This life was hopelessly born. An illegitimate son attributed to a seedy drunk shoemaker. uneducated mother. Dirty Coco did not get out of the puddles near the hill of Queen Tamara. [Cm. article Stalin's Parents and Family.] Not to become the ruler of the world, but how can this child get out of the meanest, most humiliated position?

Nevertheless, the culprit of his life molested him, and bypassing church regulations, they accepted the boy from a non-clerical family - first to a religious school, then even to a seminary.

God Sabaoth from the height of the darkened iconostasis sternly called the new novice, sprawled on cold stone slabs. Oh, with what zeal the boy began to serve God! how I trusted him! For six years of study, he hammered out the Old and New Testaments, the Lives of the Saints and church history, diligently officiated at the liturgies.

Here, in the "Biography", there is this picture: a graduate of the theological school Dzhugashvili in a gray cassock with a round blind collar; dull, as if exhausted by prayers, the adolescent oval of the face; long hair, prepared for the clergy, is strictly slicked, humbly smeared with lamp oil and put on the very ears - and only the eyes and tense eyebrows betray that this novice will go, perhaps, to the metropolitan.

Stalin while studying at the seminary

And God - deceived ... A sleepy, hateful town among round green hills, in the windings of Majuda and Liakhvi, lagged behind: in noisy Tiflis, smart people had long been laughing at God. And the stairs, on which Coco tenaciously climbed, led, it turns out, not to the sky, but to the attic.

But the seething bullying age demanded action! Time was running out - nothing was done! There was no money for a university, for public service, for the beginning of trade - but there was socialism that accepted everyone, socialism that was accustomed to seminarians. There were no inclinations towards the sciences or the arts, there was no skill for craft or theft, there was no luck to become the lover of a rich lady - but with open arms she called everyone, accepted and promised everyone a place - the Revolution.

Joseph Dzhugashvili. Photo from 1896

Here, in the "Biography", he advised to include a photo of this time, his favorite shot. Here it is, almost in profile. He has no beard, no mustache, no sideburns (he has not yet decided what), but simply has not shaved for a long time, and everything is picturesquely overgrown with lush male growth. He is all ready to rush, but does not know where. What a lovely young man! An open, intelligent, energetic face, no trace of that fanatic novice. Freed from oil, the hair has risen, adorned the head with thick waves, and, swaying, cover what may have been somewhat unsuccessful in it: the forehead is low and sloping back. The young man is poor; Isn't this Tiflis plebeian already doomed to tuberculosis?

Every time Stalin looks at this photograph, his heart overflows with pity (for there are no hearts that are completely incapable of it).

How difficult everything is, how everyone is against this glorious young man, who huddles in a free cold closet at the observatory and has already been expelled from the seminary!

(He wanted to combine both for insurance, he went to social-democratic circles for four years and continued to pray and interpret the catechism for four years - but they still expelled him.) For eleven years he bowed and prayed - in vain, wasted time was weeping .. The more resolutely he moved his youth to the Revolution!

And the Revolution - also deceived ... And what kind of revolution was it - Tiflis, a game of boastful conceits in cellars for wine? Here you will perish, in this anthill of nonentities: neither the correct advancement of the stairs, nor the length of service, but - who will talk to whom. The former seminarian hates these talkers more bitterly than governors and policemen. (Why be angry with those for what? - they honestly serve for a salary and naturally have to defend themselves, but there can be no justification for these upstarts!) A revolution? among Georgian shopkeepers? - will never! And he lost the seminary, lost the right way of life.

And to hell with him in general in this revolution, in some kind of homelessness, in workers drinking away their pay, in some kind of sick old women, someone's underpaid kopecks? - why should he love them, and not himself, young, smart, beautiful and - bypassed?

Only in Batum, for the first time leading two hundred people along the street, counting onlookers, Koba (that was his nickname now) felt the germination of grains and the power of power. People followed him! Koba tasted, and he could never forget the taste of it. This one thing suited him in life, this one life he could understand: you will say - and people should do it, you will indicate - and people should go. There is nothing better than this, higher than this. This is above wealth.

A month later, the police swung, arrested him. No one was afraid of arrests then: what a deal! They will hold you for two months, release you, you will be a sufferer. Koba behaved well in the common cell and encouraged others to despise the jailers.

But they got caught up in it. All his cellmates changed, and he was sitting. What did he do? No one was punished like that for trifling demonstrations.

Passed year! - and he was transferred to the Kutaisi prison, in a dark, damp solitary confinement. Here he lost heart: life went on, and he not only did not rise, but descended lower and lower. He coughed painfully from the prison dampness. And he hated even more justly these professional loudmouths, the darlings of life: why did the revolution descend so easily to them, why were they not kept for so long?

In the meantime, a gendarmerie officer, already familiar from Batum, was arriving at the Kutaisi prison. Well, have you thought enough, Dzhugashvili? This is just the beginning, Dzhugashvili. We will keep you here until you rot from consumption or correct your behavior. We want to save you and your soul. You were five minutes away a priest, Father Joseph! Why did you go to this gang? You are a random person among them. Say you're sorry.

He was really sorry, how sorry! His second spring in prison was ending, his second prison summer was dragging on. Oh, why did he leave the humble spiritual service?

How hurried he was!.. The most unbridled imagination could not imagine a revolution in Russia earlier than fifty years later, when Joseph was seventy-three years old... Why would he need a revolution then?

Yes, not only for this reason. But Joseph had already studied and recognized himself - his unhurried character, his solid character, his love for strength and order. So it was precisely on solidity, on slowness, on strength and order, that the Russian Empire stood, and why was it to shake it?

And the officer with the wheat mustache came and came. (Iosif really liked his gendarmerie's clean uniform with beautiful shoulder straps, neat buttons, piping, buckles.) In the end, what I offer you is a public service. (Iosif would have been irrevocably ready to go to the state service, but he spoiled himself, himself, in Tiflis and Batum.) You will receive maintenance from us. At first you will help us among the revolutionaries. Choose the most extreme direction. Among them - move forward. We will treat you with care everywhere. You will give us your messages in such a way that it does not cast a shadow on you. What nickname will we choose? .. And now, in order not to expose you, we will transfer you to a distant exile, and you leave immediately from there, that's what everyone does.

And Dzhugashvili made up his mind! And he placed the third stake of his youth on the secret police!

In November he was sent to the Irkutsk province. There, among the exiles, he read a letter from a certain Lenin known from Iskra. Lenin broke away to the very edge, now he was looking for supporters, sent out letters. Obviously, he should have joined.

From the terrible Irkutsk cold, Joseph left for Christmas, and even before the start Japanese war was in the sunny Caucasus.

Now a long period of impunity began for him: he met with underground workers, compiled leaflets, called for rallies - others were arrested (especially those who were not sympathetic to him), but they did not recognize him, they did not catch him. And they didn't go to war.

And suddenly! – no one was waiting for it so quickly, no one prepared it, organized it – and She came! Crowds went around Petersburg with a political petition, killed the grand dukes and nobles, Ivano-Voznesensk went on strike, Lodz rebelled, “ Potemkin”- and the manifesto was quickly squeezed out of the royal throat, and all the same, machine guns were still pounding on Presnya and the railways froze.

Koba was amazed, stunned. Was he wrong again? Why can't he see ahead?

The Okhrana deceived him! .. His third rate was beaten! Ah, they would give him back his free revolutionary soul! What is a hopeless ring? - Shake the revolution out of Russia, so that on its second day your reports are shaken out of the Okhrana archive?

Not only was his will not steel then, but completely split, he lost himself and saw no way out.

Young Joseph Stalin. Photo from 1908

However, they shot, made some noise, hung up, looked around - where is that revolution? There is no her!

At this time, the Bolsheviks adopted a good revolutionary method of expropriation. A letter was thrown to any Armenian moneybag, where to bring him ten, fifteen, twenty-five thousand. And he brought moneybags so that they would not blow up his shop, kill children. It was a method of struggle - so a method of struggle! - not scholasticism, not leaflets and demonstrations, but real revolutionary action. The chistyul-Mensheviks grumbled that robbery and terror were contrary to Marxism. Oh, how Koba mocked them, oh, chased them like cockroaches, that's why Lenin called him a "wonderful Georgian"! - exes are robbery, and revolution is not robbery? ah, lacquered sissies! Where to get money for the party, from where - for the revolutionaries themselves? A bird in the hand is better than a crane in the sky.

Of the whole revolution, Koba especially fell in love with the exes. And then no one except Koba knew how to find those only true people, like Kamo who will obey him, who will shake a revolver, who will take away a bag of gold and bring it to Kobe on a completely different street, without coercion. And when they raked out 340,000 gold from the freight forwarders of the Tiflis bank - so this was still a proletarian revolution on a small scale, and another, big revolution is expected - fools.

The police did not know this about Kobe, and such an average pleasant line was still maintained between the revolution and the police. He always had money.

And the revolution already took him by European trains, sea steamers, showed him islands, canals, medieval castles. It was no longer the smelly Kutaisi cell! In Tammerfors, Stockholm, London, Koba kept an eye on the Bolsheviks, on the obsessed Lenin. Then in Baku I breathed in vapors of this underground liquid, seething with black anger.

Vladimir Lenin. Pre-revolutionary photo

And they took care of him. The older and more famous he became in the party, the closer he was exiled, not to Baikal, but to Solvychegodsk, and not for three years, but for two. Between the links did not interfere with the revolution. Finally, after three Siberian and Ural departures from exile, he, an irreconcilable, tireless rebel, was driven ... to the city of Vologda, where he settled in an apartment with a policeman and could travel by train to St. Petersburg in one night.

But on the evening of February 1912, his junior Baku comrade Ordzhonikidze came to him in Vologda from Prague, shaking his shoulders and shouting:

Coco! Coco! You have been co-opted into the Central Committee!”

On that moonlit night, swirling with frosty fog, the thirty-two-year-old Koba, wrapped in a fur coat, walked around the yard for a long time. Again he hesitated. Member of the Central Committee!

After all, here Malinovsky- a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee - and a deputy of the State Duma. Well, let Lenin especially love Malinovsky. But after all, this is with the king! And after the revolution, today's member of the Central Committee is a loyal minister. True, don't expect any revolution now, not in our lifetime. But even without a revolution, a member of the Central Committee is some kind of power. And what will he serve in the secret police service? Not a member of the Central Committee, but a petty spy. No, we must part with the gendarmerie.

Fate Azef like a giant ghost swayed over his every day, over his every night.

In the morning they went to the station and went to Petersburg. They were captured there.

