Joseph Stalin
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'''Joseph Stalin''', born '''Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili''', was a Georgian revolutionary who murdered and schemed his way to the leadership of the [[Soviet Union]], an entity that he helped to establish with the other leading Bolsheviks. | '''Joseph Stalin''', born '''Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili''', was a Georgian revolutionary who murdered and schemed his way to the leadership of the [[Soviet Union]], an entity that he helped to establish with the other leading Bolsheviks. | ||
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| + | His pseudonym, "Stalin", means "Man Of Steel." A good way to shorten one's career was to "accidentally" change the T for an R or an S.<ref>"Writers or typesetters could die for one misplaced letter, as Andrei Tarkovsky's film ''Mirror'' suggests unforgettably. Substituting one consonant made Stalin 'pisser' or 'shitter' (ssalin, sralin), Stalingrad could be set to read 'Stalin is a reptile' (Stalin gad). Printing 'Lenin had kittens' (okotilsia) instead of 'Lenin went hunting' (okhotilsia) was punishable." Donald Rayfield, ''Stalin And His Hangman''</ref> | ||
==World War Two== | ==World War Two== | ||
Revision as of 13:34, 25 April 2010
Joseph Stalin, born Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, was a Georgian revolutionary who murdered and schemed his way to the leadership of the Soviet Union, an entity that he helped to establish with the other leading Bolsheviks.
His pseudonym, "Stalin", means "Man Of Steel." A good way to shorten one's career was to "accidentally" change the T for an R or an S.[1]
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World War Two
He was responsible for the purges and power consolidations that left the USSR militarily weakened when Nazi Germany invaded on June 22, 1941.[2] Fortunately "General Winter" stepped in to save his butt. Prior to World War II, Stalin had many of his best generals and spies shot.[3] (He felt like he didn't have anything to worry about, because he and Hitler were like brothers or something.) Between the Russian winter, Russian mud, Hitler's incompetence[4], and the fact that Russians are bull-headed enough to do anything, the USSR managed to survive and beat back Hitler's armies. (Stalin had all of the POWs the Germans had taken shot or sent them to Siberia as spies.[5])
Starving the peasants to feed them
He has been accused of purposefully causing one of the worst[6] famines of modern times: the Ukrainian Famine of 1927. The former Soviet Republic of Ukraine, now Ukraine. has considered formally accusing Russia of attempted genocide, since it seemed that Stalin was trying to starve many of them to death. (Most historians do not accept this view, but many in Ukraine believe it anyway.)[7]
And following a common trend in which a certain portion of the population waxes nostalgic for the reign of a dictator ("when Mussolini was in charge, the trains ran on time"), there are tons of people in Russia who say (quite publicly!) that Russia needs to "bring back Comrade Stalin"!
Communism in the West and Stalin
Once upon a time, most Communist parties in the West were openly Stalinist. After Khrushchev denounced Stalin, many of them fell apart under the internal dissension.
El poemtry de la belle Guiseppe
He was also known for his poetry during his youth, which was written in Georgian. A selection was published under the pseudonym "Soselo" in the Georgian newspaper Iveria ("Georgia") in 1895, some of which were later reprinted in anthologies of Georgian poetry.[8]
Yeah, he was an atheist
Which, in the minds of certain people, proves that all atheists are potential mass-murderers. He also went to seminary school before becoming a Communist, but they rarely condemn seminaries using the same "logic".
Stalinism
Stalinism, Uncle Joe's legacy to the world, is a ruthless approach to communism that relies heavily on an all-powerful supreme leader aided by a large body of secret police who "encourage" neighbor to inform on neighbor, purges of any potential adversary to the supreme leader (with emphasis on the comrades who helped him achieve his position in the first place), the imprisonment and murder of intellectuals (liberals), and the occasional mass murder of entire portions of the population.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ "Writers or typesetters could die for one misplaced letter, as Andrei Tarkovsky's film Mirror suggests unforgettably. Substituting one consonant made Stalin 'pisser' or 'shitter' (ssalin, sralin), Stalingrad could be set to read 'Stalin is a reptile' (Stalin gad). Printing 'Lenin had kittens' (okotilsia) instead of 'Lenin went hunting' (okhotilsia) was punishable." Donald Rayfield, Stalin And His Hangman
- ↑ Great Soviet Experiment, p. 309-311
- ↑ For the generals, See the Soviet Experiment, p. 314. The intelligence service purge is mentioned in Allen Dulles's Craft of Intelligence.
- ↑ Soviet Experiment, p. 316
- ↑ ibid., p. 324
- ↑ Competitors include Winston Churchill's Great Bengal Famine of 1943 or Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward (both had higher body counts).
- ↑ Ibid., p. 224-228
- ↑ Montefiore, Simon Sebag, Young Stalin, London: Phoenix, 2008, pp. 53-66