Joseph Stalin & Mao Tse-Tung
Josef Stalin is perhaps the most praised, reviled and recognised dictator in the modern world. His influence as such has reached across the globe, affecting leaders and citizens alike. Many of his techniques have been adopted by prominent leaders, today and in the past. One such example is fellow socialist Mao Tse-tung. Mao can fairly be regarded as the principal architect of the new China. His Marxist philosophies and strong leadership formed one of the strongest nations in the world. However, the similarities between Stalin and Tse-tung reach further than these surface facts. With the death of Vladimir Lenin, the struggle for authority within the USSR narrowed to a contest between Trotsky, the brilliant leader of the Red Armies during the Civil War, and Stalin, general secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin eventually emerged as virtual dictator of Russia. In order to consolidate his position, he gradually built up a cult of personality around himself, one which would eventually (and literally) let him get away with murder. According to composer Dimitri Shostakovich, Stalin was "an ordinary, shabby little man: short, fat, with reddish hair. His face was covered with pock marks and his right hand was noticeably thinner t
While some of their efforts laid the basis for future growth, such as the dams, many things produced in the backyard factories of the communes were useless. But because Stalin insisted on unrealistic production targets, serious problems shortly arose. With the greatest share of investment put into heavy industry, widespread shortages of consumer goods occurred. 'Why, then, do the portraits represent him as something he is not, as something greater and more radiant than he could ever be?' It was his own insecurity at first - new to command, he needed the people to look up to him as something strong, solid and dependable, something greater than the run-of-the-mill politicians. "With the advent of the Cultural Revolution, to the veneration of the Thought of Mao Tse-tung must be added veneration of the man himself with Mao being transmogrified into a God-like figure standing above both people and party. So the Five-Year Plans were executed. The Army became responsible for art. What the cult succeeded in doing was to negate any control over Stalin by the Party; everything now became justified. 43-4) It was obvious to Stalin that Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union were far behind all of the major powers - America and Britain, for example. The first called for rapid industrialization of the economy, with an emphasis on heavy industry. As effective as this portrayal was on Stalin, so threefold did Mao receive its benefits of unilateral control within the party (MacFarquhar J. The Government and Politics of Communist China, pp. Forced collectivization of the remaining peasants (minus the mysteriously deported kulaks), which was often fiercely resisted, resulted in a disastrous disruption of agricultural productivity and a catastrophic famine in 1932-33. Food production fell, and to avoid a famine the CCP was forced to give private plots to the peasants, who they encouraged to grow food to sell in the market.
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