Wesern Civilization Unit VII Assessment Essay Questions

Running Head : Western Civilizations (Unit VII

Western Civilizations (Unit VII ) Assessment Essay Questions

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What social transformation was Stalin trying to bring about in the Soviet Union in the 1930s ? Why do you think he felt obligated to carry out the Great Purges of the late 1930s

The kind of social transformation that Stalin was trying to bring about in the Soviet Union in the 1930s was the creation of the New Soviet Person (Hoffmann , 2003 . He believed that socialist values must be

instilled in all members of society alongside the implementation of the policies of industrialization , urbanization and modernization . Stalin 's Soviet Union , therefore , was a Soviet version of the (Enlightenment impulse to remake and improve society (Hoffman , 2003 . Human nature itself must be tailored to accommodate the demands of socialism

For Stalin , this could only happen if the Soviet Union isolated itself from the rest of the world (Chambers , Hanawalt , Rabb , Woloch , Grew and Tiersten , 2007 . Without outside interference , the country would be able to develop an environment that is conducive to the emergence of the New Soviet Person . Consequently , Stalin implemented measures that would supposedly transform the Soviet Union into a self-reliant industrial power . The First (1928-1932 , Second (1933-1937 ) and Third (1938-1942 Five-Year Plans all attempted to collectivize agriculture and push for industrialization , with disastrous results . Famine ensued as the government seized grain from peasants to feed industrial workers and to export in to raise payments for imported machinery that was...