Form+of+government+and+Stalin's+ideology

The USSR under the reign of Joseph Stalin (from 1922 to 1953, until his death) was a communist state. Communism, laid out in the pamphlet __Communist Manifesto__ by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, is widely defined as **a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that champions the destruction of classes and socioeconomic distinctions between people**. Marx believed that **true communism would be achieved with a revolution led by the proletariat (working class) of industrialized nations**. Communism is often contrasted with capitalism, and rightly so in the sense that communism was an attempt to negate the concept of private ownership (the impetus behind capitalism), so that alternative solutions could be found to the problems of capitalism and of imperialism. According to Marx, the only way to **solve these problems created by capitalism was for the proletariat to overthrow the capitalist bourgeoisie, so that a classless and egalitarian state would be established**.

However, as Marx never outlined in detail how a communist state would function in economic terms (as the very nature of communism implies an incompatibility with the capitalist concept of market economy, which almost the entire West followed at the time of and after Marx), many dominant branches of communism began to emerge as time passed. For example, while the father of communism could be labelled as Marxism, in Russia, **a new form of communism designed by Lenin (and hence dubbed Leninism) to fit the theories of Marx** (which necessitated the presence of a developed industry in states for communism to occur) with the state of backwater Russia in 1918 emerged (**hence the creation of democratic socialism and the concept of a vanguard party composed of professional revolutionaries).**

Joseph Stalin, arguably the succesor of Lenin in ideological terms (definitely the historical successor of Lenin) further developed Leninism **so that the form of communism during Stalin's reign came to be called "Marxism-Leninism"** (no doubt an effort by Stalin and his lackeys to psychologically link their reign to the two legends of communism). However, post-revisionist historians still argue whether Stalin's policies and ideologies were similar to those of Lenin or Marx. For example, Stalin's main economic policy during his reign since 1925 (known as "Socialism in One Country") was vigorously criticized by Trotsky (one of the main contestants to Lenin's succession) in that while Marxism-Leninism supported the spread of communism outside Europe (hence ensuring the survival, both politically and economically, of the USSR), Socialism in One Country (which basically called for the strengthening of the USSR internally) contradicted the aforementioned policies. **Moreover, even though the nearly-capitalist "New Economic Policy" (NEP) designed by Lenin focused almost entirely on industry, Stalin still felt that the USSR still lagged far behind the majority of the leading nations of the West;** hence, Stalin scrapped the NEP. Again, historians such as Robert Conquest still debate the effectiveness of Stalin's economic policies (including his increased pace of industrialization and introduction of collectivization ), arguing whether the USSR survived the Second World War because of or despite Stalin's economic policies.

In terms of political ideology, Stalinism offers very few positive points. **Never before was the use of force, terror (especially the "purges" in which all levels of USSR were affected), and extensive governmental spying utilized in such a broad manner**. For example, Robert Conquest believes that the number of Russians executed between 1937 and 1938 only (known as the Great Terror) totaled about 1704230 deaths (which is considered by many historians to be a conservative estimate), not taking into account the number of peoplesent to concentration camps (aka "gulag labor camps"). Despite the unprecedented horrifying number of casualties in Stalin's reign, some historians believe that the famed Stalinist use of force and terror was a mere continuation of Lenin's war socialism. Changhoon Ji Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism

It's good to see a distinction between Marxism, Leninism and Stalinism in this section. Please split the section up so that it is easily read by visitors. Use some subtitles and bolding or colour. It might be worth distinguishing it from Trotskyism as well.  I've highlighted in pink some terms that should be explained. This section needs some detail about the structure of the government under Stalin--maybe a diagram? Thanks for the historiography. user:jennpratt

Um Ms. Pratt about the structure of government under Stalin I noticed that it was similar (identical, actually) to the "Structure and Organization of Stalin's government"; so I decided to put that in separately