Cult of Personalities: Part 2 The Not So Great Joseph Stalin
I think most historians that study the Soviet Union and its rise have a fascination with Joseph Stalin. He was the leader of the Soviet Union between 1929 until his death in 1953. He was born in 1878 as Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili in a small town in the country of Georgia (not the state of Georgia). I bet a lot of people would say that he acted like he was beaten as a child, well, that could not be more accurate. His drunk father would come home regularly and beat him. He first attended seminary eventually being kicked out, but he would take part in workers protests and criminal activity such as stealing. One could probably argue that he was a good child in his youth. Also, he looks like he just walked out of San Diego, California in 2014.
I digress, after being released from a work camp in Siberia after helping fund the Bolshevik Party, he was appointed by Lenin to serve on the first Central Committee of the party. He moved up the ladder fairly quickly, even taking responsibility of an army. He was in command of the Soviet vanguard invading the Lviv front in the Polish-Soviet War. He was ordered to make a coordinated attack with General Tukhachevsky against the city of Warsaw, but he refused these orders. Tukhachevsky was to lose the Polish-Soviet War at the Battle of Warsaw because of his insubordination. Stalin, who had an ego that was incomparable to anyone at this time, wanted the glory for taking Lviv (even though this had little strategic value). After having to fight through criticism and a power-vacuum after Lenin's death would come out as the dictator of the Soviet Union in 1929.
This is when Stalin made his move to make a cult of personality around himself; cities were renamed after him (Stalingrad), and the regime mythologized his role in the revolution. Many great books and songs were written about his "great" deeds. Many of these deeds included failed five year plans; he wanted to collectivize all farms within the Soviet Union leading to millions of deaths. He wanted the country to become a modernized superpower with a focus on industrialization. He also became very paranoid so he instituted the "Great Purge" even though there was nothing great about it. He killed many within the Communist Party he saw as a threat. You better believe he killed the man that almost took Warsaw, Tukhachevsky. He even went as far as to kill the exiled Trotsky in Mexico. He starved out the Ukraine during the Holodomor. This man-made famine was led by Stalin, it is debated today because some call it a genocide.
Stalin still craved for more power; he made a non-aggression pact with the devil himself, Hitler to invade Poland. Stalin would take one half and Hitler would take the other half; however, this would not be the last you heard from Poland. Needless to say, Stalin failed to prevent Hitler from invading the Soviet Union and suffered greatly between 1941-1942. The Soviet Union would turn the tide of war at the Battle of Stalingrad. After defeating the Third Reich, Stalin presented himself as a great strategist and general to the people of the Soviet Union. He was just lucky to have General Zhukov fighting for him. He took advantage of the situation after the world by instilling Communist governments in various eastern European countries. He gave Kim Jung Il the go ahead to invade South Korea and antagonized the western powers. His ego grew and many within his own party held much disdain for him. Which is why his successor, Nikita Krushchev started the process of de-Stalinization (the destruction of his myth).
What is scary to learn today is that Stalin still has many supporters and historical revisionists that see him in an all too positive light. An opinion poll put out by the Washington Post indicated that 46% of respondents viewed Stalin in some sort of positive light. Attempting to look at it from their perspective, they see him as the man that made Russia into a super power. I think it is unfortunate that when we see a time of great transition, we attribute that transition to the man in power not the all the components making it that way. Russia had many people, a collective group that greatly wanted to bring down a monarchy that ruled over them with an iron fist. They only replaced the monarch with a dictator. Thousands of people died, and most importantly historians always need to keep in mind that the Soviet Union was its own imperialist power. They installed Communist governments across eastern Europe and into other continents. Stalin was no god, but an angry boy who taking out his aggression towards his father. Just as an interesting fact, he had a terrible personal life. He had a son captured by the Germans in World War II and refused to take him back and a daughter that ended up committing suicide. He had many other children whose lives he ruined with his personality. A devil himself that was needed to destroy his twin brother. The only statue that should remain of this man is a pile of rocks.
Great Book Recommendation
-Stalin by Stephen Kotkin
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| Stalin as a hipster |
I digress, after being released from a work camp in Siberia after helping fund the Bolshevik Party, he was appointed by Lenin to serve on the first Central Committee of the party. He moved up the ladder fairly quickly, even taking responsibility of an army. He was in command of the Soviet vanguard invading the Lviv front in the Polish-Soviet War. He was ordered to make a coordinated attack with General Tukhachevsky against the city of Warsaw, but he refused these orders. Tukhachevsky was to lose the Polish-Soviet War at the Battle of Warsaw because of his insubordination. Stalin, who had an ego that was incomparable to anyone at this time, wanted the glory for taking Lviv (even though this had little strategic value). After having to fight through criticism and a power-vacuum after Lenin's death would come out as the dictator of the Soviet Union in 1929.
This is when Stalin made his move to make a cult of personality around himself; cities were renamed after him (Stalingrad), and the regime mythologized his role in the revolution. Many great books and songs were written about his "great" deeds. Many of these deeds included failed five year plans; he wanted to collectivize all farms within the Soviet Union leading to millions of deaths. He wanted the country to become a modernized superpower with a focus on industrialization. He also became very paranoid so he instituted the "Great Purge" even though there was nothing great about it. He killed many within the Communist Party he saw as a threat. You better believe he killed the man that almost took Warsaw, Tukhachevsky. He even went as far as to kill the exiled Trotsky in Mexico. He starved out the Ukraine during the Holodomor. This man-made famine was led by Stalin, it is debated today because some call it a genocide.
Stalin still craved for more power; he made a non-aggression pact with the devil himself, Hitler to invade Poland. Stalin would take one half and Hitler would take the other half; however, this would not be the last you heard from Poland. Needless to say, Stalin failed to prevent Hitler from invading the Soviet Union and suffered greatly between 1941-1942. The Soviet Union would turn the tide of war at the Battle of Stalingrad. After defeating the Third Reich, Stalin presented himself as a great strategist and general to the people of the Soviet Union. He was just lucky to have General Zhukov fighting for him. He took advantage of the situation after the world by instilling Communist governments in various eastern European countries. He gave Kim Jung Il the go ahead to invade South Korea and antagonized the western powers. His ego grew and many within his own party held much disdain for him. Which is why his successor, Nikita Krushchev started the process of de-Stalinization (the destruction of his myth).
What is scary to learn today is that Stalin still has many supporters and historical revisionists that see him in an all too positive light. An opinion poll put out by the Washington Post indicated that 46% of respondents viewed Stalin in some sort of positive light. Attempting to look at it from their perspective, they see him as the man that made Russia into a super power. I think it is unfortunate that when we see a time of great transition, we attribute that transition to the man in power not the all the components making it that way. Russia had many people, a collective group that greatly wanted to bring down a monarchy that ruled over them with an iron fist. They only replaced the monarch with a dictator. Thousands of people died, and most importantly historians always need to keep in mind that the Soviet Union was its own imperialist power. They installed Communist governments across eastern Europe and into other continents. Stalin was no god, but an angry boy who taking out his aggression towards his father. Just as an interesting fact, he had a terrible personal life. He had a son captured by the Germans in World War II and refused to take him back and a daughter that ended up committing suicide. He had many other children whose lives he ruined with his personality. A devil himself that was needed to destroy his twin brother. The only statue that should remain of this man is a pile of rocks.
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| Soviet Union in 1953 |
Great Book Recommendation
-Stalin by Stephen Kotkin
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