History UsefulNotes / JosefStalin

* In ''Literature/TwilightOfTheRedTsar'', ol'Uncle Joe manages to survive his stroke by [[ForWantOfANail being in the presence of a man not on his personal staff]]. Though senile and crippled, he unleashes a new reign of terror upon the Soviet Union, and [[spoiler: later upon China]].

He joined the Bolsheviks long before UsefulNotes/RedOctober and soon proved himself to be a very competent assistant to Lenin. His contributions involved everything from masterminding criminal acts to raise funds to organizing street violence to discredit the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Tsarist regime]] and try to rally the working class. Some historians even allege he was a DoubleAgent for the Bolsheviks within the Okhrana, the Tsarist {{secret police}}. During the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Revolution]] itself, he acted as one of Lenin's CoDragons along with UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, doing everything from coordinating the Bolsheviks' annual conference when Lenin was in hiding to editing the party newspaper and requisitioning grain to feed the [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Red Army]]. All of this made him the designated successor when Lenin died.

He was also a big fan of the KlingonPromotion, as evidenced by the chiefs of his StateSec (Lavrenti Beriya's first act as chairman of the NKVD was to personally execute his predecessor, Nikolai "The Bloody Dwarf" Yezhov, who had done the same to his own predecessor, Genrikh Yagoda, who [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers hadn't]] done the same to his old boss[[note]]Vyacheslav Menzhinsky died of natural causes, though at his show trial, Yagoda was forced to claim he had poisoned Menzhinsky[[/note]]). One of his most common political tactics was to enforce the NoTrueScotsman fallacy, heavily implying that critics or dissidents were [[CategoryTraitor not true Marxists]] and inflicting swift, brutal punishments on anyone who was hit with this label. People fell all over themselves to accuse proclaim their loyalty to the Soviet regime... and, incidentally, to the man who decided what exactly "treason" was.

->''"I am the man who arranges the blocks that are made by the men in Kazakhstan\\
They come two weeks late\\
And they don't tesselate\\
But we're working to Stalin's Five-Year Plan"''

* In ''VideoGame/EscapeFromHell'', Stalin is the founder of "Capitalists for a free Hell" and will join you and bring a [[NailEm nail gun]] to shoot demons.
* One of the bosses in ''VideoGame/VivaCaligula 2'', alongside Attila, Nero, and Hitler, where he attacks with SovietSuperscience.
* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', an AlternateHistoryNaziVictory mod for ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIV'', Joseph Stalin conceded the leadership bid to Nikolai Bukharin and died in 1955 after founding the West Siberian People's Republic in the aftermath of the Soviet defeat in the Second World War. The Communist hardliner [[TheRemnant remnant]] in Tyumen under Lazar Kaganovich still upholds his legacy, while Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Stalina, is an IronLady democratic candidate in the Republic of Komi.

He joined the Bolsheviks long before UsefulNotes/RedOctober and soon proved himself to be a very competent assistant to Lenin. His contributions involved everything from masterminding criminal acts to raise funds to organizing street violence to discredit the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Tsarist regime]] and try to rally the working class. Some historians even allege he was a DoubleAgent for the Bolsheviks within the Okhrana, the Tsarist {{secret police}}. During the Revolution itself, he acted as one of Lenin's CoDragons along with UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, doing everything from coordinating the Bolsheviks' annual conference when Lenin was in hiding to editing the party newspaper and requisitioning grain to feed the Red Army. All of this made him the DragonAscendant when Lenin died.

He joined the Bolsheviks long before UsefulNotes/RedOctober and soon proved himself to be a very competent assistant to Lenin. His contributions involved everything from masterminding criminal acts to raise funds to organizing street violence to discredit the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Tsarist regime]] and try to rally the working class. Some historians even allege he was a DoubleAgent for the Bolsheviks within the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police. During the Revolution itself, he acted as one of Lenin's CoDragons along with UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, doing everything from coordinating the Bolsheviks' annual conference when Lenin was in hiding to editing the party newspaper and requisitioning grain to feed the Red Army. All of this made him the DragonAscendant when Lenin died.

