Catherine Ma
IDP4U1
Thesis: Synopsis
THESIS: Joseph Stalin unleashed the most evil1 of all leaders of the twentieth century. His malice was illustrated
through his needless murders during the Great Purge, his terror from the labour camps, and his famine caused
through the Holodomor.
ARGUMENT 1: Stalin`s immorality can distinctly seen with the Great Purge.
1. Throughout the Great Purge, Stalin purposely instilled a reign of fear against the Soviet citizens.
• “[Stalin] personally checked the list of the victims and decided who would live or die.”2
• The scope of victims became completely irrational, including “[o]rdinary workers, peasants, anyone
who had secretly visited a foreign country were caught up in the ever-widening net.”3
“In all, some 20 million people were arrested, 7 million shot, and millions more died or languished
in camps”4
•
2. To extort false testimonies, Stalin cruelly subjected individuals to endless physical abuse.
• Those accused were “kept in isolation, beaten, tortured, [and] their families threatened, to extort a
false confession. Interrogations were carried on uninterruptedly day and night, for 16 to 24 hours,
with the prisoner denied sleep. Those that did not confess were shot or just disappeared.”5
• Stalin, however, believed the level of torture was inadequate, demanding more from his ministers.
3. When his victims were not guilty, Stalin intentionally made it difficult for their innocence to be
proven.
• “The Stalin leadership expanded the definition of anti-state activities and placed a heavier burden
of proof on the defendant.”6
• “90% of what was said by those put on trial was a fantastic conglomeration of lies. They confessed
to being agents of the Gestapo, spying for foreign governments, conducting sabotage, etc.”7
4. As Stalin felt that they challenged his power, the Soviet government and military were eradicated
• “Of the 1225 delegates at the 'Congress of Victors', 1108 were arrested, most of them were
executed by the NKVD or died in camps, and of 139 Central Committee members, 98 were shot.”8
• “Two-thirds of all officers from the rank of colonel upwards were liquidated. The loss of experienced
officers [had] a disastrous effect on the army`s ability to defend the nation.”9
ARGUMENT #2: Stalin, in addition, cruelly devastated the Soviet Union through his labour camps.
1. He needlessly sentenced innocent Soviet citizens to these labour camps throughout his reign in power.
• In the USSR, “a person could be arrested for even using the word 'famine' or 'starvation'.”10
“[D]eaths of both political prisoners and common criminals from overwork, starvation, and other
forms of maltreatment are estimated to have been in the million during Stalin`s years in power.”11
•
2. Stalin, disregarding the preciousness of human life, used labour camps to increase his political power.
• “Stalin swept the leadership of the larger groups – Yakut, Buryat, Khakass – off to labour camps
beginning in the 1930s.”12
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Evil is being defined as unjustifiable behaviour, such as the use of violence and cruelty, which unnecessarily threatens and harms another individual.
Woods, Alan. Fifty Years After the Death of a Tyrant: Stalin - the Executioner of Lenin's Party. 5 Mar. 2003. 12 Jan. 2011.
<http://www.marxist.com/History-old/stalin_death2.html>.
Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler, Joseph Stalin (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987), 63.
Harold Shukman, Stalin (Great Britain: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1999), 84.
Alan Woods. Fifty Years After the Death of a Tyrant: Stalin - the Executioner of Lenin's Party. 5 Mar. 2003. <http://www.marxist.com/Historyold/stalin_death2.html> (accessed 19 May 2011).
Pamela A. Jordan, Defending Rights in Russia. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005), 35.
Vadim Rogovin, Stalin's Great Terror: Origins and Consequences. 28 May 1996. <http://www.wsws.org/exhibits/1937/lecture1.htm> (accessed
10 Jan. 2011).
Harold Shukman, Stalin (Great Britain: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1999), 84.
Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler, Joseph Stalin. (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987), 68.
“Holodomor History.” Ukrainian Famine/Genocide 1932-33. 2011. <http://www.holodmorct.org/history.html> (accessed 22 Mar. 2011).
Gulag (New York City: Columbia University Press, 2010) in Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 6th ed.
