2. What is something new you learned from today’s reading?
 
 

The Soviet Union pre-WWII
Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia, a country just south of Russia. He joined the Russian Bolshevik revolutionaries who were a group of people that followed communist ideals. Stalin led riots and strikes and raised money by robbing banks and committing other crimes. Soon Stalin became close to Vladimir Lenin (Soviet Russian Communist leader). In 1917, the Russian Revolution took place when the government led by the Tsars (royal family) was overthrown and the Bolsheviks came into power. Russia was now called the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin was a major leader in government.

After Lenin's death, Stalin took over as the dictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin decided that the country should move away from agriculture and become industrialized. He had factories built through the country. The Soviet government controlled the economy and took over all farms, limiting the amount of food. Stalin would not supply food in some areas of the country to starve those that he no longer wanted to live. Stalin was responsible for the deaths of over 20 million of his own people! Stalin had secret police who spied on people. He had anyone that did not agree with him killed. Stalin put anyone who could be seen as an enemy in the gulags (prison camps) without a trial, where they faced hard labor and terrible conditions.
Stalin attempted to rewrite history books about himself, renamed cities in his name, put up numerous statues of himself, and had songs and art dedicated to him. Throughout his rule he ordered millions of people he thought were against him to be killed or put into slave labor camps. At the start of World War II, Stalin formed an alliance with Adolf Hitler and Germany. However, the Germans made a surprise attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. In order to fight off the Germans, Stalin joined the Allied countries. After World War II, Stalin set up governments in the Eastern European countries that the Soviet Union had "freed" from Germany. These governments were under control by the Soviet Union. This started the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States.