Joseph Stalin Essay Example for Free

Joseph Stalin Essay One man that has gone down is history as one of the most cold-hearted, ruthless killers goes by the name of Joseph Stalin. Stalin, originally born with the name Iosif Dzhugashvili, was born in Gori, Georgia on December 21st 1879. At the time, the town where Iosif Dzhugashvili was born and raised was plagued by a lot of street violence. After demonstrating his devious way of thinking and his will to come to absolute power, Iosif Dzhugashvili eventually adopted the nickname â€Å"Stalin† from the Russian word â€Å"steel†. Once he received his new nickname, he used it as a pseudonym in his published works. Many do not know the story of Stalin’s younger years and the effect it had to the way he carried himself as a dictator. After careful speculation, it is clear to see that the future dictator and killer was very coldhearted from a very young age. From a very young age, Joseph Stalin was subjected to a lot of violence. Some of the most prominent violent events that affected the young boy started with his mother. Ekaterina Shubnaya in her piece â€Å"Prominent Russians: Joseph Stalin† states that â€Å"Some sources, however, claim that, as a strict and religious woman, she frequently resorted to physical punishment, which she believed was an integral part of child rearing. Stalin’s relationship with his mother was strained and he didn’t even attend her funeral in 1937† (1). Here, we see that violence was a natural way of Stalin’s mother to raise the youngest son of her 4 children. She would have never thought that this violence would have led her son to become one of the most violent human beings to ever live. The psychological effects of violence that Joseph Stalin went through from a young age followed him for the rest of his life. After further research, it is seen that even as a young boy, Joseph Stalin felt very lonely and unloved. The reason for this was because even his father, caused him pain psychologically and physically. Ekaterina Shubnaya continues by explaining that â€Å"Josephs father, Vissarion, a shoemaker, was heavily addicted to drinking and had a drunken habit of beating up his wife and son. Stalin recalled getting so mad at his father that he once almost killed him by throwing a knife at him† (1). His rough childhood only continued when at the age of twelve, two horse-drawn carriage accidents left his left arm permanently damaged. At the time, Joseph also caught small pox which left his face permanently scarred. The scarring on his face was a source of ridicule by the other children. As Joseph Stalin got older, he rose to power thanks to a man named Lenin. Lenin lead the Russian Communists to power in November 1917 and remained in power. With the help of Lenin, Joseph Stalin began to act ruthless and careless of others. When Lenin became too sick to lead the country in a proper way, Stalin took over and went against Lenin’s ideas and ways of leading. Noticing that Stalin wasn’t showing the characteristics of a loyal and respectful leader, Lenin wrote a testament in which he stated that he suggested Stalin be removed. John Simkin, in his piece â€Å"Joseph Stalin† shares the testament written by Lenin. It states â€Å"Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, has concentrated enormous power in his hands: and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution. I therefore propose to our comrades to consider a means of removing Stalin from this post and appointing someone else who differs from Stalin in one weighty respect: being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, more considerate of his comrades(2). However, Lenin died before any actual could be taken and Joseph Stalin became the new leader of the Soviet Union. Now as the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin became very paranoid and did not trust anyone. He went against anyone that disagreed with him and had them executed. He executed journalists, and anyone else who had contact with him and who he disliked. Leon Trotsky was a man of a lot of power in the Soviet Union but Stalin made him step down from his position to gain even more power. John Simkin tells us that â€Å"In 1936 Nickolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Krestinsky and Christian Rakovsky were arrested and accused of being involved with Leon Trotsky in a plot against Stalin. They were all found guilty and were eventually executed† (3). The execution of these people and of many others was clear evidence that Joseph Stalin was killing people not because they were committing crimes or doing anything bad, but because he personally didn’t trust them and killed them from pure intuition and impulse. The absurd truth about Joseph Stalin is that he killed his own people. He killed people in his own country and in his own government. The people that helped him rise to power were the people he did not trust and who he had executed or made to disappear without any explanation given. John Simkin explains to us that â€Å"In June, 1937, Mikhail Tukhachevsky and seven other top Red Army commanders were charged with conspiracy with Germany. All eight were convicted and executed. All told, 30,000 members of the armed forces were executed. This included fifty per cent of all army officers† (3). With all these