Stalin ~ ‘man of steel’

“To more than 200 million Russians, Joseph Stalin’s slightest wish was law.  They trembled at his every command.  Step, by step, Stalin moved to accumulate more and still more power for himself.  Meanwhile, the people he ruled with iron-fisted terror knew from bitter experience that at any instant he might casually snuff out the life of one person or of a million – of anybody who stood in the way of his boundless ambitions.”  -- from Stalin by William J Jacobs.

 

I     Early Life ~ ‘Koba’ (the Indomitable one)

  • Stalin was the 4th son and only survivor past infancy to be born to two poor Georgians near the Caucus Mountain region in southern Russia. His family nickname was “Sosa.”
  •  His father was an illiterate drunk who brutishly beat both young Joseph and his mother.  During a particularly bad beating episode endured by his mother, Joseph threw a knife at his father’s head and barely missed.  His father would be stabbed to death in a bar fight later in time.
  • Joseph, being his mother’s only child poured everything she had into his life.  She was determined to do anything he needed and worked several jobs to provide for him and make sure he was educated.  Her aspirations were for him to be a priest.
  • Joseph was a bully who during his childhood picked on and intimidated smaller children and psychologically manipulated and “tricked” the children who were physically superior to him.  It is said that after years of being beaten by his father, that Joseph developed a strange fascination with the idea of pain and showed no compassion or love for animals or other humans except for his mother, (chimney example).
  • Joseph was highly competitive (chickens & rocks example), and had no regard or respect for authority of school, church or anyone other than his mother.
  • Joseph nicknamed himself “Koba” after the Georgian storybook hero who was a clever and strong ‘freedom fighter.’  Koba the character fought hard against seemingly difficult adversaries and he sought revenge against those who had done him and his comrades wrong.  Joseph admired these qualities as he hated the Russian government and despised the existing social system which he saw as being rotten.
  • At age 18, Joseph was expelled from seminary for not showing up for his exit exams.  He had been reprimanded many times for having illicit reading materials about history, logic and revolutionary materials in his room.  Joseph had come to denounce God and believed in the ideas of Charles Darwin.  Upon his expulsion, Joseph dedicated his entire life to the revolutionary cause.

 

Side notes of Stalin’s life…

  • Physically, Stalin was short and cold looking.  A bout of smallpox left his face pockmarked and a blood infection disabled his left arm which in adulthood was 2 inches shorter than his other arm.  He often wore black boots with extra heels to raise him up 2-3 inches. 
  • In 1908 his first wife died, and in contrast to his normal unemotional self, he said, “this creature softened my stony heart.  She is dead and with her my last warm feelings for all human beings have died.”
  • Steel ~ Stalin liked to think his body as tough as steel to w/stand torture and the will of steel to make necessary sacrifices for the revolution
  • *   Yakov~

 

II    Party Membership in Social Democrats

  • Stalin is different from the intellectual bourgeoisie:

Stalin

  • True proletariat – peasant stock
  • Not even completed secondary education
  • Limited travel, only London and Stockholm for meetings

·      Not as well read and prepared for the intellectual aspect of Marxism, but represented the people

Trotsky

  • “Intellectual Bourgeoisie” like Lenin
  • Fascinating writer and orator
  • More international experience
  • *     Marxist ideals
  • *     “Bloodier the Better”
  • Takes the side of Bolsheviks in 1903:

                  --anti-Semitism

                  --high regard for Lenin

                  --new government after revolution should be headed by a few intellectual leaders vs. the Menshevik thought that the leadership should come from the masses and include moderate democrats.

  • “Only on the bones of the oppressors can the people’s freedom be founded … Only the blood of the oppressors can fertilize the soil for peasant self-rule.” –Stalin in regards to uprisings after the 1905 Revolution which Lenin referred to as the “grand rehearsal.”
  • 1908-1917 begins leadership in Bolshevik Camp – ‘star on the rise.’
  • First editor of Pravda, (“truth” in Russian).  First edition printed 1912 and exile to follow.
  • Lenin liked the following traits:  courage, persistence, disciplined, experienced fighter
  • Age 33 named by Lenin to the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party
  • Freed from exile after Kerensky takes power and grants amnesty to all political prisoners
  • Named as Commissionar for National Minorities by Lenin after the November Revolution in 1917.  Stalin once thought that the non-Russian nationalities should be free (he was Georgian) to make their own nations, but the thought will evolve to these people should WANT to be part of the Bolshevik state.  Even in Georgia there was a Menshevik attempt at independence which was stopped when Stalin threatened severe violence.  Total of 180 national minorities at the time.

 

III   Struggle for Leadership:  Trotsky vs. Stalin

·         Even before the death of Lenin, a power play between Trotsky and Stalin develops and will continue:

 

     1.  *  The Tsaritsyn Episode (the future “Stalingrad.”)

                      a)  During Civil war, Stalin in command of the city and area of Tsaritsyn

                      b)  Trotsky was in command of the whole Red Army and proved to be brilliant leader …                             like a stealthy, wise, calculating and patient chess player.

                      c)  Stalin keeps replacing Red Army generals with less qualified men who are loyal to                           him and not the state.

                      d)  Trotsky pulls Stalin from his command at Tsaritsyn and brings him back to Petrograd. 

                      e)  STALIN NEVER FORGETS THIS EMBARRASSMENT…

     2.  Trotsky was Jewish, and Stalin like many Russians did not like that –(remember the Pogroms???).

     3.  Trotsky had been a Menshevik.

     4.  Trotsky was clearly Lenin’s favorite, and it was Stalin’s personal goal to be VI’s right-hand man.

     5.  Trotsky desired victory; Stalin desired more personal gains:

                      a)  Trotsky made decisions based on the best thing to do to win and will step on the                                 toes of many fellow Communists in the process and hurt feelings.

                      b)  Stalin seeks personal gain in his decisions.  Many appointments at different times                          and levels of different people will serve this end and establish loyalty to Stalin                                         from favors vs. state loyalty.

