Posted on 04/18/2004 4:29:08 PM PDT by FairWitness
Edited on 05/11/2004 5:36:57 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Simon Sebag Montefiore has written a supremely important book about Joseph Stalin, a biography that other scholars will find very hard to equal.
There is a bit about Stalin's life before 1932, setting the stage for the years when he became, as the author remarks, a "red tsar." The story really begins when Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (the dictator's birth name) had climbed to the top of the greasy pole (to use Benjamin Disraeli's wonderful analogy), having pushed aside Vladimir Lenin's expected successor, Leon Trotsky, and then cleverly defeated first the leftist group and then the rightist group. He was the No. 1 man, but Montefiore shows how he was still merely first among equals, a leader but not the leader.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Will there ever be a time when the name "Stalin" will evoke the same scorn/revulsion/horror as "Hitler"?
No, Stalin only became really anti-semitic toward the end of his life. Ukrainians, Russians, etc., haven't been nearly as eloquent about their holocausts caused by Stalin and not Hitler. Solzhenitsyn and the western Robert Conquest have tried, though.
Probably not. From what I hear our State Dept. at the time was full of Communist who hid the fact that Stalin murdered millions. I think that mindset is still there.
He certainly deserves as much, if not more scorn than Hitler.
Probably not. From what I hear our State Dept. at the time was full of Communist who hid the fact that Stalin murdered millions. I think that mindset is still there.
He certainly deserves as much, if not more scorn than Hitler.
These two sentences, I think, says it all..
Stalin was a sociopath and an opportunist..
Determined to survive, and succeed, he learned his early lessons well..
Serve those stronger than you until you're strong enough to challenge and eliminate them, and eliminate those that are weaker, before they become strong enough to challenge you, in turn..
Show no mercy, it is for weaklings.
It is OK to smile and lie, if it advances your purpose... ( Hitler used this one to excellent effect..)
Seize control of all avenues to power, as quickly as possible..
Eliminate any challenges to that control..
Trust no one, manipulate everyone..
Sounds alot like Bill Clinton, in some respects..
Consider, if Stalin had access to the industrial capacity of Germany at the same time that Hitler did..
It may very well have been Hitler's Third Reich being invaded by Stalin's armies.
Both gained control over their populations by different methods, and Hitler's methods, while milder, and more manipulative, allowed resources to be spent on industrialization, creation of a war machine, etc...
Stalin's methods required almost total resources devoted to molding the population's thought and actions through brute force.
No time or resources could be redirected to technology or military industries..
IIRC, Stalin's resources were devoted to agrarian reform, and the communist, communal farm structure.. brainwashing, as it were..
Thanks for the "ping"..
I may have to pick up a copy of this book..
So very cold-blooded, wasn't he. Amazing the things we humans can say & do - I suppose a lack of concience helps.
But they have such good health care, don't you know; and education. </ sarcasm>
I don't mean to downplay what the Nazis did but it has become overkill. In our "popular culture" about every act of evil has a Nazi behind it. Where are all the "Stalinist" bad guys?
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