executions, people lived fearful of Stalin and did not dare test his patience. The violence against his own people is direct evidence of the psychological effects that the beatings from his parents had on Stalin. Since the people who supposedly loved him, beat him, it became second nature for Joseph Stalin to do the same with the people of his country when he rose to power. It is said that Joseph Stalin has killed over 20 million people during the time of dictatorship but there were even more killed during World War II. Palash Ghosh in her piece â€Å"How Many People Did Joseph Stalin Kill? † writes that â€Å"an amoral psychopath and paranoid with a gangster’s mentality, Stalin eliminated anyone and everyone who was a threat to his power – including (and especially) former allies. He had absolutely no regard for the sanctity of human life†(1). There were another 20 million people killed during World War II amounting to a total of 40 million Soviet troops and civilians killed. The ruthlessness Joseph Stalin showed had become vividly present with his own family. Stalin had a son named Yakov who was an artillery lieutenant in the 14th Howitzer Regiment of the 14th Armored Division. Yakov refused to withdraw when German forces overran his men near Smolensk. Stalin had the expectation that no Soviet soldier was expected to be captured. He preferred his troops to commit suicide than to be captured by the opponent. This rule also applied to his son, who was captured. Brenda Haugen, writer of â€Å"Joseph Stalin Dictator of the Soviet Union† describes that â€Å"German authorities proposed a trade. They expected the Soviet leader would welcome his son’s return. A message was sent to Stalin that said the Germans would release Yakov if the Soviets freed a German officer. Stalin refused. ‘I cannot do it,’ Stalin said. ’War is war’†(11). This decision cost Yakov his life who was later believed to be killed or may have commited suicide. He died in April 1943 after running into an electric fence surrounding the camp where he was held. It is said that Joseph Stalin never felt any remorse for his son’s death and told people he had no son named Yakov. It is a clear indication that Stalin didn’t have a special bond with his family or any type of value for human life in itself. It seems that Stalin grew to be a coldhearted man who didn’t value anyone but himself. Brenda Haugen continues by stating that â€Å"In times of war, most leaders would find it difficult to justify offering special treatment to their own children. How could they spare their own childrens lives while others died fighting for the same cause? But Stalin was different than other leaders of his time. Not only did he refuse to provide special treatment to his family, he also didn’t value human life†(11). The ruthlessness of Stalin is astonishing that he would let his son be killed without any type of remorse. There’s an old saying that says that family comes first but this saying doesn’t seem to apply to Joseph Stalin’s way of thinking. Even though Stalin was one of the most well-known villains in history, he was still a very mysterious man. There is very little known about his childhood and his family. The records that have been recorded are not concrete because as Stalin gained power, he had the tendency to make things be the way he wanted them to be and no one could question him. This being said, some facts of his life seem to be produced by his fictional events created by him and not what may have really happened. Scott Ingram writes in his piece â€Å"Historys Villains Joseph Stalin† that â€Å" Another reason Stalin’s life remains shadowy is that he ordered his biography to be rewritten several times. With each of these rewrites, older records were destroyed. The more powerful Stalin became, the more he was able to take credit for things he had not done. His Communist biographers were forced to revise twentieth-century Russian history books to go along with Stalin’s orders. The aim was to present to the world the most flawless possible account of the great leader†(8). These lies brainwashed people into thinking that Stalin was a different person than who he really was. He made people see him as a perfect leader and not as a person who was killing the people that supported him. In conclusion, it is very easy to see that Stalin was influenced by his childhood experiences to become the person he was. The ruthless leader took the experience of the beatings his parents gave him and in a way beat his own country when he rose to power. He was and still is the most ruthless leather to ever live. He used fear to keep people controlled and to make people do exactly what he wanted them to do. He had people in such fear that before every speech, people were afraid to be the first to stop clapping because they’d be killed. The audience would clap for over 10 minutes in fear of being the first one to stop. This type of control is what let Joseph Stalin do anything he wanted without having anyone tell him it is wrong or to stop him from doing it. During his last days, he fell into a comma and in his last moments, in an attempt to keep living, he cursed everyone near his death bed and finally died. Joseph Stalin was a ruthless dictator and human being who had no type of remorse for anything he ever did.

