We analyze popular legends about Stalin

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Is it true that Stalin read up to 500 pages a day? Did he really fight across the globe?

Legend 1. Stalin was aerophobic, so he forbade the entire party leadership to fly

Apparently, this is true, because Stalin flew only twice in his entire life, 500 kilometers each: when in November 1943 he flew from Baku to Tehran to meet with Roosevelt and Churchill, and when he flew back in December. In all other cases, he preferred land or water transport, no matter how long it took. Even to the conference in Potsdam in 1945, Stalin did not fly, but only took a photo at the gangway, and went to Germany by train.

This fear, however, is justified: in those years plane crashes happened regularly, both engineers and Stalin's associates perished in them; Until 1933, for example, there was no annual mandatory proficiency test for pilots, no instruments for blind flight at night and in poor visibility.

After another such "ridiculous and monstrous disaster," Stalin imposed a categorical ban on flights for members of the Politburo and high-ranking officials. For disobedience - a severe reprimand.

Legend 2. Stalin fought on the globe

The story that Stalin watched the operational situation during World War II on the globe (because he did not understand maps) and, looking at it, composed directives, was launched by Nikita Khrushchev, who came after him to power during the XX Congress in February 1956. “And I must say that Stalin planned operations on the globe. (Animation in the hall).

Yes, comrades, he will take the globe and show the front line on it,”the congress transcript recorded. On it, Khrushchev, in addition to exposing the personality cult of the former leader and his crimes, tried to convince those around him that he was a complete layman in military matters. The latter, however, was not true. And Stalin's contemporaries confirmed this.

Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky wrote that from the middle of the war, Stalin “was the strongest and most colorful figure of the strategic command,” and General Sergei Shtemenko spoke about the globe like this: “Behind the end of the table, in the corner [of Stalin’s office], there was a large globe. I must note, however, that in the hundreds of times I have visited this office, I have never seen it used when dealing with operational issues. Conversations about the leadership of the actions of the fronts on the globe are groundless."

Legend 3. Stalin did not speak Russian until he was 10, but he learned it in order to become a priest

Stalin was originally from Georgia, so as a child he spoke his native Georgian language. Stalin's mother wanted her son to become a priest, and decided to send him to an Orthodox religious school. But he was refused - because of ignorance of Russian. Then she persuaded the children of the local priest to teach her son the language.

“Until the age of 8, Joseph almost did not know Russian, but he learned it in two years,” says historian Vladimir Dolmatov. - He graduated from the spiritual school in the Georgian town of Gori with a certificate of honor. He was an excellent student in the first years of the Tiflis Seminary. But he was expelled for revolutionary activities. In 1924 he began to collect the library. By the end of his life, it consisted of more than 20 thousand books. I read up to 500 pages a day."

Legend 4. The pseudonym Stalin means "steel"

His main pseudonym, under which Joseph Dzhugashvili went down in history, he chose when he decided to go beyond the regional Transcaucasian politics. Due to the fact that it is consonant with the word "steel" and, on the whole, organically described its main characteristic feature - rigidity - many thought so: he became Stalin because he was "steel". While he was alive, and for some time after his death, no research was conducted on this matter.

Then it turned out that it definitely had nothing to do with steel. Further versions differ. Some researchers believe that Stalin is a translation into Russian of the part of his surname - "Dzhuga", and it means just a name. But the most curious version: Stalin named himself so in honor of the liberal journalist Yevgeny Stalinsky, who made the famous translation of the Georgian poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Shota Rustaveli.

Stalin was a great admirer of Rustaveli and this poem in particular, but for some reason the best edition of this poem of 1889 with Stalinsky's translation was removed from all exhibitions, libraries, bibliographic descriptions and was not mentioned in literary articles. Historian William Pokhlebkin believes: "Stalin, giving the order to conceal the publication of 1889, took care first of all that the" secret "of his choice of his pseudonym would not be revealed."

Legend 5. A 14-year-old peasant woman gave birth to Stalin

Her name was Lida Pereprygina, and at the time of her romance with 37-year-old Stalin she was only 14. He lodged with her from 1914 to 1916 during her Siberian exile, and during this time Lida gave birth to two of him. The first child died, and the second was born in April 1917 and was recorded as Alexander Dzhugashvili (under the real name of Stalin). In the village, Stalin was persecuted for molesting a minor, and he had to promise that he would marry Lida, but as soon as the term of exile expired, Stalin left.

Subsequently, Pereprygina wrote to Stalin and asked for help, but received no answer. Instead, in the 1930s, she was ordered to sign a nondisclosure agreement about her son's "origin secrets."

Legend 6. Stalin is an ascetic

The popular myth that Stalin wore the same soldier's greatcoat all his life, did not leave behind any savings and led an ascetic lifestyle has nothing to do with reality.

In fact, he was colossally rich because he had unlimited access to all the benefits and privileges. Cars, summer cottages, private doctors, food, a huge staff of servants in each of his residences - everything was free for him, full state support.

During the time that he ruled the USSR, about 20 official country residences were built for him throughout the country, and all of them were equipped with the latest technology. Stalin never even carried pocket money with him - he did not need it. But at the same time, he also had an official salary (which he himself appointed) - 10,000 rubles (about 3.2 million rubles a month in modern money), as well as huge royalties for works written and translated into foreign languages.

Legend 7. Stalin was extremely concerned about his safety, he alone was guarded by several thousand NKVD officers

Stalin was guarded by from tens to tens of thousands of people (as during his trip to Potsdam in the summer of 1945). According to the recollections of his bodyguard Vladimir Vasiliev, even at the ceremonial meetings that took place in the Bolshoi Theater, in addition to guards around the building, at the entrances and exits, behind the curtains, the hall was literally flooded with civilian security officers - one agent relied on three invited persons. He did not trust anyone, not even personal chefs, and at buffets he always tasted food after someone else tasted it.

And in the post-war years, the security of Stalin's Blizhnaya dacha near the village of Volynskoye could only be compared with Hitler's Wolfschanze: “The only road that led to the dacha was controlled by police detachments day and night. This audience was solid, broad-shouldered, all in the rank of captains and majors, although the epaulettes were worn by petty officers.

The forest that surrounded the dacha was densely braided with Bruno's spirals. If a person even managed to get through them, then I would not envy him. He would have been attacked by German shepherds running along the wire stretched between the posts,”wrote Vasiliev.

“The next line of protection consisted of photoblocks taken out of Germany. Two beams traveling in parallel reliably blocked the “border”. As soon as, say, a hare jumped through them, a light on the attendant's console came on, indicating in which sector the "intruder" was located. Further there was a five-meter fence made of thick boards. There were loopholes made in it, at which the posts of the armed guards were located. Then - the second fence, a little lower. Marine signal lights were placed between them. Well, near the house itself there was a bodyguard on duty - "nine", "- recalled Vasiliev.