i? 4.

Dear Reader:
Stalin’s Life takes you behind the scenes in Russia and relates
in simple, forceful, poignant fashion the story of the boy, the youth,
the man, against a background of heroic adventure, intrigue, plots and
counter-plots. Of love and hate, of a man’s devotion to his people,
his friends and his cause.
Stalin, like the country he leads, has been the subject of abuse
and misconceptions that have clouded and distorted the truth about
the man and his country. Contemporary Publishers are proud to
present this interesting, factual and inspiring story of a man whose
very name sends fear into the hearts of his enemies and inspires
devotion in the hearts of those who love and fight for freedom.

Contemporary Publishers,

Pago Pag*
Introduction............................ —..... 5 From Lenin To Stalin...... ............. 29
Cradle of Destiny ............................ 5 The Tracks of History.................... 31
The Distinguished One..... ...... ....... 8 Russia’s Lincoln ............................ 35
From Siberia To Baku.................... 12 Friend Or Foe......................... ... ... 40
Steel On the Anvil................. ........ 15 The Fight For Peace........................ 43
To Change the World...................... 19 Stalin: T he Man............................ . 45
Warrior Chief ................................ 23 Two Fu.'l Page Illustrations....... 26-27

STALIN’S LIFE Pagu Three

 Copyright, 1943
by DYSON CARTER
All rightn reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or translated in any language,
without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Published by
CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHERS
165 Selkirk Avenue •
Winnipeg - " Canada

Printed by Universal Printers, Winnipeg, Canada.

Page Four STALIN'S LIFE

 In the past two years But there is a way of answering truthfully the
Stalin’s homeland — the question: Who is Stalin? The answer given In
STALIN'S Union of Soviet Socialist this book is based upon a simple fact:
LIFE Republics—has received A man is no more and no leas than whtil life
more attention in the has made him; i -.’.ui he has made with hi:; life.
newspapers than all Stalin’s life!
other foreign countries combined.
Just the straight life story of this man, free
When you come to think of it, this is aston­ of all exaggeration and fiction, rivals the most
ishing. fascinating biographies of history. .Here is wild
But the reason for it is simple enough. adventure and lonely banishment, warm love and
The army of the U.S.S.R. succeeded after all haunting tragedy, diabolic enemies and friends to
other armies had failed—succeeded in bringing to the death.
a halt the frightful blitz of the Nazi hordes. It From this extraordinary life there emerges in
took us a long time to grasp this. And still longer perfect clearness the picture of Stalin as he is,
to understand what it meant to us and to our chil­ the man, the living human being.
dren.
What Stalin’s army did was to make possible
the rescue of our Democracies from the horrors
of devastation, mass murder, starvation and rape
CHAPTERI
into which the people of Europe had been plunged
by the Axis barbarians. Where in all the earth
No wonder we became intensely curious about CRADLE can be found a land so
the Soviet Union! mysterious, so fabulously
OF
For many years we had been subjected to beautiful, so romantic
many falsehoods about Soviet Russia. The events DESTINY and exciting, as the land
of the last two years having given us the truth of the Caucasian Moun­
about Stalin’s army, we demanded the truth about tains?
Stalin’s country, Stalin’s people. On the map you will see this region lying north
Now, what about Stalin himself? of Persia and Turkey. It is the southernmost
Who is this man, Stalin? part of Russia, and separates the Black Sea from
A short while ago he-was held up to us as a the Caspian Sea. Great mountain chains span it
beast in human form; a stupid, ruthless dictator from coast to coast.
'who murdered even his friends. Some men did Deep in the heart of the Caucasus is the coun­
not hesitate to assure us that Stalin ruled by try called Georgia. Perhaps you have never even
brutality and that his people were praying for heard its name. Yet it was known far and wide
release. in times before the Bible was written.
Now we are told the most astounding contra­ Here in Georgia is Mount Ararat, the highest
dictions of all this. It is disclosed that Stalin peak in Europe. Legend tells us that Noah’s Ark
personally directed some of the most brilliant rested on this towering summit when divine wrath
maneuvers of the Red Army. Statesmen who have sent the Flood to engulf the ancient world. Twelve
met Stalin say that he is highly educated, quick hundred years before Christ the Georgian people
witted, straight-forward. We are told that Stalin had a civilization that was respected by the cul­
in private life is very fond of children and that tured Greeks.
youngsters love to talk and laugh with him. Tens
of millions of people in the Soviet Union look Who are these Georgians?
upon Stalin with feelings far removed from hate Their origin is a mystery because they estab­
and fear. lished themselves in the Caucasus at a time so
In spite of all that has been said about this remote that historical record has been lost. Ages
man—for and against him—we still do not know ago the Georgians, a pure white race, were called
who he is. Stalin, the person, is an absolute mys­ “Iberians.” This was the name given also to
tery to us. ancient Spaniards, and so there is a possibility
One might think that after all the evil things that the two peoples were in some wav linked in
said of Stalin, and now all the lavish compliments pre-historic times. At any rate for more than two
paid, to him, it would be impossible to get a true, thousand years the Georgians have maintained a
impartial picture of the man. Impossible it would distinct, almost pure nationality. This is remark­
be, indeed, if we tried to see Stalin through the able, for the Caucasus region (Trans-Caucasia)
eyes of other people. lias been since time immemorial a cradle of races.
STALIN’S LIFE Page Firs
a land of inter-marrying, a place where old tribes a force of seventy thousand men to rout three
vanished and new tribes appeared as if by magic. thousand Georgian warriors. Then the citizens
Thus there are about thirty different racial groups of Tiflis took up what arms they could find and
in Trans-Caucasia today. But of these six million marched to battle singing a gay mountain song.
people some two and a quarter millions are pure So ferocious was their attack that it swept right
Georgian. up to the tents of the Persian Khan. Never had
The Georgians have reason to be proud of their this chieftain seen such mass bravery.
heritage. Although they have never gone con- Wisely he decided to leave the land that had
questing, laying waste to the lands of other na­ become renowned as “the holy Caucasus,” where
tions, their record of valor has few equals. Time alluring splendor turned to death for every in­
and again historians have set down with awe and vader.
wonder the incredible bravery of the Georgians Last of all the armies to sweep through Geor­
in resisting the invader. In far off times the gia were those of the Russian Czar, in the 19th
Romans, Persians and Macedonians ravished century. They came in by the famous Georgian
Georgia. So did the Greeks under Alexander the military highway that winds through and over
Great. the Caucasian mountains. The conquest was grad­
Christianity was accepted by Georgia five hun­ ual and not complete, for although the country
dred years before the Anglo-Saxon peoples were became part of the Russian Empire it retained
baptized. The young Church, absorbed so early considerable local independence. The Russians
into the national tradition, maintained from the built the Trans-Caucasian Railway, from Baku to
very start a vigorous, highly liberal independence, Batum, and settled down to try to subdue the
and exerted a powerful cultural-civilizing effect Georgians—to break their will.
upon the mountain people. Georgian Christianity But these people derive their character from
escaped the intellectual, spiritual and political thousands of years of unbroken tradition. They
corruption of Europe’s Dark Ages. The country have never been serfs. Their spirit is untamed.
became wise in matters of statesmanship when An old saying puts it: “In Georgian blood flows
Western Europe was still staggering under the the ice of their glaciers and the fire of their tropic
burden of its primitive feudal system. sun.”
Unfortunately, Trans-Caucasia from the Mid­ And have you seen in pictures the Georgian
dle Ages to modern times had little opportunity man’s holiday costume? It is distinguished by the
to express in peaceful ways the national talent for brilliant loose blouse with a row of individual
statecraft. In the 13th century began a series of pockets for rifle cartridges sewn on each breast.;
terrible invasions. and in the belt an engraved golden dagger. Even
The first was that of Genghis Khan. This at a time of merrymaking the Georgian is pre­
dreaded Mongolian warrior all but devastated the pared !
Caucasus in his westward sweep of Russia and By this time you are curious to know why we
Europe. During this conquest the famous war­ are staying so long in Georgia; why we are there
cry of the Georgian people was born: ”We Geor­ at all. The reason is to be found in the little
gians never turn our backs to the foe, even ancient Georgian town of Gori.
Death!” In the present conflict against the Nazis
a Georgian Red Army general issued an even Gori lies in the heart of the moutains. Mighty
bolder battle slogan to his men, and it is worth snow-sparkled peaks tower above its valley. En­
remembering because it swept through the Cauca- ormous masses of rock are piled everywhere, as
cus Mountains like a forest fire of vengeance. though in pre-historic days an army of giants had
After a pitiless attack by the Germans this gen­ barricaded themselves in this spot. But Gori it­
eral rallied his men and cried: “Bury the dead! self, sheltered by the mountains, is almost like a
Send, back the wounded! All the rest . . . For­ South Sea island, so warm are the breezes that
ward!” blow through its semi-tropic groves.
But let us complete our brief historical sum­ If you stand on the banks of the surging Kura
mary. Ono hundred years after the last retreat­ river as it flows past Gori you can hear the very
ing Mongol had been hurled into a Caucasian pulse of history beating. Foi’ in this town were
ravine, the land was overrun by Timur, another born and lived many of Georgia’s famous warriors
and defenders
cruel conqueror. And after him, the Crusaders, the “holy Caucasus, of freedom. This is the heart of
Then the Goths. Then Turks, Arabs, Persians. ” where ageless traditions of
Typical of the battles fought by the Georgian de­ valor and liberty are cherished.
fenders was that of Tiflis (the capital city of And towards the end of the last century, des­
Georgia) in 1795. The Persians had to bring up tiny once more came to Gori.
Page Six STALIN’S LIFE
 This time the little town was chosen for one for him, a life beyond the poverty of Gori. Her
of the opening scenes in a tremendous drama. A husband worked hard and she herself had to add
drama that would one day move on to the world’s to the family income by visiting the homes of the
stage, to shake the earth and its five continents rich, where she washed clothes and baked bread.
with the shouts of millions of marching feet, And there was quite another reason for Kather­
marching not to war but to build peace out of a ine’s ambition. Zozo had a weak left arm. It
drcam! seemed unlikely that he could ever take up his
In Gori lived a shoemaker. Ilis name was father’s trade. So it was generally agreed in Gori
Vissario Jugashvili. He made to order the famed that little Zozo would be educated for the priest­
Caucasian riding boots, and he was a splendid hood. At an early age he was admitted to the
craftsman. In his youth Vissario had been quite parish school.
an adventurer. It was rumored that he had kid­ Years afterwards the man Stalin was to re­
naped his beautiful wife Katherine, who was not call the happy childhood of the boy Zozo. Surely,
a Georgian at all but an Ossetine. The Ossetines what more thrilling place could there be than
are a mountain clan as intelligent, proud and fierce Gori? Magnificent scenery, romantic adventure
as the people of Georgia, so it is not improbable stories told by mountaineers, daring brigands who
that Vissario had to win his bride in the most defied the Czar’s soldiers, exciting trips by raft
romantic fashion of all. on the Kura river, wild and haunting music at
But that was long ago. the festivals. These things Zozo knew.
Life had since then become sorrowful in Gori. He also knew that Georgia was under the heel
The Russians were rulers. Georgians had never of the Czar, and that the usurpers were becoming
learned to bow their heads even to native princes, ever more insolent. Many a man of Gori thought­
and although the Czar’s representatives were fully fingered his dagger in those days, and lis­
careful not to fan the smoldering Caucasus into tened sullenly to the war songs of the poet Shamil.
a blaze of revolt the people found it hard to obey But the Czar had imported an effective weapon
the foreigner’s law. to complete his conquest of untamed Georgia. Not
Lbok at the customer who has just stamped a gun or a bomb. The weapon was Hunger. For
into Vissarios’ shop. You must address him as centuries the Russian masses had been disciplined
“Your Serene Highness.” But the fellow is just by starvation. Now Georgians began to feel its
an ordinary strutting Russian nobleman decked pangs.
out in all the silk and gold regalia of his kind. The method used by the Russians was a fa­
Vissario is ill at ease until His Serene Highness milial' one. Their business men smelled rich prof­
begins to talk about the new pair of hunting boots its in Georgia. For example, they decided to make
being made for him. Caucasian boots on a mass scale, in a factory at
A small shadow falls across the open door of Tiflis. In a short time Zozo’s father realized what
the shop. Nobody pays any attention. It is only had happened. First-class riding boots were being
Vissario’s little boy Joseph come to watch the turned out at a fraction of the hand-made cost.
princely customer. Vissario’s business dropped to almost nothing.
The people of Gori like this youngster with the Soon there was only His Serene Highness left to
heavy, tousled black hair and twinkling, thought­ buy. For generations the family trade had been
ful eyes. But they see nothing extraordinary about shoe-making, but at last it was finished. Hunger
him. His nickname is “Zozo.” came to visit at the Jugashvili home, sat down at
the table and smiled mockingly at the family’s
His Serene Highness does not give Zozo even pride.
a glance. How can he possibly guess that the day Vissario was forced to seek his livelihood else­
will soon come when all the Serene Highnesses of where. With his wife and child he left Gori and
Imperial Russia will be swept into oblivion . . . went to the capital city, Tiflis, where he got work
and hundreds of millions of people in every coun­ in the same shoe factory that had put him out of
try of the world will wonder at Zozo, after he has business.
taken the name of Stalin!
It is not hard to imagine the bewildered sor­
Joseph Vissarionovitch (son - of - Vissario) row that filled the hearts of Vissario and Kather­
Jugashvili, called by his childhood friends Zozo ine as they left forever their mountain village.
and by the friends of his youth Stalin, was born
in Gori in 1879. He was Katherine’s fourth child, Tillis, the capital city, was like a place out of
the only one to survive infancy. Naturally his the “Arabian Nights.” Donkeys and camels and
mother was more than fond of him. As soon as bazaars and sulphur baths and teeming street
the child began to show signs of unusual intelli­ life. And, of course, the factory.
gence Katherine staidjed to dream of a better life The mother's ambition for her son proved to
STALIN’S LIFE Page Seven
bn justified. Zozo enjoyed the amazing oriental just of Christianity but of the Georgian church,
atmosphere of Tillis, but ho did not become a the Georgian faith, Georgian independence.
street urchin. It was clear that he determined To understand the situation in the Seminary
to become a student. when fourteen-year-old Zozo Jugashvili was en­
in 1935, just two years before she died, on rolled there in 1893, we must grasp how the Czar’s
her 75th birthday the mother of Zozo told news­ “Russian Orthodox Church” was organized at
paper men: “He was always a brilliant scholar.” this time. Just as most countries today have a
And when the reporters asked her what she Minister of Finance, a Minister of War, and so
thought of the boy who had become known to the on, the Russian Church had an astonishing posi­
world as Stalin, she repeated what she had always tion called “Minister of the Holy Synod.” In other
said, all through the troubled years of her son’s words, the Church was for all practical purposes,
youth: “I wish every mother could have a son like organized as a department of the. Czar’s govern­
mine!” ment. In fact the Czar and Czarina were holy
In those simple words are expressed the faith personages to Russian believers. To take any
and love of Stalin’s mother. Of course it was easy action against their government was to commit a
for her to express pride in her son after he had grievous sin against God. No better means could
become famous. But long before then, when he be devised to keep the ignorant, superstitious
was only the youngster Zozo, Katherine Jugash- Russian masses crushed into a despairing poverty
vili believed in her boy. against which they were afraid to protest for fear
Vissario did not work long in the Tiflis boot of incurring divine anger. This was the horrible
factory. He never saw his native countryside perversion of Christ’s teachings which was used
again. The day soon came when Katherine and to maintain the corrupt Czarist regime, with its
Zozo knelt weeping beside his grave. shocking immoralities in palace circles and its
unbelievable cruelties to the workers, farmers and
For the poor, the death of a husband brings colonial peoples.
not only heartbreak. How was the widow to sup­
port herself and her young son? The rich people We should clearly appreciate that the Russian
of Tiflis kept staffs of servants and did not need Church itself was the political tool of Cza^ism,
a woman to come in to wash and bake. and was absolutely under the control of the ruling
s»
nobility, with not a trace of religious freedom as
The widow learned how to be a dressmaker. we understand it.
And Zozo, because of his promising mind and in
spite of his humble birth, was admitted to the As soon as Russia established its rule over
Tiflis Theological Seminary, on the sort of ar­ Georgia the Russian Church, on instructions from
rangement we call in our countries a scholarship. the Czar, set out to destroy systematically the
Georgian Church. After bloody religious rebel­
It seemed that the dream born years before lions the Czar’s bishops scored what seemed to be
in the mountain village of Gori was on its way to a victory. Even the Tiflis Theological Seminary
realization, and that Joseph Jugashvili would be-, became officially a Russian Church institution.
come a priest.
By this time we know enough Georgian history
Destiny had other ideas. to realize that all the priests and students at Tiflis
did not get down on their knees and grovel before
the hated oppressors. On the surface they yielded.
They accepted the Orthodox faith. They learned
CHAPTER II to speak Russian. But the whole institution
rumbled with revolt. Young Zozo entered what
No institution could be his mother thought was a place of quiet study and
THE imagined farther from devout contemplation. Actually the Tiflis Semi­
DISTINGUISHED our notion of a priest’s nary was a hotbed of secret Georgian plots for
school than the Tiflis rebellion against the Czar!
ONE Theological Seminary. The most powerful of the anti-Czarist under­
This place had at one ground groups in the school was that of the Na­
time been a training schools for boys who intended tionalists, whose avowed purpose was to liberate
to become teachers or to enter the service of the the Georgian nation. They tried to win over all
Georgian church. Before Czarist Russia added the new students to their cause.
the country to its possessions the Tiflis school had For a time Zozo remained only a casual ob­
played to some extent the part of a national uni­ server of the school’s political activity. But into
versity. Teaching had been in the Georgian lan­ the general life of the place he entered with
guage. The priests who operated the Seminary enthusiasm. Like a young recruit fascinated by
had considered themselves to be guardians not the strangeness of army life, Zozo eagerly accus-
Page Eight STALIN’S LIFE
 tomed himself to the firm discipline and healthy swift dagger of a mountaineer. Thus, science did
regularity of the school. lie found unlimited op­ not recognize "superior nations.” It had no more
portunities for study provided in classroom and hatred for the Russians than it had special con­
library. Although the Georgian language was cern for the Georgians. It saw no good in white
rich in cultural heritage—for example the famous men that was not in black men. Now when young
Georgian epic poem called “The Knight In the Zozo went at night to the meetings of the Nation­
Tiger’s Skin” was composed four hundred years alists in the Seminary, he was disturbed by the
before Shakespeare was born—a far wider intel­ very things that had formerly appealed to him.
lectual range was opened to Zozo’s mind once he How could the struggle for Georgian freedom be
learned to read Russian. He became a student in right just because it had been going on for three
earnest; he devoured whole shelves of books. . . . thousand years? How could one rightly hate all
The student Jugashvili might have become a the Russians, when millions of them were suffer­
passive bookworm, destined to crouch oved a desk ing intensely under the same brutal Czarist gov­
for the rest of his life, peering into dusty old ernment that crushed Georgia? And most dis­
volumes. turbing of all: how could all Georgians be united
in the cause of liberation, when native nobles like
But his mind was restlessly stirring. the Princes Mdivani enjoyed luxury and splendor
Everything he had read in the Georgian lan­ under the protection of the very Czar they pro­
guage was about the past. Now Zozo discovered fessed to hate!
that there were men who looked towards the Suddenly it seemed to Joseph Jugashvili that
future. These thinkers boldly set down their ideas the Nationalist students, priests, business men
on paper. Reading their books for the first time and nobles were not the defenders of holy Cauca­
the boy who had played along the banks of the sian liberty which they so loudly acclaimed.
age-old River Kura came face to face with a
mighty new torrent of ideas. There came a day when someone handed Zozo
For example, he found scholars who turned a secret book. Dangerous political books and
their backs upon history. These men scorned the papers of all kinds were constantly circulating
idea that a nation should rise and fight a foreign privately among the students in the Seminary.
oppressor simply in order to restore a system of But this one was different to the usual inflam­
government that had existed for a thousand years; matory agitation. Indeed, Zozo had never seen
to a Georgian such notions were almost blas­ anything like it before. It was a book about soci­
phemy. And then there were other thinkers who ety, about the world of men from earliest times
introduced Zozo to ideas absolutely strange and down to the present, a history of the world that
bewildering to him: the ideas that make up what did not simply set forth a story of the past but
we call science. drew meanings and conclusions from all the great
events of ages gone by. It presented history as
In science the young candidate for priesthood a march forward. And with great daring this
discovered a new faith, at once frightening and book showed where humanity’s forward march
inspiring. This faith taught not what had been was leading; it carried history into the future.
believed for centuries but only what could be
proved true today. This faith believed in no belief, With profound excitement Zozo studied this
except that the mind of man, by patient thought, volume. The message of the book was compressed
by the power of reason and experiment, could into a single sentence.
probe all the secrets of the world, could distin­ “The philosophers have sought only to explain
guish between what was true and what was false, the meaning of things, but now has come the
between right and wrong. All this science did by time for men to use the power of knowledge in
drawing conclusions from the living experience of order to change the world.”
men, without recourse to any science “doctrine.” To change the world!
To the youthful Georgian’s mind it was not Zozo was very familiar with men whose aim
a question of Christian religion against “athiest” was to change the sorry state of affairs in Georgia,
science, for no sooner had he begun the new stud­ to hurl the Russians out of the Caucasus, to lib­
ies than he found how the forces of science were erate the Georgian Church, to smash the cruel
being applied for progress in Western countries, power of the Czar. Never before had he heard of
without abandonment of faith. Zozo brushed aside men who dared to dream and to plan beyond the
with contempt those fellow-students and priests boundaries of imperial Russia, who conceived the
who sought to villify the power of reason as the incredible ambition of changing the wlyole world.
destroyer of spiritual values. Who were these men? Karl Marx and Fred­
And yet it was impossible for him to evade the erick Engels. They had lived in England. Stu­
conclusions that struck home to his heart like the dents of economics and philosophy, Marx and
STALIN’S LIFE Page Nine
Engels had constructed on the foundation of the ideas. The Populists weren’t really that bad. It
world's past and present an outline of the econo­ was the merciless spying, arrests, flogging, hang­
mies and philisophy of the future. They had laid ing, shooting and banishment practiced by the
before the human race the possibility of doing Czarist government that led sincere lighters for
away forever with the blind staggering of nations freedom to join the Populist movement. They be­
from war to war, from famine to famine, from lieved that violence must be fought by violence.
tragedy to tragedy. They had challenged human­ And the Seminary students who supported this
ity to make science and reason the means for con­ principle tried to convince Jugashvili that his
structing society according to the finest human place was with them if he honestly desired the
hopes and desires. liberation of all the peoples enslaved within Czar­
“Now has come the time to change the world!’’ ist Russia, the “prison of nations.”
