With Stalin, USSR became powerful industrial/ military state
Wanted to rid of "peasant society" --> Five-Year Plan
Strikes fear in his people
Secret Police; citizens spy on citizens~RUSSIA HAS BECOME A ‘TELLING’ SOCIETY. THE SECRET POLICE ACTIVELY ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO INFORM ON NEIGHBORS, WORK MATES ETC. AND MANY SUFFER SIMPLY AS A RESULT OF JEALOUS NEIGHBORS/WORKERS.
Punishments: Forced labor camps, execution
TRIES TO RID OF WESTERN INFLUENCE
Collectivization results in starvation ~MILLIONS DEAD IN FAMINE AFTER THE FAILED EXPERIMENT OF COLLECTIVIZATION. ~RUSSIA’S AGRICULTURE IS AT THE SAME LEVEL AS IN 1939 AS IT WAS IN 1928...WITH A 40 MILLION INCREASED POPULATION.
Roughly 20 million deaths due to Stalin's rule
Also many of Russia's most talented people have been murdered during the Purges of the 1930's. Anyone with talent is seen as a threat by the increasingly paranoid BEHAVIOR associated with Stalin and are killed or imprisoned (which usually lead to death anyway). The vast Soviet army is a body without a brain as most of her senior officers have been arrested and murdered during the Purges.