Stalin Man Of Steel Essay
Sarajevo School of Science and Technology
Political Science and International Relations
Fall 2010
Moder political History – PS 120
Mark Wheeler/ Maja Savic
STALIN – man of steel:
fanatical revolutionary and energetic statesman or only a psychopath and a dictator?
AMINA ŠARIĆ
Decembar, 2010.
Stalin – man of steel: fanatical revolutionary and energetic statesman oronly a psychopath and a dictator?
I. Introduction
Joseph Visarionovich Stalin is one of the most complex figures of 20th century . The man who was able to concentrate all the power of the Russian people and tradition, to create and manage the first socialist country in the world, and to transform it from a modest agrarian country into a global …show more content…
superpower, still after the 50 years, remains an enigma.
Country wich he led and represented for many years was personified in his dictatorial, charismatic figure. The Bolshevik revolutionary, with a modest Georgian origin has succeeded with the state security apparatus, harsh measures of repression and exploitation of camps on a large scale, to fully control the construction of the Soviet social, political, educational and cultural reality based on the utopian desires and piles of dead. In just three decades, he has managed to swich Russia from a wooden plow to the nuclear age, offsetting the progress that other states have accomplished for centuries. The price that was paid for it; 20 million lives lost to Stalin was just a statistic..
Often identified with the name, which he himself elected, “The man of steel“, Stalin was a dictator of the worst kind.
Drawing its power from the will of the people, by forcing the greatest sufferings, then thought out propaganda, promising a better tomorrow, he was a cruel, calculated statesman and politician. Although without no real military skills, with his maneuvers and determination, he succeeded in post war negotiations, outplaying Churchill and Roosevelt, he defended the Russian capital and managed to march the Red Army in Berlin, and overthrown Hitler from the throne. Caucasian banditry and political violence, combined with a ruthless ideology, enabled Stalin rule of the Kremlin and the creation of Soviet Union in his own distorted picture, that eventually completely changed world …show more content…
order.
However, that same statesman and politician, certainly could not rise above the intellectual mediocrity that has determined him from the very beginning.. He could not understand that by modernizing society and stimulating mass education, in fact, contrary to his wishes, he was poisoning the spirit of nation and prepareing Russia to break with Stalinism. In perpetual fear of real and imagined enemies, he lived a life marked by paranoia and a mistrust to everyone. Stalin that the people celebrated as the Father of the nation and the biggest geniuses in the history of mankind, there lived a reclusive and lonely living, having just trust in authority and power that he had in its hands. Although his crimes are still remembered, the figure of Stalin and his achievements have quickly fallen into oblivion.
Part I: unhappy childhood - as a trigger of cruelty and brutality
Born as Joseph Džugašvili (he later added in his name Visaorionović and Stalin, which means man of steel), born on December 21.
1879, in Gori (Georgia) [1], as a child of peasant shoemaker, Stalin had no predisposition to grow into one of the biggest enigmas and personalities of the 20th century. His childhood was marked by poverty and a bad attitude by his father towards his son. As a result of unfulfilled ambition in shoemaker craft, inability to provide food for his family, and to rise in a reputable member of the middle class,Stalin's father, Besarion Džugašvili became rowdy and a drunkard. Besarion eased his dissatisfaction in excessive enjoyment of alcohol (famous Russian vodka) or the relentless abuse and neglect of his son, who usually did not deserve it, made the boy dark and cruel, like his father. Due to such procedures, Stalin was already at an early age developed a certain animosity towards authority. From his father's cruel insensitivity he defended himself with suspicion, distrust, vigilance, caution, lying and endurance, which will later on come in handy in war, as he learned stratagem early in his life. On the other hand, Stalin's mother, Ekatarina Gelazde, had the endless patience and devotion of the typical oriental peasant. She was not angry at her husband, and focused all her love to her only son. However, such relationship did not satisfy Stalin. After Stalin's father left them, Ekatarina, which found in the church her only consolation in her
unhappy life, gave Stalin to the church school (seminary) in his early age, hoping that he will succeed in life and become a priest, thus rise above the modest the level of his parents. Modest aspirations of a mother many years later have been realized in the cruellest form. Plain Georgian boy, who diligently and smoothly remembered material default, has grown into an 'almighty Russian emperor and dictator ", which, together with some personalities, is a personification of pure evil, not only of the 20th century, but also the whole of human history. Nevertheless, he never forgave his mother for giving him to the seminary. Because of his beliefs and ideologies, that he was the only one in whom to trust, and that religion should be banned and all the churches destroyed, ashamed of pious old lady, he hardly had any contacts with her. His ignorance is so far gone that he had refused to attend her funeral years later.
II. Rebellious youth, robbery and road into revolutionary
The charismatic, darkly unpredictable and fickle boy of dubious origin and shaken education, possessed a remarkable talent and abilities. Although he initially was harassed and ridiculed because of his humble origins and wrinkled face, Soso (as he was at that time called by colleagues) has quickly learned how to confront his abusers. He exploited their weaknesses and ridiculed them. Insisting on the brain, as opposed to physical strength, he has quickly managed to become a leader among his peers.
He was one of the best students of religious school, so he got a scholarship to study theology at the Orthodox Seminary in Tibilsu. By entering the seminary 1895th year, Stalin himself was encouraged by the prospects that were created before him. However, it is still in school in Gori, that he began to grow awareness of the existence of social and national inequalities for which he will later become a revolutionary and rebel (Deutscher, I. 1967, Stalin - a political biography, 25). Life in the seminary,which according to Deutscher (1967, 25), was a strange institution, seminary, half nurseries Russification, and in half barracks, was especially for poor students, very difficult. At the same time, the seminary has been an important center and focus of political opposition, which will shape some of Stalin's most important socialist attitudes. In the first year of study he came into contact with the opposition in Tibilisu. Years that followed, were marked by his growing revolt in the rigid life of the seminary and the ideas that it has propagated. Because of such attitudes, in 1898 he joined the clandestine socialist group called Mesame Dasi (third group) which advocated a moderate socialism in where Stalin for the first time came into contact with Marxist ideas. As Stalin often explained later, in his interviews, he became a Marxist because of his social position (child of a worker), gross intolerance and discipline which he was exposed during college days, and the atmosphere in which he lived, which was permeated with hatred against the Tsar and his followers. Although he himself later considered a historical personality, and a superman, the majority considered Stalin a dwarf with little or no contribution to the ideology of Marxism (Overy, RJ, dictators - Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, 2005., XXVII). However, due to the position which he enjoyed, and in spite of ignorance, Stalin was the one who determined the parameters of public political debate, rejecting ideas and views with which he disagreed with, thus shaping the ideology of Marxism.
