By what methods and with what success did Stalin attempt to establish a totalitarian state after coming to power?

There are some key features authoritarian form of government: a charismatic, convincing and promising leader, state’s control over the whole society, dictatorship, propaganda, ideology and only one party in authority. Joseph Stalin won the rise to power in 1928 because he had one clear aim stated in his mind: to take control over the country and all aspects of everyday society’s life and to strengthen country by industrialization. After coming to power, Stalin started gradually implementing characteristics mentioned above, but what is important is that he had to become “the Lenin of today”, he had to overshadow his predecessor and that even if it was him who directly established a totalitarian state, he had to build it on the bases left by the Russian communist revolutionary.

We should focus here on: Gosplan, Five Year Plan, dekulakization, collectivization, assasination of people loyal to Lenin, power of propaganda, "A short story of USSR", the shift done from Marxism-Leninism. 

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Answered by Maria S. History tutor

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