Joseph Stalin. Photo from 1912

The young inexperienced Ordzhonikidze was given three years in the Shlisselburg fortress and then an additional exile. Stalin, as usual, was given only a link, three years. True, far away - the Narym Territory, this is like a warning. But the lines of communication in the Russian Empire were well established, and at the end of the summer Stalin safely returned to St. Petersburg.

Now he shifted the pressure to party work. I went to see Lenin in Krakow (this was not difficult even for the exile). There is a printing house, there is a May Day card, there is a leaflet - and at the Kalashnikov Stock Exchange, at a party, they flunked him (Malinovsky, but this was found out much later). The Okhrana got angry - and now they drove him into a real exile - under the Arctic Circle, in Kureik's lathe. And they gave him a term - the tsarist government knew how to mold ruthless deadlines! - four years, scary to say.

And again Stalin hesitated: for what, for whose sake did he refuse a moderate, prosperous life, from the patronage of power, let himself be sent into this damn hole? "Member of the Central Committee" is a word for a fool. From all the parties there were several hundred exiles, but Stalin looked at them and was horrified: what a vile breed these professional revolutionaries are - flash blowers, wheezing, dependent, bankrupt. It was not even the Arctic Circle that was terrible for the Caucasian Stalin, but to be in the company of these lightweight, unstable, irresponsible, non-positive people. And in order to immediately separate himself from them, disconnect him - yes, among the bears it would be easier for him! - he married a sheldonka, with a body like a mammoth, and a squeaky voice, - yes, her “hee-hee-hee” and a kitchen on fetid fat are better than going to those gatherings, disputes, troubles and comradely courts. Stalin let them know that they were strangers, cut himself off from them, from everyone, and from the revolution too. Enough! It's not too late to start an honest life at thirty-five, once you have to stop rushing about in the wind, pockets like sails. (He despised himself that he had been fiddling with these clickers for so many years.) So he lived, completely apart, did not touch either the Bolsheviks or the anarchists, they went further and further. Now he was not going to run away, he was going to honestly serve the exile to the end. Yes and war began, and only here, in exile, could he save his life. He sat with his canoe, hiding; their son was born. And the war never ended. At least with your nails, at least with your teeth, stretch yourself an extra year of exile - even this feeble tsar was not able to give real terms!

No, the war is not over! And from the police department, with which he got along so well, his card and his soul were handed over to the military commander, and he, knowing nothing about either the Social Democrats or the members of the Central Committee, called on Joseph Dzhugashvili, born in 1879, who had not previously served military service , - in the Russian imperial army as a private. So the future great marshal began his military career. He had already tried three services, a fourth was about to begin.

On a sleepy sleigh he was taken along the Yenisei to Krasnoyarsk, from there to the barracks in Achinsk. He was in his thirty-eighth year, and he was nothing, a Georgian soldier, huddled in an overcoat from the Siberian frosts and carried by cannon fodder to the front. And his whole great life was to be cut short under some Belarusian farm or Jewish town.

But he had not yet learned how to roll up his overcoat rolls and load a rifle (he did not know either a commissar or a marshal later, and it was inconvenient to ask), when telegraph tapes came from Petrograd, from which strangers hugged in the streets and shouted in frosty breath: “Christ resurrected!" The king - renounced! The empire was no more!

How? Where? And they forgot to hope, and they abandoned counting. Joseph was faithfully taught in childhood: “Your ways are inscrutable, Lord!”

Do not remember when Russian society was so unanimously merry, all the shades of the party. But in order for Stalin to rejoice, one more telegram was needed; without it, the ghost of Azef, like a hanged man, kept swinging over his head.

And a day later that dispatch came: The security department was burned and destroyed, all documents were destroyed!

The revolutionaries knew that it was necessary to burn quickly. There, probably, as Stalin understood, there were many such, many like him ...

(The Okhrana burned down, but for a whole life Stalin looked askance and looked around. With his own hands he leafed through tens of thousands of archival sheets and threw entire folders into the fire without looking. And yet he missed it, almost opened in the thirty-seventh. on trial, Stalin certainly accused of informing: he learned how easy it is to fall, and it was hard for him to imagine that others would not be insured too.) February Revolution Stalin later refused the title of great, but he forgot how he himself rejoiced and sang, and flew on wings from Achinsk (now he could desert!), And did stupid things and through some provincial window sent a telegram to Lenin in Switzerland.

He arrived in Petrograd and immediately agreed with Kamenev: this is it, what we dreamed about in the underground. The revolution has been accomplished, now to consolidate what has been achieved. The time has come for positive people (especially if you are already a member of the Central Committee). All forces to support the provisional government!

So everything was clear to them, until this adventurer arrived, who did not know Russia, deprived of any positive uniform experience, and, choking, twitching and burring, did not climb with his April theses, confused everything completely! And yet he spoke to the party, dragged her on july coup!

This adventure failed, as Stalin correctly predicted, and the entire party almost perished. And where did the cock-like courage of this hero go now?

He fled to Razliv, saving his skin, and the Bolsheviks were slandered here with the latest curses. Was his freedom worth more than the authority of the party? Stalin frankly stated this to them on Sixth congress, but did not collect the majority.

In general, the seventeenth year was an unpleasant year: there were too many rallies, whoever lies more beautifully is carried in their arms, Trotsky did not leave the circus. And where did they come from, krasnobaev, like flies on honey? They weren’t seen in the exiles, they weren’t seen on the exes, they were hanging out abroad, and then they came to tear their throats, to climb into the front seat. And they judge everything like fast fleas. Another question has not arisen in life, not posed - they already know how to answer! They laughed insultingly at Stalin, they did not even hide. Okay, Stalin did not get into their disputes, and he did not climb into the stands, he kept his mouth shut for now. Stalin did not like it, did not know how - to throw out words in a race, who is bigger and louder. This is not how he envisioned the revolution. He represented the revolution: to take leadership positions and do business.

Those sharp-beards laughed at him, but why did they arrange everything difficult, everything ungrateful to blame it on Stalin? They laughed at him, but why did everyone in the Kshesinskaya palace get sick with their stomachs and not anyone else, namely Stalin, was sent to Petropavlovka, when it was necessary to convince the sailors to give the fortress to Kerensky without a fight, and to leave for Kronstadt again? Because sailors would throw stones at Grishka Zinoviev. Because you need to be able to talk with the Russian people.

The adventure was october coup, but it worked, okay. Success.

Fine. For this, you can give Lenin a five. There, what will happen next - is unknown, so far - good. Narkomnats? Okay, let. Drafting a constitution?

OK. Stalin watched.

Surprisingly, it seemed that the revolution in one year was completely successful. It was impossible to expect this - but it was a success! This clown, Trotsky, also believed in the world revolution, Brest Peace did not want to, and Lenin believed, oh, book dreamers! You have to be a donkey - to believe in the European revolution, how long they themselves lived there - they did not understand anything, Stalin drove once - he understood everything. Here you need to cross yourself that your own is a success. And sit quietly.

Think.

Stalin looked around with sober, unprejudiced eyes. And thought about it. And he clearly understood that these phrase-mongers would ruin such an important revolution. And only he, Stalin, can guide it correctly. In honor, in conscience, only he was the real leader here. He impartially compared himself with these grimaces, jumpers, and clearly saw his superiority in life, their fragility, his stability. He differed from all of them in that understood people. He understood them there, where they connect with the earth, where basis, in that place he understood them, without which they do not stand, will not stand, and what is higher than they pretend, than they show off - this superstructure, doesn't solve anything.

True, Lenin had an eagle's flight, he could simply surprise: in one night he turned - "the land - to the peasants!" (and we’ll see), in one day he came up with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (after all, it’s not that it hurts a Russian, even a Georgian, to give half of Russia to the Germans, but it doesn’t hurt him!). About NEP do not speak at all, this is the most cunning of all, it is not a shame to learn such maneuvers.

What was above all else in Lenin is super-remarkable: he firmly held real power only in his own hands. Slogans changed, topics of discussion changed, allies and opponents changed, and full power remained only in their own hands!

But there was no real reliability in this man, he had a lot of grief with his household, to get confused in it. Stalin rightly sensed in Lenin fragility, shiftiness, and finally a poor understanding of people, no understanding at all. (He verified this by himself: whichever side he wanted, he turned, and from that side Lenin saw him only.) For dark hand-to-hand combat, which is true politics, this man was not fit. Stalin felt himself more stable and firmer than Lenin, to the extent that sixty-six degrees of Turukhansk latitude is stronger than fifty-four degrees of Shushenskaya. And what did this book theorist experience in life? He did not pass low rank, humiliation, poverty, direct hunger: even if he was poor, he was a landowner.

He never left the exile, such an exemplary one! He never saw real prisons, he didn't even see Russia itself, he blabbed for fourteen years in emigration. What he wrote - Stalin did not read more than half, did not expect to get smart. (Well, he also had wonderful formulations. For example: "What is a dictatorship? An unlimited government not restrained by laws." Stalin wrote in the margin: "Good!") Yes, if Lenin had a real sober mind, he would have been from the first days brought Stalin closer than anyone, he would have said: “Help! I understand politics, I understand classes - I don’t understand living people!” And he didn’t think of a better way to send Stalin as some kind of commissioner for bread, somewhere in a corner of Russia. The person he needed most in Moscow was Stalin, and he Tsaritsyn sent...

And for the whole civil Lenin settled down to sit in the Kremlin, he took care of himself. And Stalin got to wander for three years, drive around the country, when he was shaking on horseback, when in a cart, and freezing, and warming himself by the fire. Well, it's true, Stalin loved himself during these years: like a young general without a rank, all smart, slender; cap leather with an asterisk; an officer's overcoat, double-breasted, soft, with a cavalry slit - and not fastened; chrome boots sewn along the leg; a smart, young, clean-shaven face, and only a cast mustache, not a single woman can resist (and her third wife is a beauty).

Of course, he did not take a saber in his hands and did not climb under the bullets, he was more expensive for the Revolution, he is not a man Budyonny. And when you arrive in a new place - in Tsaritsyn, in Perm, in Petrograd - you will be silent, you will ask questions, you will straighten your mustache. On one list you write “shoot”, on the other list you write “shoot” - then people start to respect you very much.

And to tell the truth, he showed himself as a great military man, as the creator of victory.

All this gang that climbed up, surrounded Lenin, fought for power, they all presented themselves as very smart, and very subtle, and very complex. It was their complexity that they boasted about. Where it was twice two is four, they all shouted in unison, which is another tenth and two hundredths. But the worst of all, but the worst of all was Trotsky. It's just that Stalin never met such a vile person in his entire life. With such frenzied self-conceit, with such pretensions to eloquence, but he never honestly argued, he never had a “yes” - so “yes”, “no” - so “no”, necessarily: and so - and so, neither - not like that! No peace, no war - what reasonable person can understand this? What about arrogance? As the tsar himself, he dangled in the saloon car. But where do you climb into the commander-in-chief if you do not have a strategic streak?

