Joseph Stalin

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A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (in Russian Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин, romanised as Iósif Vissariónovich Stálin) (21 December [9 December Old Style] 1879 – 5 March 1953) was Leader of the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953. His name at bith was Иосиф Джугашвили, romanised as Iósif Dzhugashvíli or Ioseb Jughashvili.

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  • What is more: we think that powerful and lifeful movement is impossible without differences - "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetary.
    • Stalin's article Our purposes. Pravda #1, 22 January 1912.
  • If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a "peace conference," you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and aeroplanes.
  • A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.
  • The press must grow day in and day out -- it is our Party's sharpest and most powerful weapon.
  • We disagreed with Zinoviev and Kamenev because we knew that the policy of amputation was fraught with great dangers for the Party, that the method of amputation, the method of blood-letting -- and they demanded blood -- was dangerous, infectious: today you amputate one limb, tomorrow another, the day after tomorrow a third -- what will we have left in the Party?
  • What would happen if capital succeeded in smashing the Republic of Soviets? There would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries, the working class and the oppressed peoples would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost.
  • If the opposition disarms, all is well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.
  • We do not want a single foot of foreign territory; but of our territory we shall not surrender a single inch to anyone.
    • (In Russian: Ни одной пяди чужой земли не хотим. Но и своей земли, ни одного вершка своей земли не отдадим никому.)
    • Political Report of the C.C. to XVI Party Congress. June 29, 1930
  • Anti-Semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.
    • "Anti-Semitism: Reply to an Inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States". 12 January 1931
  • We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.
    • Stalin said this in 1931, at the beginning of the rapid industrialization campaign. Ten years later, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
    • Speech "The Tasks of Economic Executives". 4 February 1931
  • Cadres decide everything!
  • Life has improved, comrades. Life has become more joyous.
  • Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts.
    • Joseph Stalin and H. G. Wells. An Interview. September 1937
  • Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
    • Joseph Stalin and H. G. Wells. An Interview. September 1937
  • History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.
  • Ours is a just cause victory will be ours!
  • Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the German people remain.
    • Stalin said this when the enemy had reached the gate of Moscow during World War II. He called on the people not to identify all Germans with the Nazis.
    • The Order #55 of the National Commissar for the Defense. February 23, 1942.
  • This leads to the conclusion, it is time to finish retreating. Not one step back! Such should now be our main slogan. ... Henceforth the solid law of discipline for each commander, Red Army soldier, and commissar should be the requirement - not a single step back without order from higher command.
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Attributed

  • Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.
  • The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.
  • The writer is the engineer of the human soul.
    • (Said by Stalin at a meeting of fifty top Soviet writers at Maxim Gorky's house in Moscow on 26 October 1932). Sources - Simon Sebag Montefiore's 'Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar', p. 85, and Edvard Radzinsky's 'Stalin', pp. 259-63. Primary source - K. Zelinsky's contemporary record of the event. It was published in English in Stalin and the Literary Intelligentsia, 1928-39. by А. Kemp-Welch (Basingstoke and London, 1991), pp. 12-31.
  • The Pope! How many divisions has he got?
    • (Said sarcastically to Pierre Laval when urged to tolerate Catholicism in the Soviet Union to appease the Pope. Moscow, May 13, 1935). Source - Winston Churchill The Second World War. 1948, vol. 1, ch. 8.
  • I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy.
    • (Said in 1943). Source - Felix Chuev's 140 Conversations with Molotov Moscow, 1991.
  • Everyone imposes his own system as far as his armies can reach.
    • (This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. It cannot be otherwise. Said in April, 1945.) Source - Milovan Djilas, Conversations with Stalin.
  • So the bastard's dead! Too bad we didn't capture him alive!
  • In the Soviet Army, it takes more courage to retreat than advance.
  • Beat, beat and beat again!
    • (When asked how to treat political prisoners and get information out of them). Source - Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech 'On the Personality Cult and its Consequences' February 25, 1956.
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Unsourced

  • A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.
    • Variants: One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic.
      The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
      When one dies, it is a tragedy. When a million die, it is a statistic.
  • Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?
  • Quantity is quality
    • Variant: Quantity has a quality all its own
    • This quote is reminiscent of the Marxist theoretical principle that steady quantitative changes can lead to a sudden qualitative leap. It is therefore likely that Stalin may have said something like this. However, in the variant "Quantity is quality", there is an undialectical equation of the two. Stalin is therefore unlikely to have used this variant; the variant "Quantity has a quality all its own" is therefore more likely.
  • When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope.
  • You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.
    • Variant: You cannot make a revolution with white gloves.
  • I do not change the soldier for the marshal.
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Fictional

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The Stalin Cult

Stalin allowed a cult of personality to be created in the Soviet Union around both himself and Lenin. Stalin became the focus of massive adoration and even worship. Numerous towns, villages and cities were renamed after the Soviet leader, and the Stalin Prize and Stalin Peace Prize were named in his honor. He accepted grandiloquent titles (e.g. "Coryphaeus of Science," "Father of Nations," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," "Gardener of Human Happiness"), and helped rewrite Soviet history to provide himself a more significant role in the revolution, meanwhile (according to Nikita Khrushchev), insisting that he be remembered for "the extraordinary modesty characteristic of truly great people."

The personality cult reached new levels during the "Great Patriotic War" with Stalin's name even being included in the new Soviet national anthem. Stalin became the focus of a body of literature including poetry as well as music, paintings and film. Artists and writers vied with each other in egregious sycophancy, crediting Stalin with almost god-like qualities, and suggesting he single-handledly won the Second World War, as illustrated in these excerpts.


O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples,
Thou who brought man to birth.
Thou who fructifies the earth,
Thou who restorest to centuries,
Thou who makest bloom the spring,
Thou who makest vibrate the musical chords...
Thou, splendor of my spring, O thou,
Sun reflected by millions of hearts.
(A. O. Avdienko)

Exalt, rejoice, for it is here, the day of victory!

So here it is, the day, Stalin has gifted it to us
To our own Stalin - glory and praise!
To Marshal Stalin - glory and praise!
Marshal Stalin's - glorious deeds:
The hordes of fascists have been thrown to the ground
To Stalin - eternal glory!
He brings peace to all the peoples of the earth
The wild beast is vanquished, it dies in the dust.
Joy blazes in free hearts:
To Stalin - eternal glory!
published in Pravda, May 10th 1945
by Maksim Rylski, a Ukrainian poet

In all their many languages the peoples of the Soviet Union compose songs to Stalin, expressing their supreme love and boundless devotion for their great leader, teacher, friend and military commander.
In the lore and art of the people, Stalin's name is ever linked with Lenin's. "We go with Stalin as with Lenin, we talk to Stalin as to Lenin; he knows our inmost thoughts; all his life he has cared for us," runs one of the many exquisite Russian folk tales of today.
Joseph Stalin: A Short Biography, 1952, p. 206

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de:Josef Stalin es:Iósif Stalin fa:ژوزف استالین id:Josef Stalin it:Stalin he:יוסיף ויסריונוביץ' סטלין nl:Jozef Stalin ja:ヨシフ・スターリン pl:Józef Stalin pt:Josef Stalin ro:Iosif Stalin ru:Сталин, Иосиф Виссарионович sv:Josef Stalin zh:约瑟夫·斯大林

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