Stalin DBQAround the early 1920s, Stalin took power and became leader of Russia. As a result, Russians either warmed to Stalin's policies or absolutely despised them. Stalin's five-year plans caused many to focus on the thriving economy rather than whether the five-year plan was hurting the military. The experience of many lost lives, forced labor camps, and limited food supplies influenced Russians' negative opinion of Stalin. Having different classes in society, many Russians had different points of view. For the peasants, times were hard especially due to the famine, so they were not in favor of Stalin and his policies; where the upper classes had a more optimistic view of everything that was happening. Stalin's policies positively affected the Russian people and the Soviet Union and also had a negative effect by causing famine for the Russian people. Documents two, three, five and eleven exemplify the positive aspects of Stalin's policies. The second document, taken from the textbook History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): Short Course (1948), recounts all the achievements of socialism in Russia. Some of the successes were the joy of the party, of the workers and collective farmers, of the Soviet intelligentsia and honest citizens of the Soviet Union. This document celebrates the demolition of the Party's enemies, the consolidation of the ranks and the classless socialist society (Doc. 2). In document three 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, pig iron, steel, electricity and woolen cloth. Coal went from 35.4 (million tons) in 1927 to 128 in 1937. The increase in oil...... middle of paper ......we ask the Party to pay attention to the violence in the Kemi. They claimed that they had once been very healthy until they were sent to the camp, and have been in very poor health ever since. This appeal to the Party that innocent people have to work under violence and terror shows how badly the concentration camps treated everyone (Doc. 7). Stalin's five-year plans and policies affected people in all the different ways that some farmers found themselves. of famine, others were treated negatively, and some had an optimistic view of Stalin's plans. Stalin's five-year plan largely helped the economy grow, but at the same time it hurt farmers. Although Stalin was extremely supportive of public faces, his reign, starting in the 1920s, led to the highest number of assassinations in European history. The Soviet Union ended up surviving another thirty years.