Joseph Stalin

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Joseph Stalin.

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Russian Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Джугашви́ли, better known as Joseph Stalin (December 6, 1878 - March 5, 1953) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1922 until his death. He was the son of a poor Georgian cobbler and a former seminary student who became a Bolshevik and one of Lenin's closest allies during the their take-over of the Kerensky regime. During the Russian Civil War Stalin, who chose his name from the Russian word for steel, held the city of Tsaritsen on the Volga from counter-revolutionary forces. Stalin later re-named Stalingrad in honor of his victory, and was the same city of Germany's massive defeat in World War II.

Rise to Power

Lenin left, Stalin right

Stain was tapped by the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, as a low-level informer shortly after he was expelled from the Tiflis seminary in 1899. Stalin then began to systematically inform on revolutionary comrades in party organizations in Tiflis, Baku, and Batum over the next few years. He acquired a highly unsavory reputation among the Social Democrats of these cities and was finally arrested for cover purposes in 1902 when suspicions about him were about to boil over. It was the Okhrana that furnished the invisible means of support for the family he acquired after 1904.

In 1917, the Commissariat of Nationalities was formed with Stalin as its Commissar (Minister). The Commissariat addressed the question of the nationalities of the Russian Empire, and helped integrate them into the Soviet Union. From 1919-1922 he was also the People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection (Rabkrin, from the Russian), which was founded to be a check on the burgeoning Soviet bureaucracy.

In 1922, Lenin named Stalin General Secretary of the CPSU. In 1924 Stalin in turn created the "Secret Department," a unit of 94 of his personal functionaries that maintained special privileges as the nomenklatura, or a list of trusted individuals. He also appointed regional party secretaries who all, of course, supported Stalin. Through the Secret Department Stalin gained control of the Red Army after removing Lev Trotsky in 1925 and the OGPU (later, KGB) when its leader Felix Dzerzhinsky died in 1926. Lenin had foreseen all of this and had warned in his last testament that Stalin should be removed from General Secretary because the position's power was unlimited.

Stalin, however, did not allow this to happen. His most powerful rival, Lev Trotsky, who was the commander of the Red Army, was painted as a danger to the Revolution, because he continued to push the idea of international revolution; the "left opposition." Other Soviet leaders, like Zinoviev, leader of the Comintern, and Kaminev, the head of the Communist Party in Moscow, were painted with the same brush because they supported Trotsky and did not wish to expel him from the CPSU in 1927. Later, he accused his ally Bukharin of being a member of the "right opposition," i.e. he was in favor of a more capitalistic economic system, as seen under the New Economic Policy (NEP) of the early 1920s. Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940 by Ramón Mercader in an extenisve conspiracy that included underground operatives from the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). Zinoviev, Kaminev, and Bukharin were the center of the famous "show trials" of the 1930s. All were put to death.

Catch and Overtake

In 1928 Stalin decided that the Soviet Union was not properly industrialized to enjoy a communist future, so he initiated the First Five Year Plan and the campaign to collectivize agriculture in order to "build socialism," and to "catch and overtake" the capitalist world. Stalin fanned the fires of collectivization, claiming that peasants had been hording grain and that they needed to be controlled. Under this program, rich peasants (kulaks), were exiled or killed for being enemies of the people, and peasants' land was taken in order to introduce collective farming to expedite grain appropriations. Many were called kulaks by jealous neighbors, while the peasants who remained were often the laziest and most ill suited to producing enough grain. Collectivization caused massive famine in Russia, particularly in Ukraine (see Holodomor), where Stalin ordered the Red Army to blockade certain regions and take grain by force. It is estimated that the famine of 1931-33 killed 6-7 million people, while 20 million starved.

The First Five Year Plan was a program of crash-industrialization. After World War I and the Russian Civil War Russia had an industrial capacity equal to that of its 1861 capacity. The only way for Russia to be able to break the "capitalist encirclement," Stalin declared, was to industrialize. Brigades of shock workers were formed to work faster and harder than the world had ever seen. Most of this, however, was pure propaganda, although the shock workers did set the record for concrete poured in a single shift. Compared to the capitalist world which was experiencing the Great Depression, Soviet growth was impressive. Between 1929 and 1937, 8,000 factories were constructed, average GDP growth was around 10%, and the official unemployment statistics, which included gulag detainees, was 0. In 1936, after the Second Five Year Plan, Stalin declared socialism "built." Nevertheless, the capitalist world lived better than the Soviet Union, despite the Great Depression. John Scott, an American CPUSA member and Comintern operative who was living in the Soviet Union during the Five Year Plans, notes this in his memoirs of that period "Behind the Urals." The legacy of the Five Year Plans (most of which Stalin declared "completed" in 4 years) injured the Soviet's production models, because the encouraged quantity and speed over quality. However, the planning of the 1930s enabled the Russians to defeat the Nazis in the 1940s.