He joined the Bolsheviks long before UsefulNotes/RedOctober and soon proved himself to be a very competent assistant to Lenin. His contributions involved everything from masterminding criminal acts to raise funds to organizing street violence to discredit the Tsarist regime and try to rally the working class. Some historians even allege he was a DoubleAgent for the Bolsheviks within the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police. During the Revolution itself, he acted as one of Lenin's CoDragons along with UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, doing everything from coordinating the Bolsheviks' annual conference when Lenin was in hiding to editing the party newspaper and requisitioning grain to feed the Red Army. All of this made him the DragonAscendant when Lenin died.

He joined the Bolsheviks long before UsefulNotes/RedOctober and soon proved himself to be a HypercompetentSidekick to Lenin. His contributions involved everything from masterminding criminal acts to raise funds to organizing street violence to discredit the Tsarist regime and try to rally the working class. Some historians even allege he was a DoubleAgent for the Bolsheviks within the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police. During the Revolution itself, he acted as one of Lenin's CoDragons along with UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, doing everything from coordinating the Bolsheviks' annual conference when Lenin was in hiding to editing the party newspaper and requisitioning grain to feed the Red Army. All of this made him the DragonAscendant when Lenin died.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili[[note]]იოსებ ბასარიონის ძე ჯუღაშვილი[[/note]], rendered as Josef Vissarionovich Dzugashvili in Russian, 18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Caucasus}}n dictator who ruled the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] from 1925 until his death in 1953, the second undisputed ruler there after UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin.

** In the ''Darkness'' series, which is basically UsefulNotes/WW2 with [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Fantasy Counterpart Cultures]], Stalin's equivalent is the mad King Swemmel of Unkerlant, who had his twin brother Kyot (analogue of Trotsky) murdered.

His father Besarion was a shoemaker, and Stalin allegedly never bought a pair of shoes in his life, making and repairing his own from a young age. He could speed-read at an incredible pace, had over 20,000 books in his personal library (and read all of them, as evidenced by numerous notes on 90% of these books), had an excellent memory, never forgot anyone's name, and had an early photograph in which he appeared to be reading with his finger suppressed. He liked to sing tenor, loved Tolstoy, and would frequently [[GrammarNazi write to his favourite contemporary authors to complain about spelling or grammatical errors]] (yes, ''[[{{Irony}} Joseph Stalin]]'' [[{{Irony}} was a]] ''[[{{Irony}} Grammar Nazi]]''). He could recite Walt Whitman's poetry verbatim in multiple languages, was a huge fan of Creator/CharlieChaplin, and was an avid gardener. He made a number of lifelong friendships, was eminently charismatic when he put his mind to it, and managed to match wits with Creator/HGWells himself in a face-to-face interview. Politically and diplomatically, he was marked by a remarkably astute practice of {{Realpolitik}}. While he had many, many talents, military strategy was not one of them. He was frequently a GeneralFailure whenever he tried to take military command, and one of the keys to the Soviet victory in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was his stepping back and actually letting the most competent generals left after his crippling purges handle strategy.

His father Besarion was a shoemaker, and Stalin allegedly never bought a pair of shoes in his life, making and repairing his own from a young age. He could speed-read at an incredible pace, had over 20,000 books in his personal library (and read all of them, as evidenced by numerous notes on 90% of these books), had an excellent memory, never forgot anyone's name, and had an early photograph in which he appeared to be reading with his finger suppressed. He liked to sing tenor, loved Tolstoy, and would frequently [[GrammarNazi write to his favourite contemporary authors to complain about spelling or grammatical errors]] (yes, ''[[{{Irony}} Joseph Stalin]]'' [[{{Irony}} was a]] ''[[{{Irony}} Grammar Nazi]]''). He could recite Walt Whitman's poetry verbatim in multiple languages, was a huge fan of Creator/CharlieChaplin, and was an avid gardener. He made a number of lifelong friendships, was eminently charismatic when he put his mind to it, and managed to match wits with Creator/HGWells himself in a face-to-face interview. Politically and diplomatically, he was marked by a remarkably astute practice of {{Realpolitik}}. While he had many, many talents, military strategy was not one of them. He was frequently a GeneralFailure whenever he tried to take military command, and one of the keys to the Soviet victory in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo was his stepping back and actually letting his generals handle strategy.

