The Greatest Individual

Hey there 5th period WHAP friends! As everyone here knows our assignment was to determine. “Who is the Greatest Individual in World History?” Now this seemingly one dimensional question, in fact isn’t so one dimensional but rather a question with many facets. According to Websters Dictionary Greatest can mean, ” distinguished; famous, of noble or lofty character, important; highly significant or consequential,   wonderful; first-rate; very good,  of extraordinary powers; having unusual merit; very admirable.” As we can see there are a plethora of acceptable definitions, thus this one-dimensional question becomes a multidimensional problem. However, luckily I think I may have found the answer to this complex problem, the answer being…THE GREAT MUSTACHED MAN, JOSEPH STALIN!

Okay so I know what you’re thinking, “Sure, sure, of course you have the greatest individual in world history… so does every other person in 5th and 2nd period. But the real question is how does Joseph Stalin define himself, from all the other “greats” or “wannabe greats”.” My answer to this is well… it isn’t simply his facial hair that makes him the greatest individual to ever roam this earth: it is his standing as the world’s greatest political force, his impact on the life and death of 60 million people, and his role in defining the identity of Russia for the following 65 years, that makes him the greatest person to ever live in human history. Sure Stalin did terrible things as we will find out later in this post but the terrible things sure did change the face of modern politics, modern culture, and the way we as humans and even we as students view the world today. (P.S. although these claims may seem a little bombastic , I’ll just ask you to stick with me and I’ll prove their absolute validity!)

JUST A TINY, TINY BIT OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Alright, I’m not here to write a biography on Stalin BUT it is important to have a basic understanding of Stalin’s upbringing to give some sort of insight into the method of his madness. Born in Georgia in 1879 to a highly dysfunctional family, it’s fair to say little baby Stalin didn’t have the easiest upbringing. WIth an absent family and a life filled with poverty little baby Stalin had to rough it out. Even when given the opportunity to study to be a priest (a strange career path for a man who would become history’s greatest cutthroat politician) Stalin flunked out and instead joined various revolutionary circles. Additionally, he was mildly disabled by a mangled arm, and developed a ,”strong, romanticized desire for greatness and respect, combined with a shrewd streak of calculating cold-heartedness towards those who had maligned him. He always felt a sense of inferiority before educated intellectuals, and particularly distrusted them.” (PBS, 1999).

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??

Now when we are talking about Stalin we are talking about a ruthless leader, one who staged the assassination of his top aide so he could have an excuse to execute 100+ politicians thus ending the age of the Bolsheviks and getting rid of any political opposition. Could his harsh actions be traced back to his childhood and the resentment he felt towards intellectuals, the answer is yes. The significance is that, in part, his ruthlessness bred from a very young age aided his genius as a political leader and enabled him to rule Russia with an iron fist. Trotsky, the communist leader and intellectual before and during Stalin’s rule, was ousted and sent into exile in 1929. Lenin and his group of highly intellectual communist revolutionaries were politically crippled by Stalin’s smash mouth, all business no play attitude towards politics. To put Stalin’s political tactics in perspective or even something easier, one word, it would be Machiavellian. Stalin is to be considered the great unifier of Russia because he simply destroyed all of those that would get in the way of his political agenda to unify Russia. Now some may say, “How can you justify a man who killed supposedly 20,000,000 people directly with his political policies and another 30,000,000 + indirectly through starvation, war, etc..?” My answer would be: How is Stalin any different from the long line political attacks done by the United States against small defenseless countries. It is no secret that the U.S. has done a lot of unjustifiable, and cruel actions to advance its political agenda or to raise its wealth. Click here>>>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6WstddMJZQ for more insight. In fact, it is fair to say that Stalin offers the world the very personification, the archetype of the Machiavellian Theory, as well as an archetype for how communism can practically be put to use. Sure Karl Marx might have looked down  upon Stalin’s no holds style of politics (if he was alive) but did Karl Marx ever raise a small crumbling country into an industrial super power?? NO! How about Lenin? Or Trotsky? Sure they were great communists, they read their books! How nice…But there comes a time when one has to put down one’s communist manifesto or books about how nice a revolution would be, and simply DO WORK. Stalin didn’t have the intellectual backing but he was a natural politician and he knew how to get what he wanted, what he thought was best for Russia.