His revolutionary path, after the membership in Mesame Desi, and expellation from the seminary, Stalin continued the 1899th, joining an illegal Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party in Tsibilisu. Because of the revolutionary activities of Mesame Desi, and especially the celebration of May 1.1901, which the imperial authorities prevented twenty days prior to, most members of this organization were arrested. But not Stalin. As one of the few remaining, free-followers, Stalin got the opportunity to organize a celebration and he was promoted in the hierarchy of the socialist movement. The celebration that marked the beginning of the open revolutionary movement in the Caucasus and Stalin's life has brought change. Although he previously lived on the edge of the conspiracy and the legal existence (rarely anyone actually know his real name and date of birth) [2], after this celebration, he was in constant flight from the authorities. However,with this act he transformed into a devoted member of the underworld, a member of the godless order of knights errant and the pilgrims of the revolution, whome life is providing service to the party. Luck that followed him during the first arrest, stopped in 1902, after forming a secret organization that would lead the socialist propaganda in the city of Batumi, on the Russian border with Turkey, which was rich in oil, in which Stalin was sent as a Social Democrat member of the committee, was arrested for the first time and sent to prison in the cold prisons of Siberia. It will be the first of many arrests. [3] During the following decade, Stalin, who at that time was known by the nickname Koba[4], he was arrested and expelled more than 6 times, partly because of his revolutionary activity, partly because of his terrorist attacks and robberies. His last prosecution occurred in 1913 and lasted until 1917. Prison brutality during all these years, reinforced in him the hatred against the imperial order, but also build up a sharp, poignant and full of attitudecontempt toward all types of opponents. All of these will serve him well , in the days of the revolution that followed, and his rise to power.
Part Two: The rise to power - out of the shadow of Lenin's ideology and the way to "superhuman"
In the 20th century Russia has entered with a 300-year-old absolute rule of the Romanov dynasty (of 1613).. However, the revolutionary events, interwoven with the socialist and Marxist ideas, and great losses that Russia suffered during World War I, caused a wave of unrest across the country. There was a woven dissatisfaction among workers and students, and more frequent occurrence of famine. It felt that Russia faced a big change and it was soon to come.
The situation on the political and social scene has already begun to complicate with the schism of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party, which occurred 1903 at II. party congress in Brussels. The split was caused by different conceptions about orientation and organizational structure of the Social Democratic Party. Orthodox and drastic Bolshevik faction, led by Vladimir Lenin,believed that the party must be coherent, internally tight and connected, and in the highest degree centralized, and whose members may be only those members who are constantly and regularly participate in its work. Contrary to this view, the minority led by Menschevik current, whose leader was Mart, they would involve all the supporters into the party, regardless of whether they were intellectuals or not. Congress ended a vote of leadership to the ranks of Bolsheviks. These two factions marked the emergence of the gap, which will in the coming years split the Russian Social Democrats from top to bottom..
Although, due to his exile in Siberia, he was not an active participant of the split of the party, Stalin was immediately attracted by Lenin's rhetoric and attitude. Lenin considered revolutionists those members who were persecuted, agitators and organizers, who lived miserably and that the revolution for them was a profession. Stalin in this description immediately recognized himself. He, by his temperament belonged to the "rough" strain revolutionaries: any tenderness and indulgence, no matter in what form, was alien to his character and not be counted in the characteristics of his personality (Deutcher, 1967., 69). By Deutscher (1967, 69), Stalin, Lenin's ideas in accordance with, saw himself as Atlas, which will bring whole humanity on his back. However, although his profile and attitudes fit perfect revolutionary, it will take more than 10 years until Stalin becomes Lenin's closest associate and a memeber of the narrowest peak of the party. Although in 1912 he entered into the composition of the Central Committee[5], and became a representative of the national leadership of the Bolsheviks, Stalin will long be registered as only a operative and the executive, whome is been confided the secret business or matters of technical nature. As Deutscher states(1967, 113), Stalin was promoted to serve as the strong arm of the Central Committee, and not his brain or heart. [6]
II. 1917 Revolution - Stalin's affirmation on the political landscape of Russia
In the last years of Tsarist Russia, Stalin's actions were more peaceful than ever before or after. More than 3 years spent in exile in the north-eastern parts of Siberia, in the field Kureyke, suppressed, after long years of revolution, Stalin's fighting spirit. Living thousands of miles from the stage of political action and events, it seemed that the socialist idea, which he so long fought, defeated, or at least withheld, and that is what within him cause frustration and a desire for solitude.
Unlike Stalins, the social life of Russia of those years was before boiling. At the end of 1916, Tsarist Russia was ticking its last hours. Tortured by huge wartime losses, at the beginning of 1917 it faced strikes and demonstrations. With the move of Petersburg brigade on the side of the people, the revolution in Russia officially begun. After the emperor abdicated the throne in his own name and on behalf of his successor, and dissolved the Russian Parliament Duma, the delegates formed a part of the Executive Committee, which will in the future rule the state. However, at the same time the Socialists formed the Petersburg Soviet of 250 members, who also wanted to act as a government. This period begins time of two rule which will result in outbreak of armed revolt and takeing power by the Bolsheviks. Although Lenin's views were too aggressive for most of the Soviets, Stalin stood beside him. By taking the most important components of Petrograd, and then the Winter Palace, which was the headquarters of the Provisional Government, the October Revolution has gone without a drop of spilled blood. However, as with most revolutions, this begun with a fantastic explosion, and ended in fatigue, exhaustion, universal disappointment of people, cruel and brutal civil war, which will in 3 years, totally exhaust Russia.
Unlike Russia, for Stalin, October Revolution marked a turning point that throw him into the peaks of the political elite. At 26. October 1917 he was appointed as a member of the first Soviet government, or the Council of national commissioners. [7] Entrusted with the department non russian nationalities, which had not existed. Although the composition of the Council of national commissioners lasted very short, because of the arrival of representatives social revolutionary left wing of the party, Stalin was still progressing. After forming the government with the Socialist-left, government gave increasingly important and urgent tasks ceded to the inner cabinet (the Politburo), which consisted of five commissioners (2 social revolutionary and 3 of Bolshevik). Among the members of the Bolshevik, Lenin and Trotsky found himself and Stalin. Lenin's faithful satellite Sancho Panza had moved into a new stage of his political life (Deutscher, 1967, 167). As Commissioner for Ethnic Studies, in one of most turbulent period of Russian history, since 1918. - 1923rd, Stalin learned how to theoretically and practically deal with the demands of leadership. [8] However, although under his authority was almost 22% of the territory of Russia, with the exception of those most important and largest (Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasian area (present-day Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), whose rulers were directly subordinate to the Central Committee, Stalin's function is often later was minimized. However, on its grounds, Stalin, during the last years of World War I and especially the Civil War in Russia, has acquired certain military powers. It marked the beginning of an open conflict, among Stalin and Lav Trotsky, which will culminate in a dozen years later, with Trotsky's expulsion from Russia.
