Joseph Stalin Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Legacy== [[File:Fotothek df roe-neg 0006153 004 Blick auf die Ehrentribüne bei der Sportlerparad.jpg|thumb|A [[poster]] of Stalin at the [[3rd World Festival of Youth and Students]] in [[East Berlin]], East Germany, 1951]] The historian [[Robert Conquest]] stated that Stalin perhaps "determined the course of the twentieth century" more than any other individual.{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=xi}} Biographers like Service and Volkogonov have considered him an outstanding and exceptional politician;{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1991|1p=108|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=5}} Montefiore labelled Stalin as "that rare combination: both 'intellectual' and killer", a man who was "the ultimate politician" and "the most elusive and fascinating of the twentieth-century titans".{{sfn|Montefiore|2007|p=xxii}} According to historian Kevin McDermott, interpretations of Stalin range from "the sycophantic and adulatory to the vitriolic and condemnatory."{{sfn|McDermott|2006|p=1}} For most Westerners and [[anti-communist]] Russians, he is viewed overwhelmingly negatively as a [[mass murder]]er;{{sfn|McDermott|2006|p=1}} for significant numbers of Russians and Georgians, he is regarded as a great statesman and state-builder.{{sfn|McDermott|2006|p=1}} According to Service, Stalin strengthened and stabilised the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=3}} Service suggested that the country might have collapsed long before 1991 without Stalin.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=3}} In under three decades, Stalin transformed the Soviet Union into a major industrial world power,{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1991|1p=546|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=3}} one which could "claim impressive achievements" in terms of urbanisation, military strength, education and Soviet pride.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=602}} Under his rule, the average Soviet life expectancy grew due to improved living conditions, nutrition and medical care{{sfn|Wheatcroft|1999}} as mortality rates also declined.{{sfn|Ellman|2002|p=1164}} Although millions of Soviet citizens despised him, support for Stalin was nevertheless widespread throughout Soviet society.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=602}} Conversely, the historian [[Vadim Rogovin]] argued that the Great Terror which had gained traction in 1937 "caused losses to the communist movement both in the USSR and throughout the world from which the movement has not recovered to this very day".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=1937: Stalin's Year of Terror |date=1998 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-0-929087-77-1 |page=xxviii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZ92ueBx7MQC }}</ref> Similarly, Khrushchev believed his widespread purges of the "most advanced nucleus of people" among the [[Old Bolsheviks]] and leading figures in the military and [[Science and technology in the Soviet Union|scientific]] fields had "undoubtedly" weakened the nation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Khrushchev |first1=Nikita Sergeevich |last2=Khrushchev |first2=Serge |title=Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev |date=2004 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-02861-3 |page=156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uv1zv4FZhFUC&dq=stalin+weaken+soviet+union+old+bolsheviks&pg=PT170 |access-date=3 August 2023 |archive-date=13 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813012847/https://books.google.com/books?id=uv1zv4FZhFUC&dq=stalin+weaken+soviet+union+old+bolsheviks&pg=PT170 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[File:Exponáty v Muzeu.jpg|thumb|left|Interior of the [[Joseph Stalin Museum, Gori|Joseph Stalin Museum]] in [[Gori, Georgia]]]] Stalin's necessity for the Soviet Union's economic development has been questioned, and it has been argued that Stalin's policies from 1928 onwards may have only been a limiting factor.{{sfnm|1a1=Cheremukhin|1a2=Golosov|1a3=Guriev|1a4=Tsyvinski|1y=2013|2a1=Dower|2a2=Markevich|2y=2018|2p=246}} Stalin's Soviet Union has been characterised as a [[totalitarian]] state,{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=602|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2p=190}} with Stalin its authoritarian leader.{{sfn|Kotkin|2014|p=732}} Various biographers have described him as a dictator,{{sfnm|1a1=McCauley|1y=2003|1p=8|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=52|3a1=Montefiore|3y=2007|3p=9|4a1=Kotkin|4y=2014|4p=xii|5a1=Khlevniuk|5y=2015|5p=12}} an [[autocrat]],{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=194|2a1=Volkogonov|2y=1991|2p=31|3a1=Service|3y=2004|3p=370}} or accused him of practising [[Caesarism]].{{sfn|Volkogonov|1991|p=77}} Montefiore argued that while Stalin initially ruled as part of a Communist Party [[oligarchy]], the Soviet government transformed from this oligarchy into a personal dictatorship in 1934,{{sfn|Montefiore|2003|p=124}} with Stalin only becoming "absolute dictator" between March and June 1937, when senior military and NKVD figures were eliminated.{{sfn|Montefiore|2003|p=215}} According to Kotkin, Stalin "built a personal dictatorship within the Bolshevik dictatorship."