This Trotsky burned and baked so much that in the struggle with him at first Stalin broke loose, betrayed the main rule of any policy: do not show at all that you are his enemy, do not show irritation at all. Stalin openly did not obey him, and scolded him in letters, and verbally, and complained to Lenin, did not miss the opportunity. And as soon as he found out the opinion, the decision of Trotsky on any issue, he immediately put forward why it should be quite the opposite. But that's not how you win. And Trotsky kicked him out like a city stick under his feet: he kicked him out of Tsaritsyn, kicked him out of the Ukraine. And once Stalin received a harsh lesson that not all means in the struggle are good, that there are forbidden methods: together with Zinoviev, they complained to the Politburo about the arbitrary executions of Trotsky. And then Lenin took several blank forms, signed on the bottom "I approve and henceforth!" - and immediately handed over to Trotsky for filling.

The science! Ashamed! What did you complain about? It is impossible even in the most intense struggle to appeal to complacency. Lenin was right, and as an exception, Trotsky was also right: if you don’t shoot without a trial, nothing can be done in history at all.

We are all people, and feelings push us ahead of reason. From each person the smell comes, and by the smell you act even before your head. Of course, Stalin was mistaken that he opened up against Trotsky ahead of time (he never made that mistake again). But the same feelings led him in the most correct way to Lenin. If you think with your head, you had to please Lenin, to say, “Oh, how right! I am for it too!” However, with an unerring heart, Stalin found a completely different path: to be rude to him as sharply as possible, to rest against his donkey - they say, an uneducated, uncouth, wild person, you want to accept it or not. He was not only rude - he was rude to him (“I can still be at the front for two weeks, then let's rest” - who could Lenin forgive this for?), but it was just like that - unbreakable, uncompromising, won Lenin's respect. Lenin felt that this wonderful Georgian is a strong figure, such people are very much needed, and then more will be needed. Lenin listened to Trotsky very much, but he also listened to Stalin. If he presses Stalin, he will press Trotsky as well. That one is to blame for Tsaritsyn, and that one is for Astrakhan. “You will learn to cooperate,” he persuaded them, but he also accepted that they did not get along. Trotsky came running to complain that prohibition was in place throughout the republic, and Stalin was drinking the Tsar’s cellar in the Kremlin, that if they found out at the front ... Stalin laughed, Lenin laughed, turned away his beard Trotsky, left with nothing. They removed Stalin from Ukraine - so they gave the second people's commissariat, the RKI.

It was March 1919. Stalin was in his fortieth year. Who else would have had a shabby RCI inspection, but Stalin had it rise to the top people's commissariat! (That's what Lenin wanted. He knew Stalin's firmness, steadfastness, incorruptibility.) It was Stalin who Lenin instructed to monitor justice in the Republic, the cleanliness of party workers, to the highest. According to the nature of the work, if it is correctly understood, if you give your soul to it and do not spare your health, Stalin now had to secretly (but quite legally) collect incriminating materials against all responsible workers, send inspectors and collect reports, and then direct the purges. And for this it was necessary to create an apparatus, to select throughout the country just as selfless, just as unswerving, like themselves, ready to work secretly, without any obvious reward.

Painstaking work, patient work, long work, but Stalin was ready for it.

It is rightly said that forty years is our maturity. Only then do you finally understand how to live, how to behave. Only then did Stalin feel his main strength: the strength of the unspoken decision. Inside you have already made a decision, but whose head it concerns - that one does not need to know it ahead of time. (When his head rolls, then let him find out.) Second strength: never believe other people's words, don't attach importance to your own. It is necessary to say not what you will do (you yourself, maybe you don’t know, it will be seen there), but what calms your interlocutor now. The third force: if someone cheated on you, don’t forgive him; if you grabbed someone with your teeth, don’t let him out, don’t let him out for anything, even if the sun goes back and the heavenly phenomena are different. And the fourth force: not to direct your head on the theory, this has not helped anyone yet (you will say some theory later), but constantly think: with whom are you on the way now and to which pillar.

Thus, the situation with Trotsky gradually improved - first with the support of Zinoviev, then Kamenev. (Emotional relations were established with both of them.) Stalin realized to himself that he had nothing to worry about with Trotsky: a man like Trotsky should never be pushed into a pit, he would jump and fall off on his own. Stalin knew his own, he worked quietly: he slowly selected cadres, checked people, remembered everyone who would be reliable, waited for an opportunity to raise them, move them.

The time has come - and, for sure! Trotsky himself fell on trade union discussion- liberated, scolded, angered Lenin - he does not respect the party! - and Stalin is just ready with whom to replace Trotsky's people: Krestinsky- Zinoviev, Preobrazhensky – Molotov, Serebryakova – Yaroslavsky. Pulled up to the Central Committee and Voroshilov, and Ordzhonikidze, all of their own. And the famous commander-in-chief staggered on his crane legs. And Lenin understood that only Stalin was like a rock alone for the unity of the party, but he didn’t want anything for himself, he didn’t ask.

The simple-hearted, handsome Georgian, and this touched all the presenters, that he did not climb onto the podium, did not strive for popularity, for publicity, like all of them, did not boast of his knowledge of Marx, did not quote loudly, but modestly worked, picked up the apparatus - a solitary comrade, very firm , very honest, selfless, diligent, a little really ill-mannered, rude, a little narrow-minded. And when Ilyich began to get sick, they elected Stalin general secretary, as once Misha Romanov was appointed to the kingdom, because no one was afraid of him.

It was May 1922. And the other would have calmed down on that, would have sat - rejoiced. But not Stalin. Another would have read Capital, made extracts. And Stalin only pulled his nostrils and realized: the time is extreme, the gains of the revolution are in danger, there is not a minute to lose: Lenin will not retain power and will not hand it over to reliable hands. Lenin's health has deteriorated, and perhaps this is for the better. If he lingers at the leadership, you can’t vouch for anything, nothing is reliable: torn, quick-tempered, and now still sick, he was getting more and more nervous, just interfered with work. Stop everyone from working! He could scold a person for nothing, besiege, remove from an elective post.

The first idea was to send Lenin, for example, to the Caucasus, to be treated, the air is good there, the places are deaf, there is no telephone with Moscow, the telegrams take a long time, his nerves will calm down there without state work. And put to him to monitor his health - a trusted comrade, expropriator of the former, raider Kamo. And Lenin agreed, they were already negotiating with Tiflis, but somehow dragged on. And then Kamo was crushed by a car (he talked a lot about the exes).

Then, worrying about the life of the leader, Stalin, through the People's Commissariat of Health and through professors-surgeons, raised the question: after all, the bullet is not drawn out - it poisons the body, one more operation must be done, taken out. And convinced the doctors. And everyone repeated what was necessary, and Lenin agreed - but again it dragged on. And just left for Gorki.

“In relation to Lenin, firmness is needed!” Stalin wrote to Kamenev. And Kamenev and Zinoviev, his best friends at the time, agreed completely.

Firmness in treatment, firmness in the regimen, firmness in removal from business - in the interests of his own precious life. And in removal from Trotsky. AND Krupskaya also curb, she is an ordinary party comrade. Stalin was appointed “responsible for the health of Comrade Lenin” and did not consider it a dirty job for himself: to deal directly with the attending physicians and even nurses, to tell them which regimen is most useful for Lenin: it is most useful for him to forbid and forbid, even if he gets excited. The same is true in political matters. He doesn't like the bill about the Red Army - to pass it, he doesn't like it about the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - to pass it, and not to yield for anything, because he is sick, he cannot know how best. If something insists to be carried out as soon as possible - on the contrary, to carry it out more slowly, to postpone. And it may even be rude, very rude to answer him - it's the General Secretary's directness, you can't break your character.

However, despite Stalin's best efforts, Lenin did not recover well, his illness dragged on until autumn, and then the dispute about the Central Executive Committee-All-Russian Central Executive Committee escalated, and dear Ilyich managed to get to his feet for a short time. He only got up in order to restore a cordial alliance with Trotsky in December 1922 - against Stalin, of course. So for this it was not necessary to get up, it was better to lie down again. Now even stricter medical scrutiny, do not read, do not write, do not know about business, eat semolina. I thought up dear Ilyich secretly from the Secretary General to write political testament again against Stalin. He dictated for five minutes a day, they did not allow him anymore (Stalin did not allow him). But the general secretary laughed in his mustache: the stenographer tuk-tuk-tuk heels, and brought him an obligatory copy. Then I had to pull Krupskaya, as she deserved, - dear Ilyich boiled over - and the third blow! So all efforts to save his life did not help.

He died at a good time: just Trotsky was in the Caucasus, and Stalin announced the wrong day of the funeral there, because there was no need for him to come: the oath of allegiance is much more decent, very important, to pronounce the general secretary.

But Lenin left a will. From him, the comrades could create discord, misunderstanding, they even wanted to remove Stalin from the general secretary. Then even tighter Stalin made friends with Zinoviev, he so proved to him that obviously he would now be the leader of the party, and let him XIII Congress makes a report from the Central Committee, as a future leader, and Stalin will be a modest general secretary, he does not need anything. And Zinoviev showed off on the podium, made a report (only and only a report, where is he and by whom to choose, there is no such post - “leader of the party”), and for that report he persuaded the Central Committee - not even to read the will at the congress, not to dismiss Stalin, he already corrected.

All of them in the Politburo were then very friendly, and all of them were against Trotsky. And they refuted his proposals well and removed his supporters from their posts. And another secretary general would have calmed down on that. But the indefatigable vigilant Stalin knew that he was far from rest.

Was it good for Kamenev to remain on the Presovnarkom instead of Lenin? (Even when they visited sick Lenin together with Kamenev, Stalin reported in Pravda that he went without Kamenev, alone. Just in case. He foresaw that Kamenev would also not be eternal.) Wouldn't it be better - Rykov? And Kamenev himself agreed, and Zinoviev too, they lived together like that!

But soon a big blow fell on their friendship: it turned out that Zinoviev-Kamenev were hypocrites, double-dealers, that they only aspired to power, but did not value Lenin's ideas. I had to tighten them up. They became the “new opposition” (and the talker Krupskaya climbed into the same place), and Trotsky, beaten and beaten, has so far subsided. This is a very comfortable position. Here, by the way, a great cordial friendship came between Stalin and his dear Bukharchik, the first theoretician of the party. Bukharchik spoke, Bukharchik summed up the base and justifications (they give - "attack on the kulak!", and Bukharin and I give - "the bond between the city and the countryside!"). Stalin himself did not at all claim to fame or leadership, he only followed the vote and who was in what post. Already many right comrades were in the right positions and voted right.

