Allied Leaders of World War II/Stalin

NOTE: Bolshevik/Communist politics was highly complicated, with various party factions vying for power at times. While a fascinating subject, all of this is far beyond the scope of this article, but there are many books and articles available on this subject, as well as on Joseph Stalin's abilities to outmaneuver his rivals.

Stalin's real family name was "Dzhugashvili" (there are variations in the transliterated spelling in English), and he was born in Georgia, an area of the Caucasus, in the southern part of the Russian Empire. The language was not Russian, but Georgian, a Kartvelian language unrelated (as far as is known) to Indo European, which is the ancient ancestor of English and Russian. Russian was taught in the schools of Georgia. Stalin suffered from smallpox as a child, and it left his face permanently scarred.

While in school during his later teens, Stalin came into contact with a number of people with Marxist beliefs, and within a couple of years he joined the Bolsheviks. He was arrested numerous times, and he wrote some revolutionary articles under the name "Stalin," a word for "steel," which Russian had borrowed from Germanic, and it is by that name that he came to be known and feared. He moved up through the ranks of the Bolsheviks, and after they had overthrown the moderate government that had replaced the Tsarist government a few months earlier,* his closeness to Lenin helped his power to grow. When an assassination attempt was made on Lenin in the fall of 1918, Stalin urged a severe crackdown, directed mainly at the more moderate socialists, which resulted in the execution of thousands without a trial, although the actual number is not truly known. Lenin made him General Secretary of the Communist Party. Lenin suffered a stroke in 1922, and Stalin was able to consolidate more power unto himself, although his relationship with Lenin went down hill. Lenin died in early 1924 and Stalin's power-base and his absolute ruthlessness gave him an advantage over other Communist officials, but it took time for him to truly become the absolute ruler of the Soviet Union. His use of the secret police to spy on rivals and citizens is legendary, and he had so many people killed or sent to labor camps, no one really knows with any certainty just how many there were, but it was in the MILLIONS! While not as concerned with "racial policies," like Hitler, I've always said you could put Stalin and Hitler into a bag, shake it up, and you wouldn't know which one would pop out first!

Stalin felt the Kulaks** were too independent minded and not interested enough in the overall good of the nation, and he wanted farming consolidated into "collective farms," which brought resistance from the Kulaks. Perhaps as many as five million were sent to camps in Siberia, where many died, while others were just outright executed. Stalin also wanted industrial production increased to build a formidable army to discourage incursions by European nations; that is, by the "capitalists." A severe crackdown was launched against worker absenteeism and workers who failed to meet production quotas. In the early 1930s, the Ukraine was hit by a major famine, and millions died.*** Ukrainians were independent minded, and many to this day believe much of the famine was orchestrated by Stalin (there was severe rationing and the border was closed off to stop Ukrainians from leaving for other, better supplied areas) to beat down Ukrainian independence. Disease and outright starvation claimed many lives.

Next, the conclusion of the Stalin info, which will include his role in World War Two.

* There were two revolutions in Russia during that era. The first took place in March 1917 and resulted in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, thus ending the many centuries of Tsarist rule. A "provisional (temporary) government" was set up to rule the country until national elections could be held. It was socialist, but not really radically so (compared to other elements, like the Bolsheviks), and in fact, it continued to fight the war (World War One) on the side of the Allies. The continuation of the unpopular war and the economic mess of the nation kept discontent alive, and in late October 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in a second revolution, although it took them a few years to actually consolidate their hold on the country.

** During much of Russia's history, peasants were really serfs for large landowners. Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs in 1861, but most peasants remained illiterate and poor. While serfdom had "officially" ended, the rents peasants owed to landowners pretty much guaranteed a perpetuation of poverty. During Tsar Nicholas II's rule, one of his prime ministers, Peter Stolypin, implemented a program where peasants could own land and truly be free of the large landowners, thus keeping peasants supportive of Tsarism. The program was limited, especially considering Russia's enormous peasant population, but these farmers came to be called "Kulaks." Revolutionaries saw the reforms as a threat to their desire to overthrow the Tsarist system, so Stolypin was assassinated. Nicholas unfortunately took a turn back toward repression, which only served as a prelude to the revolution that brought him down. When the Bolsheviks came to power, they kept much of the Kulak system in place, at least at first.

*** Records from those times are scare and it is difficult to determine how many people died, but 4 or 5 million would be a good guess, although Ukrainians believe the number to by about double that.

WORD HISTORY:
Vodka-The "vod" part of this word is related to "water," and indeed it goes back to Indo European "wod/wed," the same ancient ancestor, which expanded to "wotor/wodr," which meant "water. This gave Slavic "voda/woda," and this then gave Russian "voda," meaning "water." The "ka" ending is a diminutive; that is, it makes it "smaller" or "endearing;" so "little water." It was borrowed into English circa 1800.