His father Besarion was a shoemaker, and Stalin allegedly never bought a pair of shoes in his life, making and repairing his own from a young age. He could speed-read at an incredible pace, had over 20,000 books in his personal library (and read all of them, as evidenced by numerous notes on 90% of these books), had an excellent memory, never forgot anyone's name, and had an early photograph in which he appeared to be reading with his finger suppressed. He liked to sing tenor, loved Tolstoy, and would frequently [[GrammarNazi write to his favourite contemporary authors to complain about spelling or grammatical errors]] (yes, ''[[{{Irony}} Joseph Stalin]]'' [[{{Irony}} was a]] ''[[{{Irony}} Grammar Nazi]]''). He could recite Walt Whitman's poetry verbatim in multiple languages, was a huge fan of Creator/CharlieChaplin, and was an avid gardener. He made a number of lifelong friendships, was eminently charismatic when he put his mind to it, and managed to match wits with Creator/HGWells himself in a face-to-face interview. Politically and diplomatically, he was marked by a remarkably astute practice of {{Realpolitik}}.

He did everything for Lenin from crimes and terrorist attacks before UsefulNotes/RedOctober to helping consolidate the Bolsheviks' hold over UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} during the Revolution itself. His skills and contributions made him one of Lenin's top assistants alongside UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, and he succeeded Lenin when he died.

The historiography of Stalin has changed over time, shifting from him being an all-knowing sadist, an "[[{{Orientalism}} Oriental despot]]", or a neo-Tsar who embodied the recidivism of a backward people (Pre-UsefulNotes/ColdWar view and one that was shared by Stalin's enemies inside the USSR, and also partly by Stalin himself); a largely oblivious puppet of the Soviet bureaucracy (Dissident and Trotskyist view, which was aimed to [[NoTrueScotsman separate Stalin from "real" Marxism and "real" Communism]]); a mad ideologue who was Socialism and Marxism taken to the logical extreme (UsefulNotes/ColdWar view which meant that [[RedScare all Communists in every nation]] past, present, and future were future Stalins). The fact that USSR was an isolated closed society, and that the government maintained controls on information and education, means that a full picture untethered by political and ideological biases had to wait for the end of the USSR to really form itself. A lot of the documents from the Stalin era are still under wraps. Today the best living biographers of Stalin, Stephen Kotkin and the brothers Roy & Zhores Medvedev, among others, put the number of 'avoidable' deaths under Stalin's leadership at about 10-12 million. This can be broken down into some [[UsefulNotes/TheHolodomor 6-8 million dead in the 1932-4 famines resulting from the forcible collectivisation of agriculture]] [[note]] which motivated many independent farmers to destroy their tools and herds, hitting the Ukraine (where pre-collectivisation membership in traditional village communes was just 25%) and central Asia particularly hard [[/note]]and lack of national-level provision of food aid, about 2 million from disease and overwork as state prisoners during WWII (as the Soviet State prioritized the importation of rare materials necessary for war production over the high-calorie-content food products necessary to keep prisoners alive), about 1 million dead in the 1946-7 famines which resulted from the wartime overuse of poor soils and poor provision of food-aid, 750k dead in the Purges of 1935-38, and several tens of thousands more dead in prison or from execution by the NKVD/NKGB during Stalin's tenure. Additionally, retrospective analysis of Stalin's purges indicates genocidal intent against Ukrainians, Kazakhstanis, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachay, Kalmyks, Meskhetian Turks, Volga Germans, Baltics, Crimean Tartars, and especially Poles. Documentation of Stalin's sociopolitical opinions indicates that he held a fierce prejudice against Poles in particular (outright calling them filth) and consciously wished to eradicate them by any means necessary. The full extent and casualties of Stalin's genocidal policies are a considerable source of controversy, especially when compared to Hitler's policies of genocide (with some alt-right groups attempting to use the severity of Stalin's atrocities to downplay Hitler's, particularly via the argument that Stalin killed more people.), but regardless, the general point of consensus is that both Hitler and Stalin were genocidal megalomaniacs. Stalin's brutality can still be felt in the present, with 21st-century Russia undergoing [[UsefulNotes/TheRussianCross a demographic crisis]] that results from his bloody policies gutting generations of people and their prospects.

