Stalin's Grave by the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Oh, to Feel the Warmth of Stalin’s Hand
MOSCOW— JOSEF VISSARIONOVICH DZUGASHVILI died 50 years ago last week, and much of Russia still mourns. Those who do not live here may be forgiven for wondering why.
As ruler of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1953, Dzugashvili — or Stalin, as the world knew him — systematically wiped out all rivals, built an Orwellian police state and imprisoned and murdered millions of people, both in Russia and in lands he later seized. So pervasive was his control that his spies lingered in public toilets, waiting for the unwary to crack jokes about his choke hold rule and thus guarantee themselves five years in a Siberian labor camp.
His reign of terror began with the nightly disposal of a few corpses in a Moscow graveyard. When the graveyards filled, a crematorium was built. When its capacity was spent, the slaughter moved to suburban fields, where victims stood in front of freshly dug trenches and were simply mowed down.
By body count alone, Stalin rivals Hitler — exceeds him, many say — as the most ruthless dictator of modern times. Yet last week, Gennadi Zyuganov, the leader of Russia’s Communist Party, compared Stalin to the great figures of the Renaissance, and television abounded with sepia-toned recollections of his rule. Two opinion polls in Russia found people split over his legacy. In one survey, 1 in 4 judged him a cruel tyrant. But 1 in 5 called him a wise and humane leader.
One could accuse Russians of willful blindness, and for some, that may be true. But demystifying Uncle Joe’s place in the Russian psyche is hardly so simple. Consider: most of Stalin’s worst critics went to those fresh-dug trenches, and most Russians alive today were born long after his horrors faded into history.
Those who survived his reign are largely retirees who have reaped few of capitalism’s benefits. To most of them, life was better, far better, under Stalin, as a Soviet saying went.
For the sizable cadre of nationalists, Stalin is the man who made Russia a huge and fearsome power. For Communists, he is a symbol of lost glory. In a country in which World War II remains the Great Patriotic War, Stalin is remembered as the man who led the motherland to victory, and, some Russians would say, saved it from even worse tyranny.
Those warm memories may fade. But Stalin was also a master propagandist, a ruler who burned his all-knowing, all-powerful image into entire generations’ minds. ”Like a dread spirit he hovered over us,” one poet wrote a decade after his death. ”To others we paid no heed.”
Many say Russians would feel differently had the country rooted out Stalin’s evil as Germany rooted out Hitler’s, with war-crimes trials and public expiations. It is a fantasy, says Yakov Y. Etinger, whose father, Yakov, died in Lefortovo Prison in 1951, one of the first victims of Stalin’s Doctors’ Plot, a supposed collusion in the 1940′s by Kremlin doctors to kill Communist leaders.
”The Nuremberg trials were organized by an occupation force, by the Allies who gained victory,” Mr. Etinger said. ”There couldn’t be such a trial in Russia, for a simple reason: who would be the judges?”
Who, indeed? In his masterful biography of Stalin, Edvard Radzinsky tells of a factory manager summoned by Stalin for a meeting.
”When I felt his handshake, it was like being struck by lightning,” the factory manager recalled many years later. ”I hid my hand inside my coat cuff, got into my car and rushed home. Without stopping to answer my worried wife’s questions, I went to the cot where my small son was sleeping, stretched out my hand, and rubbed his head with it, so that he too would feel the warmth of Stalin’s touch.”
I would evaluate Stalin as a tyrannical megalomaniac because during his effort to improve Russia he used violent techniques , whch only made him look both cruel and brutal and less like a father figure to the country .
In my opinion Stalin can be seen more as a tyrannical megalomaniac because during his effort to improve Russia he used violent techniques , whch only made him look both cruel and brutal and less like a father figure to the country .
How should we evaluate Stalin: as a father figure of their time, using his personality to try to ‘bring up the Soviet Union in proper form’, or as a tyrannical megalomaniac, whose rules for depravity knew absolutely no boundaries?
I think Stalin should be evaluated as a tyrannical megalomaniac. He killed millions. Killing so many people was so useless, there was no point to it. Even though he did help Russia become what it is now, the techniques he used to help them wasn’t right. Having spies listening to your conversations or watching you from afar is just wrong. He didn’t let anyone have privacy.
I think Stalin should be seen as a tyrannical megalomaniac because he cared more about power than the people’s opinions. During his rule over Russia, he used violence to instill fear into society and killed many people along the way. He deprived people of their freedom by having a system of censorship to monitor their every move which is why he should not be seen as a father figure.
I think Stalin should be seen as a tyrannical megalomaniac because he does not really care about his country, he only cares for his one true love; power.
Its crazy how some people actually do see stalin as a father figure as they follow him and his dictatorship , but i believe hes a tyrannical megalomaniac that did anything possible to stay in power , even if it cost lives.
I think Stalin should be seen as a tyrannical megalomaniac and I agree with Candy in the fact that its shocking how many people see him as a father figure after seeing how he was, all he really cared about was power. He did not respect the opinions of his people and in order to stay in power he used violence to control them. He was a very cruel ruler and thats why he should not be seen as a father figure.
In my opinion Stalin must be seen as a tyrannical megalomaniac because he cared more about having control and power. He didn’t care about what people though. He wanted to remain in power and killed many people to accomplish his goal. His methods we cruel but he didn’t care as long as he had control of the country.
How should we evaluate Stalin: as a father figure of their time, using his personality to try to ‘bring up the Soviet Union in proper form’, or as a tyrannical megalomaniac, whose rules for depravity knew absolutely no boundaries?
In my point of view, Stalin should be evaluate as a tyrannical megalomaniac because he used force and violence to achieve his goals. He killed millions which at the end made Russia what it is now but Iam positive that they were other options that would have given the same results. Stalin did it the easy way, he killed millions and got away with it. But that doesn’t mean that they were not other options he could have used to make Russia grow politicly, economically and socially. He also did everything he could to stay in power. He had spies all over the place, he killed the people that were against him. Basically no one had privacy and the right to freedom of thought and expression was limited.
There is no dispute that Stalin was a cruel tyrant crazy for power, however it was those acts of tyranny that made Russia the communist power feared by the world. Russian survivors from reign of terror say that life was better under Stalin’s rule. Stalin may have used inhumane methods to achieve his goals, however as quoted by Machiavelli “the end justifies the means.” Stalin’s rule resulted in a modernized, Russian superpower, and sacrifice is always necessary to attain an aspiration. “Stalin led the motherland to victory, and, some Russians would say, saved it from even worse tyranny.” All in all, Stalin being a father figure for Russia is equally as justifiable as him being a megalomaniac if not more.