Charisma Leader-Joseph Stalin Taking Advantage

Charisma leader-Joseph Stalin

Taking advantage of the political situation that accosted the country during the first years of the 20th century, Joseph Stalin found the perfect ground to achieve power through his charismatic charm and special ability to communicate with people and convince them to join his group of followers. The same charisma that had first made him an important piece of the leading party and won him a favored position in the political atmosphere of the era would propel him into taking command as succeeding leader after Lenin's death.

Before the revolution, Russia was a rather feudal territory, having its economy-based mostly in agriculture. There were no industries, and rich owners of land, exploited their peasants. Russia was an empire, ruled by a czar, who held absolute power to make undisputed decisions. 85% of the population lived in extreme poverty, cold, hunger and illness. Under those conditions the peasant class started to organize a rebellion against an unjust oppressive power. They were divided in two groups: those that wanted a capitalist country, like the rest of Europe, and those that wanted a socialist government. Although he wanted to promote his image as a saver of the people, his personal ambitions where always on first place, and those mainly limited to his own greed for absolute power. Lenin himself had stated that Stalin was not the best character to continue his socialist ideas, since he was too harsh, ambitious and selfish. However Stalin managed to convince people that he worked for the benefit of the entire nation and promised great progress with his new political plans.

He had set the target of bringing Russia to a higher industrial level and transform it into a political power to expand socialism beyond the western border and all over the world. Like many other leaders he won the love of his people by making grand promises that they were wishing to hear. At a time when the country was recovering from a very bad political and economical weakness, after a revolution and war, Stalin brought up bright ideas that promised to improve the future. He offered plans for industrial reforms that would assure equal work and pay for everybody. He decided to develop industrial progress to help improve agriculture and make the people work harder, as he knew this was the only way to make socialism work. He leaned on the Red Brigade as a tool to control and dominate the people and made concentration camps where opposers where arrested and sentenced to hard work. He used fear and threat to dominate the people, setting very hard laws against those that attempted to disagree with his ideas. Dissidents where persecuted, locked up or executed. Stalin consolidated a very severe regime, not tolerating any kind of opposition to his officialism. He made his image an obligatory national cult.

The result of this was a total brainwash of population and the setting of a whole new mentality for the entire country. This brought a robotization of the masses, turning them into workers that abandoned personal vision in order to follow the imposed regime of socialist ideas. It was positive for his government and the goals he had set, as it gave him absolute power and control. On the other hand it was negative for the people as it stopped progress and freedom of mind, freezing many brilliant personalities from developing.