Who Was Stalin???

1. Who Was Stalin???

2. Joseh Besarionis Jughasvili • Born 18 December 1878 in Gori, Georgia (not Georgia as in USA) • Scared from smallpox at 7; left arm permanently damaged from two horse cart accidents by age 12 • Expelled from an Orthodox seminary at age 19—couldn’t afford the tuition

3. Then, along came Lenin.. • Radical Marxist in exile—Geneva, Switzerland until 1917 • Stalin joins Bolsheviks in 1903 • Marked by the Okhranka (Tsar’s secret police) • Chief operator in the Caucasus region Vladimir Ilyich Ulanov Lenin, 1895

4. …and Stalin becomes a bad boy… • Bank robber • Kidnapper • Incites strikes • Organizes paramilitaries • Extortion rackets • Counterfeiting Stalin’s mug shot, 1911

5. …and Worse • Organizes the Muslim Azeri and Persian militants • Bank robbery murder of 40 Black Hundred (right-wing Czarists) • Even the Bolsheviks banned him from the Party Black Hundred were reactionaries made up of Russian Orthodox religious fanatics and noblemen with positions of power in the army

6. After Seven Captures… • Sent to Siberia each time • April 1912, sets up Pravda, the Bolshevik newspaper in St. Petersburg • Adopts the name Stalin—The Man of Steel

7. 1917 • Rejected from army conscription due to his arm • Supports Alexander Kerensky’s Provisional Government • Elected to Bolshevik Central Committee • Smuggles Lenin to Finland and Russia courtesy of the Germans Lenin, clean-shaven while in Finland, arrives in Russia and changes the tone of Revolution

8. Russian Civil War (1917-1919) • Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky instigate a coup against Kerensky • Arrests Provisional cabinet 8 November 1917 • Used WWI as a rally point • As a military leader…Stalin was a good politician…he refused to lead Alexander Kerensky led Provisional Government from March to November of 1918

9. Rise to Power • Opposes Leon Trotsky, leader of the Red Army • Forges alliances with Lenin and Lev Kamenev to get appointment to General Secretary of the Communist Party (1922) • Lenin has a stroke and J.S. acts as Lenin’s contact with the outside world Lenin and Trotsky with the Red Army in Petrograd (St. Petersburg)

10. Lenin at the End (1922) • Stroke forces semi-retirement • Thinks Stalin is rude, too ambitious, a politician, and should be removed from Party leadership • Dictates Testament, critical of Stalin, that mysteriously disappears upon his death Left-Lenin’s last picture Above-Lenin’s makeover Below-Lenin’s tomb

11. Stalin Assumes Control • Ousts Lenin’s people—Kamenev and Zinoviev • Trotsky exiled then found murdered in Mexico • Forms an alliance with Nikolai Bukharin • Suspends Lenin’s New Economic Policy Anti-Stalin Trotsky Slayer Poster

12. Control of Politburo • Grain shortage • Collectivization of farms • Seizes grain hoards from kulaks (wealthy peasants) • Opposed by Bukharin, but Party backs Stalin Left top—Bukharin Left bottom—Zinoviev Above—Collective propaganda poster

13. Secret Police Activities—Russian Style Czar’s Okhranka Stalin’s KGB

14. Cult of Personality Stalin’s Titles Stalin in Fact 5’6”, 190 lbs • Coryphaeus of Science • Father of Nations • Brilliant Genius of Humanity • Great Architect of Communism • Gardener of Human Happiness • Papa Joe

15. The Purges Now you see him… …now you don’t! Commissar Nikolai Yezhov was edited out of the photo following his death in 1940

16. Moscow Trials Counterrevolutionary Targets Article 38 of the Legal Code Enemy of the People Interrogation, torture, deportation, death Sentences carried out within 24 hours of “trial” Only Stalin, Mikhail Kalinin, and Vyacheslav Molotov remain of the Old Bolsheviks • Ethnic “national contingents”: • Poles (144,000 arrested) • Koreans • Germans • American émigrés from the Depression executed • History Rewritten to include only Stalin and Lenin

17. Off to the Gulags Entering the Camp Family Reunion

18. Deportation • 3.3 million (1941-1949) • 43% die of disease, malnutrition • Camps: Siberia and Central Asia • Charge: collaboration w/Nazis • Move entire populations • Crimean Tartars • Chechens • Turks • Kulaks (wealthy peasants) Order to remove Enemies of the People

19. Famine by Design • Ukraine’s Holodomor (hunger plague, 1932-3) • 2.2 million to 5 million deaths from starvation • Entire harvest taken from the Ukraine SSR and sent to Russia SSR • Question: was it genocide or policy against idlers and thieves

20. Population Decline, 1929-1933

21. Five-Year Plans Industrialize, mobilize, socialism for all!

22. If they don’t work, get another in 4!

23. Soviet Democracy • Girls given an equal education • Women have equal work rights • Advances in health care • Literacy rate way up Only Lenin is right and only Stalin can do it!

24. Socialist Realism

25. Religion • Active parishes face Purge of priests and nuns • Recognition of Soviet Union and Stalin leads to schism • Persecution of Catholics, Protestants, Islam, Buddhists, Judaism • Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, sacred monuments, monasteries razed • Communism is the Church

26. World War II • Non-aggression pact with Hitler • Molotov and Ribbentrop agree to split Poland, and give Balkans, Romania, and Finland to USSR • Pact with the Devil??? Stalin and von Ribbentrop

27. Plans for Europe

28. Can you trust him? 1941: Operation Barbarossa

29. Sure… Top Left: Nazis capture Red Army POWs Top Right: Nazis execute Jews Left: Red Army forces retreat of Nazi including Hitler and Ribbentrop

30. Stalingrad Tanya Savicheva’s Diary, age 11, witnessed the death of her grandmother, uncle, brother, then her mother, until “only Tanya was left.” She died three months later of dysentery and starvation.

31. They stayed in until the end

32. Stalin: One of the Big Three Left: Churchill, FDR, and Stalin at Yalta Above: Stalin, FDR, and Churchill at Tehran NB: FDR is replaced by Harry Truman and Winston Churchill by Atlee

33. After the War, It Paid Off

34. Promises, Promises • Free elections—if the pro-Soviet Communist won • Non-intervention—if the bloc satellite countries kept quiet and obeyed • Agreed to borders—if you don’t count Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania… • Recovery—if they don’t need the Marshall Plan or other US help to rebuild

35. Asian Affairs Top Left: Long live Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao (isms) BottomLeft: 1950 stamp with Stalin and Mao Stalin and Mao supported North Korea while the South was backed by NATO

36. The Last Years Anti-Semitic Actions • The “Doctors’ Plot” they were trying to poison Stalin • Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee has 13 members secretly executed although they supported Stalin • “Night of Murdered Poets” slaughter of intellectuals, all Jewish • Jews, like Trotsky, are a potential spy • Pravda and TASS run caricatures of Jews in all issues

37. The End 9 March 1953

38. RIP? No, the controversy persists • Officially, it was cerebral hemorrhage, but doctors weren’t called for 3 days after seizure • His aide L. Beria says to Molotov, “I took him out.” • Stalin’s body was removed from Lenin’s tomb 31 October 1961 The suspects: Above: Beria Top Right: Kaganovich Bottom Right: Molotov

39. Joseph Stalin’s Legacy Nikita Khrushchev, his successor, launched a de-Stalinization program to rid the USSR of any memory of the man of steel. The 34-year autocrat brought the Soviet Union from the most backward country of Europe to a superpower

40. Who was Stalin???