<http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=39010142&lang=en-ca&site=src-can> (accessed 20 May 2011).
Mike Edwards, “A Broke Empire.” National Geographic, Mar. 1993, 14-16.
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“Minorities suffocated under the Soviet system, especially in the 1930s and 1940s, when Joseph
Stalin was dictator.”13
3. The poor living conditions of these camps, coupled with Stalin`s refusal to allow the innocent victims
to be saved, reflected his cruelty.
• Crowded sleeping areas promoted the spread of easily preventable common illnesses and diseases;
however, Stalin chose not to offer relief from them.
“Many camps earned the reputation of being 'death camps' because of high mortality rates due to
the amount of labour exacted, and the brutal conditions under which it was performed. Hunger,
brutality, fear, and death were companions of the forced labourer."14
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4. The working conditions of the labour camps were reflective of Stalin`s immorality as well.
• Although the Soviet Union industrialized at an unprecedented rate, the human cost was immense.
• “[For the White Sea-Baltic canal], over 100,000 prisoners equipped with pick-axes, wheelbarrows
and hatchers - dug a 227-kilometre long canal... Tens of thousands died in the process."15
ARGUMENT #3: Stalin`s evil was illustrated via his destruction of the Soviet Union with the Holodomor.
1. Numerically, the Holodomor was a tragedy because its death toll of victims - especially children.
“[S]tarvation reached its peak in winter-spring of 1933 when 25 000 persons died every day.”16
“Children compromised one-third of the [10 million] Holodomor victims in Ukraine. Large
numbers of children were orphaned and became homeless.”17
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2. Stalin disregarded human life to “teach a lesson through famine”18, illustrated when he forced towns
into starvation, cruelly punished those who refused, and then exported the collectivised supply.
• “Stalin sent to the countryside industrial workers, party leaders, army units, and the secret police...
Villages that resisted 'voluntary' association were surrounded by army units and forced to
surrender. Resisting villages were destroyed, their inhabitants killed or deported.”19
"In 1932-33 grain exports were 1.8 million tonnes. That was enough to feed more than five million
people for one year."20
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3. He banned victims from emigrating the areas worst-affected by the Holodomor.
• “[Regions] was isolated by armed units so that people could not go in search of food to the
neighbouring Soviet regions where it was more readily available.”21
“The law enforcement authorities forcibly sent over 186,000 people back to their homes to face
starvation."22
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4. Stalin embodied evil by refusing internal and external relief efforts.
• “Almost all the starving Ukrainians could have been saved with the USSR`s strategic grain reserve,
which contained at least 1.5 million tons.”23
• He declined offers of humanitarian assistance from other nations and organisations.
5. Despite the conditions of the Holodomor, Stalin felt the victims were experiencing inadequate terror.
• His slogan, "'he who does not work, neither shall he eat'... let [those individuals] perish"24 promoted
indifference.
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Ibid, 3.
"Gulag: Forced Labor Camps Online Exhibition." OSA Archivum. Open Society Archives, 22 Sept. 2003.
<http://www.osaarchivum.org/gulag/txt1.htm> (accessed 25 May 2011).
Ibid.
Anna Alekseyenko, Holodomor: Ukrainian Genocide in the Early 1930s. (S.I.: Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, 2007), 5.
Ibid, 2.
“Holodomor History.” Ukrainian Famine/Genocide 1932-33. 2011. <http://www.holodmorct.org/history.html> (accessed 22 Mar. 2011).
Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler, Joseph Stalin. (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987), 54.
Michael Ellman, Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932 – 33 Revisited (Routledge, 2007), in Europe-Asia Studies,
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1933.pdf (accessed 19 May 2011): 684.
Anna Alekseyenko, Holodomor: Ukrainian Genocide in the Early 1930s. (S.I.: Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, 2007), 3.
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Ibid, 9.
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Ibid, 10.
Michael Ellman, Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932 – 33 Revisited (Routledge, 2007), in Europe-Asia Studies,
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1933.pdf (accessed 19 May 2011): 665.
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