Compare And Contrast Stalin And Mao Zedong

The early-mid 1900’s led to the rise of some of the world’s most notorious and dangerous leaders: Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, and Mao Zedong of China. Known for their ruthlessness and radical reform, these two dictators created a long-term legacy of both progress and struggle during their reigns. Stalin’s path to power occurred in Russia within the Soviet Union, serving as the Secretary of the Communist Party and an important assistant to the controlling Lenin. Utilizing his position, he got many of his companions into powerful governmental positions and was able to gain political support until he eventually took over after Lenin’s death in 1924. Mao Zedong, over in China, was a school teacher during the majority of his years prior to the May Fourth Movement. Nationalism was finally growing in China after many students, teachers, and workers were furious with the government’s weak response to the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, which did not give them promised territory. After studying countless examples of communist literature like that of Karl Marx, Zedong praised the Communist Government in the Soviet Union and formed China’s own Communist Party. This group gained immense support from the people, eager for change, and Zedong officially led China into its later civil war against Taiwan’s nationalists. Although both Stalin and Zedong operated in …show more content…
Stalin infamously consisted his rule over the Soviet Union through communism, brisk industrialization, propaganda and censorship, and mass killings of anyone who conspired against. Mao, correspondingly, enforced communistic views, quickly sanctioned collectivisation and industrial growth, manipulated his people into complying with his modifications to the law with disinformation, and forming groups to kill resistance to his position of the