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Joseph Stalin comes to power in the Soviet Union

Definition

Joseph Stalin became leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death in 1924. He transformed the country from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower through a series of Five-Year Plans. His rule was marked by mass repression, purges, forced labor, collectivization of agriculture, and famine.

Analogy

Imagine if your school principal not only controlled everything at school but also decided what you could do outside school hours – including what hobbies you could have or even what food you could eat. That's similar to how Stalin ruled the Soviet Union.

Related terms

Five-Year Plans: A series of nationwide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union created under Joseph Stalin for rapid industrialization.

Great Purge: A campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1938 where millions were persecuted and executed on suspicion of being "enemies of the people".

Collectivization: A policy implemented by Joseph Stalin to integrate individual landholdings and labor into collectively-controlled agricultural units called kolkhoz and sovkhoz.