Toggle menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

Joseph Stalin: Difference between revisions

From ProleWiki, the proletarian encyclopedia
No edit summary
Tag: Visual edit
(Pre-USSR life)
Tag: Visual edit
Line 8: Line 8:
| birth_name          = Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili
| birth_name          = Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1878|12|21}}
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1878|12|21}}
| birth_place        = Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Georgia)
| birth_place        = Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]])
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1953|3|5|1878|12|18}}
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1953|3|5|1878|12|18}}
| death_place        = Moscow, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
| death_place        = Moscow, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
Line 14: Line 14:
| political_line = [[Marxism-Leninism]]
| political_line = [[Marxism-Leninism]]
}}
}}
'''Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili''' {{Datebio|birthmonth=December|birthday=21st|birthyear=1878|deathmonth=March|deathday=5th|deathyear=1953}}, more popularly known as '''Joseph Stalin''' was the democratically elected<ref>{{Citation|author=Glover Furr|year=2019|title=Stalin and the Struggle for Democratic Reform|title-url=http://marxism.halkcephesi.net/Grover%20Furr/stalin_1.htm|quote=This article outlines Joseph Stalin's attempts, from the 1930s until his death, to democratize the government of the Soviet Union.|pdf=https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/clogic/article/download/191861/188830/218717|trans-lang=English}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Pat Sloan|year=1937|title=Soviet Democracy|title-url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Soviet_Democracy.html?id=UeGRyAEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description|section=Democracy and Dictatorship|page=9|pdf=https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/pat-sloan-soviet-democracy-victor-gollancz-1937.pdf|isbn=9781092297394|trans-lang=English}}</ref> leader of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], being the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of Central Committee of Communist Party of Soviet Union]] from 3 April 1922 to 16 October 1952.
'''Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili''' {{Datebio|birthmonth=December|birthday=21st|birthyear=1878|deathmonth=March|deathday=5th|deathyear=1953}}, more popularly known as '''Joseph Stalin''' was the democratically elected<ref>{{Citation|author=Glover Furr|year=2019|title=Stalin and the Struggle for Democratic Reform|title-url=http://marxism.halkcephesi.net/Grover%20Furr/stalin_1.htm|quote=This article outlines Joseph Stalin's attempts, from the 1930s until his death, to democratize the government of the Soviet Union.|pdf=https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/clogic/article/download/191861/188830/218717|trans-lang=English}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author=Pat Sloan|year=1937|title=Soviet Democracy|title-url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Soviet_Democracy.html?id=UeGRyAEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description|section=Democracy and Dictatorship|page=9|pdf=https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/pat-sloan-soviet-democracy-victor-gollancz-1937.pdf|isbn=9781092297394|trans-lang=English}}</ref> leader of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], being the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of Central Committee of Communist Party of Soviet Union]] from 3 April 1922 to 16 October 1952. Although he is often portrayed as a dictator in the West, even the [[reactionary]] [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] admitted that there was collective leadership during his time in office.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Central Intelligence Agency|title=Comments on the Change in Soviet Leadership|date=2008-02-26|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf}}</ref>