II. The accumulation of power in Stalin's hands
Given the military services and addressing pressing issues during the civil war, Stalin in 1922. was awarded the appointment of General Secretary of the Communist Party. This function, which will eventually become the most important in the country, was not too popular in the party but Stalin saw an excellent basis for gaining influence and power. In accordance with it, he alone determined who could join the Communist Party, which enabled him to fill his own party sympathizers. Thus, in addition to the functions previously Commissioner for Ethnic Studies, Stalin, with sure steps began to amass power in his hands. Gaining broad powers in the hands of Stalin provoked concern among dying Lenin, who will warn that in his will. Specifically, with the death of Lenin, in 1924, Stalin opened the door to the very throne of power. However, Stalin still stood in front of few obstacles. Although he was one of the immediate associates of Lenin, originally it was quite unclear who will replace him. The battle was fought between Stalin and Trotsky, as the two most prominent representatives of the Communist Party. Skilful intrigue, Stalin was able to persuade delegates of the 13th Congress of the Communist Party, to elect him. Although he gained legitimacy, the reversal has been the publication of Lenin's testament, which he as his successor at the head of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, appoints Trotsky. Aware of the potential loss of power, because with Trotsky came into conflict even during the Civil War, Stalin drew a sharp and shrewd move and threatened resignation. Most members of the Communist Party were afraid of Trotsky and his radical ideas, even though in the testament Lenin characterized Stalin the rough and too rough,between two evils, ignoring Lenin's last wish, as a future leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, they chose Stalin. It will be a move that many members of the party later to pay with their own lives. The same fate happen to Trotsky[9], who will serve as a sacrificial lamb and a warning to all those who dare to opose Stalin.
III. Big change - collectivization, industrialization
During the 1929, five years after taking power, and the death of Lenin, the Soviet Union began a new revolution that is fully managed by Stalin. After he solved oligarchical rule in previous years , calculated with the unions first with Kamenjev and then Bukharin, Stalin, advocating collectivization and industrialization, in full forestall independent rule of the state and the Communist Party.
The second revolution was much more radical than the one in 1917. It has forced more than 100 million Russian peasants to give up their small, primitive property, replacing the former plow, with modern tractors and leaving their country and yields to newly formed communities. Just a flick of a pen, Stalin took livelihoods from more than 4 / 5 of the population of USSR. Guided by the idea of mass industrialization, he wanted to defend from the the Second World War, which was emerging on the horizon, in just a few years and huge losses, he has turned the former predominantly an agrarian country into a global superpower. Victims of such success were cataclysmic. Stalin's revolution is literally devouring everything that stood in its way. Villagers who refused to leave their farms and crops were considered to be the opponents of government and were sent to labor camps called. gulags. There, along with many political opponents of government were subjected to forced labor, medical experimentation, and various forms of repression. Stalin was completely overcome with the thought that a single large stroke can miraculously transform Russia. They seemed to live in half real and half-dreamy world of statistics and index of industrial directives and instructions, in a world where it seemed that there was no goal and no task which He Stalin and the Party could not achieve (Deutscher, 1967, 281 ). The first positive results of collectivisation only reinforced his intent. Upon the pretext of social reform, Stalin reduced peasants to slaves, and work camps have started opening up wherever there was a need for it. Until 1930 in the Soviet Union there was more than 10 million prisoners, or slaves. In spite of these terrible figures, Stalin's modernization continues to take victims in other areas. Population that is sent to the gulag, was left in the villages to die of hunger due to lack of any food, they needed to seize cities by members of Stalin's secret police. The situation was worst in Ukraine, where the result of torture and starvation deaths it caused more than 5 million inhabitants. Although later Stalin saw what consequence were caused by collectivisation, he transfered responsibility cowardly, to his irresponsible officials, condoning the fact that his plan was misinterpreted.
At the same time, the ups and downs of the industrial revolution, were no less harsh and abrupt. Five Year Plan, which outlined the establishment of Stalin's dictatorship, could not realistically be achieved.[10] However, its partial implementation has claimed countless lives. Only an absolutist monarch who rules over himself and by not allowing the nerves and emotions to overcome him, was able to persevere in this tremendous enterprise, and by not looking at the obstacles that he had to overcome (Deutscher, 1967)
III. Dark period - a wave of terror, party purges and "legitimate" murrdes
Around mid-thirties of the 20th century began the darkest chapter of Stalin's rule. Series of processes and murders by Stalin's orders, executed the entire Bolshevik old guard and the entire military leadership of the state. All of this is actually the prelude to many human sacrifices to the Soviet Union, led by Stalin's decisions to endure during World War II.[11]
The start of the dark period marked the enhanced political recognition of Sergei Kirov, one of Stalin's closest associates. As the nation looked for a leader of the softer approach, due to the horrors and tasks that have suffered during the collectivization and industrialization, it became very obvious that Kirov will win the support of delegates of the Communist Party. Endangered Stalin brutally accrue to all those who did not vote for him. In a wave of retribution, he ordered the execution of all 98 delegates of the Congress who did not vote for him, including Kirov, and the remaining 1100 delegates were sent to forced labor in gulags. Fearful of adversary and loss of power, Stalin's Soviet Union brought into a dark age of espionage, in which everyone, without justification, and the real target, could be characterized as a spy, and then, deprived of the right to defense and appeal, was killed without trial.[12] Murder has become a legitimate tool of government, and torture and extortion a principal weapon. Purges swept the country. Initiated paranoid that his enemies have infiltrated into all aspects of society including the Party, Stalin, private signing, he ordered the execution of more than 3000 members of his party, including former colleagues and the entire military leadership of the state. In the end, Stalin's purges resulted in the death of more than 1.2 million lives. The foundation of the Russian intelligentsia, which could save the legacy of Stalin's autocratic revolution depotizma, was lost forever. Thus, decapitated and paranoid, Stalin welcomed the beginning of the Second World War.
IV. From associate to an ally - a course of war and its consequences
Politically naive, believing in a signed non-aggression pact with Hitler, Stalin completely unprepared welcomed the first German attacks on Russian soil on 21. june 1941. Staggering losses suffered by the Russian Red Army, are attributed to Stalins most apsurd decision to believe Hitler's words, when many did not do it. However, despite initial erroneous calculations,Stalin did not welcome a crisis unprepared. Playing on a huge map of the Russian space and the harsh climate, he armed and reorganized the army. Although without a day of military experience, he has appointed himself as the supreme commander, finally realized the dream of any modern strategy: the absolute unity of command. He was actually his own commander in chief, his own minister of defense, his own quartermaster of armed forces, his own foreign minister and even his own boss protocol. Not trusting anyone, he welcomed the Germans attack on Moscow, refusing to leave his seat and eagerly and earnestly studying the techniques of modern warfare. In Stalin's perception horror was above all other values. The cost of the defense was not important. The people, battered by war, blindly believed in his ideology. Going to war for their homeland, they were actually going to war for Stalin. The rush of nationalism, which was instigated by the Russians feel they are abandoned by the allies, went in favor of Stalin's insane, defensive tactics. In Stalin's perception, the withdrawal was not an option. Even when the defense of Leningrad from hunger and cold killed more than 1 million people, even when the German army captured Stalin's son Jacob, even when an unnecessary attack on Berlin killed more than 10 000 Russian soldiers, Stalin did not loose on his determination and cruelty . Skilful propaganda aroused a sense of national pride for the Russians, a feeling that they were forced to go on and when it seemed that there was no "light in the tunnel." Stalin's victory was unquestionable. Although the price war, on the Russian side, was more than 27 million dead[13], Stalin was hailed as a God and a hero, invincible generalisimuss (as himself later called it) and unchallenged military strategist. Lit by the full glow of national recognition and gratitude. These feelings of the people, were the first time, a genuine and spontaneous, and not the result of the machinations of the official propaganda or her invention. In the next few years it seemed that the Bolshevik revolution had reached its destination. Like many times before, the illusion was stronger than reality.
