Victory is often won due to the opponent’s failings than on one’s own merit. Dictators often give themselves much of the credit for various achievements. In the height of his cult of personality, Stalin was presented in books and propaganda as the unquestionable savior and hero of Russia and the Soviet Union, as he led the Bolsheviks to victory in the Civil War. Mao Zedong and the CCP taught the story that Mao Zedong mobilized and led the people of China to smashing victory against the Nationalists in a “people’s war”. However, this perspective is certainly warped, as there are other competing factors that contribute to these achievements, such as the failing Provisional Government in the leadup to the October Revolution, or the disunity among …show more content…
Victors often have certain crucial strengths that are instrumental to their victory, such as possessing ideologies and promoting policies that appeal to their targets and having a strong military force. For instance, in the rise of Stalin, Stalin effectively used his position as Party Secretary to control party membership. He doubled its membership to one million and his policies appealed to the new members, hence he was able to expand his support base. He was also extremely cunning, deliberately tricking Trotsky into not showing up at Lenin’s funeral, severely damaging his reputation and political prestige, and Stalin made the most of the funeral, setting himself up as Lenin’s disciple. In the rise of Mao, Mao called for and led the Long March, which inspired many of the Communist Party’s members and soldiers to see Mao as a courageous, selfless hero who saved their lives. This allowed Mao to rise up and helped him to expand his support base. In the rise of Hitler, Hitler also offered solutions to Germany’s problems, such as the Nazi Economic policy to tackle the effects of the Great Depression, which further strengthened the faith of the masses in the party, and allowed the Nazi Party to quickly become the largest party in Weimar Germany by 1932. This shows that victors emerge due to their strengths and merit, helping them to defeat their opponents and increase their legitimacy. Thus, victory is won due to …show more content…
This is as the strength of a contender is measured by comparing the contender to others; victors emerge as they are stronger and have more advantages than the other contenders, while the defeated lose because they possess more weaknesses and flaws than the other contenders. For instance, in the rise of Hitler, the failings of the Weimar government in dealing with the Great Depression helped Hitler and the Nazi Party because of the Nazi Party’s strengths in that they offered an alternative set of policies which appealed to much of the masses, especially the unemployed workers. Similarly, in the rise of Stalin, Stalin’s strengths of being the party secretary to expand his support base helped him because the other contenders’ weakness in that they underestimated him and did not take action to stop Stalin; instead they targeted Trotsky. Hence, victory is due both the opponent’s failings and one’s own
The Nazi Party was revered and feared because they were able to exploit people’s fears. The Nazi party existed before the rise of Hitler, but they were a small and virtually unnoticeable party. The entire world was hit by an economic depression in the early 1930s and Germany was not immune. The people of the country were angry and impatient and feared that their parliament was too weak to rectify the economic situation.
Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1914, Joseph Stalin took up his position as leader of the Soviet Union. After rising to power, Stalin made drastic changes to Russia that was still torn from war at the time. With his power, Stalin aimed to bring Russia to the top of the world. In the end, while he pushed the Soviet Union’s economy to new heights, his methods were cruel and had negative impacts. After the war, Stalin was determined to turn Russia into a great industrial power.
Germany felt this was humiliating and unjust, and many believed their country had been unfairly punished. In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany, promising to restore the country's greatness and overturn
Throughout Russia’s history, there have been many rulers that tried to manage their country in different ways. Even though, all of these rulers had their own unique ways of ruling, all of them were seen as terrible by the people. This eventually led to a tipping point for the Russian citizens and the Russian Revolution took place. The goal for these people was to gain freedom from their oppressive czar but instead, they got an even worse leader. Joseph Stalin was a leader of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953 and he was known for his ability to strike fear into people.
Stalin came into power by using Lenin, who was the previous ruler of Russia. Stalin photoshopped an image to make them appear closer to make it seem like he was Lenin's successor. Mao came into power by using the Chinese revolution. The strategies that are the most effective at helping dictators gain and maintain power are propaganda, persecution, and industrialization.
Vo, Kayla Period 3 3/28/14 The Nazi Party’s Ascension to Power in Germany The signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 intended to bring worldwide peace after World War I and to penalize Germany for being responsible for the casualties that resulted. The penalty caused Germany to lose its pride, power, and nationalism, thus leaving the country in a helpless economic state and in an abyss. This poor condition after the Great War in 1918 caused citizens to have a strong will for change, which provided the perfect stage for political parties to rise in power. One political party in particular, the National Socialist German Worker's Party--otherwise known as the Nazi Party--captured the interest of the German public.
