Stalin's Legacy

What was Stalin's legacy for the USSR?

Stalin's legacy was considerable for both the USSR itself and its position and status in the world.

What was Stalin's legacy for the USSR in the world?

Stalin's legacy for the USSR as a world power was considerable:

• ❖ The USSR was a superpower with nuclear capabilities that the West feared so much they created NATO, a defensive military alliance.
• ❖ He had enabled the USSR to industrialise so that its economy now rivaled the American economy.
• ❖ Eastern Europe had been taken over, converted to communism and the countries had become satellite states to the USSR.
• ❖ The USSR had become so powerful it was able to offer aid to other countries such as North Korea and North Vietnam in an attempt to spread communism.

What was Stalin's legacy for the USSR at home?

Stalin's legacy for the USSR was considerable:

• ❖ His economic policies industrialised the USSR, but failed to provide basic consumer goods for his people.
• ❖ He created a personalised dictatorship in which opposition of any kind was eliminated using a cruel system of terror, Gulags, and censorship controlled by the secret police.
• ❖ He encouraged a return to traditional values. Policies on the family, women and education all pushed traditional values.
• ❖ People's life experience in the USSR depended on who you were and where you lived. Peasants in the countryside suffered the worst living standards with low pay, a lack of access to services and no freedom of movement. Top Party officials, in comparison, lived in luxury.
• ❖ Stalin was seen as a heroic leader because of his cult of personality, but also feared because of the system of terror.