Rise of Soviet Union

Rise of Soviet Union:
Russia emerged for a civil war in 1922 as a newly established Soviet Union. A treaty was signed
between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia (modern Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The newly established Communist Party, led by Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, took
control of the government. At its peak, the United Socialist Soviet Republic, or U.S.S.R., was
made up of 15 soviet republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and
Uzbekistan. The first Marxist-Communist state in the world has become one of the largest and
most powerful nations in the world, occupying nearly one-sixth of Earth’s land surface, before its
fall and ultimate dissolution in 1991.
Joseph Stalin:
After Lenin’sdeath, another revolutionary Bolshevik Joseph Stalin gained power in 1924 despite
the serious opposition from Lenin in his final years. Lenin felt that Stalin had more power than
he could handle and might be dangerous if he was Lenin's successor so he recommended Stalin's
removal from the position of General Security of the Party but this was kept a secret form the
public and Stalin effectively became a dictator in the Soviet Union. He implemented Five-Year
Plans to spur economic growth and focus on rapid industrialization which transformed the Soviet
Union from an agrarian society to an industrial and military superpower.
The Great Famine of Ukraine
Although the Five-Year plan was generally successful they came at a severe cost.
Collectivization was enforced by Stalin between 1928 and 1940. Farmers were forced to join
collective farms. Many who owned land or cattle were stripped of their holdings. Hundreds of
thousands of high-income farmers, called kulaks, were rounded up and executed, their land
seized. The Communists believed that the incorporation of individual farmers into a number of
large state-run collective farms would improve agricultural production. But instead this led to the
worst man-made famine in history. The Great Famine also known as Holodomor of 1932-1933
killed millions because workers were unable to eat their own grain, as it was considered state
property under socialism.
The Great Purge:
The Great Purge, which took place between about 1936 and 1938, was a brutal political
campaign led by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to execute or exile dissenting members of the
Communist Party and anyone else that he considered a potential threat to his leadership.
Moreover, Stalin’s forced actions caused opposition in factories, military and even in the party.
More than a million other people were sent to forced labor camps, known as Gulags and at least
750,000 people were executed during the Great Purge. This ruthless and bloody operation caused
a great terror throughout the U.S.S.R. and impacted the country for many years.
World War II: