Organizers and participants of games and bets. Obligations related to the conduct of games and bets

Formation of the cult of personality and the regime of personal power I.V. Stalin. Approval of the administrative-command management system

In the 1930s, that administrative-command management system finally took shape. Soviet society, which is closely related to the functioning of the state party, which has the powers of supreme power in the country. The process of transforming the Communist Party of Russia into a state party began during the years of the Civil War, when, along with the Soviets, called upon to exercise power in the center and locally after October 1917, party committees began to be created in every district, volost, province. The experience of the Bolshevik Party, designed for extreme situation, helped party committees successfully master the techniques of public administration and replace the Soviets. Proposals from the opposition on the need to differentiate the powers of the center and local ones. bodies, about subordination to the center, but autonomy in developing means of implementing the directives of the center, separation of party bodies from Soviet ones, prohibition of commanding the Soviets, turning the latter into permanent meetings (a kind of small parliaments), ending the practice of appointment (as soon as the peak of the civil war had passed), Unfortunately, they were not heard, because they were always refuted by Lenin’s argumentation.

Restrictions on democracy caused by wartime circumstances subsequently led to massive coercion and violence. The Bolsheviks oust almost all parties from the political arena of Russia and remained in the 20s. the only party. The transformation of the Bolshevik Party into a state power structure was facilitated by profound changes within the party itself. First of all, by the end of the 20s, as a result of the Lenin and October calls, it became a mass party, numbering 1,200 thousand people by 1927. The overwhelming majority of those accepted into the party at that time were illiterate people, who were required, first of all, to submit to party discipline. The communists of mass appeals, who went through the struggle of the opposition, firmly grasped the foundations of repressive thinking: the need to politically cut off an ideological opponent and suppress all dissent. The layer of the old Bolshevik guard became thinner and thinner. In addition, its leadership was drawn into the struggle for power and was split, and then completely destroyed.

The next important step on the path to becoming a state party and establishing an administrative-command system of government in the country was the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The resolutions of the congress allowed the Bolshevik Party to directly engage in state and economic management, gave unlimited freedom to the top party leadership, and legitimized the unconditional subordination of ordinary communists to the leadership centers of the party hierarchy.

First of all, the congress introduced a new structure of party committees. Instead of “functionalism,” as the hitherto existing principle of organizing party committees was disparagingly called. departments, now “integral production and industry departments” were created. Thus, parallel departments of parjos arose along with the departments for industry, agriculture, culture, science and science that already existed under the executive committees of the Soviets. educational institutions etc. However, the functions of these equally named departments had significant differences.

The political role of party committees in fact became decisive and led to the replacement of the power of Soviet and economic bodies with party ones. The growth of the party into the economy and public sphere from that time on it became a distinctive feature of the entire Soviet period.

The next significant decision of the XVII Congress was the abolition of the previous system of party-Soviet control, proposed by Lenin. The Congress established a new decentralized, powerless control system.

By abolishing the People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, the congress transformed the Central Control Commission, elected by the congress, into the Party Control Commission under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The head of the commission was appointed from among the secretaries of the Central Committee. At the same time, the execution commission under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was transformed into a commission of Soviet control under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, planned by the party congress and approved by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The head of this commission was also appointed from among the deputy chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Thus, the congress established “zones of non-criticism.” Historical experience has shown that even the Central Control Commission-RCP could not rise above the Central Committee of the party and turned out to be a weapon in Stalin’s struggle for sole power.. the activities of the inspection bodies were taken under the strict control of the Central Committee of the party and the General Secretary.

The pyramid of party and state administration built by the congress, at the top of which Stalin occupied a strong place as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, was supplemented by another decision of the congress.

In the Charter adopted at the congress, the principle of democratic centralism was concretized by 4 points proposed by Stalin: election, accountability, subordination to the majority and binding decisions for all communists. If the first two points can be called declarative, then the last two were indeed strictly and strictly followed. All communists observed party discipline, which was primarily expressed in the subordination of any minority to any majority, and were also obliged to carry out the decisions of all higher party bodies.

The control system based on democratic, and in fact bureaucratic, centralism was elevated by the congress into law, which extended its effect not only to the party, but also to all other spheres of government in the conditions of Soviet reality. Such a system worked in a single, strictly defined direction, only from top to bottom and, therefore, could not by itself be viable without additional funds and artificially created incentives. The assertion of the power of the administrative-command system of party-government was accompanied by the rise and strengthening of the power structures of the state. its repressive organs.

Already in 1929, so-called “troikas” were created in each district, which included the first secretary of the district party committee, the chairman of the district executive committee and a representative of the Main Apolitical Directorate (GPU). They began to carry out out-of-court proceedings against the perpetrators, passing their own verdicts.

In December 1932, a special passport system was introduced in the country. The entire rural population of the country, with the exception of those who lived in the 10-kilometer border zone, was deprived of passports and was counted according to the lists of village councils. Strict control over compliance with the passport regime did not allow the vast majority of Soviet citizens to independently decide questions about their place of residence. In June 1934, the OPTU was transformed into the Main Directorate of State Security and became part of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

Under him, a Special Conference (SCO) was established, which at the union level consolidated the practice of extrajudicial verdicts. The strengthening of repressive actions was largely facilitated by the events that took place at the 17th Party Congress, which officially went down in its history as the “Congress of the Executed.” Indeed, the facts indicate that out of 1961 delegates to the congress, 1108 were subjected to repression, and out of 139 members of the Central Committee elected at the congress, 98.

The main reason for these repressions, which were organized by Stalin, was the disappointment in him as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) of a certain part of the party workers and communists. They condemned him for organizing forced collectivization, the famine it caused, and the incredible pace of industrialization that caused numerous casualties.

This dissatisfaction found expression during the voting for the list of the Central Committee. 270 delegates expressed in their ballots a vote of no confidence in “the leader of all times and peoples.” Moreover, they suggested S.M. Kirov the post of General Secretary, who, realizing the futility and danger of their efforts, did not accept the proposal.

However, this did not help Kirov: December 1, 1934. he was killed. And then it was clear to many, especially in Leningrad, who the true killer of Kirov was.

On the day of Kirov’s murder, on Stalin’s telephone order, an urgent resolution was adopted by the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR “On amendments to the existing criminal procedural codes of the union republics.” The changes concerned the investigation of cases of terrorist organizations and similar acts against employees of the Soviet government.

Extraordinary forms of consideration and hearing were introduced: the investigation period was limited to 10 days, hearings of cases were allowed without the participation of the parties, cassation appeals were canceled, and the sentence to capital punishment was carried out immediately. In essence, this resolution cannot be qualified differently than a resolution on mass terror.

Stalin took cruel revenge for the fact that he was displeasing to someone. Having organized the murders of Kirov, he used it to instill fear in the country, the day of reprisals against the remnants of the previously defeated opposition” with its new manifestations. In March 1935, the Law on punishing family members of traitors to the Motherland was adopted, and a month later a Decree on bringing children under 12 years of age to trial. Millions of people, the vast majority of whom. were not guilty, found themselves behind the wire and walls of the Gulag. Archival materials, the publication of which has been ongoing since the early 90s, will ultimately help to name the exact figure of Stalin’s repressions.

However, individual figures and facts provide a sufficient idea of ​​the past of the 30s. In 1939 alone, 2,103 thousand people passed through the Gulag system. Of these, 525 thousand died. Innocent victims called for resistance.

Resistance continued “at the top.” Everyone who uttered a word of protest knew that they were doomed, and yet people went along with it. In the highest echelon of political leadership at this time (1930), a group was formed headed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, candidate member of the Politburo S.I. Syrtsov and the secretary of the Transcaucasian regional party committee V.V. Lomnadze. A group of Soviet and party workers spoke out against the incompetence and bureaucracy of the party-Soviet apparatus.

The issue of Syrtsov and Lomniadze was considered at a special meeting of the Council of People's Commissars. Party and Soviet workers of the territories and regions of the RSFSR in the spring and summer of 1930 raised the issue of creating the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and moving the capital of Russia to Leningrad. The reprisal against the members of this group took place in gross violation of the Party Charter and Soviet legal norms. A special place in the anti-Stalin resistance was occupied by a group led by M.N. Ryutin. He acted as an ideologist and organizer of the “Union of Marxists-Leninists” (1932). He prepared the main program document of this organization “Stalin and the crisis of the proletarian dictatorship” and a manifesto-appeal “To all members of the CPSU (b)”. For the first time, authoritative leaders appealed to all party members against Stalin's actions. The slogan “liquidation of the kulaks as a class” is adventuristic, based on a false foundation. Entire regions of the country were in conditions of permanent war. As a result of programmatic changes, the Politburo turned into a gang of politicians. M. Ryutin warned that the struggle would be long, it would require many sacrifices, but there was no other way. He directly called for the overthrow of Stalin. Obviously, this is why the reprisal against the members of the “Union” was swift and carried out in an atmosphere of special secrecy.

While in prison, M. Ryutin did not stop his theoretical activities. The summer and autumn of 1932 became a critical point in the establishment of the regime; party reports indicated that anti-Stalinist sentiment had reached its peak. Groups similar to Ryutin’s also operated in Taganrog, Kharkov, Irkutsk, and Novosibirsk. In November 1932, a peasant uprising broke out in the Ural region. For the first time in the “Ryutin case” an attempt was made to combine spontaneous resistance with theoretical basis his. It is no coincidence, apparently, that G.E. was involved in this case. Zinoviev and L.B. Kamenev. On the direct orders of Stalin, they were expelled from the party and convicted out of court.

In the 1930s, several more groups were discovered whose members opposed Stalin’s autocracy. The most famous are; group A.L. Smirnova, N.V. Tolmacheva, N.V. Eismont - three people's commissars, Krylov's group - an active participant in the socialist revolution and civil war.

After the murder of S.M. Kirov's resistance weakened significantly, although it did not stop, despite the terror. In 1937 At the June plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, members of the Central Committee I.L. spoke. Pyatnitsky and People's Commissar of Health G.N. Kaminsky, who demanded an end to repression and the removal of Stalin. They were immediately arrested.

Defectors - V.G. - appealed to Stalin's actions to world public opinion. Krivitsky, I. Reise, diplomats F.F. Raskolnikov and A.G. Barmin. They were presented as renegades discrediting our country on the eve of the attack on the USSR by Nazi Germany.

Among those who openly and without fear opposed Stalin were academicians. L. Pavlov, in his letters to the Council of People's Commissars, he wrote that “we live in a regime of terror and pressure,” that “everything that is happening in the country is a gigantic experiment,” etc. And this was indeed the case: by this time, a regime of arbitrariness and repression had been established in the country, the totalitarian command system was gaining strength...

Why did the resistance fail? Stalin and his entourage managed to isolate all attempts at organized resistance, and this became possible thanks to the penetration of Stalin’s secret police-political police into all pores; a split occurred in the ranks of the old party guard, which could have offered genuine resistance.

Stalin's opponents did not receive widespread support among the party masses; most of them came to leadership on the crest of military victories and had a weak idea of ​​democracy. It seemed to them that there was no alternative to Stalin. Most of the participants in the anti-Stalin resistance rightfully called themselves revolutionaries, but could not rely on a broad social base.

The proletariat is young, grateful to Stalin, ready and believing in actual execution all the thoughts of the leader, the peasantry was considered a reactionary class, a. That’s why representatives of the creative intelligentsia did not try to contact him. They were wary, having learned from the “mining business.” After the political discreditation of Bukharin in the highest echelon, no. there were alternative leaders equal to Bukharin and capable of resisting Stalin.

The system of public repentance was used by Stalin to politically and morally discredit his opponents. Many of the participants in the anti-Stalin resistance accepted Active participation in the creation of the regime of party and Soviet power, in all its abuses, and did not find the strength and courage to admit their own responsibility for what they had done. 197 All this led to the defeat of the anti-Stalin resistance, the eradication of any possibility of resistance to Stalin and Stalinism.

The presence of opposition is a sign of a democratic society and any attempt to destroy it is the destruction of democracy.

This resistance, being unable to resist Stalinism, at the same time had enormous moral significance and prepared the subsequent denial and condemnation of this system.

Thus, a society that has declared its goal to achieve highest ideals social justice, in fact, degenerated into a society of extreme social injustice, terror and lawlessness - the Stalinist model of socialism. According to Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. 1-1, it is based. Kudryavtsev, the following provisions lay:

• - replacement of the socialization of the main means of production with their nationalization, suppression of democratic forms public life despotism and arbitrariness of the “leader”, although based on the party and state apparatus, but actually standing above the party and apparatus; administrative-command methods of coercion.
• - (non-economic) labor organization, up to state terror;
• - inability to self-correction, especially internal reforms due to the lack of both economic and political (democratic) regulators of public life;
• - closedness of the country, tendencies towards autarky in all spheres of life;
• - ideological conformism and obedience of the masses, dogmatism in science and culture.

Stalinism essentially discredited socialist idea in the eyes of workers around the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• 1. Beladi Laszlo, Kraaus Tamás. "Stalin". M., 1989.
• 2. Vert N. History of the Soviet state. Progress Academy, 1992.
• 3. History of Russia. Second half of the 19th-20th centuries.
• 4. Course of lectures, ed. V. Levapova. Bryansk, 1992.
• 5. Carr E.X. Russian revolution from Lenin to Stalin. 1917-. 1929. M.: “Peter-Vorsa”, 1990.

Very soon after Stalin died, in 1953, the concept of “Stalin’s personality cult” appeared. The first who began to fight this phenomenon was Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich, as well as Maximilianovich.

In Soviet literature of the thirties and fifties of the twentieth century, the image of Stalin became one of the central ones. Foreign communist writers, including Pablo Neruda, also wrote works about the leader. In the USSR, their works were replicated and translated.

Works that glorified Stalin also appeared in folklore publications of almost all the peoples of the USSR.

In Soviet sculpture and painting during this period, the cult of Stalin’s personality was also visible.

In the formation of the propaganda image of this leader, a special role was played by replicated Soviet posters, which were devoted to a wide variety of topics.

During his lifetime, many were named after Stalin a large number of objects, including settlements, streets, factories, and cultural centers. Most likely, the first of them was Stalingrad. During the Civil War (in nineteen twenty-seven), Stalin took part in the defense of Tsaritsyn.

In many states of Eastern Europe after 1945, cities appeared that were named after him.

The formation of Stalin's personality cult became one of the fragments of the political regime of the USSR in the thirties.

He turned fifty years old on December 21, 1921. Until this point, all members of the Politburo were called "party leaders" and were listed in alphabetical order. But from that moment on, the “institute of leaders” was liquidated and Stalin was declared the only “first student of Lenin” and “leader of the party.”

Stalin was called brilliant, great, wise. The “leader of the world proletariat” appeared in the country. He was also called an outstanding commander and creator of the Red Army, the organizer of October, and the great strategist of the Five-Year Plan. Party workers, workers, artists, academicians competed with each other for primacy in praising Stalin. However, Dzhambul, the popular one, surpassed everyone; in Pravda he wrote that “Stalin is deeper than the ocean, higher than the Himalayas, brighter than the sun. He is the teacher of the Universe."

Stalin's cult of personality was exposed by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, on the twenty-fifth of February. It lasted from the fourteenth to the twenty-fifth of February 1956, and was attended by one thousand three hundred forty-nine delegates with a casting vote and eighty-one with an advisory vote, representing four hundred nineteen thousand six hundred nine candidate party members and six million seven hundred ninety-five thousand eight hundred ninety-six members parties.

The exposure of Stalin's cult of personality by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was outlined in a closed report “On the cult of personality and its consequences.”

In it, Khrushchev voiced his point of view on the country’s recent past, and also listed numerous facts from the history of the second half of the thirties and early fifties, interpreting them as crimes, where Stalin was blamed for them. The problem of military and party leaders who were repressed under this ruler was also raised. The report, despite this conditional secrecy, was distributed to all party corners of the country, and at some enterprises even non-party people were involved in its discussion. Even in the Komsomol cells there was a discussion about it. All over the world, the report exposing Stalin's personality cult attracted great attention; it was translated into many languages ​​and distributed even in non-communist circles. However, only in nineteen eighty-nine was it published in the Soviet Union itself in a magazine called “Izvestia of the Central Committee of the CPSU.”

Poster from the period of Stalin's personality cult

Cult of personality of J.V. Stalin- exaltation of the personality of I.V. Stalin by means of mass propaganda, in works of culture and art, government documents. Stalin's personality cult began in the mid-1920s and lasted until 1956-1961.

Phenomena similar in nature, but smaller in scale, were observed in relation to other government leaders of this period (M. I. Kalinin, V. M. Molotov, A. A. Zhdanov, L. P. Beria, etc.), but comparable with The cult of J.V. Stalin was only the cult of V.I. Lenin.

Expression “personality cult of J.V. Stalin” became widespread after appearing in 1956 in the report of N. S. Khrushchev “On the cult of personality and its consequences” and in the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee “On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences.”

Contents [Show]

Causes

Marxism-Leninism, ideological basis Soviet power, based on the Marxist position on equality, theoretically rejects leaderism, limiting the “role of the individual in history.” At the same time, some scientists consider leaderism a natural consequence of practical socialism. For example, the Russian philosopher N.A. Berdyaev believed that “Leninism is leaderism of a new type, it puts forward a leader of the masses, endowed with dictatorial power.” After October revolution In 1917, in Soviet Russia and the USSR, the titles “leaders of the revolution” and simply “leaders” began to be used in the plural and singular in relation to V.I. Lenin and L.D. Trotsky.