The Civil War Essay -- essays research papers

The Civil War During both the civil war and civil war reconstruction time periods, there were many changes going on in the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation, as well as legislation such as the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, was causing a new awakening of democracy; while the renouncing of secession by the South marked a definite triumph for Nationalism. As well, the government was involved in altercations of its own. During reconstruction, the legislative and executive branches eventually came to blows over the use of power. The nation was being altered by forces which caused, and later repaired, a broken Union. The first of these "forces", was the expansion of democracy. As early as 1862, Lincoln was taking a major step in that direction. On September 22, Lincoln announced the freeing of all slaves in areas not in Union control. Although the proclamation did not free all slaves everywhere, it was the action that would push Congress to pass the thirteenth amendment in 1865. The amendment, ratified later in 1865, stated that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." It seemed democracy had triumphed by giving freedom to slaves, but the amendment was not complete. It only stopped slavery, and made no provisions for citizenship; therefore, blacks were still not considered United States citizens. The fourteenth amendment was the democratic expansion that fixed that problem. Originally passed to "put a number of matters beyond the control or discretion of the president," the ame ndment also made "All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . citizens of the United States." It also provided that, "No State shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." This not only gave new meaning to black men's freedom, but it also gave a new and broader meaning to citizenship. Those drafting the amendment hoped that the broadness of would cover "unanticipated abuses", yet, the general phrasing was only an advantage to abusers. There is no listing of the "privileges or immunities" offered to U.S. citizens. In fact, there is not even a clarification of what rights a "citizen" has. These generalities, and the abuses that went with them, prompted ... ...civil rights bill. The bill would have given blacks a considerable new amount of freedom from discriminatory southern actions. Johnson took his stand against the radical Republicans in congress when the fourteenth amendment was first passed. While Congress required ratification of the amendment as part of reconstruction, Johnson denounced the amendment and advised states not to ratify it. "the battle between the executive and legislative branches settled into a predictable rhythm: Congress would pass a bill, the president would veto it, Congress would override it." This "rhythm" continued until Johnson violated the Tenure of office act, which required senate approval to remove presidential cabinet members. Johnson violated the act by removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment and in May 1868, Johnson was impeached by the House. The senate, by one vote, did not remove him from the office of president. Neither side had won that battle for power; Johnson had lost his ability to be an effective president, yet it had been established that impeachment could not be used as a congressional political weapon.