It was a tempting proposal. In Zozo’s veins
To young Joseph these words upon the printed flowed “the ice of glaciers and the fire of tropic
page were like sunlight suddenly piercing the sun.” To his young mind the dangerous, intensely
clouds to blaze on the towering snow-capped thrilling plots of the Populists seemed a part of
mountains of Gori. the Georgian tradition, a sort of Robin Hood ex­
A long time passed before Zozo fully grasped istence. To be a Populist was to be in almost
the meaning of what Marx and Engels had to say. constant mortal combat with the authorities, a
This is not the place for us to study such complex duel with death. What a romantic life for a boy
subjects as “Dialectical Materialism” or “The who had listened to a thousand tales of mountain
Materialist Conception of History.” But in brief, brigands and their swift vengeance!
just how did Marx and Engels propose to change Over his books in the Tiflis Seminary, Zozo
the world? pondered his future. But in the end he did not
By convincing humanity that science and tech­ make up his own mind. Nor was it made up for
nical progress had reached a stage where the him by any of his fellow students. The decision
whole human race, working together, could easily came to him from far away, all the way across
supply every living creature with all the necessi­ Europe, and it was made in the mind of another
ties of life, and with constantly more and more man!
comforts, thus for the first time releasing from Let us vision how this strange happening came
ceaseless toil and drudgery not just a few privi­ about. Picture in a cheap lodging house in Switz­
leged people but all the hundreds of millions erland a small, almost bald man with intense eyes
througlwut the whole earth. By convincing hu­ and extraordinary powers of simple, compelling
manity that such a future was no longer an empty speech, sitting at a desk writing a pamphlet. This
dream but a practical reality within the power of man is a Russian. He has been exiled from his
men and women to achieve. By convincing human­ native land. Years ago a terrible tragedy befell
ity that the political and economic systems by his family. His older brother had been a Populist
which the world was operated were the sole bar­ who was arrested for a political crime of violence,
riers standing in the way of a glorious future free and hanged. From that day the younger boy had
of hunger, suffering, war and oppression. deteimined to fight against such purposeless
Zozo’s mind was in a turmoil. Everything he means of struggle for freedom. At the age of 23
had read appealed to him as one clear, logical he had formed a political party that broke away
train of thought. But there remained a question from all forms of anarchism, a party that was
that seemed as impassable as a depthless ravine. opposed equally to Czarism and terrorism. By
Under the Czar’s ruthless suppression of all free­ 1895 his party was internationally famous.
dom, how would it ever be possible to convince Its name: The Russian Social Democratic
Russians or Georgians that their wretched world Labor Party.
could be changed? Its exiled leader: Vladimir Lenin.
Within the Seminary there was a group that Lenin was a true genius. Although he was a
claimed to have the answer. They called them­ man of simple living habits and quite without
selves “Populists.” We would call them anar­ pride or boastfulness, his personality was so
chists. They preached the necessity of assassinat­ powerful that he made an unforgettable impres­
ing the brutal’Czarist overlords. Their favorite sion upon all whom he met. To those who appre­
weapons were pistols and bombs. It was the Popu­ ciated his ideas, Lenin’s writings were equally
lists (and similar groups) who gave the world, impressive. At a time when the great majority
years ago, the impression that all Russian “revo­ of socialists and other progressive people looked
lutionaries” were fearful bewhiskcred men wear­ upon the Russian Empire as hopelessly backward
ing black hats and capes under which they carried and primitive, Lenin brilliantly analyzed the
bombs ready to toss at anyone who opposed their future trend of history and predicted that world­
Pago Tea STALIN’S LIFE
 shaking events would soon crumble the throne of simply b' cau..:1 I thought that the J.larxi; tr. were
the Czar. right.”
Lenin’s first great contribution was to carry Such was liL; conviction. lie followed it wilh-
“Marxism” (the ideas developed by Marx and out swerving. When a branch of the Russian
Engels) forward and apply it to the situation Social Democratic Labor Party s', officially
that existed near the end of the last century, lie formed among the Tillis railway workers, Zozo
did this in a long series of books and pamphlets, joined. He was eighteen years old. He had de­
and it was some of this material that travelled all cided that Lenin was right, and so he abandoned
the way to Tillis and came into Joseph Jugash- his dream of becoming a priest. He set forth on
vili’s hands. 1 a path that would lead him far from the comfort­
Thus met two of the most remarkable minds able life of a clergyman or scholar into an exist­
in modern times. It is easy to see how Lenin ence of extreme danger.
enabled Zozo unhesitatingly to make his decision. Zozo remained in the Seminary. But he
The exiled Russian showed that a world of plunged into a study of Marxism. He attended
freedom, progress and plenty was even nearer to secret meetings of the workers. Within a short
attainment than when Marx and Engels had first time he became known to everyone in Tiflis revo­
predicted it. Furthermore, Lenin pointed out that lutionary circles. Then he began the task that had
the vast majority of mankind—the common peo­ been set forth by Lenin: To give the working
ple, the toiling masses — were swiftly gaining people an understanding of the power of organi­
more and more power, in spite of intensified op­ zation.
pression. He showed how the present social, eco­ To be a student with radical ideas was one
nomic and political organization of the world, thing. To be an organizer of the workers was
with all its poverty and inequality, would inevi­ quite another. It was a serious crime in the eyes
tably break down due to the increasing frightful­ of the Czarist police. Their spies in the theolo­
ness of wars. Emphatically he warned against gical school kept a sharp watch on Joseph. The
all doctrines of personal violence and atrocities youth was repeatedly warned. He refused to com­
in the struggle for a new way of life. Finally he promise.
argued with supreme passion and conviction that The final blow was inevitable. Higher educa­
the sole hope of mankind lay with the toiling tion in Imperial Russia was a privilege reserved
millions of the world, who could be brought to only for those youths who would never dare
understand their invincible power, the power of openly oppose the Czarist regime. Zozo was ex­
organization. pelled for being a dangerous political agitator.
The struggle against Czarism, said Lenin, When the youth came home to tell his mother
must become the struggle to organize tens of mil­ that their plans for his future were forever ruined,
lions of toiling men and women regardless of Katherine was broken-hearted.
nationality or color or religion. Such a struggle,
such organization, had never been undertaken in She looked tearfully at her only son, standing
all history. It would liberate Russia. It would before her. She studied his slight, frail build, the
liberate Georgia. It would liberate Poland and narrow shoulders and long face, the sparse beard
Finland and the Ukraine. For the first time the and thin nose. An agitator? A dangerous man?
masses, conscious of their supreme power, would And yet there was something that set him
liberate themselves. This was the final struggle apart. Not his heavy black hair. It might he the
. . . to change the world! erect way in which he carried his head. Or his
Joseph Jugashvili’s mind was made up. All eyes, that shone softly but inflexibly. Or his un­
his confusion was swept away. He turned from usual, almost startling manner of speaking . . .
the Nationalists and the Populists and at once precisely, accurately, without any gestures to add
joined the student Marxist group. emphasis to his simple words.
Many years later, when the name Jugashvili Katherine Jugashvili could nut understand
had been forgotten, Stalin was interviewed by the what had happened. What was he going to do
famous biographer, Emil Ludwig. There were and how did he plan to live?
rumors that the boy Zozo had become a follower Zozo smiled. He would continue the activities
of Lenin because he was a vicious child, because for which lie had been expelled from the school.
of unhappiness at home, because his father was As for keeping alive, the workers of Tiflis would
a drunkard, and so on. So Ludwig put the ques­ see that he did not starve, that he had a corner
tion to Stalin and the answer was: to sleep in at night.
"The reason why 1 became a revolutionary is Katherine was appalled. How could he make
STALIN’S LIKE Pige Kieven
a earner of being a fugitive from the secret police? CHAPTER III
And the workers, they were poverty-stricken, they
could scarcely keep their own families from star­ The name of Koba be­
vation. FROM came renowned from the
Black Sea to the Caspian.
Katherine Jugashvili could not understand. SIBERIA
Within a few months
To change the world! TO BAKU after his expulsion from
She remembered that. Long afterwards she the Seminary he had ar­
remembered how he had stood before her, not in ranged meetings of the railway workers, the to­
the magnificent embroidered robes of a Georgian bacco workers, the boot factory workers and even
priest, but wearing a rough, cheap, workman’s the scientific employees in the Tiflis meteorological
blouse. He was going to defy the armed might of observatory. Deeds distinguished Koba.
Czarist terror and organize the workers so that But he talked, too. In spite of being a cultured
they could change the world. scholar he spoke directly to the workers and their
The cheap workman’s jacket blurred and wives. They listened to him, spellbound not by
slowly faded away and gradually in its place there his oratory but by the extraordinary simplicity
appeared ... a brilliant silken Georgian native and power of his words. He wasted no time dis­
blouse, the costume of the mountain men, the men cussing loftily “the decadence of the bourgeois
who had defied death for centuries beyond human capitalist system and the inevitability of its over­
memory. And where Zozo had carried secret throw.” He talked about starvation wages,
pamphlets hidden under his shirt, now there could wretched working conditions, the health of babies,
be seen a magnificent gold Caucasian dagger. the insolence of the bosses. Words distinguished
Koba.
Was it all imagination?
Still, when other Marxists got up to argue
One day Katherine met the wives of some Tiflis with him at the meetings this nineteen-year-old
railway workers. Zozo’s identity was supposed to boy could talk “theory” too. After he had ex­
be kept secret, but the women knew he was Kath­ plained the theories of Marx and Lenin the listen­
erine’s son. Eagerly the mother asked for news. ing workers felt that they had these things in
their hands, like a workman’s tools, like picks and
“Zozo?” they murmured. "Zozo is gone. He is shovels with which they could dig a grave for
no more.” Czarism and all oppression. He gave them an
Katherine paled. “The police?” understanding of what socialism meant. Knowl­
The women smiled, whispering: “Zozo is no edge distinguished Koba.
more. He is—Koba!” At times when the meetings grew violent with
Koba was a title of the Georgian people, a sort angry debate the workers learned to call out for
of knighthood that had been conferred upon this youth and he would come to the front of the
Joseph Jugashvili by the workers. Koba had been room, usually wearing a blue open necked cotton
the name of a famous Georgian hero. The name blouse without a belt, with no hat, sometimes with
means: The Distinguished One. a coat thrown over his shoulders. He would speak
quietly. He never attacked his opponents with
The Church could make priests but it could bitter words. He never drew the dagger of hate.
not make Kobas. Rich men could buy Georgian He argued with facts and logic, and when he was
castles but all the wealth in Russia could not pur­ finished there was the silence of conviction. Calm­
chase the title of Koba. Anyone might wear a ness distinguished Koba.
Georgian blouse and a dagger, but who could be Still another quality set Koba apart from the
The Distinguished One? Only a man cherished usual political agitators. He lived among the
in the hearts of the people, only a hero of the workers. He absolutely disregarded personal
masses. comfort and security. He scorned the romantic
Joseph became Koba. As the years went by show-off tricks of the Populists and Anarchists.
other names were given to him. But in the Cauca­ He did not pose to the workers as their deliverer
sus he was Koba and he remained Koba and there —he toiled to convince them that their deliverance
he is Koba today. Stalin still wears the simplest lay in organizing their own power. His variety
of clothing without any medals, and yet to the of Marxism immediately attracted the attention
eyes of every Georgian there is pinned across of the secret police, and from that time on his
Koba’s tunic the highest of all decorations. It was existence was hazardous in the extreme. He was
given to him when he was scarcely twenty years forced to live “underground” and in poverty. He
old and he has worn it ever since. took shelter wherever trusted workers would offer
Pago Twelve STALIN’S LIFE
it to him, and he ate when there was food to share. in the street;:. In all this, Koba was the guiding
Sacrifices distinguished Koba. inspiration. Steadily he became more important
When he was twenty years old Koba so com­ in the eyes of the Czarist officers who were ’
pletely organized the railway workers of Tiflis sponsible for maintaining “law and order” in the
that they were able to carry out a strike in demand Caucasus. The hunt for Koba was intensified
for a living wage and civilized working conditions. everywhere.
This was the first strike that had ever been at­ Now when the young labor leader appeared
tempted in all the Caucasus, and because of the at meetings he was accompanied by two or three
despotic Russian government the demonstration friends who would take up positions by the doors
was far more than an economic struggle. It was in order to give warning if the dreaded uniforms
political defiance—the fist of organization being appeared. And at this time Koba burdened him­
shaken under the Viceroy’s nose. In spite of self with another responsibility. In Geneva, Lenin
moderate demands the strike was mercilessly had begun publishing the famous newspaper
crushed by troops. Koba answered by organizing Spark, and the few copies that had been smuggled
on May Day, 1901, a tremendous parade and mass to Georgia had been so enthusiastically welcomed
meeting of Tiflis working people. that Koba decided to print a paper in the native
But the leader was known. The Commissioner language. He obtained a small, portable printing
of Police issued the first warrant for Koba’s press and proceeded to issue a steady stream of
arrest. leaflets and papers. In a short while this secret
But where was Koba? Indeed, was not “Koba” press became almost as famous as Koba himself.
only the name of a hero of ancient times? Workers He took it everywhere with him. When the Labor
shrugged when they were arrested for question­ Party was declared illegal the precious printing
ing. Koba? How could one identify a legend? outfit had to go into hiding along with those who
But police spies had seen this particular legend operated it. Often it was set up in the grave-
with their own eyes. Koba had to flee from Tiflis. yards around Batum, where, by ghostly moonlight
Under such circumstances it was customary for inside some crumbling tomb, Koba and his com­
a fugitive revolutionary to go up into the moun­ panions would patiently turn out the literature
tains and take a long holiday in hiding. Instead that was slowly but surely stirring the Georgian
Koba went straight to the seaport city of Batum, people.
center of the Caucasian oil fields. He was eagerly Many are the stories told to this day about
welcomed. At Batum were the great plants of Koba’s press. Once it was kept in the house of
the multi-millionaire Rothschild and Mantashev an old peasant of Moslem faith. Koba’s friends
families. Within a short time Koba had organized would come to visit him there, for safety’s sake
a'branch of the Russian Labor Party among the dressed in long female robes and with their faces
workers in these plants, and soon afterwards he covered by the Mohammedan veil. It was a secure
led the first of a series of strikes. Conditions in hiding place, although the neighbors suspected the
the fabulously profitable oil fields and factories “women” of printing counterfeit money instead
of Batum were indescribably bad. On the sweat of a political paper. Long after the revolution
and misery of this city lived some of the most the old peasant dug up the press from where it
lavish “smart sets” of Europe. With the hunger had been buried in the yard during stormy times.
of Batum’s haggard workers, great lords and He cleaned the mud from it and then called his
ladies paid for sumptuous banquets in Paris, son.
London, Moscow, Vienna and Berlin. “Look,” he said quietly, “It is with this that
Koba explained how the economic and politi­ the revolution was made I”
cal system made this possible. But he shook his Rather, with dozens of such presses all over
head at the anarchist notion of winning justice Imperial Russia, were the people roused to fight
and freedom by murdering the rich. Not violence against tyranny.
but organization, mass action, demonstrations. By the spring of 1902 the Labor Party was
These principles spread like wildfire. Georgian being hounded day and night. The persecution
traditions of fearlessness swept the people to was becoming almost intolerable. Yet Koba boldly
Koba’s side. The older timid Marxists were announced to the world that on May Day the
brushed aside. The struggle against Czarism took greatest of all demonstrations would be held. The
on a sharply militant form. The Labor Party workers responded. The monster parade was held.
rapidly gained in strength and influence, despite And at its head marched—Koba himself I
the fact that there was no democracy of any The Viceroy had prepared for just this. The
nature in Imperial Russia, no parliament or con­ old warrants and the new ones, the police, the
gress, no elections, and so the Party could test troops, the Cossacks, all were ready. A violent
and demonstrate its power only by popular action attack was launched upon the d-•m..-nstra<or< and
STALIN’S LIFE
(he young loadin’ was r.oizod. Such was Lenin’s famous “revolutionary” pro­
Kohn was twenty-three years old when ho was gram. It was drawn up not for the pleasure of a
thrown into the political prison of Kutais. No few Russian radical intellectuals, but for (he
charge wa.> laid again: t him. lie v, as left to medi­ needs of the Russian masses. IL could be under­
tate upon the horrible fate that had befallen so stood by the impoverished farmers, tens of mil­
many hundreds of brave men who had entered lions of country people unable to read, believing
the dungeons of Kutais. devoutly in ridiculous superstitions, mutely suf­
lie met this terror in typical fashion — by fering inhuman toil and hardship. It could also
organizing a strike of the prisoners against un­ be grasped by the Russian industrial workers,
endurable conditions in the jail! who lived almost like slaves, working in factories
that resembled prisons, for incredibly low wages.
The police were unable to decide what section
of the criminal code the young organizer had vio­ So great was the stir caused by this program
lated. So they fell back upon an old Czarist trick. of Lenin’s that the news reached even far off
Without any trial Koba was “banished for admin­ Novaya Uda. The exiled Koba studied the plan,
istrative reasons,” and sent all the way from the enthusiastically agreed with it, wrote about it to
Black Sea to the village of Novaya Uda, in the a friend. The friend wrote to Lenin. Shortly
Siberian province of Irkutsk. This desolate place after, a letter was smuggled in to the Siberian
was a long, long way from Tiflis, and with typical place of banishment. It was signed “Lenin.” With
Czarist stupidity the authorities thought: “Out of this letter the two men met. In spirit they shook
sight, out of mind.” hands across two continents.
Koba was definitely out of sight, but emphat­ Some would have us believe that Koba (Stalin-
ically not out of action. He began rounding up all to-be) followed Lenin all his life like a worship­
the despondent, desperate exiles who had been in ing disciple, taking the blindly faithful attitude
Irkutsk for years, convincing them that escape that Lenin could do no wrong. We have already
was possible and that the struggle for emancipa­ seen how Koba made decisions. He supported
tion was making vigorous progress under the Lenin for the same reason that he abandoned a
banner of Lenin’s Labor Party. That year, in career in the priesthood and chose the Marxist
1903, while Koba impatiently waited for the end group among all other — Koba supported Lenin
of the bitter Siberian winter, the Second Congress because he thought Lenin’s program was right.
of the party was held in London. It accepted these This is the most natural decision the human
aims: mind and soul can make. It is also the most diffi­
1. To overthrow the brutal Czarist govern­ cult. To think, to choose the right, to act accord­
ment. ingly.
2. To establish a democratic republic ruled by A year passed after Koba’s arrest at Batum
a parliament. before he was able to escape from exile in Irkutsk.
3. To give all workers the 8-hour day. He evaded the guards, crossed the Urals and came
4. To abolish the state of slavery in which straight home to Georgia.
most poor farmers lived. And in this year, when he was twenty-four,
5. To confiscate the huge estates of the nobility Joseph Jugashvili married. Because, today,
and give this land to the poorest farmers. Joseph Stalin regards the details of his personal
It is no exaggeration to say that this astonish­ life to be of no more significance to the public
ingly simple program laid the basis for the ulti­ than “the number of times per minute he
mate success of the Russian Revolution. Countless breathes,” we are unable to give any details of
lies have been told about the bloodthirsty aims of Koba’s romance. All we know is that his young
Lenin’s group. The five points of the Russian wife was a Georgian girl. Her name was Svanidze.
Labor Party were as set forth here. They were She was beautiful, as most Caucasian women are.
formulated in 1903 and remained in force until But she saw little of her husband. The Czarist
after the revolution. Lenin held that only after authorities ceaselessly hunted Koba as though he
winning the conditions of freedom guaranteed by were an animal, and as a result Svanidze lived a
the democratic form of government could the lonely life. Her great joy was her baby son.
people of Russia have the opportunity to study Then it was Koba’s turn to be lonely.
socialism and capitalism and to choose freely be­ Often the police had separated this young man
tween the two systems. Get l id of inhuman Czar­ and his wife for months at a time. Now death
ist oppression, establish democracy, relieve the parted them forever.
workers and fanners of their most crushing Where is Svanidze’s grave? Did Koba stand
burdens — then the Russian Labor Party could beside it as the Georgian priests chanted (.heir
talk about socialism. age-old songs of mourning? Or were the Viceroy’s
Page Fourteen STALIN’S LIFE
 spies watching for such an opportunity to trap perate attempt to give Russia a diversion from its
the husband? infernal agonic. , proved io be :: disastrous adven­
These things are buried in the past. Koba’s ture. The Imperial Army leadership was incap-
grief is the portion of his life that must be his able and corrupt. The great Russian far eastern
alone, the locked door past which we quietly walk. naval base of Port Arthur fell to the Japs quickly.
Svanidze’s son, after the revolution, lived with One paralyzing defeat came after another.
his father in their small Kremlin apartment. He Far from turning the people’s minds from
grew to manhood and joined the Red Army. As grievances against the despotic regime, the war
a junior officer he was decorated for bravery at with Japan acted as a torch to set all Russia
the front, in the first year of the war against aflame. Once Czarism showed it was no more
Hitler. capable of carrying on a war than it had been
But here we are brazenly stepping over a able to govern peacefully, revolution against Czar­
whole epoch in the world’s history! Let us return ism passed from words to action. The people rose.
to 1904, one of the most difficult years in Koba’s In January, 1905, the struggle for democratic
life. rights and economic justice had reached such
The 1903 Congress brought about a rapid heights that over 100,000 factory workers were out
growth in the Russian Labor Party. Lenin’s sup­ on strike at once. And for what v,orc- they strik­
porters were marked men in the eyes of the police. ing? For socialism? Far from it I Their demands
Extraordinary precautions had to be taken to were for a shorter working day and living wages.
protect the escaped Koba, and at this time he These demands they backed with clenched fists,
began to use other names. Sometimes he was for this was a strike against the Czarist govern­
David. Or in certain districts he was Ivanovitch. ment as well as against individual factory owners.
Sometimes Nisheradze and often Chichikov. Lenin was right; Koba was right.
