Essay Database

When Lenin died on January 21st, 1924, Stalin did everything he could to build his own reputation. He delivered the eulogy, had Lenin's body mummified, and saw to the building of a Lenin Library and a Lenin Museum. A photograph was created (a fake made by pasting two photos together) showing Lenin and Stalin sitting comfortably together. This picture was published in newspapers and displayed on posters everywhere. The attack on Trotsky continued. Stalin encouraged journalists …

…and food. By the fall of 1932, the famine was wide spread. At the same time, grain exports increased by more than ten times. Some food rotted before it could be shipped. Stalin decided the peasants had learned their lesson in 1933. From then on, they would pay taxes as a percentage of what they produced. The 1933 harvest was one of the best on record. However, scholars estimate that 14 million peasants died in result of that famine.