Some questions about Stalin the person.
When i read about Stalin the more positive information that i can get about him is that he at the very least is a huge prick to his friends, family and followers.
Did he have any hobbies or good friends who he liked to hang out with until his death?
Also a probably more loaded question:
Did Stalin belief that his governamental choices would be positive to USSR? Was he doing everything out of self-interest?
Like, if you told me that Mao did the Great Leap Forward with completely good intentions, i would believe you, but everything that i hear about Stalin, paints in my mind, a man who is doing everything for his own benefit.
>>1212656
>Did he have any hobbies or good friends who he liked to hang out with until his death?
I think he study as an Orthodox priest, or something along those lines.
>>1212656
He liked cowboy movies
>>1212656
He was a very cynical asshole. And he knew that.
>No people, no problems.
>>1212656
Stalin was lots of fun to party with, in the same way that a douche is. As long as his gaze is on someone else, "Khrushchev: dance!" you're fine.
He enjoyed poetry and was fairly good at it. (Eastern european poetry is less "formal" and distant from everyday language than English poetry is.)
He changed after his wife committed suicide.
Stalin believed that the party and government were advancing socialism. This was his self interest.
>>1212796
>He changed after his wife committed suicide.
>suicide
wew
>>1212824
Are you suggesting he killed her? Any proof to back that up? From what iv read it seems he loved her and was heart broken when she died.
>>1212656
He was a very bad father. He abused his first son Yakov to the point were he attempted suicide. I believe that Stalin then said something along the lines that his son couldn't even shoot right. Yakov later served in the Red army and was captured by the Germans. The Germans attempted to trade Yakov for Frederich Paulus but Stalin declined. Yakov was said to have been killed while running towards the fence, possibly in an attempt at suicde.
In contrast Hitler was a great Uncle. He had a nephew named Heinrich. He was known to show off his status around friends and well liked by the Fuhrer. He too served in WW2 along the eastern front only to be captured and eventually tortured to death. Hitler had another nephew named Leo who was similar to Heinrich but he survived Soviet capture and lived on after the war.
>>1212656
I think he liked hanging out with Molotov because Molotov would not stop sucking his cocktail.
http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/03/18/stalin-liked-to-deface-pictures-of-nude-men/
>>1212880
>great uncle
to nephews
>>1212903
Eh hit or miss
>>1212656
> Did he have any hobbies
Reading. You can say all kind of bad things about him, but he was always accurately read all kind of texts from his orders to sign to national press and books. He could quote Lenin books better than all people personally who was more close to him. He was even expelled from a seminary for reading too many books. Basically, he was /lit/ as fuck.
>>1212880
I knew this story, and i know Stalin is a huge douche, but the "He can't even shoot right" bit is always funny as fuck to me.
>>1212824
From what i know, he really took the death of his first wife hard and i even believed he said something along the lines of "now that she has died my love for humanity has died with her" but he treated his second wife like garbage and might have been involved in her death.
>>1212656
Stalin had a lot of friends. He was particularly close with his old revolutionary buddies from Georgia, along with his in laws. They used to have long, Georgian style dinners whenever Stalin went on vacation. Apparently Stalin was a blast to hang out with if he liked you, the problem was he didn't trust any of his colleagues in the Politburo and the Soviet government beyond a professional level.
He enjoyed singing, reading, and Georgian wine. Apparently Stalin had a beautiful voice, and this was one of the deciding factors that got him into the seminary. He also liked going to the movies, particularly American cowboy movies if he could get a hold of them.
However it has to be noted that most biographers have pointed out that Stalin was an almost pathological workaholic. His work ethic was legendary, and he didn't sleep much either. Maybe this is why he didn't have much of a "personal life" or "hobbies" in comparison to his colleagues.
Stalin as a father and husband is a lot more complex. He was usually considered to be very warm to his wives, and genuinely loved them deeply. Both of their deaths were incredibly devastating to him, but I think its a bit of an exaggeration to say "his soul died" when they did. As for his relationship with his children, the story of his coldness towards the capture and death of Yakov is also probably not verifiable. I know Khelvniuk's new biography disputed the story, I just forget exactly what it said, I'll have to look later. Stalin and his daughter Svetlana had a very good relationship from what I've read until his death.
Stalin absolutely, 100% believed his policies were postitive. Leninism - and by extension Stalinism which is it's logical conclusion - demands that socialism be built rapidly by a professional group of revolutionaries, whose duty it is to repress dissent and above all advance the revolution and path towards communism. Stalin was an fanatical communist at the end of the day.
>>1212915
kinda like stalin's son
>>1213305
kek
>>1212656
He enjoyed Georgian poetry and had admirers for the poems he wrote before he went into politics. He also protected some Georgian poets during the purge, even those who were critical of him.
>>1213178
Stalin wasn't a guy without a some sense humor.
In 1939 Stalin watched the movie "The train goes to the east". The movie wasn't so hot and was a quit bad. Then there was moment in a plot when train stops at some station.
- What is the station? - Stalin asked.
- The Demjanovka.
- That's where I'll go, - said Stalin and left the cinema.
>>1213323
>During the war, he often used movies as a diplomatic device to get a point across: on his first visit to Moscow, Churchill was invited to watch German Rout Before Moscow (1942).
>However trivial they may seem to an outsider, the film showings were also as much a part of the imperial ritual at the court of the Red Tsar as the elaborate etiquette of the French nobles around the royal chamberpot at Versailles.
Stalin's attitude to Zhdanov - his favourite leader, heir apparent and "fellow intellectual" - meant he always asked for his view of the films first. The person invited to sit next to Stalin was protected.
>But it could also show Stalin's view of foreign policy: late in the war, some American generals and politicians were his guests but when it came to the cinema, Stalin summoned his old Georgian pal, Kavtaradze, deputy foreign minister, to sit next to him.