Popular memory of Stalin revolves around his post-1928 paranoia [[note]] When his personal bodyguard was expanded from just one person, to several. Stalin's later paranoia extended to his ''dacha'', or summer home, in Sochi, which has been preserved as a Russian museum. Features include: an exterior painted with camouflage to hide it among the trees; curtains purposely cut short to prevent anyone from hiding behind them unseen; all chairs and couches with backs ''and'' sides high enough to remain unseen from any direction but the front, reinforced with bulletproof material; all floors made of wood to prevent anyone from sneaking around (shoes were mandatory while within the ''dacha''). On the other hand, much of this paranoia was foisted upon him by others - he actually had to be convinced by the Politburo that wandering around the streets of Moscow without an escort was a bad idea [[/note]], his stance on religion [[note]]Like many young men in Georgia, he was raised by Orthodox Christian parents and was a seminary student, who like other young men of his time found the Church corrupt and hypocritical, and sought alternatives in politics and science. He was a militant atheist like many Bolsheviks/Anarchists/SR and even some Mensheviks, which factored into his violent persecution of religion such as ordering or approving the founding of the organization "The League of Militant Atheists" and approving the publication and distribution of anti-religious propaganda, accompanied by a campaign of terror against religious people, proscription of clergy and demolition of Church property. He later, though for cynical and nationalist reasons, helped enable a revival of the Orthodox church during World War II and withdrew persecution of Clergy after the War, and this is remembered by some clergy even today, [[https://www.rt.com/news/stalin-appears-christian-icon/ leading to instances of Churches featuring Stalin on religious icons]]. [[/note]], and his role as a Leader of an Allied country during the War, where he became etched as Hitler's ArchEnemy[[note]]His famous response on hearing of Hitler's suicide, "So the bastard's dead? Too bad we didn't capture him alive!"[[/note]].

The supposed circumstances of his death, dying slowly and painfully of a treatable stroke because [[HoistByHisOwnPetard his personal bodyguard were too afraid to disturb him]] and left him alone for twelve hours, before ultimately being found lying dead in a puddle of his stale urine, were actually a fabrication. This is [[RashomonStyle the only detail common to all four of the falsified accounts of Stalin's final hours (by Nikita Khruschev, Anasatas Mikoyan, the chief of Stalin's MGB guard detail Colonel Starostin, and Starostin's deputy-chief Lozgachev)]]. The current most accepted guess of Roy and Zhores Medvedev is that Starostin left Stalin untreated out of a pragmatic desire to benefit from the timing of Stalin's crippling or death. Stalin was ultimately, it seems, too amiable and trusting with his staff. [[note]] This was not without precedent. The Kremlin staff had cleaned his office and served him food and drink for years, unsupervised, when it was discovered that many of them hated him personally and had connections to the former nobility. Many had worked there since the time of the Tsar [[/note]] The exact cause of his death is disputed by historians. Some think that Stalin was poisoned, possibly by Beria, with his killer wanting to either be TheStarscream or afraid that Stalin was going to do ThePurge on his inner circle. Other historians say that Stalin's stroke was more likely natural, stemming from a combination of his advanced age (74 years old), lifestyle (being a heavy smoker and drinker with a poor diet and very little exercise) and work schedule (near-constant, endless work at a very stressful and demanding job, particularly during the war years). Notably, Stalin's doctor recommended he cut back his working hours, Stalin [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished rewarded the doctor for his concern by having him arrested.]]

