Stalin Power Essay Example for Free

Stalin Power Essay Joseph Stalin, the Man of Steel, is one of the most powerful dictators in history. Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union’s sole leader from 1924 until his death in 1953. Stalin is one of the most controversial figures in Russian history; he is still the subject of fierce discussions. Stalin was a very powerful leader who had a huge impact on USSR; Stalin consolidated power in the USSR through propaganda, fear and, the five-year plan. Stalins rise to power was methodical and strong. The construction of his image was very well thought of and arranged. Nearly every medium propagandized Stalins image, propaganda was used to build up Stalins image. Like a religious worship, a cult of Stalin was formed. Stalin was like a godlike leader to the people, praised in the newspapers, books and in films, posters and poems. Everything praised his deeds, his skills, his modesty, his wisdom and his brilliance. Censorship was used to censor anything and everything that might reflect badly on Stalin. Leaving, no one a chance to see the bad side of Stalin, hence having everyone love and praise him. â€Å"The soviet education system was geared not to independent thinking but to Stalinist propaganda.† Parents taught their children that Stalin was the wisest and greatest. History books and photographs were changed to make him the hero of revolution, and obliterate the names of purges people. Stalin gave the people no chance to worship any kind of religious path; he did not want the people to have loyalty to anyone but him. Belief in god was replaced by belief in communism and Stalin. Cities and towns were named in his honor. Stalin established and consolidated his power through propaganda, thus gaining the love, respect and trust of the majority of the Russian people. However, propaganda alone was not enough to consolidate full power. Stalin was a paranoid ruler, always feared that political opponents, military officials, even common citizens were plotting against his political position and even his life. Perhaps as self-defense, Stalin was responsible for killing millions. Stalin consolidated his power base with the Great Purges against his political and ideological opponents. â€Å"Under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, tens of millions of ordinary individuals were executed or imprisoned in labor camps, that were little more than death camps. The Purge period of Soviet history can be considered the worst period of the twentieth century.† Stalin managed to use purges and violence to make people fear him, and therefore support him. Stalin imprisoned and executed anybody who opposed industrialization, and the kulaks who opposed collectivization. â€Å"Stalin also arrested thousands of his political opponents, they were put on show trials, where they pleaded guilty to impossible charges of treason.† Stalin executed or imprisoned almost all of the admirals and half the Army’s officers. Many people disappeared including teachers, miners, doctors, and ordinary people. Around 18 million were sent to labor camps, ten million died. â€Å"Stalin’s secret police had very effective torture methods. Many of the accused’s families were also killed or tortured in order to provoke confessions.† â€Å"Stalin had succeeded in destroying any sense on independent thinking. Everyone knew that his or her lives depended on thinking exactly as Stalin did.† Stalin accomplished power through fear, by using purges and violence to make people fear him and therefore support him, by having anyone who threatened his leadership, killed or murdered. â€Å"Propaganda and fear are not enough to explain Stalins extraordinary power. No dictator can hope to rule without popular support, and this was also true of Stalin. Power can only be acquired and retained by delivering benefits to significant numbers of people.† In Stalin’s case, this was achieved via five-year plans. Collectivization brought mechanization, rationalization to the many small plots that peasants worked on and put in place the distribution and supply networks needed to modernize agriculture and to produce enough grain for export. This system gave Stalin effective control over the entire economy, and thereby the Soviet people. The most effective means of increasing Stalin’s power was collectivization. â€Å"This involved the elimination of private ownership of agricultural land, and its replacement with a system of state-owned and collectively owned farms. The peasants who worked on these farms were under the control of the Party, which in turn was under the control of Stalin. Collectivization also gave Stalin the opportunity to eliminate large numbers of class enemies, the kulaks, and to steal Party members to wholesale murder.† Serious famines resulted, livestock and grain were destroyed and agriculture never fulfilled its potential. Yet most peasants remained grateful to Stalin for giving them a better standard of living. The Five Year Plans were also an essential part of Stalin’s consolidation of power. Targets were set for coal, iron and electricity production and progress was achieved through propaganda, fear, education, forced labor and socialist competition. â€Å"Stalin had declared that Russia was at least 100 years behind the industrialized world and, in setting out to modernize Russia; he was symbolically breaking with the past.† Stalin consolidated power through the achievements of the fiver year plan; new cities, dams and hydroelectric power, farm machinery, coal; steel, plastic, education and no unemployment and doctors and medicine were available. â€Å"For all the problems and hardship caused by the Five Year Plans, by 1941, Stalin had transformed Russia into a world class industrial power. This was to be vital for Russia as the war was about to test her to the extreme.† Today the role of Stalin in Russian history is the subject of bitter debate, with a number of Russian history textbooks calling him â€Å"an effective manager† and others presenting him as absolute evil dictator. Nevertheless, It can be seen that Stalin succeeded in consolidating power through many factors, mainly from propaganda, fear and terror, and the five-year plan.

