Gorbachev begins an anti-alcohol campaign and promulgates the policies of openness, or glasnost, and restructuring, or perestroika. In East Germany, an unprecedented series of mass public rallies leads to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November. Gone but not forgotten: Many Russians still fondly remember the Soviet Union and its symbols. Civil war. During the second half of the s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge , a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party, the military and other parts of Soviet society from those he considered a threat.
Additionally, Stalin built a cult of personality around himself in the Soviet Union. Cities were renamed in his honor. Soviet history books were rewritten to give him a more prominent role in the revolution and mythologize other aspects of his life. He was the subject of flattering artwork, literature and music, and his name became part of the Soviet national anthem.
He censored photographs in an attempt to rewrite history, removing former associates executed during his many purges. His government also controlled the Soviet media. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland and Romania, as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
He also launched an invasion of Finland. Stalin had ignored warnings from the Americans and the British, as well as his own intelligence agents, about a potential invasion, and the Soviets were not prepared for war. As German troops approached the Soviet capital of Moscow, Stalin remained there and directed a scorched earth defensive policy, destroying any supplies or infrastructure that might benefit the enemy. The tide turned for the Soviets with the Battle of Stalingrad from August to February , during which the Red Army defeated the Germans and eventually drove them from Russia.
As the war progressed, Stalin participated in the major Allied conferences, including those in Tehran and Yalta His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet empire.
Joseph Stalin did not mellow with age: He prosecuted a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labor camps and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign—especially Western—influence. He established communist governments throughout Eastern Europe, and in led the Soviets into the nuclear age by exploding an atomic bomb. Stalin, who grew increasingly paranoid in his later years, died on March 5, , at age 74, after suffering a stroke.
By some estimates, he was responsible for the deaths of 20 million people during his brutal rule. Start your free trial today. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! For centuries leading up to World War I, Russia was ruled by an absolute monarchy under which the lower classes had long suffered in poverty.
This tension was exacerbated by the nationwide famine and loss of human lives as a result of World War I. The first revolution began when the Russian army was sent in to control a protest led by factory workers who had recently lost their jobs.
The military quickly lost control of the situation, and the Czar was forced to abdicate. When the Czar was dethroned, Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia after being exiled for anti-Czar plots. Other revolutionaries including Leon Trotsky also returned to Russia to seize the opportunity. The two established the Bolshevik party, a communist party that was staunchly opposed to the War, which continued to wreak havoc on the unstable nation.
However, when the Bolsheviks gained only 25 percent of votes in the elections, Lenin overturned the results and used military force to prevent democratic assembly. He established several state-centered government programs and policies that would continue, in some form, throughout the reign of the Soviet Union. The Central Committee decided not to publish the testament.
In place of the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the Revolution, it aimed to build Socialism in One Country. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization. Famines ensued, causing millions of deaths; surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labor.
Social upheaval continued in the mids. Over two years, that averages to over one thousand executions a day. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. Formation of the Soviet Union Learning Objective Assess the reasons for creating the Soviet Union.
However, it only officially consolidated as the new government of Russia after the defeat of the White Army during the Russian Civil War in
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