To the workers he was always Koba. They The rising tide was peaceful until the evening
risked prison and banishment to give him shelter, of January 9th. That Sunday a huge crowd of
to hide his printing press. On this press Koba men and women moved through the streets of St.
was now' turning out an illegal newspaper, The Petersburg in a semi-religious procession, intend­
Fight Of the Workers. This served to rally the
people. For just that reason it brought down the ing to approach the Czar’s palace and humbly
full wrath of the Czarist police. petition him to ease the desperate plight of the
people. Utterly unable to grasp what was taking
There was a belief in old Russia that exile to place, the despot who ruled Russia gave an order
Siberia either killed a man or gave him an iron for the troops to open lire on the populace.
constitution. It was the latter in Koba’s case.
From a rather frail youth he developed into a The slaughter that followed was ghastly. More
strong, heavy-set, healthy man with a tremendous than a thousand men and women were left dead
capacity for work, for going without food and in the streets, and over two thousand more were
sleep. All his energy was poured into the struggle. wounded. News of this massacre dumfminded
He became the living symbol of his newspaper’s the whole civilized world.
name: The Fight Of the Workers. Those revolu­ Maxim Gorky, the famous Russian writer,
tionaries who opposed Lenin’s program hated voiced the horror and indignation of humanity in
Koba and lashed out at him constantly. They pre­ a public proclamation against Czarism. He was
ferred to talk rather than to organize, to talk thrown into Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Peters­
about socialism as though it were the moon that burg. At once a roar of protest echoed over every
could be wished down out of the sky. continent.
To the opposition Koba would say quietly: The events of “Bloody Sunday” were discussed
“Only wait a few years and you will see who is by all classes in every country. Czarism had
right and who is wrong.” branded itself as a regime of murder.
The people rose. It should be understood that
the Russian Labor Party, although it was active
CHAPTER TV in some of the larger centers, had an insignificant
membership and extremely small influence with
Who was right and who the people in 1905. The masses of workers and
STEEL was wrong? The verdict farmer’s rose spontaneously, almost without lead­
ON THE came with shocking sud­ ership, demanding immediate economic reforms
denness. In 1905 the and the introduction of political democracy. They
ANVIL Czar’s sacred empire re­ demanded what has been set forth in Lertin's
ceived a mortal wound. fi-point program!
An inexcusable war with Japan, begun in a dcs- And now appeared one of the most astonish­
STALIN’S Lit If • Page FiflMS
ing discoveries in history. It took place before ing that of Lenin and Koba. One hundred and
Koba’s eyes. The masses of the Russian people fifty million people had rushed to join an army
made the discovery. Without political direction, marching towards freedom—and there were no
and solely as a result of their terrible conflicts leaders to point the way.
with the factory owners and the great country The enemy was strong and merciless. The
landlords, the people discovered how they could leaderless Soviets were drowned in blood. Maxim
achieve, their demanded reforms, how they could Gorky fled to the United States and raised funds
cs tab I ish democracy. for the cause of Russian freedom, but it was too
They set up the first Soviets. late. A period of frightful reaction and revenge
We would call these organizations “councils.” had set in.
The Soviets wore formed by groups of workers What happened in Georgia, in Koba’s country,
or farmers gathered together to elect representa­ was horrible to consider. The Czar’s governor­
tives from among themselves; the voting was general Gryasnov set out to destroy the nation.
conducted freely, with the object of carrying out To accomplish this he made use of the weapon that
the will of the people. was to become Hitler’s favorite instrument of
The Soviets came into being as a living, acting conquest. Gryasnov used race hatred. He intro­
expression of the people’s desire to govern them­ duced this frightful poison into a land where
selves, to establish a new and democratic law and thirty races had lived together in peace for cen­
order in opposition to the Czar’s dictatorship, to turies.
carry out the most urgently needed reforms. Gryasnov had the Russian police distribute
Thus, immediately the Soviets were formed they arms first to the Armenian population, then to
began passing local rules and regulations. Soviets the Tatars. When this was done Gryasnov’s secret
in factory districts took the 8-hour day from a agents spread horror stories about outrages and
program on paper and put it into practice, by the threatened attacks. The two races were deliber­
amazingly simple method of taking a vote of the ately tormented beyond endurance. Finally, when
workers, declaring that the 8-hour day was a the first shot was fired, fierce race rioting broke
Soviet law, and then seeing that nobody worked out. This spread into race massacres in which
more than eight hours! whole sections of the Armenian and Tatar people
Likewise, Soviets in the country took a vote were slaughtered. Koba’s group of organizers
of the farmers, declared that the great estates was far too small to stem the horrible wave of
of the landowners must be divided up among the hatred. By dividing the people, all of whom should
starving peasantry, then proceeded to divide up have joined as brothers in their united struggle
the estates according to the new Soviet law! for democratic freedom, Gryasnov succeeded in
his aim of crushing that struggle. Gryasnov was
Accustomed as we are to the workings of de­ assassinated. But his beastly experiment was set
mocracy, there is nothing very radical about down in blood on the pages of history.
the Soviet system of “councils.” It was simply
a new working form of democracy, discovered And even today, among us, the poisoners are
and applied by the Russian people. And to them, at work, seeking to divide us in order that the
to workers and farmers who had never enjoyed freedom for which our bravest men are dying
even the most elementary types of free govern­ shall be destroyed at home.
ment, the Soviets pointed the way to liberation. The crushing of the struggle for freedom in
In Koba’s region, in the Caucasus, the 1905 the Caucasus, by the weapon of racial hatred,
Revolution reached the stage of general open made a profound impression upon young Koba.
insurrection against the Czar. So powerful was He realized at once that the Czar, and all other
the Labor Party organization, backed up by enemies of freedom, would from now on use
Koba’s secret paper The Fight Of the Workers national hatred at every opportunity. Koba began
and a new legal paper called Time, that all Georgia to ponder this question. He was the first of the
took up the struggle for freedom. This response revolutionists to appreciate how tremendous, how
was wholly unexpected. It was the first large frightful a part race hatred would play in the
scale demonstration of the power of Koba’s organ­ future course of the world.
izational ability, his influence among the people. In 1905 Koba went to Tammerfors, Finland.
At the height of the Revolution, Maxim Gorky There at a conference of the Russian Social Demo­
was released from prison. The whole democratic cratic Labor Party he first met Vladimir Lenin?
world extended its sympathies to the Russian Koba was astonished when he came face to
people. face with the man whose work he had read and
But the Revolution collapsed. There were whom he had for years regarded as a genius. He
scarcely a dozen leaders of calibre even approach­ expected Lenin to enter the conference hall after
cage Sixteen • STALIN'S. LIFE
 everyone waa respectfully seated and waiting. But persecution, and in the spring of 1903, after a
even though Koba came very early he found Lenin large public demonstration, police spies informed
already there, talking earnestly with a group of upon Koba.
delegates. Lenin looked like an ordinary working Officers laid a trap for him in the little village
man. He was not a giant. He had none of the of Balakhan. The trap closed and Koba found
mannerisms of a “celebrity.” himself in prison for a second time. Eight months
But when Lenin spoke, Koba nodded and he remained in the cells. He was viciously beaten.
smiled privately. The power of conviction of But again the police could find no crime of which
Lenin’s words proved to Koba that his estimation they might accuse their victim in the courts. They
of the man had been correct. Upon his return to knew only that he had been banished and had
Georgia, Koba told the workers and fanners, in escaped.
the language they instantly understood, that They banished him again. Thej- transported
Lenin was “a mountain eagle”—Lenin’s mind and him to the village of Solvichcgodsk, in the wilder­
personality soared higher than all others. ness of Vologda province, Siberia, a dreaded place
The Mountain Eagle and The Distinguished of permanent confinement. In three months Koba
One met again in 1906, at the Fourth Congress had broken free and was greeting his comrades
of the Party in Stockholm. At that time began in Baku!
the close collaboration that was to unite their two In the shadow of drastic police and military
names forever as symbols of the greatest experi­ terrorism Koba operated his printing press. He
ment in all the history of mankind’s fight for edited and published The Baku, Worker. He kept
liberty. But liberty was only a cherished dream alive the flickering candle-light of protest. He
in the Russia of 1906. After the inhuman Gryas- contacted all over Russia the few Labor Party
nov had been assassinated the Czar appointed a members who had escaped death or prison. On
hangman for the whole of Russia: the notorious Koba’s activity in this period Walter Duranty,
Stolypin. One of his first acts was to dissolve the the American observer of Russian development,
feeble parliament or Duma which the Czar, in a commented thus: “It is not too much to say that
moment of fright, had permitted to be formed. Stalin held together the Party in Russia during
A state of horror was declared. Thousands of the bitter years which followed 1906.” He was
workers and farmers and a great many students Lenin’s chief lieutenant. For him no assignment
and intellectuals were flogged, tortured, beaten to was too dangerous.
death. All ovei’ the countryside the powerful land­ But Koba was no “invisible man.” Towards
lords (for the most part noblemen, but including the end of 1910, for the third time he fell into the
prominent clergymen of the degenerate Orthodox hands of Czarist agents. Again he was banished
Church) organized murder-gangs called the Black to Vologda. His guards redoubled their vigilance.
Hundreds. Hitler later modelled his Blackshirt Nearly a year passed by before Koba once more
Storm Troops after these gangs. In some respects became a fugitive, fleeing over the trackless
the Bla.ck Hundreds resembled the Ku Klux Klan, wastes of the far north and crossing the Urals,
for officially they were quite illegal, while behind to appear again in the mountains of Georgia.
the scenes they had the blessing and political pro­ He found conditions throughout Russia to be
tection of influential men and women who opposed rapidly worsening. In revenge for the rebellion
the liberation of the people. of 1905 the Czar had made bitterly real the
Everywhere the members of the Russian Social world’s opinion that his empire was a prison of
Democratic Labor Party were hunted as special nations. In the Caucasus Koba saw that unhealthy
victims of the terror. Of those who were not national feeling was on the upswing. Crazed by
killed oi' exiled, many fled for their lives to foreign the massacres organized by Gryasnov, the Arme­
countries. But despite the prominent part he had nians, Tatars, Georgians and other groups in
played in the Caucasian uprisings, Koba, stayed Trans-Caucasia were seething with mutual fear
to aid the Caucasian working people in facing and distrust. Likewise in the west, Poles and
Stolypin’s blows. Vengeance struck down from Ukrainians and Cossacks and Jews -were stricken
the hills, and in Georgia the Black Hundreds fared with the virus of the pogrom.. Those who suffered
badly. most from the oppressor’s hatred were being tor­
In 1907, with the terror near its peak, Koba tured into hating each other.
slipped through the cordon of police, crossed the With prophetic vision Koba foresaw the day
border and went to Berlin to confer with Lenin. when race hate would be the most terrible of
Together the leaders prepared for a Labor Party weapons for dividing and conquering the forces
convention that was held the same year in London. of liberty and progress. In 1912 he made the
From London Koba returned at once to Georgia. hazardous trip to Paris, to confer with Lenin on
His arrival was followed by a new wave of the problems of nationalities and minorities.
STALIN’S LIFE
 Koba was thirty-three years old when he ting his majority up as a separate Russian Marx­
visited Lenin. For no crime which the courts ist parly. It was not until the 1917 Revolution
dared to accuse him of he had been imprisoned that the Bolsheviks renamed their organization
and banished three times. For fifteen years lie the "Communist Party.”
had lived in constant danger of conviction as an The word “Bolshevik” was later turned, by
enemy of the Czar, with death the punishment. those people all over the world who hated Lenin
He had married, and lost his wife. Before his eyes and Stalin, into an utterly frightful bogey-man.
his native Georgia had been turned into a land of In truth there was nothing satanical about the
venom. During his imprisonments he had been Bolsheviks. They simply took their name from
tortured, once having to walk between two lines the Russian word that indicated their group was
of soldiers who beat him unconscious with their the majority in the Russian Social Democratic
riflle butts. Life had changed Joseph Jugashvili. Labor Party. Their general political platform and
Limin saw this at once. With characteristic ideas came to be known as Bolshevism. In spite
penetration he grasped what life had done to of what some people have been led to believe, the
Koba. IL had not embittered him. All that had Bolsheviks were not christened by the devil nor
made him “The Distinguished One” remained— were their principles diabolical. They were social­
daring use of his energies for the cause of the ists who had accepted Lenin’s live-point program
people; simple, decisive speech, scholarly knowl­ for liberating Russia—including the replacement
edge; calmness in debate; utter disregard of per­ of Czarism by Democracy—socialists like Stalin
sonal comfort or reward—these characterized the who were daily risking their lives to carry Lenin’s
man of 1912 as they had the youth of 1900. But program into reality, socialists who had exhausted
the rigorous years had been an anvil upon which, their patience with the opposition speech-makers.
under the blows of life itself, Koba’s character Not only Koba, but the whole Russian libera­
had been forged into maturity. tion movement had become steeled in battle with
Lenin saw that time had steeled this man. Czarism. The Bolsheviks of Czarist Russia rallied
Events had inseparably welded Koba to the work­ the majority of people who were prepared to back
ing people. His name “The Distinguished One” up their hope of freedom with determined action,
had been outgrown; it recalled too strongly the but their 1912 program does not sound very “revo­
old mountain heroes, their spirit of exclusiveness, lutionary” to us today. Still, the wildest false­
superiority. hoods persist about the Bolsheviks. One of the
Koba was a man of the people, steeled in the commonest fantasies is that relating to Stalin and
struggle for liberation. He had become a man of Trotsky. In 1912 Trotsky, the brilliant revolution­
steel. Hence forth that would be his name: Stalin. ary intellectual, denounced Lenin with all the
In their Paris conferences Lenin and Stalin vituperation at his command, and he marched
thoroughly discussed the problem of national free­ across to take his place with the Mensheviks, to
dom. From Paris Lenin wrote to Maxim Gorky write and fight against Lenin. Consider the
who was resting on the Isle of Capri: “Here with boundless audacity of this man who almost twenty
us is a wonderful young Georgian. He has col­ years later, years after Lenin had died, announced
lected the material on the question of nationalities to the world that all along he had been Lenin’s
and has settled down to prepare a book on the chosen disciple, forced out of Russia by the usur­
subject.” per Stalin!
The book, famous though it eventually became, Trotsky became a Bolshevik only in 1917,
attracted almost no attention when Gorky pub­ when he saw that Lenin’s party undoubtedly
lished it in his magazine “Enlightenment.” We would be the leading force in Russia.
will return to it later on. Now we go to Prague When the Prague conference ended Stalin
for the historic Sixth Conference of the Prussian went immediately to St. Petersburg, the capital.
Social Democratic Labor Party. It had been decided to start a large daily news­
Koba’s name had been changed to Stalin. A paper. Stalin’s dependability and experience as
far more significant change of name took place at editor and publisher in Georgia fitted him for the
Prague. With the way prepared by his explosive task of directing the Bolshevik daily. Its name
article “What Is To Be Done?” Lenin launched a was Pravda. In Russian this means Truth. The
general attack on the oppositionists within the Pravda of 1912 became the Pravda that is world
Labor Party. These men had for some time b.een famous today for the accuracy of its news. In
called “Mensheviks,” meaning “the minority,” spite of the Czar’s seven-year effort to terrorize
while Lenin’s.supporters had been known as “Bol­ the whole of Russia into permanent submission,
sheviks,” moaning “the majority.” In 1912 Lenin Stalin and Molotov began publishing Pravda
deliberately split the Party, breaking his Bolshe­ openly, although they personally had to remain
viks away from the opposition Mensheviks, set­ in hiding.
Page Eighteen STALIN’S LIFE
 The paper never changed hands. Its policy Stalin was a marked man.
was tersely summed up in its name. Truth had IP* was arrest'd in March, 1913, for the
long been severely rationed by the police in St. time. They condemned him to banishment in a
Petersburg. Pravda swiftly gained popularity. place from which no one could possibly escape.
But Stalin had fewer trusted friends in the capital It was the village of Kureika, on the Yenesei
than he had in Tiflis. In April, 1912, he was River, north of the Arctic Circle.
arrested. They wrote in his fiie that lie was “the terrible
The sentence was four years exile in the re­ Vissarionovitch,” who wanted to change the
mote and desolate Narim region of Siberia. By world. Let him try to change the world of
midsummer the editor of Pravda was back at Kureika, where lived only a handful of illiterate
work in St. Petersburg, having escaped and native people in condition ■ of wretched primitive­
crossed the continent! ness! It was a place of utter desolation, a mere
There followed a period of astonishing growth cluster of miserable huts crov.ded together in a
in the circulation of the paper. It played a leading frigid expanse of snow.
part in building the influence of the Bolshevik Stalin faced an undeniable fact. lie could not
party, and in stiffening popular determination to escape from Kureika.
force from the Czar concessions of personal lib­ This banished Georgian, this prisoner in
erty and economic justice. In the offices of Pravda Kureika beyond the Arctic Circle, this man who
was concentrated a great part of Bolshevik activ­ from boyhood had devoted his life to liberating
ity in the two years preceding the World War. It all peoples condemned to exist within the Czar's
served as the voice and guide for the workers and prison of nations—this man of steel now set him­
farmers, fearlessly protesting and demanding. self the task of waiting for the people to free him,
Pravda was continually being raided by the Czar’s the tens of millions of oppressed to whom he had
police. Time and again it was prohibited. But given Pravda, the truth, the masses of workers
each time it was banned, Stalin would have it on and farmers in whom he believed.
the streets next day, with a minor change of name. With faith of steel he waited through the
Truth on Monday would be For the Truth on bleak, slow polar years.
Tuesday and The Path of Truth after the next
raid. But the contents did not change. Pravda
was one of the powerful influences that forced a
relaxation of terror throughout the Russian Em­
pire in 1913. CHAPTER V
Symbolic of the general pardoning of 1913
was Maxim Gorky’s officially permitted return With the order that sent
from exile. In the same year the Czar allowed a TO CHANGE. the armies of Imperial
Parliament (Duma) to be elected. Fighting THE Russia marching into the
against severe restrictions the Bolshevik's won a Great War, Czar ism com­
group of seats. And because Lenin still could not WORLD mitted suicide. When
safely leave Switzerland, it fell to Stalin to direct Stalin was banished in
the Bolshevik parliamentary group. As a political 913 the whole of the Empire was in a state of
force this group represented an infinitely small economic decay and political disintegration. War
proportion of the Russian people. But as the lead­ intensified the crisis. Our newspapers today are
ing voice in the struggle for liberation, Stalin’s fond of using the word “collapse,” but rarely be­
group and his paper Pravda gave practical ex­ fore or since did a nation suffer such utter dis­
pression to the deepest strivings and hopes of mil­ organization as did the Czar’s domain in three
lions of oppressed human beings. years of war against the Central Powers.
Stalin fought for the Five-Point Program. He Fourteen million of Russia’s finest men were
labored unceasingly to convince the people that drafted for service on the Eastern Front. They
this program could be carried into reality by were forced into uniform without regard for the
means of the people’s own discovery: Soviet De­ needs of industry and the farms. The enormous
mocracy. battle casualties were almost terrorizing in effect;
The Czar’s relaxation of severe restrictions the lists of dead and wounded mounred into hun­
did not apply to the Bolsheviks. Pravda, mid an­ dreds of thousands and then into millions upon
other paper called Zvesda (Star) were creating millions. The war became a nightmare of un­
such enthusiasm that the authorities took alarm. pardonable slaughter. Survivors told of whole
It was one thing to permit people to talk about divisions and armies being hurled into the Ger­
freedom, but quite another to allow them to make man and Austrian lines without shells for their
demands. supporting artillery, .sometimes without even
STALIN'S LIFE pAg« Nin«te«n
bayonets, rifles or cartridges. Russian general­ and went over to the side of the people. This
ship, which in earlier wars had won the highest action signalled the dawn of freedom.
recognition, proved in the Great War to be a March 12th saw the February Revolution..
vanished quality. The foul brutality, gross igno­ Under the leadership not of the Bolsheviks but
rance and outright treachery of the Czarist High of the anti-Czarist Kerensky a provisional gov­
Command was largely responsible for the succes­ ernment was set up. Realizing the impossibility
sion of disasters that gradually reduced the popu­ of further ruling through the Czar all the “best”
lation to a state of numbed horror. people—that is, the millionaires and their fellow-
But this shock did not long paralyze the Rus­ travellers—rushed to support Kerensky. The
sian people. As they verified the tales from the Provisional Government had but one purpose: to
front they began to see with terrible clarity the fool the people with promises. It had but one
state of affairs at home. The industrialists were principle: to give the people what freedom thdy
making fabulous profits from re-equipping fresh had already seized themselves.
armies to replace those annihilated, by the Ger­ Because the people were liberating political
mans. The nobility, the manufacturers and the prisoners wherever they could, Kerensky was
rich merchants had built up a profiteering machine forced to declare a general pardoning of exiles
that functioned miraculously to turn the blood of from Czarism. He knew the consequences of this.
Russian soldiers into gold rubles. Leaders of the But he could not evade the most elementary demo­
ruling class, from the Czarina down, were traitor­ cratic action. And although he had rigorously
ously dealing with the Kaiser. Patriotism had excluded all Bolsheviks from his government he
become a horrible mockery. The rulers wanted could not bar their way to release from prison
only to extend the war. Millions of young men and exile.
were perishing in defeat for the sole purpose of
fattening the bloated profiteers whose partners Southward towards their homes from the
resided in Berlin. farthest corners of Siberia streamed thousands
of long-banished men and women. Populists, An­
Swiftly industry and farming crumbled. Hun­ archists, Nationalists, Bolsheviks. The order of
ger and disease were added to the nation’s grief. liberation reached to the Arctic Circle and be­
The most awful suffering among the people was yond. It reached Kureika.
reflected by incredible callousness extravagance Four years of banishment were ended. Stalin
and debauchery of the well-to-do. Drunkeness was free. Legally, politically free. For the first
and prostitution flourished among the “better” time in fourteen years he could walk the streets
classes. without fearing sudden arrest.