The Conclusion: The collapse, and forgetfulness of a cult
The last years of Stalin's life were marked by the success of the Soviet Union on the political scene. Stalin, who with other allies, drew a map post-Hitlers world, had in his hands power like never before. Soviet Russia, superior and more advanced, what he always wanted, Stalins dreams finally began to come true. Positive changes in the society, worked on Stalin's cult of personality. Worn out, the Russian people looked at Stalin, as the new deity, often invoking him as the Father of the people and the biggest hero of humanity. They seemed to have forgotten all the missing, murdered and kidnapped, as if the suffering and killing never existed. The people, striving for a better tomorrow, blindly believed in Stalin's promises and often unrealistic views of reality, but also themselves. Stalin's appetite grew in proportion to the power he possessed. More he had, more he wanted. Glory was the ultimate goal for him. It seemed that he was prepared to oppose all things and to all external enemies. Only for his own people he had a delay. He knew where he came from, as well as he knew that the revolution eats its own children. Because f that he was never without a caution. He retreated to his solitude, always fearing from a new real and imagined enemies. Only God's justice, taking his life on 6. march.1953. prevented the new crazed crusade against innocent people. Although the nation is crying for him, some from sorrow, and some from the fear of what would be the future. Those in gulags were disenfranchised and imprisoned, but quietly celebrated it. Their joy will soon expand throughout the country. The cult was built for decades, will disappear at an incredible pace. Former bureaucratic opportunist, at first glance with a modest attitude, will remain known only by his misdeeds. His history will be marked by countless lives lost, and his personality by traits of a psychopaths and a dictator.
B I B L O G R A P H Y
Davis, S., Harris, J., (2005.) Stalin: a new history, Cambridge University Press, New York
Deutscher, I., (1967.) Staljin – politička biografija, Globus-Zagreb, Zagreb
Gregory, P.R., (2009.), Terror by quota – state security from Lenin to Stalin (an archival study), Yale University Press
Overy, J. (2005.), Diktatori: Hitlerova Njemačka i Staljinova Rusija, Ljevak, Zagreb
Service, R., (2005.) Stalin: A biography, Harvard University Press, New York
-----------------------
[1] The evidence discovered after the collapse of the Soviet Union in early 1990-those years, casts doubt on this date. According to data from the archives of the Communist Party, and birth certificate from the church in his hometown of Gori, his real date of birth is 18.12.1879. Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1699082/Joseph-Stalins-birth-date, 26.11.2010.
[2] A young man who was born as Joseph first became D~[pic]ugaa[pic]vili Koba, sometimes Davias Joseph first became Džugašvili Koba, sometimes David and Nižeradze, then Čižkov and Ivanovic, until finally just before the outbreak of the war has claimed the name of Stalin, from the Russian word for steel. (Overy, R.J., Dictators ..., op.cit., Pp. 18).
[3] During the first escape from prison, Stalin in 1904 married Ekatarina Svanidze. It will be the first of his two marriages, which, due to the early death of his wife, lasted only 3 years. Other Stalin's marriage, though longer, was much happier. After the death of second woman Nadedze Allilujeva in 1931, which was speculated to have been given to be killed by Stalin, because she confronted him, he remained deeply troubled and did not marry during his whole dictatorship.
[4]Koba in free translation means "ungovernable". Meanwhile, Koba was a character from the Georgian epic about the heroic outlaw and folk avenger..
[5] Lenin, co-opted Stalin to the Central Committee of the Conference of the Bolsheviks in Prague 1912th year. While Stalin himself did not get the confidence of the majority of delegates, Lenin, has exercised its right and had him co-opted into the ranks of Central Committee..
[6] Lav Trotsky, with Lenin, considered the architect of the Soviet revolution, often characterized Stalin as the most mediocre of the party, while Suhanov called him a gray spot (Overy, J., dictators ...., Op., P. 21.)
[7] Kako bi raskrstili sa carskom tradicijom, boljševička vlada je nekadašnje nazive ministara mijenjala nazivima komesara. I dok je komesarijatom upravljao kolegiji ili komitet, izabrani komesari samo su predsjedavali tim kolegijim. Prema: Deutscher, I., Staljin, op.cit., str.164.-167.
[8] In the center of political events came the change of the right of peoples to self-determination. Specifically, after the beginning of his mandate he anounced the independence of Finland published by Russia, there were other non Russian regions who wanted the same recognition. When Stalin realized that Russia would lose a large chunk of territory, he urged the Congress of Soviets in 1918Y, taht the right of peoples to self-determination becomes considered as a means to fight for socialism and must therefore serve the principles of socialism. According to him, self-determian can not bourgeoisie, but only the working masses of the people. By: Davies, S., Harris, J., (2005.) Stalin - A New History, Cambridge University Press, New York, 48th-49th.
[9] After the consolidation of power, Stalin still considered Thorcky a threat. Although Trotsky virtually retired from active political life, because in the Stalin period, renounced the traditional Bolshevik doctrine on the implementation of international revolution in favor of building socialism, Stalin is still tortured with his influence.In 1928 Stalin managed to self-rule the USSR, and he already next year, before the TV cameras, expelled Throcky from the country. Seven years later (1940.) Stalin, together with all the old Bolshevik guards sentenced Throcky to death.
[10] Stalin did not heed the warnings of experts that plan is not feasible. During its implementation a completely new city Magnitogorosk was buildt ,canal between White and Baltic Sea was dug (during whose construction had died over 150 000 people), new coal mines in Ukraine were open. The working week was comprised by 7 days. There was no rest for anyone (Services, R. (2005)., Stalin: A Biography, Harvrad Univeristy Press, str.265.)
[11] The Soviet Union during World War II lost more than 27 million inhabitants. That was more than any other country in the world.
[12] All were accused that they were trying to kill Stalin and other members of the Politburo, that they have tried to restore capitalism, that they tried to break the economic and military power of the country and that they sought to kill or poison a large number of Russian workers (Deutscher, I. Stalin ..., op.cit., pp. 323)
[13] Official figures of the number of dead at that time amounted to only 7 million. Only after Stalin's death real figurees were revealed. They had been reinforced by countless millions maimed, destroyed cities and industries destroyed, 25 million displaced people and those without a roof over their head.
