Josef Stalin: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''An ungainly dwarf of a man passed through gilded and marbled imperial halls, and a path opened before him; radiant, admiring glances followed him, while the ears of courtiers strained to catch his every word. And he, sure of himself and his works, obviously paid no attention to all this. His country was in ruins, hungry, exhausted. But his armies and marshals, heavy with fat and medals and drunk with vodka and victory, had already trampled half of Europe under foot, and he was convinced they would trample over the other half in the next round. He knew that he was one of the cruelest, most despotic figures in human history. But this did not worry him a bit, for he was convinced that he was carrying out the will of history.''|Milovan Djilas <ref>Yugoslav communist theorist who later got exiled from his country</ref>, Conversations With Stalin (1962) }}

 

 

Before [[Red October]], he had an interesting and colorful early life. After dropping out of an Orthodox seminary, he helped the Bolsheviks by robbing banks (for which he did time in jail) [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and writing poetry]]. His role in [[Red October]] wasn't large at all - at least, according to [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky.]] He was put in charge of the Bolshevik Party's newspaper and organizational matters, which were background but fairly important jobs. He may have been late for the Revolution, but it didn't end in one night.

In other words, [[History Marches On]], perhaps subverting many of the tropes listed below - specifically [[Almighty Janitor]], [[Foreshadowing]], [[From Nobody to Nightmare]], and [[Kicked Upstairs]] (subversions are noted).

 

* [[Abusive Parents|Abusive Father]] - [[Generation Xerox|Had one, and]] ''[[Generation Xerox|was]]'' [[Generation Xerox|one.]]

** To [["Well Done, Son" Guy|his biological son]]? Definitely. To his adopted son (whose father was a friend and a hero of the revolution)? See trope directly below. When said adopted son accidentally ''shot'' and nearly killed him, Stalin... [[Pet the Dog|simply decided to spend some quality time with him, teaching him how to shoot properly]].

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: As noted above, Western luminaries like H.G. Wells and Beatrice Webb gushed about the Soviet Union. Needless to say, Stalin played each and every one of them like a fiddle.

* [[Vampire Tropes]] : There are no mirrors in Stalin's palace. Make of that what you will.

* [[Vetinari Job Security]]: More recent analysis by Russian playwright and historian Edvard Radzinski suggests that Stalin did this at the start of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler's]] invasion, to see what his minions would do without him as a means of testing their loyalty. The results were fairly predictable, namely that they all came grovelling to him and asking him to lead them.

* [[Villain Ball]] - The mass purges he ordered made little political or even economical sense, as at that point it had become practically impossible to oppose the government anyway. For the most part, exterminating a large percentage of the country's population [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|merely caused the national economy to break down.]]

** He was also a poet in his earlier days; and later (or so the word goes) helped one of the academics he had arrested translate a Georgian epic into Russian, among other things. And he was also very fond of [[Worthy Opponent|White Guard]] war songs.

 

 

* In ''[[Animal Farm]]'', Napoleon is clearly meant to be Stalin. A scene where all the animals ducked from an explosion was changed to have Napoleon stand firm - Orwell hated Stalin, but acknowledged that his staying in Moscow when it would be far easier to leave showed that for all his monstrosity and enormous flaws, he did have some balls.

** Likewise, [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]] is (according to [[Word of God|Word Of Goddess]]) a combination of both Stalin & Hitler's worst traits.

* In Arthur Koestler's novel ''[[Darkness At Noon]]'', he's referred as "Number One".

* Makes several appearances in [[Alternate History]] stories by [[Harry Turtledove]]:

** In TL-191, he's one of the leaders of the Communist fighters in Tsaritsyn (which became Stalingrad in our timeline - [[Historical In-Joke]]), being referred to by the Western media as "The Man of Steel", the literal translation of "Stalin". In the end, the Communists lose and Tsarism is reasserted.

*** Which is a fairly accurate picture of what he was really doing at the time. Stalingrad was in fact named after him BEFORE his rise to power due to his command of the city's defense and his eventual victory over the besieging Whites.

** In the short story "Joe Steele", his family emigrates to America and he becomes a dictatorial politician in the USA.

** In the ''Darkness'' series, which is basically [[WW 2]] with [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]s, Stalin's equivalent is the mad King Swemmel of Unkerlant, who had his twin brother Kyot (analogue of Trotsky) murdered.

* The ''[[Samurai Cat]]'' books have him and Hitler as relatively genial buddies, oddly. [[World War II]] was just a bet between them to see who could kill more Russians; the loser ended up working for the winner. {{spoiler|And they all became werewolves. Even Hitler. And, oddly, neither Tomokato nor Shiro could kill him.}} For the series being very loose with reality and history (a samurai who's heard of the Chicago Cubs ''in 16th century Japan'', while discussing their awfulness with Prohibition-era gangsters).

* In the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' superhero setting, Stalin's death is shrouded in mystery; there's a rumour that he was done in by one of his aides after turning into a vampire.

* In [[GURPS]] ''Technomancer'', Stalin did not die in 1953, he was merely put into magical stasis-sleep-type-thing [[King in the Mountain|to be awakened when Motherland will be in danger]]. He awoke in 1996, after Communism fell, and started a civil war to oust democrats and capitalists from his country.

* In the 1938 musical ''Leave it to Me!'', Stalin appears at the end of the first act to give "Comrade Alonzo" (the American ambassador) a kiss on the cheek.

* In ''[[Civilization]] IV'', Stalin is one of the possible leaders of Russia. As an AI, he's kind of a hardass, and it's hard to stay on his good side for long.

 

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[[Category:Politicians]]

[[Category:Historical Domain Character]]

[[Category:Authors]]