The emergence of the personality cult of J.V. Stalin is associated both with the directed activities of the top leadership of the CPSU (b) and J.V. Stalin himself, as well as with historical and cultural characteristics development of the state in that period.

Thus, according to political scientist A.A. Kara-Murza, the cult of personality was created by I.V. Stalin himself, who dealt with this as a priority topic throughout the years of his reign, until March 1953. The idea of ​​the cult was that the entire Soviet people owed everything to the party, the state and their leader. One of the aspects of this system was the need to express gratitude to I.V. Stalin, for example, for social services and in general for everything that citizens have. Professor of Russian history at Johns Hopkins University Geoffrey Brooks notes that the famous phrase “Thank you to Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood! emphasized that children have a happy childhood only because I.V. Stalin provided it for them.

In the textbook for law schools and faculties “The Theory of State and Law,” published by a team of authors edited by Professor S. S. Alekseev, one of the reasons for Stalin’s personality cult says the following:

The Russian centuries-old tradition of paternalism is embodied in petty-bourgeois leaderism, characteristic of a multi-million peasant country. The psychology of leaderism and the bureaucratic deification of authority served as a breeding ground for Stalin’s personality cult. By the early 1930s, the totalitarian regime had become a harsh political reality.

Among people who positively assess the rule of I.V. Stalin (some of the communists, etatists, etc.) there is an opinion that the cult was caused by personality traits Stalin and the successes associated with his rule. Thus, after the “exposure of the cult of personality,” a phrase usually attributed to M. A. Sholokhov (but also to other persons) became famous: “Yes, there was a cult... But there was also a personality!”

Manifestations

Leaderism

During the Stalinist period, Soviet propaganda created an aura of an infallible leader around J.V. Stalin. After I.V. Stalin acquired full power, the titles “great leader”, “great leader and teacher”, “father of nations”, “great commander”, “brilliant scientist” were often used and were almost obligatory in official journalism and rhetoric. ", " best friend(scientists, writers, athletes, etc.)”, etc.

J.V. Stalin was the only Generalissimo of the Soviet Union.

In view of the announcement of J.V. Stalin as a theoretician of Marxism-Leninism, his name was mentioned and his portrait image was placed on a par with K. Marx, F. Engels and V.I. Lenin, and also, like “Marxism-Leninism”, the term was sometimes used “Stalinism”, decades later, became the concept-definition of the political regime he created with a negative assessment and interpretation.

Name of objects

Numerous geographical, economic, technical, military, transport, cultural and other objects, objects, awards were named after J.V. Stalin (as well as his closest associates).

Cities

The following major Soviet population centers were named after Stalin:

• Stalingrad (1925-1961, until 1925 - Tsaritsyn, from 1961 - Volgograd; one of the first renames - in the defense of Tsaritsyn, I.V. Stalin participated in the Civil War)
• Stalino (1924-1961, until 1924 - Yuzovka, since 1961 - Donetsk)
• Stalinabad (1929-1961, before 1929 - Dyushambe, after 1961 - Dushanbe)
• Stalinsk (1932-1961, before 1932 and after 1961 - Novokuznetsk)
• Stalinogorsk (Novomoskovsk, 1934-1961)
• Staliniri (1934-1961, before 1934 and after 1961 - Tskhinvali (Tskhinvali))

In 1937-1938, proposals were made to rename Moscow Stalinodar.

In the 1950s, there were cities named after J.V. Stalin in all the Warsaw Pact and CMEA countries (at that time), except Czechoslovakia:

• German Democratic Republic- Eisenhüttenstadt (Stalinstadt, 1953-1961)
• Socialist Republic of Romania - Brasov (Oraşul-Stalin, 1950-1960)
• People's Republic Bulgaria - Varna (Stalin, 1949-1956)
• Hungarian People's Republic - Dunaujváros (Stalinváros, 1951-1961)
• Polish People's Republic - Katowice (Stalinogrud, 1953-1956)
• People's Republic of Albania - Kucova (Stalin, 1950-1990)

In the GDR and Hungary, cities were built practically from scratch and were supposed to become “new socialist cities.”

Other objects

Names associated with I.V. Stalin were assigned to the highest peaks of the USSR (Peak of Communism), Bulgaria (Musala), Slovakia and all the Carpathians (Gerlachovsky-Štit), as well as Mount Peck located in Canada.

The name of I.V. Stalin was borne by the Semenovskaya and Izmailovsky Park metro stations in Moscow, the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Likhachev Plant, a number of universities, including Tbilisi State University, the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (National Research Technological University MISiS"), Moscow State Mining University, Moscow State Technological University "Stankin", Belarusian National Technical University, etc.

A series of tanks, steam locomotives, and an armored train were named in honor of I.V. Stalin.

Monuments

Stalinian

Literature

Showcase of a bookstore in Odessa in 1931

The image of I.V. Stalin became one of the central ones in Soviet literature of the 1930s-1950s; Works about the leader were also written by foreign communist writers, including Henri Barbusse (author of the posthumously published book “Stalin”), Pablo Neruda, these works were translated and replicated in the USSR. Works glorifying I.V. Stalin appeared in abundance in publications of folklore of almost all peoples of the USSR.

Stalinism was constantly present primarily in Soviet printing, cinematography, music, painting and sculpture of this period, including monumental, fine and mass art. Lifetime monuments to J.V. Stalin, like monuments to V.I. Lenin, were erected en masse in most cities of the USSR, and after 1945 in Eastern Europe. On public holidays, the ritual of raising a huge portrait of J.V. Stalin, illuminated by spotlights, over Moscow in balloons became obligatory and widely reflected in cinema. A special role in the creation of the propaganda image of I.V. Stalin was played by the massive Soviet poster dedicated to a wide variety of topics with his image, as well as the mandatory placement of his portraits in all state and public buildings and premises and on transport.

Cinema

Painting

Philately

Mythologizing the picture of history

The main role in the distortion and creation of a mythological picture of Soviet history was played by the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)” created, partly personally by J.V. Stalin, partly under his editorship.

By the end of the Stalinist period, many figures who played prominent roles in these events disappeared from the history of the revolution and the Civil War. Their actions were attributed to I.V. Stalin and a narrow circle of his associates, who often played secondary and tertiary roles in reality, and to several prominent Bolsheviks who died before the start of the great terror: Ya.M. Sverdlov, F.E. Dzerzhinsky, M.V. Frunze, S. M. Kirov and others.

The Bolshevik Party seemed to be the only revolutionary force; the revolutionary role of the other parties was denied. Individual leaders of the revolution were accused of treasonous and counter-revolutionary actions.

In the official historiography of the Great Patriotic War, the term “Ten Stalinist Strikes” was used to describe the largest offensive operations of the Red Army, which led to the defeat of the Third Reich.

Also under I.V. Stalin, especially in the last decade of his reign, there was a change in attitude towards the pre-revolutionary history of Russia, in particular, the reign of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, which was associated with an emphasis on the role of the state and a strong ruler.

The personality cult of J.V. Stalin outside the USSR

The personality cult of I.V. Stalin was also widespread in most socialist countries peace. After the XX Congress of the CPSU, Stalinist orientation public policy and the associated personality cult of J.V. Stalin survived in Albania (until 1990), China and the DPRK.

Currently, at the official level, individual manifestations of the cult exist in the PRC, where there are a number of commemorative images of J.V. Stalin and souvenirs with his image are produced, as well as in the DPRK. Individual communist parties around the world are turning to the legacy of J.V. Stalin.

People named after Stalin

• Stalin Rivas - Venezuelan football player and coach

J.V. Stalin’s attitude to the cult of personality

N. S. Khrushchev, debunking the cult of personality in his famous report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, argued that J. V. Stalin encouraged this state of affairs in every possible way. Thus, N. S. Khrushchev stated that when editing his own biography prepared for publication, J. V. Stalin wrote entire pages there, where he called himself the leader of nations, a great commander, the highest theoretician of Marxism, a brilliant scientist, etc. In particular, N. S. Khrushchev claimed that I. V. Stalin himself wrote the following passage: “Masterfully fulfilling the tasks of the leader of the party and the people, having the full support of everyone Soviet people“Stalin, however, did not allow even a shadow of conceit, arrogance, or narcissism in his activities.”.

To Lion Feuchtwanger’s remark “about the tasteless, exaggerated admiration for his personality,” J.V. Stalin “shrugged his shoulders” and “excused his peasants and workers by the fact that they were too busy with other matters and could not develop good taste».

At the same time, it is known that J.V. Stalin suppressed some acts of his praise. Thus, according to the writer O. S. Smyslovsky, the first sketches of the Orders of Victory and Glory were made with the profile of I. V. Stalin, but Stalin allegedly asked to replace his profile with the Spasskaya Tower. In 1949, when Moscow State University wanted to be named after him, J.V. Stalin categorically objected: “The main university of the country can bear only one name - Lomonosov.”