Stalin's Terror

Between 1936 and 1938, Joseph Stalin launched his purges to rid the Soviet Union of "fifth columnists," or spies who were loyal to the capitalist world. During the Terror 3 million people were arrested on various and often made-up charges, while 750,000 were executed. Due to the interrogation techniques of the NKVD (later, KGB), which often were torturous, most of those arrested confessed and were sent to work camps, called the Gulag for 10 years and sometimes even 25. Here, prisoners were forced to labor in mines, to log forests, or to do construction. Few lived through their sentences.

The infamous show trials of former leaders of the Soviet Union occurred during this period, where they were accused of working with Trotsky or sabotaging the Soviet Union. Stalin also eviscerated the high command of the Red Army, killing 90% of the leadership. The minions of oppression were not spared either; of the NKVD's 809 officials, 43 lived through the purges. The leadership of the communist party was persecuted as well. For example, in 1934 130 members of the 139-member Central Committee were arrested. The Terror forever made Russians afraid to speak out against the government, and also made sure that no one but Stalin could ever rule the Soviet Union as effectively.

"This famine was deliberately engineered by the regime of Josef Stalin 93 years ago claimed millions of lives, mostly in Ukraine but also in some other parts of the Soviet Union. It is today considered one of the worst atrocities of the Soviet regime and a terrifying act of genocide. Even so, the famine of 1933 is relatively unknown. ... Estimates of how many people died in Stalin's engineered famine of 1933 vary. But they are staggering in their scale -- between seven and 11 million people."

World War II

To avoid war with Germany, Stalin ordered the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, Molotov, to sign a non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler, named the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, on August 19, 1939. The treaty detailed the agreement to split up Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union, give Stalin the Baltic Republics of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, and to allow the Soviets to wage war on Finland, a war that ended in a humiliating Soviet defeat. Both sides, however, knew that they would eventually engage in hostilities.

It seems that Stalin anticipated this less than Hitler, who, in June of 1941 invaded the Soviet Union with the largest land army ever assembled. It consisted of 170 divisions, or 3.5 million troops. Stalin was caught off guard, and the Nazis blazed a path through the Ukraine and European Russia. Reaching Moscow in October 1941, the Nazis threatened Stalin and the entire Soviet Union with defeat. In only 6 months, the Nazis controlled one third of the Soviet economy, a total of 5% of the Earth's surface. Hitler's troops were defeated at Moscow during the winter of 1941-42 after Stalin appointed Yorky Zhukov as commander of the Red Army. A spy in the German embassy in Tokyo, Richard Sorge, informed Stalin that Japan was not going to attack Siberia, freeing thousands of winter ski-troops to move to Moscow to defeat the Nazis. It was during this time that Stalin famously invoked the name of God and allowed religious services to be conducted after 20 plus years of repression. Also, 1500 factories were evacuated and restored in Siberia and 12-15 million workers were moved east of the Urals, where Soviet production was higher than Germany's in 1942, despite Germany holding some 50% of Soviet industry.

The Red Army went on the offensive after the defense of Moscow, but soon the Nazis gained the advantage and pushed to Stalingrad. More than one million troops fought on each side in urban combat. Hitler refused to allow surrender, and eventually the Nazis were encircled and routed. After turning the tide of war in Stalingrad, the 1943 Kursk tank battle was decisive in pushing the Nazis from European Russia. In two years, the Red Army pushed the Nazis all the way back to Berlin. Stalin used his control of Eastern Europe to extract concessions from President Roosevelt at Allied conferences, including control over the region. Winston Churchill warned against this very control, for he greatly feared Soviet hegemony in Europe. Victorious, Stalin named himself Generalissimo and became more popular than ever in the Soviet Union and more dangerous than ever to the capitalist world.

Over the course of World War II, around 25 million Russians died. Twenty million were in the armed services. The total number of 25 million reflects half of the worldwide losses of human life during World War II. The population did not recover until 1956. Many Soviet POWs, like famous writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, were sent to the Gulag after the war because they had fallen into German hands, and were accused of being spies. This swelled the prison camps by the thousands.