Political Science and International Relations
Fall 2010
Moder political History – PS 120
Mark Wheeler/ Maja Savic
STALIN – man of steel:
fanatical revolutionary and energetic statesman or only a psychopath and a dictator?
AMINA ŠARIĆ
Decembar, 2010.
Stalin – man of steel: fanatical revolutionary and energetic statesman oronly a psychopath and a dictator?
I. Introduction
Joseph Visarionovich Stalin is one of the most complex figures of 20th century . The man who was able to concentrate all the power of the Russian people and tradition, to create and manage the first socialist country in the world, and to transform it from a modest agrarian country into a global …show more content…
superpower, still after the 50 years, remains an enigma.
Country wich he led and represented for many years was personified in his dictatorial, charismatic figure. The Bolshevik revolutionary, with a modest Georgian origin has succeeded with the state security apparatus, harsh measures of repression and exploitation of camps on a large scale, to fully control the construction of the Soviet social, political, educational and cultural reality based on the utopian desires and piles of dead. In just three decades, he has managed to swich Russia from a wooden plow to the nuclear age, offsetting the progress that other states have accomplished for centuries. The price that was paid for it; 20 million lives lost to Stalin was just a statistic..
Often identified with the name, which he himself elected, “The man of steel“, Stalin was a dictator of the worst kind.
Drawing its power from the will of the people, by forcing the greatest sufferings, then thought out propaganda, promising a better tomorrow, he was a cruel, calculated statesman and politician. Although without no real military skills, with his maneuvers and determination, he succeeded in post war negotiations, outplaying Churchill and Roosevelt, he defended the Russian capital and managed to march the Red Army in Berlin, and overthrown Hitler from the throne. Caucasian banditry and political violence, combined with a ruthless ideology, enabled Stalin rule of the Kremlin and the creation of Soviet Union in his own distorted picture, that eventually completely changed world …show more content…
order.
However, that same statesman and politician, certainly could not rise above the intellectual mediocrity that has determined him from the very beginning.. He could not understand that by modernizing society and stimulating mass education, in fact, contrary to his wishes, he was poisoning the spirit of nation and prepareing Russia to break with Stalinism. In perpetual fear of real and imagined enemies, he lived a life marked by paranoia and a mistrust to everyone. Stalin that the people celebrated as the Father of the nation and the biggest geniuses in the history of mankind, there lived a reclusive and lonely living, having just trust in authority and power that he had in its hands. Although his crimes are still remembered, the figure of Stalin and his achievements have quickly fallen into oblivion.
Part I: unhappy childhood - as a trigger of cruelty and brutality
Born as Joseph Džugašvili (he later added in his name Visaorionović and Stalin, which means man of steel), born on December 21.
1879, in Gori (Georgia) [1], as a child of peasant shoemaker, Stalin had no predisposition to grow into one of the biggest enigmas and personalities of the 20th century. His childhood was marked by poverty and a bad attitude by his father towards his son. As a result of unfulfilled ambition in shoemaker craft, inability to provide food for his family, and to rise in a reputable member of the middle class,Stalin's father, Besarion Džugašvili became rowdy and a drunkard. Besarion eased his dissatisfaction in excessive enjoyment of alcohol (famous Russian vodka) or the relentless abuse and neglect of his son, who usually did not deserve it, made the boy dark and cruel, like his father. Due to such procedures, Stalin was already at an early age developed a certain animosity towards authority. From his father's cruel insensitivity he defended himself with suspicion, distrust, vigilance, caution, lying and endurance, which will later on come in handy in war, as he learned stratagem early in his life. On the other hand, Stalin's mother, Ekatarina Gelazde, had the endless patience and devotion of the typical oriental peasant. She was not angry at her husband, and focused all her love to her only son. However, such relationship did not satisfy Stalin. After Stalin's father left them, Ekatarina, which found in the church her only consolation in her
unhappy life, gave Stalin to the church school (seminary) in his early age, hoping that he will succeed in life and become a priest, thus rise above the modest the level of his parents. Modest aspirations of a mother many years later have been realized in the cruellest form. Plain Georgian boy, who diligently and smoothly remembered material default, has grown into an 'almighty Russian emperor and dictator ", which, together with some personalities, is a personification of pure evil, not only of the 20th century, but also the whole of human history. Nevertheless, he never forgave his mother for giving him to the seminary. Because of his beliefs and ideologies, that he was the only one in whom to trust, and that religion should be banned and all the churches destroyed, ashamed of pious old lady, he hardly had any contacts with her. His ignorance is so far gone that he had refused to attend her funeral years later.
II. Rebellious youth, robbery and road into revolutionary
The charismatic, darkly unpredictable and fickle boy of dubious origin and shaken education, possessed a remarkable talent and abilities. Although he initially was harassed and ridiculed because of his humble origins and wrinkled face, Soso (as he was at that time called by colleagues) has quickly learned how to confront his abusers. He exploited their weaknesses and ridiculed them. Insisting on the brain, as opposed to physical strength, he has quickly managed to become a leader among his peers.
He was one of the best students of religious school, so he got a scholarship to study theology at the Orthodox Seminary in Tibilsu. By entering the seminary 1895th year, Stalin himself was encouraged by the prospects that were created before him. However, it is still in school in Gori, that he began to grow awareness of the existence of social and national inequalities for which he will later become a revolutionary and rebel (Deutscher, I. 1967, Stalin - a political biography, 25). Life in the seminary,which according to Deutscher (1967, 25), was a strange institution, seminary, half nurseries Russification, and in half barracks, was especially for poor students, very difficult. At the same time, the seminary has been an important center and focus of political opposition, which will shape some of Stalin's most important socialist attitudes. In the first year of study he came into contact with the opposition in Tibilisu. Years that followed, were marked by his growing revolt in the rigid life of the seminary and the ideas that it has propagated. Because of such attitudes, in 1898 he joined the clandestine socialist group called Mesame Dasi (third group) which advocated a moderate socialism in where Stalin for the first time came into contact with Marxist ideas. As Stalin often explained later, in his interviews, he became a Marxist because of his social position (child of a worker), gross intolerance and discipline which he was exposed during college days, and the atmosphere in which he lived, which was permeated with hatred against the Tsar and his followers. Although he himself later considered a historical personality, and a superman, the majority considered Stalin a dwarf with little or no contribution to the ideology of Marxism (Overy, RJ, dictators - Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, 2005., XXVII). However, due to the position which he enjoyed, and in spite of ignorance, Stalin was the one who determined the parameters of public political debate, rejecting ideas and views with which he disagreed with, thus shaping the ideology of Marxism.
