Stalin's Successes and Failures

Joseph Stalin was a Communist dictator who led the Soviet Union by employing both successful and unsuccessful tactics in strengthening the Soviet state internally. Stalin's chief aims included modernizing and industrializing Soviet society and economy, ensure the national security of the Soviet Union, maintaining his position as the sole leader of his country, and establishing a truly Communist and prosperous society. One quote that shows Stalin's motivation on developing the USSR was, "The history of the old Russia has consisted in being beaten again and again…because of her…backwardness, military backwardness, industrial backwardness, agricultural backwardness. She was beaten because to beat her has paid off and because people have been able to get away with it. We are fifty to a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do this or they crush us." To reach these goals, Stalin created two key policies known as the 5-year-plan and collectivization that all had their successes and failures in terms of the country as a whole, or just the single-party leader. Collectivization was a process that included abolishing individual control of farmland by "collecting" small plots of peasant land and their resources into large-scale land units that were managed by the government. Stalin wanted to modernize the inefficient agriculture system based on small plots. In some ways, collectivization proved to be successful. For example, it established complete Communist control. Lenin and the Bolsheviks had established a firm control over the cities and Stalin knew it would be easier for the state to manage and control fewer large farms than many thousands of small ones. State officials controlled farming and grain supply. In many cases, the peasants obeyed the Communist Party through methods of enthusiasm and fear, promoted by Stalin, who had all the power. Collectivizing agriculture would give the government direct control