Stalin And The JAC

6 Pages 1533 Words

Modern World History

Joseph Stalin led the Socialist Soviet Union in the “Revolution from Above,” a movement to centralize the government and transform society without popular participation . Because Stalin’s radical goals were vicious for the populace to attain, his legitimacy was based on the credibility of his ideological authority . In protection of that conviction, Stalin was in constant fear of competitive initiative and philosophy. Stalin subjected society and culture to strict party surveillance and control, issuing pro-socialist, xenophobic propaganda, censoring literature, art, and media, and launching anti-religious campaigns . In addition to his confiscation of religious property and denunciation of belief, Stalin was a contemptuous anti-Semite, using Jewish people as a symbol of corrupt capitalist ethic. However, in 1941, Stalin discontinued his Jewish intolerance and supported the formation of the Jewish Antifascist Committee (JAC) in 1942, contradicting practiced Stalinism and amending his previously unquestionable policy. Even after WWII, Stalin collaborated with the United States and supported the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. Soviet Jews raised great hope for future friendship and cooperation with the government . Suddenly, in 1948, Stalin changed his position again, dissolving the JAC, arresting prominent Jews, and beginning the “Black Years” of refreshed repression and anti-Semitism. Although Stalin’s drastic doctrinal oscillations were completely out of character for the immovable dictator, the changes in Jewish administration were not the only exceptions in his etiology that Stalin made from WWII to his death. The effects of Stalin’s inconstancies were inevitably destructive to his legitimacy and authority. What compelled a fanatically unyielding and calculating dictator to alter his policy -- self-preservation, miscalculation, composite guilt, or deteriorating mentality?
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