Stalin

246 Pages·2005·1.101 MB·English

by  Hiroaki Kuromiya

Stalin
PROFILES IN POWER
GeneralEditor: KeithRobbins
LLOYDGEORGE NAPOLEON GANDHI
MartinPugh GeoffreyEllis DavidArnold
HITLER KENNEDY JAMESII
IanKershaw HughBrogan W.A.Speck
RICHELIEU ATTLEE LINCOLN
R.J.Knecht RobertPearce RichardJ.Cawardine
NAPOLEONIII PE·TAIN WOODROWWILSON
JamesMcMillan NicholasAtkin JohnA.Thompson
OLIVERCROMWELL THEELDERPITT THEGREATELECTOR
BarryCoward MariePeters DerekMckay
NASSER CATHERINEDE’MEDICI TALLEYRAND
PeterWoodward R.J.Knecht PhilipG.Dwyer
GUSTAVUSADOLPHUS GORBACHEV WILLIAMIII
(2ndedn) MartinMcCauley A.M.Claydon
MichaelRoberts
JAMESVIANDI IVANTHETERRIBLE
CHURCHILL RogerLockyer AndreiPavlorand
KeithRobbins MaureenPerrie
ELIZABETHI(2ndedn)
DEGAULLE ChristopherHaigh HENRYVIII
AndrewShennan MichaelA.R.Graves
MAO
FRANCO S.G.Breslin BISMARCK
SheelaghEllwood KatharineAnneLerman
BURGHLEY
JUA·REZ MichaelA.R.Graves MUSSOLINI
BrianHamnett MartinClark
NEHRU
ALEXANDERI JudithM.Brown EISENHOWER
JanetM.Hartley PeterG.Boyle
ROBESPIERRE
MACMILLAN JohnHardman MARTINLUTHERKING
JohnTurner JohnKirk
LENIN
JOSEPHII BerylWilliams FERDINANDAND
T.C.W.Blanning WILLIAMPENN ISABELLA
ATATU¤RK MaryGeiter JohnEdwards
A.L.Mac(cid:2)e THEYOUNGERPITT STALIN
CAVOUR MichaelDuffy HiroakiKuromiya
HarryHearder KAISERWILHELMII
DISRAELI ChristopherClark
IanMachin TANAKA
CASTRO(2ndedn) DavidBabb
SebastianBalfour PORFIRIOD·IAZ
PETERTHEGREAT PaulGarner
(2ndend) CATHERINETHEGREAT
M.S.Anderson SimonDixon
FRANCISJOSEPH ADENAUER
StephenBeller RonaldIrving
S t a l i n
Hiroaki Kuromiya
First published 2005 by Pearson Education Limited
Published 2013 by Routledge
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ISBN 13: 978-0-582-78479-6 (pbk)
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
ACIPcataloguerecordforthisbookcanbeobtainedfromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Kuromiya,Hiroaki.
Stalin/HiroakiKuromiya.
p.cm.(cid:150)(Pro(cid:2)lesinpower)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-582-78479-4
1.Stalin,Joseph,1879(cid:150)1953.2.Headsofstate(cid:151)SovietUnion(cid:151)Biography.
3.SovietUnion(cid:151)History(cid:151)1925-1953.I.Title.II.Series:Pro(cid:2)lesinpower
(London,England)
DK268.S8K8682005
947.084’2’092(cid:150)dc22
[B] 2005050972
SetbytheauthorusingTEX
Contents
Preface vii
Chronology xv
1 FromGeorgiatoRussia 1
Soso 1
Koba 11
Stalin 19
2 RevolutionandCivilWar 26
FromFebruarytoOctober 26
CivilWar 36
3 StruggleforPower 50
TheNewEconomicPolicy 50
BattleRoyal 58
4 ‘RevolutionfromAbove’ 74
TheCrisisoftheNEP 74
IndustrialisationandCollectivisation 85
5 FamineandTerror 101
Famine 102
GreatTerror 113
6 War 133
StruggleforSurvival 133
Uncertainty 143
War 150
7 TwilightoftheGod 169
Victory 169
ColdWar 180
Death 191
Conclusion 201
Bibliography 212
Index 217
v
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Preface
Stalin, like all political leaders, was a complex (cid:2)gure. Although nu-
merousbiographieshavebeenwritten,anyonewhoattemptstowrite
Stalin’slife(cid:2)ndshimanenigma. Onebiographer,writingin1967on
Stalin’s early life, despaired: ‘the more that has been written about
Stalin’s pre-revolutionary life, the less clarity has emerged; the more
detailsthathavebeensupplied,thedeeperonemustdigforfacts’.1 The
Soviet dissident writer Andrei Siniavskii wrote in 1990: ‘Ultimately,
everything connected with Stalin is so involved and obscure that it’s
often impossible to know how to interpret the facts. . . . In short, the
(cid:2)gure of Stalin, given the opacity of his machinations, becomes lost
inthemurk.’2 Moreover,inthecaseofStalin,unlikemostotherindi-
viduals,biographersgenerallydislikethesubjectinsteadoflikinghim.