Removed Zinoviev from Comintern took Leningrad from them.

And it would seem that they would reconcile themselves, but no: now they have united with Trotsky, and that wimp caught on for the last time, gave the slogan: "industrialization."

And Bukharchik and I give - the unity of the party! In the name of unity, all must submit! Trotsky was exiled, Zinoviev and Kamenev were shut up.

Helped a lot here Lenin set : now the majority of the party was made up of people who were not infected with intellectualism, not infected with the former squabbles of the underground and emigration, people for whom the former height of the party leaders no longer meant anything, but only their present face. Healthy people, devoted people, rose from the ranks of the party and occupied important posts.

Stalin never doubted that he would find such people, and in this way they would save the gains of the revolution.

But what a fatal surprise: Bukharin, Tomsk and Rykov also turned out to be hypocrites, they were not for the unity of the party! And Bukharin turned out to be the first confusion, not a theoretician. And his cunning slogan “the bond between the city and the countryside” concealed a restorationist meaning, surrender to the fist and disruption of industrialization! .. So here they were, finally, the correct slogans, only Stalin was able to formulate them: fist attack And forced industrialization! And - the unity of the party, of course! And this vile company of "rightists" was also dismissed from the leadership.

Bukharin once boasted that a certain wise man had deduced: "lower minds are more capable of managing." You made a mistake, Nikolai Ivanovich, together with your sage: not the lowest - healthy. Healthy minds.

And what minds were you - it's you on processes showed. Stalin sat on the gallery in a closed room, looked at them through the net, laughed: what kind of talkers were once! what a force it once seemed! and what have you come to? soaked like.

It was the knowledge of human nature, it was sobriety that always helped Stalin. He understood those people whom he saw with his eyes. But he also understood those whom he did not see with his eyes. When there were difficulties in 1931-32, there was nothing to wear or eat in the country - it seemed, just come and push outside, we will fall. And the party gave the command - to sound the alarm, the danger of intervention! But Stalin himself never believed a single finger: because he also imagined those Western talkers in advance.

One cannot calculate how much strength, how much health, how much endurance went into clearing the party, the country from enemies and clearing Leninism - this is an unmistakable teaching that Stalin never changed: he did exactly what Lenin outlined, only a little softer and without fuss.

So much effort! - but all the same, it was never calm, it was never so that no one interfered. Then this crooked-lipped sucker Tukhachevsky jumped up, as if because of Stalin he Warsaw did not take. Either it didn’t work out very cleanly with Frunze, the censor missed it, then in a crappy little story they presented Stalin on the mountain as a standing dead man, and they also slammed, idiots. That Ukraine rotted bread, Kuban shot from sawn-off shotguns, even Ivanovo went on strike.

But not once did Stalin lose his temper, after the mistake with Trotsky - never again. He knew that the millstones of history were slowly grinding, but they were spinning.

And without any ceremonial hype, all ill-wishers, all envious people will leave, die, be ground into dung. (No matter how those writers offended Stalin - he did not take revenge on them, he did not take revenge for this, it would not be instructive. He waited for another opportunity, the opportunity will always come.) those who were not loyal to Stalin - everyone went somewhere, disappeared. And the delegates of the Twelfth, and the Thirteenth, and the Fourteenth, and the Fifteenth, and the Sixteenth, and the Seventeenth Congresses, as if simply according to the lists, went to where you can’t vote, you can’t speak. And they twice cleared troublemaker Leningrad, a dangerous place. And even friends, like Sergo, had to be sacrificed. And even diligent assistants, like Berry, How Yezhov had to be cleaned up afterwards. Finally, they reached out to Trotsky and cracked open his skull.

The main enemy on earth is gone and it seems that a respite was deserved?

But Finland poisoned her. For that shameful trampling on the isthmus I was just ashamed in front of Hitler - he walked around France with a cane! Ah, the indelible stain on the genius of a commander! These Finns, through and through a bourgeois hostile nation, would be sent in echelons to Kara-Kum up to small children, he himself would sit by the phone, write down reports: how many have already been shot, buried, how much is left.

And troubles poured in and poured out just in bulk. Hitler deceived, attacked, such a good alliance was ruined out of wit! And the lips trembled in front of the microphone, “brothers and sisters” broke, now you can’t erase from history. And these brothers and sisters ran like sheep, and no one wanted to fight to the death, although they were clearly ordered to fight to the death. Why didn't they stand? why - did not immediately stand?! .. It's a shame.

And then this departure to Kuibyshev, to empty bomb shelters... What positions I mastered, I never bent, the only time I succumbed to panic - and in vain. I went from room to room - I called for a week: have they already surrendered Moscow? passed already? - No, they didn't! It was impossible to believe that they would stop - stopped!

Well done, of course. Well done. But many had to be removed: it would not be a victory if a rumor spread that the Commander-in-Chief was temporarily leaving. (Because of this, on November 7, a small parade had to be photographed.) And the Berlin radio rinsed dirty sheets about the murder of Lenin, Frunze, Dzerzhinsky, Kuibyshev, Gorky - city higher! Old enemy, fat Churchill, a pig for chokhokhbil, flew in to gloat, smoke a couple of cigars in the Kremlin. The Ukrainians changed (there was such a dream in 1944: to evict all of Ukraine to Siberia, but there is no one to replace it, too much); the Lithuanians, Estonians, Tatars, Cossacks, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Latvians have changed - even the support of the revolution, the Latvians! And even native Georgians, protected from mobilizations - and they did not seem to be waiting for Hitler! And only Russians and Jews remained faithful to their Father.

So even the national question laughed at him in those difficult years ...

But, thank God, these misfortunes have passed. Stalin corrected a lot by how he outplayed Churchill and Roosevelt-holy. Ever since the 1920s, Stalin had not had such success as with these two bunglers. When he answered letters to them or went to his room in Yalta, he simply laughed at them.

Statesmen, how smart they think they are, but stupider than babies. Everyone asks: how will we be after the war, and how? Yes, you send planes, send canned food, and then we'll see how. Throw a word to them, well, the first passing one, they are already rejoicing, they are already writing down on a piece of paper. You pretend to soften from love, they are already twice as soft. I received from them for nothing, not for snuff: Poland, Saxony, Thuringia, Vlasov, Krasnovtsy, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, Port Arthur, half of Korea, and confused them on the Danube and the Balkans. The leaders of the "farmers" won the elections and immediately went to jail. And they quickly turned Mikolajczyk, Beneš's heart failed, Masaryk's, Cardinal Mindszenty confessed to the atrocities, Dimitrov in the Kremlin's heart clinic he renounced the quarrelsome Balkan Federation.

And all the Soviets who returned from European life were put in camps. And - there for the second ten years, all those who served only once.

Well, it looks like things are starting to get better!

And when, even in the rustle of the taiga, it was impossible to hear about some other version of socialism, a black dragon crawled out Tito and blocked all prospects.

Like a fairy-tale hero, Stalin was exhausted to cut off more and more growing heads of the hydra! ..

But how could one make a mistake in this scorpion soul?! - to him! connoisseur of human souls! After all, in the 36th year they were already holding by the throat - and released! .. Ai-i-i-i-ai!

Stalin, with a groan, lowered his legs from the ottoman and took hold of his head, already bald. An irremediable vexation gnawed at him. He rolled mountains - and stumbled on a stinking hillock.

Joseph stumbled on Joseph...

Stalin did not interfere at all with Kerensky, who was living somewhere. Let Nicholas II return from the coffin or Kolchak- against all of them, Stalin had no personal evil: open enemies, they did not dodge to offer some kind of their own, new, better socialism.

The best socialism! Different than Stalin! brat! Socialism without Stalin is ready-made fascism!

It's not that Tito will succeed - nothing can come out of him. Like an old horseman, who has torn up many of these bellies, cut off countless of these limbs in chicken huts, by the roads, looks at a little white medical trainee, so Stalin looked at Tito.

But Tito stirred up long-forgotten trinkets for fools: “workers' control”, “land for the peasants”, all these soap bubbles of the first years of the revolution.

The collected works of Lenin have already been changed three times, and the Founding Men twice. Everyone who argued, who was mentioned in the old footnotes, fell asleep long ago—everyone who thought otherwise to build socialism. And now, when it is clear that there is no other way, and not only socialism, but even communism would have been built long ago, if not for the arrogant nobles; not false reports; not soulless bureaucrats; not indifference to the public cause; not the weakness of organizational and explanatory work among the masses; not by chance in party education; slow pace of construction; ne downtime, ne absentia at work, ne release of poor quality products, ne bad planning, ne indifference to the introduction of new technology, ne inactivity of scientific research institutes, ne poor training of young specialists, ne the evasion of young people from being sent to the wilderness, ne sabotage of prisoners, ne the loss of grain in the field, the embezzlement of accountants, the theft at bases, the swindle of the storekeepers and store assistants, the greed of drivers, the complacency of local authorities! ne liberalism and bribes in the police! ne abuse of housing stock! ne impudent speculators! ne greedy housewives! ne spoiled children! ne tram talkers! ne criticism in literature! ne dislocations in cinematography! – when it is already clear to everyone that kamunism is on the right road and not far from completion, – this cretin Tito sticks out with his Talmudist Kardel and declares that kamunism should not be built like this !!!...

11.08.2010 - 11:13

Everyone is submissive to love - including the people who make history. Sometimes cruel tyrants, sending people to their deaths by the thousands, turn out to be the most reverent and tender husbands. But basically dictators are too cruel and merciless even with loving and beloved women...

Poor Kato

Little is known about the personal life of Joseph Stalin. He carefully destroyed any documents and evidence relating to his love and family relationships.

Historians have to rely only on what he nevertheless decided to leave to posterity, and on rare eyewitness accounts who sin with inaccuracies and sometimes outright lies - in the name of saving lives.

But still, some facts are known reliably. The first wife of Joseph Dzhugashvili, who did not yet have a significant party pseudonym Stalin, was a young Georgian girl Ekaterina (Kato) Svanidze. Joseph was then only 26 years old, but he already had a reputation as a fiery revolutionary who did not spare his belly in the name of the ideas of universal equality and fraternity. True, the means by which the Bolsheviks achieved their goal turned out to be bloody - death and destruction trailed behind them like a train ... But in those days it only gave the aura of romantics to these gloomy and merciless young people who went through exile, prisons, escapes ...

They considered themselves noble knights - for example, Joseph Dzhugashvili coined the nickname Koba for himself - in honor of a literary hero, a robber who robbed the rich and gave money to the poor.