{{sfn|Kotkin|2014|p=4}} In both the Soviet Union and elsewhere he came to be portrayed as an "Oriental [[Despotism|despot]]".{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=xvii|2a1=McDermott|2y=2006|2p=5}} [[Dmitri Volkogonov]] characterised him as "one of the most powerful figures in [[human history]]."{{sfn|Volkogonov|1991|p=xviii}} McDermott stated that Stalin had "concentrated unprecedented political authority in his hands."{{sfn|McDermott|2006|p=2}} Service stated that Stalin "had come closer to personal despotism than almost any monarch in history" by the late 1930s.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=370}} [[File:May Day in London.jpg|thumb|A contingent from the [[Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)]] carrying a [[banner]] of Stalin at a May Day march through London in 2008]] McDermott nevertheless cautioned against "over-simplistic stereotypes"—promoted in the fiction of writers like [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], [[Vasily Grossman]], and [[Anatoly Rybakov]]—that portrayed Stalin as an omnipotent and omnipresent tyrant who controlled every aspect of Soviet life through repression and totalitarianism.{{sfn|McDermott|2006|pp=5–6}} Service similarly warned of the portrayal of Stalin as an "unimpeded despot", noting that "powerful though he was, his powers were not limitless", and his rule depended on his willingness to conserve the Soviet structure he had inherited.{{sfn|Service|2004|pp=8, 9}} Kotkin observed that Stalin's ability to remain in power relied on him having a majority in the Politburo at all times.{{sfn|Kotkin|2014|p=596}} Khlevniuk noted that at various points, particularly when Stalin was old and frail, there were "periodic manifestations" in which the party oligarchy threatened his autocratic control.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=145}} Stalin denied to foreign visitors that he was a dictator, stating that those who labelled him such did not understand the Soviet governance structure.{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=182}} A vast literature devoted to Stalin has been produced.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=ix}} During Stalin's lifetime, his approved biographies were largely [[hagiographic]] in content.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=4}} Stalin ensured that these works gave very little attention to his early life, particularly because he did not wish to emphasise his Georgian origins in a state numerically dominated by Russians.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=13}} Since his death many more biographies have been written,{{sfn|Service|2004|p=6}} although until the 1980s these relied largely on the same sources of information.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=6}} Under [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s Soviet administration various previously classified files on Stalin's life were made available to historians,{{sfn|Service|2004|p=6}} at which point Stalin became "one of the most urgent and vital issues on the public agenda" in the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=xiii}} After the dissolution of the Union in 1991, the rest of the archives were opened to historians, resulting in much new information about Stalin coming to light,{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=6|2a1=Montefiore|2y=2007|2p=xxi}} and producing a flood of new research.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=ix}} Leninists remain divided in their views on Stalin; some view him as Lenin's authentic successor, while others believe he betrayed Lenin's ideas by deviating from them.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=5}} The socio-economic nature of Stalin's Soviet Union has also been much debated, varyingly being labelled a form of [[state socialism]], [[state capitalism]], [[bureaucratic collectivism]], or a totally unique mode of production.{{sfn|Sandle|1999|pp=265–266}} Socialist writers like Volkogonov have acknowledged that Stalin's actions damaged "the enormous appeal of socialism generated by the October Revolution".{{sfn|Volkogonov|1991|p=173}} ===Death toll=== {{main|Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin}} With a high number of excess deaths occurring under his rule, Stalin has been labelled "one of the most notorious figures in history".{{sfn|Service|2004|p=3}} These deaths occurred as a result of collectivisation, famine, terror campaigns, disease, war and mortality rates in the Gulag. As the majority of excess deaths under Stalin were not direct killings, the exact number of victims of Stalinism is difficult to calculate due to lack of consensus among scholars on which deaths can be attributed to the regime.{{sfn|Ellman|2002|pp=1163–1164}} Stalin has also been accused of [[Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin#Genocide allegations|genocide]] in the cases of forced population transfer of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and the famine in Ukraine.{{sfnm|1a1=Chang|1y=2019|2a1=Moore|2y=2012}} [[File:GULag 2 Museum Moscow Russia.jpg|thumb|Interior of the [[Gulag]] Museum in Moscow]] Official records reveal 799,455 documented executions in the Soviet Union between 1921 and 1953; 681,692 of these were carried out between 1937 and 1938, the years of the Great Purge.