Stalin - classic or dud

The assassination of Slutsky is classic Soviet-fic: Frinovsky keeps him distracted in his office while an agent quietly enters with a chlorophene rag, swiftly incapacitates him whilst a 2nd agent enters and injects the poison into his arm, before he knows what has hit him he has tragically died of a heart attack. And then Stalin undoes it all by posthumously declaring him an enemy of the people anyway.

In some ways Krushchev the "sycophant and boot-licker" who'd left mountains of corpses in Ukraine on his way up, is almost more hate-able than Beria, not that B has any redeeming features other than being a much sharper + deadlier operator than K.

Catkin notes how Khrushchev was disgusted by Mein Kampf after Stalin forced his inner circle to read it for clues into Hitler – he was repulsed by Hitler's immorality and bloodthirstiness.

It always struck me as odd that Hitler so publicly declared his intentions of conquest + colonisation the east in MK, it's like the UK government when they talk to the UK press about the EU like they aren't reading this y'know! I bet Khrushchev's "disgust" was a complete bit of ham acting.

It was also odd that Stalin had this naive belief in the integrity of the Molotov/Ribbentrop, despite being an un-trusting despot to the core. and all the rest!

In the Russian commuter town of Balakhna (near Nizhny Novgorod), a banner has been placed on a building with Josef Stalin styled as the "The Terminator". He's wearing sunglasses & there are two messages: “I'll be back” & “75 years since the Great (WW2) Victory (over Germany)." pic.twitter.com/A9wW2zbsnK

— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) December 22, 2019

it should be funny but it is mostly scary?

or maybe shouldnt be funny at all

and turned away from him, in splendid
indifference to neva's blind force,
unshakeable, as if suspended
on high, there sat with arm extended
the great bronze idol, memed by dorks

It's funny to me because it is hamfisted propaganda done by idiots, but i doubt anyone over is there is scared by it tbf.

"Oh no zombie terminator Stalin gonna purge all the moderates from the FSB and whip Putin into shape" is not quite a credible fear amongst those in the Russian Federation these days:p

advertising hoarding in '35 Moscow : Coming Soon : The Great Terror!

Classic.

pic.twitter.com/ySTzNU5wPV

— duckazz ☭ (@duck_azz) July 2, 2020

this dude sucks

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFXvrhDXoAAaOxx?format=jpg

Stalin as Christian icon pic.twitter.com/KWbR9Ryu1X

— Anton Jäger (@AntonJaegermm) July 31, 2020

As retold in the dizzying, brilliant Khrustalyov, My Car!

how anyone can rave about that horrible, noisy, tryhard gagfest by Ianucci and disregard Khrustalyov, My Car! is just beyond me.

Much darker jokes, difficult to follow, no rape scene in the Ianucci iirc

no farting corpse scene either!

stalin did have about 100000 priests shot during the great terror and was probably responsible for umpteen ancient orthodox churches getting bulldozed into dust, but he makes a fine religious icon.

Liquidate Me Father

he was having lots of Jews arrested and murdered towards the end, it's a bit of fortune he eat it when he did because his anti-jewish actions would have definitely escalated.

just atheist things

I've seen Remember Holodomor stencilled on walls all across Lisbon and along the coast. Ukrainians second largest immigrant group

Some dick I heard in passing on the radio yesterday was just thinking thoughts about whether Ukraine regretted getting rid of its nukes

In an unrelated note here is a 10 mins interview with Nadeszha Mandelstam, who wrote a couple of great memoirs of her husband (who was in the end sent to prison and died there) and that time.

https://t.co/uCun5aOjYC

Nadezhda Mandelstam talking about Osip Mandelstam.
(english)

— flowerville_ii (@flowerville_II) July 27, 2020

"im so horny for josef stalin!" "oh no!" you say, clutching your pearls. "he's a pisces"

— wint but AI (@dril_gpt2) December 4, 2020

kids these days irl

My son drew this five years ago. Other artists have failed to capture Stalin’s cheeky grin. pic.twitter.com/FziNNJVtnQ

— Jon Dennis (@JonDennis) November 21, 2021

Stalin knew how to read books pic.twitter.com/CMQgz2gIHH

— Daniel Zamora Vargas (@DanielZamoraV) February 19, 2022

"rubbish" "scumbag" "piss off"

^^^

me reading the Graun