>"I can't," said Kavtaradze. "Why not?" asked Stalin. "You've guests!" Stalin, now the conqueror of most of eastern Europe, sneered drunkenly: "Fuck them!"
To be honest i would like a series about some famous dictator just doing his hobbies.
Was it autism?
>>1213560
Will they EVER learn?
>>1212796
>He changed after his wife committed suicide.
yep, betas will be betas
>>1213672
>t. fedora
>>1212656
>Did he have any hobbies or good friends who he liked to hang out with until his death?
He was interested in linguistics. He even published a paper on the subject iirc.
>>1214004
what was the paper about?
>>1215052
Languages for stalin are ahistorical and fundamentally represent the geist and culture of a people. Thus it should be okay if he wants to deport all the soviet jews.
>hobbies
Creating superpowers and winning world wars while also using an inherently subpar system.
Like winning a starcraft world tournament with a Mac.
>>1215381
touche
>>1212656
Idk much about but i do think he was going into the priesthood when he came into contact with a bunch of radicals in the church. Idk if they were infiltrators or anything like that but it's pretty weird and funny how a man that was going to be a priest ended up being one of the most evil men in history. Also heard he was picked on a lot by other kids when he was a kid and he was very smart. Something about a crippled arm or hand too
>>1215531
He went into the seminary as a form of social mobility. He probably was never actually very religious, Montieforie mentions a story about him skimming a translation of "The Origin of the Species" as an adolescent and declaring to his friends that he was an atheist. Not very reliable source, but I think it does give us a look into his early mistrust of religion.
He did have a withered arm from some sort of accident as a child, probably got hit by a caravan. Also had a potmarked face because of a childhood bout with smallpox
>>1212876
His first wife, the one that caused the heartbreak, died of illness in 1907.
The second marriage was a pretty shitty one and she shot herself after a public argument with Stalin. I can see why someone might suspect Stalin had something to do with it, but apparently his letters suggest it kinda freaked him out.
>>1215531
>most evil
Not really
Most powerful? Yes.
>>1212709
This. He liked westerns so much he funded "easterns", basically the same genre but it's the conquest of siberia by russians instead of the conquest of the far west by americans.
>>1215579
He would've loved the 50's.
>>1212961
Something that i remember from skimming from a biography was that he would have tons of notes etc in his books, and that his personal library would be very cleanly organised - history, philosophy, etc. However, and this might just be the biographer speaking (can't remember the name I'm afraid, russian author and published in 90s), although he was very well read he had trouble with actual intellectual engagement. In a sense Marxism-Leninism and all his other readings came to take the place of religious training from the seminary as his unquestionnable dogma. He actually asked one of his ministers or secretaries, and old and learned guy, to teach him about dialectics and hegel - turns out despite his willingness to work hard he simply couldn't quite grasp it.
>>1215794
Well... He doesn't become a general secretary by being bad at organizing shit.
>>1212656
>Did he have any hobbies?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHZQXNe2HpQ
>>1212880
The whole story about Yakov being captured was just a German trick. There were no solid evidences found even after war. If it was true then Nazi would make a movie for propaganda. All they presented was bad quality falsified photo. Most likely Yakov was killed in action and Germans found his body. Using this dirty trick tells very bad of Hitler.
>>1212656
Stalin actually loved his children, but was strict father. He didn't want them to grow spoiled, especially sons. He also adopted son of his dead friend and raised him as his own.
>>1212880
His grand daughter is a hair dresser in Portland I think.
>>1215878
I miss that show.
>>1215987
>I'm a moron who denies and questions anything that doesn't praise or it goes against my world view
>>1213323
Wasn't there an event where Stalin had this filmmaker personally present his new movie to him? When the movie was over, stalin got up and left without saying a word while this other guy is sweating bullets. He leaves the room, then while the movie guy is contemplating his imminent death, he sticks his head out the doorway and cheekily goes "oh lol i really liked your movie btw".
>>1212656
Apparently fishing all day and then grilling what he caught along with a few bottles of vodka was one of his hobbies.
>>1217367
Based Joe.
So Stalin had quite few hobbies huh
>>1216044
Yes, Stalin certainly loved his daughter. You can read her memoirs on it. That said, his love was difficult to bear.
>>1217327
Nazi propaganda leaflet:
Don't shed your blood for Stalin!
He already has fled to Samara. His own son has surrendered. If son of Stalin saved himself then you must not sacrifice yourself.
You are so stupid to repeat wartime Nazi propaganda without thinking first. It's opinion of Yakov's stepbrother Artem who also was captured during the war and escaped that Yakov was never captured alive.
>>1219682
>Everything the Nazis said was a lie
>The testimony of a PoW is totally reliable and unquestionable
>>1215579
Any good reccomendation?
>>1212656
>good friends who he liked to hang out with until his death?
FDR.
Who, granted, died first, and without knowing some of the nastier things Stalin was doing, much less did after he died.
Still, by all reports, they got along famously.
>>1221227
Woodrow liked him too.
>>1212656
I don't think he did everything for himself, or he probably woulda arranged to ally with the Germans, or at least create terms of surrender that left him in enough power to live comfortably.
He really seemed to care about his nation, from an existential point of view, if not so much about its people. A true (and frightening) nationalist. You don't do the equivalent of moving America's entire east coast to the west coast during a war, simply because you want to lead a comfy life. That's something only a madman would do, but only a madman who is thinking about something much bigger than himself. He didn't care how many Russians had to die to defend Russia, so long as Russia retained its sovereignty, and everything he did after the war just seemed to be a continuation of that absolute objective.
Which, might be similar to what's up with Assad, if I was going to be generous.
>>1221257
So what you're saying is he was an absolute madman?
>>1221292