One such biographer loathed Stalin so much that he wondered why
Stalin’scolleaguesfailedtoactwhenthey‘musthaveknownthenthat
Stalin, likeamaddog, hadtobedestroyed’. ‘Sometimes,’ hewrotein
1983, ‘in the quiet of my study I have found myself bursting out to
their ghosts: (cid:147)For God’s sake, stab him [Stalin] with a knife, or pick
up a heavy object and bash his brains out, the lives you save may in-
cludeyourown(cid:148).’3 WritingaboutStalinisnotaseasyaswritingabout
tyrantsoftheremotepast,becausehiseraisstillalivedexperiencefor
manypeople. ItisonlyhalfacenturysinceStalindied.
Fortunately, the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union has led to the
opening up of the formerly closed Soviet archives. Not all archives
are open or accessible, and an unknown portion of Stalin’s personal
archives and a large part of his personal library are believed to have
been destroyed or lost.4 Still, a tremendous amount of new infor-
mation has become available in recent years, and historians, both in-
side and outside the former Soviet Union, have taken advantage of
the new opportunities and written a great deal on Stalin and his era.
Recent major English-language biographical studies (including trans-
lations from other languages) include Dmitri Volkogonov, Stalin: Tri-
umph and Tragedy (1991), Edvard Radzinsky, Stalin (1997), Erik van
Ree,ThePoliticalThoughtofJosephStalin(2002),SimonSebagMonte-
(cid:2)ore,Stalin: TheCourtoftheRedTsar(2003),Miklo·sKun,Stalin: An
vii
STALIN
UnknownPoet(2003),DonaldRay(cid:2)eld,StalinandHisHangmen(2004)
andRobertService,Stalin: ABiography(2004). Inaddition,numerous
memoirs by Stalin’s entourage have recently been published. Some,
suchasAndreiGromyko,Memoirs(1989)andMolotovRemembers: In-
side Kremlin Politics (1993), are available in English translation. Al-
though the subject himself has in no way become easy to grasp, new
informationandnewresearchhavemadeStalinlessenigmatic.
Ofcourse,historicalevidencealwaysposesvexingquestionsasre-
gardsreliabilityandmeaning. Thereisnofoolproofwayofresolving
thesequestions.Newarchivaldocumentsdohelp,eventhoughtheydo
not provide fail-safe solutions.5 Stalin’s own writings, remarks, com-
ments, speeches and conversations are the most important sources
and are examined carefully in the present book. The testimonies of
those, such as V.M. Molotov, L.M. Kaganovich, Georgii Dimitrov, An-
dreiGromykoandSvetlanaAllilueva,wholivedorworkedcloselywith
him, arealsoveryuseful. Fromaperusalofthememergesamoreor
less coherent picture of Stalin. Much has necessarily to remain pro-
visional. Attheveryleast,however,Ihaveendeavouredheretore(cid:3)ect
thecurrentstateofknowledgeasmuchaspossibleandincorporatemy
ownresearchaswell.Giventhescopeofthebook,Ihavenotbeenable
toexamineeveryaspectofStalin’slifeindetail, soIhavefocusedon
Stalinthepolitician.