16-year-old Kato was the sister of the same fanatical revolutionary Alexander Svanidze, who had nothing against marriage to Soso Dzhugashvili, who had great authority among the Caucasian freedom fighters. In 1904, Soso and Kato got married and settled in a small poor room - poor and ragged. At the same time, huge funds expropriated from the rich passed through the hands of Dzhugashvili - but they all went to the needs of the party. Koba himself practically did not appear at home - his life is too complicated and stressful, in which everything is subordinated to the service of the revolution, but by no means to the family hearth and beloved woman. Kato spends all her time alone, cleaning up their miserable shack and figuring out what to make their meager dinner out of.

In 1907, Kato and Soso had a son, Yakov. The life of a woman became even harder, and she, torn by childbirth, fell ill with typhus. Soso had no money for treatment. The weakened body could not cope with the disease, and Kato died ... Soso sincerely experienced her death, and according to eyewitnesses, he began to destroy his enemies with redoubled fury. And little Yakov ended up in the family of Kato's parents, with whom he lived until the age of 14 ...

Tenderness of a tyrant

The stern revolutionary was left alone. He had to go through a lot of terrible and cruel events, go through exile, prisons, escapes again ... He went into the service of the revolution, and there was no time left for his personal life. A new love in his heart flared up after the victory of the Bolsheviks, in the 20s ...

Young Nadenka (she was 23 years younger than Stalin), the daughter of the revolutionary Sergei Alliluyev, gave her heart to this silent, gloomy and legendary man. He came to the house of an old comrade-in-arms, sparingly talked about all the horrors that he had to endure in life, and she listened with bated breath ... Everything happened according to the old scheme: “She fell in love with him for torment, and he loved her for compassion for him." But nevertheless, they sincerely loved each other, although in those harsh years, various sentimental tendernesses were considered a weakness characteristic only of the unfinished bourgeoisie.

In 1921, their son Vasily was born, and at the same time Yakov was brought from Georgia - Stalin finally had a real family. But the old story was repeated again - Koba did not have time for ordinary human joys. He inexorably walked towards his goal, destroying enemies along the way, and he had no time to deal with all sorts of cute family nonsense and sentimentality. At the same time, Nadia was an ordinary weak woman - not a fiery revolutionary, not a fanatic of serving the ideals of Marxism. They even wanted to expel her from the AUCPB at one time, as "a ballast who is not interested in the party." But at the same time, Stalin, a man who has already achieved power and all the heights of position that were possible in the USSR, lives with Nadezhda and loves her and her children very much - Vasya and little Svetlana, who was born in 1925.

Very little is known about their relationship, and very little written evidence of their love remains - short lines of letters with which they did not indulge each other - people who dream of a world revolution are not up to trifles. But even in these mean lines one can see both Nadezhda's love for “dear Joseph” and tenderness for “Tatka” (that was her childhood nickname), unexpected for the bloody image of Stalin.

“As soon as you find yourself 6-7 free days, roll straight to Sochi. I kiss my Tatka. Your Joseph. “Tatka! How did you get there, what did you see, did you see the doctors, what is the opinion of the doctors about your health, write ... We will open the Congress on the 26th ... Things are going well. I really miss you, Tatochka, I'm sitting at home alone, like an owl ... Well, goodbye ... come soon. Kiss".

“Tatka! Forgot to send you money. I am sending them with a comrade who is leaving today ... Your Joseph "("cap" and "nogo" - this is how their daughter Svetlana pronounced the words "strongly" and "a lot").

But, as often happens, tender feelings woke up mainly during separation, and when lovers were nearby, friction constantly arose. They were especially aggravated by the fact that Nadezhda had almost no one to communicate with, except for Stalin, and he could not devote much time and attention to her. And the reasons for the loneliness of the first lady of the state lay in her special position. Stalin's secretary Boris Bazhanov recalled: “When I met Nadya, I had the impression that there was some kind of emptiness around her - she somehow had no female friends at that time, and the male audience was afraid to approach her - suddenly Stalin if he suspects that they are courting his wife, he will die. I had a clear feeling that the wife of an almost dictator needs the most basic human relations.

But the relationship with the closest and only person was very difficult. The same Bazhanov, who became friends with Nadia, wrote: “Her life at home was difficult. Stalin was a tyrant at home. Constantly restraining himself in business relations with people, he did not stand on ceremony with his family. More than once, Nadya told me, sighing: “The third day she is silent, does not talk to anyone and does not answer when they turn to him; an unusually difficult person” ... One can only imagine how hard it was for her to experience all this ...

"My personal life is hard" ...

The circumstances of the death of Nadezhda Alliluyeva are still and, most likely, forever shrouded in uncertainty. She committed suicide on November 8, 1932 by shooting herself in the temple. According to the official version, Nadezhda died of appendicitis. But even then, when the general public did not know that she had committed suicide, rumors spread about the suspicious circumstances of Alliluyeva's death.

For example, the Western press put forward the following versions: “Hirst's newspapers publish new messages in which they again convey rumors that Stalin's wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, did not die of appendicitis, but was poisoned. According to this version, she always herself tried the products from which they prepared dinner for her husband. She recently tasted poisoned foods sent by the 'conspirators' and ended up poisoning herself." (New Russian Word, New York, December 3, 1932).

But in the USSR they whispered muffledly that it was Stalin himself who killed her. True, those who knew him closely did not believe this. It is difficult to imagine that a man who loved his wife so much could kill her himself. To torment - yes, to bring to tears - yes, but to kill the only beloved woman and the mother of your children is completely different ...

After the death of his wife, Stalin wrote to his mother: “Hello, my mother. I received your letter. I'm healthy, don't worry about me - I'll stand my share ... The children bow to you. After the death of Nadia, my personal life is hard. But never mind, a courageous person must always remain courageous.”

It is hard to imagine that a person is lying to his mother on such a serious issue as the death of his wife ... Most likely, her death was a complete surprise for him and shocked him very much, maybe even broke him, making him a truly cruel person. Stalin never married again, although, of course, he could choose any, the most beautiful, women as his wife. But he preferred to remain alone, never showing his true feelings to anyone else and not becoming attached to anyone ...

Let me remind you that I also talked about Stalin's personal pilot and bodyguard

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More than half a century has passed since the death of Stalin, and heated debates around the true origin of the leader and other controversial facts of his biography are ongoing to this day. For example, historians do not get tired of putting forward the most provocative versions about the name of the real father of Joseph Vissarionovich. And the further, the more questions that remain unanswered.

Faktrum tells about five strange and ambiguous moments in the biography of the leader.

Joseph Stalin in his youth

1. Date of birth

According to one version, Stalin (Dzhugashvili - real name) himself changed the date of his birth in the documents, and his political activities had absolutely nothing to do with this event. He changed 18 to December 21, 1878, because in his youth one of his fellow students, who at some point plunged into the study of horoscopes and the practice of clairvoyance, allegedly warned the future leader that the date of his birth did not promise him a great future. However, historians do not have any reliably confirmed data on the veracity of this version.

2. Father of the leader

Vissarion Ivanovich Dzhugashvili

Stalin's official parents are Vissarion Ivanovich and Ekaterina Georgievna. The father was a shoemaker and, according to witnesses, he liked to drink hard. When Joseph was 11 years old, Vissarion died - he was killed during a brawl. Much later, after Stalin's death, new details of the life of his parents began to open up, and behind them, shocking versions of the true origin of the leader.

So, for example, Edward Radzinsky in his book "Stalin" hypothesized that the real father of Joseph Vissarionovich was Nikolai Przhevalsky, a famous traveler, the one in whose honor the horse breed was named. Allegedly, Ekaterina Georgievna, being legally married, accidentally met Przhevalsky while visiting relatives, and they immediately began very “warm friendly” relations. And soon little Joseph was born. According to another version, Stalin's father could well have been Davrichewy, the head of the police department, where Ekaterina Georgievna repeatedly ran to save her drunken husband from beatings. Eyewitnesses claimed that an affair quickly began between Davrichewy and the woman.

3. Repeated arrests

The young years of Stalin, even before the revolution, passed in a constant battle with the current regime. The future dictator was arrested more than once, was in exile, served in many committees of the RSDLP, and was also one of the honorary employees of the Pravda newspaper. According to some reports, he had to serve six times in prison, and all for robbery, except for one case - a criminal punishment for political reasons.

4. Party nicknames

Stalin is just a pseudonym, in addition to which Joseph Dzhugashvili had many more nicknames. So, for example, he was called "Ivanovich", "Osip", "Vasiliev", "Vasily". But his most famous nickname is Koba. That was the name of the character in Alexander Kazbegi's adventure story "The Parricide". It is believed that he was the favorite literary hero of the leader. But among the people Stalin was called in his own way. Among the numerous nicknames of the dictator, the name "Gutalin" or "Gutalinshchik" has taken root best of all. Everything is simple here: obviously, this is how Stalin was named for his relationship with the shoemaker, who was his father.

5. Nobel Prize nominee

Stalin was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize. First in 1945, then in 1948 - both times for the leading role in the liberation of the world from Nazi invaders and the end of World War II. The candidacy was proposed by a British historian, putting the Soviet leader on a par with Churchill and Roosevelt. It is hard to believe that we are talking about a man who ruined millions of human lives. However, the award to Joseph Vissarionovich was never given, and his nomination became known only 50 years later. According to the established procedure, that is how long the names of applicants are kept secret.

We stand for peace and uphold the cause of peace.
/AND. Stalin/

Stalin (real name - Dzhugashvili) Iosif Vissarionovich, one of the leading figures of the Communist Party, the Soviet state, the international communist and workers' movement, a prominent theorist and propagandist of Marxism-Leninism. Born in the family of a handicraft shoemaker. In 1894 he graduated from the Gori Theological School and entered the Tbilisi Orthodox Seminary. Under the influence of Russian Marxists who lived in Transcaucasia, he joined the revolutionary movement; in an illegal circle he studied the works of K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov. Since 1898 a member of the CPSU. Being in a social democratic group "Mesame-dashi", led the propaganda of Marxist ideas among the workers of the Tbilisi railway workshops. In 1899 he was expelled from the seminary for revolutionary activity, went underground, and became a professional revolutionary. He was a member of the Tbilisi, Caucasian Union and Baku committees of the RSDLP, participated in the publication of newspapers "Brdzola" ("Struggle"), "Proletariatis Brdzola" ("Struggle of the proletariat"), "Baku Proletarian", "Beep", "Baku Worker", was an active participant in the Revolution of 1905-07. in the Caucasus. Since the creation of the RSDLP, he supported Lenin's ideas of strengthening the revolutionary Marxist party, defended the Bolshevik strategy and tactics of the class struggle of the proletariat, was a staunch supporter of Bolshevism, and exposed the opportunist line of the Mensheviks and anarchists in the revolution. Delegate of the 1st Conference of the RSDLP in Tammerfors (1905), the 4th (1906) and 5th (1907) Congresses of the RSDLP.