Key success factors for Airtel using Porters value chain Analysis Essay

The methodology of the report is carried out by observing and analyzing various secondary sources. The various secondary sources are study of value chain model in detail from various books and different net sources.. Other than these , study of key factors in the growth of airtel industry. Agter study of key factors, a complete knowledge of industry is taken from various secondary sources. (1. 1)Profile of the company Bharti Airtel Limited, which is also known as Airtel, is an multinational telecommunications services company of India which is headquartered in New Delhi. It operates in 20 countries and some of them are south Africa, Asia, channel countries. Airtel has GSM network in all countries in which it operates, providing services such as 2G, 3G, 4G depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world’s third largest mobile telecommunications company by subscribers, with over 275 million subscribers across 20 countries as of July 2013. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 192. 22 million subscribers as of August 2013. Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base. Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It offers its telecom services under the â€Å"airtel† brand, and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve Cisco Gold Certification. And it also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the ‘minutes factory’ model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been copied by several operators. And its network base stations, microwave links, is maintained by Ericsson and Nokia. Vision: 1. Become the most loved brand by 2015 2. Multiplatform services in telecom, enterprise and digital television, unified under brand â€Å"airtel† 3. Amongst the Top 100 of Most Valuable Global Brands 4. No. 1 service brand in India CHAPTER – 2 (2. 0) Effects of value chain analysis: Many organizations do not achieve the profits they anticipate by using incorrect methods or models to determine the true costs of products and services. This failure to correctly assess the costs associated with business not only affects the profit margin, but the organizations competitive advantage as well. In order to assess whether the organization is failing to realize optimum resource allocation, the organization should look at the methodology first popularized by Michael Porter titled the Value Chain Analysis (VCA). â€Å"VCA seeks to define the entire chain through which goods are supplied to a customer†. The VCA can be a powerful tool in increasing an organization’s competitive advantage; by correctly pricing products and assessing the true costs of materials and labour, organizations can align the improvements in efficiency and quality with its objectives. The value chain includes all the activities involved in product making. It is a useful tool to measure the value created for each activity in the process of product creation. It is a part of a firm’s strategic planning to arrange these activities in a way that the total value, the value that buyers are willing to pay, exceeds the total cost. According to Porter , a company can create value through a cost advantage or product differentiation. The activities in the value chain are not independent. Linkages may exist between activities. In fact, one process may affect the cost and performance of the others. Linkage can exist between primary activities, as well as, between primary and support activities. Therefore, competitive advantages can also be derived from the linkages between activities. Airtel seeks to create value through diversification by moving across businesses that share both operational and corporate relatedness. With this approach, it expects to achieve high resource sharing and consequently, significant cost reduction. It looks at operational relatedness since a number of its businesses operate across similar technologies and thus the platform for a given product can be used directly for extending the service from a completely new product. As an example, the cables for a telephone connection provided by Airtel can be used to provide broadband service to the customer without any significant change in infrastructure. The skills required from the technicians are also not very different and thus economies of scale are quite possible (2. 1) The Added-value Chain: According to McPhee and Wheeler , focusing on the firm’s internal core activities is not sufficient to generate value in today’s firms. The authors propose an added-value chain model that includes a set of expanded business activities from different business models and a redefinition of value that incorporates brand, reputation, and relationship-based value drivers of the firm. In the added-value chain model, the definition of value incorporates profit margin and intangible assets like leadership quality, innovate capability, brand equity and competences in strategic-alliance development. This new value definition gives to the firms the ability to evaluate how their strategies affect both â€Å"hard† and â€Å"soft† assets of the firms . This model is incomplete for example in finding and exploring non-linear value opportunities. Chapter – 3 (3. 0) Key success factors: Airtel has its presence in all 23 circles of the Indian telecom industry. Some of its key success factors are: Brand name: Airtel is a well known name throughout the world. So due to its internationalization strategy It is earning a huge amount of profit. One Step Ahead: Airtel always believe in staying one step ahead of its rivals and it achieves this by doing multidimensional expansion. And this thing can be achieved only by a stable and visionary management. Business Process Outsourcing: Airtel always follows the strategy of outsourcing of all the non core activities and it keep on focussing on core activities. And it is also known as the first mobile company to outsource everything except marketing and sales. The outsources infrastructure and I. T operations from I. B. M, Nortel and Wipro and communication networks from Nokia and recently with Cisco and Servion to provide hosted contact centre services. Innovations in VAS: Airtel has separate value added services for consumers and business enterprises. And other services such as Airtel online desktop for Airtel broadband users which provides free online space for storing, also editing and sharing. It also provides free software and updates on rental basis. M-Commerce: Airtel has also idea for introducing m – commerce as one of its value added service. Because still 80 to 85 percent of population is looking for financial transactions using mobile technology. So it’s a good step. Network: Airtel packs a punch when it comes to network coverage. The aim of Sunil Bharti Mittal wasto creates a network which is clear even when in the basement. Airtel has done just that and beyond. (3. 