{{sfn|Getty|Rittersporn|Zemskov|1993|p=1022}} According to [[Michael Ellman]], the best modern estimate for the number of repression deaths during the Great Purge is 950,000–1.2 million, which includes executions, deaths in detention, or soon after their release.{{sfn|Ellman|2002|pp=1162–1163}} In addition, while archival data shows that 1,053,829 perished in the Gulag from 1934 to 1953,{{sfn|Getty|Rittersporn|Zemskov|1993|p=1024}} the current historical consensus is that of the 18 million people who passed through the Gulag system from 1930 to 1953, between 1.5 and 1.7 million died as a result of their incarceration.{{sfn|Healey|2018|p=1049|ps=: "New studies using declassified Gulag archives have provisionally established a consensus on mortality and 'inhumanity.' The tentative consensus says that once secret records of the Gulag administration in Moscow show a lower death toll than expected from memoir sources, generally between 1.5 and 1.7 million (out of 18 million who passed through) for the years from 1930 to 1953."}} Historian and archival researcher [[Stephen G. Wheatcroft]] and Michael Ellman attribute roughly 3 million deaths to the Stalinist regime, including executions and deaths from criminal negligence.{{sfnm|1a1=Wheatcroft|1y=1996|1pp=1334, 1348|2a1=Ellman|2y=2002|2p=1172}} Wheatcroft and historian [[R. W. Davies]] estimate famine deaths at 5.5–6.5 million{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2004|p=401}} while scholar Steven Rosefielde gives a number of 8.7 million.{{sfn|Rosefielde|1996}} In 2011, historian [[Timothy D. Snyder]] summarised modern data made after the opening of the Soviet archives in the 1990s and states that Stalin's regime was responsible for 9 million deaths, with 6 million of these being deliberate killings. He further states that estimates of 20 million or above, which were made before access to the archives, are not credible.{{sfnm|1a1=Snyder|1y=2010|1p=384|2a1=Snyder, 27 January 2011}} According to Rogovin, 80–90% of the members of the Central Committee elected at the [[6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)|Sixth]] through to the [[17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|Seventeenth Congresses]] were physically annihilated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Z |title=Was There an Alternative? 1923–1927: Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-96-9 |page=495 }}</ref> ===In the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states=== {{see also|Neo-Stalinism|Nostalgia for the Soviet Union}} Shortly after his death, the Soviet Union went through a period of [[de-Stalinization]]. Malenkov denounced the Stalin personality cult,{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=314}} which was subsequently criticised in ''Pravda''.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=592}} In 1956, Khrushchev gave his "Secret Speech", titled "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences]]", to a closed session of the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Party's 20th Congress]]. There, [[Khrushchev Thaw|Khrushchev denounced Stalin]] for both his mass repression and his personality cult.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=314|2a1=Volkogonov|2y=1991|2pp=577–579|3a1=Service|3y=2004|3p=594}} He repeated these denunciations at the [[22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|22nd Party Congress]] in October 1962.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=594}} In October 1961, Stalin's body was removed from the mausoleum and buried in the [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]], the location marked by a bust.{{sfnm|1a1=Volkogonov|1y=1991|1p=576|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=594}} Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=595}} Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation process in Soviet society ended when he was replaced as leader by [[Leonid Brezhnev]] in 1964; the latter introduced a level of re-Stalinisation within the Soviet Union.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=315|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=595}} In 1969 and again in 1979, plans were proposed for a full rehabilitation of Stalin's legacy but on both occasions were halted due to fears of damaging the USSR's public image.{{sfn|Conquest|1991|p=315}} Gorbachev saw the total denunciation of Stalin as necessary for the regeneration of Soviet society.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=596}} After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the first president of the new Russian Federation, [[Boris Yeltsin]], continued Gorbachev's denunciation of Stalin but added to it a denunciation of Lenin.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=596}} His successor [[Vladimir Putin]] did not seek to rehabilitate Stalin but emphasised the celebration of Soviet achievements under Stalin's leadership rather than the Stalinist repressions.{{sfn|Service|2004|pp=596–597}} In October 2017, Putin opened the [[Wall of Grief]] memorial in Moscow, noting that the "terrible past" would neither be "justified by anything" nor "erased from the national memory".{{sfn|BBC, 5 June 2018}} In a 2017 interview, Putin added that while "we should not forget the horrors of Stalinism", the excessive demonization of Stalin "is a means to attack [the] Soviet Union and Russia".{{sfn|Rutland, 13 June 2019}} In recent years, the government and general public of Russia has been accused of rehabilitating Stalin.