The historian and writer Edward Radzinsky presented his new book “Stalin. Death of Gods” from the trilogy “Apocalypse by Koba.” Initially Radzinsky didn’t want to publish the book, as it might cause a new wave of hatred in the sick society. “The greatest heritage left by Stalin is hatred of nonconformity at a genetic level. Open the internet and see anger, insults, horror, and you will realize he is alive,” the author says. “I was shocked when found out that an article about Stalin – I don’t know who wrote it – caused the greatest interest, that he is so powerful. There is no Stalin for many years, only masks remained: the mask of strong power, the mask of a nationalist, even though he was Georgian, the mask of a Jew hater – a lot of masks. And every person takes his own. There is the monarchy mask, i.e. the mask of a great power which was destroyed. And there is another one – the mask of a very modest person who didn’t steal, unlike newcomers, he wasn’t corrupted and had nothing. When he died, only boots, the generalissimo uniform and a couple of overcoats belonged to him. But also the whole country belonged to him without any doubts. It is an incredible, unique image.”
According to Radzinsky, Stalin was “a great manager” not of the economy, but in the organization of politics, the organization of power. “Lenin was sick, and Stalin reshuffled people in the party. Lenin had the impossible idea that a worker should be paid as much as a minister. And then nobody would like to be a minister, and everybody would like to be workers. This idea failed from the very beginning. Bolshevism is Utopia…
Stalin played the fox with the bureaucracy. Thus, while Lenin was sick and obsessed with the idea about a worker and a minister, Stalin took the right step. He awarded this new party bureaucracy. There was a party conference. And an interesting issue of material awards for the most active party members was discussed at this conference. It appeared they had to be awarded not only with money, but also with healthcare services and flats. Immediately a class of people who had something to lose was established. It is called “party bureaucracy.” And now Stalin could rule the state. He had those who were ready to service.”
Radzinsky’s work on Stalin’s phenomenon causes various appraisals of critics. The writer Dmitry Golev: “Classical Hollywood presents a negative character from the beginning. In this book by Radzinsky Dzhugashvili-Koba-Stalin shows all negative features. He was born a bad person, he was raised a bad person, lived as a bed person and died as a bad person. He hadn’t done any good deed in his life. Even Stalin’s heroic rejection to leave Moscow during the attack of Germany is described by Radzinsky as obvious swank aimed at cheating trustful people. From this point of view any deed might be considered as low.”
The magazine Ogonyok treats Radzinsky’s books differently: “Of course it is not first biography ofStalin, but it is first book on Stalin which relies not on history, but on ideology and deep analysis. This might make the book popular. Stalin is not a sum of facts here, but a sum of mental movements, offenses, reflections, intuition, and so on. Nobody has dared do it before.”
