Joseph Stalin & Mao Tse-Tung essays

Joseph Stalin & Mao Tse-Tung essays Josef Stalin is perhaps the most praised, reviled and recognised dictator in the modern world. His influence as such has reached across the globe, affecting leaders and citizens alike. Many of his techniques have been adopted by prominent leaders, today and in the past. One such example is fellow socialist Mao Tse-tung. Mao can fairly be regarded as the principal architect of the new China. His Marxist philosophies and strong leadership formed one of the strongest nations in the world. However, the similarities between Stalin and Tse-tung reach further than these surface facts. With the death of Vladimir Lenin, the struggle for authority within the USSR narrowed to a contest between Trotsky, the brilliant leader of the Red Armies during the Civil War, and Stalin, general secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin eventually emerged as virtual dictator of Russia. In order to consolidate his position, he gradually built up a cult of personality around himself, one which would eventually (and literally) let him get away with murder. According to composer Dimitri Shostakovich, Stalin was an ordinary, shabby little man: short, fat, with reddish hair. His face was covered with pock marks and his right hand was noticeably thinner than his left. He kept hiding his right hand. He didnt look anything like his numerous portraits. This raises a question easily answered. Why, then, do the portraits represent him as something he is not, as something greater and more radiant than he could ever be? It was his own insecurity at first - new to command, he needed the people to look up to him as something strong, solid and dependable, something greater than the run-of-the-mill politicians. As things progressed, however, Stalin managed to achieve the status of a demi-god. While at first it was he that craved security, now the public looked up to him as their protector. The public figure was at once stern and frien...