Stalin died on this day in 1953

Discussion in 'All Anniversaries' started by Owen, Mar 5, 2013.

  1. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I remember this date well while in uniform and thought that it would reduce the tension between East and West...it proved not to be.(Casting back,all we had was piston engined aircraft to deliver a free fall A Bomb and it would be a one way trip and there was always the ever present threat of the Soviets invading the North European plain.) Suez and the Hungarian revolution came and as a reservist,I thought the worst. The economy sapping tension went on until the satellites eventually woke and threw off the yoke.

    Yet Stalin is still revered by 50% of the present Russian population.I asked a Russian this question a few years ago regarding the Stalin regime and the present regime and got the impression that there was not much difference.

    But more importantly,I think we have to assess Stalin's impact in the light of the Second World War...our war when we were on our knees and fortunately relieved when Hitler dismissed the concept of fighting on two fronts and made the irrational decision to invade the Soviet Union without settlement in the West.This relief led to the anxiety of would Stalin stay in the war or capitulate to the Germans and sue for peace.Without doubt, had Stalin not kept Russia in the war and this was recognised by WSC as one the the highest priorities he had in 1941 and 1942,it would have been a formidable task to defeat Hitler in Europe with Great Britain standing alone.The other priority as regards alliances against Hitler was the wish by WSC for the US to enter the war again the general wishes of the US population.

    I think any observer being less of a realist would find it distasteful to be in the same bed as Stalin but the question has to asked,would it best for the security and existence of Great Britain, to be in bed with Hitler or Stalin.History proves that the alliance with Stalin was the best policy of ridding the world of Hitler and his Nazi regime.It cost the Russians dear,a figure of 27 million military personnel and civilians in a war of ideology.

    I can tell you that Stalin and the Soviet Union have been discussed many times on a personal level....served with a Polish Sergeant who would come in hard against what happened in Eastern Poland when our small group were discussing communism and Stalin.

    Regarding the wartime British policy to Stalin and the Soviet Union.I remember at school when first studying algebra....some might have heard of the rule for algebra when dealing with the + and - values when multiplying;+ presenting a friend and - representing, an enemy.

    So following the algebra rule,the enemy of my enemy, is my friend,which would explain the status of Stalin with regard to the recognition given by the wartime British Government in the alliance against Hitler.

    Stalin one of the worse dictators in history but his involvement in what the Russians termed the Great Patriotic War, ensured that the Nazi regime vision of lasting 1000 years was little but the dream of another dictator.
     
  2. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I have read several recent biographies of the man (Conquest, Sebag-Montefiore, Amis, Bullock) and none of them supported the idea that he was poisoned. He was nearly 80, sedentary, a heavy smoker and drinker, and his health had been in decline for some time. To make things worse, he had recently put his own doctors in jail.

    I think that the suspicion that plotting is taking place is the norm in totalitarian regimes and reflects the regime action against those in the medical support when the "boss" dies.Apparently Hitler had procedures in place that his diet was correctly upheld but this was also cover that a poison food risk to Hitler would be remote.

    It must be one of the most dangerous appointments to be the doctor of a dictator but in Hltler's case, Doctor Morell seemed to be the lead man and was favoured by Hitler much,almost to the end.

    As said, Stalin was a heavy drinker of vodka and a heavy smoker.One report of the aftermath of a meeting with WSC led to a series of toasts.Apparently after the intake of vodka,WSC began to feel the effects of the intake, while Stalin coped well.Much later,information leaked out and it is alleged that Stalin was drinking well, an intake which transpired to be water.
     
  3. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Bear with me...

    Two hour long documentary of Stalin's funeral footage .
    "Государственные похороны". Режиссер: Сергей Лозница

    Shared by @ColdWarPod on Twitter, language skills not required.

    The blurb:
    It's genuinely slightly hypnotic.
    Twenty minutes in, I can see this being a back projection at artsy gigs & events for years to come.


    He also looks like a Christmas decoration in that overhead shot...
     
  4. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    "And there was much rejoicing."
     
    Chris C likes this.
  5. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    By the very nature of the regime,rejoicing would be rather covert.

    I remember Malenkov then succeeding Stalin.I do not think that there was any reforms accomplished and the tension continued....the RAF lost an unarmed Lincoln out of the Central Gunnery School from Leconfield over Western Germany, brought down by a MIG 15 when it supposedly infringed the East German border.From then on all B.C Lincoln turrets were armed.

    When Malenkov was deposed after a short stint,to the surprise of the western political leadership, he was sent east to manage a hydro power plant where he was left in obscurity and died a natural death at a good old age.
     
  6. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    For a non-historical black comedy, I do recommend the film The Death of Stalin.
     
    TTH and CL1 like this.
  7. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    Real Dictators is the award-winning podcast hosted by Paul McGann that explores the hidden lives of history’s tyrants...

    https://podbay.fm/p/real-dictators/e/1594767120

    SHOW NOTES
    Stalin’s regime hits the rocks when Adolf Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa and invades Russia. Nazi tanks plough towards Moscow in a devastating advance. Stalin’s legacy is forged in this fight to the death. In his final years, the strongman succumbs to cardiac problems. His tools for progress have been famine, slavery and execution. Yet to this day, some of his countrymen and women lionise him as the man who turned Russia into a superpower.

     
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2022
    CL1 and 4jonboy like this.
  8. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    JimHerriot, Dave55, TTH and 1 other person like this.
  9. riter

    riter Well-Known Member

    Dying was probably the best thing that Stalin ever did for humanity.
     
    High Wood, JimHerriot, TTH and 3 others like this.
  10. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Did he die or just shave the moustache off and call himself "Putin" ?
     
    8RB, JimHerriot and TTH like this.
  11. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    Another hula-hoop anniversary approaching...



    Although - Hula hoop - Wikipedia

    ...as usual history is complex and hard to verify... March 5 - Wikipedia

    ---‐- x ----- x -----

    On - "The Death of Stalin"...

     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2023
  12. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Ramiles, 8RB and Dave55 like this.
  13. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

  14. riter

    riter Well-Known Member

    Dying is one of the best thing that dictator did.

    The Death of Stalin is free on TubiTV. Any veteran or child of the Cold War will enjoy this:

    The Death of Stalin (2018)
     
  15. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I'd heard this before.
    Wonder how true it is.

    Johnny Cash, Joseph Stalin, & The Great Morse Code Crack
     
  16. Staffsyeoman

    Staffsyeoman Member

    The great composer Sergei Prokofiev, who Stalin enticed back to Moscow from Paris, died on the very same day.

    There is a superb play called Master Class by David Pownall, imagining a meeting in the Kremlin in the fringes of the Soviet Composers Union between Stalin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Marshal Zhdanov, Stalin's "cultural commissar" in the Kremlin in February 1948, which starts very chummy, but becomes increasingly threatening. In the original production, Timothy West was Stalin; in a revival, Terence Rigby played him. In both David Bamber was a superbly nervy Shostakovich, and Jonathan Adams was a superbly boorish, drunk and uncultured Commissar. He rails that Shostakovich gives the best theme in his 7th Symphony - "The Leningrad" - to the invading Germans.
     
  17. riter

    riter Well-Known Member

    From Sudaplatov's book, Special Tasks.

     

Share This Page