His revolutionary path, after the membership in Mesame Desi, and expellation from the seminary, Stalin continued the 1899th, joining an illegal Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party in Tsibilisu. Because of the revolutionary activities of Mesame Desi, and especially the celebration of May 1.1901, which the imperial authorities prevented twenty days prior to, most members of this organization were arrested. But not Stalin. As one of the few remaining, free-followers, Stalin got the opportunity to organize a celebration and he was promoted in the hierarchy of the socialist movement. The celebration that marked the beginning of the open revolutionary movement in the Caucasus and Stalin's life has brought change. Although he previously lived on the edge of the conspiracy and the legal existence (rarely anyone actually know his real name and date of birth) [2], after this celebration, he was in constant flight from the authorities. However,with this act he transformed into a devoted member of the underworld, a member of the godless order of knights errant and the pilgrims of the revolution, whome life is providing service to the party. Luck that followed him during the first arrest, stopped in 1902, after forming a secret organization that would lead the socialist propaganda in the city of Batumi, on the Russian border with Turkey, which was rich in oil, in which Stalin was sent as a Social Democrat member of the committee, was arrested for the first time and sent to prison in the cold prisons of Siberia. It will be the first of many arrests. [3] During the following decade, Stalin, who at that time was known by the nickname Koba[4], he was arrested and expelled more than 6 times, partly because of his revolutionary activity, partly because of his terrorist attacks and robberies. His last prosecution occurred in 1913 and lasted until 1917. Prison brutality during all these years, reinforced in him the hatred against the imperial order, but also build up a sharp, poignant and full of attitudecontempt toward all types of opponents. All of these will serve him well , in the days of the revolution that followed, and his rise to power.
Part Two: The rise to power - out of the shadow of Lenin's ideology and the way to "superhuman"
In the 20th century Russia has entered with a 300-year-old absolute rule of the Romanov dynasty (of 1613).. However, the revolutionary events, interwoven with the socialist and Marxist ideas, and great losses that Russia suffered during World War I, caused a wave of unrest across the country. There was a woven dissatisfaction among workers and students, and more frequent occurrence of famine. It felt that Russia faced a big change and it was soon to come.
The situation on the political and social scene has already begun to complicate with the schism of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party, which occurred 1903 at II. party congress in Brussels. The split was caused by different conceptions about orientation and organizational structure of the Social Democratic Party. Orthodox and drastic Bolshevik faction, led by Vladimir Lenin,believed that the party must be coherent, internally tight and connected, and in the highest degree centralized, and whose members may be only those members who are constantly and regularly participate in its work. Contrary to this view, the minority led by Menschevik current, whose leader was Mart, they would involve all the supporters into the party, regardless of whether they were intellectuals or not. Congress ended a vote of leadership to the ranks of Bolsheviks. These two factions marked the emergence of the gap, which will in the coming years split the Russian Social Democrats from top to bottom..
Although, due to his exile in Siberia, he was not an active participant of the split of the party, Stalin was immediately attracted by Lenin's rhetoric and attitude. Lenin considered revolutionists those members who were persecuted, agitators and organizers, who lived miserably and that the revolution for them was a profession. Stalin in this description immediately recognized himself. He, by his temperament belonged to the "rough" strain revolutionaries: any tenderness and indulgence, no matter in what form, was alien to his character and not be counted in the characteristics of his personality (Deutcher, 1967., 69). By Deutscher (1967, 69), Stalin, Lenin's ideas in accordance with, saw himself as Atlas, which will bring whole humanity on his back. However, although his profile and attitudes fit perfect revolutionary, it will take more than 10 years until Stalin becomes Lenin's closest associate and a memeber of the narrowest peak of the party. Although in 1912 he entered into the composition of the Central Committee[5], and became a representative of the national leadership of the Bolsheviks, Stalin will long be registered as only a operative and the executive, whome is been confided the secret business or matters of technical nature. As Deutscher states(1967, 113), Stalin was promoted to serve as the strong arm of the Central Committee, and not his brain or heart. [6]
II. 1917 Revolution - Stalin's affirmation on the political landscape of Russia
In the last years of Tsarist Russia, Stalin's actions were more peaceful than ever before or after. More than 3 years spent in exile in the north-eastern parts of Siberia, in the field Kureyke, suppressed, after long years of revolution, Stalin's fighting spirit. Living thousands of miles from the stage of political action and events, it seemed that the socialist idea, which he so long fought, defeated, or at least withheld, and that is what within him cause frustration and a desire for solitude.
Unlike Stalins, the social life of Russia of those years was before boiling. At the end of 1916, Tsarist Russia was ticking its last hours. Tortured by huge wartime losses, at the beginning of 1917 it faced strikes and demonstrations. With the move of Petersburg brigade on the side of the people, the revolution in Russia officially begun. After the emperor abdicated the throne in his own name and on behalf of his successor, and dissolved the Russian Parliament Duma, the delegates formed a part of the Executive Committee, which will in the future rule the state. However, at the same time the Socialists formed the Petersburg Soviet of 250 members, who also wanted to act as a government. This period begins time of two rule which will result in outbreak of armed revolt and takeing power by the Bolsheviks. Although Lenin's views were too aggressive for most of the Soviets, Stalin stood beside him. By taking the most important components of Petrograd, and then the Winter Palace, which was the headquarters of the Provisional Government, the October Revolution has gone without a drop of spilled blood. However, as with most revolutions, this begun with a fantastic explosion, and ended in fatigue, exhaustion, universal disappointment of people, cruel and brutal civil war, which will in 3 years, totally exhaust Russia.
Unlike Russia, for Stalin, October Revolution marked a turning point that throw him into the peaks of the political elite. At 26. October 1917 he was appointed as a member of the first Soviet government, or the Council of national commissioners. [7] Entrusted with the department non russian nationalities, which had not existed. Although the composition of the Council of national commissioners lasted very short, because of the arrival of representatives social revolutionary left wing of the party, Stalin was still progressing. After forming the government with the Socialist-left, government gave increasingly important and urgent tasks ceded to the inner cabinet (the Politburo), which consisted of five commissioners (2 social revolutionary and 3 of Bolshevik). Among the members of the Bolshevik, Lenin and Trotsky found himself and Stalin. Lenin's faithful satellite Sancho Panza had moved into a new stage of his political life (Deutscher, 1967, 167). As Commissioner for Ethnic Studies, in one of most turbulent period of Russian history, since 1918. - 1923rd, Stalin learned how to theoretically and practically deal with the demands of leadership. [8] However, although under his authority was almost 22% of the territory of Russia, with the exception of those most important and largest (Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasian area (present-day Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), whose rulers were directly subordinate to the Central Committee, Stalin's function is often later was minimized. However, on its grounds, Stalin, during the last years of World War I and especially the Civil War in Russia, has acquired certain military powers. It marked the beginning of an open conflict, among Stalin and Lav Trotsky, which will culminate in a dozen years later, with Trotsky's expulsion from Russia.