During the period of underground revolutionary activity, he was repeatedly arrested and exiled. In January 1912, at a meeting of the Central Committee elected by the 6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP, he was co-opted to the Central Committee in absentia and introduced to Russian Bureau of the Central Committee. In 1912-13, while working in St. Petersburg, he actively collaborated in newspapers "Star" And "Is it true". Participant Krakow (1912) meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP with party workers. At this time, Stalin wrote the work "Marxism and the National Question", in which he highlighted the Leninist principles for resolving the national question, criticized the opportunist program of "cultural-national autonomy". The work was positively evaluated by V. I. Lenin (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 24, p. 223). In February 1913, Stalin was again arrested and exiled to the Turukhansk region.

After the overthrow of the autocracy, Stalin returned to Petrograd on March 12 (25), 1917, was introduced to the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) and to the editorial board of Pravda, took an active part in expanding the work of the party in the new conditions. Stalin supported the Leninist course of developing the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist one. On 7th (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP (b) elected member of the Central Committee(since that time he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the party at all congresses up to and including the 19th). At the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (b), on behalf of the Central Committee, he delivered a political report of the Central Committee and a report on the political situation.

As a member of the Central Committee, Stalin actively participated in the preparation and conduct of the Great October Socialist Revolution: he was a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, the Military Revolutionary Center - the party body for leading the armed uprising, in the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. At the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 26 (November 8), 1917, he was elected to the first Soviet government as People's Commissar for Nationalities(1917-22); simultaneously in 1919-22 headed People's Commissariat of State Control, reorganized in 1920 into the People's Commissariat Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate(RCT).

During the period of the Civil War and foreign military intervention of 1918-20, Stalin carried out a number of responsible assignments of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Soviet government: he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, one of the organizers defense of Petrograd, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern, Western, Southwestern Fronts, a representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense. Stalin showed himself to be a major military-political worker of the party. By decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of November 27, 1919, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

After the end of the Civil War, Stalin actively participated in the party's struggle for the restoration of the national economy, for the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP), for strengthening the alliance between the working class and the peasantry. During the discussion about trade unions, imposed on the party Trotsky, defended the Leninist platform on the role of trade unions in socialist construction. On 10th Congress of the RCP (b)(1921) made a presentation "The Immediate Tasks of the Party in the National Question". In April 1922, at the Plenum of the Central Committee, Stalin was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee Party and held this post for over 30 years, but since 1934 he was formally Secretary of the Central Committee.

As one of the leading workers in the field of nation-state construction, Stalin took part in the creation of the USSR. However, initially in solving this new and complex problem, he made a mistake by putting forward autonomy project(the entry of all republics into the RSFSR on the rights of autonomy). Lenin criticized this project and substantiated the plan to create a single union state in the form of a voluntary union of republics with equal rights. Taking into account the criticism, Stalin fully supported Lenin's idea and, on behalf of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), spoke at 1st All-Union Congress of Soviets(December 1922) with a report on the formation of the USSR.

On 12th Party Congress(1923) Stalin delivered an organizational report on the work of the Central Committee and a report "National Moments in Party and State Building".

V. I. Lenin, who perfectly knew the cadres of the party, had a huge influence on their education, sought the placement of cadres in the interests of the general party cause, taking into account their individual qualities. IN "Letter to the Congress" Lenin gave a description of a number of members of the Central Committee, including Stalin. Considering Stalin one of the outstanding figures of the party, Lenin at the same time wrote on December 25, 1922: “Comrade. Stalin, having become General Secretary, concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be able to use this power carefully enough” (ibid., vol. 45, p. 345). In addition to his letter, on January 4, 1923, Lenin wrote:

“Stalin is too rude, and this shortcoming, which is quite tolerable in the environment and in communications between us communists, becomes intolerable in the position of general secretary. Therefore, I suggest that the comrades consider a way to move Stalin from this place and appoint another person to this place, who in all other respects differs from Comrade. Stalin with only one advantage, namely, more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more attentive to comrades, less capriciousness, etc.” (ibid., p. 346).

By decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), all delegations were familiarized with Lenin's letter 13th Congress of the RCP (b), which took place in May 1924. Given the difficult situation in the country, the severity of the struggle against Trotskyism, it was considered expedient to leave Stalin in the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee, so that he would take into account criticism from Lenin and draw the necessary conclusions from it.

After Lenin's death, Stalin actively participated in the development and implementation of the policy of the CPSU, plans for economic and cultural construction, measures to strengthen the country's defense capability and conduct the foreign policy of the party and the Soviet state. Together with other leading party leaders, Stalin waged an uncompromising struggle against the opponents of Leninism, played an outstanding role in the ideological and political defeat of Trotskyism and right-wing opportunism, in defending Lenin's teaching on the possibility of the victory of socialism in the USSR, and in strengthening the unity of the party. Stalin's works were of great importance in the propaganda of Lenin's ideological heritage. "On the Foundations of Leninism" (1924), "Trotskyism or Leninism?" (1924), "To Questions of Leninism" (1926), "Once More About the Social-Democratic Deviation in Our Party" (1926), "On the right deviation in the CPSU (b)" (1929), "On the issues of agrarian policy in the USSR"(1929) and others.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the Soviet people carried out the Leninist plan for building socialism and carried out revolutionary transformations of gigantic complexity and world-historical significance. Stalin, together with other leading figures of the Party and the Soviet state, made a personal contribution to the solution of these problems. The key task in building socialism was the socialist industrialization, which ensured the economic independence of the country, the technical reconstruction of all sectors of the national economy, the defense capability of the Soviet state. The most complex and difficult task of the revolutionary transformations was the reorganization of agriculture on socialist lines. When conducting collectivization of agriculture errors and omissions were made. Stalin also bears responsibility for these mistakes. However, thanks to decisive measures taken by the party with the participation of Stalin, the mistakes were corrected. Of great importance for the victory of socialism in the USSR was the implementation cultural revolution.

In the context of the impending military danger and in the years Great Patriotic War 1941-45 Stalin took a leading part in the party's many-sided activities to strengthen the defense of the USSR and organize the defeat of fascist Germany and militarist Japan. However, on the eve of the war, Stalin made a certain miscalculation in assessing the timing of a possible attack by Nazi Germany on the USSR. May 6, 1941 he was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR(from 1946 - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR), June 30, 1941 - Chairman of the State Defense Committee ( GKO), July 19 - People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, August 8 - Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

As head of the Soviet state, he took part in Tehran (1943), Crimean(1945) and Potsdam (1945) conferences the leaders of the three powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. In the post-war period, Stalin continued to work as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. During these years, the Party and the Soviet government did a tremendous job of mobilizing the Soviet people to fight for recovery and further development National economy, carried out a foreign policy course aimed at strengthening the international positions of the USSR, the world socialist system, at uniting and developing the international working and communist movement, at supporting the liberation struggle of the peoples of colonial and dependent countries, at ensuring peace and security of peoples throughout the world.

In Stalin's activities, along with the positive aspects, there were theoretical and political mistakes, and some traits of his character had a negative effect. If in the first years of work without Lenin he considered critical remarks addressed to him, then later he began to deviate from the Leninist principles of collective leadership and the norms of party life, to overestimate his own merits in the successes of the party and people. Gradually took shape Stalin's personality cult which entailed gross violations of socialist legality, caused serious harm to the activities of the party, the cause of communist construction.

20th Congress of the CPSU(1956) condemned the personality cult as a phenomenon alien to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism, the nature of the socialist social order. In the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU of June 30, 1956 "On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences" the party gave an objective, comprehensive assessment of Stalin's activities, a detailed criticism of the cult of personality. The cult of personality did not and could not change the socialist essence of the Soviet system, the Marxist-Leninist character of the CPSU and its Leninist course, did not stop the natural course of development of Soviet society. The Party worked out and implemented a system of measures that ensured the restoration and further development of the Leninist norms of Party life and the principles of Party leadership.

Stalin was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1919-52, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1952-53, a member of the Executive Committee of the Comintern in 1925-43, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee from 1917, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR from 1922, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st-3rd convocations . He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1939), Hero of the Soviet Union (1945), Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), the highest military rank - Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). He was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of Victory, 3 Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, and medals. After his death in March 1953, he was buried in the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum. In 1961, by decision of the XXII Congress of the CPSU, he was reburied on Red Square.

Works: Soch., vol. 1-13, M., 1949-51; Questions of Leninism, and ed., M., 1952: On the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 5th ed., M., 1950; Marxism and questions of linguistics, [M.], 1950; Economic problems of socialism in the USSR, M., 1952. Lit.: XX Congress of the CPSU. Stenographic report, vol. 1-2, M., 1956; Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences." June 30, 1956, in the book: CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses. Conferences and plenums of the Central Committee, 8th ed., vol. 7, M., 1971; History of the CPSU, vol. 1-5, M., 1964-70: History of the CPSU, 4th ed., M., 1975.

Events during the reign of Stalin:

• 1925 - the adoption of a course towards industrialization at the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b).
• 1928 - the first "five-year plan".
• 1930 - beginning of collectivization
• 1936 - adoption of the new constitution of the USSR.
• 1939 –1940 - Soviet-Finnish war
• 1941 –1945 - The Great Patriotic War
• 1949 - Creation of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).
• 1949 - successful testing of the first Soviet atomic bomb, which was created by I.V. Kurchatov under the direction of L.P. Beria.
• 1952 - renaming of the CPSU (b) in the CPSU

Stalin through the prism of decades - his youth, what marked the period of growing up, what factors made him a revolutionary and a well-known communist figure. How did the great dictator come to power. The trials that fell to him and the country, the pros and cons of the Stalinist methods of government.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and his era

Perhaps, in our history there is no more controversial figure than Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. This is a totalitarian leader who practically appropriated the highest position for himself, and the author of numerous repressions, and the leader of the victorious country in World War II. Very interesting and colorful character.

It is difficult even in our time to find a person who does not know who Stalin is. He evoked irritation in someone, anger in someone, respect in someone, and fear in someone. But none of his contemporaries remained indifferent to this charismatic and multifaceted politician.

Let's try to plunge into his world for a while and at least slightly lift the veil of history over the biography and the most striking events of his life.

