Skip to Main Content

IB History Internal Assessment (IA)

Ephraim Stillberg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

"Josef Stalin (1879-1953), was dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), also known as the Soviet Union, from 1929 until 1953. He rose from bitter poverty to become ruler of a country that covered about a sixth of the world's land area.

Stalin was an early leader of the Bolshevik (Communist) Party, which seized power in Russia in November 1917 (October by the old Russian calendar). V. I. Lenin led this revolution, which is known as the October Revolution, and set up the world's first Communist government. Stalin later depicted himself as Lenin's chief assistant in the revolution, though his role had been relatively minor. He used his position in the Party’s bureaucracy to destroy his rivals and become dictator in the years following Lenin's death in 1924.

As dictator, Stalin oversaw huge economic, social, and cultural changes in the Soviet Union. He transformed the Soviet Union from an agrarian (agricultural) society to an industrial and military powerhouse with a largely urban, well-educated population. The Soviet Union played a key role in the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II (1939-1945). However, Stalin’s reign was also a time of great suffering. His program of rapid industrialization included the forced transition to collective agriculture (government control of farms), which led to the deaths of millions of Soviet peasants. Stalin ruled by terror during most of his years as dictator. He had little personal charm and could be brutal to even his closest friends. He executed or jailed many of those who helped him rise to power, probably because he feared they might threaten his rule. Under Stalin, millions of Soviet citizens were executed or exiled to prison camps and settlements in remote parts of the country. He oversaw the spread of Soviet-style Communism to 11 other countries. His style of government, with its rigid, state-run economy and political terror, became known as Stalinism and continued to influence many governments even after his death.

The Soviet people had cause to hate Stalin, and much of the world feared him. Few dictators have demanded such terrible sacrifices from their own people. Nevertheless, by the time of his death in 1953, Stalin enjoyed the admiration and loyalty of much of the Soviet population and of Communists in other countries. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, strongly criticized Stalin’s brutal crimes and his self-glorification. But many people in the Soviet Union remained loyal supporters of Stalin and his system. The last years that Stalin ruled the Soviet Union were marked by the Cold War, a period of intense rivalry between Communist and non-Communist nations. Stalin died in 1953. Today, he remains a controversial figure in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union."

Sokolsky, Mark. "Stalin, Joseph." World Book Advanced, World Book, 2021, www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar528360.

Stalin on JSTOR

Click the Research Databases tab to learn how to make a JSTOR account.

Kuromiya, Hiroaki. “Stalin and His Era.” The Historical Journal, vol. 50, no. 3, 2007, pp. 711–724. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20175118.
SHEARER, DAVID. “Stalin at War, 1918-1953: Patterns of Violence and Foreign Threat.” Jahrbücher Für Geschichte Osteuropas, vol. 66, no. 2, 2018, pp. 188–217. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44968765.
Gudkov, Lev, et al. THE ARCHETYPE OF THE LEADER: ANALYZING A TOTALITARIAN SYMBOL. Edited by Thomas De waal, Carnegie Moscow Center, 2013, pp. 29–46, THE STALIN PUZZLE: Deciphering Post-Soviet Public Opinion, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep21100.8.
Corbesero, Susan. “History, Myth, and Memory: A Biography of a Stalin Portrait.” Russian History, vol. 38, no. 1, 2011, pp. 58–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24665382.
Kotkin, Stephen. “When Stalin Faced Hitler: Who Fooled Whom?” Foreign Affairs, vol. 96, no. 6, 2017, pp. 48–71. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44823821.
Sullivan, Charles J. “Breaking Down the Man of Steel: Stalin in Russia Today.” Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne Des Slavistes, vol. 55, no. 3/4, 2013, pp. 449–480. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23617372.

The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union by John R. Matthews
From the beginning of the Russian Revolution to the end of communist rule and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the story of one of the twentieth-century superpowers is told.
The Rise of the Dictators, 1920-1939 by Peter Banyard
An in-depth account of how such men as Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco came to power.
Soviet Leaders from Lenin to Gorbachev by Thomas Streissguth; Alexander M. Haig (Foreword by)
Surveys the history of the Soviet Union through the exploits and achievements of the seven men who were its leaders from 1917 to 1991; Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Life under Soviet Communism by Charles W. Carey (Editor)
Soviet communism attempted to reform virtually every aspect of life in the former Russian Empire. This volume describes the way Soviet citizens worked, lived, studied, and defined morality while coping with the enormous social and economic changes taking place in their society.
The Collapse of the Soviet Union by Paul A. Winters (Editor)
A collection of 21 brief essays, most by U.S. writers, chronicles the disintegration of the Soviet empire from the reforms of the 1980s to the dramatic events of 1991, with projections for the future of the newly independent states.