Under the Soviet Union, the Communist Party rose after World War 1 when Russia had to withdraw from the war due to internal struggles. Each ruler had a different idea of what a communist country should look like but Stalin’s tactics were the most brutal and oppressive. His personal distrust of the people around him led to purges and while he did manage to accelerate the USSR’s economic standpoint, it came at a high cost leading to widespread starvation. While essentially the communists planned to destroy the bourgeoisie to create a classless society, and thus equality, the implementation of such a plan was poor and gave the opportunity for a mere secretary of the party to rise to totalitarian rule. While World War I was coming to an …show more content…
With policies such as containment and the Red Scare in the US, an official war was avoided, but an arms race greatly escalated tensions. The death of Stalin in 1953, led to the rise of Khrushchev, who began to Destalinize. Despite this, tensions on the international scale, led to continual oppressive regulations in effort to compete with the West. The West feared the spread of the sphere of influence of communism, so they tried to contain it and tensions arose over control of the Third World. Polarization of the Cold War was evident through the formation of NATO and in reaction the Warsaw Pact. The Cuban Missile Crisis almost began a war, however, the Helsinki Accords created some peace on the international scale. Still, internally, especially in satellite states, there was heavy censorship and oppression in an effort to come ahead on the international race for superiority with the United States. While the communist regime later ended under Gorbachev, the effects of the totalitarian rule of Stalin was lasting. Although originally an effort to make everyone equal, it created poverty and allowed the leaders to enforce oppressive