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| Joseph Stalin |
Giving the Devil His Due (Воздаваң долҗное и двяволу)
If Lenin had lived, would his New Economic Policy, which Stalin cast aside for his own Five Year Plan for Economic Recovery, have worked? It’s doubtful, though difficult to say with certainty, since its clear today that Hitler would have invaded Russia in any event. However, it was Stalin who, quite by accident, would place the Soviet Union in a precariously sympathetic position, one that resulted in the very Western aid that would eventually place the Soviet Union at odds with the West. |
| Lenin with Stalin |
Granted, Lenin had previously managed to obtain technology from the West but most of it was agricultural and none military or of a strategic technology nature.
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| The T-34 Tank |
Subsequently, it would be this collection of borrowed technology that would eventually enable the Soviet Union to move to its most sophisticated levels of industrialization and later travel into space and advanced sciences, long after Stalin was gone.
Man of Steel
Born Ioseb Besarionis je J̌uḡašvili, the son of an abusive, alcoholic, shoemaker, Joseph Stalin would remain self-conscious of his coarse Georgian roots being less than pure Russian throughout his tenure in power. Subsequently, the Russian term “stalin” was a literal translation of the Ossetic (spoken in Georgia and Turkey) term “Juga” within Stalin’s original surname J̌uḡašvili, both meaning "steel". Initially, he would use Stalin as a pseudonym pen name for early writings. Later, it would become a symbol of his can-do, ruthless style of leadership.Key to Success
Stalin was not a personable man. Unlike Hitler, who surrounded himself with worshipers and industrialist that stood to gain financially, Stalin was somewhat of a loner with a troubled personal life. His second wife commited suicide and his daughter would expatriate herself. In the early days of the revolution he would toss down tumblers of vodka with revolutionary comrades but, as time went on, he became aloof. Ironically, the more he was separate, the firmer and more fierce his grip on power became. Subsequently, he would model Russia to be like himself, never quite fitting in with Europe, definitely not oriental, filled with internal calamities, yet, all the time striving towards a greater world presence.The Survivor
If Germany had succeeded with their invasion of the Mother Russia, Stalin would have been captured and executed. He certainly must have reflected upon his good fortune in later years, clearly understanding it to be the survivalist nature he painfully instilled into the country which turned the war to his advantage. |
| Stalin at 23 |
Consequently, Stalin himself developed an uncanny sense of survival and would put it to the test with the 1907 Tiflis Bank Robbery, an attack so deadly it would make the front page in newspapers around the world. Stalin himself had orchestrated and presided over the heist of 341,000 rubles (equivalent to about $3.5M today) from a Czarist government stagecoach and strongbox, enough money to fund Lenin and the Bolsheviks for years to come. The extreme violence surrounding the dynamiting of the stagecoach cost the lives of some 40 people with both human and horse body parts found blocks from the scene of the robbery. This reported violence, the earliest known incident of modern terrorism, would soon become Stalin’s trademark, making him Lenin’s righthand man while instilling fear within other revolutionaries jockeying for position, including Lenin’s other lieutenant, Trotsky.
In school and private life, Stalin had leaned well how to advance through fear. He had previously been a student of Easter Orthodox Church which ruled alongside the Czar. A church whose confessors had regularly sold confessions to the secret police, perpetuating and preserving their own position.
School of Hard Knocks
During the stone-age times of the Czar, Ioseb J̌uḡašvili secured the best and only education available at that time, parochial training within the Eastern Orthodox schooling system. He had obtained entry with the help of his mother who managed to also secure him a scholarship. In the autumn of 1888, Stalin entered the church school in Gori. In 1894, he graduated to the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tiflis to become a priest. After five years he would be expelled in 1899 at the age of 21. This schooling, in an otherwise backward and illiterate country, would today be considered a good college education. The reasons remain unclear about Stalin’s dismissal. However, Stalin authority and author Simon Sebag Montefiore has written about considerable friction between Stalin and his seminary superiors, who were apparently looking to expel a pupil that had simply outstayed his welcome, one who was also reading and sharing revolutionary literature.Cultural Development
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| Milkmaids Novella, by Nikolai Baskakov |
Paradoxically, Stalin would be as responsible for the deaths of artists as he would be for the fame artists of that time still enjoy today. Although Stalin’s personal passion remained literature, his broad government sponsored support for the arts is without rival in history. To further illustrate the irony, more than 250 Soviet artists died during the Great Purge. Conversely, composers Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Shostakovich (Stalin's favorite whipping boy) would emerge as great composers of the 20th century. Pasternak and Simonov were to be literary giants to survive under Stalin.
Stalin's government also supported the emerging cinematic arts, including the works of Eisenstein. In regards to fine art painting, most Western attention has previous to now been placed upon the rather stoic, heroic social paintings. However, Stalin enabled a broader movement of impressionism and post-impressionism. This body of work is today applauded in the West, with paintings regularly being sold in auctions (i.e.: Sotheby’s, Christie’s) at record prices. Over $1 Billion sold at just Sotheby's in the past 10 year.
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| Ilya Repin's "Ivan the Terrible" |
Legacy
Some today would dust off and restore Stalin’s historic legacy, admitting his acts to be miscreant but necessary for the greater good, that Stalin dragged Russia kicking and screaming into the modern age away from Czarist blood and mud. Still, others insist that aside from his education and employment of the vast masses within Russia, Stalin was a degenerate criminal that deserved the execution with rat poison administered by his own protégés.Today, considerable organized crime has been sited within post Soviet Russia. However, when compared along side previous criminal regimes, including the Czar’s and the Soviet Union, it would be difficult to say today's crimes can even come close by comparison. In fact, it would be difficult to argue that Stalin wasn’t himself a modern Czar. Afterall, Ivan the Terrible did undergo considerable restoration during the Stalin years (Алты́нного во́ра ве́шают, а полти́нного че́ствуют).
Post Cave Dwelling
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| "Bears" by Charles R. Knight |
Russia's history persists with its own unique culture distilled from centuries of despots and war. Perhaps with today’s decline in Western fortunes, a more peaceful Russian bear will have finally left that cave to have its day in the sun. That is, if the bear can claw its way ahead of its rapidly emerging neighbor, China, with its own endless hoards, contained within a considerably more confined space (Аппети́т прихо́дит во вре́мя еды́).
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Santuario de Guadalupe, the oil painting by Tom Mallon. This 42" x 22" canvas is the latest addition to the Santa Fe Portrait Series. The Santuario is the oldest shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the US.
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Shostakovich and Cultural Snobbery, Could anyone survive Stalin's Purges, compose a large body, write for himself and the masses while producing constantly great work?
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Tom Mallon's website "MallonArt". This website will provide you with links to all his paintings, drawings and other artwork portfolios, including the ongoing series entitled the Santa Fe Portrait.
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