Stalin DBQIn the early 1920s, Stalin took power and became the leader of Russia. As a result, Russians either became fond of Stalin's policies or completely despised them. Stalin's Five Year Plans made many people focus on economic prosperity rather than the fact that the Five Year Plan was harming the military. The experience of many lost lives, forced labor camps, lack of food influenced Russians' negative opinion of Stalin. Having different classes in society, many Russians had different views. For the peasants, times were hard mainly because of famine, so they were not supportive of Stalin and his policies; while the upperclassmen had a more optimistic view of everything that was happening. Stalin's policies had a positive impact on the Russian people and the Soviet Union and also had a negative effect, causing famine among the Russian people. Documents two, three, five and eleven illustrate the positive aspects of Stalin's policies. The second document, taken from the textbook History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): A Short Course (1948), recounts all the achievements of socialism in Russia. Some of the achievements caused joy among the Party, workers and collective farmers, the Soviet intelligentsia and honest citizens of the Soviet Union. This document celebrates the demolition of the enemies of the Party, the consolidation of ranks and the classless socialist society (Doc. 2). In the third document, An Economic History of the USSR (1969) by Alec Nove shows the positive impact of five-year plans through a graph. The chart lists increases in coal, oil, cast iron, steel, electricity, and woolen cloth. Coal increased from 35.4 (million tons) in 1927 to 128 in 1937. Oil increases...... middle of paper ......asking you Party to pay attention to camp violence from Kemi. They said they were once in very good health until they were sent to the camp and have been in very poor health ever since. This call to the Party that innocent people must work under violence and terror shows how horribly the concentration camps treated everyone (Doc. 7). Stalin's five-year plans and policies affected people in all different ways, some farmers were in the middle of starvation, others were treated negatively and some had an optimistic view of Stalin's plans. Stalin's five-year plan contributed significantly to the growth of the economy, but at the same time it harmed farmers. Although Stalin provided considerable public support, his rule, which began in the 1920s, led to the highest number of murders in European history. The Soviet Union ended up surviving for another thirty years.