Across the once-proud Imperial coat of arms
the rulers of Holy Russia had scrawled the motto: He came straight to St. Petersburg. What a
“After us, the Flood!” reunion in the offices of Pravda! But there was
not a moment to spare for celebrations, not a
Truly, the waters of retribution were rising week to be taken off for a holiday. The city was
fast. in political tumult. The Bolshevik Party was
Early in the spring of 1917 great demonstra­ gaining enormously in popular support. Louder
tions took place. The people seized upon slogans: and louder the country echoed with demands that
“t)own with the Czar!” “Down with the War!” Vladimir Lenin be permitted to return from exile
“We want bread!” Under the guidance of Molo­ in Switzerland. That was the urgent task, to
tov, who led the committee that published Pravda, bring Lenin home.
the Bolshevik Party welded the mass protests of On April 16th Stalin led a gigantic parade of
the people into one militant demand for an end workers, soldiers and sailors. They marched
to the regime, for the establishment of Democ­ through St. Petersburg to the railway station.
racy. All over the nation rose the cry: “For When Lenin stepped off the train the cheers were
Peace, Bread and Freedom!” The Soviets or deafening, endless. This dramatic meeting of the
people’s councils that had been crushed in 1905 Russian people with the man so few of them had
now reappeared everywhere, among the soldiers ever seen has gone down as one of the determin­
as well as civilians. ing events of modern history. Members of Ker­
In St. Petersburg, the capital, crowds were in ensky’s government tried to divert the enthusiasni
daily conflict with the police. Jails full of political by delivering windy orations, but the people only
prisoners were being opened by popular action. cheered louder for Lenin. Soldiers carried him
On March 10th the Czar desperately ordered his to the street. There he climbed on top of an
generals to crush the “disorders.” It was a fatal armored car and began to speak. The great crowd
mistake. The generals passed on the orders to was hushed. Lenin explained the war, the crisis,
their troops, but the troops risked the firing squad the suffering. He explained how Kerensky’s sham
Page Twenty _ STALIN’S LIFE
/
 democracy had been established by an almost June 18th, Lenin and Stalin called for national
bloodless revolution, and that another peaceful protest demonstrations. Daily the indignation of
revolution could ensure the people’s victory. He the people mounted higher, for each hour the
gave out the slogan: “Long Live the Socialist hopeless conflict was prolonged brought death to
Revolution thousands of Russian men.
With the aid of detailed reports furnished by A climax came in July. Great numbers of
Stalin, Molotov and others, Lenin proceeded to citizens remained in the streets demanding that
translate his slogan into practical demands. Today the authorities hand over the government to the
we are apt to associate the word “revolution”— Soviets. Against the people a reign of violence
especially when it is tied to the term Bolshevik and terror was begun. With the now familiar
—with violence of every conceivable type. What technique of Hitler’s Storm Troops, Kerensky’s
is the truth about the Russian Revolution planned “White Guards” proceeded to attack people of all
by the Bolsheviks? Lenin believed that a political shades of political opinion. Thousands of meh
and economic change from the total disorganiza­ and women were illegally arrested, tortured and
tion of the Kerensky brand of democracy into the killed. Pravda’s offices and printing plants were
Soviet form of democracy could be brought about wrecked. All civil liberties were abolished by
peacefully. To carry out this change he made gangsters, heavily armed detachments of White
concrete proposals: Guards roaming the streets and highways. Those
Prevent the worsening of famine by giving who supported the Bolsheviks and the Soviets
over to the farmers vast areas of land owned by were the victims and not the instigators of this
the nobility; bloodshed.
Control the nation’s chaotic finances by merg­ Lenin’s value to the Russian nation was fully
ing all banks into one; appreciated by his colleagues. Therefore they de­
Establish direct people’s management of in­ cided that he must go into hiding when a special
dustrial production and the distribution of all warrant was issued for his arrest. A shack near
essential goods; a railway station was the only “safe” place that
Abolish the incompetent Kerensky govern­ could be found.
ment that was rapidly bringing total military and Late in July an emergency congress of the
economic ruin. Bolshevik Party was held, but the hunt for Lenin.
The last portion of the plan was indeed revo­ was redoubled and he could not attend. The bur­
lutionary. Lenin and Stalin called for a drastic den of directing the session fell upon Stalin. He
change of government, a change from the system delivered the two lengthy reports that were con­
of rule through appointed officials and secret sidered, and passed on to the delegates Lenin’s
police, carried over from Czarism, to the Soviet recommendations. The principal decision was to
system of rule through councils elected by the end the state of terror at the earliest possible
workers, farmers and soldiers. moment by taking power out of the hands of the
vicious Kerensky regime.
This program was decided upon by a majority
of the Bolsheviks in conference at St. Petersburg. At this convention Stalin faced a powerful
Among othqys, Kameniev, Rykov and Bukharin opposition. The Menshevik, Leon Trotsky, who
violently attacked Lenin and Stalin for not calling had just returned to Russia, decided to become a
upon the people to overthrow the government by Bolshevik and was admitted to the Party. Imme­
armed force. The majority plan for peaceful diately he attacked Lenin’s proposals. Reversing
revolution won out'. It was presented to the people the previous attitude of the oppositionists, lie
through Pravda and other papers. The response wanted to postpone all action until revolutions
was tremendous. With banners bearing the slogan had started in European countries. When this
“All Power To the Soviets!” a monster demon­ idea was defeated Trotslcy made an astounding
stration took place on April 20th. The Provisional proposal. He said that Lenin should give himself
Government’s General Kornilov called out the up for “trial” by the White Guards. Naturally
troops and commanded them to kill the unarmed Stalin and all but Trotsky’s supporters rejected
paraders. They refused and replied by electing this as amounting to certain death for Lenin.
Soviets of their own. There was no opportunity for extended debate.
Meanwhile lack of amis and starvation among History was charting the future course of Russia
the front line soldiers threatened a catastrophe. at dizzy speed. An extraordinary turn of events
In spite of this,-.and while millions of troops and followed the Bolshevik congress.
civilians cried “peace!” the government, with in­ On August 3rd General Kornilov, commander­
human disregard for life, ordered a general offens­ in-chief of the army, aided Kerensky in setting
ive against the Germans. On the day of the attack, up a “super government.” It was made up of a
STALIN’S LIFE . Page Twenty-on®
council of bankers, industrialists and rich mer­ were the Soviets he had ordered wiped out, led
chants, and was to function as a sort of dictator­ by the Bolsheviks he had tried to exterminate.
ship. There was not the flimsiest excuse lor this It was a difficult political position. And the
committee of brigands to exist. Realizing that people fully grasped its meaning. During the
the march of events would be bound to lead to defense against Kornilov the St. Petersburg
the establishment by the people of the Soviet Soviets had actually functioned as governing
democratic form of government, the new council bodies. How well the Soviets worked at a time
announced that all flirting with any form of when the Provisional Government was tottering
democracy was finished. Henceforth the people with confusion and fright, the people had seen
would be ruled by the iron heel. But in order to with their own eyes. The people themselves were
create this new form of Czarism it was necessary the Soviets and they had saved the nation.
to destroy the Provisional Government, to wipe Kerensky’s government began to break up.
out the Soviets. Such a crime even Kerensky All over Russia the influence of the Soviets grew,
hesitated to commit. and their leadership passed over to the Bolsheviks.
General Kornilov was willing. This lackey of Early in the autumn of 1917, from a new hiding
a handful of rich men brought about one of the place across the border in Finland, Lenin con­
most ironic situations the world has ever seen, cluded that the decisive moment had come. It was
fitting events for a Shakespearean drama! Dis­ time for the world’s first government of workers
carding all semblance of legality, Kornilov rushed and farmers to take over the rule of all Russia.
up the Third Mounted Army Corps to launch an Stalin was the person to whom Lenin com­
attack against St. Petersburg and overthrow the municated his decision, by letter. A few days
hesitating government. Picture this: Kornilov later Stalin sent a repl/ calling Lenin to the
and the council that bossed him, the very men capital.
who howled about the Bolsheviks planning to take
over “their” government, themselves throwing in On October 7th Lenin arrived. On the 10th
an army to drown that government in blood! And the Central Committee heard an appeal drafted
the crowning irony: Kerensky branding Kornilov by Lenin and Stalin, calling for the Soviets to
a mutineer, then going into green panic, and fin­ immediately seize power from Kerensky, before
ally calling upon the people in the streets to save this traitor could arrange for another mutiny
his government! , • such as Kornilov’s. Trotsky wanted to postpone
the seizure. Other Bolsheviks strongly opposed it.
Fortunately for Russia, Stalin and the other But the majority agreed with the leaders.
leading Bolsheviks had already taken action. Al­ On October 16th the Bolshevik Party set up
though they were not members of the Provisional a special Center to direct the seizure of power
Government, and indeed vigorously exposed its by the Soviets. Stalin was placed in charge of
failings, the Bolsheviks realized that the govern­ this, as head of the “Committee of Five.”
ment must be saved from Kornilov. Stalin issued
an urgent call to the workers of St. Petersburg. Events repeated themselves. Again, it was,
not the Soviets that used violence; it was their-
The trades unions mobilized and armed their enemy, Kerensky. On October 24th he ordered a
members. Working women joined their men. general armed attack on all Bolshevik groups,
Trenches were dug, barricades thrown up, rail­ printing plants, and so on.
roads guarded. Battalions of soldiers and great
numbers of sailors from the Kronstadt naval base But Stalin was prepared. At dawn Soviet sol­
marched in to help save the city. diers and armed workers known as Red Guards
rushed in armored cars to the railway stations,
Let us listen to the quiet and truthful and post office, telegraph office,, banks and govern­
sometimes astonishing voice of history. The ter­ ment buildings. Sailors turned warship guns on
rible bloody fighting between General Kornilov’s the Winter Palace and under Stalin’s personal
forces and the defenders of St. Petersburg took direction this center of resistance was stormed.
place to save the Provisional Government in which There were a few other scattered combats with
the Bolsheviks had no part. It took place long White Guards. Then it was over.
before the Bolsheviks began to seize poiver. This What history calls the “October Bolshevik
bloodshed had nothing to do with the Bolshevik Revolution” was formally carried out with less
revolution, although in the world’s newspapers it bloodshed than was suffered in a small, brief
was presented as a Red reign of terror. engagement at the front lines. Government power
The Kornilov revolt was crushed. St. Peters­ swiftly passed into the hands of the Soviets.
burg was saved. The government remained in Kerensky fled to Moscow. The famous Soviet
power. And when the terrified Kerensky looked Decrees were adopted, calling for peace, giving
around for his saviours he discovered that they the land to the farmers’, declaring that the nation’s
Page Twenty-two STALIN’S LIFE
 resources belonged to the people. The various Bolshevism on the rest of the world. But Lenin
departments of government passed from the hands and Stalin made peace at the earliest opportunity,
of Kerensky’s ministers into the hands of People's and proclaim' d that the Soviet army would be
Commissars. All this touk place on October 25th, for defense only.
1917, by the old calender (now figured as Novem­ Soon the new Soviet regime, governing a ua
ber 7th). tion exhausted by almm.t four years of the Great:
During the next few days the city of Moscow War, faced internal disaster resulting from (criti­
fought powerful White Guard regiments. Keren­ cal shortages of every vital commodity, especially
sky rushed Cossack units to St. Petersburg. lied foodstuffs and medical necessities. Still the Bol­
Guards and sailors overwhelmed this opposition. shevik government did not collapse. The great
In a few days Kerensky abandoned his forces and nations of the world decided to starve the Soviets
disappeared in the disguise of a woman. From to death. A blockade, called the cordon sanitalre,
that time on the Soviet Revolution spread like a was extended around the earth, to prevent a single
prairie fire from the Arctic to the Crimea, from ship from entering a Soviet port.
Europe to Mongolia. The slogan “All Power To But the Soviets did not yield. The Bolsheviks
the Soviets!” had become an accomplished fact. appealed to the people of the world for support
One hundred and eighty million people had set and understanding. Their enemies decided that
forth upon the greatest social, political and eco­ if the Soviets could not be overthrown by propa­
nomic experiment of all time. ganda or famine, then the time had come to de­
Even in 1917, Lenin and Stalin were aware stroy them by military force.
of the objectives for which the new’ Soviet State
should aim. But the rest of the world regarded
the October Revolution simply as disorder on a CHAPTER VI
mass scale. There was scarcely a single observer
to be' found who credited the Soviets and their In 1911, when the Nazis
Bolshevik leaders with a chance to survive. WARRIOR had driven ahead until
they were almost in sight
Then came the explosion. The Bolsheviks, who CHIEF of Moscow, Stalin was
before October had only talked and organized, appointed commander-in-
now began to put their famous decrees into force. chief of the Red Army.
The enormous estates of the rich were given over This came as a seveire shock to the world. Our
to the poor farmers. Control of banking, manu­ experts regarded it as a final symptom of imj end­
facturing and so on was taken over by public ing Soviet defeat. If the trained generals of the
bodies appointed by the elected Soviets. Socialism Red Army were going to be overruled by a poli­
began to work. tician, what hope was left? By what right did
Immediately the financial and industrial lead­ Stalin take into his hands the power to make
ers of other countries took wild alarm. The inter­ supreme military decisions?
national anti-socialist forces were determined that Stalin was made head of the armed forces in
the Soviets and the Bolsheviks must be destroyed, 1941 precisely because he was then and had always
by force if necessary. The former allies of Impe­ been the Soviet Union’s outstanding military
rial Russia—Britain, America, France and Italy commander.
—turned in violent hatred against the new Soviet In the Great War the Germans, while battling
Russia. Practically the entire world press plunged desperately on the Western Front, defeated Rus­
into a campaign of unprincipled slander and scare­ sia with only 50 divisions, most of which were
mongering. All the horrors of Czarism were for­ Austrian troops. In this war, when Stalin took
gotten, and the most fantastic Bolshevik horrors command, Hitler faced no second front and was
were invented by former Czarist officials and hurling 180 German divisions and 40 divisions of
-’lobles who kept the papers outside of Russia sup- other troops against Russia. But at the very
ied with “exclusive news despatches.” height of this monstrous assault came the astound­
One infamous story claimed that Lenin, Stalin, ing German defeats. Stalin took command at
Trotsky and others had been paid millions by the Moscow, and the Wehrmacht staggered back.
German Kaiser in return for weakening Russia Hitler, whose word had net er been broken in
m the war fronts. To this the Soviets replied by battle, boasted, personally that he vould take
publishing proof that the Czarina and not the Stalingi’ad. But Stalin took comma: e on
.Bolsheviks had plotted with the Kaiser for Rus­ the Volga, and turned Russian d< .nto Ger­
sia’s defeat. Later, the world was presented with man disaster, smashed the Nazi myth of invinci­
the bogey of “Red Imperialism” — the Soviets bility, showed the Axis the h ing shadow
were going to organize a vast army to force of its doom.
STALIN’S LIFE Pits* Tw*aty-du««
 And you will remember that Winston Church­ took alarm. In a stormy session it was decided
ill, who has no more flattery or hypocrisy in him to rush Stalin and Voroshilov, a young Bolshevik
than has a bulldog, called Stalin: “that great war­ soldier, to the Volga front. For reinforcements
rior chief.” To the skeptical, Churchill pointed they took with them only a few hundred Red
out that the Red Army in nine months had in­ Guards.
flicted upon the Hitlerites more casualties than Stalin was appalled by the situation at Tsar­
Germany had suffered on all fronts in the entire itsin. The leading officers left by Trotsky in
Great War. charge of the Red Army were former Czarists.
Stalin did not become the Soviet Union’s The city itself was practically in control of civil­
"warrior chief” in nine months. For more than ian anti-Soviet elements. Amusement places were
twenty years he has held that distinction! During in full swing. The pro-Soviet inhabitants were
all this time the rest of the world regarded Stalin kept unaware of the critical danger.
as anything but a brilliant man, while in the Without an hour’s hesitation Stalin revealed
Soviet Union the nation knew him to be a military his steel will. He sounded the alarm to the work­
genius. But what basis of fact was there for such ing people of Tsaritsin. Then with his Red
a belief? Simply the facts of Stalin’s life. Guards he proceeded to clean house. All Czarist
We must examine these facts. To us as citi­ officers were stripped of authority, with Guards­
zens of the United Nations, forever indebted to men replacing them. The White fifth columnists
the heroic Soviet people for their part in rescuing were court martialed and executed. The city was
civilization, some of the facts of Stalin’s life are placed under military law. As the St. Petersburg
not only surprising but also rather painful today. Soviets had prepared to resist Kornilov, so Tsar­
Still, we cannot evade history. And the past is itsin was transformed into a fortress by the
an excellent teacher. efforts of the people.
But the defense work had scarcely begun when
In 1918 certain leaders of the great nations, the White armies reached the outskirts and
those merciless plotters who guided international opened a furious attack. Stalin sent out an appeal
destiny at that time, decided to attack Russia and to the factory workers and miners of the whole
destroy the Soviet system by outright interven­ Donets Basin. Thousands of untrained men and
tion. The invasion was well planned and was women poured into Tsaritsin, where they had
launched at many points: Archangel, Poland, no opportunity for drill but were rushed at once
Odessa, Vladivostok. In a short time there was to the front lines. As resistance stiffened the
a united front against the Soviets, with armies White Army began a great encircling movement,
made up of British, American, French, Japanese, brought up heavy artillery, unleashed a violent
German, Italian, Czecho-Slovak, Turkish and assault directed by experienced German and Czar­
anti-Soviet White Russian troops. Even nations ist generals and carried out by picked Cossack
that were battling each other in the greatest con­ regiments.
flicts of the World War joined hands to make
war on the Soviets. Soon these "interventionists” Trotsky chose this moment to fly into a rage
had pretty well united their forces behind one before the War Council. He denounced Stalin’s
Admiral Kolchak. He swept through the areas in reorganization of the Red Army as an act of
defiance.
which the Soviets were weakest, from the Far Tsaritsin would beHe
personal maintained that to defend
East westward across Siberia, and was pro­ useless. In spite of Lenin’s
conviction that to lose this
claimed "Supreme Ruler of Russia.” By spring­ the whole nation to the enemy, Trotsky city would be to give
time of 1918 Kolchak had overrun all of Asiatic to the besieged town, countermanding sent orders
Stalin’s in­
Russia and the Urals. He was approaching the structions.
Volga River. From the opposite direction Ger­
mans and White Cossacks were driving through Stalin remained calm, unmoved as a Georgian
the Don country to meet Kolchak at a strategic mountain. Across the face of Trotsky’s telegram ..
Volga city which at that time was called Tsaritsyn. he wrote: "Pay no attention.” He had been senXfi
by Lenin to save Tsaritsin. For Stalin, the mai.
The military situation seemed hopeless. If the did not live who could turn him from such ajk
two armies joined, the nation would be cut in mission. ss
half. Then nothing could save the Soviets. During endless days without sleep, living one^f
In 1918 the Red Army was guided by a War hour in the front line, the next hour at head-?i”
Council made up of leading Bolsheviks, with Leon quarters, Stalin completed the reorganization of
Trotsky as the actual commander. When Lenin the defending Red Army. And he began to form-et
learned that Trotsky’s preparations to hold Tsar­ ulate an exceedingly daring plan. He launched g
itsin were apparently based on the idea that the counter-attacks to test the invader’s strength.
city was doomed, immediately the War Council Very soon he informed Lenin at St. Petersburg ,E
Pago Twenty-four ■ STALIN’S LIFE !
that if sufficient supplies were sent to Tearitsin of the people’s Man of Steel. The Tsaritsin of
it could not only be defended, but could become 1918 is the Stalingrad of today.
the graveyard of the White Armies! Trotsky It can easily be grasped that Stalin’s extra­
ridiculed this as preposterous. Lenin gave orders ordinary achievement on the Volga brought him
to send the required equipment. to the forefront as a military leader. However,
Stalin’s plan has a familiar sound to us today. he did not displace Trotsky. Stalin refrained
It was very simple on paper. He called upon the from further direction of the war until the Soviets
working men and women who made up the fled were again seriously threatened. This time, with
Guards to hold their ground, to absorb every Kolchak once more nearing the Volga, a mixed
ferocious attack, to force the enemy to bring up army under General Yudenich advanced rapidly
all the reserves in the area. This was done. The on St. Petersburg while another force struck
White Army leaders, infuriated by Tsaritsin’s north at Archangel. Military and naval experts
resistance, surrounded it on all sides but the Volga told Lenin that St. Petersburg and the entire
River rear, and tried to overwhelm it by sheer northern area was doomed to fall. Trotsky could
power of massed bombardment. The punishment offer no hope. The War Council turned from the
inflicted upon the Soviet defenders was frightful. pessimistic supreme commander to Stalin, listened
But the enemy advanced only yard by yard, then to him, agreed with his plan, despatched him to
foot by foot, inch by inch. Stalin rushed from one the front.
sector to another, constantly taking measure of
the attacking forces. Stalin rushed to reorganize the Red Army
that faced Kolchak. As before, he smoked out
Finally, at the very moment when it seemed the traitorous elements and called upon the work­
that the Whites had unleashed a final irresistible ers and farmers to take up arms. Kolchak’s
tornado of fire and steel, Stalin gave his Red conquering hordes were delivered a paralyzing
Guards an electrifying order: the order to cease blow.
defensive operations and to go immediately into From the eastern front Stalin raced to the
attack. St. Petersburg region. With the city about to
Tsaritsin’s battered army of farmers and fall he discarded all advice of the “experts,”
working men and their wives rose like a tidal reminding them that when rules and regulations
wave of heroism. Around the whole encircled fail it was still possible to win with daring and
ring of defensive positions the attack broke out. courage. He opened a “pincers” around Yude-
With incredible valor the defenders poured into nitch. On one hand Stalin had a land army made
the White Army lines. Crack German and Cos­ up of a few armored cars and thousands of starv­
sack regiments melted away. Swarms of reserve ing, ill-equipped -workers. On the other hand he
troops vanished or turned in panic. Along the sent out a squadron of small boats filled with
entire Tsaritsin front the enemy collapsed. With men like our commandos, sworn to destroy the
one supremely heroic blow, delivered at precisely enemy. Both attacks appeared to be ridiculous.
the time when the besiegers had reached the peak But Stalin imparted to them his own steel deter­
of their assault, Stalin’s forces transformed the mination and devotion to the Soviet cause. The
battle into a disastrous rout, eventually hurling pincers closed and Yudenitch’s army was exter­
the Whites back to the River Don. minated.
The battle of Tsaritsin saved the Soviet The situation remained critical. By this time
Union. This victory went down as the outstand­ the effects of the blockade were being felt. Mil­
ing military feat in four years of war against lions were starving. Due to lack of medical sup­
the interventionist armies. It was a new kind of plies epidemic diseases appeared. The Soviets
battle, fought and won by a new kind of army, faced exhaustion within, enemies on every front.
commanded by a new kind of officer. A people’s In 1919 Kolchak renewed his powerful blows from
victory, a people’s army, a general of the people. the east.