Biography of Stalin. Start

As for the biography of Joseph Stalin, there are extremes here. Previously, all the details were clearly verified and approved by the relevant authorities. And now all and sundry write about him. We have to look for facts about Joseph Stalin as grains of truth in the sea of ​​violent imagination of the authors. Even his height and weight are adjusted at times.

The only thing they do not argue about is the years of life and the period of the reign of the great dictator.

Childhood

Everything in the world has its beginning. Stalin was also small and, like any child, he loved to dream. Who knows if he managed to realize his childhood dreams, but he left a mark on history for centuries.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili) was born on December 21, 1879 in the city of Gori, which then still belonged to the Russian Empire. There is controversy about the date of his birth, since the numbers in different documents differ. But still, the official birthday of Joseph Stalin, recognized by the whole country, falls on the date indicated.

Stalin was Georgian by nationality. His father, Vissarion Ivanovich, belonged to the lower strata of society - a simple shoemaker. Mother - Ekaterina Georgievna - comes from serfs.

It so happened that Joseph was the only child in the family - his older brothers died of typhus at a tender age. He himself was not a strong man either - from early childhood, the future head of the Soviet Union was plagued by various ailments. And at the age of seven he was hit by a phaeton. Joseph survived, but since then his left hand has become difficult to obey.

Stalin's childhood was not easy. His father was a bitter drunkard, as a result of which both the boy himself and his mother were repeatedly beaten by the raging head of the family. Mother - a quiet and meek woman - doted on her only son and tried with all her might to brighten up his life. Being a simple and narrow-minded woman, Ekaterina Dzhugashvili saw her son as "educated", which for her meant entering the priesthood.

Due to poor health, he could not engage in hard physical labor, so it was decided to send the boy to the Gori Theological School, where Iosif Dzhugashvili entered in 1888 and successfully graduated six years later.

Youth

Stalin continued his further education at the Orthodox Seminary in the city of Tiflis. He successfully compensated for his physical shortcomings with an inquisitive mind and craving for knowledge. The same craving led him to the ranks of the revolutionaries a year before graduating from the seminary. The teenager was keenly interested in the works of Marx and the political views of the Social Democrats led by Lenin. He ardently supported the revolutionary movement and Lenin's ideas, therefore, without hesitation, he joined the Georgian Social Democratic organization Mesami Dasi, from where his political path began.

It was in this organization, being the leader of one of the illegal revolutionary circles, that he discovered the leader in himself. He realized that he knew how to tell, that they liked to listen to him, his opinion was taken into account, and he realized that he liked all this. In this incarnation, he was like a fish in water. Iosif Dzhugashvili finally chose his own path and became an ardent supporter of Bolshevism. The first underground nickname “Koba” appears there. He tried many nicknames, but in the end he took the pseudonym "Stalin".

For the sake of revolutionary ideas, education had to be sacrificed - within the walls of the seminary, a newly-minted revolutionary was not tolerated, and Stalin was expelled shortly before the final exams with the wording "failure to appear for an exam for an unknown reason." His education was not completed. All he had after a few years of study was evidence that he could teach in elementary schools.

Path to power

Stalin has been considered a professional revolutionary since 1901. It was then that he decided to devote himself to this occupation without a trace and began to engage in illegal party activities. Soon he was heading the Tiflis committee of the RSDLP.

It is clear that this was by no means welcomed in the Russian Empire. Therefore, Joseph Stalin comes to the attention of the police and becomes a frequent "guest" in prison dungeons. In 11 years, he survived six arrests and four escapes.

Focusing on the "Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class", headed by Lenin, Stalin promotes cardinal methods of interclass confrontation. By this, he provokes harsh criticism from the majority of the Mesame-dasi members, who continue to cling to pure verbiage as part of their disagreement with the tsarist regime. They were not ready to take to the streets and start real resistance.

Thus, Iosif Dzhugashvili finally becomes "leftist" and loses the support of the conservative majority of his party. Considering Lenin a true follower of Marxism and at the same time receiving support from the working class of Tiflis, the revolutionary Stalin is not going to turn off the chosen path.

In April 1900, at a May Day meeting in Tiflis, Stalin spoke to a large audience for the first time. Apparently, both he and his listeners liked the debut. Subsequently, such speeches became part of the biography of Joseph the revolutionary.

When in 1903 at the congress of the RSDLP there was a final split in the party, and it was divided into the Bolsheviks (headed by V. I. Lenin) and the Mensheviks, Dzhugashvili supported his idol without hesitation and joined the ranks of the Bolsheviks.

After that, he was entrusted with the leadership of the Bolshevik organizations in the Transcaucasus. This is the first appointment of this level. Stalin moves to Baku, where for several years he has been actively carrying out party affairs and organizing major strikes.

Thus began the path to power of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.

Vladimir Lenin - pre-revolutionary photo

Stalin's career after the October Revolution

Despite his lack of education, Joseph Stalin was a natural leader and was able to write speeches and propaganda materials for the press. In addition, he had a cunning and quirky mind, which allowed him to move up the career ladder with giant strides.

Lenin brought him as close as possible to himself by appointing, after the success of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, where he took a very active part, People's Commissar for Nationalities. The fact that he was entrusted with the solution of the national question spoke of Lenin's high confidence. But it was obvious that Stalin himself wanted more.

The establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship in a state torn apart from within and without by military operations inspired new ideas for the future sole ruler of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He became convinced that, firstly, it was effective and, secondly, it was a wonderful justification for autocracy. Since then, this thought has not left his head.

The practice of concentration camps, introduced by Lenin, aroused Stalin's keen interest. Later he would take this into service and apply it widely during the years of his reign.

In the most difficult period for the young Soviet state, Stalin began slowly but surely to make sure that Lenin could no longer do without him. Even from emigration, Vladimir Ilyich led the party through his faithful assistant. He literally became the right hand of the leader of the world proletariat.

Undoubtedly, this could not but affect his career. He becomes one of the party leaders. The reins of government of the young republic gradually passed into the hands of Joseph Vissarionovich, and he no longer let them go.

The only "cat" that ran between him and Lenin was the events in Tsaritsyn in 1919, when, according to Stalin's instructions, after the betrayal of one former white officer, a whole galaxy of military specialists was shot without trial or investigation. After this incident, Stalin developed a dislike for military experts.

Lenin criticized the act of his protégé, unable to refrain from harsh remarks about him, but he is unlikely to change his mind. Nevertheless, he certainly drew conclusions about irresolvable differences with the leader of the Bolshevik Party.

Stalin stubbornly walked towards his goal - the sole power. Since 1921, when Lenin increasingly left the political leadership of party affairs to assistants due to illness, Iosif Vissarionovich was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). The position at that time did not imply such a wide range of powers, which the newly-minted General Secretary later introduced, pushing the Politburo aside.

Lenin, shortly before his death, realized what an unforgivable mistake he had made by entrusting the reins of government to such a dangerous ally. In his letters, he asked to remove Stalin from power and not to trust him with responsible positions. But these messages are too late - the political machine called "Stalin" has already gained momentum.

Rise of Stalinism

After the death of Lenin, Stalin arranged it so that, as if it were self-evident, Vladimir Ilyich left him as his successor and continuer of the work of the party of workers and peasants. Unnoticed by others, the prudent general secretary concentrated all power in his hands, while not forgetting to hide behind the fulfillment of the tasks outlined by "comrade Lenin" and strict observance of the party line.

His flexible mind and subtle feeling of people allowed him to surround himself with supporters who were ready to support the ambitious general secretary in all endeavors.

Period of repression

It is amazing how quickly Stalin managed to crack down on the opposition. Trotsky, who believed that he would lead the party, was expelled from the country by Stalin. Beginning in 1929, Zinoviev and Kamenev, who led the opposition movement against Stalin, paid the price of expulsion from the party and subsequent repressions. And after the murder of S. M. Kirov, extensive purges of the opposition forces began, and soon they were completely destroyed. Some of the prominent party leaders suffered the same fate.

The thirties of the twentieth century were marked by the beginning of the heyday of the Stalin era. Now he made decisions alone and acted as he saw fit. This was facilitated by mass repressions that swept through all corners of the vast country. The punishing body in the person of the NKVD put this process on broad rails. Any person could be convicted, exiled to a camp or shot practically without trial or investigation.

Stalin did not spare military specialists either, the dislike for which remained with him from the time of the defense of Tsaritsyn (since 1925, Stalingrad). Large-scale purges swept through the ranks of the military. Many people of outstanding intelligence and remarkable abilities were ground to pieces by the punitive machine.

However, it is wrong to consider Stalin alone as the organizer of the repressions. Millions of denunciations compiled by ordinary Soviet citizens speak for themselves. In addition, there were enough "excesses" in the execution of Stalin's decrees at the local level. Particularly zealous performers could give odds to the leader himself.

If you look from the other side, to raise the country out of devastation and instill in the population a new ideology is a huge and thankless job. Therefore, tough and even repressive measures are not a whim, but rather a necessity in accordance with the era. So far, there is no proven effective system based on loyalty and liberalism that would perform well in such difficult conditions.

Collectivization and industrialization

The years of "dispossession" and the forcible organization of peasants into collective farms are still blamed on Stalin. But this is a double-edged sword. Undoubtedly, the process of collectivization took place extremely harshly and in an accelerated mode. This was a consequence of the devastation and food crisis in the country. Whether there was another way in this situation and how it was possible to help the Soviet Union rise from the ruins, the question is far from being idle. It remains open to this day.

When agricultural products began to be produced in excess, the head of state began to sell them abroad. In exchange, industrial equipment was acquired for the development of the country's industrial production, which was lame on both legs. Stalin wanted to turn the young Soviet republic from a backward agrarian appendage into an industrial power.

It was the era of his reign that was marked by rapid growth and the construction of new industrial enterprises, as well as the development of science. Stalin showed a keen interest in the latest achievements in these areas. He wanted to bring the USSR to the forefront in all directions. Under the conditions of sanctions imposed on the country by major Western powers, this position is difficult to challenge. In defiance of the capitalist, Joseph Vissarionovich planned to develop socialist industrialization.

He expanded a network of research institutes and raised the salaries of scientists. Stalin sought to penetrate into all advanced technologies and not just adopt them from the West, but make his own, much better and more efficiently.

He succeeded to the fullest. By the end of the thirties, that is, in two five-year plans, Soviet Russia had become a leader in terms of industrial growth and indicators of technical progress. The development of all branches of the national economy proceeded at a tremendous pace.

Poster "Give Industrialization"

In fairness, it must be said that all this was achieved by considerable sacrifices - both physical and social. The standard of living of the population was lower than during normal development, going on its own. Investments in socially significant projects were limited in order to fulfill plans for scientific development and industrialization.