Post-War Period and Death

Similar to the 1930s, Stalin undertook a harsh campaign of industrialization, which hurt the Soviets as much as it helped them rebuild. Money was devalued to one-tenth of its previous value, 2 million German and Japanese POWs were forced to stay in the Soviet Union and rebuild the country, and 10% of investment from 1945-46 was from looted machinery. The crops produced by household plots were collected by the government to sell, and a famine in 1947 caused by drought and Soviet single-crop farming killed 2 million. The recovery was built on the Soviet subjects.

Right to left: Lavrenti Beria, Georgi Malenkov, Vassily Stalin, V.M. Molotov, Nikolai Bulganin

After World War II, Stalin's cult of personality emerged as the dominant force of Soviet life. He was credited as the savior of the Soviet Union and the architect of victory, though it was really General Zhukov who was responsible for most of this. The communist youth group, the Komsomol, devoted songs to "the Father of All Nations" or "the Driver of the Locomotive of History." Party membership increased by one million people between 1945 and 1953. Books quoted Stalin as an expert in communism, while he was often photographed surrounded by children to make him seem friendlier. This all served to form a deep, personal connection with Stalin for many Soviets. Indeed, he was loved by the Soviets. When he died in 1953 an anxious mob at his viewing crushed and trampled some mourners to death. Dissidents like Sakharov, the man forced in a prison to build the Soviet atom bomb, cried upon hearing that Stalin had died, despite their intense hatred of him. Despite his terror, he had convinced millions that he was their father.

Following a stroke on March 1, 1953, Stalin died on March 5 after a period of declining performance. Between 1949 and 1952 Stalin increasingly took vacations and met with the Politburo less and less. When he died a short power struggle ensued, one which led to the execution of KGB head Beria as a spy. Eventually Khrushchev became the General Secretary of the CPSU and denounced Stalin's repressive tactics, his purges, gulags, and his cult of personality in the Secret Speech at the 20th Party Congress of 1956. Gulags were dismantled and the political climate was slightly less tense, but Soviet oppression still continued. The period following Stalin's rule is called the "thaw," the start of life again after a long winter.

Stalin and Religion

Joseph Stalin - The bloodiest communist regime dictator was not an ATHEIST(!), but RELIGIOUS COMMUNIST.

1. Stalin grow-up in religious family and it was planed that he will become a priest. Therefore Stalin received religious education in Gori Church‘s School and Tbilisi Priest‘s Seminary which he didn’t accomplished because later he entered Revolution movement. Likely, those ideas about defending poor people and that rich people will go to hell or at least for them will be hard to go to (communistic) heaven... no doubt that Stalin collected such ideas from his religious education. In the Bible itself there are explanations that it will be hard to go to Heaven for rich people and they are oppressors of the poor. “All capital/property is evil and rich people must gift their property to poor” – was not too far from The Bible and teachings of Christ as Christians wants to present now. For example:

Bible:NT:Mat:19:23-24 And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Bible:NT:Ja:2:5-6 “Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court?”

Bible:NT:Ja:5:1 “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.”

Bible shows that if you want to be real believer, you must resign your possessions to poor and have common property, like communists and planned:

Bible:NT:Lu:12:33 “Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.”

Bible:NT:Mar:10:21-22 And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.

Bible:NT:Ac:2:44-45 And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.

2. Stalin wrote poems in Georgian language. They are so good that were being published in local magazines. Few fragments sounds so (translation from Georgian language by L.Kotiukov (Л. Котюков)):

(...) In his burden and song
like the beam of the Sun,
lived great truth –
Divine dream. (...)

But people who forgot God,
with darkness in their hearts,
instead of wine served poison
to him in the cup.

And told to him: “Damn you!
Drink this cup to the bottom!...
And your song is alien for us,
and we don’t need your truth!”

В напеве его и в песне,
Как солнечный луч чиста,
Жила великая правда -
Божественная мечта.

Но люди, забывшие Бога,
Хранящие в сердце тьму,
Вместо вина отраву
Налили в чашу ему.

Сказали ему: "Будь проклят!
Чашу испей до дна!...
И песня твоя чужда нам,
И правда твоя не нужна!"

3. Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalin said (documentary „Mysteries of the Century: Kremlin Kids” (“Тайны века" - "Дети Кремля”) 2003-03-19, 1 Channel 1 Russia), how Stalin told her that Christ existed.