II. The accumulation of power in Stalin's hands
Given the military services and addressing pressing issues during the civil war, Stalin in 1922. was awarded the appointment of General Secretary of the Communist Party. This function, which will eventually become the most important in the country, was not too popular in the party but Stalin saw an excellent basis for gaining influence and power. In accordance with it, he alone determined who could join the Communist Party, which enabled him to fill his own party sympathizers. Thus, in addition to the functions previously Commissioner for Ethnic Studies, Stalin, with sure steps began to amass power in his hands. Gaining broad powers in the hands of Stalin provoked concern among dying Lenin, who will warn that in his will. Specifically, with the death of Lenin, in 1924, Stalin opened the door to the very throne of power. However, Stalin still stood in front of few obstacles. Although he was one of the immediate associates of Lenin, originally it was quite unclear who will replace him. The battle was fought between Stalin and Trotsky, as the two most prominent representatives of the Communist Party. Skilful intrigue, Stalin was able to persuade delegates of the 13th Congress of the Communist Party, to elect him. Although he gained legitimacy, the reversal has been the publication of Lenin's testament, which he as his successor at the head of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, appoints Trotsky. Aware of the potential loss of power, because with Trotsky came into conflict even during the Civil War, Stalin drew a sharp and shrewd move and threatened resignation. Most members of the Communist Party were afraid of Trotsky and his radical ideas, even though in the testament Lenin characterized Stalin the rough and too rough,between two evils, ignoring Lenin's last wish, as a future leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, they chose Stalin. It will be a move that many members of the party later to pay with their own lives. The same fate happen to Trotsky[9], who will serve as a sacrificial lamb and a warning to all those who dare to opose Stalin.
III. Big change - collectivization, industrialization
During the 1929, five years after taking power, and the death of Lenin, the Soviet Union began a new revolution that is fully managed by Stalin. After he solved oligarchical rule in previous years , calculated with the unions first with Kamenjev and then Bukharin, Stalin, advocating collectivization and industrialization, in full forestall independent rule of the state and the Communist Party.
The second revolution was much more radical than the one in 1917. It has forced more than 100 million Russian peasants to give up their small, primitive property, replacing the former plow, with modern tractors and leaving their country and yields to newly formed communities. Just a flick of a pen, Stalin took livelihoods from more than 4 / 5 of the population of USSR. Guided by the idea of mass industrialization, he wanted to defend from the the Second World War, which was emerging on the horizon, in just a few years and huge losses, he has turned the former predominantly an agrarian country into a global superpower. Victims of such success were cataclysmic. Stalin's revolution is literally devouring everything that stood in its way. Villagers who refused to leave their farms and crops were considered to be the opponents of government and were sent to labor camps called. gulags. There, along with many political opponents of government were subjected to forced labor, medical experimentation, and various forms of repression. Stalin was completely overcome with the thought that a single large stroke can miraculously transform Russia. They seemed to live in half real and half-dreamy world of statistics and index of industrial directives and instructions, in a world where it seemed that there was no goal and no task which He Stalin and the Party could not achieve (Deutscher, 1967, 281 ). The first positive results of collectivisation only reinforced his intent. Upon the pretext of social reform, Stalin reduced peasants to slaves, and work camps have started opening up wherever there was a need for it. Until 1930 in the Soviet Union there was more than 10 million prisoners, or slaves. In spite of these terrible figures, Stalin's modernization continues to take victims in other areas. Population that is sent to the gulag, was left in the villages to die of hunger due to lack of any food, they needed to seize cities by members of Stalin's secret police. The situation was worst in Ukraine, where the result of torture and starvation deaths it caused more than 5 million inhabitants. Although later Stalin saw what consequence were caused by collectivisation, he transfered responsibility cowardly, to his irresponsible officials, condoning the fact that his plan was misinterpreted.
At the same time, the ups and downs of the industrial revolution, were no less harsh and abrupt. Five Year Plan, which outlined the establishment of Stalin's dictatorship, could not realistically be achieved.[10] However, its partial implementation has claimed countless lives. Only an absolutist monarch who rules over himself and by not allowing the nerves and emotions to overcome him, was able to persevere in this tremendous enterprise, and by not looking at the obstacles that he had to overcome (Deutscher, 1967)
III. Dark period - a wave of terror, party purges and "legitimate" murrdes
Around mid-thirties of the 20th century began the darkest chapter of Stalin's rule. Series of processes and murders by Stalin's orders, executed the entire Bolshevik old guard and the entire military leadership of the state. All of this is actually the prelude to many human sacrifices to the Soviet Union, led by Stalin's decisions to endure during World War II.[11]
The start of the dark period marked the enhanced political recognition of Sergei Kirov, one of Stalin's closest associates. As the nation looked for a leader of the softer approach, due to the horrors and tasks that have suffered during the collectivization and industrialization, it became very obvious that Kirov will win the support of delegates of the Communist Party. Endangered Stalin brutally accrue to all those who did not vote for him. In a wave of retribution, he ordered the execution of all 98 delegates of the Congress who did not vote for him, including Kirov, and the remaining 1100 delegates were sent to forced labor in gulags. Fearful of adversary and loss of power, Stalin's Soviet Union brought into a dark age of espionage, in which everyone, without justification, and the real target, could be characterized as a spy, and then, deprived of the right to defense and appeal, was killed without trial.[12] Murder has become a legitimate tool of government, and torture and extortion a principal weapon. Purges swept the country. Initiated paranoid that his enemies have infiltrated into all aspects of society including the Party, Stalin, private signing, he ordered the execution of more than 3000 members of his party, including former colleagues and the entire military leadership of the state. In the end, Stalin's purges resulted in the death of more than 1.2 million lives. The foundation of the Russian intelligentsia, which could save the legacy of Stalin's autocratic revolution depotizma, was lost forever. Thus, decapitated and paranoid, Stalin welcomed the beginning of the Second World War.
IV. From associate to an ally - a course of war and its consequences
Politically naive, believing in a signed non-aggression pact with Hitler, Stalin completely unprepared welcomed the first German attacks on Russian soil on 21. june 1941. Staggering losses suffered by the Russian Red Army, are attributed to Stalins most apsurd decision to believe Hitler's words, when many did not do it. However, despite initial erroneous calculations,Stalin did not welcome a crisis unprepared. Playing on a huge map of the Russian space and the harsh climate, he armed and reorganized the army. Although without a day of military experience, he has appointed himself as the supreme commander, finally realized the dream of any modern strategy: the absolute unity of command. He was actually his own commander in chief, his own minister of defense, his own quartermaster of armed forces, his own foreign minister and even his own boss protocol. Not trusting anyone, he welcomed the Germans attack on Moscow, refusing to leave his seat and eagerly and earnestly studying the techniques of modern warfare. In Stalin's perception horror was above all other values. The cost of the defense was not important. The people, battered by war, blindly believed in his ideology. Going to war for their homeland, they were actually going to war for Stalin. The rush of nationalism, which was instigated by the Russians feel they are abandoned by the allies, went in favor of Stalin's insane, defensive tactics. In Stalin's perception, the withdrawal was not an option. Even when the defense of Leningrad from hunger and cold killed more than 1 million people, even when the German army captured Stalin's son Jacob, even when an unnecessary attack on Berlin killed more than 10 000 Russian soldiers, Stalin did not loose on his determination and cruelty . Skilful propaganda aroused a sense of national pride for the Russians, a feeling that they were forced to go on and when it seemed that there was no "light in the tunnel." Stalin's victory was unquestionable. Although the price war, on the Russian side, was more than 27 million dead[13], Stalin was hailed as a God and a hero, invincible generalisimuss (as himself later called it) and unchallenged military strategist. Lit by the full glow of national recognition and gratitude. These feelings of the people, were the first time, a genuine and spontaneous, and not the result of the machinations of the official propaganda or her invention. In the next few years it seemed that the Bolshevik revolution had reached its destination. Like many times before, the illusion was stronger than reality.
