History report on stalin?

Question

i have to write a report on stalin and ussr, does anyone have a topic that could have two different views, like a debatable topic. thanks

Answer 1

There are two questions that are fundamental to understanding both the Soviet Union and Stalin:

1)  Why did Stalin institute the policy of "Socialism in one Country"?  This was against Marxist orthodoxy which claimed that once one country became socialist it should work to help others follow the same path, or fail.  Yet it became one of the cornerstones of the USSR, why?

2) Why did stalin decide to collectivise agriculture.  This brings in Ex Sarge's point of the Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine) being a deliberate act of political control by murder & famine.  Again collectivised agriculture, one of the backbones of the USSR is not marxist doctrine, so why was it introduced?

Answer 2

you can do his policy of comintern or spreading communism to other countries.

good - can help countries improve relations and their economy

bad - can spread violent revolution and uproot many governments leading to much death

Answer 3

how effective was stalins collectivization programs? was it worth the heavy price? How did it change the economy/socitey for better or worse?

Answer 4

Check into the famines in Ukraine in the 1930s.  There is some debate whether they were deliberately manufactured to starve out the Ukrainian population and make room for Russians, or just the inevitable results of agricultural collectivization and operating farms according to political ideology and central planning rather than best farming practices.

Answer 5

Was Stalin necessary?  (Many died, but he made Russia into a military-industrial power.)  This is the CLASSIC question Russians ask about him.

Stalin - hero, or villain?