The Cult of Personality
"...the totalitarian regime destroys the basic criterion of truth. Since truth changes in accordance with the needs of the rulers, a lie can become the truth, or rather the notion of truth disappears."
-Jacques Rupnik
Nature of the Cult of Personality
During his dictatorial leadership of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin developed a cult of personality around himself, creating the impression that he was a genius, never being wrong in his decisions and tactics, which served to protect himself from any future opposition. Through his cult of personality, which was commonplace throughout Soviet politics and culture, Joseph Stalin was depicted as almost godlike.
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"Comrade Stalin has been fighting for the happiness of the working people for over fifty years. His life has been one of self-sacrificing effort, and is an inspiring example for all Soviet people, and the working people of the world. “O great Stalin, O leader of the peoples, |
"Thank you, Stalin. Thank you because I am joyful. Thank you because I am well. No matter how old I become, I shall never forget how we received Stalin...Centuries will pass, and the generations still to come will regard us as the happiest of mortals, as the most fortunate of men, because we lived in the century of centuries, because we were privileged to see Stalin, our inspired leader. Yes, and we regard ourselves as the happiest of mortals because we are the contemporaries of a man who never had an equal in world history."
-A. O. Advdienko, in a letter to Joseph Stalin
Praise of Joseph StalinOn account of the cult of personality, Joseph Stalin was praised and glorified by Soviet citizens and government officials alike.
"Let's let the whole gigantic country "Beloved Stalin- the people's happiness!" “I would have compared him to a white mountain – but the mountain has a summit. I would have compared him to the depths of the sea – but the sea has a bottom. I would have compared him to the shining moon – but the moon shines at midnight, not at noon. I would have compared him to the brilliant sun – but the sun radiates at noon, not at midnight.” -Excerpt from a work published by an affiliation with the Soviet Writers' Union, October 1946 |
Video from YouTube.
"I think everybody loved Joseph Stalin. He was like a god. And now many people think, 'No. We know. We know the crimes. We just hated Stalin.' It's untrue. It was maybe some small minority who knew something. It was very dangerous, first of all. And then this propaganda made all this environment that you have to love him, and we loved him..." Click on the image below to enlarge.
"Stalin's care brightens the future of our children!" -Caption of poster |
"...no tyrant at any time so thoroughly tried to rearrange reality itself."
-Adam Hochschild, author of The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin
Manipulation of Soviet Society
Accompanying Joseph Stalin’s strong cult of personality was an equally strong degree of censorship; minimal evidence regarding any of the negative aspects of his leadership was portrayed in the Soviet media, allowing the atrocities of the Great Terror to proceed unquestioned and unopposed.
Click on the image below to enlarge.
"On one thing you could always write, and that was on the glory of Stalin and the Soviet regime. It was terrible; there were so many articles about Stalin and so many portraits of him. There was never a speech or a meeting without Stalin's name being mentioned...If a scientific worker was making a speech or taking an examination he would always praise and thank Stalin for the machines he had worked with and the opportunity he had and so on. This is true not only of Party members, you understand, but of everybody. In every store, every meeting room, everywhere, there was a big portrait of Stalin, and underneath it, it would say, 'hail to the leader, the father and the teacher of the people of the Soviet Union', and so on." |
Video from YouTube.
"In the pre-revolutionary era there had already been this craving for an all-embracing idea which would explain everything in the world and bring about universal harmony at one go. That is why people so willingly closed their eyes and followed their leader..." Click on the image below to enlarge.
"In school the little children stand each day and recite, 'thank you Comrade Stalin for a happy childhood', and the poor children hardly have any clothes on their backs." |
"Stalin rejoiced at the way the public had taking a liking to him and received him in “superhuman dimensions,” and that is what he would truly prove to be. Superhuman, a man of no mercy, a man with no heart; a man who justified the deaths of millions of his own people."
-Kelley Hassan, history major at Lourdes College
Personal Interview with Hiroaki KuromiyaWhat role do you believe the cult of personality and various forms of propaganda played in the maintenance of Joseph Stalin’s supreme control?
"He understood that the Soviet Union needed a new czar, which was, certainly, himself. So in that sense, yes, the cult of personality mattered, and Stalin understood it. But the way that he consciously promoted it, for his own sake, was necessary for maintaining stability in the Soviet Union."
Navigate to: Hiroaki Kuromiya
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