Tsaritsin symbolized the enormous power of the
Common Man liberated from tyranny. It showed In the Bolshevik War Council matters were
the criminal interventionists that the Soviet approaching a crisis. Trotsky insisted that the
people would smash every attempt to destroy their Red Army could not defeat Kolchak but should
freedom, even if they had to forge weapons out be satisfied to tie his forces down in the Ural
of nothing but steel valor. Mountains. Lenin and Stalin realized that so long
as a single foreign army remained on Soviet soil
And that is how the city of Stalingrad got its the country would be in peril. Already the great
name. nations were pouring reinforcements to Kolchak.
Tsaritsin was re-christened in honor of the Trotsky was out-voted. Because of his personal
Bolshevik who saved the Soviet system, in honor influence with the Menshevik population, he was
STALIN’S LIFE Page Twenty-five
 waMr. safe
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Right—Molptov, Stalin and Lenin in the editorial

offices of Pravda. Stalin directed the revolution­ ;—

ary newspapers ‘‘Zvezda” a’nd ‘‘Pravda.’’

left as nominal commander. But the Council The Polish invaders were partially cleared
Ordered him to refrain from interference on the from Ukrainian soil by the famous First Cavalry
eastern front. Stalin was sent to take command. Army of the farmer-general Budyenny. (Not
With surprising suddenness Kolchak’s forces until 1940 did the Soviet armies liberate that por­
were swept out of the Urals. Kolchak himself tion of the Ukraine which had been forcibly held
was captured, court-martialed for the unspeak­ by the Polish Pans for twenty years). It was
able atrocities that had been committed under Stalin who grasped the importance of Budyenny’s
his direction, and executed. daring tactics. He sent a great force of horse­
men on a thousand mile dash to drive back the
Stalin returned from his triumph only to find Poles. With this victorious operation the War of
disaster taking a new form. Britain, France, Intervention was brought to a close.
America and Germany were being forced by
mutinies and strikes at home to withdraw all open The Soviet system had been saved from de­
intervention against the Soviets. But they made struction. Millions of men and women and youth
one last supreme bid. They armed the White had taken part in that terrible war of one ex­
generals Denikin and Wrangel, whose armies hausted nation against a dozen powerful foreign
plunged from Europe into the Ukraine and the governments. The people had saved the Soviets.
Donets Basin. Wrangel’s forces reached the But the people understood that during the bitter
Volga. The entire southern front crumbled. By struggle two men had stood out above all other
October, 1919, Denikin had Tula and Orel, and leaders, and by the force of their genius and
was threatening Moscow. devotion had led the Soviet people to victory.
Those two men were Vladimir Lenin and Joseph
Stalin was given complete control of the south­ Stalin.
ern Red Armies. At once he organized an offens­
ive, a bold plan to advance not along the “proper” Stalin has been distinguished as the military
military route but through regions where the genius of the Soviet Union from the very earliest
workers and farmers were strongly behind the days of the Revolution. Every major victory dur­
Soviets. This campaign saw the beginning of ing the War of Intervention was achieved under
Stalin’s principle of guerrilla warfare behind the Stalin’s personal direction. And since that time
enemy lines. Instead of fighting on sharply de­ Stalin has never ceased to take the leading part
fined fronts, Stalin carried the attack in every in Soviet defense preparations and in all matters
direction at once, incessantly raiding enemy sup­ relating to the Red Army, Navy and Air Force.
ply lines and headquarters. This was a radically It is utterly false to hold the view taken by
new type of guerrilla warfare. It was immediately so many ignorant commentators, that Stalin was
successful. The White Armies and their foreign made commander-in-chief for political purposes.
accomplices were hammered into retreat along the Stalin was given command of the greatest armed
whole front, their defeats turned into headlong forces in the world for one starkly simple reason:
Hight, and enormous quantities of supplies fell he ds in all probability the ablest military com-
into Red Army hands. blander in the world. He won that distinction not
as a result of politics or noble birth or by having
After all other armies were driven from Rus­ his uniform loaded with medals and ribbons.
sia, the Polish nobility, while “celebrating” the in­ Stalin won his reputation under fire in the course
dependence of their country (it had been part of of winning great victories that changed the course
the Czar’s Russian Empire) by ruthlessly exploit­ of history.
ing their working people and poor farmers and
by continuing the Czarist policy of anti-Semitism, We have briefly sketched the battles of 1918-
embarked upon an outrageous adventure. The 1921. Now we could devote a whole book to
Polish “Pans” (lords) organized a powerful army studying the battles of 1941-1943! Suppose we
and launched an attack upon the Soviet Ukraine. take just one look at one battle: Stalingrad.
This was an outright war of conquest. The ma­ Perhaps you will remember how certain fa­
jority of the Polish people were strongly opposed mous war commentators expressed much puzzle­
to it, for war against the Ukrainian people was ment over the fact that Hitler brought up the
the worst possible thing for* the newly created greatest mass of troops, guns, armor and planes
Polish nation. But democracy and liberty in Po­ the world had ever seen, for the capture of one
land were nothing but fiction. The “Pans” were city on the Volga River. Who had heard of Stalin­
the Czars of Poland. Their army drove through grad before? Hitler didn’t “go against” his gen­
the Ukraine, pillaging the countryside and com­ erals in making a stupendous assault on Stalin­
mitting brutal atrocities, crushing the liberties grad. That city was in 1942, just as it had been
which Ukrainians had won in the Soviet Revolu­ twenty years before, the key point of all key
tion. points. At Tsaritsin Stalin had turned defeat
Page Twenty-eight STALIN’S LIFE
 1-itrto victory. At Stalingrad Hitler planned to make sent a golden sword to the Red Guard defenders
history repeat in reverse. of Stalingrad. This unprecedented action was
His preparations were long and careful. He a gesture of greatest significance. The Red.
studied the failure of the White Armies in 1918. (luaids who saved Stalingrad had also saved
He amassed incredible reserves. He held Stalin­ London.
grad before the German people as the richest No doubt in the future millions of people from
prize in the East, then pledged his Fuehrer’s the Democracies will visit the Soviet Union as
honor to win it. tourists. They will be able to see King George's
Stalin made the decision to make Stalingrad golden sword of honor. And another sight too, at
a turning point in the war. He based his plans Stalingrad. For in the worst days of the seige.
upon several facts derived from experience: Red Guards climbed a great stone factory wall
at night, and carved in enormous letters the
1. The enemy would be worn down at a fright­ words: “We will stand here to the death!” That
ful rate in this sector. wall is going to be preserved forever. Below the
2. The Red Army would respond with super­ first inscription now is carved another. It reads:
human feats of courage to hold Stalingrad. “They stood. They conquered death.”
3. The Germans would find it impossible to Churchill might have been speaking of the
capture positions by force of aerial supe­ entire city of Stalingrad when he spoke thus of
riority, no matter how overwhelming. one man: “He is a massive personality, suitable
The last point is highly significant. Stalin has to the glory of the time in which he has lived, a
never been fooled into believing that victory can man of inexhaustible courage and will-power.”
be achieved through air power. Stalin holds that That man gave Stalingrad its name and made it
air power alone cannot even establish a front, the symbol of unconquerable humanity.
let alone win a decision. The Nazis used 2000
planes over Stalingrad, with raids equivalent to
a single daily attack by 9000 aircraft! Nothing
like such raids have ever been attempted any­ CHAPTER VII
where else. All this massed bombing power over
one medium-sized city! And the result? Stalin­ On January 21st, 1924,
grad was not wiped out. Its defending army was FROM [LENIN the two great leaders of
not annihilated. And all the while, in ground the Russian Revolution
action, Soviet forces were killing more than 4000 were parted. Vladimir
Germans each day, week after week. STALIN Lenin died. It is not easy
Everyone is familiar with the end of the to understand the intense
battle of Stalingrad. The Red Army repeated grief that seized the Soviet Union in the hour of
exactly Stalin’s earlier triumphant strategy—it Lenin’s death. Victim of an assassin’s bullet, he
absorbed the enemy’s most ferocious attacks, had lingered in illness for two years. Even so,
allowed the assault to reach its peak, then counter­ millions were unprepared for the news that Lenin
attacked in force. But Stalin also improved upon had gone to his last exile.
his 1918 strategy. He prepared a gigantic en­ We have been told by amused observers that
circling movement, involving several entire arm- the Bolsheviks, having done away with worship
ies under his direct operational control, so that of the Czar, made Lenin a saint and induced the
when the Germans were driven to retreat their ignorant Russian masses to worship him after he
entire reserves would be caught in an unbreak­ was laid to rest in a huge tomb in Moscow. The
able ring of steel. In addition to this Stalin Russian workers and farmers knew that Lenin
launched a great offensive to the south, tying was a human being—not a czar, not a god. They
down _ the only other Nazi army that might revered Lenin for his living human deeds. This
attempt to break the Stalingrad ring. reverence spread to every corner of the vast U.S.
7 Stalingrad marked the end of the retreat of S.R. To see how the simplest people regarded
( civilized humanity and the beginning of extermi- Lenin, read this song written by a primitive tribal
( nation of Nazi-Fascists. poet in Asiatic Russia:
“Lenin brought light to the land
I Often in history extraordinary events are Cast in darkness by th© Czar.
I marked by actions that seem insignificant. The He replanted orchards
"event” of Stalingrad was recognized by Winston Made fruitless by Tamarlane.
Churchill as the great battle of the war. It was Rebuilt cities
he who arranged that the King of England pre­ Ih troyed by Ghencit Khan.
STALIN’S LIFE Fase Twenty-mas
 Tlinr o nn'ii were warrior?*, the Soviet system into power. He had created the
Whoever they :aw light, absolutely new Red Army and with it had re­
‘J in y made dai kir. . peatedly saved the Soviets from overthrow by
Wherever they ;aw on hardy, the interventionist armies.
They made deaei til.
Wh< iev< r they raw life, In addition to these achievements, Stalin had
They made death. also become known as the outstanding intellec­
Lenin! tual of the Communist Party. Later in this book
Out of daikneia: he made light, we will .see how great a contribution he made to
Out of dererts he made orchards, the problem of freedom for nations and races—
Out of death—life! his first book on this question was published in
lie was mightier
Than all these warriors together.
1913; and after 1917 he was People’s Commissar
For he alone huill in six years of Nationalities; and in 1922 his theories were
What they had destroyed put into practice on a stupendous scale with the
in a thousand. formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub­
Lenin!” lics. Always a brilliant scholar, Stalin made an
exhaustive study of the principles of Marxism as
Soon after Lenin’s death Stalin became the they had been developed and applied by Lenin,
head of a union of almost two hundred million and in 1924 he published a monumental yet under­
people, made up of one hundred and eighty-nine work titled “The Foundations of Lenin­
different nationalities, speaking scores of lan­ standable
ism. ” This book has become a classic and has been
guages, inhabiting an area that covers one-sixth translated into almost every language. Immedi­
of the earth. ately it appeared the author acquired unquestioned
History tells of numberless occasions when leadership among those who carried on the task
kings and emperors ami princes were crowned Karl Marx had begun . . . “to change the world.”
supreme rulers of great domains. What corona­
tion ceremonies, what spectacles of lavish splen­ Some people have come to believe that Vladi­
dor have marked the rise to power of the world's mir Lenin handed the rulership of Russia to
most famous tyrants! Some such men inherited Joseph Stalin the way a father bequeaths prop­
their empires by right of noble birth. Others erty to his favorite son. Of course that is a silly,
mounted thrones made their’s by conquest. And childish view. Lenin was no “fuehrer” of the
today the monster Hitler stands Fuehrer of a Soviets. He had not the slightest right to name
bleeding continent levelled beneath him in depths a “successor.” That he expected Stalin to take his
of outrageous agony and degradation. position as the political chief of the Soviet Union
was obvious. There were other capable, devoted,
When Stalin was called upon to fill Lenin’s proven Soviet leaders. But Stalin was outstand­
place he was given no title at all. No one placed ing among them all. Always at the most critical
a crown upon his head. There was not even any moments, before and after the Revolution, Lenin
ceremony. For two years before Lenin’s death, had entrusted the tasks of greatest importance to
Stalin had been General Secretary of the Com­ Stalin. Side by side they had battled within their
munist (formerly the Bolshevik) Party of the Party against the Menshevik enemies; against the
Soviet Union, and his rank did not change. “left” members who wanted to send the Red Army
Then we ask: Why and how did this man out to conquer the world; against the “right”
become head of the Soviet peoples? members who shrank from revolutionizing Rus­
sia’s industries and farms.
We have seen how Stalin gained renown as
a military leader. And thinking back to earlier You may be familiar with the fact that after
chapters, we remember that “Koba” from his (five Trotsky
Leon was expelled from the Soviet Union
years
youth onwards had been an outstanding organ­ about his leadership after Lenin died) ho spread a tale
izer, thinker, writer, publisher and leader of the Soviets, of the Communistof the Revolution, of the
Party, and how Stalin
Bolsheviks, first in the region of Trans-Caucasia had ruthlessly plotted Trotsky’s “overthrow.” We
and later at St. Petersburg (the Czarist capital need only remember here that Leon Trotsky was
city that was re-named Leningrad). He had one of the bitterest enemies Lenin had to fight,
played a most important part in the 1905 Revolu­ before and during and after the Revolution. If
tion. He had run Pravda, the printed voice that Stalin had never been born, Trotsky was the last
rallied millions to rise against the Czar. He had man who would have been chosen by the Com­
organized the defense of the Provisional Demo­ munists to take Lenin’s place!
cratic Government of 1917 against the Kornilov
mutineers. Under Lenin’s guidance he had di­ Lenin died. It was Stalin, his closest comrade,
rected and led the October Revolution that brought who delivered an historic mourning speech. That
Thirty STALIN’S LIFE
 speech was precise, clear-cut. Stalin spoke of ing the throttle still wider, kept the locomotive
Lenin’s heritage. It was not bequeathed to any of history on the socialist track:;. This is the de­
man. It was willed to the people, their inheritance. cisive service Stalin has rendered history.”
Lenin’s Soviet Revolution was the priceless wealth
passing into the possesssion of no individual or But the “socialist tracks’* th.at Stalin had to
group or party but into the hands of the toiling drive on wore practically uc-n-existent when he
millions who had but one obligation: to swear on took over Lenin’s responsibilities in 1921. The
Lenin’s memory that they would build reality locomotive of history had run wild in Russia.
with his vision, that they would change their From the Urals cast to China, from the Volga
west to Poland, the Soviet Union was a land laid
world. waste with terrible deliberation. The White Ann­
The response was absolutely unforseen. Until ies, once their doom was sealed, had destroyed
that hour the majority of the Russian people, behind them the few railways, bridges, factories,
while filled with deepest love for Lenin, had re­ power plants and feed reserves that had remained
mained aloof from the Communist Party. Foreign after eight years of raging war. Millions of the
observers expected the Soviets to break up when strongest men and women had perished. Hunger
Lenin died, for lack of his unifying influence. But and disease had ravished the survivors. The
suddenly the masses of workers and farmers, Soviet socialist system was born amidst desola­
roused from the grief-stricken silence with which tion. Impoverished had been the land of the Czars,
they had greeted Stalin’s words. They flooded the but the Soviet people wore faced with the task
General Secretary with applications for member­ of changing a world that almost did not exist.
ship in the party of Lenin. It was decided to The interventionists viewed the handiwork of
open a special Lenin Enrollment. Despite the self­ their armies with cruel satisfaction. What kind
sacrifice and work demanded of members, over a of socialism could the Soviets build out of nothing?
quarter of a million men and women joined.
This was a tribute to Lenin’s historic influence. Stalin knew. Even then he hail in his hands
It was also a mighty demonstration of faith in the first blueprint of the mighty Soviet Union we
Stalin, around whom the people of the Soviet know today. Our experts are only now talking
Union rallied to bear the burdens of the future. about a post-war plan, but even before the last
war was over Lenin had given to the Russian
Stalin once told Emil Ludwig: “Never under Academy of Sciences a draft plan designed to lay
any conditions would our workers tolerate a one- the foundations of a new world. Lenin’s post­
man rule. The highest authorities among us be­ war plan was a remarkable document. It included
come converted into zeros as soon as they lose many features which we regard as highly ad­
the faith of the working masses.” vanced today: nationally planned industries, giant
Stalin had first won the faith of working electrification networks, dispersion of factories
people in the Caucasus, when the Batum oil men in the farmlands, industrialized agriculture. This
had named him their “Distinguished One.” On basic plan of Lenin’s became the famous
Lenin’s death the people of the whole U.S.S.R., “GOELRO” scheme of the Soviet... It was social­
facing unknown perils and hardships, gave this ism taken out of the realm of propaganda and
Man of Steel their unreserved trust. converted into action, but it was universally
Twenty years have passed. Side by side with greeted by experts outside of Rus no. as impossible.
the old, a new generation of Soviet people has Even H. G. Wells, who used to be regarded as a
grown up. Today young and old alike call their socialist, poked fun at “the little man in the
warrior chief “Our beloved Stalin” Kremlin” who promised the Soviet farmers 100,-
000 tractors to replace their oxen. Such, a scheme
might be possible in rich capitalist England or
America, said Wells. But not in backward Russia.
CHAPTER VIII In December 1925 Stalin presented a far more
broad and detailed plan than Lenin’s. Boldly he
Said Marx: “Revolutions called for the total conversion of backward peas­
THE TRACKS are the locomotives of ant Russia into an advanced industrialized social­
OF history.” ist union.
HISTORY Said Lenin: “Speed up Now suppose we raise a “cry” of our own.
the locomotive and keep What is all this talk of socialism? Why did Stalin
it on the tracks.” not simply call for the building up of the country,
Said Kaganovich, a Soviet leader: “Stalin is why did he insist upon socialist construction?
the driver of the locomotive. Stalin, boldly open- Didn’t he moan just planned construction, the way
STALIN’S LIFE Page Thirty-one
our countries have planned war production? achievements of his plan with the shocking slate
of affairs in other countries, where vast quantities
In other words, what is this socialism of the of food were being destroyed so that prices would
Soviet Union? not drop further.
You will find many people who have the most In the present wartime emergency, capitalism
astonishing idea of socialism. Many people, both has proved capable of producing tremendous
rich and poor, think that socialism is a system amounts of war equipment. But in peace time, as
of handling production and wages so that there all of us remember, it could not give employment
is no “unfairness,” so that everybody gets "a and a living wage to millions, and capitalist lead­
fair share”—and by this is meant that everybody ers were frank in confessing their inability to
gets a living wage. In that way there are no cope with the “crisis.” And our principal concern
rich people. Everybody, while not exactly poor, today, apart from the war effort, is to discover
lives at “the working man’s level.” Now believe how capitalism can solve this problem in the post­
it or not, this idea is actually what millions of war years.
people in our countries consider to be socialism!
From the start, Stalin made clear to the Rus­
Stalin often commented on the old-fashioned sian people that you cannot change from capital­
idea of socialism being a sort of “equality of poor ism to socialism just by grabbing the money of
working men.” Then he would vigorously explain the rich and dividing it up among the poor. Capi­
that socialism is a system of planning and organ­
izing all the labor power and resources of a nation, talism is the system that is planned by individuals
for their own private good, for their “private
so that the production of all kinds of useful goods
will be increased at the fastest rate made possible interests” as they say. Socialism is the system
by science and engineering, so that the cash in­ that is planned by everybody for everybody’s
private good, in the interests of national pros­
come or wages of all citizens will also constantly perity.
increase, so that the idea of a “living wage” will
be discarded forever and replaced by the socialist This is all talk. Socialism had always been
principle of raising everybody’s wages every year talk, until Stalin put the world’s first socialist
and producing more usefid goods that everybody plan into operation. That is what Kaganovitch
can buy with their increased pay. meant when he said that “Stalin is the driver of
That is the system of planning and organizing the locomotive of history!”
labor power and resources which Stalin called Pause and imagine Russian farmers and their
socialism. wives, people who back in 1925 lived in mud huts
It is very different to capitalism. Under capi­ and who were just painfully learning to read and
talism the planning and organizing is done by write, slowly reading in Pravda what Stalin wrote
individuals or groups of capitalists who control about gigantic hydro-electric installations that
the nation’s resources and the production of goods. would flash across the steppes in thin copper wires
The purpose of capitalism, of course, is to make the concentrated power of millions of plow-horses!
profit for capitalists while supplying goods to the Picture Russian workers who had slaved all their
people. Stalin has repeatedly pointed out that lives in filthy Czarist sweatshops, listening to
once upon a time this system of private enterprise Stalin speak of mighty power machines that would
was a tremendous force in the world, ever expand­ do the work of a thousand blacksmiths at the
ing. But it is Stalin’s view—shared with him by touch of a switch! Try- to conceive how Russian
the people of the Soviet Union—that capitalism youngsters of that year, half-starved and wrapped
has now reached a sort of dead end. For example, in rags, dreamed with enchantment of exploring
Stalin made a speech in 1933 in which he reviewed the enormous undeveloped regions which Stalin
the amazing success of the first Soviet Five-Year said would be opened by the socialist plan!
Plan, a success which he contrasted to the terrible Now briefly, what was the plan? Stalin’s plan
depression gripping other countries. At that time was to replace capitalism by vast new socialist
we had peace, and our leaders wanted to produce industries and farms based upon scientific prin­
and sell more and more goods for the people to ciples; to make the marvellous discoveries of
use; but in order to make profits and successfully science available to the whole population, for pro­
compete with each other the capitalists had to duction and health and happiness.
keep lowering their* prices; and to do that they
had to lower the wages of people •who made the In outlining his plan to the people, Stalin told
goods; and as a result the people had less and them bluntly that it would succeed in raising the
less money with which to buy goods. A vicious Soviet Union, in a few years, from its 1925 deso­
circle set in. Stalin was able to contrast the lation up to levels of production and living stand­
Pago Thirty-two j ; STALIN’S LIFE
ards higher than those of the moat advanced in four years, they could reach out and look around
countries in the world. it themselves!
