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| {{Infobox Officeholder | |||
| | name = Joseph Stalin<br/> <small>იოსებ სტალინი<br/>Иосиф Сталин</small> | |||
| | image = Stalin3.jpg|250px | |||
| | nationality = ] | |||
| | order = ] | |||
| | term_start = ], ] | |||
| | term_end = ], ] | |||
| | predecessor = none ''(position created in 1922)'' | |||
| | successor = ] | |||
| | birth_date = ], ]<!--NOTE: His date of birth is NOT December 21, 1879, see the footnote at the bottom of the page--> | |||
| | birth_place = ], ], ] | |||
| | death_date = ], ] (aged 74) | |||
| | death_place = ], ] | |||
| | military_rank = ] | |||
| | party = ] | |||
| | vicepresident = | |||
| | order2 = ]| term_start2=], ] | |||
| | term_end2 = ], ] | |||
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| }} | |||
| '''{{Audio|ru-Stalin.ogg|Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili}}''' ({{lang-ka|იოსებ ბესარიონის ძე ჯუღაშვილი}}, ''Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili''; {{lang-ru|Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Джугашвили}}, ''Iosif Vissarionovič Džugašvili'') ({{OldStyleDate|December 18|1878|December 6}}<ref> Although there is an inconsistency among published sources about Stalin's year and date of birth, Iosif Dzhugashvili is found in the records of the Uspensky Church in ], ] as born on ] (]: ]) 1878. This birth date is maintained in his School Leaving Certificate, his extensive tsarist Russia police file, a police arrest record from 18 April 1902 which gave his age as 23 years, and all other surviving pre-revolution documents. Stalin himself listed ] ] in a curriculum vitae as late as 1921, in his own handwriting. However, after his coming to power in ], the date was changed to ] ] (], ]), and that was the day his birthday was celebrated in the ]. Russian playwright ] argues in his book ''Stalin'' that he changed the year to 1879 to have a nation-wide birthday celebration of his 50th birthday. He could not do it in 1928 because his rule was not absolute enough. </ref> – ], ]), better known by his adopted name, '''Joseph Stalin''' (alternatively transliterated '''Josef Stalin'''), was ] of the ]'s ] from ] until ]. Despite his formal position being originally without significant influence, and his office being nominally but one of several Central Committee Secretariats, Stalin's increasing control of the Party from ] onwards led to him becoming the ''de facto'' party leader and the dictator of his country.<ref>Bullock, p. 548, "both dictators"</ref><ref>Ulam, p. xiv, "the dictator not only deprived"</ref><ref>Davies, Harris, p.108, ''"Stalin as dictator"''</ref><ref>Mawdsley, p. 1, "effectively a dictator"</ref><ref>Overy, p. 17, "and, later, as dictator"</ref> | |||
| ==Introduction== | |||
| <!--]0.6mb for nothing--> | |||
| Born '''Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili''' (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Джугашвили )called himself Joseph Stalin, which meant "Man of Steel." TWS. Stalin became ] in 1922. Following the death of ] in ], he prevailed in a power struggle over ], who was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union. | |||
| In the ] Stalin initiated the ], a campaign of political repression, persecution and executions that reached its peak in ]. | |||
| Stalin's rule had long-lasting effects on the features that characterized the Soviet state from the era of his rule to its collapse in ]—though ], ]s and some others say he was actually the last legitimate Socialist leader in the Soviet Union's history. Stalin claimed his policies were based on ]; they are now often considered to represent a political and economic system called ]. | |||
| Stalin replaced the ] (NEP) of the ] with ]s in ] and ] at roughly the same time. The Soviet Union was transformed from a predominantly peasant society to a major world industrial power by the end of the 1930s.<ref>Simon Sebag Montefiore. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, Knopf, 2004 (ISBN 1-4000-4230-5)</ref><ref>Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941-1945 ISBN 0-14-027169-4).</ref><ref>Richard Overy The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia ISBN 0-393-02030-4)</ref> | |||
| Confiscations of grain and other food by the Soviet authorities under his orders contributed to a famine between ] and ], especially in the key agricultural regions of the Soviet Union, ] (''see'' ]), ] and ] that resulted in millions of deaths. Many peasants resisted collectivization and grain confiscations, but were repressed, most notably well-off peasants deemed "]s." | |||
| Bearing the brunt of the Nazis' attacks (around 75% of the ]'s forces), the Soviet Union under Stalin made the largest and most decisive contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany during ] (known in the USSR as the ], ]–45). After the war, Stalin established the USSR as one of the two major ]s in the world, a position it maintained for nearly four decades following his death in ]. | |||
| Stalin's rule - reinforced by a ] - fought real and alleged opponents mainly through the security apparatus, such as the ]. Millions of people were killed through famines, executions, deportations, and in the ]. ], Stalin's henchman and eventual successor, denounced Stalin's rule and the cult of personality in ], initiating the process of "]" which later became part of the ]. | |||
| ==Childhood and early years== | |||
| ] | |||
| Reliable sources about Stalin's youth are few; however those which were left were subject to censorship as was common during Stalin's reign.{{Fact|date=March 2007}} Some consider the writings of Stalin's daughter, ] to be the most reliable sources, since they were not censored.{{Fact|date=March 2007}} | |||
| Joseph Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in ], ], ] to ] and ]. In 1913, he adopted the name Stalin, which is derived from the Russian ''stal’'' ({{lang-ru|сталь}}) for "steel". His mother was born a ]. The other three Dzhugashvili children died young; "Soso" (the Georgian pet name for Joseph), was effectively the only child. Stalin's father Vissarion was a cobbler, who opened his own shop, but quickly went bankrupt, forcing him to work in a shoe factory in Tiflis. (Archer 11) | |||
| Rarely seeing his family and drinking heavily, Vissarion often beat his wife and small son. One of Stalin's friends from childhood wrote, "Those undeserved and fearful beatings made the boy as hard and heartless as his father." The same friend also wrote that he never saw him cry.<ref>Hoober 15</ref> | |||
| ] | |||
| Another of his childhood friends, ], felt that the beatings by Stalin's father gave him the hatred of authority. He also said that anyone with power over others reminded Stalin of his father's cruelty. Stalin had broken his arm several times over his life. There have been reports of Stalin having one arm shorter than the other. {{Fact|date=February 2007}} | |||
| ] | |||
| At about seven years of age Stalin fell ill with ] and his face was badly scarred by the disease. He later had photographs retouched to make his pockmarks less apparent. | |||
| In 1888, Stalin's father left to live in ], leaving the family without support. Rumors said he died in a drunken bar fight; however, others said they had seen him in Georgia as late as 1931. At the age of eight, "Soso" began his education at the Gori Church School. | |||
| When attending school in Gori, "Soso" was among a very diverse group of students. Joseph and most of his classmates were Georgian and spoke mostly Georgian. However, at school they were forced to use Russian. Even when speaking in Russian, their Russian teachers mocked Joseph and his classmates because of their Georgian accents. His peers were mostly the sons of affluent priests, officials, and merchants. | |||
| During his childhood, Joseph was fascinated by stories he read telling of Georgian mountaineers who valiantly fought for Georgian ]. His favorite hero in these stories was a legendary mountain ranger named ], which became Stalin's first alias as a ]. He graduated first in his class and at the age of 14 he was awarded a scholarship to the | |||
| Seminary of Tiflis (]). Although his mother wanted him to be a priest (even after he had become leader of the Soviet Union), he attended seminary not because of any religious vocation, but because of the lack of locally available university education, in addition to the small ] from the scholarship Stalin was paid for singing in the choir. | |||
| ] | |||
| Stalin's involvement with the ] movement (or, to be more exact, the branch of it that later became the ] movement) began at the seminary. During these school years, Stalin joined a Georgian Social-Democratic organization, and began propagating ]. Stalin quit the seminary in 1899 just before his final examinations; official biographies preferred to state that he was expelled.<ref>See Service's biography below</ref> He then worked for a decade with the political underground in the ], experiencing repeated arrests and exile to ] between 1902 and 1917. | |||
| Stalin adhered to ]'s doctrine of a strong centralist party of professional revolutionaries. Stalin and ] attended the Fifth Congress of the ] in ] in 1907 (see ). This congress consolidated the supremacy of Lenin's ] and debated strategy for communist revolution in Russia. Stalin never referred to his stay in London. | |||
| In the period after the ] Stalin led "fighting squads" in bank robberies to raise funds for the Bolshevik Party. His practical experience made him useful to the party, and gained him a place on its Central Committee in January 1912. | |||
| ], and ] meeting in ]. All three of them were "]"; members of the ] party before the ].]] | |||
| His only significant contribution to the development of the Marxist theory at this time was a treatise, written while he was briefly in exile in Vienna, ''Marxism and the National Question''. It presents an ] Marxist position (c.f. Lenin's | |||
| ). This treatise may have contributed to his appointment as ] for Nationalities Affairs after the revolution . | |||
| In 1901, the Georgian clergyman M. Kelendzheridze wrote an educational book on language arts, including one of Stalin’s poems, signed by 'Soselo'. In 1907 the same editor published “A Georgian ], or collection of the best examples of Georgian literature” including a poem of Stalin’s dedicated to Rafael Eristavi.<ref>Volume 1, page 43</ref> His poetry can still be seen in the ] in Gori. | |||
| ==Marriages and family== | |||
| Stalin's first wife, ], died in 1907, only four years after their marriage. At her funeral, Stalin allegedly said that any warm feelings he had for people died with her, for only she could melt his 'stony heart'. They had a son together, ], with whom Stalin did not get along in later years. | |||
| ] | |||
| His son finally shot himself because of Stalin's harshness toward him, but survived. After this, Stalin said "He can't even shoot straight". Yakov served in the Red Army during World War II and was captured by the Germans. They offered to exchange him for Fieldmarshal Paulus, but Stalin turned the offer down, allegedly saying "A lieutenant is not worth a general"; others credit him with saying "I have no son," to this offer. Afterwards, Yakov is said to have committed suicide, running into an electric fence in ], where he was being held. | |||
