Episode 2: Stalin After Dark

This one’s a good Russian history review for me. I’d seen Death of Stalin, but am pretty rusty on the historic details of the era. Interesting Stalin went up against Hitler and won. Obviously a terrible person, but a really interesting character—activist from a young age, then exiled to Siberia, then a bank robber for the party. His relationships with his wives are really interesting. His years in charge are just bonkers—all the drinking to ridiculous excess, the paranoia, the murderous purges, the starving 4 million peasants, the way he was a sex symbol.

The personality profile I got out of this was that Stalin was first a manipulative, angry and vindictive. But his inner life appears to have a sensitive side, like some of these dictators do—threatened to kill himself after second wife died, loved books (childhood favorite was Darwin’s Origin of Species), became editor of Pravda and would later regret some of his purges. Like some of the other dictators he knew he wanted to be a dictator from a young age (“I will learn from and correct Napolean’s mistakes.”). Had a good sense of humor and was a prankster. I sort of wonder if he was bipolar—for example how years of friendship could be instantly erased by a single slight.

It’s strange how we don’t know details on some pivotal events (if Stalin cheated on 2nd wife, why 2nd wife killed herself). The random stuff with him is really the best part of this episode. How he captioned cartoons and stuff. The drunken years are especially hilarious.

Notes

• guest host: Brandie Posey
• “maybe most successful dictator of all time”
• history stuff
  • J Stal cliffs notes
    • 1924 - took over Soviet Union after Lenin died
    • purged a bunch of people
    • starved a million more people (‘32-‘33)
    • killed 6-9M people (right under hilter in number of people killed)
    • went up against Hitler & won
    • childhood
      • Stalin later said he had a terrible childhood
      • born in Georgia
        • like “middle of nowhere Oklahoma”
        • whole life had the Russian equivalent of a rural accent
      • parents
        • dad was a cobbler
        • both parent beat him
        • mom said she beat him “because she had to govern her unruly treasure”
        • dad was usually not in the picture
      • physically
        • he was short, but very attractive
        • one arm two inches shorter than other because he was run over by a horse & buggy
      • activities
        • liked books
          • loved Darwin’s Origin of Species
          • read Napolean & said he’d avoid Napoleon’s mistakes
        • successful in “low level gang warfare”
        • joined bolshevik party at around 16
      • education/jobs
        • dropped out of school at 14
        • oil refinery warehouse job
      • organized protests that clashed with police
        • arrested in 1902
        • exiled to siberia
          • wasn’t actually terrible (one of best periods of his live)
          • sent to live in small town in middle of nowhere
          • given a stipend
          • for the rest of his life told a story about this era where he was skiing, killed 12 partridges & almost froze to death on way back
  • 1907 (29 years old)
    • Boshevism
      • Bolsheviks were fighting to overthrow the czar, were broke and the fighting wasn’t going well
      • Stalin was influential in Bolshevik party (Lenin thought Stalin could “get shit done”)
      • Bank robbery
        • Stalin & friend Camo planned to rob a bank to get money for the Bolsheviks
        • threw gernades & bombs when the money truck arrived
        • made off with the money ($3M in modern dollards)
        • had killed 40-50 people
        • most of the money was useless (brand new bills that government had records of)
    • Wife died
      • Stalin said his faith in humanity died
  • 1912
    • Became editor of Pravda
    • Started using nom de revolucion, “Stalin” (“Steel”)
  • 1914 - WW1, didn’t go well for czarist Russia
  • 1917 - czar overthrown, civil war began, Bolsheviks end up in charge. Lenin rules for awhile, then dies
  • 1919
    • marries 2nd wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva
    • had a son & daughter
    • loved her, but busy professionals, we separated often. missed her
  • 1924
    • Stalin in sort of in charge, shared power with magnates
    • Death of Stalin covers this era
      • Stalin, Molenkov, Krushev, Molotov - sort of a “cabinet”, friends in their 30s, mostly self educated, lived in same building, worked together, partied together, dated in same cirlces
    • Became a sex symbol
      • this hurt his marraige,
      • nadya suspected him of cheating (he may have, but we don’t know for sure)
      • she was also mad he starved 4M peasants
  • 1932 - Nadezhda killed herself after an argument with Stalin at a party
    • he didn’t notice she had dressed up nice
    • noticed she wasn’t drinking, said “hey you” and flicked an orange peel and cigarettes at her
    • she shot herself later that night (no one knows why 100% for sure)
    • it broke stalin, he threatened to kill himself several times
    • this began Stalin’s reign of terror
  • 1943 - 1953 - Stalin is off the wagon
    • In meeting with DeGaul, Stalin got hammered and complained DeGaul was awkward and clumsy and that every needed to drink more
    • Stalin forced the cabinet members to get totally hammered every night
    • they’d push each other into the pond, throwing tomatos at each other and would put salt in someone’s vodka so they’d throw up
    • he’d make national policy while everyone was drunk
    • at 2am, he’d make everyone watch two movies
      • genres: detective movies, westerns & gangster movies — but no nudity at all was acceptable
      • Stalin would act out his favorite scenes before they happened
    • after the movies, he’d bring everyone out to eat
    • he also “DJ’d” these nights and his favorite record had animal noises
    • Died of a stroke, soaked in his own urine
  • Stalin later butchered both 1st and 2nd wives’s families
• interesting random stuff
  • told his son, “Stalin is Soviet power. You aren’t Stalin and I’m not Stalin.”
  • Captioned cartoons of naked men and stuff
  • He drank more the more total victory seemed imminent
  • Pulled a Cheney and drunkenly shot a couple of his bodyguards on accident (shot into the air)
• personality
  • sudden bursts of violence (kicked wife in belly)
  • sometimes regretted his purges
  • years of friendship could be immediately forgotten at a betrayal
• Books Robert recommended
  • In The Court of the Red Czar