ial ways caused the deaths of tens of millions of his subjects. Stalin chose to be a professional revolutionary; he robbed banks to fill the Bolshevik treasury. Stalin was not a huge influence in the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, but rose in the ranks and in 1922 was made the General Secretary of the Communist Party. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin promoted himself as his political heir and in 1928 had Leon Trotsky exiled because he believed he was a political threat. "August 1936, 16 political opponents of Stalin executed" (Chronicle) "January 1937, 17 more political rivals executed" (Chronicle).
             By the late 1920's, Stalin became the dictator of the Soviet Union and forced peasants to collect agriculture. "Millions of people died from starvation, forced hard labor or mass migrations" (Kohn 113). These were lives of the over-worked, and of those who opposed. Stalin introduced an industrialization program, which made the country's military strong, but the welfare of the citizens was greatly depleted. The population suffered greatly during the Great Terror of the 1930's, when Stalin and his henchmen had purged the Party of "enemies of the
             ...