| ] | |||
| His second wife was ], who died in 1932; she may have committed suicide by shooting herself after a quarrel with Stalin, leaving a suicide note which according to their daughter was "partly personal, partly political".<ref>'''''Koba the Dread''''', p. 133, ISBN 0-7868-6876-7; '''''Stalin: The Man and His Era''''', p. 354, ISBN 0-8070-7001-7, in a footnote he quotes the press announcement as speaking of her "sudden death"; he also cites pp. 103–105 of his daughter's book, '''''Twenty Letters to a Friend''''', the Russian edition, New York, 1967.</ref> | |||
| Officially, she died of an illness. With her, he had two children: a son, ], and a daughter, ]. | |||
| Vasiliy rose through the ranks of the Soviet ], officially dying of ] in 1962; however, this is still in question. He distinguished himself in World War II as a capable airman. Svetlana emigrated to the ] in 1967. | |||
| In his book ''The Wolf of the Kremlin'', ] claimed that Stalin was secretly married to a third wife named Rosa Kaganovich (allegedly the sister of ], a Soviet politician). However, the claim is unproven and many have disputed it, including the Kaganovich family, who deny that "Rosa" and Stalin ever met, and even state that Kaganovich's sister wasn't named Rosa. Kahan also claimed that both Lazar and Rosa were responsible for the death of Stalin (by poisoning), however this (as well as most of the remainder of Kahan's assertions) were dismissed as fabrication by the ]. | |||
| Stalin's mother died in 1937; he did not attend the funeral but instead sent a ]{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. | |||
| ], captured by the Germans]] | |||
| In March 2001, Russian Independent Television NTV discovered a previously unknown grandson living in ]. Yuri Davydov told NTV that his father had told him of his lineage, but, because the campaign against Stalin's cult of personality was in full swing at the time, he was told to keep quiet. The Soviet dissident writer, ], had mentioned a son being born to Stalin and his common-law wife, Lida, in 1918 during Stalin's exile in northern ]. | |||
| ==Rise to power== | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}} | |||
| ] | |||
| In 1913 Stalin was co-opted to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the ]. In 1917 Stalin was editor of '']'', the official Communist newspaper, while Lenin and much of the Bolshevik leadership were in exile. | |||
| Following the ], Stalin and the editorial board took a position in favor of supporting ]'s ] and, it is alleged, went to the extent of declining to publish Lenin's articles arguing for the provisional government to be overthrown. | |||
| In April 1917, Stalin was elected to the Central Committee with the third highest vote total in the party and was subsequently elected to the ] of the Central Committee (May 1917); he held this position for the remainder of his life. | |||
| According to many accounts, Stalin only played a minor role in the ] of ]. Other writers, such as Adam Ulam, have argued that each man in the Central Committee had a specific job to which he was assigned. | |||
| The following summary of Trotsky's Role in 1917 was given by Stalin in Pravda, ] 1918: | |||
| {{cquote|All practical work in connection with the organisation of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organised.}} | |||
| Note: Although this passage was quoted in Stalin's book ''The October Revolution'' issued in 1934, it was expunged in ''Stalin's Works'' released in 1949. | |||
| Later, in 1924, Stalin himself created a myth around a so-called "Party Centre" which "directed" all practical work pertaining to the uprising, consisting of himself, ], ], ], and ]. However, no evidence was ever shown for the activity of this "centre", which would, in any case, have been subordinate to the Military Revolutionary Council, headed by Trotsky. | |||
| During the ] and ], Stalin was a ] in the ] at various ]. Stalin's first government position was as ] of Nationalities Affairs (1917–1923). | |||
| He was also People's Commissar of the ]<!-- WPI and "state control" is a neglected USSR topic in the wikipedia --> (1919–1922), a member of the ] of the republic (1920–23) and a member of the ] (from 1917). | |||
| Stalin played a decisive role in engineering the 1921 ] following which he adopted particularly hardliner, centralist policies towards ], which included severe repression of all opposition within the local Communist party (e.g., ] of 1922), not to mention any manifestations of ]ism (] of 1924).<ref>Knight, Ami W. (1991), Beria and the Cult of Stalin: Rewriting Transcaucasian Party History. ''Soviet Studies'', Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 749-763.</ref> It was in the Georgian affairs that Stalin first began to play his own hand.<ref>Shanin, Teodor (July 1989), Ethnicity in the Soviet Union: Analytical Perceptions and Political Strategies. ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'', Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 409-424.</ref> | |||
| :''See also: ]'' | |||
| ===Campaign against the Left and Right Opposition=== | |||
| {{TotallyDisputed-section}} | |||
| On ], ], Stalin was made ] of the ] of the ], a post that he subsequently built up into the most powerful in the country. It has been claimed that he initially attempted to decline accepting the post, but was refused. This position was seen to be a minor one within the party (Stalin was sometimes referred to as "Comrade Card-Index" by fellow party members) but, when coupled with leadership over the ], actually had potential as a power base as it allowed Stalin to fill the party with his allies. | |||
| Stalin gained considerable political power because of his popularity within the Bolshevik party. This took the dying ] by surprise, and in ] he famously called for the removal of the "rude" Stalin. However, this document was voted on as to its adoption by the Party in a Congress - and a unanimous vote to reject the document was taken by all members of the Congress as Lenin was at this time deemed very ill. | |||
| After ]'s ] in January 1924, Stalin, ], and ] together governed the party, placing themselves ] between ] (on the left wing of the party) and ] (on the right). During this period, Stalin abandoned the traditional Bolshevik emphasis on international revolution in favor of a policy of building "]", in contrast to Trotsky's theory of ]. | |||
| In the struggle for leadership one thing was evident: whoever ended up ruling the party had to be considered very loyal to Lenin. Stalin organized Lenin's funeral and made a speech professing undying loyalty to Lenin, in almost religious terms. He undermined Trotsky, who was sick at the time, possibly by misleading him about the date of the funeral. Thus although Trotsky was Lenin’s associate throughout the early days of the Soviet regime, he lost ground to Stalin. Stalin made great play of the fact that Trotsky had joined the Bolsheviks just before the revolution, and publicized Trotsky's pre-revolutionary disagreements with Lenin. Another event that helped Stalin's rise was the fact that Trotsky came out against publication of ] in which he pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of Stalin and Trotsky and the other main players, and suggested that he be succeeded by a small group of people. | |||
| An important feature of Stalin’s rise to power is the way that he manipulated his opponents and played them off against each other. Stalin formed a "]" of himself, Zinoviev, and Kamenev against Trotsky. When Trotsky had been eliminated, Stalin then joined Bukharin and Rykov against Zinoviev and Kamenev, emphasising their vote against the insurrection in 1917. Zinoviev and Kamenev then turned to Lenin's widow, ]; they formed the "]" in July 1926. | |||
| In 1927 during the 15th Party Congress Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the party and ] lost his seat on the Central Committee. Stalin soon turned against the "]", represented by his erstwhile allies, ] and ]. | |||
| Stalin gained popular appeal from his presentation as a 'man of the people' from the poorer classes. The Russian people were tired from the world war and the civil war, and Stalin's policy of concentrating in building "Socialism in One Country" was seen as an optimistic antidote to war. | |||
| Stalin took great advantage of the ban on factionalism which meant that no group could openly go against the policies of the leader of the party because that meant creation of an opposition. By 1928 (the first year of the ]s) Stalin was supreme among the leadership, and the following year Trotsky was exiled because of his opposition. Having also outmaneuvered Bukharin's Right Opposition and now advocating collectivization and industrialization, Stalin can be said to have exercised control over the party and the country. | |||
| However, as the popularity of other leaders such as ] and the so-called ] were to demonstrate, Stalin did not achieve absolute power until the ] of 1936–38. | |||
| ===Soviet secret service and intelligence=== | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}} | |||
| {{main|Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies}} | |||
| Stalin vastly increased the scope and power of the state's secret police and intelligence agencies. Under his guiding hand, Soviet intelligence forces began to set up intelligence networks in most of the major nations of the world, including Germany (the famous '']'' spy ring), Great Britain, France, Japan, and the United States. Stalin saw no difference between espionage, communist political propaganda actions, and state-sanctioned violence, and he began to integrate all of these activities within the ]. Stalin made considerable use of the ] movement in order to infiltrate agents and to ensure that foreign Communist parties remained pro-Soviet and pro-Stalin. | |||
| One of the best early examples of Stalin's ability to integrate secret police and foreign espionage came in 1940, when he gave approval to the secret police to have ] assassinated in Mexico. | |||
| ==Stalin and changes in Soviet society== | |||
| ===Industrialization=== | |||
| :''Main article: ]'' | |||
| The ] and ] had a devastating effect on the country's economy. Industrial output in 1922 was 13% of that in 1914. A recovery followed under the ], which allowed a degree of market flexibility within the context of socialism. | |||
| Under Stalin's direction, this was replaced by a system of centrally ordained "Five-Year Plans" in the late 1920s. These called for a highly ambitious program of state-guided crash industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture. | |||
| With no seed capital, little ], and virtually no modern infrastructure, Stalin's government financed industrialization by both restraining consumption on the part of ordinary Soviet citizens, to ensure that capital went for re-investment into industry, and by ruthless extraction of wealth from the kulaks. | |||
