Stalinism

Members of the Communist Party of China celebrating Stalin's birthday in 1949

"Wall of sorrow" at the first exhibition of the victims of Stalinism in Moscow, 19 November 1988

Stalinism refers to the political system under Joseph Stalin, including ideology and state administration. A secret history of those days is contained in the Mitrokin Archives. Stalinism involves using strong state leadership and suppression of opposition to quickly develop a country. Lazar Kaganovich, a Soviet politician, coined the term.

Stalinism existed in the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1956. The Soviet Union was an agricultural country in 1924, but by 1956 it was a powerful industrial country with good living standards. This happened because of the 5-year plans of the government. These plans contained all economic development to happen in the 5 years.

The controversial part of Stalinism is that to do all these things, the government detained or killed many people who didn't like the government. A few hundred thousand people were detained or killed. These were mostly rich people and people who wanted to go back to the Russian Empire.

Related pages

• De-Stalinization
• Gulag

References

• Sheila Fitzpatrick 2000 Stalinism: New Directions Routledge, 2000 ISBN 041515233X
• The Political economy of Stalinism