"[886] McDermott stated that Stalin had "concentrated unprecedented political authority in his hands. [157] Stalin was required to serve four more months of his exile, and he successfully requested that he serve it in nearby Achinsk. [770] According to Volkogonov, "Stalin's private life and working life were one and the same"; he did not take days off from political activities. [869], Stalin strengthened and stabilised the Soviet Union. [472] He increasingly focused on appeasement with the Germans to delay any conflict with them. [361] He also expressed patronage for scientists whose research fitted within his preconceived interpretation of Marxism; for instance, he endorsed research of an agrobiologist Trofim Lysenko despite the fact that it was rejected by the majority of Lysenko's scientific peers as pseudo-scientific. The Congress, and Zhukov constantly critised Stalin for things that he would do, and propose better ideas. [444] Yezhov was arrested in April 1939 and executed in 1940. This has been a period replete with events of a decisive nature. [795] Other historians linked his brutality not to any personality trait, but to his unwavering commitment to the survival of the Soviet Union and the international MarxistLeninist cause. [759] In 1934, his new Kuntsevo Dacha was built; 9km from the Kremlin, it became his primary residence. [166] After the demonstration was suppressed, the Provisional Government initiated a crackdown on the Bolsheviks, raiding Pravda. [486] The German advance on Moscow was halted after two months of battle in increasingly harsh weather conditions. Best known for: Fighting the Germans in WW2 and starting the Cold War. [323] Stalin's message was that socialism was being established in the USSR while capitalism was crumbling amid the Wall Street crash. [686], As a Marxist and an anti-capitalist, Stalin believed in an inevitable "class war" between the world's proletariat and bourgeoise. [429] That month, Stalin and Yezhov signed Order No. [831] He gave nicknames to his favourites, for instance referring to Yezhov as "my blackberry". Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], January 14 (ANI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday took a veiled dig at Governor RN Ravi without mentioning his name during a Youth wing event organised to remember DMK founder Peraringar Anna. [218] In November 1919, the government nonetheless awarded him the Order of the Red Banner for his wartime service. However, the party was not fully under his control. [754] His choice of favoured holiday house changed over the years,[755] although he holidayed in southern parts of the USSR every year from 1925 to 1936 and again from 1945 to 1951. During these years, the country experienced another major famine and an antisemitic campaign that culminated in the doctors' plot. [65] His second attempt, in January 1904, was successful and he made it to Tiflis. [875], Stalin's Soviet Union has been characterised as a totalitarian state,[876] with Stalin its authoritarian leader. [319] In January 1930, the Politburo approved the liquidation of the kulak class; accused kulaks were rounded up and exiled to other parts of the country or to concentration camps. [734] His writing style was similar, being characterised by its simplicity, clarity, and conciseness. [534] Cautiously regarding the responses from the Western Allies, Stalin avoided immediately installing Communist Party governments across Eastern Europe, instead initially ensuring that Marxist-Leninists were placed in coalition ministries. Initially, Lenin's death was blamed on a series of strokes. Stalin's original Georgian name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (, While forced to give up control of the Secretariat almost immediately after succeeding Stalin as the body's. [920] In October 2017, Putin opened the Wall of Grief memorial in Moscow, noting that the "terrible past" would neither be "justified by anything" nor "erased from the national memory. Stalin promoted MarxismLeninism abroad through the Communist International and supported European anti-fascist movements during the 1930s, particularly in the Spanish Civil War. [638] He took increasingly long holidays; in 1950 and again in 1951 he spent almost five months on holiday at his Abkhazian dacha. [389] Stalin blamed the famine on hostile elements and sabotage within the peasantry;[390] his government provided small amounts of food to famine-struck rural areas, although this was wholly insufficient to deal with the levels of starvation. [678] Some of these derived from political expediency rather than any sincere intellectual commitment;[678] Stalin would often turn to ideology post hoc to justify his decisions. [432] His personal writings from the period were according to Khlevniuk "unusually convoluted and incoherent", filled with claims about enemies encircling him. Stalin promotes an image of himself as a great benevolent leader and hero of the Soviet Union. About half were then imprisoned in labour camps. [594] It launched the Marshall