| In 1933, worker's real earnings sank to about one-tenth of the 1926 level. There was also use of the unpaid labor of both common and political prisoners in ]s and the frequent "mobilization" of communists and ] members for various construction projects. The Soviet Union also made use of foreign experts, e.g. British engineer Stephen Adams, to instruct their workers and improve their manufacturing processes. | |||
| In spite of early breakdowns and failures, the first two Five-Year Plans achieved rapid industrialization from a very low economic base. While there is general agreement among historians that the Soviet Union achieved significant levels of economic growth under Stalin, the precise rate of this growth is disputed. | |||
| Official Soviet estimates placed it at 13.9%, Russian and Western estimates gave lower figures of 5.8% and even 2.9%. Indeed, one estimate is that Soviet growth temporarily was much higher after Stalin's death. | |||
| According to Robert Lewis, the Five-Year Plan substantially helped to modernize the previously backward Soviet economy. New products were developed, and the scale and efficiency with which existing products were made also greatly increased. Some innovations were based on indigenous technical developments, and others were based on imported foreign technology. <ref>Robert Lewis. ''The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union'', ed. Mark Harrison, RW Davies, S.G Wheatcroft, p. 188</ref> | |||
| ===Collectivization=== | |||
| :''Main article: ]'' | |||
| ] | |||
| Stalin's regime moved to force ] of agriculture. This was intended to increase agricultural output from large-scale mechanized farms, to bring the peasantry under more direct political control, and to make tax collection more efficient. Collectivization meant drastic social changes, on a scale not seen since the abolition of serfdom in 1861, and ] from control of the land and its produce. Collectivization also meant a drastic drop in living standards for many peasants, and it faced violent reaction among the peasantry. | |||
| In the first years of collectivization, it was estimated that industrial and agricultural production would rise by 200% and 50%,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?HistoryID=ac14&ParagraphID=qxe#qxe|accessdate=2006-04-03|title=The rise of Stalin: AD1921–1924|work=History of Russia|publisher=HistoryWorld}}</ref> respectively; however, agricultural production actually dropped{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. Stalin blamed this unanticipated failure on ] (rich peasants), who resisted collectivization. (However, kulaks only made up 4% of the peasant population; the "kulaks" that Stalin targeted included the moderate middle peasants who took the brunt of violence from the ] and the Komsomol. The middle peasants were about 60% of the population). Therefore those defined as "kulaks," "kulak helpers," and later "ex-kulaks" were to be shot, placed into ] ]s, or deported to remote areas of the country, depending on the charge. | |||
| The two-stage progress of collectivization — interrupted for a year by Stalin's famous editorial, "" ('']'', March 2, 1930), and "" (''Pravda'', April 3, 1930) — is a prime example of his capacity for tactical political withdrawal followed by intensification of initial strategies. | |||
| Many historians assert that the disruption caused by collectivization was largely responsible for major ]s. The 1932-1933 famine in ] and the ] regions has been termed the ] (Ukrainian: Голодомор). According to ], "the total Soviet grain crop was no worse than that of 1931... it was not a crop failure but the excessive demands of the state, ruthlessly enforced, that cost the lives of as many as five million Ukrainian peasants." Stalin refused to release large grain reserves that could have alleviated the famine (and at the same time exporting grain abroad); he was convinced that the Ukrainian peasants had hidden grain away, and strictly enforced draconian new collective-farm theft laws in response.<ref>Alan Bullock, p. 269</ref> | |||
| Other historians hold it was largely the insufficient harvests of 1931 and 1932 caused by a variety of natural disasters that resulted in famine, with the successful harvest of 1933 ending the famine. | |||
| However, famine also affected various other parts of the USSR. The death toll from famine in the Soviet Union at this time is estimated at between five and ten million people. (The worst crop failure of late tsarist Russia, in 1892, caused 375,000 to 400,000 deaths.) | |||
| Soviet authorities and other historians have argued that tough measures and the rapid collectivization of agriculture were necessary in order to achieve an equally rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union and ultimately win World War II. This is disputed by other historians such as Alec Nove, who claim that the Soviet Union industrialized ''in spite of'', rather than ''thanks to'', its collectivized agriculture. | |||
| ===Science=== | |||
| :''Main articles: ], ], ]'' | |||
| Science in the ] was under strict ideological control by Stalin and his government, along with art and literature. There was significant progress in "ideologically safe" domains, owing to the free ] system and state-financed research. However, in several cases the consequences of ideological pressure were dramatic — the most notable examples being the "]s" ] and ]. | |||
| In the late 40's, some areas of physics, especially quantum mechanics but also special and general relativity, were also criticized on grounds of "]". Soviet physicists, such as K. V. Nikolskij and D. Blokhintzev, developed a version of the ], which was seen as more adhering to the principles of ]<ref>Oliver Freire Jr. ''''''''</ref><ref>Péter Szegedi ''''''''</ref>. However, although initially planned <ref>Ethan Pollock, ''Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars'', Princeton University Press, 2006; introduction available online at </ref>, this process did not go as far as defining an "ideologically correct" version of physics and purging those scientists who refused to conform to it, because this was recognized as potentially too harmful to the ]. | |||
| ] was the only area of Soviet academic thought to which Stalin personally and directly contributed. At the beginning of Stalin's rule, the dominant figure in Soviet linguistics was ], who argued that ] and that language structure is determined by the economic structure of society. Stalin, who had previously written about language policy as People's Commissar for Nationalities, read a letter by ] criticizing the theory. He "summoned Chikobava to a dinner that lasted from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. taking notes diligently<ref>Montefiore. p.638, Phoenix, Reprinted paperback.</ref>." In this way he grasped enough of the underlying issues to coherently oppose this simplistic Marxist formalism, ending Marr's ideological dominance over Soviet linguistics. Stalin's principal work discussing linguistics is a small essay, "Marxism and Linguistic Questions."<ref>Joseph V. Stalin (1950-06-20). "Concerning Marxism in Linguistics", '']''. Available online as '''''''''' including other articles and letters published (also in ''Pravda'') soon after February 8 and July 4, 1950.</ref> | |||
| Although no great theoretical contributions or insights came from it, neither were there any apparent errors in Stalin's understanding of linguistics; his influence arguably relieved Soviet linguistics from the sort of ideologically driven theory that dominated genetics. | |||
| Scientific research was hindered by the fact that many scientists were sent to ]s (including ], later a ] winner, who spent a year in prison in 1938–1939) or executed (e.g. ], shot in 1937). They were persecuted for their ] views, not for their research. Nevertheless, much progress was made under Stalin in some areas of science and technology. It laid the ground for the famous achievements of Soviet science in the 1950s, such as the development of the ]-1 computer in 1953 and the launching of ] in 1957. | |||
| Indeed, many politicians in the ] expressed a fear, after the "]," that their country had been eclipsed by the Soviet Union in science and in public education. | |||
| ===Social services=== | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}} | |||
| {{main|Soviet democracy}} | |||
| The Soviet people also benefited from a degree of social liberalization. Females were given an adequate, equal education and women had equal rights in employment, precipitating improving lives for women and families. Stalinist development also contributed to advances in health care, which vastly increased the lifespan for the typical Soviet citizen and the quality of life. Stalin's policies granted the Soviet people universal access to health care and education, effectively creating the first generation free from the fear of ], ], and ]. The occurrences of these diseases dropped to record-low numbers, increasing life spans by decades. | |||
| Soviet women under Stalin were also the first generation of women able to give birth in the safety of a hospital, with access to prenatal care. Education was also an example of an increase in standard of living after economic development. The generation born during Stalin's rule was the first near-universally literate generation. Engineers were sent abroad to learn industrial technology, and hundreds of foreign engineers were brought to Russia on contract. ] links were also improved, as many new ] were built. Workers who exceeded their quotas, '']s'', received many incentives for their work. They could thus afford to buy the goods that were mass-produced by the rapidly expanding Soviet economy. | |||
| With the industrialization and heavy human losses due to ] and repressions the generation that survived under Stalin saw a major expansion in job opportunities, especially for women. A death battalion was created, it was mainly made up of women. | |||
| ===Culture=== | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}} | |||
| {{main|Socialist Realism}} | |||
| ] | |||
| During Stalin's reign the official and long-lived style of ] was established for painting, sculpture, music, drama and literature. Previously fashionable "revolutionary" ], ], and ] experimentation were discouraged or denounced as "]". Careers were made and broken, some more than once. Famous figures were not only repressed, but often persecuted, tortured and executed, both "revolutionaries" (among them ], ]) and "non-conformists" (for example, ]). | |||
| A minority, both representing the "Soviet man" (]) and remnants of the older pre-revolutionary Russia (]), thrived. A number of ]s returned to the Soviet Union, among them ] in 1925, ] in 1936, and ] in 1943. | |||
| Poet ] was subjected to several cycles of suppression and rehabilitation, but was never herself arrested. Her first husband, poet ], had been shot in 1921, and her son, historian ], spent two decades in a ]. | |||
