Unjustifiable Means to Modernize RussiaJoseph Stalin was a dictator who single-handedly renovated Russia, transforming it from a backward country into a superpower at the cost of millions of lives. Although his collectivization policy and Five Year Plan were effective in increasing Soviet Russia's productivity and political power, less draconian and less Machiavellian measures could have been implemented to ensure a similar, if not identical, economic outcome. Stalin viewed the kulaks as an obstacle, an unnecessary, even harmful, class to modernization. In an account published in The Land of the Soviets, they were described as saboteurs of socialism, arsonists and murderers (7). However, since this document was allowed to be published in the USSR, it is clear that the author is trying to place the blame for the dekulakization process on the kulaks themselves. Stalin did not want his elimination of the kulaks as a class to be questioned, so he rejects any protests by declaring that it is unreasonable to discuss his decree, and that the kulaks, a class founded on capitalism, are not suitable in a communist country context (4, B4). His propaganda manifesto probably greatly influenced young Stalinists like Lev Kopelev, who took part in the collectivization campaign, but was later ashamed of taking part in it (10, B2). A possible alternative would be to turn the kulaks into cash cows and impose severe taxes to fill Russia's coffers. It had already been proven by Lenin and the NEP that people are more productive when they are free to do what they want. In this way more food could have been produced and thousands of lives would have been spared. His real intention for the destruction of the kulaks was to get more government-owned land and people to work... half the paper. .....hip of the USSR. What worked in Japan during the Meiji Restoration, namely nationalism, could not have worked in Russia due to its size and ethnic diversity. Perhaps the only thing Stalin would have been forced to use if he wanted to remain in power was purges. However, the scale of the purges made it counterproductive at best. Many of the defendants at the “trials” were found guilty with little or no evidence, or with false evidence produced under torture (9). It would have been helpful if we had a document on Stalin's reasoning on the purges to see if his views are consistent with our postulate. Stalin's policies were openly harsh and largely useless. Most of what he did with brute force could have been achieved with more peaceful approaches. Millions of lives could have been spared if he had been thoughtful enough to save them.