1) Strategies of Airtel: Mobile to mobile payment: This is the first mobile-to-mobile payment option, which enables Airtel customers and ICICI bank visa cardholders to pay for their purchases with their Airtel mobile phones. Joint venture: Airtel realised that the role of mobile telephony must surpass the conventional school of thought in India. Ever since internet banking has kick started in India, it was just a matter of time before mobile banking started playing the role of a constant revenue stream. The only drawback is the lack of infrastructure in India when it comes to cashless purchase To target around 55 million farmers fertiliser cooperative of India came in with a joint venture with airtel. This venture will help the farmers with the help of telecommunication services. And it will also help in giving the vital information to the farmers. And this is an innovative way of targeting the lower part of the pyramis whereas competitiors are not doing so. Hiring strategy: Airtel has a history of hiring some of the high level officials from other companies to be an integral part of their business. AIRTEL IN WIRELESS IN INDIA: If we talk about wireless network airtel is at no. one position in India. It has a large customer base in comparison to other networks. So, from wireless they earn a total of 30% of revenue from market share. If we will see from the figure, airtel has 187 million customers in india which is the largest. And this proves that value chain plays a very important role in maintaining a profit margin. from this we came to know that the technology advancement , which is a secondary activity and operation , inbound logistics of primary activities is quite strong. FIG – (1) – WIRELESS SUBSCRIBERS Value chain model of Airtel If we talk about value chain model of Airtel, first we will start with some key factors and we will fit them in a particular step of value chain , so that we can identify how it is giving extra value to the firm. So we will discuss each step in brief one by one. 1) BRAND NAME: Airtel is a well known name and is recognised throughout the world. It has its presence in various countries. If we talk through clear facts it is present in twenty countries and this brand is addressable to around 1. 8 bn population. It has its presence in different corners of world and is a major player in Africa country. It is considered as the provider of best services. It is also number one service brand in india. so because of having an image of respectful brand it is having a huge profit and they are having a profit margin. So its become an important part of value chain as it is providing value to the firm. So we can put this in technological advancement as because of good provider of services and technology it becomes a favourable brand.

Struggles and Setbacks of Developing Democracies in Latin...

The concept of patrimonialism in Latin American countries is a subject that has been studied and researched by some of the world’s most renowned sociologists and political scientists. In this literature review I will use the information gathered from several of these researchers and combine their theories and ideologies in an attempt to understand why many Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, and Bolivia have continued to remain oppressed throughout history and stand on a slippery slope towards democratic reform of their national governments. The impeded development of democracy in these countries is much derived from Spanish empirical forms, reigning from the colonial era in which Spanish conquistadores†¦show more content†¦Evaluating progress from an economic standpoint In order to successfully evaluate the transition of an authoritarian regime towards a more democratic form of government, we would not only look at the implications of power and rule of government policy, but as well the economic values of these authoritarian states, in doing this we could find that the abuse of government resources and funding are extremely detrimental to the democratic progress, in which the question could be asked, what are some of the main economic mechanisms causing the deprivation of economic growth in these authoritarian states? The suboptimal economic growth in Latin America suggests that even after open-market policies have been implemented; Latin Americas share in world output has remained stagnant at roughly 6% since the 1970’s. Some experts have suggested that corruption, excessive debt, political instability, low investment in human capital, and emigration account for low levels of economic prosperity in Latin America (Lizardo, R. Mollack, A. V. 2009). The findings of this study would lead us to believe that these detrimental governmental actions would appeal to the school of thought aforementioned, in where the leader of a state is placing his priorities above those of the citizens of the state. The states control over economic earnings, and over-abusive consumption contributes to the negative growth economically, of these states,Show MoreRelatedEssay on Motivations and Causes of Terrorism3275 Words   |  14 PagesMotivations and Causes of Terrorism Despite the end of the Cold War and the faltering beginnings of a peace process in the Middle East, terrorism still remains a serious threat in many countries, not surprisingly, given that the underlying causes of the bitter ethnic and religious struggles which spawn terrorism pre-dated the Cold War, and most of these conflicts remain unresolved. While the former Soviet Union sponsored terrorism on an opportunistic basis, the idea that all internationalRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesand Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. 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