| The degree of Stalin's personal involvement in general and specific developments has been assessed variously. His name, however, was constantly invoked during his reign in discussions of culture as in just about everything else; and in several famous cases, his opinion was final. | |||
| Stalin's occasional beneficence showed itself in strange ways. For example, ] was driven to poverty and despair; yet, after a personal appeal to Stalin, he was allowed to continue working. His play, ''The Days of the Turbines'', with its sympathetic treatment of an anti-Bolshevik family caught up in the Civil War, was finally staged, apparently also on Stalin's intervention, and began a decades-long uninterrupted run at the Moscow Arts Theater. | |||
| Some insights into Stalin's political and ] thinking might perhaps be gleaned by reading his favorite novel, '']'', by the Polish ] ], a historical novel on mechanisms of political power. Similarities have been pointed out between this novel and ]'s film, '']'', produced under Stalin's tutelage. | |||
| In ], a ] (basically, updated ] on a very large scale, exemplified by the ] of Moscow) replaced the ] of the 1920s. | |||
| Stalin's rule had a largely disruptive effect on the numerous indigenous cultures that made up the Soviet Union. The politics of the ] and forced development of "Cultures National by Form, Socialist by their substance" was arguably beneficial to later generations of indigenous cultures in allowing them to integrate more easily into Russian society. | |||
| The attempted unification of cultures in Stalin's later period was very harmful. Political repressions and purges had even more devastating repercussions on the indigenous cultures than on urban ones, since the cultural elite of the indigenous culture was often not very numerous. The traditional lives of many peoples in the Siberian, Central Asian and Caucasian provinces was upset and large populations were displaced and scattered in order to prevent nationalist uprisings. | |||
| An amusing anecdote has it that the Moskva Hotel in Moscow was built with mismatched side wings because Stalin had mistakenly signed off on both of the two proposals submitted, and the architects had been too afraid to clarify the matter. In actuality the hotel had been built by two independent teams of architects that had differing visions of how the hotel should look. | |||
| ===Religion=== | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}} | |||
| {{main|Religion in the Soviet Union}} | |||
| ] | |||
| Stalin's role in the fortunes of the ] is complex. Continuous persecution in the 1930s resulted in its near-extinction: by 1939, active parishes numbered in the low hundreds (down from 54,000 in 1917), many churches had been leveled, and tens of thousands of priests, monks and nuns were persecuted and killed. Over 100,000 were shot during the purges of 1937-38.<ref>]: '''''''''' (Yale University Press, 2002), pg 165</ref> During ], however, the Church was allowed a revival as a patriotic organization, after the ] had recruited the new metropolitan, the first after the revolution, as a secret agent. Thousands of parishes were reactivated, until a further round of suppression in ]'s time. | |||
| The Russian Orthodox Church Synod's recognition of the Soviet government and of Stalin personally led to a schism with the ] that remains not fully healed to the present day. | |||
| Just days before Stalin's death, certain religious sects ]. | |||
| Many religions popular in the ethnic regions of the Soviet Union including the Roman Catholic Church, ]s, Baptists, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. underwent ordeals similar to the Orthodox churches in other parts: thousands of monks were persecuted, and hundreds of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, sacred monuments, monasteries and other religious buildings were razed. | |||
| ===Purges and deportations=== | |||
| ====The purges==== | |||
| :''Main article: ]'' | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}} | |||
| {| border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2" style="float; margin: 5px; width:30%; border: solid 1px #bbb;" align="right" | |||
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| | colspan="3" align="left" |<small>'''Left:''' ] January 1940 letter to Stalin, asking permission to execute 346 "]" who conducted "counter-revolutionary, right-Trotskyite plotting and spying activities."<br/>'''Middle:''' Stalin's handwriting: "за" (support).<br/>'''Right:''' The Politburo's decision is signed by Secretary Stalin.</small> | |||
| |} | |||
| Stalin, as head of the ], consolidated near-absolute power in the 1930s with a ] of the party, justified as an attempt to expel 'opportunists' and 'counter-revolutionary infiltrators'. Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from the party, however more severe measures ranged from banishment to the ] ]s, to execution after trials held by ]s. | |||
| The Purges commenced after the assassination of ], the popular leader of the party in Leningrad. Kirov was very close to Stalin and his assassination sent chills through the Bolshevik party. Publicly Stalin merely reacted to this assassination by tightening security by seeking out alleged spies and counter-revolutionaries, but in effect he was removing those who might have threatened Stalin's leadership. This process then transformed itself into extensive purges. | |||
| There are two different versions for the background of Kirov's murder. According to the first Stalin fearing that he might be next in line to be assassinated and decided to initiate purges instead of passively wait. According to the second version Stalin saw Kirov as a dangerous competitor for top-spot in the Soviet Union and decided to kill Kirov himself. | |||
| In the 1930s, Stalin apparently became increasingly worried about Kirov's growing popularity. At the 1934 Party Congress where the vote for the new Central Committee was held, Kirov received only three negative votes, the fewest of any candidate, while Stalin received 292 negative votes, the highest of any candidate. Kirov was a close friend with Sergo Ordzhonikidze, and together they formed a moderate bloc to Stalin in the Politburo. Later in 1934, Stalin asked Kirov to work for him in Moscow. One theory suggests that Stalin did this in order to keep a closer eye on Kirov, this despite of the supposed fact that Stalin entirely controlled the NKVD. Kirov refused, however, and according to the same theory he became a competitor in Stalin's eyes. | |||
| On December 1, 1934, Kirov was killed by Leonid Nikolaev (also seen spelt Nikolayev) in the Smolny Institute Leningrad. Kirov had arrived at the Smolny to work in his office, and, apparently leaving his bodyguard downstairs, headed to the upper floors, where the officials had their rooms. Nikolayev emerged from a bathroom and followed Kirov towards his office, shooting him in the back of the neck. Officially Stalin claimed that Nikolayev was part of a larger conspiracy led by Leon Trotsky against the Soviet government. This resulted in the arrest and execution of Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev, and fourteen others in 1936. The death of Kirov ignited the great purge where supporters of Trotsky and other suspected enemies of the state were arrested. It has been speculated that Stalin was the man who ordered the murder of Kirov, and that the shooting was carried out with the help of the NKVD. However, although most historians believe that this second version of why and how Kirov was killed is more likely, it has so far not been unambiguously proven as right and it is still disputed by some. | |||
| Several trials known as the ] were held, but the procedures were replicated throughout the country. There were four key trials during this period: the Trial of the Sixteen (August 1936); Trial of the Seventeen (January 1937); the trial of ] generals, including Marshal ] (June 1937); and finally the ] (including ]) in March 1938. | |||
| Most notably in the case of alleged Nazi collaborator Tukhachevsky, many military leaders were convicted of treason. The shakeup in command may have cost the Soviet Union dearly during the German invasion of ], ], and its aftermath. | |||
| The repression of so many formerly high-ranking revolutionaries and party members led ] to claim that a "river of blood" separated Stalin's regime from that of Lenin. ] alleges that Stalin drew inspiration from Lenin's regime with the presence of labor camps and the executions of political opponents that occurred during the Russian Civil War. Trotsky's August 1940 assassination in ], where he had lived in exile since January 1937, eliminated the last of Stalin's opponents among the former Party leadership. Only three members of the "]s" (Lenin's ]) now remained — Stalin himself, "the all-Union Chieftain" (всесоюзный староста) ], and ] ]. | |||
| {| border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="2" style="float; margin: 5px; width:20%; border: solid 1px #bbb;" align="left" | |||
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| | colspan="1" align="left" |<small>], the young man strolling with Stalin to his left, was shot in 1940. He was edited out from a photo by Soviet censors . Such retouching was a common occurrence during Stalin's reign.</small> | |||
| |} | |||
| No segment of society was left untouched during the purges. ] of the legal code, listing prohibited "anti-Soviet activities", was applied in the broadest manner. Initially, the execution lists for the ] were confirmed by the Politburo. | |||
| Over time the procedure was greatly simplified and delegated down the line of command. People would inform on others arbitrarily, to attempt to redeem themselves, or to gain small retributions. The flimsiest pretexts were often enough to brand someone an "]," starting the cycle of public persecution and abuse, often proceeding to interrogation, torture and deportation, if not death. ], the widow of the poet ] and one of the key memoirists of the Purges, recalls being shouted at by Akhmatova: "Don't you understand? They are arresting people for ''nothing'' now?" The Russian word <!-- WARNING: Intentionally ambiguous link -->] gained a new meaning: a quick, simplified trial by a ]. | |||
| Towards the end of the purge, the Politburo relieved NKVD head ], from his position for overzealousness. He was subsequently executed. Some historians such as Amy Knight and Robert Conquest postulate that Stalin had Yezhov and his predecessor, ], removed in order to deflect blame from himself. | |||
| In parallel with the purges, efforts were made to rewrite the history in Soviet textbooks and other propaganda materials. Notable people executed by ] were removed from the texts and photographs as though they never existed. Gradually, the history of revolution was transformed to a story about just two key characters: ] and ]. | |||
| ====Ukrainian Genocide (Holodomor)==== | |||
| <!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: ] --> | |||
