Ironically, Stalin was a Georgian.
Djugashvili’s adoption of the more Russian-sounding name of Stalin (“man of steel”) around the year 1910 intrigued Tucker. One explanation given by the author, that “Stalin” was similar to “Lenin,” is quite plausible, considering the high esteem in which Djugashvili held Lenin. The author, however, gave an additional rationalization that Djugashvili was somehow expressing his disgust for all things Georgian, since the kingdom was “weak because of its smallness” and “a perennial victim in the centuries-old contest among the powers of the area.” This is perhaps the most overstated argument in the book, and one for which Tucker had little documentation to support. Furthermore, the author did not consider the idea that Djugashvili might simply have seen a name change as a pragmatic way to better blend in with the Russian Marxists. Also, given his numerous arrests, prison terms, and periods of exile, a name change might have been Stalin’s method of achieving some distance between past and present. At any rate, the “man of steel” felt a deep internal drive toward self-perfection; Tucker called this an “intolerance of anything short of perfection in himself,” which not only spurred him forward but also made him blind to his own blemishes.