ThereishardlyanyneedtodwellontheimportanceofIosifStalin
(1878(cid:150)1953)inthemodernhistoryoftheworld. Hewasacontempo-
raryofAdolfHitler(1889(cid:150)1945),BenitoMussolini(1883(cid:150)1945),Frank-
linD.Roosevelt(1882(cid:150)1945),WinstonChurchill(1874(cid:150)1965)andMao
Zedong(1893(cid:150)1976). AfterthedeathofVladimirLenin(1870(cid:150)1924),
Stalin represented the (cid:2)rst socialist country in history, which lasted
notforsixty-odddaysasthe1871ParisCommunedidbutfor74years.
Stalin became the symbol of the country. The emergence of the So-
viet Union, an explicitly anti-capitalist and atheist state, appears to
have realised the worst nightmare of capitalists who had battled the
spectre of communism for a century. Many capitalist countries tried
tointervenetoquashtheBolshevikrevolution. Theyfailed. Theworld
orderchangedcompletelywiththeestablishmentoftheSovietUnion.
The spectre of Communism began to haunt the capitalist world with
a vengeance after the Great Depression of 1929. In sharp contrast to
theterribleeconomiccrisisinthecapitalistworld,Stalin’sviolent‘rev-
olution from above’ appeared to transform human society in a new
fashion.6 Untoldnumbersofpeopleinthecapitalistworldaswellas
in the less developed societies were smitten with Stalin’s ‘revolution’.
Eventhoughitwaspatentlyclearthattherevolutiontookaterribletoll,
viii
PREFACE
thesocialistalternativeappearedtomanypeopletobethefutureofhu-
mansociety. Whenliberaldemocracydidnotappeartohavethewill
to(cid:2)ghttherisingtideoffascismandNazism, the(cid:2)rstsocialistcoun-
tryappealedtomanyasareal,alternativedefence. Westernspiesfor
theSovietUnion(includingtheinfamousCambridgespies)weretrue
believersinthecountryStalinhadbuiltandthefutureitpromised.
Byacuriousturnofevents,however,in1939theanti-Nazibulwark
suddenlybecameasortofNaziforti(cid:2)cation, confusingtheworld. By
another curious turn of events, the long-time enemies, Churchill and
Stalin, became allies in 1941. On the day Hitler invaded the Soviet
Union,WinstonChurchill,whohadonceadmiredfascism,madeahis-
toric broadcast in which he acknowledged, ‘No one has been a more
consistentopponentofCommunismthanIhaveinthelasttwenty-(cid:2)ve
years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it.’ Churchill
declared,however,that‘theRussiandanger’is‘ourdanger’. Byyetan-
other curious turn of events, after the victory the friends turned foes
in the Cold War. Stalin’s death in 1953 did not end the war, nor did
the regime Stalin had created collapse immediately. For those who
lived through the events of the Cold War, the 1989 fall of the Berlin
Wall, the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold
Warallseemedsuddenandunexpected,yetitisevidentthatthe‘short
twentieth century’ is symbolised by the birth and death of the Com-
munistregimeinthelargestcountryintheworld. Stalinrepresented
thecountryinbothaliteraland(cid:2)gurativesense, anditwouldnotbe
anexaggerationtostatethatwithoutunderstandingStalinonecannot
understandthetwentiethcentury.
Stalin’s biographers have presented many interesting pictures of
him,rangingfromStalinasablindfollowerofLenintoStalinasabe-
trayeroftherevolution,toStalintheRussiannationalistandtoStalina
‘manoftheborderlands’.7 Ishallnotengageinpolemicsinthepresent
book. Instead, I emphasise a different aspect of Stalin’s life, one that
overrode all other aspects but one that has been insuf(cid:2)ciently articu-
latedbyhisbiographers. ItisthatStalinlivedbypoliticsalone. This
mayappearobvious,butitisnot:almostallpoliticianslivebypolitics,
but not by politics alone, while Stalin, devoid of any sentimentality,
lived literally by politics alone. He lived for the purpose of shaping
thebodypoliticthroughthepursuitandexerciseofpower. Whatever
privateemotions(suchasaffection,hatred,lustandvindictiveness)he
had,hesubordinatedthemtopoliticalendsandtohisquestforpower.
Stalinplayedpoliticsmasterfully,farmoresothandidanyofhisrivals
in the party, who often fell victim to their intellectual pretensions or
otherhumanfailings. ThisishowStalinrosetopower.
ix