Journalist: It is interesting, that from all Kremlin’ residents, maybe, just Stalin believed in God...
S.Alliluyeva: In fathers library, between other books, were few tomes of “Christ”. It was history of Christ written by vox populist Morozov. I said to my father: “But Christ didn’t exist!” and he answered “Oh no, Christ, surely existed.”

Ведущий: Интересно, что из обитателей Кремля, наверное, только Сталин верил в Бога...
С.Аллилуева: У отца среди книг в библиотеке стояли несколько томов "Христос". Это история Христа, написанная народовольцем Морозовым. Я сказала отцу: "Но ведь Христос не существовал!". А он ответил "Да нет, Христос, конечно, существовал".

In other-bigger Interview to Russian magazine “Version” (“Версия”) and second Russian TV channel RTR (1998) Svetlana spoke more about her father’s belief in God. She said, that later Stalin told her history of Christ. And she thinks that he was believer.

Stalin‘s wife Nadezhda maybe was an atheist, because she denied for nannies to talk about God with kids. But it was not big problem - by official version (maybe with God‘s help Nadezhda shoot herself in 1932.  Maybe it is symbolic, that her name means “Hope”. Stalin’s daughter said that after mother’s death Stalin lost everything human in him. We can conclude from this, that Stalin told about Christ to his daughter before year 1932. Other thing, Stalin told about Christ to his daughter after she showed interest in Stalin‘s personal library book from series „Christ“.

4. At meeting of the Political Bureau in 1933 Stalin gave speech where he told not to destroy and but prevent churches. Fragment of his speech sounds so: “Central Committee considers that it is impossible to designing buildings with destruction of temples and churches, what we must treat like monuments of architecture by Old Russian heritage." ("ЦК считает невозможным проектирование застроек за счет разрушения храмов и церквей, что следует считать памятниками архитектуры древнерусского зодчества".).

5. Under Stalin‘s insisting In 1939, Politburo of the Central Committee has admitted prosecutions of believers “inexpedient”. In 1939 Stalin canceled Lenin's instruction from May, 1st, 1919 for N 13666-2 "About struggle against priests and religion" and gave orders to People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) to release from custody already arrested priests “if activity of these citizens didn’t harm the Soviet authority”. Lenin was an atheist and banned religion mostly because Church was rich and supported Monarchy-Tsar (Bible:NT:Ro:13:1 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”) - was against parliamentarian government system and by that government was hanged his brother. Other thing, psychologist Giunter Cruse, who examined Vladimir Ulajnov’s (Lenin) genealogy tree, found that Lenin’s grandmother was burned on fire as which. Lenin has his reasons not to like Church. But even Lenin scraped with Stalin and tried to keep him from power until was alive because of Stalin’s cruelty. Why Russians hated church, especially after war? Church was flirting with Nazi in World War Two (Pius XI signed friendly agreement with Mussolini in 1929 and with Hitler in 1934). Fascism was born with Mussolini in Italy (Vatican’s cradle). So it is normal, that Russians revenged to all, who collaborated with Nazi and fascists.

6. Juri Solowjew (Stalin’s Personal Guard for 10 years) claimed that in World War Two Stalin went to small Kremlins Church. (French, Austrian, Germany and Russian documentary “Inside the Kremlin: In the Heart of Russia” by Thomas Schreiber (2005, NDR Television in cooperation with Channel 1 Russia). It could be between years 1939 and 1945.

7. In 1942-1943 Stalin started to organze meetings with priests and incited to reopened Churches, seminaries, academies, publish religious magazines in “communistic speed” (as quick as possible) and promised full support. In one such meeting “Comrade Stalin told: “Well, as you want, this is your business and if you want theological class, begin with them, but the Government will not have objections and against opening seminaries and academies" (M.I.Odincov “Russian patriarchs of XX century” year 1994, № 34 note of G.G.Karpov about Russian patriarchs welcome by J.V.Stalin 286 page).

“Тов. Сталин сказал: "Ну, как хотите, это дело ваше, а если хотите богословские курсы, начинайте с них, но Правительство не будет иметь возражений и против открытия семинарий и академий". (Одинцов М.И. „Русские патриархи ХХ века.“ 1994 год, № 34 записка Г.Г.Карпова о приеме И.В.Сталиным иерархов Русской Православной Церкви 286 стр.).

“Stalin has told, that the church can count on comprehensive support of the Government in all questions connected with its organizational strengthening and development inside of the USSR and that, as he spoke about the organization of spiritual educational institutions, not objecting to opening of seminaries in dioceses so there cannot be obstacles and to opening managements of candle factories at eparchial and other manufactures.”

