Enemies of the People under Stalinism

Alexey Vinogradov; Albert Pleysier

doi:10.5771/9780761874102

Summary

Stalinism is the name that is used to identify the political and economic systems introduced and implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union from the time that Stalin became the supreme power in the Russian Communist Party in 1927 to his death in 1953. During those years, Stalin’s economic policies turned the Soviet Union into an industrial giant with all industries under State management and control. The State was, Stalin and the Party. Stalin’s policies also brought about the collectivization of almost all the agricultural land in the Soviet Union. Each collective farm was regulated by the State. Stalin was a committed Marxian socialist who believed that it was possible to transform the Soviet Union into a Marxian socialist society without assistance from abroad. It was to be a society without the presence of Christianity or any other religious faith.

People in the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin’s policies were

arrested by Stalin’s feared secret police organizations. The victims were either exiled from the Soviet Union, detained in city prisons, sent to prison labor camps located in Siberia or executed. No Soviet citizen was immune from arrest. This was evident during periods of time when Stalin purged the Russian Communist Party, the only recognized political party in the Soviet Union. The citizens who were declared guilty of the charge or charges brought against them by the State were labeled” enemies of the people.” Family members, close relatives and friends of the victims would suffer serious consequences as well.