Modern researchers of the Stalin era believe that such actions were supposed to symbolize the so-called “Stalinist modesty” - one of Stalin’s ideologies, an important part of his image, emphasized by propaganda. According to the German historian Jan Plumper, “the image that emerged was of Stalin being in open opposition to his own cult or in best case scenario reluctantly endured it." Russian researcher Olga Edelman considers the phenomenon of “Stalinist modesty” a cunning political move that allowed Stalin, under the guise of not wanting to “stick out” his personality, to suppress excessive curiosity about his past, at the same time leaving himself the opportunity to select what he himself considered fit for publication and thus shape it himself. your public image.

Stalin's public behavior also played an important role. According to the memoirs:

Take, for example, his passages through the corridors of the Kremlin. This was one of the peculiar rituals of his cult. You walk with papers, you look: yourself, surrounded by security. One guard walked 25-30 meters ahead of Stalin. And behind him, about two meters away, were two more people. You were supposed to stand with your back to the wall, keep your hands in sight and wait for him to pass.

There were no instructions on how to greet each other. For example, when he passed me, I said: “Hello, Comrade Stalin.” In response, he raised his right hand and silently walked on. He walked confidently, measuredly, calmly, and looked not at the person who greeted him, but somewhere in the distance, ahead of him. The expression on his face was so significant that I then thought: his head was probably occupied with some special thoughts that we mortals would never think of.

Mikhail Smirtyukov. Memoirs of the Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR

De-Stalinization

The most famous exposer of the cult of personality was N. S. Khrushchev, who in 1956 spoke at the 20th Congress of the CPSU with a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” in which he debunked the cult of personality of the late J. V. Stalin. N. S. Khrushchev, in particular, said:

The cult of personality acquired such monstrous proportions mainly because Stalin himself in every possible way encouraged and supported the exaltation of his person. This is evidenced by numerous facts. One of the most characteristic manifestations of self-praise and lack of elementary modesty in Stalin is the publication of his “ Brief biography", published in 1948.

This book is an expression of the most unbridled flattery, an example of the deification of man, turning him into an infallible sage, the most “great leader” and “unsurpassed commander of all times and peoples.” There were no other words to further praise the role of Stalin.

There is no need to quote the nauseatingly flattering characteristics heaped one upon another in this book. It should only be emphasized that all of them were approved and edited personally by Stalin, and some of them were included in the layout of the book with his own hand.

In his report, N.S. Khrushchev singled out cinema as one of the tools for inculcating the cult of personality; in the next five years, feature films in which the figure of I.V. Stalin was present were not shown.

In 1961, the body of I.V. Stalin was taken out of the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum. There have been massive renamings. In particular, the city of Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd, the capital of the Tajik SSR Stalinabad - Dushanbe. Monuments to J.V. Stalin were dismantled almost everywhere. By decision of the government, many feature films were censored and freed from the “obsessive image” (J.V. Stalin).

In 1962, the IS (Joseph Stalin) steam locomotives were renamed into FDp (Felix Dzerzhinsky, passenger version) and other objects.

Perestroika

During the reign of L. I. Brezhnev there were no further revelations or revival of the cult; In order not to inflame passions in society over such a controversial and resonant topic, they simply tried not to remember J.V. Stalin without unnecessary reason. There was a neutral article about him in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. In 1979, the 100th anniversary of I.V. Stalin was reported in the Soviet media, but no special celebrations were held.

In the second half of the 80s, the situation changed: in the wake of Perestroika and Glasnost, the topic of I.V. Stalin and his reign again became one of the most discussed.

Russian Federation

Gallery

Stalin in the painting by V. A. Serov "Lenin proclaims Soviet power". USSR stamp, 1954

"Peace will win the war." IN kindergarten: “Thanks to dear Stalin for a happy childhood”. Artist E. Bulanova (DFA No. 1561)

Posthumous stamp of Stalin (1954)

USSR stamp with a monument to Stalin at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition near the Mechanization Pavilion (1940)

Monument to Stalin in Stalingrad on the Volga-Don canal

Monument to Stalin in the city of Gori, Georgia - the last of the large ones to be demolished (demolished in June 2010)

see also

• Stalinism
• Stalin period
• Celebrating Stalin's 70th birthday
• Putin's cult of personality
• Putinism

Notes

1. Professor of political science and historian Alexey Kara-Murza in the program “In the Name of Stalin: the historical legacy of the Stalin era”
2. Professor of Russian History at Johns Hopkins University, Geoffrey Brooks. 16 minutes 00 seconds
3. "Theory of Government and Rights. Statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation", publishing house "Norma", ISBN 978-5-89123-785-8
4. K. M. Lebedinsky Sense of Time, 2005.
5. S. Sverchkov Honorary Citizen - Chief of All Rus' // Pravda. - 2006. - No. 54 (May 26-29).
6. M. Delyagin. Create an idol // Tomorrow. - 2006. - No. 40 (672), 10/04/2006.
7. Alexander Fedonin, historian. Between Yuzovka and Donetsk. Website "Donetsk: history, events, facts." (September 22, 2010). Retrieved October 26, 2013.
8. A short course on the history of the CPSU (b). - Gospolitizdat, 1945.
9. V. P. Naumov. On the history of the secret report of N. S. Khrushchev. // “New and Contemporary History”, No. 4, 1996.
10. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. About the cult of personality and its consequences. Report to the XX Congress of the CPSU
11. Lion Feuchtwanger. Moscow 1937
12. Oleg Smyslov. Mysteries of Soviet awards. 1918-1991. - M.: Veche, 2005. - ISBN 5-9533-0446-3
13. Yu. A. Zhdanov. Without theory we are dead!
14. Plumper Ya. Alchemy of power. The cult of Stalin in the fine arts = The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power. - Moscow: NLO, 2010. - pp. 185–208.
15. Olga Edelman. Stalin, Koba and Soso. Young Stalin in historical sources. - Moscow: Publishing House HSE, 2016. - pp. 27-28. - ISBN 978-5-7598-1352-1.
16. Dissertation on the topic “The military image of Stalin during the Civil War in the interpretation of Soviet art cinema of the second half of the 1930s - early 1950s” ...

Literature

• J. Devlin. The myth of Stalin: the development of the cult // Proceedings of the “Russian Anthropological School”: Vol. 6. M.: RSUH, 2009, p. 213-240
• Stöpper, B., Zuppan, A.“Revolution from above” and the cult of Stalin / Rep. ed. B.V. Nosov. - Slavic peoples: common history and culture: To the 70th anniversary of Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Konstantinovich Volkov. - M.: Indrik, 2000. - P. 286-305. - 488 p. - ISBN 5-85759-128-7.
• Plumper Ya. Alchemy of power. The cult of Stalin in the fine arts = The Stalin Cult: A Study in the Alchemy of Power. - Moscow: UFO, 2010.

Links

• Scientific Communism: A Dictionary (1983) / Cult of Personality
• About the cult of personality and its consequences. Report of N. S. Khrushchev to the XX Congress of the CPSU February 25, 1956
• Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences June 30, 1956
• A series of articles on the cult of personality

Cult of personality of J.V.Stalin- artificial exaggeration and exaltation of the role of the personality of J.V. Stalin, alien to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. The practice of Stalin's personality cult in the USSR led to gross violations of the norms of party and public life, and socialist legality.

Marxism and the cult of personality

Outstanding personalities play an important role in historical events as leaders, organizers and inspirers of the struggle of the masses and classes, but the decisive role in history belongs to the masses. K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin, fearing the possibility of penetration into revolutionary movement The cult of personality, as one of the most disgusting relics of the past, resolutely fought against all its manifestations. In 1877 Marx wrote:

“... out of disgust for any cult of personality, during the existence of the International, I never allowed the numerous appeals in which my merits were recognized and were pestered by me from different countries to be made public - I never even answered them, except from time to time to reprimand for them. The first entry of Engels and myself into the secret society of communists took place under the indispensable condition that everything that promotes superstitious admiration of authorities would be thrown out of the rules...” Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 34, p. . 241.

V.I. Lenin, being the generally recognized leader of the Communist Party and the people, met with exceptional hostility any demonstration of veneration of his personality. Emphasizing the decisive role of the masses in historical creativity, Lenin said:

“...The minds of tens of millions of creators create something immeasurably higher than the greatest and most brilliant foresight.” V.I. Lenin. Soch., vol. 26, p. 431.

Lenin's methods, Lenin's style of party and government activities certainly excluded the ideology and practice of the cult of personality. In the party under Lenin there was no one-man command, no blind admiration for authority, not to mention the persecution of those who openly polemicized with Lenin. Lenin taught that the leadership of the ruling political party and the construction of socialism can be successful only under the condition that the party does not break away from the working masses, does not command them, but learns from the masses and directs their actions, strictly taking into account objective and subjective conditions. Lenin always attached great importance to the question of the personal qualities of leading party leaders. Back in 1903 he wrote:

“... it is necessary that the entire party systematically, gradually and steadily educate suitable people in the center, so that it sees before itself, in full view, all the activities of each candidate for this high post, so that it becomes familiar even with their individual characteristics, with their strengths and weaknesses, with their victories and “defeats.”

Even then Lenin said that it was necessary to give the opportunity to the mass of party workers “...to recognize your leaders and put each of them on the proper shelf” V.I.Lenin. Soch., vol. 7, p. 100, 101

The emergence of the personality cult of J.V. Stalin

In the last years of his life, being seriously ill, Lenin in his letters and articles called for a number of measures to ensure the unity of the Communist Party and to strengthen the Central Committee of the party. Lenin devoted his “Letter to the Congress” (December 1922 - January 1923), known as “Testament,” mainly to characterizing the personal qualities and traits of the leading members of the Party Central Committee. Characterizing in this letter I.V. Stalin, L.D. Trotsky, G.E. Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev, N.I. Bukharin and G.L. Pyatakov, Lenin pointed out both their positive and negative qualities. Drawing the party's attention to the question of the personal qualities and relationships of the leading figures of the Central Committee, Lenin emphasized that “... this is not a trifle, or it is such a trifle that can become decisive” V.I. Lenin. Soch., vol. 36, p. 546 Over the years revolutionary activities Stalin accumulated extensive experience in leading party work, but had some extremely negative personal qualities. “Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, wrote Lenin on December 24. 1922, - concentrated immense power in his hands, and I’m not sure whether he will always be able to use this power carefully enough” V.I. Lenin. Soch., vol. 36, p. 544. Lenin proposed to think about a way to remove Stalin from this post. January 4, 1923 Lenin, in a dictated addition to his letter dated December 24, 1922, stated:

“Stalin is too rude, and this shortcoming, quite tolerable in the environment and in communications between us communists, becomes intolerable in the position of Secretary General. Therefore, I suggest that the comrades consider a way to move Stalin from this place and appoint another person to this place, who in all other respects differs from Comrade. Stalin has only one advantage, namely, more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more attentive to his comrades, less capriciousness, etc.”V.I. Lenin. Soch., vol. 36, p. 545-46

Due to the circumstances, Stalin was not relieved of his duties at that time. Secretary General Central Committee. The next XII Congress of the RCP(b) took place in Moscow on April 17-25, 1923, but Lenin’s “Testament” was not communicated to the delegates of this congress.

A few months after the XII Congress, in the fall of 1923, the opposition, led by Trotsky, openly came out with an anti-Leninist platform. The Party Central Committee, headed by Stalin, organized the party's struggle against the Trotskyist opposition. Lenin died in January 1924. At the end of May 1924, the XIII Congress of the RCP(b) was held, to the delegates of which Lenin’s “Testament” was communicated not at a meeting of the congress, but at meetings of delegations of individual republics, territories, and provinces. After reading the “Testament,” the leaders of the delegations (secretaries of local party bodies) posed the question to their comrades: is it advisable, in conditions of acute internal party struggle, to relieve Stalin from the post of General Secretary. The delegations of the XIII Congress, and then members of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), at the plenum held immediately after the congress, discussed Lenin’s letter in a difficult internal party situation. Sincerely hoping that Stalin would conscientiously fulfill his promise to take into account Lenin’s criticism, the delegates to the congress and the plenum of the Central Committee spoke in favor of leaving him as general. Secretary of the Central Committee.

The reasons for the emergence of Stalin's personality cult

When considering the issue of the emergence of Stalin’s personality cult, it is necessary to take into account both objective, specific historical conditions, as well as subjective factors associated with Stalin’s personal qualities. The Communist Party led the construction of socialism in the USSR in an extremely difficult international and domestic situation (capitalist encirclement, the threat of military attack, fierce class struggle in the country, when the question of “who will win?” was being decided, the fight against Trotskyists, right-wing opportunists, as well as bourgeois nationalists). These conditions required iron discipline, centralization of leadership, and some limitation of democracy.

“But these restrictions were already considered by the party and the people as temporary, to be eliminated as the Soviet state and the development of the forces of democracy and socialism throughout the world. The people consciously made these temporary sacrifices, seeing more and more successes of the Soviet social system every day." "On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences. Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee", 1956, p. 13

The country was carrying out the first experience in history of building a socialist society, which was formed in the process of searching, testing in practice many truths previously known only in general outline, in theory. The USSR was the only country that paved the way to socialism. Overcoming enormous difficulties during all the pre-war five-year plans, the previously backward country, as a result of the heroic efforts of the party and the entire people, made a giant leap in its political, economic and cultural development. In those years, Stalin, together with other leading figures of the party, acted as a major organizer of the struggle of the Soviet people to build socialism. He led the party's struggle against deviations from the Leninist line allowed by the Trotskyists, then by the Zinoviev-Kamenev group, and subsequently by the Bukharin-Rykov-Tomsky group. In a number of works included in the collection “Questions of Leninism,” Stalin defended Lenin’s provisions on the possibility of the victory of socialism in one particular country, which armed the party in the fight against the opposition; all this gained him great authority among the party and the people. In this environment, Stalin’s personality cult gradually began to take shape. All the victories and successes achieved by the Communist Party and the Soviet country began to be incorrectly associated with the name of Stalin. The praise for Stalin turned his head. At that stage, Stalin’s negative qualities affected. He did not seek to convince opponents, to subordinate them to the ideological influence of the party, to resolve emerging disagreements and contradictions using democratic, party methods, as Lenin did, but resorted to administrative methods. He, contrary to the decisions of the party congresses on the development of internal party democracy, departed from the Leninist method of collective leadership and personally made decisions on the most important issues.

“...Stalin, having enormously overestimated his merits, believed in his own infallibility. Some restrictions of internal party and Soviet democracy, inevitable in conditions of a fierce struggle with the class enemy and his agents, and later in the conditions of the war against the Nazi invaders, Stalin began to elevate to the norm of internal party and state life, grossly trampling on Leninist principles of leadership. cult of personality and its consequences. Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee", 1956, p. 15).

Manifestations of the cult of personality

Stalin began to violate the party's statutory requirements, which was reflected in the irregular convening of party congresses and plenums of the Central Committee, the curtailment of the work of the Politburo of the Central Committee as a collective body of leadership, the violation of internal party democracy in the form of the replacement of elections to party bodies with co-optation, etc. Even in the difficult conditions of foreign military intervention and the civil war, in the first 6 years after October (1918-23), under Lenin, 6 all-party congresses, 5 conferences, 79 plenums of the Party Central Committee took place. In the first 10 years after Lenin's death (1924-33), 4 party congresses, 5 conferences, and 43 plenums of the Central Committee took place, mostly devoted to the fight against oppositions and deviations. But over the next 20 years (1934-53), only 3 party congresses and one conference took place, and the interval between the XVIII and XIX congresses was 13 years. Over two decades, only 23 plenums of the Central Committee were convened. In 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1948, 1950 and 1951 there was not a single plenum of the Central Committee.

By violating Lenin’s “Testament,” Stalin placed himself above the party’s Central Committee, got out of its control, and protected himself from criticism. Stalin methodically strengthened the cult of his personality; he attributed to himself excessive services to the party, the successes achieved by the people in the civil war, in the construction of socialism, in the defeat of Hitler's hordes. Monuments to Stalin were erected everywhere. In order to create an aura of Stalin’s infallibility, the history of the party was distorted, the theory of “two leaders” was persistently propagated, the version that Stalin was the very person who, together with Lenin, created the Bolshevik party, developed its theory and tactics.

Consequences of the cult of personality

In March 1922, Lenin noted the enormous, undivided authority “...that thinnest layer that can be called the old party guard” Complete, collected. cit., 5th ed., vol. 45, p. 20. It was these people who knew the truth about Stalin’s real and imaginary merits, and they clearly interfered with Stalin. The slightest attempts to counter the falsification of the history of the party began to be regarded by Stalin as “hostile attacks” or “conciliation towards them”; a merciless reprisal began against persons disliked by Stalin. Stalin made a fair statement that as we move towards socialism, the class struggle becomes more and more intensified. Unfortunately, this to some extent served as a theoretical justification for the repressions. Repressions against Leninist party cadres, honest government and economic leaders, command and political personnel of the Red Army, ordinary communists and Soviet citizens caused heavy damage.

The cult of Stalin's personality contributed to the spread of vicious methods, naked administration, and violations of internal party democracy in party building and economic work. In the planning and management of the national economy, voluntarism and subjectivism, neglect of economic laws and incentives for the development of production were generated, and the socialist principle of payment according to work was seriously violated. The climate of Stalin's personality cult caused harm social sciences, including philosophical and historical, and in particular - the study of the history of the party, which slowed down creative development Marxism-Leninism, weakened the influence of science on the development of society.