     6.  Personalities / “Gifts”:

                      a)  Trotsky was a grand public orator and stunning writer with great eloquence, Stalin                          was ‘harder’ and more forceful.

                      b)  Trotsky was “intellectual bourgeoisie” and Stalin was … not. J

     7.  Differing Views of the Future of Communism:

                     a)  Trotsky argued for freedoms within Russia so Communism would look more appetizing                         to other countries.  Russia was the base for the world-wide revolution for which the                                 world was ripe.

                     b)  Stalin argued that Russia must be stabilized first, “one country first,” before the                                 world wide revolution would commence.  Resist giving freedom, in times of crises                                    the people must be heavily disciplined because that will bring order.  Russian                                        Communism musat be made strong against outside threat before it could move on.

 

IV    Death of Lenin

·         Stalin at age 40 marries 16 year old who delivers messages for Lenin and passes secret info to Stalin

·         *   Lenin’s “Testament” against the “arrogant bastard” was to be read at an upcoming Party Congress … but in January 1924 a final stroke took the life of Lenin.  Stalin is able to limit.

·         The Soviet Version of Political Survivor…

           a)  Stalin floods the country with pictures of himself and Lenin together

           b)  Stalin makes funeral arrangements for Lenin, gives Trotsky wrong information.

           c)  Stalin joined by Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky

           d)  Trotsky revoked as War Minister

           e)  Trotsky removed from the Politburo

           f)  Trotsky ordered to leave the Soviet Union and finds asylum in Turkey

           g)  Stalin gains power in the Politburo by appointing 3 close, personal friends

           h)  Stalin no longer needs Zinoviev or Kamenev and gets rid of them

           i)  Stalin’s power begins to be consolidated and Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico during the Purges

V     Five Year PlanS

1.  First Five Year Plan:

  • 1928 first began to create heavy industry – railways, power stations, factories.
  • Collective Farms owned by the state instituted and imported tractors mechanized farming to be more efficient
  • *   Kulaks.  Stalin joked to Churchill that 10 million kulaks had to be killed before there was cooperation for the collectivization of farms.

*

 

  • Millions uprooted, to that time largest movement of people in human history in order to populate the east and Siberia.  Importance of establishing industry and developing this area to stay out of the reaches of European conflicts.
  • January 1934, Stalin claims victory of the 1st 5-Year Plan:  “From an agrarian society it has become an industrial society.  From a country of small agriculture, it has become a country of collective, large scale mechanized agriculture …. New industries have been created:  the production of machine tools, automobiles, tractors, chemicals, motors, aircraft, combine harvesters, powerful turbines and generators, and steel”  from Stalin:  The History of a Dictator, 1971.

 

2.  Second Five Year Plan:

·         The cost … as with the first; massive human life.

 

VI    Stalin’s Cult of Personality  -- 

  • ‘sic simper tyrannis’ (thus always to tyrants)
  • Made into a Father figure, God-Like. 
  • Pictures everywhere, posters, propaganda

 

VII  Purges (purge = to cleanse, or clean out)

·         Stalin could never rest secure with his power…

·         secret police and reign of terror, forced confessions, torture

·         *

 

 

VIII     Soviet Foreign Relations Under Stalin

  1. Stalin believes that there are no friends or enemies on the international scene … just interests.
  2. Until Hitler takes power in 1933, Stalin allows German tank corps and aircraft to train on Russian soil, he sees Britain and France as greater dangers than Germany.
  3. Hitler openly says that he wants to seize Russian Ukraine, kill the peasants and give the land to German farmers.
  4. Hitler has his eyes on the limitless grain and oil of Russia
  5. Hitler and Stalin become “reluctant allies” even though Hitler is the #1 hater of Communism in Europe
  6. Non-Aggression Pact 1939 between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR

      a)  divide up Poland

      b)  not attack one another for 10 years

      c)  stay out of the fight if either becomes entangled with other countries

7.  Stalin agrees mainly to “buy time,” needs to re-build Red Army leadership after the Purges and move industry farther east

8.  Stalin and Hitler invade Poland

9.  Stalin presses Communist takeovers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

10.  Stalin wins seaports from Fins

11.  Stalin makes non-aggression pact with Japan

12.  As Hitler takes over Rumania and Bulgaria and comes closer to Russia, Stalin increases exports of metal and oil to Germany to show Hitler that he does not need to invade Russia to get his resources.

13.  Stalin is told by Churchill that British spies knew the exact time and place Hitler was planning on attacking Russia, but Stalin did not trust him.

14.  June 22, 1941 Hitler blasts Russia

15.  Stalin says to burn anything that can not be carried to the east and that a desolate land must be left for the Germans as they approach.

16.  Stalin joins in 3 historic meetings with US and British leaders:  Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam.  These were planning sessions for the defeat of Germany and what to do with Europe after the war.

17.  In winter 1941 the Germans freeze at the gates of Moscow (so-to-speak), Stalin stays to lead.

18.  Re-advance spring 1942 to Stalingrad, Hitler’s personal goal – fails, Soviets win.