== Early life ==
== Pre-revolution ==
 
=== Early life ===


Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili was born on 21 December, 1878<ref group="lower-alpha">Although some historians claim he was born in 18th December, his birthday was officially celebrated on 21st December.</ref> in Gori<ref group="lower-alpha">The city of Gori was part of the Tiflis Governorate, which was one of the administrative divisions of the [[Russian Empire]].</ref> a city of the [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian Empire]]. Like his parents, Stalin was an ethnic [[Georgia|Georgian]], and he grew up speaking the Georgian language. Both his father and his mother came from a family of serfs.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ian Grey|year=1979|title=Stalin, man of history|chapter=|section=|page=9|quote=Vissarion, his father, came from the village of Didi-Lilo, near Tiflis, where his parents, like their forebears, had been peasant­ serfs. For Vissarion emancipation meant that he was free to fol­ low his trade as a cobbler. Around 1870 he moved to Gori, where in 1874 he married Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze, daughter of a serf family from a nearby village. She was about eighteen years of age, some five years younger than her husband. They were humble working people, poor and illiterate.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=A341F7377CB157DD7730A9A416CDC302|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>  
Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili was born on 21 December, 1878<ref group="lower-alpha">Although some historians claim he was born in 18th December, his birthday was officially celebrated on 21st December.</ref> in Gori<ref group="lower-alpha">The city of Gori was part of the Tiflis Governorate, which was one of the administrative divisions of the [[Russian Empire]].</ref> a city of the [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian Empire]]. Like his parents, Stalin was an ethnic [[Georgia|Georgian]], and he grew up speaking the Georgian language. Both his father and his mother came from a family of serfs.<ref>{{Citation|author=Ian Grey|year=1979|title=Stalin, man of history|chapter=|section=|page=9|quote=Vissarion, his father, came from the village of Didi-Lilo, near Tiflis, where his parents, like their forebears, had been peasant­ serfs. For Vissarion emancipation meant that he was free to fol­ low his trade as a cobbler. Around 1870 he moved to Gori, where in 1874 he married Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze, daughter of a serf family from a nearby village. She was about eighteen years of age, some five years younger than her husband. They were humble working people, poor and illiterate.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=A341F7377CB157DD7730A9A416CDC302|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>  
Line 22: Line 24:
Stalin's revolutionary activities can be traced to his time as a student after 1894, when he joined the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.<ref>{{Citation|author=Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute|year=1949|title=Joseph Stalin: a political biography|page=5|quote=In the autumn of 1888 Stalin entered the church school in Gori, from which, in 1894, he passed to the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.
Stalin's revolutionary activities can be traced to his time as a student after 1894, when he joined the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.<ref>{{Citation|author=Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute|year=1949|title=Joseph Stalin: a political biography|page=5|quote=In the autumn of 1888 Stalin entered the church school in Gori, from which, in 1894, he passed to the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.


This was a period when, with the development of industrial capitalism and the attendant growth of the working-class movement, Marxism had begun to spread widely throughout Russia. The St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, founded and led by Lenin, had given a powerful stimulus to the Social-Democratic movement all over the country.|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=26C959185500A43A5CFF3947ECEF2FCB}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|year=1931|title=[[Library:Stalin interview with Emil Ludwig|Stalin interview with Emil Ludwig]]|quote=I joined the revolutionary movement at the age of fifteen, when I became connected with certain illegal groups of Russian Marxists in Transcaucasia. These groups exerted a great influence on me and instilled in me a taste for illegal Marxian literature.}}</ref> In 1896 and 1897, Stalin was a part of Marxist study groups in the seminary, and in August 1898, he formally joined the Tiflis branch of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labor Party]] (RSDLP). An avid reader, he read ''[[Capital, vol. I|Capital]]'' and the ''[[Manifesto of the communist party]]'', written by [[Marx|Karl Marx]], subsequently taking a profound interest in [[Marxism]]. At that time, he became acquainted with some of Lenin's articles criticizing the Narodnik and the "Legal Marxists".<ref>{{Citation|author=Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute|year=1945|title=Joseph Stalin: a short biography|page=5|quote=Jn 1896 and 1897, Stalin conduoled Marxist study circles in the seminary, and in August 1898 he formally enrolled as a member of the Tiflis Branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. [...]
This was a period when, with the development of industrial capitalism and the attendant growth of the working-class movement, Marxism had begun to spread widely throughout Russia. The St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, founded and led by Lenin, had given a powerful stimulus to the Social-Democratic movement all over the country.|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=26C959185500A43A5CFF3947ECEF2FCB}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|year=1931|title=[[Library:Stalin interview with Emil Ludwig|Stalin interview with Emil Ludwig]]|quote=I joined the revolutionary movement at the age of fifteen, when I became connected with certain illegal groups of Russian Marxists in Transcaucasia. These groups exerted a great influence on me and instilled in me a taste for illegal Marxian literature.}}</ref> In 1896 and 1897, Stalin was a part of Marxist study groups in the seminary, and in August 1898, he formally joined the Tiflis branch of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labor Party]] (RSDLP). An avid reader, he read ''[[Capital, vol. I|Capital]]'' and the ''[[Manifesto of the communist party]]'', written by [[Marx|Karl Marx]], subsequently taking a profound interest in [[Marxism]]. At that time, he became acquainted with some of [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]'s articles criticizing the [[Narodniks]] and the "Legal Marxists".<ref>{{Citation|author=Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute|year=1945|title=Joseph Stalin: a short biography|page=5|quote=Jn 1896 and 1897, Stalin conduoled Marxist study circles in the seminary, and in August 1898 he formally enrolled as a member of the Tiflis Branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. [...]


