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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 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2005, Taylor & Francis. TherightofHiroakiKuromiyatobeidenti(cid:2)edasauthor ofthisworkhasbeenassertedbyhiminaccordance withtheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. 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 This page intentionally left blank 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
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