| '''] (1932-1933)''', or ''']''' (]: Голодомор), was one of the largest national catastrophes of the ] in modern history with direct loss of human life in the range of millions (estimates vary). While the famine in ] was a part of a ] that also affected other regions of the ], the term ''Holodomor'' is specifically applied to the events that took place in territories populated by ethnic Ukrainians. The Soviet government intended to eradicate Ukrainian identity, culture, language, and people. Although the famine affected other regions of the U.S.S.R., its main goal was the elimination of the Ukrainian nation. | |||
| Most modern scholars agree that the famine was caused by the policies of the government of the ] under ], rather than by natural reasons, and the Holodomor is sometimes referred to as the Ukrainian ],<ref name="uscommission">U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine, ''"Findings of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine"'' , Report to Congress, Washington, D.C., ] ]</ref> <ref name="monument"></ref> <ref name="pope"></ref> <ref name="hr356">, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., ], ]</ref> implying that the Holodomor was engineered by the ], specifically targeting the Ukrainian people to destroy the Ukrainian nation as a political factor and social entity.<ref name="Bilin99">{{cite journal | author=Yaroslav Bilinsky| title= Was the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933 Genocide?| journal= Journal of Genocide Research | year= 1999| volume= 1| issue= 2| pages= 147–156 | url=http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/bilinsky.html }}</ref> While historians continue to disagree whether the policies that led to Holodomor fall under the ], ten countries have officially recognized the Holodomor as such. On 28 November 2006 the Ukrainian Parliament approved a bill, according to which the Soviet-era forced famine was an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.<ref>{{cite news | last = Lisova | first = Natasha | title = Ukraine Recognize Famine As Genocide |publisher = ] | date = 28.11.2006 | url =http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_re_eu/ukraine_famine_2 }}</ref> | |||
| ====Deportations==== | |||
| :''Main article: ]'' | |||
| <!-- Please add factual material to the main article, and keep only summary here. --> | |||
| Shortly before, during and immediately after ], Stalin conducted a series of deportations on a huge scale which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949 nearly 3.3 million were deported to ] and the Central Asian republics. Separatism, resistance to Soviet rule and collaboration with the invading Germans were cited as the official reasons for the deportations, rightly or wrongly. Historian ] explains: | |||
| {{cquote|Many no doubt had collaborated with the occupying forces... but many had done so not out of disloyalty but from the instinct to survive when abandoned to their fate by the retreating Soviet armies. The individual circumstances were of no interest to Stalin... After the brief German occupation of the Caucasus was over... the entire population of five of the small highland peoples of the North Caucasus, as well as the Crimean Tatars - more than a million souls - (were deported) without notice or any opportunity to take their possessions. There were certainly collaborators among these peoples, but most of those had fled with the Germans. The majority of those left were old folk, women, and children; their men were away fighting at the front, where the Chechens and Ingushes alone produced thirty-six Heroes of the Soviet Union.<ref>], pp. 904-905</ref>}} | |||
| During Stalin's rule the following ethnic groups were deported completely or partially: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]s, ], ], ]ns, ], ]ns, ]ns, ]ns, ]ns, and ]s. Large numbers of ]s, regardless of their nationality, were resettled to ] and ]. | |||
| Deportations took place in appalling conditions, often by cattle truck, and hundreds of thousands of deportees died en route <ref></ref>. Those who survived were forced to work without pay in the labour camps. Many of the deportees died of hunger or other conditions. | |||
| In February 1956, ] condemned the deportations as a violation of ] principles, and reversed most of them, although it was not until as late as 1991 that the Tatars, ]s and Volga Germans were allowed to return ''en masse'' to their homelands. The deportations had a profound effect on the peoples of the Soviet Union. The memory of the deportations played a major part in the separatist movements in the Baltic States, ] and ], even today. | |||
| ====Number of victims==== | |||
| Early researchers of the ] by Stalin's regime were forced to rely largely upon anecdotal evidence, and their estimates range from a low of 3 million to as high as 60 million.<ref> Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: ''The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956'', 1973-76 ISBN 0-8133-3289-3</ref> But with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, evidence from the Soviet archives finally became available. The government archives record that about 800,000 prisoners were executed (for either political or criminal offences) under Stalin, while another 1.7 million died of privation{{Fact|date=February 2007}} or other causes in the Gulags and some 389,000 perished during kulak resettlement - a total of about 3 million victims. | |||
| Debate continues however, since some historians believe the archival figures to be unreliable.<ref>Anne Applebaum. ''Gulag : A History'' 2004 ISBN 1-4000-3409-4</ref> Also, it is generally agreed that the data are incomplete, since some categories of victim were carelessly recorded by the Soviets - such as the victims of ethnic deportations, or of German population transfer in the aftermath of WWII. | |||
| Thus, while some archival researchers have posited the number of victims of Stalin's repressions to be no more than about 4 million in total , others believe the number to be considerably higher. Russian writer Vadim Erlikman,<ref>Vadim Erlikman. '''Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik.'' Moscow 2004. ISBN 5-93165-107-1 </ref> for example, has made the following estimations: Executions 1.5 million, Gulag 5 million, Deportations 1.7 million (out of 7.5 million deported), and POW's and German civilians 1 million, for a total of about 9 million victims of repression. | |||
| Some have also included the 6 to 8 million victims of the 1932-33 famine.<ref> R. W. Davies, Stephen G. Wheatcroft: ''The Years of Hunger : Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 (The Industrialization of Soviet Russia)'', 2004 ISBN 0-333-31107-8</ref><ref>Andreev, EM, et al, ''Naselenie Sovetskogo Soiuza, 1922-1991.'' Moscow, Nauka, 1993. ISBN 5-02-013479-1</ref> In this case, historians differ as to whether the famine was deliberate - as part of the campaign of repression against kulaks - or simply an unintended consequence of the struggle over forced collectivization. (See also: ]). | |||
| Regardless, it appears that a minimum of around 10 million surplus deaths (4 million by repression and 6 million from famine) are attributable to the regime, with a number of recent books suggesting a probable figure of somewhere between 15 to 20 million. Adding 6-8 million famine victims to Erlikman's estimates above, for example, would yield a figure of between 15 and 17 million victims. Pioneering researcher ],<ref>Robert Conquest. The Great Terror: A Reassessment, Oxford University Press, 1991 (ISBN 0-19-507132-8).</ref> meanwhile, has revised his original estimate of up to 30 million victims down to 20 million. Others, however, continue to maintain that their earlier much higher estimates are correct.<ref></ref> | |||
| ==World War II== | |||
| ] and Stalin.]] | |||
| After the failure of Soviet and Franco-British talks on a mutual defense pact in Moscow, Stalin began to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Hitler's ] Germany. In his ] on August 19, 1939, Stalin prepared his comrades for the great turn in Soviet policy, the ] with ]. According to a controversial Russian author living in the UK, ], Stalin expressed in the speech an expectation that the war would be the best opportunity to weaken both the Western nations and Nazi Germany, and make Germany suitable for "Sovietization". Whether this speech was ever delivered to the public and what its content was is still debated. (see ]). | |||
| ].]] | |||
| Officially a non-aggression treaty only, the ] had a "secret" annex according to which ] was divided into the two powers' respective spheres of influence. The USSR was promised an eastern part of ], primarily populated with Ukrainians and Belorussians in case of its dissolution, as long as ], ], ] and ] were recognized as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence. Another clause of the treaty was that ], then part of Romania, was to be joined to the Moldovan ASSR, and become the Moldovan SSR under control of Moscow. | |||
| On September 1, 1939, the German invasion of ] started ]. Stalin decided to intervene, and on September 17 the ] entered eastern Poland and occupied the territory assigned to it by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. | |||
| In November 1939, Stalin sent troops over the Finnish border provoking war. The ] between the Soviet Union and Finland proved to be more difficult than Stalin and the Red Army were prepared for, and the Soviets sustained high casualties. The Soviets prevailed in March, 1940, but the problems of the Soviet army had been revealed to the rest of the world, including Germany. | |||
| On March 5, 1940, the Soviet leadership approved an order of execution for more than 25,700 Polish "nationalist, educators and counterrevolutionary" activists in the parts of the Ukraine and Belarus republics that had been annexed from Poland. This event has become known as the ]. | |||
| In June 1941, ] broke the pact and invaded the ] in ]. Although expecting war with Germany, Stalin may not have expected an invasion to come so soon — and the Soviet Union was relatively unprepared for this invasion. An alternative theory suggested by ] claims that Stalin had made aggressive preparations from the late 1930s on and was about to invade Germany in summer 1941. Thus, he believes Hitler only managed to forestall Stalin and the German invasion was in essence a ]. This theory was supported by ], ] (see '']'') and ] (see ''Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives''). Most Western historians reject this thesis, though. | |||
| In the diary of ] ], it is also mentioned that the ] fully expected a Soviet attack against German forces in Poland no later than 1942. Such speculations are difficult to substantiate, however, as information on the Soviet Army from 1939 to 1941 remains classified, but it is known that the Soviets had received some warnings of the German invasion through their foreign intelligence agents, such as ]. | |||
| Even though Stalin received intelligence warnings of a German attack, he sought to avoid any obvious defensive preparation which might further provoke the Germans, in the hope of buying time to modernize and strengthen his military forces. In the initial hours after the German attack commenced, Stalin hesitated, wanting to ensure that the German attack was sanctioned by Hitler, rather than the unauthorized action of a rogue general.<ref>Simon Sebag Montefiore. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, Knopf, 2004 (ISBN 1-4000-4230-5)</ref> | |||