Stalin worked hard to broaden his knowledge. He studied Capital, the Communist Manifesto and other works of Marx and Engels. He acquainted himself with Lenin's polemical writings against Narodism, "Legal Marxism" and "Economism." His theoretical interests were extremely broad. He studied philosophy, political economy, history and natural science. He read widely in the classics. He thus trained himself to he an educated Marxist. Even at this early date Lenin's writings made a deep impression on him. "I must meet him al all costs," one of Stalin's friends. reports him to have said. after reading an article by Tulin (Lenin).|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=034C4C1A4DBC437BC939DCF13A1D9EBD}}</ref>
Stalin worked hard to broaden his knowledge. He studied Capital, the Communist Manifesto and other works of Marx and Engels. He acquainted himself with Lenin's polemical writings against Narodism, "Legal Marxism" and "Economism." His theoretical interests were extremely broad. He studied philosophy, political economy, history and natural science. He read widely in the classics. He thus trained himself to he an educated Marxist. Even at this early date Lenin's writings made a deep impression on him. "I must meet him al all costs," one of Stalin's friends. reports him to have said. after reading an article by Tulin (Lenin).|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=034C4C1A4DBC437BC939DCF13A1D9EBD}}</ref>


== Post-Revolution ==
=== Revolutionary activities ===
Joseph Stalin became [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars]] in 1941, a position he would hold until his death.<ref>{{Citation|author=Samuel Totten, Paul Bartrop|year=2008|title=Dictionary of Genocide: A–L|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313346422}}</ref> Although he is often portrayed as a dictator in the West, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] admitted that there was collective leadership during his time in office.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Central Intelligence Agency|title=Comments on the Change in Soviet Leadership|date=2008-02-26|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf}}</ref>
While organizing in the [[Caucasus]], Stalin exposed the [[Mensheviks]] as [[Liberalism|liberal]] [[Reformism|reformists]]. He met Lenin in person for the first time at a [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Bolshevik]] conference in Tampere, [[Grand Duchy of Finland (1809–1917)|Finland]] in 1905.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the Russo-Japanese War and the First Russian Revolution|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm}}</ref> In 1912, the party elected Stalin to the Central Committee even though he was in exile at the time.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the Stolypin Reaction. The Bolsheviks Constitute Themselves an Independent Marxist Party|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch04.htm}}</ref> In 1912, Stalin helped found the newspaper ''Pravda''.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party during the New Rise of the Working Class Movement before the First Imperialist War|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch05.htm}}</ref>
 
After the [[February Revolution]], Stalin returned from exile in [[Siberia]]. He called for an overthrow of the [[Russian Republic (1917–1918)|provisional government]] and opposed the [[Imperialism|imperialist]] [[First World War]]. At a party conference in April 1917, he argued with [[Nikolai Bukharin|Bukharin]] and [[Georgy Pyatakov|Pyatakov]], who did not support the right of [[Nation|nations]] to [[self-determination]]. In September, Stalin opposed participating in the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] [[Provisional Council of the Russian Republic|Provisional Council]] and called for a revolution instead.
 
On 29 October 1917, the Central Committee elected Stalin as head of the Party Center to direct the [[Russian revolution of 1917|October Revolution]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Preparation and Realization of the October Socialist Revolution|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch07.htm}}</ref>
 
== Post-revolution ==
 
=== Civil War ===
In summer 1919, the Central Committee sent Stalin, [[Kliment Voroshilov|Voroshilov]], [[Sergo Orjonikidze|Orjonikidze]], and [[Semyon Budyonny|Budyonny]] to the southern front, where he organized an attack against [[Anton Denikin]] from the [[Donbass]]. The [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]] defeated Denikin in October 1919 and liberated all of [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–1991)|Ukraine]] by early 1920.<ref>{{Citation|author=Joseph Stalin|year=1939|title=History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)|chapter=The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Foreign Military Intervention and Civil War|mia=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch03.htm|chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1939/x01/ch08.htm}}</ref>


== World War 2 ==
=== Second World War ===
During the course of [[Second World War|World War 2]], known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, Stalin gave weekly addresses to the Soviet people while his [[Red Army]], lead by [[Georgy Zhukov]], freed Europe from the [[National Socialist German Workers' Party|Nazis]].
Joseph Stalin became [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars]] in 1941, a position he would hold until his death.<ref>{{Citation|author=Samuel Totten, Paul Bartrop|year=2008|title=Dictionary of Genocide: A–L|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313346422}}</ref> During the course of the [[Second World War]], known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, Stalin gave weekly addresses to the Soviet people while the Red Army, led by [[Georgy Zhukov]], freed Europe from the [[German Reich (1933–1945)|Nazis]].