Do you remember the people in our countries, Now frankly, is this propaganda for socialism?
during the terrible depression, who asked how on We are following the course of Stalin’s life,
earth our governments were going to spend mil­ and the greatest accomplishment in Stalin’s life
lions to keep the unemployed from starving? The is the socialist plan by means of which tivo hun­
same type of people asked Stalin: “Where are you dred million people changed their world. If v, e
going to get the billions needed to finance your did not examine the greatest thing in Stalin’s life,
plan?’’ All over the world the financial experts then what on earth would be the use of paying
smiled. Imagine Stalin trying to start socialism him any attention? Millions of people outside the
without any money! Everyone knew that indus­ Soviet Union, including some of our leading in­
tries could be financed only by “capitalist enter­ dustrialists and statesmen, have publicly stated
prise and investments.” that the influence of Stalin’s plans upon the whole
A year went by. In 1926 the Soviet Union world will henceforth be extremely powerful. Ex­
could scrape together only one billion rubles for pressing such frank and realistic view’s certainly
building new industries and farms. But that same does not make these men socialists! Likewise, our
year production jumped sixty percent. Three examination of Stalin’s plan does not make the
more years went by. Stalin gave the people a facts Socialist propaganda!
new plan. It called for building new socialist If we “overlooked” Stalin’s socialist plan and
industries and farms valued at more than fifty what it has accomplished in the Soviet Union, we
billion rubles! would be every bit as ridiculous as if we wrote
In accordance with Stalin’s plan, Soviet indus­ about George Washington and “overlooked” the
tries and farms were expected to operate at a Declaration of Independence, or about King
profit, in order to maintain a high efficiency. At John and “overlooked” the Magna Charta.
the end of the year, all profits from industries and Now' let us return to the Soviet plan for build­
farms were taken by taxes that went to the
central state bank. There the profits were turned ing socialism. We have seen how’ Stalin financed
over to the planning organization, which used the the plan. He found the cash. But money alone
money for “socialist investments”—that is, for would not build giant industries and farms. The
building new industries or farms according to the labor of millions of men and women was needed.
plan. All the profits were used to build new in­ Armies of scientists, engineers, managers and
dustries and farms. Not a single-penny went to skilled workers were required. And here we come
individuals or private interests. All the new in­ up against another reason why the outside world
dustries and farms were the property of the said that Stalin would fail completely.
Soviet Union, of all the people. It was this: if people could not invest their
money, make profits, and become rich, then there
Immediately this system went into operation would be no incentive to work hard, to become
in the Soviet Union, vast sums of money became leaders in industry. That, said foreign observers,
available for financing the plan. Never in history would hopelessly stall the socialist “locomotive.”
were such enormous annual investments made as
in the planned socialist investments by means of They hadn’t listened to Stalin., Before his plan
which the Soviet Union carried out Stalin’s plan. had even begun to work, the Soviet leadei* had
pointed out that in other countries the incentive
That plan was simplicity itself. In Soviet to work applied only to a very, very few people,
newspapers every single detail of the plan was those who had a chance of becoming rich or “com­
printed so that people could follow it. They did fortably well off.” The vast majority of the
follow it. Stalin’s plan never mentioned such world’s workers had no incentive to work except
tilings as the gold standard, inflation, reserve the bitter necessity of keeping from starvation.
banks, the index of investment securities, or any Under the socialist plan those millions of workers
of the jargon that fills the “financial pages” in would have a tremendous new incentive to work,
our countries. It was understandable to everyone. because all their labor would go into building up
And another “rather important” fact: the industries and farms that belonged to the whole
plan worked. Stalin did not have to make speeches nation, that w’ould produce ever greater quantities
to . his people giving them excuses for having of goods for sale to the people, that would pay
failed. He did not have to promise them that the people ever more wages with which to buy
“prosperity is just around the next corner,” be­ those goods.’
cause the Soviet people had arrived at that corner Stalin frankly told the world many years ago
STALIN’S LIFE Page Thirty-three
that Soviet socialism was going to raise millions strive to produce the enormous amount of goods
of ordinary workers out of the monotonous grind needed to give every citizen a measure of pros­
of daily toil, give them mighty new enthusiasm perity, if we could keep expanding our production-
for their work, give rewards not just to a handful for-peace without fear of another depression.
of men but to millions. But the second change was equally important.
The Soviet people completed their first Five- During the development of his plans, Stalin
Year Plan in only four years. Many books have drastically changed the position of labor in the
been written about the stupendous growth of Soviet Union. He abolished the Department
Soviet industry and farms in that period. Out-of (Commissariat) of Labor, and turned all its func­
desolation, out of nothing, the Soviets built mam­ tions over to the Trade Unions! This was possible
moth steel, iron, tractor, automobile, machine- because no Soviet employees were kept outside
tool, chemical, farm machinery, aircraft, electric the unions. With the employees 100% organized,
power, oil, coal and textile industries. And at the Stalin was able to give them complete control of
same time gave the people health, recreation and labor problems. This greatly improved co-opera­
cultural facilities such as the world had never tion between workers and management, because
seen before. And at the same time built up the in Russia both had the same interests—to increase
mighty Red Army and Air Force. production efficiency and to raise wages. And to
some extent we can understand how Trade Union
But Stalin was not satisfied. When he an­ control sharply improved Soviet production, be­
nounced the second Five-Year Plan he made a cause we have seen how successful our own unions
very bold prediction. People outside Russia could have been in overcoming obstacles and bottlenecks
not understand what Stalin meant. He told his wherever management has taken the workers into
people that the time was coming when the tre­ its Confidence.
mendous socialist incentive to work would pro­
duce a new kind of worker whose methods of In brief, the Stakhanov system arose from
working would be far superior to those in the Soviet incentive to work and the fact that labor­
most advanced capitalist countries. This would management co-operation constantly sought in­
come about because in the Soviets labor had be­ creased output and higher wages. Stakhanov’s
come “a matter of honor, a matter of glory, a discovery must not be confused with the Taylor
matter of valor and heroism.” System and similar speed-up methods, which in­
creased the strain of work without giving the
Down in the Irmino coal mine a young miner worker any incentive except the fear of losing
named Alex Stakhanov was digging 7 to 9 tons his job. Stakhanov actually reduced the drudgery
of coal per shift. That was far below the output of toil. And soon after he obtained his record out­
of miners in Germany’s Ruhr valley, where they put, hundreds of Soviet miners were digging1 200
averaged 17 jo tons per man. But all of a sudden and 300 tons of coal in six hours. Whole armies
Stakhanov figured out a new' way to mine coal, of miners left the old production limits far behind.
with the same equipment as before, he dug out The “Stakhanov Movement” spread to every in­
102 tons in six hours! He showed his mates the dustry and to the farms, and became famous all
system. A fellow named Savchenko got 151 tons. over the Soviet Union. Stalin’s prediction was
After trying for a while, the miner Artyukhin realized. A new kind of worker had appeared.
raised his production to 536 tons in one shift!
Without a doubt, some readers are by now
It was a miracle. Not the kind of miracle that ready to label this whole chapter as a disguised
comes from heaven. A miracle of socialist labor, piece of propaganda in favor of establishing
resulting from two fundamental changes in Soviet socialism in our countries. But in Stalin’s life
life. First, the new incentive to work, the enthusi­ there is a very important message for these
asm and inspiration that gripped the Soviet people readers.
when they saw Stalin’s plans actually taking We arc living under the capitalist, not the
shape, when they saw that with their own hands socialist system. But think: where would oui’
and brains they were creating for every Soviet democratic capitalist natons be today if Stalin
man, woman and child a finer and more pros­ had failed, if socialism had failed to work, in the
perous life. To some extent we in the Democracies Soviet Union?
can understand how tremendous this new incen­
tive was, because we have seen what wonders of The answer comes as quite a shock.
production our own working people were able to If Stalin’s socialist system had failed, we
accomplish when inspired by the nation’s battle would no longer be democratic capitalist nations
to defend our freedom. Imagine to what heights at all, we would be slave nations under Hitler’s
we could rise if, with peace restored, we could inhuman feudal system.
Pago Thirty-four STALIN’S LIFE
 One Jias only to realize Hint tlie sociali:.! syrl.'-m astonished you. You wonder why you previously
was the only possible system that could have knew so little about the man. But '.' ere we not
raised ruined, backward Russia, in twenty years, all equally ignorant—you and I and the world’s
to such colossal heights that enabled the Soviet leading newspaper editors, commentators, gen­
Union to withstand Hitler’s might, the concen­ erals and statesmen! Just think of the learned
trated industrial and military might of all Europe famous and powerful people in our countries, who
—to withstand and to grind to death the enor­ a mere four years ago could not find words veno­
mous legions of frightfulness that would other­ mous enough to hurl at Stalin, could not find
wise have overwhelmed the earth. words scornful enough to fling at the Red Army,
the people who now have had their eyes opened
And so it is clear that Stalin performed not by the ignorance-shattering events of the war,
one but two decisive services to history. In the who now arc honest enough to speak of Stalin and
Soviet Union he set the locomotive of history the Soviet Union with voices no longer choked
driving forward at full speed on the socialist by hate. Some of these great people have met
tracks. He also saved our capitalist nations from Stalin personally. Because he is the living symbol
being conquered by the Axis cannibals, he pre­ of Soviet power, determination, idealism and self­
vented the history of our own countries from sacrifice, the impact of coming face to face with
being driven backward into the inhuman Fascist Stalin was tremendous. All of a sudden these
system. people grasped with painful clearness that a man
Indeed, many of our leading capitalists, out­ who brought the greatest nation on earth through
spoken opponents of socialism as a system for our wars and famines, a man who guided two hundred
countries, now realize full well that capitalism millions successfully in the stupendous task of
could not have raised the Russia of 1925 to the changing one-sixth of the world, a man who pre­
present level of the Soviet Union, either in twenty pared for more than ten years to do battle with
years or a hundred years. Only the socialist sys­ Hitlerism and thus was able to save the civilized
tem could have accomplished this historic feat world — on meeting Stalin his famous visitors
that saved the world. have suddenly felt the truth of history strike
them like a physical blow. And without a doubt
If Stalin accomplishes nothing more for the many of these great ones are now busily reading
rest of his whole life, history will remember him up on Stalins history, his life, just as we are at
for this immortal victory. this moment. They too are getting one surprise
And here is what Stalin modestly says about after another. They too are having their deepest
his achievement: and most evil prejudices swept away by facts.
“Victory never comes by itself—it usually has Why did it take a frightful war to make us
to be pulled by the hand.” see the truth about Stalin?
Why were we misinformed about Stalin, be­
fore he led the Red Army into battle against our
enemy Hitler?
CHAPTER IX
Why were we misinformed about the Soviet
The time has come for Union’s political and economic weakness, before
us to pause. We are ap­ that country showed in battle that the unity of
RUSSIA'S its people and the might of its industry were
proaching the darkest
LINCOLN and most dangerous without equal anywhere else? Why were wc told
chapters of Stalin’s life. that great numbers of people hated Stalin'<• rule,
No doubt Stalin would before Hitler failed to find such people in the
be happy to'forget these events. But we cannot Soviet areas he captured? Where were the Rus­
afford to foi’get them, because these happenings sian traitiors, the Quislings, Laval# and Becks?
in Stalin’s life have affected our life in vital ways,
they have a great deal to do with the cause of The answer can be found in Stalin’s life.
this war, and even now these evil deeds are reach­World blockade failed to starve the Soviets
big out of the past towards the future of peace
to death. Intervention armies failed to crush
and freedom for which the world hopes and prays.
them in battle. About the time when Stalin
assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, the inter­
It all starts with a question that must surely
be lurking in your mind right now. national anti-Soviet conspirators began to adopt
two new tactics. They decided to create dissen­
Many of the facts about Stalin’s life Lave sion within the Soviet Union, by using the type
STALIN'S LIFE
1, Page Tbirty-Uve
of agents we have come to know as a “Quisling.” By publicly vowing that he was wholeheartedly
They also decided to launch a world-wide cam­ behind Stalin’s plan he was able to organize a
paign of slander against Stalin, the Soviet system small gang of Quisling industrial managers who
and its people. The purpose of the first tactic wormed their way into key positions. These sabo­
was to weaken the U.S.S.R. internally so that it teurs cleverly developed bottlenecks in critical
would quickly collapse when another interven­ industries. The trouble became extremely serious.
tionist war was started. The purpose of the sec­ For a brief time in 1933 it seemed as though the
ond tactic was to prepare world opinion, to justify fundamental principle of Stalin’s Five-Year Plan
another criminal anti-Soviet war. had failed. It was then that Stalin personally took
over investigation of the “failures.” Swiftly he
This infamous “program” was not organized exposed the real trouble. But so carefully had the
by any single nation or group, but from time to saboteurs covered their crimes that they could
time was passed on from one group of plotters only be discharged for inefficiency. Bukharin
to another, some openly admitting their plans, made speeches attacking his own agents, and in
most of them keeping under cover. But in general that way deceived all the Soviet leaders, including
there have been three principal types of con­ Stalin.
spirators.
First: Czarist nobles and big business men During this period the German agent Dan was
who fled from Russia after the Revolution. Sec­ busy giving information to the world press about
ond: Foreign “investment” men looking for new the “breakdown” of Stalin’s industrialization
fields for plunder. Third: “Experts” whose spe­ scheme. That is how and why our newspapers
cial job was to poison the minds of working people carried so many stories about the “coming col­
against the Soviet Union and its leader. lapse” of the Soviets. For years Stalin wondered
how the outside press got information on Soviet
For twenty years the Soviet people have been production difficulties, sometimes even before he
waging an incessant struggle against these con­ got them himself! Of course he did not dream
spirators, against the Quislings who worked with­ that men who posed as his supporters could be
in the U.S.S.R. and against those who worked in capable of such sabotage and hypocrisy.
our countries. During all this time Stalin himself
was the main target of the plotters, he was their Immediately Stalin had defeated the bottle­
relentlessly vigilant opponent and around him the neck scheme the plotters adopted new tactics.
fiercest conflict raged. Along with honest foreign engineers they brought
In the early days of the Soviets their enemies, in experts in violent sabotage, and aided them in
as we have seen, exerted every effort to destroy blowing up important bridges, power stations,
them by armed intervention. When this failed the factories, mills and so on. This Stalin dealt with
conspiracy was taken over largely by former Men­ very quickly. But in spite of the tightening up of
sheviks led by Bukharin and Trotsky. From 1921- Soviet police vigilance the head conspirators
1929 these men tried to foment political disputes eluded exposure.
among the Communist Party members. This came
to an end in 1929, when Trotsky was expelled By this time a new expert joined the conspir-1
from the Soviet Union. He became an open leader acy. He was Grigori Grinko. Grinko became a
of anti-Soviet agitation. Bukharin had to disown master Quisling, and served Hitler as a model
him, and from that time on organized Quisling later on. While working inside Stalin’s adminis­
work within Stalin’s administration. tration, Grinko made an agreement with the Pol­
ish government, which undertook to supply arms
In 1930 the plotters made connection with a for a National Fascist organization among
former Menshevik named Dan, who had for some Ukrainian people. Grinko was to smuggle Polish
time been an agent of the German Secret Service. spies and arms into the Soviet Ukraine,-give as­
He had charge of the well organized system that sistance to National Fascist Ukrainian spies
gave out slanderous “news” about Stalin and the (members of the “Borotbists” and the “Petliura”
Soviets, which was used as a basis for world-wide anti-Soviet plotters), help to stir up the Soviet
press campaigns. Dan and his agents were able Ukrainians in favor of a separate Ukraine—and
to get some powerful newspaper support but they then help the Polish Army to march in and con­
wore successful in influencing only a few leaders quer that part of the Ukraine which they had
of socialist and labor parties, trade unions, etc. failed to hold in 1920! In return for this help in
When Stalin’s Five-Year Plan began to succeed, “liberating” the Ukrainians, Grinko and Bukharin
with resulting sharp increase in sympathetic and Trotsky were to get help from the Polish
world interest, the anti-Soviet forces turned to criminals in overthrowing Stalin's government in
Bukharin for aid. the rest of Soviet territory.
Page Thirty-six STALIN’S LIFE
 Grinko achieved some success. In 1931-35 the farm machinery at Guch a rate that in a few years
Soviet authorities were faced with severe disloca­ the entire primitive farmlands of the Union Re­
tion of Ukrainian industry and farming. Grinko publics would be mechanized, raising crop output
arranged for bottlenecks in consumer’s goods, and the standard of living of the rural population
held up wages, caused farm co-operatives to go at an extraordinary rate. The purpose of Stalin’s
broke, and generally tied Ukrainian affairs up in program for agriculture can be briefly summed
knots. At the same time Dan managed to get all up: it was to f ice tens of millions of impoverished
this “news” out to the democratic countries. And farmers from the state of semi-serfdom under
Ukrainians living in our countries were visited which they lived before the Revolution,
by Ukrainian National Fascist organizers directed
by Grinko and the Polish government, to agitate No sooner had Stalin begun this task of libera­
for a world war against the Soviet Union for the tion than very powerful opposition appeared. Re­
purpose of “liberating” Ukrainians. peatedly Stalin stressed that both the poorest and
the middle-class farmers were to be given the full
So shrewd was Grinko that at the height of benefits of the plan. The kulaks, wealthy land­
the Ukrainian troubles he corresponded with owners, had started grabbing up the land that had
Stalin, cleverly masking his treachery, and was been taken from the estates of the nobility and
even elected to the central committee of the Com­ given to the poor and middle-class farmers. They
munist Party I began to take advantage of the widespread pov­
But Stalin penetrated the enemy’s camouflage. erty after the War of Intervention, buying up the
lie appealed to the Soviet Ukrainian people, who poor farmer’s land and home, grain and livestock-,
remembered the past, when both their own brutal forcing him to return to the old system of being
“Hetman” and the Polish “Pans” had stamped the hired hand of rich farmers in order to exist.
out freedom in the Ukraine. It was the Soviet- All this was accompanied by an alarming drop in
Ukrainian Republic that was free, not the Ukrain­ output of farm crops. The kulaks refused to plant
ians living under the Polish reign of terror. grain and hoarded what was on hand. Exactly
Stalin was able to expose Grinko’s nefarious plans as Stalin had warned, a general anti-Soviet move­
for selling the Ukraine to Poland, and the move­ ment was started by the kulaks, the wealthy land­
ment collapsed. Although the Ukrainian Fascists owners, who dreamed of becoming feudal lords
in our countries clamored for a war against the if the Soviet system could be overthrown.
Soviet Union, and were able to get all sorts of The kulaks declared war on the Soviet system,
non-Ukrainian anti-Soviet leaders to support this the Soviet people, the Soviet farmers and upon
campaign, the majority of Ukrainians understood Stalin as the leader of the U.S.S.R. The free­
that it was their countrymen living under Polish dom that had been won by the Revolution, arid
rule who needed liberating. the prosperity guaranteed to the farmers by
No sooner had Stalin settled the Polish-Grinko Stalin’s socialist plan, were in grave danger of
conspiracy than he faced the most serious of all being lost. The issue was freedom or slavery for
the internal anti-Soviet plots. It was not limited tens of millions of Soviet farmers.
to one nationality, but spread over great areas of Indeed, Stalin faced a situation very similar.
the Soviet Union, the huge farming regions. This to that in the United States of America just be­
was the conspiracy of the kulaks. fore the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln had to face
Before the Revolution, half the land in Russia the issue of Democracy against Slavery of the
was in the hands of 18,000 rich noblemen. The Negro People. Stalin had to face the issue of
other and poorest half was owned by 25,000,000 Soviet Democracy against Slavery of the Soviet
farmers. This tells its own story of farming pov­ Farmers. Like Lincoln, Stalin did not flinch.
erty. The Russian farmer under Czarism lived in Recall Lincoln’s famous words: “As I would
heartbreaking toil, crushed by superstition, primi­ not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This
tive methods and the cruel greed of the nobility. expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever dif­
From the earliest days of the Revolution, Lenin fers from this, to the extent of the difference, is
and Stalin made far-reaching plans to free the no democracy.”
farmers. Stalin was equally blunt: “We must pass from
For example, electrification of Soviet farms the policy of restricting the exploiting activities
began twenty years ago. It has reached a highly of the kulaks to the policy of eliminating the
advanced stage under Stalin, although in our kulaks as a class.”
countries lai'ge-scale rural electrification is onlv Lincoln plunged America into a terrible civil
now being considered. Likewise, the Soviet plan war of North against South, in order to preserve
included the production of tractors and general American Democracy and liberate the slaves.
STALIN’S LIFE
Fuse TUu ty-seTMi
Stalin called upon the whole Soxiet people to Stalin’s confidence in their loyally to the Soviet
eliminate the ktilabs, in order to preserve Soviet government.