* Sent up '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtF1ZNqSX3w here]]''' by Eric Idle, Henry Woolf and David Batley in ''Series/RutlandWeekendTelevision''. A genial Stalin played by Creator/EricIdle shows you how to cook Omelette Stalin, in ''Communist Kitchen''. [[note]]Joseph Stalin is currently appearing with CillaBlack at the Talk of the Town, Newquay.[[/note]]

* Stalin has been a subject of AccentAdaptation. In 2017, the Creator/{{BBC}} is producing and broadcasting a series of plays commemorating the centenary of the Russian Revolution. In a dramatisation of the life of Lenin, it is very noticeable that charaters have been given a range of British regional accents to symbolise when they are from other parts of Russia and not natives of St Petersburg/Moscow [[note]] City natives get London/RP English accents of various sorts according to their social class[[/note]]). Lenin's personal driver, for instance, is broad Welsh. And when a thuggish Georgian bank-robber called J.V. Djugashvili enters the play, ''his' accent is ViolentGlaswegian, no doubt to symbolise that Georgia is a different country and separate from Russia...

He was also an extremely HypercompetentSidekick to Lenin, doing everything from crimes and terrorist attacks before UsefulNotes/RedOctober to helping consolidate the Bolsheviks' hold over UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} during the Revolution itself. His skills and contributions made him one of Lenin's top assistants alongside UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, and he succeeded Lenin died.

He was also an extremely HypercompetentSidekick to Lenin, doing everything from crimes and terrorist attacks before UsefulNotes/RedOctober to helping consolidate the Bolsheviks' hold over Russia during the Revolution itself. His skills and contributions made him one of Lenin's CoDragons alongside UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, and he became the DragonAscendant when Lenin died.

The historiography of Stalin has changed over time, shifting from him being an all-knowing sadist, an "[[{{Orientalism}} Oriental despot]]", or a neo-Tsar who embodied the recidivism of a backward people (Pre-UsefulNotes/ColdWar view and one that was shared by Stalin's enemies inside the USSR, and also partly by Stalin himself); a largely oblivious puppet of the Soviet bureaucracy (Dissident and Trotskyist view, which was aimed to [[NoTrueScotsman separate Stalin from "real" Marxism and "real" Communism]]); a mad ideologue who was Socialism and Marxism taken to the logical extreme (UsefulNotes/ColdWar view which meant that [[RedScare all Communists in every nation]] past, present, and future were future Stalins). The fact that USSR was an isolated closed society, and that the government maintained controls on information and education, means that a full picture untethered by political and ideological biases had to wait for the end of the USSR to really form itself. A lot of the documents from the Stalin era are still under wraps. Today the best living biographers of Stalin, Stephen Kotkin and the brothers Roy & Zhores Medvedev, among others, put the number of 'avoidable' deaths under Stalin's leadership at about 10-12 million. This can be broken down into some [[UsefulNotes/TheHolodomor 6-8 million dead in the 1932-4 famines resulting from the forcible collectivisation of agriculture]] [[note]] which motivated many independent farmers to destroy their tools and herds, hitting the Ukraine (where pre-collectivisation membership in traditional village communes was just 25%) and central Asia particularly hard [[/note]]and lack of national-level provision of food aid, about 2 million from disease and overwork as state prisoners during WWII (as the Soviet State prioritized the importation of rare materials necessary for war production over the high-calorie-content food products necessary to keep prisoners alive), about 1 million dead in the 1946-7 famines which resulted from the wartime overuse of poor soils and poor provision of food-aid, 750k dead in the Purges of 1935-38, and several tens of thousands more dead in prison or from execution by the NKVD/NKGB during Stalin's tenure. Additionally, retrospective analysis of Stalin's purges indicates genocidal intent against Ukrainians, Kazakhstanis, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachay, Kalmyks, Meskhetian Turks, Volga Germans, Baltics, Crimean Tartars, and especially Poles. Documentation of Stalin's sociopolitical opinions indicates that he held a fierce prejudice against Poles in particular (outright calling them filth) and consciously wished to eradicate them by any means necessary. The full extent and casualties of Stalin's genocidal policies are a considerable source of controversy, especially when compared to Hitler's policies of genocide (with some alt-right groups attempting to use the severity of Stalin's atrocities to downplay Hitler's, particularly via the argument that Stalin killed more people.), but regardless, the general point of consensus is that both Hitler and Stalin were genocidal megalomaniacs.