The Conclusion: The collapse, and forgetfulness of a cult
The last years of Stalin's life were marked by the success of the Soviet Union on the political scene. Stalin, who with other allies, drew a map post-Hitlers world, had in his hands power like never before. Soviet Russia, superior and more advanced, what he always wanted, Stalins dreams finally began to come true. Positive changes in the society, worked on Stalin's cult of personality. Worn out, the Russian people looked at Stalin, as the new deity, often invoking him as the Father of the people and the biggest hero of humanity. They seemed to have forgotten all the missing, murdered and kidnapped, as if the suffering and killing never existed. The people, striving for a better tomorrow, blindly believed in Stalin's promises and often unrealistic views of reality, but also themselves. Stalin's appetite grew in proportion to the power he possessed. More he had, more he wanted. Glory was the ultimate goal for him. It seemed that he was prepared to oppose all things and to all external enemies. Only for his own people he had a delay. He knew where he came from, as well as he knew that the revolution eats its own children. Because f that he was never without a caution. He retreated to his solitude, always fearing from a new real and imagined enemies. Only God's justice, taking his life on 6. march.1953. prevented the new crazed crusade against innocent people. Although the nation is crying for him, some from sorrow, and some from the fear of what would be the future. Those in gulags were disenfranchised and imprisoned, but quietly celebrated it. Their joy will soon expand throughout the country. The cult was built for decades, will disappear at an incredible pace. Former bureaucratic opportunist, at first glance with a modest attitude, will remain known only by his misdeeds. His history will be marked by countless lives lost, and his personality by traits of a psychopaths and a dictator.
B I B L O G R A P H Y
Davis, S., Harris, J., (2005.) Stalin: a new history, Cambridge University Press, New York
Deutscher, I., (1967.) Staljin – politička biografija, Globus-Zagreb, Zagreb
Gregory, P.R., (2009.), Terror by quota – state security from Lenin to Stalin (an archival study), Yale University Press
Overy, J. (2005.), Diktatori: Hitlerova Njemačka i Staljinova Rusija, Ljevak, Zagreb
Service, R., (2005.) Stalin: A biography, Harvard University Press, New York
-----------------------
[1] The evidence discovered after the collapse of the Soviet Union in early 1990-those years, casts doubt on this date. According to data from the archives of the Communist Party, and birth certificate from the church in his hometown of Gori, his real date of birth is 18.12.1879. Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1699082/Joseph-Stalins-birth-date, 26.11.2010.
[2] A young man who was born as Joseph first became D~[pic]ugaa[pic]vili Koba, sometimes Davias Joseph first became Džugašvili Koba, sometimes David and Nižeradze, then Čižkov and Ivanovic, until finally just before the outbreak of the war has claimed the name of Stalin, from the Russian word for steel. (Overy, R.J., Dictators ..., op.cit., Pp. 18).
[3] During the first escape from prison, Stalin in 1904 married Ekatarina Svanidze. It will be the first of his two marriages, which, due to the early death of his wife, lasted only 3 years. Other Stalin's marriage, though longer, was much happier. After the death of second woman Nadedze Allilujeva in 1931, which was speculated to have been given to be killed by Stalin, because she confronted him, he remained deeply troubled and did not marry during his whole dictatorship.
[4]Koba in free translation means "ungovernable". Meanwhile, Koba was a character from the Georgian epic about the heroic outlaw and folk avenger..
[5] Lenin, co-opted Stalin to the Central Committee of the Conference of the Bolsheviks in Prague 1912th year. While Stalin himself did not get the confidence of the majority of delegates, Lenin, has exercised its right and had him co-opted into the ranks of Central Committee..
[6] Lav Trotsky, with Lenin, considered the architect of the Soviet revolution, often characterized Stalin as the most mediocre of the party, while Suhanov called him a gray spot (Overy, J., dictators ...., Op., P. 21.)
[7] Kako bi raskrstili sa carskom tradicijom, boljševička vlada je nekadašnje nazive ministara mijenjala nazivima komesara. I dok je komesarijatom upravljao kolegiji ili komitet, izabrani komesari samo su predsjedavali tim kolegijim. Prema: Deutscher, I., Staljin, op.cit., str.164.-167.
[8] In the center of political events came the change of the right of peoples to self-determination. Specifically, after the beginning of his mandate he anounced the independence of Finland published by Russia, there were other non Russian regions who wanted the same recognition. When Stalin realized that Russia would lose a large chunk of territory, he urged the Congress of Soviets in 1918Y, taht the right of peoples to self-determination becomes considered as a means to fight for socialism and must therefore serve the principles of socialism. According to him, self-determian can not bourgeoisie, but only the working masses of the people. By: Davies, S., Harris, J., (2005.) Stalin - A New History, Cambridge University Press, New York, 48th-49th.
[9] After the consolidation of power, Stalin still considered Thorcky a threat. Although Trotsky virtually retired from active political life, because in the Stalin period, renounced the traditional Bolshevik doctrine on the implementation of international revolution in favor of building socialism, Stalin is still tortured with his influence.In 1928 Stalin managed to self-rule the USSR, and he already next year, before the TV cameras, expelled Throcky from the country. Seven years later (1940.) Stalin, together with all the old Bolshevik guards sentenced Throcky to death.
[10] Stalin did not heed the warnings of experts that plan is not feasible. During its implementation a completely new city Magnitogorosk was buildt ,canal between White and Baltic Sea was dug (during whose construction had died over 150 000 people), new coal mines in Ukraine were open. The working week was comprised by 7 days. There was no rest for anyone (Services, R. (2005)., Stalin: A Biography, Harvrad Univeristy Press, str.265.)
[11] The Soviet Union during World War II lost more than 27 million inhabitants. That was more than any other country in the world.
[12] All were accused that they were trying to kill Stalin and other members of the Politburo, that they have tried to restore capitalism, that they tried to break the economic and military power of the country and that they sought to kill or poison a large number of Russian workers (Deutscher, I. Stalin ..., op.cit., pp. 323)
[13] Official figures of the number of dead at that time amounted to only 7 million. Only after Stalin's death real figurees were revealed. They had been reinforced by countless millions maimed, destroyed cities and industries destroyed, 25 million displaced people and those without a roof over their head.