== Debunking myths ==
== Debunking myths ==
Line 36: Line 47:
===Antisemitism===
===Antisemitism===


Despite right wingers and [[Fascism|fascists]] spreading rumours of Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy theories, some historians have made baseless claims that Stalin was an [[Anti-Semitism|anti-semite]]. For refutation please see the below letter from Stalin.
Despite [[Right-wing politics|right-wingers]] and [[Fascism|fascists]] spreading [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]] about "Judeo-Bolshevism," some historians have made baseless claims that Stalin was an [[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semite]]. The below letter from Stalin refutes this claim.


{{Quote|In answer to your inquiry :
{{Quote|In answer to your inquiry:


National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.
National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.


Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at capitalism. Anti-semitism is dangerous for the working people as being a false path that leads them off the right road and lands them in the jungle. Hence Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable, sworn enemies of anti-semitism.
Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at [[capitalism]]. Anti-semitism is dangerous for the working people as being a false path that leads them off the right road and lands them in the jungle. Hence Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable, sworn enemies of anti-semitism.


In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.|J. Stalin|Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States {{Refn|Stalin: ''Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States'' [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/01/12.htm MIA link]}}}}
In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.|J. Stalin|Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States {{Refn|Stalin: ''Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States'' [https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/01/12.htm MIA link]}}}}

Revision as of 17:30, 16 October 2022

Josef Stalin

Иосиф Сталин
იოსებ სტალინი
Portrait of comrade Stalin
Born
Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili

(1878-12-21)December 21, 1878
Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Georgia)
DiedMarch 5, 1953(1953-03-05) (aged 74)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Cause of deathCerebral hemorrhage
NationalityGeorgian
Political orientationMarxism-Leninism

Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili (December 21st, 1878 — March 5th, 1953), more popularly known as Joseph Stalin was the democratically elected[1][2] leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, being the General Secretary of Central Committee of Communist Party of Soviet Union from 3 April 1922 to 16 October 1952. Although he is often portrayed as a dictator in the West, even the reactionary CIA admitted that there was collective leadership during his time in office.[3]

Pre-revolution

Early life

Iósif Vissariónovich Dzhugashvili was born on 21 December, 1878[a] in Gori[b] a city of the Russian Empire. Like his parents, Stalin was an ethnic Georgian, and he grew up speaking the Georgian language. Both his father and his mother came from a family of serfs.[4]

Stalin's revolutionary activities can be traced to his time as a student after 1894, when he joined the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.[5][6] In 1896 and 1897, Stalin was a part of Marxist study groups in the seminary, and in August 1898, he formally joined the Tiflis branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). An avid reader, he read Capital and the Manifesto of the communist party, written by Karl Marx, subsequently taking a profound interest in Marxism. At that time, he became acquainted with some of Lenin's articles criticizing the Narodniks and the "Legal Marxists".[7]

Revolutionary activities

While organizing in the Caucasus, Stalin exposed the Mensheviks as liberal reformists. He met Lenin in person for the first time at a Bolshevik conference in Tampere, Finland in 1905.[8] In 1912, the party elected Stalin to the Central Committee even though he was in exile at the time.[9] In 1912, Stalin helped found the newspaper Pravda.[10]

After the February Revolution, Stalin returned from exile in Siberia. He called for an overthrow of the provisional government and opposed the imperialist First World War. At a party conference in April 1917, he argued with Bukharin and Pyatakov, who did not support the right of nations to self-determination. In September, Stalin opposed participating in the bourgeois Provisional Council and called for a revolution instead.

On 29 October 1917, the Central Committee elected Stalin as head of the Party Center to direct the October Revolution.[11]

Post-revolution

Civil War

In summer 1919, the Central Committee sent Stalin, Voroshilov, Orjonikidze, and Budyonny to the southern front, where he organized an attack against Anton Denikin from the Donbass. The Red Army defeated Denikin in October 1919 and liberated all of Ukraine by early 1920.[12]

Second World War

Joseph Stalin became Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars in 1941, a position he would hold until his death.[13] During the course of the Second World War, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, Stalin gave weekly addresses to the Soviet people while the Red Army, led by Georgy Zhukov, freed Europe from the Nazis.

Debunking myths

Antisemitism

Despite right-wingers and fascists spreading conspiracy theories about "Judeo-Bolshevism," some historians have made baseless claims that Stalin was an anti-Semite. The below letter from Stalin refutes this claim.