{{sfnm|1a1=Nemtsova, 17 May 2021|2a1=Lentine, 25 June 2022}} [[File:RIAN archive 535278 Laying flowers and wreaths to Iosif Stalin's grave at Kremlin wall.jpg|thumb|left|[[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] activists from the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation]] laying wreaths at Stalin's Moscow grave in 2009]] Amid the social and economic turmoil of the post-Soviet period, many Russians viewed Stalin as having overseen an era of order, predictability, and pride.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=598}} He remains a revered figure among many Russian nationalists, who feel nostalgic about the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II]],{{sfn|Service|2004|p=7}} and he is regularly invoked approvingly within both Russia's far-left and far-right.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=599}} Polling by the [[Levada Center]] suggest Stalin's popularity has grown since 2015, with 46% of Russians expressing a favourable view of him in 2017 and 51% in 2019.{{sfnm|1a1=Taylor, 15 February 2017|2a1=Luhn, 16 April 2019|3a1=BBC, 18 April 2019}} In a 2021 poll, a record 70% of Russians indicated they had a mostly/very favourable view of Stalin.<ref>{{cite news |last=Arkhipov |first=Ilya |date=16 April 2019 |title=Russian Support for Stalin Surges to Record High, Poll Says |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-16/russian-support-for-soviet-tyrant-stalin-hits-record-poll-shows |work=Bloomberg |access-date=8 October 2020 |archive-date=3 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003223316/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-16/russian-support-for-soviet-tyrant-stalin-hits-record-poll-shows |url-status=live }}</ref> The same year, a survey by the Center showed that Joseph Stalin was named by 39% of Russians as the "most outstanding national figure of all time" and, while nobody received an absolute majority, Stalin was very clearly in first place, followed by another Soviet leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] with 30% and Russian poet [[Alexander Pushkin]] with 23%.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.levada.ru/2021/06/21/samye-vydayushhiesya-lichnosti-v-istorii/|title=САМЫЕ ВЫДАЮЩИЕСЯ ЛИЧНОСТИ В ИСТОРИИ|date=21 June 2021|website=levada.ru|access-date=1 July 2021|archive-date=30 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630032506/https://www.levada.ru/2021/06/21/samye-vydayushhiesya-lichnosti-v-istorii/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Coynash, 22 June 2021|ps=. "The renowned Levada Centre has carried out a survey to find out whom Russians would name as the "ten most outstanding national figures of all time". While nobody received an absolute majority, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was very clearly ahead, being named by 39% of the respondents."}} At the same time, there was a growth in pro-Stalinist literature in Russia, much relying upon the misrepresentation or fabrication of source material.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=x}} In this literature, Stalin's repressions are regarded either as a necessary measure to defeat "[[enemies of the people]]" or the result of lower-level officials acting without Stalin's knowledge.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=x}} The only other part of the former Soviet Union other than Russia where admiration for Stalin has remained consistently widespread is [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], although Georgian attitudes have been very divided.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=597}} A number of Georgians resent criticism of Stalin, the most famous figure from their nation's modern history.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=7}} A 2013 survey by [[Tbilisi State University]] found 45% of Georgians expressing "a positive attitude" to him.{{sfn|Bell, 5 March 2013}} A 2017 [[Pew Research]] survey had 57% of Georgians saying he played a positive role in history, compared to 18% of those expressing the same for [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].{{sfn|Masci, 29 June 2017}} Some positive sentiment can also be found elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. A 2012 survey commissioned by the [[Carnegie Endowment]] found 38% of Armenians concurring that their country "will always have need of a leader like Stalin".{{sfn|Bakradze|Gudjov|Lipman|Wall|2013}}{{sfn|''The Moscow Times'', 2 March 2013}} In early 2010, a new monument to Stalin was erected in [[Zaporizhzhia]], Ukraine.{{sfn|Snyder, 26 May 2010}} In December 2010, unknown persons decapitated it and it was destroyed in a bomb attack in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2011/01/1/5740807/ |title=У Запоріжжі підірвали пам'ятник Сталіну |trans-title=Stalin Monument Blown Up in Zaporizhzhia |access-date=1 January 2011 |archive-date=14 December 2018 |language=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214115447/https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2011/01/1/5740807/ }}</ref> In a 2016 [[Kyiv International Institute of Sociology]] poll, 38% of respondents had a negative attitude to Stalin, 26% a neutral one and 17% a positive, with 19% refusing to answer.{{sfn|''Ukrayinska Pravda'', 4 March 2015}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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