[offlist] Operation Barbarossa: The 75th Anniversary of the Nazi Invasion of the Soviet Union

Rayzer rayzer at riseup.net
Mon Jun 27 10:46:03 PDT 2016


On 06/27/2016 08:36 AM, John Newman wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 08:10:26AM -0700, Rayzer wrote:
>> There's historical evidence to dispute the concept that Stalin was "Mad".
>>
>> A biography written about a decade ago included a conversation between
>> Stalin, and his son, who was influence peddling the family name. To the
>> best of my recollection the convo went like this:
>>
>> Stalin to his son: "You are not "Stalin". I am not "Stalin". "Stalin" is
>> that person you hear about on the radio and read about in the newspapers"
>>
>> Josef Stalin was aware that his persona had been hijacked and he was not
>> in charge of all events that were occurring in his name. Compare to
>> Hitler, who was thoroughly delusional.
>
> I'm not familiar with the anecdote you mention, but it sounds like
> he was acknowledging his own cult of personality..  Anyway, I was
> being  slightly hypberbolic when I said "mad".
>
> I read a biography of Stalin like 6 months ago by a guy named
> Khlevniuk, and the picture of Koba was not one of insanity per se..
> but he was filled with paranoia, extremely crafty, and took a "kill
> first" policy with anyone that could possibly pose a threat.  He
> was actually planning a bunch of Jewish pogroms when he died in 53.
> Beria was said to have danced in glee around the still-living but
> paralyzed Stalin after his fatal stroke... of course, Beria was one
> sick puppy himself.
>

The anecdote was mentioned on Doug Henwood's [lbo-talk] list quite a few
years ago when the bio (author unknown to me now... fog of time, was
mentioned in the post) was first published. I was paraphrasing, but it's
a close paraphrase.

Rr

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/attachments/20160627/d1034183/attachment-0003.sig>


More information about the cypherpunks mailing list