Stalin Was More Effective Than Any Other Ruler of Russia...

Stalin was more effective than any other ruler of Russia in the period 1855 – 1964 in dealing with opposition. How far do you agree? During the second half of the 1920s, Joseph Stalin set the stage for gaining absolute power by employing police repression against opposition elements within the Communist Party. The machinery of coercion had previously been used only against opponents of Bolshevism, not against party members themselves. The first victims were Politburo members Leon Trotskii, Grigorii Zinovev, and Lev Kamenev, who were defeated and expelled from the party in late 1927. Stalin then turned against Nikolai Bukharin, who was denounced as a right opposition, for opposing his policy of forced collectivization and rapid†¦show more content†¦Often situated in cold and remote regions, they housed millions of prisoners, especially in the late 1930s. Conditions were inhumane and death rates were high for the prisoners. They were still heavily used after 1945 though fell into disuse after Stalin’s death. Narodniks were socially conscious members of the middle class who aimed to achieve better conditions for the working classes. They tried to convert the people to socialism however this failed as they were persecuted by the state and quickly decimated. Land and Liberty relied on terrorism and murder. They evolved into the People’s Will group which assassinated Alexander II in 1881. Started around Lavroks ideals and frustration around the failure of the Narodniks. The state then exiled, killed and imprisoned them. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing Alexander III was political violence. Not only his predecessor, Alexander II, but also other leading political figures across Russia during the 1870s had been assassinated. People’s Will was a terrorist organisation that hoped to bring political change to Russia through revolutionary violence. They attacked leading members of local and national government. The assassination of Alexander II was merely the culmination of a nationwide campaign of violence. The immediate cause of revolution was the demonstration in St Petersburg in January