“Тов. Сталин сказал, что церковь может рассчитывать на всестороннюю поддержку Правительства во всех вопросах, связанных с ее организационным укреплением и развитием внутри СССР, и что, как он говорил об организации духовных учебных заведений, не возражая против открытия семинарий в епархиях, так не может быть препятствий и к открытию при епархиальных управлениях свечных заводов и других производств.”

“Then, addressing to me, Stalin has told: “It is necessary to provide the right of the bishop to dispose church's sums (money). It is no need to do obstacles for the organization of seminaries, candle factories, etc.”

"Затем, обращаясь ко мне, т. Сталин сказал: "Надо обеспечить право архиерея распоряжаться церковными суммами. Не надо делать препятствий к организации семинарий, свечных заводов и т. д.".

8. English historian Simon Sebag Montefiore studied Stalin’s hobbies and personal library, what Stalin liked to read, what kind of marks he left in his books. He found that Stalin liked to quote long quotes from the Bible. Stalin left such mark about God in the book by Anatole France "Last pages. Dialogues under a rose": "Don‘t know traces, don‘t see. There is no Him for them” (“Следов не знают, не видят. Его для них нет”). It seems that Stalin thought he knew God’s traces and saw God, not like others.

9. Stalin "hated" religion so much, that in 1951-06-27 he gaved “Stalin’s Prize” to English clergyman Hewlett Johnson. Various prizes under Soviet authority received and other priests.

So, Stalin’s love to religion was not just right before his death, but started much earlier. Some people say, that Stalin reopened religion just because Hitler in Germany planed to attack Russia (therefore it is strange why Stalin didn’t believed, that Germany attacking USSR borders and argue that it is just propaganda by enemies right after invasion)... blah blah blah. Ok, maybe he told stories of Christ to his daughter Svetlana because he afraid Hitler too ? But even if so...  it seems, that Stalin understood power of religion and if you want to send people to death ant kill others... the best help for that purpose can provide... religion. When you know, that Heaven is waiting for you after death, you can die with smile on your face. For deserts to religion and recreation of church in Russia, some groups even started initiative to declare Stalin as saint.

Why Stalin was so cruel? Violent father, Church School and Priest’s Seminary formed his view to the World and how he can treat it. This had impact to his actions:

I.V.Stalin remembered: "From the protest against a humiliating regime and Jesuit methods which were in seminary, I was ready to become and really became the revolutionist, the supporter of Marxism (auth. notice: not(!) Atheism), as really revolutionary doctrine" – so we can thank for Stalin what he was to …Priest’s Seminary.

И.В. Сталин вспоминал: "Из протеста против издевательского режима и иезуитских методов, которые имелись в семинарии, я готов был стать и действительно стал революционером, сторонником марксизма, как действительно революционного учения".

People often don’t understand difference between Communism/Socialism and Atheism/Theism – one ideology is about „humans(rich) vs humans(poor)“, other - „humans(all) vs God“. Church functioned and was not fully oppressed in USSR – maybe, because KGB very successfully used it to spy on people through confessions. Church in USSR was separated from Government IN THE SAME WAY(!) as in USA, European Union or other civilized parts of the World. Communism (commun=collective/shared) was not about believing or not believing in GOD (atheism/theism), but about COLLECTIVE PROPERTY. Because property of Churches was nationalized, Church and believers (especially in the West) started to conclude that it was “atheistic” regime (of course, just atheists are capable to kill, rob and take neighbors property by force) and “forgot” that property (in the same way) was taken from all atheists too. In Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia (Theravada Buddhist 95%, other 5%) statistically almost all (~100%) people at that time were BELIEVERS! It is wrong to think, that in these countries (like Russia in 1917) communistic revolution (Great October Socialist Revolution) was realized by atheists – they were absolutely minority. Russia just now reached 24% atheists in state. Communism even didn’t destroyed religion but preserved it. In Communistic block countries there are more believers than in Western Europe (capitalistic countries). For example atheist’s amount:

Sweden 46%
UK 46%
Germany 44%
Denmark 43%
France 43%
Belgium 42%
Netherlands 39%
...
Russia 24%
China 8%

Quotes

"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." ~ to Churchill, 1945.

References

Though this isn't footnoted, it is culled from the following sources:

Hosking, Geoffrey. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.

Scott, John. Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia’s City of Steel. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956; an experiment in literary investigation, Translated from the Russian by Thomas P. Whitney, Publisher New York, Harper & Row (1974-78), 1st Edition, pg. 67n.