Democracy and liberate the farmers from serf­ Now the climax was fast approaching. One
dom. conspiracy after another had led Stalin to insist
In each case the struggle was violent. But in upon increased police vigilance. Having aban­
the Soviet Union nothing like a civil war broke doned all hope of gaining popular support, and
out. The Russian Quislings inside and outside the fearing imminent discovery, the plotters sank to
U.S.S.R., the Polish Pans, Ukrainian Fascists and the very depths. To their depraved minds there
the German Nazis, backed by every type of anti- was but one hope of seizing power in Russia—to
Soviet conspirator, joined forces with the kulaks murder the Soviet leaders.
and raised a world-wide storm of slander against They decided to murder Stalin, Molotov,
Stalin and the Soviets. But the campaign petered Kaganovich and Voroshilov.
out. The issue was quickly decided in favor of the First, they devised a new method of murder,
Soviet farmers. The kulaks were eliminated as a one of the most horrible evei- conceived. They
class. Of course this does not mean they were called upon Yagoda, a plotter who had worked
eliminated «.*: people, that is, put to death! Those his way up in the Soviet Secret Service, to black­
who indulged in murder and terrorism against mail several Russian doctors who had never been
the Soviet farmers paid the supreme penalty. The sympathetic to the Soviet regime. Then they told
rest were forced to give up their big farms, to the doctors to experiment in murder. These medi­
move out of the farming regions, to take up con­ cal fiends agreed. They began treating certain
struction or factory work in newly opened areas patients so that instead of being cured the victims
of the Soviet Union. The plain truth is that the would get ivorse and finally die.
vast majority of the kulaks, once they realized
that their struggle against the Soviet system was In this way the conspirators murdered four
futile, made the best of their new life and in time Soviet leaders. One of these leaders was Maxim
won full rights of citizenship. Stalin’s vigorous Gorky, perhaps the world’s greatest modern
and successful campaign to eliminate the kulaks writer. The plotters insisted upon Gorky being
as a class was carried out with far less bloodshed murdered because of the man’s influence in flic
than Lincoln’s Civil War to eliminate slavery in Soviet Union and in all countries; and Gorky, who
America. had swung over to support Stalin only after long
consideration of w’hat the Soviets were doing,
What was the result of Soviet victory over would mercilessly expose the Quislings if ever
the kulaks? The world slander campaign said they attempted to seize power. Gorky had long
that the result could be measured in tens, even ago revealed that Trotsky was a scoundrel and
hundreds of thousands of dead farmers. There is adventurer of the worst type.
exactly as much truth in this story as in the tale
that the Red Army would last only six weeks So Gorky was murdered. In spite of the fact
against Hitler. Actually the victory over the that this genius had for years suffered from
kulaks was measured in these terms: tuberculosis and was considered a frail, aging
man, he proved very difficult to “execute.” We
In 1932 the average cash income of the Soviet cannot tell to what lengths these medical butchers
farmer was 300 rubles per year. In 1940 it was went. Doctors can find the gruesome details in
1000 rubles per year, plus double that sum in “Annals of Medical History, 1, 1939,” an impar­
health, social and cultural benefits. In 1932 the tial scientific journal published by Harper &
crop was about 90 million tons. In 1940 it was Brothers, New York. This crime was unpreced­
132 million tons. Naturally, figures are dull and ented in medicine, and will go down as the crown­
lifeless. But anyone can grasp what Stalin’s vic­ ing vileness of the anti-Soviet conspirators.
tory over the kulaks meant. It liberated the Soviet The death of Gorky came as a sudden shock
farmers from kulak slavery and gave them the to Stalin. They -were close friends. And Gorky
first measure of freedom and prosperity that had was looked upon as a friend by millions of Rus­
ever been enjoyed by the Russian rural people sian people. His mighty stories such as “Crea­
from prehistoric times to this generation. tures That Once Were Men” and “Mother” will
With the collapse of the kulaks, the Quislings live forever in all languages. Gorky once had
mid their supporters reached a state oi despera­ been the protesting voice of Old Russia and had
tion. They had absolutely no support left within become the heroic voice of the new Soviet People.
the Soviet Union. Still, a small group had re­ His voice was stilled by murder.
mained unexpnsed throughout all their plotting. But from the grave Maxim Gorky spoke out.
A few such as Bukharin had been able to retain A sudden and terrible suspicion came to Stalin
Pago Thirty-eight J STALIN’S Lira
 and other leading Soviet figures. AL f< ar-d ‘Quisling ’ in lb;:- i.-t." Davies* view was
time the Secret Service drew a ne< of w. share d by many impartial <)’r.:orvcTa. But their
around its own deputy chief, Yagoda. The in • voices wore drowned in a wave of anti-Stalin
grew. One by one the criminals were arr ..\d. h;. leria.
The conspiracy unfolded. When at ki.vt the evi­ No previous slandi r reached such heights all
dence was closed scores of Quislings were trapped, over the world as did that concerning the “Mos­
half a dozen foreign nations were involved, and cow Trials.” Why? Quite simple. The “Moncow
the world was presented with a talc of infamy Trial::” inarked the jnol > ictorg of Slttlin’:; fight
that has hardly been equalled since the days of ugainid the hidden trnitorr. the end. of (di the
the notorious Borgias. Quisling” in the Soriot Union.
The accused were put on public trial in Mos­ The murderers were found guilty and shot.
cow . . . the famous “Moscow Trials.” But the They had been the cause of untold suffering and
infamy of the plotters knew no bounds. They de­ countless deaths in their homeland. For fifteen
clared that the trials were a gigantic fraud. Many years Stalin and the Soviet people, laboring heroic­
newspapers backed the conspirators. Another ally to build a new world and unaware of the
anti-Soviet campaign was started. Some editors conspiracy in their midst, had been struggling to
and statesmen fell for this deception and expressed repair the sabotage of these creatures. For any
horror at the fact that Stalin’s government was single one of their crimes the Quislings would well
putting on trial criminals whose deeds had made have deserved the death penalty.
the very word horror seem pale I We cannot fail to mention the trial of certain
Speeches were made praising Trotsky and Red Army officers who were found guilty of pre­
Bukharin and Rykov and Radek and all those paring for the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union.
being tried. The Quislings were praised as “inno­ This revealed that long ago the Quislings had ne­
cent victims’ of Stalin’s “ruthless dictatorship”; gotiated with Rudolph Hess (the Hitlerite adven­
Stalin was accused of murdering all the “old Bol­ turer who made a sensational Hight to England
sheviks” who had helped him and Lenin establish during this war). Deals had also been made with
the Soviet regime. This in the face of irrefutable Rosenberg’s assistant Daitz, and with the leading
evidence of inhuman crimes, and the fact that the Nazis Niedermeier and Haushofer, with Generals
Quislings were almost to the last man “old Men­ Seeckt and Hasse. To complete the arrangements
sheviks” who had repeatedly opposed Lenin and the plotters sent negotiators to Japan, where they
Stalin, and the fact that Stalin had many times promised big slices of territory to the Japs in
forgiven these creatures in the belief that they return for war to overthrow Stalin. These “bar­
had sincerely changed their ways. gains” came to nothing. The few Soviet officers
But the most amazing fact was this: the anti- involved were executed. When war with Hitler
Soviet traitors were supported and mourned by finally broke out the Red Army commanders with­
the very people in our countries who had, a short out a single exception proved unswervingly loyal
time before, viciously condemned those same men to the death. The Soviet Union was spared the
when it was thought they were really supporting ghastly treachery such as we witnessed during
Stalin and the Soviet system! When the Quislings the collapse of France, -when many officers in
were for Stalin they were criminal “Reds.” But high and low places won eternal shame by selling
the moment the Quislings were convicted of plot­ their republic to the Laval-Petain-Hitler enemy.
ting to murder Stalin they became “martyrs 1” All this makes a depressing tale. It gives the
Let us note one more highly significant fact. impression that Stalin faced one long succession
Scarcely any speeches or editorials undertook to of plotters and saboteurs. Actually, an infinitesi­
tell how the plotters had been exposed, how medi­ mal fraction of one percent of the Soviet leaders
cal men of unquestioned reputation had unearthed were involved in the Quisling plots. If it had not
the frightful murders. This was ii c principml been for the reactionary world press drumming
evidence in the trials; it was scientifically un­ up such a racket of sympathy for the conspirators
questionable. As part of the world-wide ••di­ we would have heard little about them. When
Soviet conspiracy, this medical evident : ib- Germany attacked the Soviets, Anthony Eden paid
erately hushed up, and all sorts of fani vns this simple yet tremendously important tribute
were circulated in its place. American Ambassa­ to Stalin’s vigilance: “The Soviet Union is a coun-
dor Joseph Davies had this to say, as an eye­ trij ivitiioiit a Quisling”
witness to the trials: “Practically every device of If the same could have been said of France,
German Fifth Column activity, as we n Norway, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Rumania,
it, was disclosed and laid bare by the conf ssi Hungary, Yugo-SIavia, Denmark and other
and testimony elicited at 11k..'- irial ■ lands, what mountains of dead, what oceans of
STALIN’S LIFE Huge Thirty-niae
tears, what boundless destruction of mankind’s still greater horrors. Because once Hitler is
talent and works would have been prevented! crushed Stalin may try to force Communism upon
It is frightful to think that the anti-humanity countries outside the Soviet Union, perhaps upon
conspirators still operate freely in our Democra­ all Europe.
cies. Bluntly: we fear that Stalin may embark upon
For what are they conspiring now? a policy of spreading Communism by force.
They are enraged that our Democracies and Is this fear justified?
Soviet Democracy together are being strengthened One way to find out would be to put the ques­
in the war against Hitlerism. Their plot is to tion directly to Stalin. But even if he did answer
destroy this mighty Unity of Free Peoples that “No,” could we believe him? The other and prac­
is symbolized by the great personalities of tical way to find out is to examine Stalin’s life,
Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. Their purpose is to to search for clues that indicate Stalin’s policy
smash the universal hope of a free and peaceful in regard to other nations. Such clues are not
People's World. They pretend to hate only Stalin hard to find.
and the Soviet people, but they reserve their most From 1879 to 1905 Stalin lived in Trans­
intense, hatred for Democracy and freedom, for us. Caucasia, known the world over as “a melting pot
For twenty years Stalin waged a grim and of nations” where the problem of national free­
finally victorious struggle against these evil men, dom was acute.
whose successors are among us even now, redoub­ In 1905 and 1906 Stalin witnessed the ghastly
ling their efforts to undermine our freedom. As slaughters organized by Czarism among the Cau­
he spoke to his own people, Stalin speaks to us: casian races, and the utter destruction of Cauca­
"On guard!” sian freedom by the Russian conquerors.
In 1912 Stalin wrote a book called “The Na­
tional Question,” a masterpiece of clear and pro­
phetic reasoning which won him recognition as
CHAPTER X the spokesman of Bolshevik policy on the freedom
of nations.
Less than three years ago In 1917 Stalin was appointed “Commissar of
FRIEND Stalin was only a name Nationalities” in the Bolshevik Government. It
OR in our papers, a strange, was his task to try to keep together all the peoples
forbidding figure whose who had been held captive in the Czar’s “prison
FOE? E life seemed farther re- of nations” and who had been poisoned by mutual
“ moved from ours than hatred.
.he North Pole,
In 1917 Stalin startled Russia and the anti­
With shocking abruptness destiny swept the Bolshevik world by announcing boldly: “It must
Soviet Union and our Democracies into a united be said that the oppressed nations forming part
battle for existence. Now we begin to realize how of Russia must be allowed the right to decide for
closely Stalin’s life and our lives actually were themselves whether they wish to remain part of
linked for years before the war: how Stalin’s the Russian state or to separate and form inde­
historic plan of socialist development saved our pendent states.”
capitalist democracies, how Stalin’s extermination
of Quislings foiled the international conspiracy Did Stalin really mean that the Bolsheviks
to betray Russia the way France and other na­ were willing to allow parts of Russia to break
tions were betrayed, how Stalin’s military genius away from the Soviet system and form non-Soviet
changed the whole course of the war in the battle nations? Exactly. What is more, Stalin’s govern­
for the Volga. ment backed up his statement with deeds. The
Red Army withdrew from Mongolia, China, Per­
Closer and closer we have been drawn towards sia (now Iran). Finland and Poland declared
Stalin, until we can almost feel the touch of themselves independent nations. So did Armenia
friendship. in the Caucasus . . . and even Stalin’s native land
But! We are not quite that close. Something of Georgia!
holds us apart. It is fear. Even as our admiration In 1920 Stalin offered the remaining peoples
and gratitude for Stalin grows, the shadow of of Russia a plan of independence. He scorned the
fear chills our hearts. idea of giving them freedom in name only. He
We are afraid that after this horrible war is defined freedom thus: the right to use one s native
ended, another war may plunge the world into language at home, in public, in the courts, in the
Page Forty, STALIN’S LIFE
 schools; the right to have complete Id c£ •. - poisonous doctrine of national and racial superi­
ligion without influence from any “state church;” ority, with pride in the achievements of one’s
the right to travel anywhere in Soviet Ru.siu people perverted into brutal lust for conquest
without any restrictions; the right to vote on all over other peoples. He foresaw Hitlerism.
issues, local or national; the right to bo governed And now one final prediction made by Stalin.
by one’s own native representatives; the right to Like his definition of freedom, this statement was
work at any job without discrimination. This decisively clear. No nation can keep its national
was how Stalin explained the Soviet stand on freedom unless it liberates it:: people from pov­
freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom erty. Side by side developed the Europe of Ver­
of assembly and freedom from want . . . for sailles and the Soviet Union. At the end of two
nations, peoples and minorities as well as for in­ decades the contrast was tragically apparent. On
dividuals. He made it clear that any talk of free­ the one hand a group of nations wiiose ever­
dom in general, without absolute guarantees of deepening poverty had driven them step by step
the specific freedoms stated here, was mere bluff from what national freedom they had enjoyed
and deception. into utter enslavement by Fascism, the system
And this is how he summed it up: Every founded upon abolition of all freedom. On the
'nationality and minority in Soviet Russia was other hand a group of republics whose prosperity
guaranteed all the rights and freedoms enjoyed had increased at an unprecedented rate, making
by the peoples who were in the majority. In this possible the adoption in 1938 of the “Stalin Con­
simple, crystal-clear statement of policy Stalin stitution” which firmly established Soviet Demo­
“translated” freedom from the language of cracy.
speeches into the language of life itself. It may seem, in reviewing these principles
In 1921 Stalin pointed to the breaking up of laid down in the past by Stalin, that we are
the great European nations after the World War, beating around the bush, side-stepping the 'ques­
and the attempt to solve the problem of national tion: “Will Stalin try to spread Communism by
freedom by creating new countries such as Czecho­ force?”
slovakia, Yugo-Slavia, Poland, etc. Then he drew Not at all. Now we have three clear facta
attention to the oppression that some of these with which to judge Stalins’ purposes today:
“free” countries were practicing upon their minor­
ities, and how the little nations of Europe were 1) All nations must have the right to unite
already at each other’s throats. He predicted in­ with or break away from othex* nations.
evitable wars, because the Treaty of Versailles 2) People of any nationality or minority must
did not give real freedom to the peoples of Europe; have every freedom and right enjoyed by
it had simply created meaningless national bound­ the majority peoples within each nation.
aries. . 3) A nation’s freedom can be preserved only
In 1922 all Stalin’s earlier policies were com­ if its people are freed from poverty.
bined in one gigantic experiment in national free­ Let us take each point in turn.
dom. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was
formed. Hitherto the Soviet countries had enjoyed The first is no idle pronouncement, but a basic
only vague independence. Now their freedom was Soviet principle. The stubborn facts of Stalin's
determined exactly according to Stalin’s prin­ life bears this out. It was he who led the .success­
ciples. The “Union” was formed for the same ful struggle against Trotsky and others who
practical reasons that the States of North America wanted to conquer weak nations in order to “con­
formed their Union: to improve communication, vert” them to Communism. It was he who with­
industry, foreign relations and defense. drew the Red Army from China, Mongolia and
Persia in the early daj's of the Soviet regime. It
But Stalin made clear that the Soviet Union was he who insisted that Armenia, Georgia, Fin­
had to be different to the United States, fox- it land and Poland — countries which had been a
was to be composed of many distinct nations whose part of Czarist Russia—be allowed to break away
national individuality (language, culture, customs, and form non-Soviet nations, and it was he who
etc.) would be preserved within the national welcomed the later decision of Armenia and
boundaries. Even more sharply it' would differ Georgia to become Soviet Republics.
from Europe. There each nation preached and
practiced only its own rights. The Sot ub- Certainly it is a fact that during this war
lics were based upon the principle of equal rights Stalin sent the Red Army into Lithuania, Latvia,
for all nations and minorities. Stalin said that Esthonia, Finland and the Western Ukraine
“national freedom” in Eur<<p<> vuiiid dtg- ner.ne (ruled by Poland), at the time when Hitler threat­
into “national; m." This med to overrun these countries. But only a per­
STALIN’S LIFE Page Forty ou«
con blind to the truth will argue today that Stalin But for Stalin to force his program upon Euro­
was “conquering" these countries in order to pean countries would be to destroy the very found­
spread Communism. He was doing no more and ation of Soviet Democracy. Hitler’s foul principle
no less than what Britain and America had to do of a “Master Race” of Germans had to be enforced
later on in seizing French territories in Africa: with kish and gun, but the Soviet principle of
carrying out absolutely essential protective mili­ granting complete freedom to nations and minori­
tary measures. In fact it is very unfortunate for ties is the one system that cannot possibly be
the United Nations that Hitler was able to drive spread by force! To talk of forcing the Soviet
the Red Army out of these countries, for he gained system upon weakened nations is preposterous.
important war resources and has been able to
subject millions of Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and We come to the third point.
Baltic peoples to monstrous terrorism. And it must be admitted that this is a delicate
Stalin’s outstanding characteristic is that he matter. Europe has been plundered bare by the
never wavers, never deserts a principle. His whole Nazi rodents. The whole continent is in a condi­
life is proof of this steel-like determination not tion similar to that faced by the Soviets in 1921.
to sacrifice what is right for any momentary The task of bringing relief to Europe, let alone
gain. In 1917 he staked his own and Lenin’s prosperity, will be colossal. There is no doubt
political future, the fate of the Soviet Revolution, that Stalin will be prepared to co-operate with
upon the right of nations to break away from our Democracies in this work. But at the same
the Soviets. It is absolutely inconceivable that time he will be faced with the enormous job of
after Hitler is defeated Stalin will start “adding” rebuilding the ruined territories of the Soviet
to the Soviet Union by using the Red Army to Union.
take over weakened countries. We might just as Once upon a time it was generally believed that
well expect that he will call upon the Soviet Re­ socialist nations and capitalist nations could not
publics to do away with socialism and establish exist side by side in the same world, without war
capitalism! Both notions are preposterous. to the death. That belief was the very basis of
We come to the second point. the Axis, with its anti-Communist pact and its
“crusade” against the Soviet Union. Many states­
This is extremely important. It reveals what men and their people fell victims to this false
Stalin’s attitude will be towards post-war Europe. doctrine.
It was largely the discontent among nationalities
and minorities that enabled Hitler to undermine Today our capitalist nations not only* exist
European Democracy. Look where we may, we side by side with the Soviet Union but fight side
cannot find a program as clear and realistic as by side, as the United Nations. And what is our
Stalin’s: to guarantee all nationalities and minor­ aim? The unconditional surrender of the common
ities every freedom and right enjoyed by the ma­ enemy of all nations—socialist and capitalist—the
jority in each country. unholy crusading Axis, so that we can win for
mankind a future of lasting peace.
Ask a Pole who has lived in Austria if this
means freedom. Ask a Ukrainian who has suf­ Hundreds of millions of human beings raise
fered Polish rule. Ask a Jew who has lived in their heads at the sound of those sacred words
Germany! To these minority peoples the concep­ . . . lasting peace.
tion of enjoying every freedom and right pos­
sessed by the ruling nation is like a fantasy out Can it be true? Can we have a world from
of a dream, a heavenly hope. They cannot believe which the devastation and agony and flaming
that such freedom is possible on earth. death of war are banished?
Stalin, born of a nation that began defending Already we can hear the whisperers at work.
its freedom before the birth of Christ, the Geor­ Listen to them:
gian nation that resisted every great tyrant from "Stalin hates peace! He brought about this
Alexander to Hitler, Stalin has made this drcam war. He wants war to continue, so that more
of minority freedom a reality on earth. It is a countries will be weakened and fall easy prey to
simple fact established beyond question that every Communism. Stalin is fighting on our side today
single one of the 169 nationalities, races and only because the Soviets were attacked. Tomor­
minorities in the Soviet Union enjoys the fullest row Stalin will turn against us. When Hitler is
equality of freedom and rights and privileges. defeated we will have to fight Russia!”
Stalin strived for this ever since 1905. Today it
is a reality for two hundred million liberated Then which is it to be: lasting peace, or war
people. against the Soviets?
Paso Forty-two STALIN'S LIFE
 CHAPTER XI Stalin saw his warning greeted by acornful
sneers. In amazement he- heard famous states­
Numberless statesmen men advocate “hands oil” Japan and Germany.
THE FIGHT and expert observers In 1931 Stalin decided that the Soviet Union
have given us their ver­ should no longer remain simply a.i outside critic
FOR of the Dcmocraciibut should join the League of
sions of how this war be­
PEACE gan. The fateful events Nations and work ac tively with its member coun­
of recent years have been tries. Work for what? To expose the plans of
gone over again and again, each time with a dif­ Hitler and the Japanese. To place every possible
ferent interpretation. We begin to believe that obstacle in the path of the war makers. To keep
we know by heart the terrible drama of our gen­ the world, at pt ace.
eration, the awful tragedy that led to the destruc­ That was Stalin’s thought. Litvinoff, his rep­
tion of the world’s precious peace. resentative at Geneva, made the League of Na­
We have listened to Czechs, Poles, Danes, tions delegates speechless with amazement when
Italians, Dutch, two kinds of Frenchmen, the Chi­ he advanced Stalin’s plan to keep peace: total
nese, the British and our own explanations. destruction of all war equipment in every country.
Roars of laughter soon greeted this proposal,
Perhaps it is time for us to listen to Stalin. Stalin read in the world press that the Soviet
We have found so many unusual events and Union wanted disarmament because it was afraid
accomplishments and predictions in Stalin’s life of what was coming.
that it would be very interesting indeed to see if A few months passed. What came? Mussolini,
this man has anything to say about war and peace. the bellowing, self-appointed defender of the
During the last ten years Stalin has spoken his Christian world, sent his Fascist legions out to
mind quite frankly. In fact so frankly that we slaughter the Christian people of Ethiopia. This
can actually perform the fascinating feat of enter­ was not war against Russia. It was war that
ing Stalin’s mind to think his thoughts about the threatened Britain's African interests. Stalin
great events that have shaken the world to its saw that it was really a war to test the Democra­
very core. cies, to see if they would awaken to the hidden
Let us begin in 1933. That year, while Stalin plans of the warmakers. They did not. The
was busy guiding the swift progress of his indus­ League of Nations was sabotaged by the Demo­
trial and farm plans in the Soviet Union, he saw cracies. Stalin’s efforts to save Ethiopia—coun­
the rest of the world desperately striving to escape try that did not even have a Communist Party-—
from a depression crisis. He saw Hitler’s street was branded “red propaganda.” People who rose
gangs march to power and then proceed to exter­ up in democratic countries and called for the de­
minate German democracy. Stalin carefully noted fense of Ethiopia, for the defense of peace, were
that while Hitler screamed to the world that his branded “reds.” Shrewdly the Nazis and their
Brown Shirts were killing only Jews and com­ fellow-conspirators began to link peace with Com­
munists, really the Nazis -were wiping out mod­ munism, so that peace would be discredited, so
erate socialists, liberals of all kinds, conservatives that the road to war could be cleared.
who saw nothing conservative about organized Thus Hitler’s deadly poison tool: hold. He pre­
terrorism, capitalists who believed in free enter­ pared a monster dose. With, a blaze of publicity
prise, Catholics and Protestants as well as Jews. he announced that Germany, Italy and Japan had
While this went on the Japanese ruling clique united in the “Anti-Communist Axis” to save the
withdrew from the League of Nations and at­ world from Communism. Traitorous Quislings in
tacked the Chinese territory of Manchuria. each Democracy responded by hailing this alliance
Immediately Stalin made public his thoughts. as the one hope of the capitalist world.
