 and took over the left analysis (Pereira, 5). This is interesting because Stalin had been on the more conservative right side of Communist politics. So what caused him to switch? The obvious answer is the sentence after, where it says that he was reaping clear political benefits. Looking deeper, he switched primarily because he needed an enemy. Robert Tucker depicts Stalin as the prey of his own deceit, saying that In Stalins mind, the hero-image of himself was in symbiosis with a villain image of the enemy. Counterposed to the picture of himself as a great revolutionary and Marxist [ ] was a picture of the enemy inside the party as a would-be betrayer of it and the Revolution (in Stalin and the Communist Party in the 1920s by Pereira, 4). This means Stalin didnt necessarily have anyone who openly opposed his views, but because he wanted to consolidate power, he needed to eliminate those who might take that power. Therefore he had to find something wrong with them, make them his opponents, and win against them in a battle of wills. So in this example, what Stalin was doing was politically positioning himself opposite those he felt threatened by. He had already exiled Trotsky and disposed of its other main proponents on the left in some fashion (whether it be disgrace, execution, or by some other means), so now he had no one to get rid of on the left. However, there were some challenging him on the right, so he switched over to the more radical side and ruined Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomsky. He had no care for those he damaged politically when he switched sides so abruptly; he only cared for the power he would gain from these new alliances and disengagement of old ones. But how did Stalin come to have such disregard for kindness? Many believe that this arose from the lack of kindness he was given. Stalin had a troubled childhood and background, being beaten, made fun of, and generally did not learn love. He grew up in a violent country, in a rough town, with a difficult family. This is evident in many accountsThe roots of violence ran deep in his family life and in Gori, where streetbrawling was the principal sport. Soso, as Stalin, born Josef Djugashvili, was called, suffered savage beatings from his alcoholic father and doting mother, who alternated smothering affection with harsh corporal punishment (Grimes, 1). This is basically saying that Stalin had a tough life as a kid, growing up where being cruel was almost a simple but enjoyable pastime. This probably made Stalin feel powerless, with such a strict, smothering mother, savage father, and gory Gori. Because Stalin felt powerless, he probably developed a great longing for power, and when he got it, didnt let go, adamantly refused to. Through this Stalin may have become corrupted and addicted to power. Most will attest that Stalin was extremely corrupt. He ruined the lives of thousands, millions even. How can the world avoid another Stalin? The first step would be to eliminate the variables that made him corrupt. Perhaps there should be more extensive social networks to intervene in family life and raise the quality of childrens lives. Maybe there should be new limits to alcohol consumption. And there should definitely be limits to a persons power. But how can society do these things without becoming a many-armed Stalin? How can the people intervene to prevent the variables that created Stalin without acting his part? Society must find a way to escape both totalitarianism and exorbitant capitalism without manifesting as the one percent of todays United States, or the failed Communist experiment corrupted by those like Stalin.