‘“...there were certain periods, for example, during the war years, when Stalin’s individual actions were sharply limited, when the negative consequences of lawlessness, arbitrariness, etc. were significantly weakened. It is known that it was during the war that members of the Central Committee, as well as prominent Soviet military leaders took into their own hands certain areas of activity in the rear and at the front, independently made decisions about their organizational, political, economic and military work, together with local party and Soviet organizations, ensured the victory of the Soviet people in the war." "0 overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences. Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee", 1956, p. 17

Overcoming

There were figures within the Party Central Committee who correctly understood the urgent needs in the field of internal and foreign policy and counteracted the negative phenomena associated with the personality cult of Stalin. However, in conditions when Stalin had enormous authority in the party and among the people, an open speech against him would not have been understood and would not have received support.

“Moreover, such a speech would be regarded in those conditions as an attack against the cause of building socialism, as an extremely dangerous undermining of the unity of the party and the entire state in a capitalist environment. In addition, the successes that the working people of the Soviet Union achieved under the leadership of their Communist Party instilled legitimate pride in the heart of every Soviet person and created an atmosphere where individual mistakes and shortcomings seemed great success less significant, and the negative consequences of these mistakes were quickly compensated by the colossally growing vital forces of the party and Soviet society." "0 overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences. Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee", 1956, p. 18

It is impossible not to take into account the fact that many facts and incorrect actions of Stalin, especially in the area of ​​violation of the rule of law, became known after his death.

In 1956, the 20th Congress of the CPSU made a historical turn in the development of the party and the country, the entire communist movement, marking the beginning of the restoration of Leninist norms of party and state life. Drastic measures were taken to restore and further development socialist democracy, Leninist principles of state, party life and economic construction, strict adherence to socialist legality.

The Central Committee of the CPSU, openly exposing the grave consequences of Stalin’s personality cult, neutralized the political adventurer

So it is in the text. According to the rules of the Russian language, surnames of this series are declined if they belong to men, and not declined if they belong to women. Wed: “gave a pass”

Shengelia

", but "monument

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Tamara Abakelia

", having rejected a group of adherents of the cult of personality and its methods - Molotov, Kaganovich, Malenkov, he revealed and decisively eliminated the grossest violations of socialist legality. The party was aware that identified errors and perversions, disclosure of abuses of power could cause a feeling of bitterness and deep regret in the party ranks and among the people, and would create temporary difficulties for the CPSU and fraternal Marxist-Leninist parties. But the party boldly met difficulties; it honestly and openly told the people the whole truth, deeply believing that its line would be correctly understood. The Central Committee of the CPSU, the XX and XXII Congresses told the party and the people the truth about Stalin, based on Lenin’s instructions:

“The Pharisees of the bourgeoisie love the saying: either remain silent about the dead or speak good. The proletariat needs the truth both about living political figures and about dead ones, for those who really deserve the name of a political figure do not die to politics when their physical death occurs.” V.I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 16, p. 290

Literature

• XX Congress of the CPSU. Verbatim report, parts 1-2, M., 1956;
• XXII Congress of the CPSU. Verbatim report, parts 1-3, M., 1961;
• About overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences. Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU, M., 1956.

Notes

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Home page» Events » Stalin’s personality cult

Manifestations of the cult of personality

Mythologizing the picture of history

XX Congress of the CPSU

Cult outside the USSR

Expression "Stalin's personality cult" became widespread after appearing in 1956 in the report of N. S. Khrushchev “On the cult of personality and its consequences” and in the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee “On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences.”

Manifestations of the cult of personality

Soviet propaganda created a semi-divine aura around Stalin as an infallible “great leader and teacher.” Cities, factories, collective farms, and military equipment were named after Stalin and his closest associates. His name was mentioned in the same breath as Marx, Engels and Lenin. On January 1, 1936, the first two poems glorifying I.V. Stalin, written by Boris Pasternak, appeared in Izvestia. According to the testimony of Korney Chukovsky and Nadezhda Mandelstam, he “simply raved about Stalin.”

Stalin’s name is also mentioned in the anthem of the USSR, composed by S. Mikhalkov in 1944:

The image of Stalin became one of the central ones in Soviet literature of the 1930s-1950s; Works about the leader were also written by foreign communist writers, including Henri Barbusse (author of the posthumously published book “Stalin”), Pablo Neruda, these works were translated and replicated in the USSR.

Works glorifying Stalin appeared in abundance in publications of folklore of almost all peoples of the USSR.

The theme of Stalin was constantly present in Soviet painting and sculpture of this period, including monumental art (lifetime monuments to Stalin, like monuments to Lenin, were erected en masse in most cities of the USSR, and after 1945 in Eastern Europe). A special role in creating the propaganda image of Stalin was played by mass-produced Soviet posters dedicated to a wide variety of topics.

A huge number of objects were named after Stalin during his lifetime, including settlements(the first of which, apparently, was Stalingrad in 1925 - Stalin took part in the defense of Tsaritsyn in the Civil War), streets, factories, cultural centers. After 1945, cities named after Stalin appeared in all the countries of Eastern Europe, and in the GDR and Hungary, Stalinstadt (now part of Eisenhüttenstadt) and Stalinváros (now Dunaujváros) became “new socialist cities” built almost from scratch in honor of the leader. There was even a project to rename Moscow to the city of Stalinodar.

Phenomena similar in nature, but smaller in scale, were observed in relation to other government leaders of the 1930s-1950s (Kalinin, Molotov, Zhdanov, Beria, etc.). Comparable to the cult of Stalin was only the (mostly posthumous) cult of Lenin, which lasted throughout the Soviet period, diminished in the Stalin era, but again and again with greater strength exalted after the death of Stalin.

Nikita Khrushchev, debunking the cult of personality in his famous report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, argued that Stalin encouraged this state of affairs in every possible way. Khrushchev stated that when editing his own biography prepared for publication, Stalin wrote in entire pages where he called himself the leader of nations, a great commander, the highest theoretician of Marxism, a brilliant scientist, etc. In particular, Khrushchev claims that the following passage was written by Stalin himself : “Masterfully fulfilling the tasks of the leader of the party and the people, having the full support of the entire Soviet people, Stalin, however, did not allow even a shadow of conceit, arrogance, or narcissism in his activities.”

It is known, however, that Stalin suppressed some acts of his praise. Thus, according to the recollections of the author of the Orders of Victory and Glory, the first sketches were made with the profile of Stalin. Stalin asked to replace his profile with the Spasskaya Tower. In response to Lion Feuchtwanger's remark "about the tasteless, exaggerated adulation of his personality", Stalin "shrugged his shoulders" and "excused his peasants and workers by saying that they were too busy with other things and could not develop good taste." In 1949, when they wanted to name Moscow State University after him, Stalin categorically refused.

The textbook for law schools and faculties, “The Theory of State and Law,” published by a team of authors edited by Professor S. S. Alekseev, says the following about one of the reasons for Stalin’s personality cult:

After the “exposure of the cult of personality,” a phrase usually attributed to M. A. Sholokhov (but also to other historical characters) became famous: “Yes, there was a cult... But there was also a personality!”

Marxism-Leninism, the ideological basis of Soviet power, in theory rejects leaderism, limiting the “role of the individual in history,” which stemmed from the Marxist cult of equality. However, some scientists consider leaderism a natural consequence of Leninism. For example, the Russian philosopher N. Berdyaev believed that “Leninism is leaderism of a new type, it puts forward a leader of the masses, endowed with dictatorial power.”

In Soviet Russia until 1929, the expression “leaders of the party” was common. But after 1929 this expression practically disappeared. Of course, similar titles were applied to state and party leaders. So, S. M. Kirov was called the “Leningrad Leader”. But there can always be only one true leader in a “leader” society. The titles “Great Leader”, “Great Leader and Teacher” in relation to I.V. Stalin were almost mandatory in official journalism and rhetoric.

Mythologizing the picture of history

A fundamental role in the creation of the mythological picture of Soviet history was played by the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks”, created partly by Stalin personally and partly under his editorship. The extent to which Stalin neglected elementary logic in his presentation can be seen from the following passage concerning the events of 1920 - the catastrophic in its consequences refusal of S. M. Budyonny to carry out the order of the command and transfer his army to the threatened Warsaw front:

Among the myths created by " Short course“, the completely unfounded myth about the “victory at Pskov and Narva” allegedly won by the “young Red Army” on February 23, 1918 (see Defender of the Fatherland Day) turned out to be especially tenacious.

By the end of the Stalin era, almost all the figures who actually played prominent roles (except Lenin) disappeared from the history of the revolution and the Civil War; their actions were attributed to Stalin, a narrow circle of his associates (as a rule, who in reality played secondary and tertiary roles) and several prominent Bolsheviks who died before the outbreak of the Great Terror: Sverdlov, Dzerzhinsky, Frunze, Kirov and others. The Bolshevik Party seemed to be the only revolutionary force; the revolutionary role of the other parties was denied; “treasonous” and “counter-revolutionary” actions were attributed to the real leaders of the revolution, and so on. In general, the picture created in this way was not even distorted, but simply mythological in nature. Also, under Stalin, especially in the last decade of his reign, more distant history was actively rewritten, for example, the history of the reign of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great.

