Stalin's "Enlightenment"

As the Soviet Union was just getting back up on its feet, thanks to the NEP, The soviet Union was becoming an enlightenment period for Russia. Although it had some rough moments, the Soviet Union had brought leadership into a country, that was falling apart under the leadership of the Tsar. But as Lenin passed away, a fight for the throne began, and ended up being taken by the most ruthless leader, Stalin. Stalin was born into a poor family and were peasants under the Tsar's ruling. Stalin excelled in school, and in university found the works of Lenin, becoming a follower. Stalin joined the Bolsheviks mid revolution in a minor position, and worked his way to the top through out the years of Lenins ruling.

Death of Lenin
  in 1921, Lenin began having minor strokes, knowing that he must not have much time to live, Lenin wrote his will and pointed out that he does not want one leader to succeed him, but a group of leaders. That included Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev. Also noting that he saw arrogance  and rudeness in Stalin, recommending he be removed  from his posts in the Communist Party. Lenin died on the 21st of January 1924, from a brain haemorrhage, living only until he was 53.

The Fight for Leadership
  Although Lenins wish was for the power to divided equally amongst Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev, The members wanted to shrink that number. Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev decided to team up and discredit Trotsky from leadership. Stalin stopped Lenins wife from publishing his testament to the public, knowing that it would raise questions about him as a leader, and prevent him from taking out the other 3 members from leadership. Trotsky was on holiday when Lenin died, Stalin convinced Trotsky to stay on his vacation, until the funeral, But Stalin gave him the wrong date for the funeral. This made Trotsky look bad, and made Stalin look like a perfect fit for the next leader. By 1929 Stalin had removed key people and replaced them with his
supporters.

Stalin's 5 Year Plans to industrialize the State
 When becoming the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin came to the realization that the West was far ahead in industrialization and technology. Stalin knew that it was important that he would not fall behind to the west, and that he needs to modernize the economy, as it would lead to a stronger army. Als
o find it important to modernizing farms, to provide more food, and providing farms with tractors and machinery would improve efficiency.
  To modernize Russia in the quickest time possible, Stalin created the Five Year Plans. This tactic involved State taking control of all factories, telling them what to make, how much to make, where to make it,and setting unreachable goals for factories.
-The first five year plan was from 1928 to 1932
-The second five year plan was from 1933 to 1937.
-The third five year plan was from 1938 to 1941 but was interrupted by the war.
 Although the targets that were set were completely unrealistic, vast improvements were made by factories to avoid attention of State. The emphasis was on heavy industries such as coal, oil, iron and steel and electricity.

This Graph shows the Factory progress in Russia(1927 being before the Five Year Plans were implemented)

	1927	1932	1937
Coal	35 million tons	64 mt (75 mt target)	128 mt (152 mt target)
Oil	12 million tons	21 mt (22 mt target)	29 mt (47 mt target)
Iron Ore	5 million tons	12 mt (19 mt target)	unknown
Pig Iron	3 million tons	6 mt (10 mt target)	15 mt (16 mt target)
Steel	4 million tons	6 mt (10 mt target)	18 mt (17 mt target)

Progress was on the rise and Stalin did everything that he could to make sure that the country strived for Industrialization  Going as far as calling Foreign experts to teach the workers how to improve and work more efficiently. Stalin made Failure to reach Quota a serious offence on behalf of the managers, and would execute those who fail to reach Quota. So managers had to lie on some of their numbers, as the goals set were impossible to reach.

Life of the Workers

 Life of the workers was hard, and had to work countless hours for very little pay. The youth that had been born into the propaganda State country were made to believe that working a few hard years will gain them reward in the future. Motivating the workers was a very important part for the managers, pay by performance was an incentive to get workers to work harder. Failure to work hard could result in that worker being fined, or charged with the crime of "being an enemy of the people" and sent to a labor camp where they would have to work until they died.

   Although the Five Year Plan had many problems, and held the public in a prison state, Russia became an Industrial powerhouse, which played a big role in the war that was coming.

Living Conditions
   Living under Stalins ruling was rough, Many workers over worked, and most resources going towards the army. There were Famines costing 5-10 million peoples lives, as wells as 27 million casualties in the war alone. People were left to face the damages from World War II. Religion was banned and atheism was push towards students through education and anti-religion propaganda.

Death of Stalin
 The War was catastrophic in the number of Casualties Russia has faced, but was successful in stopping Germany. As the battle ended, Germany was divided into two parts, west belonging to USA, and east belonging to the Soviet Union, This created a show down between two enemy's known as the "Cold War" where the two sides agreed to Mutual Assured Destruction. This caused both sides to try to one up each other in Technology, Industrialization, and comfort of living. Joseph died in the middle of this war on 5 March 1953, Without a mutually agreeable successor, but went to the highest ranking Communist Party Official Nikita Khrushchev.