In answer to your inquiry:

National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.

Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at capitalism. Anti-semitism is dangerous for the working people as being a false path that leads them off the right road and lands them in the jungle. Hence Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable, sworn enemies of anti-semitism.

In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.

— J. Stalin, Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States [14]


Personality cult

Stalin did not want to have a personality cult around himself. In 1938, he requested destroying a book that portrayed him too positively and stated that the theory of "heroes" was an SR and not a Bolshevik theory.[15]

Popular support

In 2019, 70% of Russians said they had a positive view of Stalin's role in history. This was a 12 percentage point increase from 58% in 2015.[16]

References

  1. “This article outlines Joseph Stalin's attempts, from the 1930s until his death, to democratize the government of the Soviet Union.”

    Glover Furr (2019). Stalin and the Struggle for Democratic Reform. [PDF]
  2. Pat Sloan (1937). Soviet Democracy (p. 9). [PDF] ISBN 9781092297394
  3. "Comments on the Change in Soviet Leadership" (2008-02-26). Central Intelligence Agency.
  4. “Vissarion, his father, came from the village of Didi-Lilo, near Tiflis, where his parents, like their forebears, had been peasant­ serfs. For Vissarion emancipation meant that he was free to fol­ low his trade as a cobbler. Around 1870 he moved to Gori, where in 1874 he married Ekaterina Georgievna Geladze, daughter of a serf family from a nearby village. She was about eighteen years of age, some five years younger than her husband. They were humble working people, poor and illiterate.”

    Ian Grey (1979). Stalin, man of history (p. 9). [LG]
  5. “In the autumn of 1888 Stalin entered the church school in Gori, from which, in 1894, he passed to the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis.

    This was a period when, with the development of industrial capitalism and the attendant growth of the working-class movement, Marxism had begun to spread widely throughout Russia. The St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, founded and led by Lenin, had given a powerful stimulus to the Social-Democratic movement all over the country.”

    Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute (1949). Joseph Stalin: a political biography (p. 5). [LG]
  6. “I joined the revolutionary movement at the age of fifteen, when I became connected with certain illegal groups of Russian Marxists in Transcaucasia. These groups exerted a great influence on me and instilled in me a taste for illegal Marxian literature.”

    Stalin interview with Emil Ludwig (1931).
  7. “Jn 1896 and 1897, Stalin conduoled Marxist study circles in the seminary, and in August 1898 he formally enrolled as a member of the Tiflis Branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. [...]

    Stalin worked hard to broaden his knowledge. He studied Capital, the Communist Manifesto and other works of Marx and Engels. He acquainted himself with Lenin's polemical writings against Narodism, "Legal Marxism" and "Economism." His theoretical interests were extremely broad. He studied philosophy, political economy, history and natural science. He read widely in the classics. He thus trained himself to he an educated Marxist. Even at this early date Lenin's writings made a deep impression on him. "I must meet him al all costs," one of Stalin's friends. reports him to have said. after reading an article by Tulin (Lenin).”

    Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute (1945). Joseph Stalin: a short biography (p. 5). [LG]
  8. Joseph Stalin (1939). History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): 'The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the Russo-Japanese War and the First Russian Revolution'. [MIA]
  9. Joseph Stalin (1939). History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): 'The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the Stolypin Reaction. The Bolsheviks Constitute Themselves an Independent Marxist Party'. [MIA]
  10. Joseph Stalin (1939). History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): 'The Bolshevik Party during the New Rise of the Working Class Movement before the First Imperialist War'. [MIA]
  11. Joseph Stalin (1939). History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): 'The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Preparation and Realization of the October Socialist Revolution'. [MIA]
  12. Joseph Stalin (1939). History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): 'The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Foreign Military Intervention and Civil War'. [MIA]
  13. Samuel Totten, Paul Bartrop (2008). Dictionary of Genocide: A–L. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313346422
  14. Stalin: Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States MIA link
  15. Joseph Stalin (1938). Letter on Publications for Children Directed to the Central Committee of the All Union Communist Youth. London: Red Star Press. [MIA]
  16. "Anticommunism Fails: 70% of Russians have a positive opinion on Joseph Stalin" (2019-04-17). In Defense of Communism. Archived from the original on 2021-06-29.

Notes

  1. Although some historians claim he was born in 18th December, his birthday was officially celebrated on 21st December.
  2. The city of Gori was part of the Tiflis Governorate, which was one of the administrative divisions of the Russian Empire.