Exposing the cult of personality in the USSR

XX Congress of the CPSU

The most famous exposer of the cult of personality was Khrushchev, who in 1956 spoke at the 20th Congress of the CPSU with a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” in which he debunked the cult of personality of the late Stalin. Khrushchev, in particular, said:

1961

In 1961, Stalin's body was taken out of the Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum. Mass renaming began: the hero city of Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd, the capital of the Tajik SSR, Stalinabad, was renamed Dushanbe (see also List of places named after Stalin).

1962

The IS (Joseph Stalin) locomotives were urgently renamed FDp (FD, passenger version).

Cult outside the USSR

The personality cult of Stalin was also widespread in most socialist countries of the world. After the “exposure” of the cult in the USSR, manifestations of Stalin’s personality cult remained for a time only in Albania, China and the DPRK.

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Stalin's Cult of Personality - a short report to school or university!

Many people, remembering the times of the formation of the Soviet Union, invariably recall the Cult of Stalin’s personality, which was considered an unshakable foundation of the pre-war, war and post-war periods.

General information about the Cult of Personality

Despite the fact that the concept of the Cult of Personality appeared relatively recently - only in the second half of the last century - the signs and manifestations of this phenomenon go back to ancient times. There are several directions of the Cult of Personality, and not always main object such a selection is a living person.
Already in ancient times one could find the origins of a cult - people worshiped various pagan and official gods, made sacrifices to them and carried out all sorts of customs and traditions, without even allowing the thought of disobedience and denial of what people worship.

Years passed, and people continued to believe in supernatural forces and the laws of nature. However, there were also those who thought about the true purpose and distribution possibilities. For the first time, miraculous healers appeared, the leaders of the group, whom people likened to divine powers and tried not to miss a single word or body movement. This is how various sects and groups emerged that have survived to this day. And the first and most shining example The cult of personality is provided by religion, beliefs and all similar topics in this direction.
Not everyone liked this movement - the whole crowd following one person. However, such people immediately stood out from others with their opinions and views, and when they were exposed, they were most often tortured, punished or executed without trial. Many, knowing this, try to quietly and peacefully keep their opinions to themselves, and in the presence of personality cults there were most often no dissenters, and the meaning of the word does not imply this.

The famous Cult of Personality has never brought anything good either for the country that created this phenomenon or for other states located nearby. For a long time in the Soviet Union they did not admit that they had become victims of these same cults. However, over time, the Bolsheviks came to power, communism appeared and many people who became at the helm of all these achievements, at first were considered real benefactors, then they grew into the “father and protector of the Soviet people,” and later turned into idols.

Despite the fact that a person constantly needs faith, they take care of its preservation and try to pass on everything known to descendants and future generations, the church most often becomes something sublime, turning into a representative from the field of personality cults.

It is believed that the destruction of churches and all religious institutions in Soviet times was with the aim of eliminating additional influence on the masses, because the Stalinist regime assumed the unity of all territories and politics, and the church and religion allowed dissent and the clear expression of their opinions. In addition, there are many known cases, including in Russia, when the initiator of numerous speeches and rallies was the church and its main parishioners.

Prerequisites for the formation of the Stalin Personality Cult

During the post-revolutionary restoration, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin came to power. At this very time, Soviet propaganda, which needed to find a person who could be set as an example for the people, make an example to follow, in order to “establish peace and order.” Suitable candidates were not provided for a long time, and the one who passed, Vladimir Lenin, was no longer as strongly perceived by the public as in the old days. The ideal person turned out to be Stalin, who was exalted and sung to unimaginable limits - events were organized in his honor, his birthday was celebrated. Cities were named after his surnames, and were added to the names of factories, collective farms and military equipment. He was put on the same level as the great creators of doctrines and a separately developed political movement - Marx, Engels and Lenin.

In literature and music there was also a place for praising the personality cult of the new leader - he paid special attention to this character and figure in history famous poet Boris Pasternak. Also in the Soviet anthem, the leader was also remembered as the people’s father and follower of Lenin’s main ideas and proposals. The image of Stalin was recreated by numerous artists, and in each film the role of the leader was given special attention.

The first manifestations of a real Cult of Personality

Most often, the USSR did not intend to expose the Cult of Personality as such; thanks to Stalin, a new direction of already existing Marxism appeared - Stalinism, which represented the entire policy pursued by the Soviet leader during his reign.

In view of the undeniable one-party system, which did not provide for other alternatives to government, numerous plans were formed and reforms were carried out, repressions were carried out, which more closely resembled the brutal implementation of socialism, based on elements of a totalitarian regime, the presence of which can now often be heard from modern professors.

Many sources say that Stalin had a positive attitude towards personality cults and very often encouraged them as respect for the supreme government. A clear sign of the Cult is that Stalin was the first and last holder of the following status - Generalissimo of the Soviet Union. For this purpose, a special form was made, which was used only in special time. First use of this status and new form- This is the period of the Great Victory in 1945.

There are also numerous facts indicating that Joseph Stalin was not characterized by pride - during the proposal to add his name to Moscow State University, however, the “leader of the people” did not approve of this and boldly declared that the only name worth naming the institute was Lomonosov.

Eyewitnesses also tell the story that some of the primary samples of famous awards were made with the image of Stalin - it was changed to a sketch of the Spasskaya Tower.

Denouncing Stalin's Cult of Personality

Previously, the term “Cult of Personality” was not used in relation to the notorious leader, but, even after the death of the ruler, they continued to praise his image and likeness. The body was cremated and sent to the mausoleum - next to Vladimir Lenin.

The first public disclosure of the whole truth took place at the twentieth anniversary congress of the Communist Party, where Khrushchev presented his stunning report on the topic of the Cult of Personality. All the statements made were stunning for everyone, which later had deafening consequences and spread both throughout the Soviet Union and abroad - only the People's Republic of Korea, Albania and China remained indifferent.

The leader's body was immediately transferred from the Mausoleum. Since 1961, the renaming of all cities visited by the ruler began - including the hero city of Stalingrad, which became Volgograd. If earlier Stalin and everything connected with him tried to spread en masse everywhere, then after exposing all the consequences and signs of the cult of personality, many tried to avoid any mention of the constantly encountered “image of the past.”
All political crimes of the early twenties and late fifties, repressions and extermination of innocent people were blamed on Stalin. It was also believed that the leader had overly biased opinions and often committed unreasonable and egregious acts. However, the event, which was given special meaning and the meaning was considered to be mass repressions, later called the Great Terror or Yezhovshchina. The main name - Yezhovshchina - was due to the fact that the main organizer and initiator was the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov.

Expression of the Cult of Personality through culture and art

Even after the denunciation of the Cult of Personality by Nikolai Sergeevich Khrushchev, the image of Stalin did not completely disappear from cultural works of art, but was no longer so widely advertised - more truth, as well as not such a huge influence on the public, were shown in various sources.

Cinema is considered the most widespread in terms of the number of recreated images of Stalin - the image of Stalin was used in two animated films, more than a hundred feature films were “illuminated” by the presence of the Soviet leader. Documentary films that talked about political, economic life, personal life, as well as childhood and detailed biographical details - historians count about ten films with such information.

Absolute record holder acting roles The famous Georgian actor Andro Kobaladze is considered Joseph Stalin. The roles he played in this direction number about fifteen. Most often he is described as very similar both in role and in appearance actors who perfectly recreated the Soviet leader. In total, there are more than fifty professionals who have tried on the role of Stalin’s expression, emphasizing the cult of personality.

The painting was also dedicated to Stalin special place– in his honor, famous artists created paintings, printed stamps with the presence of the leader, depicted him on popular and famous covers, as well as numerous exhibitions that presented images of Stalin, written by the pen of a skilled master.
A lot of works of world literature are dedicated to this figure, exalting and glorifying his intelligence, courage and wisdom, exalting his image. Many contemporaries believe that this also contributed to the re-creation and strengthening of the established Cult of Personality. This is also accompanied by songs in which he is mentioned in one way or another, or texts entirely dedicated to the ruler musical works.
Images of Stalin were used in the musical masterpieces of great composers, in the embroidery of beautiful hand-made carpets, in the manufacture of confectionery or in the minting of coins. His portrait can also be seen on six generally accepted state awards, issued primarily for distinction and services to the Motherland during the bloodiest war for the country and the whole world, and the battle with the enemy - fascism, which came from the West.
All reproductions of images of Stalin and praise of his cult of personality, the dedication of numerous works and real masterpieces of art were called Stalinism - a concept that came into everyday use relatively recently, but was already actively used.

The times of perestroika and the attitude of modern times to the Cult of Personality

Despite the fact that Khrushchev completely exposed and dismantled to the smallest detail the image that had been imposed on Soviet citizens for decades. The children were taught that they lived and were happy only thanks to the great and respected government figure. However, such a great excitement around this topic did not last as long as political and economic figures would have liked - only in 1952 this topic was hotly discussed and all the headlines of popular newspapers were full of it. Later, a number of other problems arose that overshadowed these vestments.