| The Germans initially made huge advances, capturing and killing millions of Soviet troops. The Soviet Red Army put up fierce resistance during the war's early stages, but they were plagued by an ineffective defense doctrine against the better-equipped, well-trained and experienced German forces. | |||
| Stalin feared that Hitler would use disgruntled Soviet citizens to fight his regime, particularly people imprisoned in the ]. He thus ordered the ] to take care of the situation. They responded by executing hundreds of thousands (perhaps more) of prisoners throughout the western parts of the Soviet Union. Many others were simply deported east. <ref>]. ''Gulag: A History'', Doubleday, 2003 (ISBN 0-7679-0056-1)</ref> | |||
| Hitler's experts had expected eight weeks of war, and early indications appeared to support their predictions. However, the invading German forces were eventually driven back in December 1941 near ]. | |||
| ] ], ] ] and Stalin at the ].]] | |||
| Stalin met in several ] with Churchill and/or Roosevelt in Moscow, ], ], and ] to plan ] (Truman taking the place of the deceased Roosevelt). | |||
| In these conferences, his first appearances on the world stage, Stalin proved to be a formidable negotiator. ], the British Foreign Secretary noted: | |||
| "Marshal Stalin as a negotiator was the toughest proposition of all. Indeed, after something like thirty years' experience of international conferences of one kind and another, if I had to pick a team for going into a conference room, Stalin would be my first choice. Of course the man was ruthless and of course he knew his purpose. He never wasted a word. He never stormed, he was seldom even irritated."<ref>] (1965). '''''Memoirs: The Reckoning'''''.</ref> | |||
| His shortcomings as strategist are frequently noted regarding massive Soviet loss of life and early Soviet defeats. An example of it is the summer offensive of 1942, which led to even more losses by the Red Army and recapture of initiative by the Germans. Stalin eventually recognized his lack of know-how and relied on his professional generals to conduct the war. | |||
| Yet Stalin did rapidly move Soviet industrial production east of the ] River, far from ]-reach, to sustain the ]'s war machine with astonishing success. Additionally, Stalin was well aware that other European armies had utterly disintegrated when faced with Nazi military efficacy and responded effectively by subjecting his army to galvanizing terror and unrevolutionary, nationalist appeals to patriotism. He also appealed to the ] and images of national Russian heroes. On November 6, 1941, Stalin addressed the whole nation of the Soviet Union for the second time (the first time was earlier that year on July 2). | |||
| According to Stalin's ] of July 27, 1942, any commander or commissar of a regiment, battalion or army, who allowed retreat without permission from above was subject to military tribunal. The Soviet soldiers who surrendered were declared traitors; however most of those who survived the brutality of German captivity were mobilized again as they were freed. Between 5% and 10% of them were sent to ]s. | |||
| ]'' (]). ''Time'' had previously named Stalin ] for the year 1939.]] | |||
| In the war's opening stages, the retreating Red Army also sought to deny resources to the enemy through a scorched earth policy of destroying the infrastructure and food supplies of areas before the Germans could seize them. Unfortunately, this, along with abuse by German troops, caused inconceivable starvation and suffering among the civilian population that were left behind. | |||
| According to recent figures, of an estimated four millions POW's taken by the Russians, including Germans, Japanese, Hungarians, Romanians and others, some 580,000 never returned, presumably victims of privation or the Gulags, compared with 3.5 million Soviet POW that died in German camps out of the 5.6 million taken.<ref>Richard Overy The Dictators Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia p.568-569</ref> | |||
| Returning Soviet soldiers who had surrendered were viewed with suspicion and some were killed. According to historian ]: | |||
| {{cquote|The huge number of Russian troops taken prisoner in the first eighteen months of the war convinced Stalin that many of them must have been traitors who had deserted at the first opportunity. Any soldier who had been a prisoner was henceforth suspect... All such, whether generals, officers, or ordinary soldiers, were sent to special concentration camps where the NKVD investigated them... Twenty percent were sentenced to death or twenty-five years in camps; only 15 to 20 percent were allowed to return to their homes. The remainder were condemned to shorter sentences (five to ten years), to exile in Siberia, and forced labor - or were killed or died on the way home. <ref>], ''Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives'', Vintage; Reprint edition, 1993 (ISBN 0-679-72994-1), p. 905</ref>}} | |||
| The Soviet Union suffered the second highest number of civilian losses (20 million) yet the highest number of military losses (at least 8,668,400 ] personnel) in World War II. The Nazis considered Slavs to be "sub-human", and many people believe the Nazis killed Slavs as an ethnically targeted ]. This concept of Slavic inferiority was also the reason why Hitler did not accept into his army many Soviet citizens who wanted to fight the regime until 1944, when the war was lost for Germany. | |||
| In the Soviet Union, World War II left a huge deficit of men of the wartime fighting-age generation. To this day the war is remembered very vividly in Russia, ], and other parts of the former Soviet Union as the ], and ], "Victory Day", is one of Russia's biggest national holidays. | |||
| ==Post-war era== | |||
| {{Unreferencedsect|date=January 2007}} | |||
| ] on the tribune of ].]] | |||
| Domestically, Stalin was seen as a great wartime leader who had led the Soviets to victory against the Nazis. By the end of the 1940s, Russian patriotism increased. For instance, some inventions and scientific discoveries were reclaimed by Russian researchers. | |||
| Examples include the ], reclaimed by father and son ]s; the ], by ] and ]; the ], by ]; and the airplane, by ]. Stalin's internal repressive policies continued (including in newly acquired territories), but never reached the extremes of the 1930s. | |||
| Internationally, Stalin viewed Soviet consolidation of power as a necessary step to protect the USSR by surrounding it with countries with friendly governments like the variety seen in Finland, to act as a ''cordon sanitaire'' (buffer) against possible invaders (while the West sought a similar buffer against alleged "communist expansion"). | |||
| He had hoped that American withdrawal and ] would lead to increased communist influence, especially in Europe. Each side might view the other's defensive actions as destabilizing provocations and these ]s frayed relations between the Soviet Union and its former World War II western allies and led to a prolonged period of tension and distrust between East and West known as the ] (see also ]). | |||
| The ] ended ] occupying much of the territory that had been formerly held by the Axis countries: | |||
| In ], the Red Army had overrun ] in the last month of the war and then also occupied ] above the ]. ]'s ], though receptive to minimal Soviet support, defeated the pro-Western and heavily American-assisted ] in the ]. | |||
| The Communists controlled mainland China while the Nationalists held a ] on the island of ] (now ]). The Soviet Union soon after recognized Mao's ], which it regarded as a new ally. | |||
| Diplomatic relations reached a high point with the signing of the 1950 ]. Both countries provided military support to a new friendly state in ]. After various border conflicts, war broke out with U.S.-allied ] in 1950, starting the ]. | |||
| ] after the ]'s 1949 victory over the ] in the ].]] | |||
| In ], there were ]s in Germany and Austria. Hungary and Poland were under practical military occupation. From 1946-1948 coalition governments comprising communists were elected in ], ], ], ] and ] and homegrown communist movements rose to power in ] and ]. | |||
| These nations became known as the "Communist Bloc." Britain and the United States supported the anti-communists in the ] and suspected the Soviets of supporting the Greek communists although Stalin ended refrained from getting involved in Greece, dismissing the movement as premature. ] remained an ally of the Soviet Union, but Yugoslavia broke with the USSR in 1948. ], ] and ] received enormous support from the population, which were at the very least friendly towards Moscow. | |||
| Both ]s viewed ] as key. In retaliation to the Western formation of ], Stalin determined to take action. | |||
| Armed with intelligence from the British agent ] and other British and American espionage agents, Stalin was well aware that the United States possessed neither a sufficient atomic bomb arsenal nor the production capacity needed to produce atomic weapons to destroy Soviet or Communist land forces either in Europe or the Far East. He therefore ordered a blockade of ], which was under British, French, and U.S. occupation, to force these powers in retaliation for the planned militarisation of the western-occupied of Germany. Similar to what America did with South Korea, Stalin also extensively armed ]'s North Korean army and air forces (with military equipment and advisors far in excess of that required for defensive purposes) in order to facilitate Kim's aim to unify the Korean peninsula. | |||
| The ] failed due to the unexpected massive aerial resupply campaign carried out by the Western powers known as the ]. In 1949, Stalin conceded defeat and ended the blockade. After ] was formed by the union of the three Western occupation zones, the Soviets declared ] a separate country in 1949, ruled by the communists. | |||
| Stalin originally supported the creation of Israel in 1948. The USSR was one of the first nations to recognize the new country.<ref>See, ''e.g.'', Brown, Philip Marshall. "The Recognition of Israel", ''American Journal of International Law'', Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1948), p. 620.</ref> ] came to Moscow as the first Israeli Ambassador to the USSR that year. But he later changed his mind and came out against Israel. | |||
| In Stalin's last year of life, one of his last major foreign policy initiatives was the 1952 ] for ] and ] from ], but Britain, France, and the United States viewed this with suspicion and rejected the offer. | |||
| ==Stalin as theorist== | |||
| {{KPSS}} | |||
| Stalin made few contributions to Communist (or, more specifically, Marxist-Leninist) theory, but the contributions he did make were accepted and upheld by all Soviet political scientists during his rule. | |||