He warned the world that the deadly infection of Within a year the Axis put the capitalist
war had broken out in two centres: in Europe nations to a final test: by setting up General
and in the Far East. And his mind saw through Franco and in his name declaring open war
the vicious scheme of Hitler and the Japs . , . against the democratic capitalist Republic of
they were going to soothe the Democracies into Spain. Behind the transparent lie that this was
thinking that Germany and Japan intended to a “civil war” to save Spain from Communism,
crush the Soviet Union and divide its land be­ Hitler and Mussolini poured troops, tanks, guns
tween them, while leaving other nations a’oi e. and planes to Franco’s Fascist army.
Stalin was convinced that the Germans and Japa­ The Axis succeeded. With inhuman brutal in­
nese had but one aim. To plunge the whole world difference Britain, America, France, Canada and
into war so that the richest nations wo; id fall other Democracies stood by while the valiant
easy prey to their imperialist ic blow s. Spanish people died victims of the Axis “test
STALIN’S LIFE Pago Korty-thrwe
war.” Governments repeated like parrots the against Stalin and the Soviets. The very people
Axis excuse that Stalin was aiding Republican who had supported Hitler for leading the world
Spain: therefore it must be Communist! All into war against Russia now turned a complete
Stalin’s speeches to the contrary were laughed to somersault: they damned Stalin as an interna­
scorn. The Soviet leader studied the world and tional criminal because he prevented Russia from
saw only a few leaders of state, church and press being destroyed.
who were not duped. He warned that the fright­ Of course Stalin saw through this new Nazi
ful mass bombings of Spanish Christian civilians smoke-screen. Its purpose was to paralyze the
would be repeated with a hundred times the hor­ Democracies still further, to turn their hatred of
ror ... not on Moscow alone but on the great cities Axis treachery into hatred of the Soviet Union,.
of Europe. so that they would fall easier victims to the blitz.
Stalin, who is accused of hatintj peace, never It was impossible for Stalin to combat this Axis
ceased to defend peace, and to jipht the Axis war­ propaganda, for it won almost universal accept­
makers. ance from the democratic press, pulpit and plat­
In 1938 Stalin saw World Peace marched to form.
the gallows. Hitler held one arm of the victim, Hitler swept through Poland. Chamberlain
Chamberlain the other. The order of execution made his futile declaration of war. The Red
was signed at Munich. With unbelievable frank­ Army moved into the Western Ukraine that had
ness the world’s anti-Soviet conspirators told the been seized by Poland twenty years ago. The cry
people that Czecho-Slovakia must be betrayed to went up that Stalin had begun to divide up the
Fascism, in order to save Democracy and turn world with Hitler ... a cry raised by Hitler’s
the Axis against the Soviet Union. own mouthpieces everywhere.
By this time nothing could surprise Stalin. What did Stalin think?
Even so, it was hard to believe that the Demo­ His thoughts were perfectly sound. Winston
cracies would swallow Chamberlain’s ghastly Churchill, almost alone among democratic leaders,
Munich hypocrisy promising “twenty years of understood Stalin’s purposes in 1939; he justified
peace.” Not everyone did. But the protesters the Soviet recapture of Ukrainian territory from
were dismissed as war-making “reds.” Now the Poland, and the Red Army’s march into the
sneer was losing some of its effect. Panic seized Balkans.
every country. Suppose Stalin was right? Sup­
pose the Axis was preparing to hurl its gigantic This policy Stalin was following when he
annies not against the Soviets but against the warned Finland against further preparations for
Democracies! war against Russia, and when he finally decided
to destroy the Finnish Mannerheim Line. But the
Hitler was ready to march in 1939. Stalin Democracies were once again blinded by Axis agi­
realized that the world’s zero hour had come. He tation. Even as they faced the threat of immi­
offered to send the Red Army to defend Poland nent attack by Hitler they diverted their forces
against Hitler, even though Poland -had for twenty and public opinion by declaring themselves openly
years viciously schemed against the Soviets. Stalin on Finland’s side. British and French and Amer­
had no intention of “grabbing” Poland—he was ican aid was rushed to this ally of the Axis, while
prepared to defend it jointly with the Demo­ military operations against Germany slowed to
cracies. the pace of the “sit-down” war behind the Maginot
Then along with this offer Stalin grimly Line.
warned the democratic world that the Soviet In this period Hitler gathered his forces for
Union would fight together with other powers to the crushing blitzkrieg blow against Democracy.
destroy the warmaking Axis but would never be His propaganda had succeeded beyond the wildest
offered as a sacrifice to the Axis. Axis hopes. All the great powers had swallowed
The warning was rejected. Stalin’s offer to the Nazi myth about a coming onslaught against
help defend Poland was “premature.” . the Soviet Union.
Hitler now showed his cards. He had never The blow fell in 1940. It was not against
planned to attack the Soviets. He offered Stalin Russia. The Wehrmacht rolled over Denmark,
the famous Peace Pact. It was accepted. Norway, Holland, Belgium and France, culminat­
Never had such a diplomatic blow been de­ ing in the heroic British evacuation of Dunkirk.
livered so unexpectedly. Stalin naturally expected Almost all of Europe looked up to see the swastika
that this Pact would finally awaken the Demo­ flying over the ruins of cities, the fields of dead
cracies to the Axis menace. But the Quislings had women and children. England frantically pre­
carefully prepared. All around the world they pared for invasion. ,
launched an overwhelming campaign of hatred Nothing remained but the Channel between
Pace Forty-four STALIN’S LIFE
Hitler’s victorious legions and England’! v. : the Pact backed up by the Red Army.
army and air force. The war was nearing a ter­ Months before Hitler miirehed against Russia,
rible end. the Soviet paper lied Star gave Stalin’s thoughts
At this moment Stalin actually entered the on the situation—pointing out that th*; threatened
war on the side of the Democracies. At this mo­ invasion of England was a thing of the past and
ment Stalin took the decisive action that saved that the full brunt of the war would soon be
England. The Red. Army marched into the Bal­ borne by Russia. Stalin then succeeded Molotov
kans, into Bukovina and Bessarabia, and raised as Premier of the Soviet Union (Chairman of the
in Hitler’s face the spectre of war on the Eastern Council of People’s Commissars). And the Axis
Front. propagandists, using the notorious Russian traitor
Is this Stalin’s explanation of why Hitler made Alexander Kerensky as their mouthpiece, an­
the incredible “blunder” of not invading England nounced to the world that Stalin was taking su­
while she was helpless after Dunkirk? preme command in order to join forces with
It is. There was no "blunder.” Hitler no Hitler for the final crushing of Democracy!
longer was able to invade England. A year later, Now that the doom of the Axis lias been sealed
on June 23rd, 1941, Hitler himself, in declaring these creatures are preparing a new campaign.
war against the Soviet Union, in trying desper­ We are fighting for a People’s World. They are
ately to explain to his people why he had begun plotting for a world ruled by degenerate criminals
the fatal “war on two fronts,” laid the whole such as Franco, the Polish Pans, the Four Hun­
blame upon Stalin w'ho had created an Eastern dred Families of France. We are planning to
Front after Dunkirk, a Second Front for the guarantee a lasting peace by permanent under­
Democracies, and had thus brought the whole standing and co-operation between the United
Axis campaign to a halt. Nations. Thej- are conspiring to breed the germs
Such are the facts. of another war before victory is half won in this.
Stalin, who is accused today of being on our It is no accident of history that in the gravest
side only because the Soviets were attacked in struggle ever waged against tyranny by freedom-
19JH, actually turned the war from the West to loving peoples, three great leaders command our
the East in 19^0. destiny: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. These men
have one burning hatred. They hate war.
To accuse Stalin of joining forces with the
Democracies only when Hitler declared war on The United Nations are fighting for peace, for
Russia is exactly the same as parroting the Axis the right of all nations to live peacefully in the
lie that America joined forces with the Demo­ same world, whether they be socialist or capital­
cracies only when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. ist. Such a peace is ours to win, and those who
raise the fear of war to come against the Soviets
Then why did Stalin ever sign the Pact with are betraying the victory, committing treason
Germany? We do not need to penetrate Stalin’s against the People’s World. A hundred times
so-called “mysterious Asiatic mind” to fathom out Stalin has exposed this baseless fear with words
the answer. It is perfectly obvious. The Pact was and deeds.
signed to keep peace on the Eastern Front until
the Soviet Union could prepare to withstand the
terrible forces Hitler w’as mobilizing all over con­
quered Europe. Just as the United States required CHAPTER XII
time to prepare before Roosevelt could risk an
Axis attack on South America! In the meantime We have briefly covered
Roosevelt could do no more than pour supplies the highlights of Stalin’s
to England. In the meantime Stalin brought up STALIN: past: his main achieve­
armies to face Hitler with an Eastern Front ail THE MAN ments, how he came to
the way from the Baltic to the Balkans. be leader of the Soviet
Just as Britain was unable to aid Russia by 'Union and a world fa­
launching a full-scale invasion of Europe in 1941 mous figure. Still, our understanding of him is
and 1942, but had to limit herself to the defensive that of a far-off beholder.
Battle of Britain and to bombings, so Russia was For it is one thing to become acquainted with
unable to-march against the Axis in the critical a man by looking down through the distance of
months of 1940, and had to limit herself to his whole lifetime, and quite apother thing to
invasion of Lithuania, Esthonia, Latvia, Bukovina meet him, to observe him in the present, as he
and Bessarabia. lives.
Churchill’s defense was the English Channel Very few jieople from our countries have met
defended by the Ih.yal Navy. Stalin’s defense wa Stalin. But today how many millions of us w ould
STALIN’S LIFE Ptge Forty-five
be stirred with the most intense curiosity and tailored and closely fitting, of fine-weave cloth.
eagerness if we were suddenly olfcred an oppor­ Usually this cloth is gray. But often it is a soft
tunity to come face to face with the Supreme green or a faintly pink shade. The trousers too
Commander of the lied Army, Marshal Stalin! may be of yellow, blue or even pink whipcord!
That is not oven a remote possibility for you Such tints are quite common in Russian men’s
and me. But suppose we stretch our imaginations clothing, but they never fail to catch the foreign
—from where we sit, all the way to Moscow where visitor’s eye. Stalin’s uniform is completed by
Stalin lives. Just for a moment pretend that we high black polished boots. Contrary to appear­
are actually going to be taken to meet the Marshal. ances in the movies, when seen first hand his
We don’t want simply to stare at him. We want clothing is neat and immaculate. But he wears
to make the most of our unique opportunity. And not a single ornament or decoration of any kind.
co beforehand we try to discover everything we Only in summer is the uniform markedly varied.
possibly can about Stalin as he is today, in order Then it is of white linen.
to be at least a little prepared for the meeting. Several times in this book we have had
Many valuable facts we can get from others, glimpses of the younger Stalin. Harry Hopkins
people who have lived or worked or discussed describes him thus today: “He is built close to
affairs of state within the Kremlin walls. the ground, like a football coach’s dream of a
tackle.” Now in his mid-sixties, Stalin could
First, the Kremlin itself. It is not a palace, hardly be expected to try a workout on the grid­
but actually a small town inside Moscow, built iron. But everyone agrees that today he bears
for the Czars and surrounded by a high stone no resemblance to the youth who was once de­
wall. The Kremlin is a very curious place. On scribed as frail and slight. Marshal Stalin is
arriving there, what would surprise us most would about five and a half feet tall, stocky and mus­
be the brightly painted red and green towers of cular. His head is large, his face massive and
ancient Russian style, making the 'walled town resolute. Familiar to the whole world now are
oddly colorful. And then side by side with the his outstanding features: the luxuriant black
very old churches and palaces we would see mod­ silvering hair and moustache, the thick curved
ernistic buildings. In many of these newer struc­ eyebrows, and the large, deep-set eyes.
tures are the apartments and offices of important
Soviet government officials. If we were to meet Stalin now, quite likely he
would be alone, or with some official and an inter­
Stalin lives in such an apartment. Even when preter. For the Marshal is twice a widower. His
all his family was together, Stalin’s “suite” con­ .first marriage we have mentioned; and his first
sisted of only three small rooms and a separate son, named Jaschka, serves in the army. In 1919
dining-room. It was so crowded that his older Stalin married a second time. Then his bride was
son had to sleep on a couch in the dining-room. Nadya Allilviev, a beautiful Georgian.
But it is characteristic of Stalin that he refused
to take more spacious quarters while living accom­ There were two children by this second mar­
modation was so difficult to find for Moscow’s riage. Vasili, the boy, is now 23. The daughter
rapidly growing population. The Kremlin apart­ Svetlana is eighteen. Their lives are private and
ment is old fashioned when compared with modern they do not take part with their father in state
homes on this continent. The decorations and functions. Their mother died in 1932. Although
furnishings are plain and well worn. she remained outside public life Nadya had a
wide circle of friends. Strangely enough, few of
Such is Stalin’s home. If we were to meet him these friends knew the identity of the young
there it is not likely that the surroundings would Georgian woman’s husband. After her children
make us feel ill at ease. But. . . suppose the criti­ passed infancy, Nadya attended technical school
cal moment arrived and a door opened and the and entered the All Union Industrial Academy.
Marshal walked in to greet us! There she gained recognition as an able student.
Undoubtedly we would immediately notice his But for obvious reasons only the directors of the
clothes. Certainly Marshal Stalin’s uniform can­ Academy were made aware of the fact that her
not compare with the glittering costume that husband lived in the Kremlin. At the time of her
covers Marshal Goering’s bulk, or the fancy-work death Nadya was preparing to take an executive
of Marshal Petain’s regalia. It is a bewildering position in the Soviet rayon industry. Her sudden
fact to many observers that Stalin is the only fatal illness shocked her fellow-students, whose
supreme commander in the world whose uniform grief was deepened when at the funeral they
is actually plainer and simpler than that of a learned for the first time that she was Stalin’s
private soldier in his army. But his suit is differ­ wife.
ent, even surprising. The familiar high necked This second bereavement tightened the bonds
tunic, which we have all seen in the newsreels, is between Stalin and his children, although for
page Forty-six , STALIN’S LIFE
 many years his fondness for youngsters hai; been been remarked by all visitor.,:. Above everything
remarked by all who know him. Stalin instantly el.'.o this man enjoys a joke.
makes friends with young folk, and the Kremlin But this does not mean that wo would find
apartment has been the scene of many gay chil­ Stalin to be a brilliant humorist or a man who
dren’s parties. Often there were orphans living tries to radiate personality and bluff friendship.
temporarily in Stalin’s home. And this side of the Lord Beaverbrook called Stalin simply “a straight­
Marshal’s nature was vividly summed up by the shooter” and nearly all observers have noted that
famous biographer Emil Ludwig when he aston­ the Marshal is quite without affectation, that he
ished the world by saying that lie would readily never seeks to impress anyone groat or small.
confide the education of his children to Stalin. Nevertheless in the last two years the Soviet
Another great man has given us a broader Union’s leader has tremendously impressed even
and even more surprising opinion of the Soviet those who had been most dubious of his talent
leader. Said ex-Ambassador Joseph Davies: “If and personal qualities. All have agreed that
you can picture a personality that is exactly oppo­ Stalin’s friendliness, knowledge, sincerity and
site to what the most rabid anti-Stalinist any­ simplicity arouse immediate and lasting confi­
where could conceive, then you might picture the dence.
man.” “I never met a man," said George Bernard
That remark is significant. But it is hardly Shaw, “who could talk so well and yet was less
an intimate picture. If we were privileged to live in a hurry to talk than Stalin.”
with Stalin for a day, many of his characteristics Stalin makes fewer speeches than most states­
would reveal his inner nature to us. For example, men. And yet he is able to talk without rest and
he is an almost tireless worker, frequently putting with unflagging vigor for as long as four hour;:.
in 18 hours a day, sometimes staying at his desk He has learned to use the microphone to fullest
until four in the morning. This capacity for work advantage, so that even in the largest convention
enables him to attend personally to an incredible hall he rarely lifts his voice above the level of
amount of detailed planning, study and corre­ ordinary conversation. When Stalin delivers a
spondence. Much of his time is spent reading speech he sounds like an engineer or doctor read­
letters that come not only from prominent Soviet ing a precise scientific report, except that what
executives but also from ordinary men and women he says is phrased in words simple enough to be
and even children; a great many very valuable grasped without strain by the audience. To hold
ideas and serious complaints have been sent the attention of his listeners he must rely entirely
directly to the Kremlin by people without any upon the emphatic meaning of his words, for he
official positions. And it is a fact that Stalin lacks all the abilities of an orator; he uses no
does not sign letters written by secretaries; either sonorous phrases and makes no gestures.
the reply is undertaken by someone else or the
Marshal himself dictates it. The same applies to Our picture is almost as complete as we can
his articles and speeches. All of these are Stalin’s make it. Just two more quick glimpses.
personal work exclusively. He has had a long How does Joseph Stalin regard himself? He
journalistic career, and his clear, simple style is has repeatedly been called a dictator. We know
easily recognized. what a sublime opinion Der Fuehrer has of his
In the midst of this exacting work, relaxation own “intuition,” and how II Duce can puff him­
plays a very important part. When pondering a self up with self-worship. Has Stalin developed
difficult problem Stalin will pause and invite a any dictatorial ego?
colleague to play a game of chess. To forget Once in warning to those who might be ‘in­
worry he enjoys the theater, especially ballet. At clined to let their heads swell with success and
times he reads classics translated from all lan­ the praise of their associates Stalin remarked
guages. And before the war Stalin’s favorite out­ dryly: “Of every hundred decisions an individual
door recreation was exactly the same as that of makes, ninety are wrong.” And he left no doubt
nearly all North Americans — motoring in the that he meant this remark to apply to his own
countryside. experience.
Stalin has never had a nervous or physical
breakdown. Foi’ two decades he has borne enw- Now, our final look.
mous, unceasing responsibility. Long training for Imagine that we have attended a Soviet con­
work under difficult condition.- liv- vention. It is the occasion of some imjxirtant
mg, have enabled him to endure this gruelling event. A prominent speaker has just delivered a
test. Even today in the almost unbearable stress long and inspired address, and he has ended it
of war Stalin’s calmness and good humor have with words of most enthusiastic praise for Stalin.
STALIN’S LIFE Page Furiy sov a
closing with’ a stirring cry: "Long live our be­ suffered as a fugitive, he knew hunger, cold, im­
loved loader, Comrade Stalin’” prisonment, torture, exile.
Stalin has listened to the speech, to the praise, And after the Revolution had been won, in
without a sign. At the last words the whole audi­ the years when the young Soviet nations were
ence rises to clap with almost deafening ardor. famished, Joseph Stalin ate hard black bread in
To our amazement Stalin also stands up. He rises his Kremlin rooms, sharing the people’s fare as
to his fact and vigorously applauds too! he had in Baku and Kureika.
This lias often happened. Many foreign visit­ And after the Soviet power had grown might­
ors have stared in unbelieving astonishment at ily, no haughty arrogance was kindled in Stalin.
the Soviet Union’s supposedly self-effacing leader The simplicity of his dress, his speech, his life
standing to do himself honor in public. remained unaltered, his devotion to the work of
changing the people’s world never wavered.
The explanation of this gesture gives us the
very keenest insight into Stalin the Man. And after the Soviets had created immense
new wealth, Stalin built no palaces for Stalin.
Stalin is the living human symbol of the Soviet None of the giant Russian mills and factories
Union. He is the symbolic personality of that paid their socialist dividends to him. No foreign
vast socialist land. He is the man whose steel banks piled up secret profits for the day when
conviction and tenacity are but tokens of the Stalin would flee from the U.S.S.R.
faith and purpose inspiring two hundred million
human souls who changed their world. And after the Soviet armed forces had become
among the greatest in the world, no blustering
When Stalin rises to respond, he stands to threats of conquest came from Stalin. The Red
honor and applaud the Soviet people—not himself. Army fulfilled the pledged honor of the man who
This is Stalin the Man. had created it: Stalin’s word that its purpose was
the defense of peace and the people’s land.
On some not too distant day he will stand up Can such a man be understood in terms of
to applaud Marshal Stalin, one of the great war­ enmity, mistrust or fear? Can he be compre­
rior chiefs of the United Nations, on the occasion hended by those who would read into his mind
of final triumph over the Nazi-Fascist brigands. their own small cunnings and intrigues?
And on that great day Stalin will be doing honor
not only to the Soviet people but to all peoples We have seen Stalin as an intellectual of the
who defended freedom, our people, the humble people, the organizer of the Soviet people’s might,
unknown millions of all the continents who toiled the defender of their land, the foe of all then’
and who died heroically to rescue the human race enemies, the realistic planrier of theii- daring and
from the barbarian conspirators. unbounded vision of what this world might be.
Stalin is the Man who symbolizes the immense We should never forget that Stalin is an ideal­
power and willing friendship of the Soviet people, ist, truly an engineer of dreams. Within him,
our allies in this war. But in the days to come deeper than realism, burns an unquenchable faith.
let us strive for closer understanding of the man Together with the Soviet people we today are
himself. The picture of Stalin as a remote, aus­ waging terrible war against the creatures who
tere being who guides the destiny of one-sixth of sought to extinguish every trace of faith from all
the world with cold, aloof, intolerant purpose— men. Tomorrow it shall be our task, to create
such a picture blinds us to the very source of enduring peace out of the dark uncertainties to
Stalin’s greatness. The, deep abiding inspiration come, so that from the war’s heartbreaking death
of his life is the idealism of his passionate faith and ruination will arise a new and splendid living
in humanity. world. May we prove equal to this historic duty,
Joseph Jugashvili, who from childhood had the greatest of all purposes the human race ever
known the bitter taste of poverty, did not hesitate has dared to conceive 1
to forsake the comforts of a scholar’s life. The Our need is for sustaining faith far nobler
youth who could so easily have escaped the per­ than any embraced by narrow creeds or systems.
secution suffered by the Georgian race, severed Such a faith we can clearly see in Stalin’s life.
himself from all clerical privilege. Freely and
without fanaticism the youth Koba gave his tal­ people, For Stalin believes in the righteousness of the
ents to the people. He chose as his career to in the irresistible and approaching final
change the world. Dauntlessly he marched with triumph of human good over inhuman evil.
the people against the despots. For his ideal he Stalin is the Man who believes in Mankind.
Pago Forty-eight STALIN’S LIFE
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