Plan in June 1947, with which it sought to undermine Soviet hegemony in eastern Europe. [427], Repressions further intensified in December 1936 and remained at a high level until November 1938, a period known as the Great Purge. Fair leadership doesn't use power to make arbitrary and . [625] The U.S. went to the UN Security Councilwhich the Soviets were boycotting over its refusal to recognise Mao's governmentand secured military support for the South Koreans. [589] He nevertheless secretly intensified Soviet research into nuclear weaponry, intent on creating an atom bomb. By highlighting the ways in which Stalin manufactured charisma, this article will show how the 'cult of personality' can be viewed as a legitimation technique using manufactured charisma as a tool. [364] Religion retained an influence over much of the population; in the 1937 census, 57% of respondents were willing to admit to being religious. [795] Like all Bolshevik leaders, Stalin believed that reading could help transform not just people's ideas and consciousness, but human nature itself. [255] Residing at his Gorki dacha, Lenin's main connection to Sovnarkom was through Stalin, who was a regular visitor. Joseph Stalin's death in March 1953 ended his long and brutal reign as leader of the Soviet Union. [660] His body was embalmed,[661] and then placed on display in Moscow's House of Unions for three days. [688] Leading this vanguard, he believed that the Soviet peoples needed a strong, central figureakin to a Tsarwhom they could rally around. Initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. A 2012 survey commissioned by the Carnegie Endowment found 38% of Armenians concurring that their country "will always have need of a leader like Stalin. [78] Stalin's squads disarmed local police and troops,[79] raided government arsenals,[80] and raised funds through protection rackets on large local businesses and mines. [405] At the Communist International's 7th Congress, held in JulyAugust 1935, the Soviet government encouraged Marxist-Leninists to unite with other leftists as part of a popular front against fascism. Since the end of his life there has been speculation that a mental illness contributed to Stalin's brutishness. [608] Stalin had a particularly strained relationship with Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito due to the latter's continued calls for Balkan federation and for Soviet aid for the communist forces in the ongoing Greek Civil War. [592] Stalin also initiated a new military build-up; the Soviet army was expanded from 2.9million soldiers, as it stood in 1949, to 5.8million by 1953. [418] Stalin issued a decree establishing NKVD troikas which could mete out rulings without involving the courts. [87] In April 1906, Stalin attended the RSDLP Fourth Congress in Stockholm; this was his first trip outside the Russian Empire. [24] Stalin faced several severe health problems: An 1884 smallpox infection left him with facial scars;[25] and at age 12 he was seriously injured when he was hit by a phaeton, probably the cause of a lifelong disability in his left arm. [610] The 1947 Hungarian elections were also rigged, with the Hungarian Working People's Party taking control. [849] It is unclear if Stalin ever had a mistress during or after his marriage to Alliluyeva. [534] As the Red Army reconquered the Caucasus and Crimea, various ethnic groups living in the regionthe Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingushi, Karachai, Balkars, and Crimean Tatarswere accused of having collaborated with the Germans. [641] In November, the Slnsk trial took place in Czechoslovakia as 13 senior Communist Party figures, 11 of them Jewish, were accused and convicted of being part of a vast Zionist-American conspiracy to subvert Eastern Bloc governments. [925] A 2013 survey by Tbilisi State University found 45% of Georgians expressing "a positive attitude" to him. [278] Stalin also developed close relations with the trio at the heart of the secret police (first the Cheka and then its replacement, the State Political Directorate): Felix Dzerzhinsky, Genrikh Yagoda, and Vyacheslav Menzhinsky. He and Hitler were about the same height, approximately five feet, eight. [402] Stalin admired Hitler, particularly his manoeuvres to remove rivals within the Nazi Party in the Night of the Long Knives. [ 2] Without providing a clear successor, he left the party in chaos and the in-fighting and division . [818], Stalin publicly condemned anti-Semitism,[819] although he was repeatedly accused of it. [628] When the Israeli ambassador Golda Meir arrived in the USSR, Stalin was angered by the Jewish crowds who gathered to greet her. [530] Discussing the fate of the Balkans, later in 1944 Churchill agreed to Stalin's suggestion that after the war, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia would come under the Soviet sphere of influence while Greece would come under that of the West. Smallpox as a child left him with lasting scars and a deformity. 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