| Among Stalin's contributions were his "Marxism and the National Question", a work praised by Lenin; his "Trotskyism or Leninism", which was a factor in the "liquidation of Trotskyism as an ideological trend" within the CPSU(B). | |||
| ''Stalin's Collected Works'' (in 13 volumes) was released in 1949. A subsequent 16 volume American Edition appeared, in which one volume consisted of the book "History of the CPSU(B) Short Course", although when released in 1938 this book was credited to a commission of the Central Committee. | |||
| In 1936, Stalin announced that the society of the Soviet Union consisted of two non-antagonistic classes: workers and ] peasantry. These corresponded to the two different forms of property over the ] that existed in the Soviet Union: state property (for the workers) and collective property (for the peasantry). In addition to these, Stalin distinguished the stratum of ]. The concept of "non-antagonistic classes" was entirely new to Leninist theory. | |||
| Stalin and his supporters, in his own time and since, have highlighted the notion that socialism can be built and consolidated in just one country, even one as underdeveloped as Russia was during the 1920s, and indeed that this might be the only means in which it could be built in a hostile environment.<ref>Joseph V.Stalin. "Voprosy leninizma", 2nd ed., Moscow, p. 589; (1951) "Istoricheskij materializm", ed. by F. B. Konstantinov, Moscow, p. 402; P. Calvert (1982). "The Concept of Class", New York, pp. 144–145.</ref> | |||
| ==Death== | |||
| ] in ].]] | |||
| On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner with interior minister ] and future premiers ], ] and ], Stalin did not emerge from his room the next day, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. | |||
| Although his guards thought it odd that he did not rise at his usual time, the next day they were under orders not to disturb him and he was not discovered until that evening. He died four days later, on ], ], at the age of 74, and was buried on March 9. His daughter Svetlana recalls the scene as she stood by his death bed "He suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance. Then something incomprehensible and awesome happened. He suddenly lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse upon all of us. The next moment after a final effort the spirit wrenched its self free of the flesh." Officially, the cause of death was listed as a ]. His body was preserved in ] until ], ], when his body was removed from the Mausoleum and buried next to the Kremlin walls as part of the process of ]. | |||
| It has been suggested that Stalin was assassinated. The ex-Communist exile Avtorkhanov argued this point as early as 1975. The political memoirs of ], published in 1993, claimed that Beria had boasted to Molotov that he poisoned Stalin: "I took him out." | |||
| ] wrote in his memoirs that Beria had, immediately after the stroke, gone about "spewing hatred against and mocking him", and then, when Stalin showed signs of consciousness, dropped to his knees and kissed his hand. When Stalin fell unconscious again, Beria immediately stood and spat. | |||
| In 2003, a joint group of Russian and American historians announced their view that Stalin ingested ], a powerful rat poison that inhibits coagulation of the blood and so predisposes the victim to hemorrhagic stroke (cerebral hemorrhage). Since it is flavorless, warfarin is a plausible weapon of murder. The facts surrounding Stalin's death will probably never be known with certainty.<ref>Jonathan Brent, Vladimir Naumov. ''Stalin's Last Crime : The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953''. HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-019524-X.</ref> | |||
| His demise arrived at a convenient time for Beria and others, who feared being swept away in yet another purge. It is believed that Stalin felt Beria's power was too great and threatened his own. Whether or not Beria or another usurper was directly responsible for his death, it is true that the ] did not summon medical attention for Stalin for more than a day after he was found. | |||
| ==Cult of personality== | |||
| ] by ].]] | |||
| Stalin created a ] in the Soviet Union around both himself and Lenin. The ]ing of the Soviet founder in ] was performed over the objection of Lenin's widow, ]. Stalin became the focus of massive adoration and even worship. | |||
| Numerous towns, villages and cities were renamed after the Soviet leader (see ]) and the ] and ] were named in his honor. He accepted grandiloquent titles (e.g. "Coryphaeus of Science," "Father of Nations," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," "Gardener of Human Happiness," and others), and helped rewrite Soviet history to provide himself a more significant role in the revolution. At the same time, according to ], he insisted that he be remembered for "the extraordinary modesty characteristic of truly great people." | |||
| Many statues and monuments were erected to glorify Stalin but all of them distorted Stalin's true build. Going by these monuments and statues it would be easy to assume that Stalin was a tall and well built man not unlike Tsar ]. This was not the case however; photographic evidence suggests he was between 5 ft 5 in and 5 ft 6 in (165 - 168 cm), hardly tall or imposing. His physical stature was exaggerated in all portraits and statues to avoid any image of weakness that could harm his ]. | |||
| ] criticized the cult of personality built around Stalin as being against the values of socialism and Bolshevism, in that it exalted the individual above the party and class and it disallowed criticism of Stalin. The personality cult reached new levels during the ], with Stalin's name even being included in the new Soviet ]. | |||
| <!-- Unsourced image removed: ] --> | |||
| Stalin became the focus of a body of literature encompassing poetry as well as music, paintings and film. Artists and writers vied with each other in fawning devotion, crediting Stalin with almost god-like qualities, and suggesting he single-handedly won the Second World War. | |||
| It is debatable as to how much Stalin relished the cult surrounding him. The Finnish communist ] records a sarcastic toast proposed by Stalin at a New Year Party in 1935: | |||
| {{cquote|Comrades! I want to propose a toast to our patriarch, life and sun, liberator of nations, architect of socialism – Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, and I hope this is the first and last speech made to that genius this evening.<ref>]. '''''The Bells of the Kremlin''''', p. 162.</ref>}}<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: ] --> | |||
| In recent years, support of Stalin has resurged. Millions of Russians, exasperated with the downfall of the economy and political instability after the breakup of the Soviet Union, want Stalin back. A recent controversial poll revealed that over thirty-five percent of Russians would vote for Stalin if he were still alive.<ref></ref> This is seen by some as a return of Stalin's cult. In ], it has been decided to rebuild a communist-era memorial complex dedicated to Josef Stalin.<ref>http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060420/ai_n16146985</ref> Also, a new statue of Stalin is to be erected in ], “returning his once-ubiquitous image to the streets after an absence of four decades, a top city official said yesterday”, as reported by ].<ref>http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=69292005</ref> | |||
| ==Policies and accomplishments== | |||
| ] is home to only one monument of Stalin, originally set up in ].]] | |||
| Under Stalin's rule the Soviet Union was transformed from an agricultural nation into a global superpower, although at the cost of millions of lives. The USSR's industrialization was successful in that the country was able to defend against and eventually defeat the Axis invasion in ], though at an enormous cost in human life; and in 1957, four years after Stalin's death, to put into orbit the first ever artificial satellite, ]. | |||
| However, historian ] and other Westerners claim that the USSR was bound for industrialization, and that its speed along this course was not necessarily improved by Bolshevik influence. It has also been argued that Stalin was partially responsible for the initial military disasters and enormous human casualties during WWII, because Stalin eliminated many military officers during the purges, and especially the most senior ones, and rejected the massive amounts of intelligence warning of the German attack. | |||
| While Stalin's social and economic policies laid the foundations for the USSR's emergence as a superpower, the harshness with which he conducted Soviet affairs was subsequently repudiated by his successors in the Communist Party leadership, notably in the denunciation of Stalinism by ] in February 1956. In his "Secret Speech", '']'', delivered to a closed session of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his cult of personality, and his regime for "violation of Leninist norms of legality". | |||
| However, his immediate successors preserved major elements of Stalin's rule, including the political monopoly of the Communist Party presiding over a command economy and a security service able to suppress dissent. The large-scale purges of Stalin's era were never repeated, but political repression continued, albeit on a lesser scale. | |||
| ==Other names== | |||
| {{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}} | |||
| His first name is also ] as '''Iosif'''. His original surname, ჯუღაშვილი, is also transliterated as ''Jugashvili''. The ] transliteration is Джугашвили, which is in turn transliterated into English as '''Dzhugashvili''' and '''Djugashvili'''; – შვილი – '''shvili''' is a Georgian suffix meaning "child" or "son". | |||
| There are several etymologies of the ჯუღა (''jugha'') root. In one version, it is the ]n for "rubbish"; the surname '''Jugayev''' is common among Ossetians, and before the revolution the names in ] were traditionally written with the Georgian suffix, especially among Christianized Ossetians. In a second version, the name derives from the village of Jugaani in ], eastern Georgia. | |||
| An article in the newspaper '']'' in 1988 claimed that the word derives from the Old Georgian for "]" which might be the reason for his adoption of the name Stalin. Сталин (''Stalin'') is derived from combining the Russian сталь (''stal''), "steel", with the possessive suffix –ин (''–in''), a formula used by many other Bolsheviks, including ]. | |||
| It has also been said that, originally, "Stalin" was a conspiratorial ] which stuck with him. | |||
| Like other Bolsheviks, he became commonly known by one of his revolutionary '']'', of which ''Stalin'' was only the most prominent. He was also known as ''']''' (after a ] folk ], a ]-like brigand); and he is reported to have used at least a dozen other names for the purpose of secret communications. Most of them remain unknown. | |||
| Directly following World War II, as the Soviets were negotiating with the Allies, Stalin often sent directions to Molotov as '''Druzhkov'''. Among his other nicknames and aliases were '''Ivanovich''', '''Soso''' or '''Sosso''' (mainly his boyhood name), '''David''', '''Nizharadze''' or '''Nijeradze''', and '''Chizhikov'''. | |||