Safeguarding Assets: The SOX Act Essay examples -- The Sarbanes- Oxley

What is internal control? According to University of Phoenix, Axia College Internal Control and Cash (2009), internal control is all of the related methods and measures adopted within an organization to safeguard its assets and enhance the accuracy and reliability of its accounting records. The primary reasons for internal control are help companies protect their investments and merchandise against theft from everyone, including employees and to make sure that the accounting is done correctly and truthfully. There are six principals of internal control that apply to most enterprises. Establishment of responsibility- gives only one employee responsibility over a certain task. Someone is less likely to steal if they are the only person that can be linked back to a task. Segregation of Duties- different people are responsible for related activities and record keeping for assets is kept separate from physical custody of assets. Physical, Mechanical, and Electronic control- Physical controls relate to the safeguarding of assets, examples would be safes and locks. Mechanical and...

Environmental protection Essay

Environmental protection has become a major concern for society. Admittedly, with the rapid development of economy, our environment is faced with new challenges. People increasingly attach importance to the protection. So it has been common that teachers and students discuss environmental protection in class. City planners take environmental problems into consideration as well. Factories are no exception. They begin to try reducing pollution to meet the needs of environmental protection instead of the short-term interest. The main reasons are listed as follows: firstly, the serious air and water pollution affects everyone. In addition, only by making joint efforts to protect our environment can cities survive. Last but not least, businesses to make a profit pay more attention to environmental protection for their interest in the long run. From the picture above, we can see even the communication between parents and son rely on the Internet. With the rapid development of advanced science and technology, people increasingly make full use of the Internet to communicate with each other instead of face-to-face contact. As far as I am concerned, electronic communication only partly replace face-to-face contact. Admittedly, the Internet’s being put into use widely is the inevitable result of social development. It is indispensable to our daily communication. In addition, there is no denying that the electronic communication does save plenty of time for us, we can communicate easily beyond the limit of time and place. But every cion has its two sides. People are meeting increasingly on the Internet, on television screens. Undoubtedly, it is not beneficial to the deepen the emotions and between people. We cannot express our feelings fully without face-to-face contact as well. Some body language like a hug of comfort or a kiss of love will never be express through the electronic communication. Therefore, though the electronic communication bring convenience to us, to some degree, electronic communication can never replace face-to-face contact. My View on Traffic Accidents In recent years, plenty of news about people injured or killed by cars on roads can be heard , which shows us that traffic accidents have been risen. But why are there so many such terrible events? As far as I am concerned, to begin with, it is the result of more cars are running on the roads with the development of economy. Increasing accidents follow the increasing cars. In addition, there is no denying that the road conditions sometimes can’t meet  the requirement of cars. But I think the most important one point is the lack of the safety awareness. And when being drunk, most people insist driving .As we all know, quite a lot of traffic accidents are due to the drivers who drive cars after drinking. Drunk drivers’ mind is vague, and they can’t control themselves and the car well, so they can easily get into trouble out of consciousness.

Plutarch Describes the Assassination of Caesar

The Ides of March was the day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in the year 44 B.C. It was one of the major epoch-changing moments in the history of the world.  The scene of the assassination of Caesar was pretty bloody, with each of the conspirators adding his own knife wound to the fallen body of their leader. Plutarchs Caesar Here are the words of Plutarch on the assassination of Caesar, from the John Dryden translation, revised by Arthur Hugh Clough in 1864, of Plutarchs Caesar, so you can see the gory details for yourself: When Caesar entered, the senate stood up to show their respect to him, and of Brutuss confederates, some came about his chair and stood behind it, others met him, pretending to add their petitions to those of Tillius Cimber, in behalf of his brother, who was in exile; and they followed him with their joint supplications till he came to his seat. When he was sat down, he refused to comply with their requests, and upon their urging him further, began to reproach them severally for their importunities, when Tillius, laying hold of his robe with both his hands, pulled it down from his neck, which was the signal for the assault. Casca gave him the first cut, in the neck, which was not mortal nor dangerous, as coming from one who at the beginning of such a bold action was probably very much disturbed. Caesar immediately turned about, and laid his hand upon the dagger and kept hold of it. And both of them at the same time cried out, he that received the blow, in Latin, Vile Casca, what does this mean? and he that gave it, in Greek, to his brother, Brother, help! Upon this first onset, those who were not privy to the design were astonished and their horror and amazement at what they saw were so great, that they durst not fly nor assist Caesar, nor so much as speak a word. But those who came prepared for the business enclosed him on every side, with their naked daggers in their hands. Which way soever he turned, he met with blows, and saw their swords leveled at his face and eyes, and was encompassed, like a wild beast in the toils, on every side. For it had been agreed they should each of them make a thrust at him, and flesh themselves with his blood; for which reason Brutus also gave him one stab in the groin. Some say that he fought and resisted all the rest, shifting his body to avoid the blows, and calling out for help, but that when he saw Brutuss sword drawn, he covered his face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall, whether it were by chance, or that he was pushed in that direction by his murderers, at the foot of the pedestal on which Pompeys statue stood, and which was thus wetted with his blood. So that Pompey himself seemed to have presided, as it were, over the revenge done upon his adversary, who lay here at his feet, and breathed out his soul through his multitude of wounds, for they say he received three and twenty.