Joseph Stalin, the man of steel, was not only known for the massive death count that he was responsible for, but also for many other amazing actions that changed the world as we know it. Though Joseph Stalin’s historical importance has been greatly disputed for generations, the truth is obviously that he could be nothing less than the most influential person in history because of his nigh unbelievable feats such as swinging the outcome of World War two into the favor of the allies, constructing the most powerful nation on the planet in a mere five years with no more than will and impeccable leadership, and throwing western countries into a nuclear standoff that lasted for fifty years. Of course, there is a need for further elaboration, so without further ado, I challenge you to dive in and enlighten yourself in the marvelous accomplishments of the most influential person in the world, Joseph Stalin. II. Biography
Many people think that the battle was the turning point of World War II. The Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle is World War II. Many people were injured and also there was a lot of chaos. The Battle of Stalingrad was a strategic battle in the southwestern Soviet Union. The Germans started World War II but they just lost all the battles in this war.
This economic destruction allowed for the rise of a Fascist movement led by Adolf Hitler. Document E, a speech by Von Papen, the Chancellor of Germany in 1932 detailed the desperate economic situation in Germany which gave rise to the Fascist Nazi regime. Document G gave another perspective. Document G, Pie Charts of German Reichstag elections in 1928, 1930 and 1933 showed a breakdown of the votes. Surprisingly, the Nazi party made up a minority of the vote, even in the 1933 election, the Nazis did not possess a majority.
After World War I had ended in November 11, 1918 with the victory of the Allies, the people of many nations were in distraught. They had sought the leader they hoped would bring back their nations glory and prosperity. Some even hoped for even better than before the World War. Through all this chaos and distraught even more had been produced as few stepped up to lead the people of the nations. These few people had held all the power through a totalitarian government which centralizes all the government’s power to one person known as a dictator.
(Glad, 2002). He also created dignified conceptions of himself with regards to the communist revolution, and believed himself to be destined to lead the
The Nazi used the Great Depression as the boost to gain support from the Germans. Due to America’s depression, Germany was put into a dire state as unemployment increased, thus resulted in the Nazi gaining votes during the 1933 election. The depression caused desperation within the people that made them feel that the Weimar Republic could not look after them or the country’s financial problems. Hitler made promises to get rid of the unemployment rate, thus gaining the support of the public. Although the Great Depression was a key factor to Hitler’s rise to power but there were other causes: the German’s were looking for a saviour and Hitler happened to be that person; Hitler also played on the German’s fear factor of Communism and Communist which led him to get votes from the middle to higher class citizens by the burning of the Reichstag.
Through the folds of history, the phrase “the end justifies the means” has appeared often in an attempt for leaders to degrade their terrible acts and exaggerate their achievements that resulted. In the late 1800s, during the repressive and absolute rule of Stalin, many Russian citizens argued however, that Stalin did not justify his end with his means. The death of tens of thousands of Russian citizens from both execution and starvation, which were a direct result from his goals of a perfect communist utopian society, is not an act that can be ignored when considering his ultimately ‘good’ goals of pulling Russia out of poverty and stagnant economic and political growth. Joseph Stalin was able to greatly boost the Soviet Unions economy by instituting the 5-year plans with a resulting goal of rapid industrialization, and by instituting collectivization. Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron fist.
The weaknesses faced by the Weimar Republic was known which also enabled Hitler to exploit the weaknesses of the left and the moderates. Appearing to be the strong leader and withholding the communication skills needed to lead a country, he was able to gain the votes he needed (Orlow 'Modern Germany ' p.185). There were violent strikes in the streets, back and forth fighting, rioting. People were killed and the people of Germany, who feared Communism and despise chaos, sided with the “volkishe” parties, who promised to establish law and order. The people of Germany thought rather than having thousands die it would be better to have law and order and break a few heads than to live with that chaos.
After World War I and The Great Depression, Germany was left broken and wounded economically, socially, and politically. Under the Weimar Republic unemployment peaked at six million which is about 33% of Germany’s working population. The loss of World War I and the Great depression severely injured German pride, this gave Hitler the perfect opportunity to gain totalitarian power. The Nazi Party or the National Socialist German Worker’s Party completely controlled every aspect of German life and the German people were unconditionally obedient. The Nazis used nationalism, comradery, power, fear, propaganda, and indoctrination in order to have the utmost control over the German people which ultimately led to anti-semitism, mass killings, and World