| Stalin was nicknamed "Uncle Joe" by the Western media. When told of this nickname by ], he almost walked out of the ].<ref name="salon_20050505_monster">"," page 4. O'Hehir, A. '']''. ], ].</ref> | |||
| ==Stalin in the arts== | |||
| * '''' — A 1992 ] TV movie. | |||
| * '''' — A 1991 Hollywood movie. | |||
| * '']'' - ]'s history themed song; Stalin's mentioned as the first figure of the 5th stanza (after the first chorus). | |||
| * '']'' — ]'s novel, a history of the Soviet Union from the revolution to the ] told through allegory; Stalin served as the direct basis for the character ]. | |||
| * ] - another work by George Orwell, that was inspired by Stalin's propaganda. | |||
| *'']'' - ]'s novel where Stalin is depicted as vain and vengeful, remembering with pleasure the torture of a rival, and dreaming of one day becoming emperor of the world. | |||
| *'']'' - ]'s novel published in 1999 which portrays Stalin' rise to power from his own point of view. Set in the 1930s amid the show trials, with an abiding obsession with Trotsky: "Leon Trotksy is trying to kill me. He has every right and reason" is the opening sentence of the novel. | |||
| *'']'' episode "The Russian Revolution" - Stalin is featured in a sitcom parody sketch where he sends the KGB to arrest anyone who upsets "his little buddy", ]. | |||
| *'']'' - ]'s song about personality cults; mentions Stalin alongside other leaders. | |||
| *'']'' - Stalin is depicted as having an illegitimate Australian son who leads a "revolution" in his homeland. | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| {{reflist|2}} | |||
| ==Further reading== | |||
| <div class="references-small"> | |||
| {{multicol}} | |||
| * Brent, Jonathan; Naumov, Vladimir Pavlovich. ''Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953''. New York: HarperCollins, 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 0-06-019524-X; paperback, ISBN 0-06-093310-0); as ''Stalin's Last Crime: The Doctor's Plot''. London: John Murray, 2004 (paperback, ISBN 0-7195-6508-1). | |||
| * Broekmeyer, Marius. ''Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941–1945''. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-299-19594-2; paperback, ISBN 0-299-19594-5). | |||
| * ]. ''Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives''. London: HarperCollins, 1991 (hardcover, ISBN 0002154943); New York: Vintage Books, 1993 (paperback, ISBN 0679729941). | |||
| * Boterbloem, Kees. ''Life and Death under Stalin: Kalinin Province, 1945–1953''. Montreal, Quebec; Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7735-1811-8). | |||
| * ]. ''The Great Terror: A Reassessment''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-507132-8). | |||
| * ]. ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-505180-7); London: Pimlico, 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0712697500). | |||
| * Davies, Sarah; Harris, James R. ''Stalin: A New History''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 0-521-85104-1). | |||
| * ]. ''Stalin: A Political Biography''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967 (paperback, ISBN 0-19-500273-3); London: Penguin Books, 1990 (paperback, ISBN 0140135049). | |||
| * ]. ''Conversations With Stalin''. Harcourt Trade Publishers New York, 1962 (Hardcover, ISBN 0151225907); Harvest Books, 1963 (Paperback, ISBN 0156225913) | |||
| * Gill, Graeme. ''Stalinism'' (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998 (paperback, ISBN 0-312-17764-X). | |||
| * Jonge, Alex de. ''Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union''. New York: William Morrow, 1986 (hardcover, ISBN 0-688-04730-0); 1987 (paperback, ISBN 0688072917). | |||
| * Keep, John L.H.; Litvin, Alter L. ''Stalinism: Russian and Western Views at the Turn of the Millennium (Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions)''. New York: Routledge, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-415-35108-1); 2005 (paperback, ISBN 0-415-35109-X). | |||
| * Kuromiya, Hiroaki. ''Stalin''. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2006 (paperback, ISBN 0-582-78479-4). | |||
| * ''The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships: Stalin and the Eastern Bloc'', edited by Apor, Balázs; Jan C. Behrends, Polly Jones and E.A. Rees. Houndmills, UK; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 (ISBN 1-4039-3443-6). | |||
| * ''The Lesser Evil: Moral Approaches to Genocide Practices (Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions)'', edited by Helmut Dubiel and Gabriel Motzkin. New York: Routledge, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7146-5493-0; paperback, ISBN 0-7146-8395-7). | |||
| * Laqueur, Walter. ''Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations''. New York: Scribner, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0684192039). | |||
| * Mace, James E. "The Man-Made Famine of 1933 in Soviet Ukraine", ''Famine in Ukraine 1932–1933: A Memorial Exhibition'', edited by Roman Serbyn and Bohdan Krawchenko. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1986 (hardcover, ISBN 0-920862-43-8), pp. 1–14. | |||
| * Mawdsley, Evan. ''The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union, 1929-53''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003 (paperback, ISBN 0-7190-6377-9). | |||
| * McDermott, Kevin. ''Stalin: Revolutionary in an Era of War (European History in Perspective)''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-333-71121-1; paperback, ISBN 0-333-71122-X). | |||
| * Medvedev, Roy A.; Medvedev, Zhores A. ''The Unknown Stalin: His Life, Death, and Legacy''. London: I.B. Tauris, 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 1-86064-768-5); Woodstock, NY; New York: The Overlook Press, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 1585676446). | |||
| {{multicol-break}} | |||
| * ]. ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004 (ISBN 1-4000-4230-5); New York: Vintage, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 1400076781). | |||
| * ]. ''Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia''. Allen Lane, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7139-9309-X); Penguin Books, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 0-14-028149-5); New York: W.W. Norton, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-393-02030-4); 2006 (paperback reprint, ISBN 0-393-32797-3). | |||
| * Priestland, David. ''Stalin and the Politics of Mobilization: Ideas, Power, and Terror in Inter-war Russia''. New York: Oxford University Press (USA), 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-19-924513-4). | |||
| * ]. ''Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives''. Doubleday, 1996 (hardcover, ISBN 0-385-47397-4); Anchor, 1997 (paperback, ISBN 0-385-47954-9). is available online. | |||
| * Rayfield, Donald. ''Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him''. New York: Random House, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-375-50632-2); 2005 (paperback, ISBN 0375757716). | |||
| * ''Redefining Stalinism (Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions)'', edited by Harold Shukman. New York: Routledge, 2003 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7146-5415-9; paperback, ISBN 0-7146-8342-6). | |||
| * Ree, Erik van. ''The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin: A Study in Twentieth-Century Revolutionary Patriotism''. London; New York: Routledge Courzon, 2002 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7007-1749-8). | |||
| * Roberts, Geoffrey. ''Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953''. New Heaven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0300112041). | |||
| * ] ''Death By Government''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1994 (hardcover, ISBN 1560001453); 1997 (paperback, ISBN 1-56000-927-6). | |||
| * ] ''Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0887383335); (paperback, ISBN 1560008873) | |||
| * ]. ''Stalin: A Biography''. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2005 (hardcover, ISBN 0-674-01697-1); 2006 (paperback, ISBN 0674022580). | |||
| * ]. ''Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism''. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005 (paperback, ISBN 1-4191-1307-0). Available . | |||
| * ''Stalin's Terror Revisited.'' Edited by Melanie Ilic and Stephen G. Wheatcroft. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 1-4039-4705-8). | |||
| * ] ''Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929: A Study in History and Personality''. New York: W.W. Norton, 1973 (ISBN 0-393-05487-X); 1992 (paperback, ISBN 0393007383). | |||
| * ] ''Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1928–1941''. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990 (hardcover, ISBN 0-393-02881-X); 1992 (paperback, ISBN 0393308693). | |||
| * Ulam, Adam Bruno. ''Stalin: The Man and His Era''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989 (paperback, ISBN 0-8070-7005-X); London: I.B. Tauris, 1989 (ISBN 1850431744). | |||
| *] (Author); Shukman, Harold (Editor, Translator). ''Autopsy for an Empire: the Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime''. Free Press, 1998 (Hardcover, ISBN 0684834200); (Paperback, ISBN 0684871122) | |||
| * Ward, Chris. ''The Stalinist Dictatorship''. London: Arnold Publishers, 1998 (hardcover, ISBN 0-340-70640-6; paperback, ISBN 0-340-70641-4). | |||
| * Ward, Chris. "Stalin Through Seventeenth-Century Eyes", ''Journal of European Studies'', Vol. 36, No. 2. (2006), pp. 181–200. | |||
| * ] (Author); Austin, Anthony (Translator). ''A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia''. Yale University Press, 2002 (Hardcover, ISBN 0300087608); 2004 (Paperback, ISBN 0300103220) | |||
| {{multicol-end}} | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==See also== | |||
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| ==External links== | |||
| {{wikiquote}} | |||
| {{commons|Joseph Stalin}} | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *"" by ], ] website | |||
| *"" by ], PLP website | |||
| *] gives a detailed study of events behind Stalin's possible death by poisoning] | |||
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| *"" and "" by Grover Furr. | |||
| *''''. | |||
| *"", a chapter from ''Demographic Modernization in Russia 1900–2000'', ed. A. G. Vishnevsky, 2006 (ISBN 5-98379-042-0) — estimations of the human cost of the Stalin's rule. | |||
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| {{ru icon}} | |||
| * - a blog article by Professor ]. | |||
| * by ] fellow ] | |||
| * (1997 ] article) | |||
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| ] | |||
| {{Persondata | |||
| |NAME=Stalin, Jossif Wissarionowitsch | |||
| |ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Josef Stalin, Иосиф Сталин (]), Jossif Wissarionowitsch Dschugaschwili, იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი (] birthname) | |||
| |SHORT DESCRIPTION=Dictator of the ] (1927-1953) | |||
| |DATE OF BIRTH=], ] | |||
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