[Atlantic Friend]

An opera director ?!? I just KNEW these things had to be more sinister than just a bunch of overweight people yelling at each other in foreign languages !

More seriously, I really didn't know that. That's an interesting background for a ruthless dictator : he never had to cope with reality, and always had the right to direct what people should do or wear or say... His Ju-che (self-sufficiency) dogma would earn his author a long stay in a psychiatric ward in any Western country.

Stalin was an opera fan, too. Go figure. His favorite was "Boris Godounov", a tale of treason, murder and assorted crimes...

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #70

Stalin wanted to be like a great Khan. Kim Il-sung (former ruler of N. Korea) wanted to be like Stalin. His son, Kim Jong-il, wanted to be like Kim Il-sung.