A MAN WITH GOALS

As discussed before, Stalin was a “Machiavellian”, he had a plan for Russia and he would do anything this to achieve that plan (essentially to turn Russia into an industrial powerhouse, military powerhouse, and political superpower). Stalin also did a lot, A LOT, A LOT of terrible things to achieve his goals, but one question should come to mind,” How did he sustain power?” Well the answer has two parts to it. One he destroyed any political opposition and, two, he was able to put much of Russia into disillusion about his true character. Meaning that he had one darn good public image council. Below we can see Mr. Dictator Stalin playing with children, a tactic used to make him seem like a benevolent father figure.

AWWWW ISN’T THAT CUTE!!!

Well if you think that’s cute why not take a peak at this next picture. It kind of serves as a reality check on the whole benevolent father figure thing. Sorry.

Children Sent to Labor Camps to Starve because of Their Country’s Political Opposition to Stalin.

Stalin was the master of Propaganda. He was so deft in his abilities to blind the masses that EVEN TODAY we all consider Adolf Hitler to be the worlds most atrocious mass murderer, however, this blind assumption is no where close to being true. Between the years 1937-1938 Stalin initiated the Great Purge killing 1,704,230 people. From 1946–1948 nearly 1,500,000 people died from Soviet Economic Policy and the Soviet entitlement system A.K.A Starvation. During the Holodomor Famine or The Ukrainian Genocide Stalin cut off food from Ukraine causing 7 to 10 million deaths. At the height of the famine 25,000 died per day or 1,000 per hour or 17 per minute. These examples show the reign of terror under Stalin but they also exemplify the ignorance that much of the world lives under. Besides the Great Purge I had no idea that Stalin had killed 7 to 10 Million people in Ukraine in only two years! This is mind blowing stuff because it has unseen modern day implications. 10 million people disappearing from your country is a major deal, that could very well be an entire generation gone. 10 million people is equivalent to the entire Maryland population dying one year, being re-born the next year, and then again dying the following year. You can imagine that losing that many people, even in Maryland, would drastically change the way of life for future generations and for the following decades.

LET”S HEAR WHAT STALIN HAS TO SAY

From the words of Stalin, I believe we can learn a voluminous amount of information about the impact he made on the world simply from his words. I encourage you, as the reader, to draw your own inferences on what his words mean for humanity, for politics, for war, for peace, and for human condition. Why while you’re contemplating what Stalin’s words mean  why not enjoy the USSR National Anthem performed by the Red Army Choir =DDD.

• Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem.

• Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.

• I trust no one, not even myself.

• Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.

• In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance.

• One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic

MY REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

What I took out of these very enlightening quotes is idea that I mentioned before, the idea that the ends justify the means. Russia at the time of Stalin coming to power (1924) was stuck in an era of uncertainty, however, Stalin was able to look at life and look at the building of a nation in the most simplistic way possible. It was a game to him and people where merely pieces. Every game has its obstacles, sometimes you can finesse your way around them or in Stalin’s case you knock the living hell out of them. Nonetheless, when these obstacles fall they leave imprints. If it were not for Stalin immobilizing Russia the Nazi’s could have rolled into Asia and beyond. (Look here>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2d8fSZfXoE&feature=fvw for a video of the annual celebration parade that commemorates the Russia victory against the Nazis.) Stalin was even an inspiration to Mao Zedong and his establishment of the Communist Republic of China (a communist regime which still exists today). Stalin was a ruthless leader in ruthless times. It is impossible to endorse his methods or qualify his actions but at the same time only he can be credited for Russia becoming a modern country. He exemplifies the Machiavellian approach to politics, the pragmatic side to communism, and through his cutthroat political agenda, not only did he affect his own people but the citizens of the world. Yes, Joseph Stalin was a mass murderer but no human, no great individual will ever be able to affect the lives of generations upon generations of people like he did. For these reasons Mr. Joseph Dictator Man Stalin is THE GREATEST INDIVIDUAL IN WORLD HISTORY!!!

Thanks to These Sources:

1. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/joseph_stalin.html
2. http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_jos
3. http://www.google.com/search (THANKS FOR THE PICS)
   
4. http://www.youtube.com
5. http://www.lonympics.co.uk/holocauststats.htm
6. http://www.infoukes.com/history/famine/
7. http://www.merriam-webster.com/