With the coming to power of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, a completely neutral opinion and impression was formed. They did not pay too much attention, only in encyclopedias was given brief information about the ruler. However, by the end of the eighties, the leader was remembered again - in connection with the protracted Perestroika and unrest on the political and economic fronts, the controversial personality was again talked about, and soon this topic became the most popular and relevant.

In the modern world, attitudes towards the leader and ruler are completely different - some believe that Stalin did more harm than good to the state, while others, on the contrary, are trying to defend all the ideas and achievements of the leader. However, despite the huge number of facts, troubles and inaccuracies, only one thing can be said - Stalin’s Cult of Personality had a very big influence for the entire civil society and the most active period in the development of this phenomenon is considered to be the time when Stalin was no longer among the living.

Poster from the period of Stalin's personality cult

Stalin's personality cult- exaltation of the personality of J.V. Stalin by means of mass propaganda, in works of culture and art, and government documents. The cult of Stalin's personality began in the mid-1920s and continued until 1956, when it was officially debunked at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Period 1956-61 was characterized by a general deliverance from the legacy of the cult of personality; the symbolic point of completion of this process was the removal of Stalin’s body from the Mausoleum and his burial at the Kremlin wall on the night of October 31, 1961.

Phenomena similar in nature, but smaller in scale, were observed in relation to other government leaders of this period (M. I. Kalinin, V. M. Molotov, A. A. Zhdanov, L. P. Beria, etc.), but comparable with The cult of J.V. Stalin was only the cult of V.I. Lenin.

The expression “Stalin’s cult of personality” became widespread after appearing in 1956 in N. S. Khrushchev’s report “On the cult of personality and its consequences” and in the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee “On overcoming the cult of personality and its consequences.”

Causes

The emergence of the personality cult of J.V. Stalin is associated both with the directed activities of the top leadership of the CPSU (b) and J.V. Stalin himself, and with the historical and cultural features of the development of the state in that period.

In the textbook for law universities and faculties “Theory of State and Law,” published by a team of authors edited by Professor S. S. Alekseev, one of the reasons for Stalin’s personality cult says the following:

The Russian centuries-old tradition of paternalism is embodied in petty-bourgeois leaderism, characteristic of a multi-million peasant country. The psychology of leaderism and the bureaucratic deification of authority served as a breeding ground for Stalin’s personality cult. By the early 1930s, the totalitarian regime had become a harsh political reality.

Among people who positively assess the rule of I.V. Stalin (some of the communists, etatists, etc.) there is an opinion that the cult was caused by Stalin’s personal traits and the successes associated with his rule [ ] . Thus, after the “exposure of the cult of personality,” a phrase usually attributed to M. A. Sholokhov (but also to other persons) became famous: “Yes, there was a cult... But there was also a personality!”

Manifestations

Leaderism

In view of the announcement of J.V. Stalin as a theoretician of Marxism-Leninism, his name was mentioned and his portrait image was placed on a par with K. Marx, F. Engels and V.I. Lenin, and also, like “Marxism-Leninism”, the term was sometimes used “Stalinism”, decades later, became the concept-definition of the political regime he created with a negative assessment and interpretation.

In the 1950s, there were cities named after J.V. Stalin in all Warsaw Pact and CMEA countries (at that time), except Czechoslovakia:

• German Democratic Republic - Eisenhüttenstadt (Stalinstadt, 1953-1961)
• Socialist Republic of Romania - Brasov (Oraşul-Stalin, 1950-1960)
• People's Republic of Bulgaria - Varna (Stalin, 1949-1956)
• Hungarian People's Republic - Dunaujváros (Stalinváros, 1951-1961)
• Polish People's Republic - Katowice (Stalinogrud, 1953-1956)
• People's Republic of Albania - Kucova (Stalin, 1950-1990)

In the GDR and Hungary, cities were built practically from scratch and were supposed to become “new socialist cities.”

Other objects

Names associated with I.V. Stalin were assigned to the highest peaks of the USSR (Peak of Communism), Bulgaria (Musala), Slovakia and all the Carpathians (Gerlachovsky-Štit), as well as Mount Peck located in Canada.

A series of tanks, steam locomotives, and an armored train were named in honor of I.V. Stalin.

Monuments

Stalinian

Literature

The image of I.V. Stalin became one of the central ones in Soviet literature of the 1930s-1950s; Foreign communist writers also wrote works about the leader, including Henri Barbusse (author of the posthumously published book “Stalin”), Pablo Neruda, these works were translated and replicated in the USSR. Works glorifying I.V. Stalin appeared in abundance in publications of folklore of almost all peoples of the USSR.

In the official historiography of the Great Patriotic War, the term “Ten Stalinist Strikes” was used to describe the largest offensive operations of the Red Army, which led to the defeat of the Third Reich.

Also under I.V. Stalin, especially in the last decade of his reign, there was a change in attitude towards the pre-revolutionary history of Russia, in particular, the reign of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, which was associated with an emphasis on the role of the state and a strong ruler.

The personality cult of J.V. Stalin outside the USSR

The personality cult of J.V. Stalin was also widespread in most socialist countries of the world. After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the Stalinist orientation of state policy and the associated personality cult of J.V. Stalin were preserved in Albania (until 1990), the PRC and the DPRK.

Currently, at the official level, individual manifestations of the cult exist in the PRC, where there are a number of commemorative images of J.V. Stalin and souvenirs with his image are produced, as well as in the DPRK. Individual communist parties around the world are turning to the legacy of J.V. Stalin.

People named after Stalin

• Stalin Rivas - Venezuelan football player and coach
• Kirill Shevelev Stalinkov is a man of culture who founded the movement “Lizard Dance to Jingle Bells”.

J.V. Stalin’s attitude to the cult of personality

At the same time, it is known that J.V. Stalin suppressed some acts of his praise. Thus, according to the writer O. S. Smyslovsky, the first sketches of the Orders of Victory and Glory were made with the profile of I. V. Stalin, but Stalin allegedly asked to replace his profile with the Spasskaya Tower. In 1949, when Moscow State University wanted to be named after him, J.V. Stalin categorically objected: “The main university of the country can bear only one name - Lomonosov.”

Modern researchers of the Stalin era believe that such actions were supposed to symbolize the so-called “Stalinist modesty” - one of Stalin’s ideologies, an important part of his image, emphasized by propaganda. According to a German historian Jan Plumper“The image that emerged was of Stalin being in open opposition to his own cult or, at best, reluctantly tolerating it.” Russian researcher Olga Edelman considers the phenomenon of “Stalinist modesty” a cunning political move that allowed Stalin, under the guise of not wanting to “stick out” his personality, to suppress excessive curiosity about his past, at the same time leaving himself the opportunity to select what he himself considered fit for publication and thus shape it himself. your public image.

Stalin's public behavior also played an important role. According to the memoirs:

Let's take, for example, his [Stalin's] passages through the corridors of the Kremlin. This was one of the peculiar rituals of his cult. You walk with papers, you look: yourself, surrounded by security. One guard walked 25-30 meters ahead of Stalin. And behind him, about two meters away, were two more people. You were supposed to stand with your back to the wall, keep your hands in sight and wait for him to pass.

There were no instructions on how to greet each other. For example, when he passed me, I said: “Hello, Comrade Stalin.” In response, he raised his right hand and silently walked on. He walked confidently, measuredly, calmly, and looked not at the person who greeted him, but somewhere in the distance, ahead of him. The expression on his face was so significant that I then thought: his head was probably occupied with some special thoughts that we mortals would never think of.

De-Stalinization

The most famous exposer of the cult of personality was N. S. Khrushchev, who in 1956 spoke at the 20th Congress of the CPSU with a report “On the cult of personality and its consequences,” in which he debunked the cult of personality of the late J. V. Stalin. N. S. Khrushchev, in particular, said:

The cult of personality acquired such monstrous proportions mainly because Stalin himself in every possible way encouraged and supported the exaltation of his person. This is evidenced by numerous facts. One of the most characteristic manifestations of Stalin’s self-praise and lack of elementary modesty is the publication of his “Brief Biography”, published in 1948.

This book is an expression of the most unbridled flattery, an example of the deification of man, turning him into an infallible sage, the most “great leader” and “unsurpassed commander of all times and peoples.” There were no other words to further praise the role of Stalin.

There is no need to quote the nauseatingly flattering characteristics heaped one upon another in this book. It should only be emphasized that all of them were approved and edited personally by Stalin, and some of them were included in the layout of the book with his own hand.

In his report, N.S. Khrushchev singled out cinema as one of the tools for planting the cult of personality; in the next five years, feature films in which the figure of I.V. Stalin was present were not shown.

In 1962, the IS (Joseph Stalin) steam locomotives were renamed into FD p (Felix Dzerzhinsky, passenger version) and other objects.