Stalin stated" those who fall behind get beaten. No, we refuse to be beaten! One feature of the history of old Russia was the continual beatings she suffered because of her backwardness. She was beaten by the Mongol khans. She was beaten by the Turkish beys. She was beaten by the Swedish feudal lords. She was beaten by the Polish and Lithuanian gentry. She was beaten by the British and French capitalists. She was beaten by the Japanese barons. All beat her because of her backwardness, military backwardness, cultural backwardness, political backwardness, industrial backwardness- (Internet Site 3). If Joseph Stalin had not introduced measures to rapidly industrialise Russia before Nazi Germany invaded in June 1941, Russia would have completely defeated and its army swiftly destroyed as it would not have had the military weaponry or hardware to fight back against the superior Wehrmacht. Historians argue that if Stalin, the brutal leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, had not of implemented serve industrial reforms to dramatically bring Russia from a mainly agrarian market to an industrial power, Nazi Germany would have inflicted a severe defeat on her in World War 2. Therefore, Stalin implementing his policy of "socialism in one country" led to the introduction of the Five Year Plans thereby creating a colossal Russian industry, saved the nation after a bitter war.
When Lenin died there was period of competition between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin as both had conflicting views on communist ideology. "Trotsky favoured "world revolution" The USSR should push on with the task of encouraging other proletariat masses to overthrow their capitalist masters. (Cowie, 1994, p158). Trotsky believed, continuing with the teaching of Karl Marx, a world wide revolution of Communism should take place with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics leading the way. Stalin thought that Russia was industrially too weak to carry out a proletariat revolution in other countries and if attempted the capitalist nations would destroy Russia and communism.