Stalin did not forget about the propaganda of his policy among the people. Not tired of declaring himself a faithful follower of the Leninist cause, by the end of the 1930s he announced that the construction of socialism in one single country had been completed. And all the obstacles and obstacles at that time are organized by malicious units who want to prevent the Soviet government from fulfilling the will of the people.

Under this sauce, a real hunt for "enemies of the people" unfolded. All those who supported Trotsky's opinion in one way or another, or were members of the opposition bloc organized by Kamenev and Zinoviev, were severely repressed or destroyed.

Stalin is the commander-in-chief. The Great Patriotic War

One can argue a lot about the qualities of Stalin in the role of the head of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (during the war he had the rank of marshal), but the fact remains that he led the country to victory over Nazi Germany. She was of great importance. Stalin, the commander-in-chief, not only defeated the "brown plague", he proved to the whole world that there would be no success in the war against the Soviet Union. Despite the obvious hostility and policy of countering communism, not a single capitalist country dared to attack the USSR anymore.

To the fact that Germany would so treacherously violate the peace treaty, Stalin was not ready. Far from being an idiot, he understood that war could not be avoided, but he really hoped to outplay Hitler. Of course, the ineffective actions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in the first days of the attack by the Wehrmacht troops hit the country hard. But this is understandable. Stalin is a good tactician, but a rather weak strategist.

The rapid military successes of the Nazis in the first months of the war are quite understandable. Fascist Germany was superior to the Soviet Union in terms of location, level of funding, and other indicators. At her service was the economic and raw material base of all of Europe. And how can one blame Stalin, even if the European countries, much more developed and strong, almost instantly fell before the onslaught of the Third Reich.

Stalin, on the other hand, managed to quickly transfer the country to a military footing, arranged the evacuation of strategically important enterprises to the rear. If you think about it, this is a very complex and labor-intensive process, even in peacetime. You try to take any plant and move it at least a meter. And during the war, these same plants, one and a half to two months after the evacuation, worked for the needs of the front at full capacity.

Urgent measures were also taken to strengthen the troops of the Red Army and the Navy.

In addition, Stalin rallied the multinational people in such a way that Hitler's specialists could not create the notorious "fifth column" to divide people and destroy the country from the inside. This, by the way, is a phenomenon of that time. Western historians have never been able to explain it.

They note the high merits of Stalin as a negotiator. It was he who managed to organize an alliance with England and the United States against Hitler and convinced them to open a second front. In all conferences during the war, he played a leading role, while seeking agreements from opponents on the right terms. It was Stalin who insisted on convening the Nuremberg trials so that the world would know about all the crimes of the Nazis and, moreover, the innocent would not suffer.

Surprisingly, the leader of the victorious country more than modestly disposed of military trophies and glory. Surely there is a rational explanation for this.

One of Stalin's main contributions to the politics of peace was the creation of the United Nations, which exists almost unchanged to this day.

The low supply of mechanized military equipment played an important role in the defeats of our troops in 1941-1942. Germany in this sense was head and shoulders ahead of us, if not more. This is understandable - industrialization has just begun in our country, while the Germans have long and successfully promoted technical progress.

Of the biggest disadvantages, it is worth noting the "purges" among the regular officers of the former tsarist army. Of course, this greatly weakened the top command staff and deprived the Headquarters of competent strategic and tactical management. People in the upper ranks of military positions, as a rule, did not have the appropriate education and combat experience.

However, there is no better school for troops than war, sadly. And in the Red Army training went by leaps and bounds. Empirically, military leaders gained experience, studied and comprehended military science. As a result, by the end of the war with Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had the strongest army not only in Europe, but in the whole world. By the way, this was one of the main reasons for the refusal of the bloc of major capitalist countries to start a war against the USSR. Everyone saw perfectly well that this army would repulse any enemy.

You can treat Stalin as you like, but it is difficult to overestimate his historical role in the defeat of fascism. It will remain for centuries.

Postwar Stalinism

Many historians agree that the apogee of totalitarianism and Stalinist repressions fell on the post-war years of his reign (up to his death). Most likely, this was so, because during the years of the war serious contradictions were revealed and unresolved problems of an ideological nature were exposed.

On the other hand, the country that had just been raised from its knees after the war again lay in ruins. Almost destroyed, but not broken. The big question is whether it is possible to restore the economy in the shortest possible time and bring the industry to its previous level using liberalism and loyal methods. Stalin can be respected already because he had to go through this twice. Perhaps none of the historical figures can boast of such "luck".

The head of state had to mobilize all his strengths and skills, as well as available resources, in order to bring the country back into the lead in the shortest possible time. And he succeeded, no matter what. The USSR under the leadership of I. V. Stalin even turned into a mighty nuclear power.

He also successfully solved the problem of partially disbanding a huge army, which by the end of the war had reached such a size that it really was ready to conquer the whole world. It was necessary to gradually withdraw from the troops units and formations that were not needed in the new conditions, as well as equipment, and to find a use for the released resources in civilian life.

During his reign, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin managed to raise our country to such a height that it not only stood on a par with developed capitalist countries, but even outstripped them in many ways. The great dictator and tyrant did so much for the USSR that no general secretary could surpass him.

It was not in vain that cities, streets, districts, millionaire collective farms, automobile plants (the famous ZIS, later the Likhachev plant) bore the name of Stalin, even the turbo-electric ship was called "Joseph Stalin". The tanks of the IS family (Joseph Stalin), revolutionary at that time, are the pride of tankers. They were so ahead of their time that their prototypes are still in service with the Russian army.

Leader's personal life

Until some time this topic was banned. Only what was allowed to be covered was known about her. His family and children were carefully guarded from prying eyes. All photographs and other evidence of this aspect of Stalin's life were destroyed.

Then another extreme appeared - so many new stunning facts of the personal life of the head of the Soviet state were discovered that many of them look like obvious stupidity.

Family

It is known that Stalin's first wife was the sister of his classmate Ekaterina Svanidze. She lived after the wedding for only three years, having managed to give birth to her husband's son Jacob. After the death of his mother, the boy was brought up by her parents all his childhood, since his father, due to his extreme workload with revolutionary affairs, could not independently deal with his son.

Ekaterina Svanidze - Stalin's first wife

The second time Stalin married fourteen years later. His wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, was a good two decades younger than her husband. But this did not interfere with their marriage and the birth of children. They say that the leader was very fond of his wife, who gave birth to his son and daughter - Vasily and Svetlana.

The first-born Jacob was finally brought to his father's house, and the family was reunited. Stalin's sons and daughter lived under the same roof. The tough totalitarian leader now has a family hearth.

Little is known about his marriage to Nadezhda Alliluyeva. This is not surprising - with the super suspiciousness of the leader, his wife's social circle was incredibly narrowed. Some were not allowed to approach her for a cannon shot, others themselves were afraid to approach - the hour is uneven to give Stalin food for suspicion.

Nadezhda, according to contemporaries, was a woman of fine mental organization. Such a vacuum of communication was not good for her. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Stalin himself was also rarely at home - in the role of head of state, his workload increased incredibly. In addition, due to his despotic character, he did not hesitate to tyrannize his wife and loved ones, not hiding his bad mood or discontent when they did not obey him.

It is difficult to say whether this or something else was the reason, but the apogee came when the youngest daughter Svetlana was seven years old. Stalin's wife was found dead on November 8, 1932. She committed suicide by shooting herself in the head with a pistol. The very fact of the suicide of the wife of the first person of the country, of course, tried to be silent at first. According to the official version, the cause of death was complicated appendicitis.

Obviously, the death of his beloved wife greatly influenced Stalin. He never recovered and never tied the knot with anyone else. Perhaps his reverent attitude towards his youngest daughter lies precisely in this.

The eldest son of Joseph Stalin, Yakov Dzhugashvili, died during the Great Patriotic War. It seems that the leader did not make preferences and did not exempt his son from the general draft. There is a version that Yakov was captured, and Stalin was offered to exchange his son for a captured German general. The head of the USSR refused, saying: “I don’t change generals for lieutenants!”

Of the direct descendants of Stalin, a grandson remained - Joseph Alliluyev. However, he is known very little, especially since the Stalinist descendants were forgotten after the emigration of the leader's daughter Svetlana to the United States.

Stalin in photographs

There are very few amateur photos with Stalin. The dictator was very scrupulous about his image, which will be replicated to the masses. Therefore, all the pictures, even amateur ones, captured Stalin exactly as he wanted to see himself from the outside.

For ceremonial photos, Stalin usually posed with awards. As for the awards, here the leader had something to be proud of. Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin had many orders and medals, was three times an order bearer of the Red Banner. But in general, he didn’t really boast about them and didn’t try to put on a front tunic every time. Although he loved the tunic themselves and wore them almost everywhere.

Death of Stalin

Stalin died suddenly. Of course, by that time he could no longer boast of excellent health, but no one expected the death of the great dictator. This happened at his home on March 5, 1953. The cause of the death of Joseph Vissarionovich was recognized as a brain hemorrhage.

His death shocked millions of citizens of our country. He really was a kind of icon, they believed him, they even prayed for him. People cried when the sad news reached all corners of the Soviet Union.

During the funeral of Stalin, when the funeral procession marched through the streets, they could not accommodate everyone who wanted to see the leader on his last journey. This man really managed to create national love for himself.

At first, the mausoleum, in which the body of V. I. Lenin lay, became a necropolis for him. Later, after the debunking of the cult of personality, the coffin with the body of Stalin was taken out of the mausoleum and reburied near the Kremlin wall. A bust of the leader is installed on the grave.

Be that as it may, the date of Stalin's death marked the end of an era.

Stalin's personality Debunking the cult of personality

After Stalin died, at one of the party congresses, namely at the XX Congress of the Communist Party, General Secretary N. S. Khrushchev read out a report in which he debunked the personality cult of the great dictator. The congress delegates were in great shock, they did not expect such a turn of events at all.

To be honest, it is debatable whether life became easier under Khrushchev compared to the era of Stalinist terror.

In addition, Stalin was a leader, and a very good one. This is exactly what our country needed at that difficult time. Until now, many of his contemporaries remember the leader only from the positive side.

In general, not all the information in Khrushchev's report was objective. A red thread was a prejudiced attitude towards the object of worship. More in-depth research is needed in order to draw far-reaching conclusions.

Despite the debunking of the personality cult, the Leninist-Stalinist national idea of ​​socialism was taken as the basis for the development of the Soviet Union for a long time. And Stalin himself, despite the obvious disadvantages and miscalculations, was a great historical figure. His era will be on everyone's lips for many years to come.

Great historical figure - Joseph Stalin