Figure 1.--By the 1930s, Stalin's image was everywhere, looking down on the Soviet people. This looks to be a Komsomol group considering a new member. Hopefully our Russian readers will tell us what the flag says. |
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A cult of personality is the prctice of elevating a leader to a pre-eminent status through a state-sponsored propaganda campaign. Stalin is best knnown for a this practice and the term in fact was coined to describe his rule. The Soviet 20th Party Congress after Stalin's death criticised him for creating a "cult of personality" (1956). This was not a term used during Stalin's life time, but it does aptly described the Soviet state he created. And it was in the tradition of powerful tsars who ruled with religious authority and semi-devine status. Stalin's religion was of course Communism. After Stalin's death, he was criticised for departing from Lenin's more colegial decesion making process. And great efforts were extended to show how Stalin was aboration who diverted the fledgling Soviet Union from Lenin's intended path. That may partialy be the case, although the instruments of repression (secret police, extra-jusicial arrests and executions, and concentration camps) were all put in place by Lenin. It is true that Stalin significantly expanded the unstitutions of state terror. It was commonly said that Lenin wanted Communism to serve the people while Stalin wanted people to serve Communism. Lennin saw the Communist Party as the vangard of the proleterit. Stalin saw it didderently because there was considerable opposition within the Party to his leadership. Through considerable ingenuity with a mixture of guile and ruthlessness, he managed to outmaneuver his enemies.
He ruthlessly disposed of his enemies so that by the late-1920s he controlled both the Party and Sovier state. The purges of the 1930s dealt with those who had dared question or oppose him. And people were targeted in large numbers for no apparent reasons. This caused Soviet officials to realize that it was not enough just to not opposed Stalin, but one had to be seen actively supporting him. This was the origin of the cult of personality. It is probably not correct to say that Stalin himself created the practice, but the system that he built created it. Officials competed with one another in paying homage to Stalin. At a noted Moscow meeting, the assembed audience aplauded Stalin at the beginning of the meeting. Then there was a realization that it would not be wise to be seen as the first person who stopped clapping, so the aplause went on intermably. Afterwards a procedure was adoptedwhich signaled wjen the applause should stop. Stalin maintained that the Party itself was affected by a false consciousness (partly the result of spies and traitors) and thus needed his guidance. Stalin's image was everywhere in the Soviet Union. His image was displayed everywhere, in factories, schools, government offices. A city were named after him to raise him to the level of Lenin. He took credit for the Soviet Union's successes. Failures were blamed on others. Perversely, a part of the cult was that Lenin was portayed to be a modest man. Since the 20th Party Congress, Communists have argued that Stalin and the cult of personality were an aberation. The problem for Communists is that the Stalinist practices are more the standard practice than the exception. They were repeated in Mao's China and common in the Soviet Eastern European empire. They can be seen today in countries like Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela.
A cult of personality is the prctice of elevating a leader to a pre-eminent status through a state-sponsored propaganda campaign. Stalin is best knnown for a this practice and the term in fact was coined to describe his rule. And it was in the tradition of powerful tsars who ruled with religious authority and semi-devine status--but never reached the extremes reached in the Soviet adulation of Stalin. . Stalin's religion was of course Communism. Cult of personality is also described as cult of the leader. [Mudde and Kaltwasser, p.63.] It is created when a country's dictatorial leader portrays himself as the embodiment of the nation.
The pheomenon appears early in human society. Art was an imprtant early was to propigate the cult of the leader. The giant sulptures of Egyptian pharoes are the greatest embodiment of this.
It was not until the 20th century, however, that a full-fleedged cult of peronality came into full force. Two factors were involved in the evolution of a true modern peronality cult: 1) technology and 2) socialism. First, modern techmologicl advances created mass media which provided the technocal capability to propigate a cult of personalaity (newspapers, magazines, radio, and television). Through mass media a leader with control of the state could spread his message to every single member of society, including the children through the schools and compulsory youth organizations. The second key component is the rise of socialism leading many people to adopt Marxist ideas -- on a basically relgious plane. Nationalism had always been part of the cult of the laeder, but socailism provided an appealing ideological message to add to patriotism. And it created one party states with absolute authority over the individual. This is not a theoretical statement, it is simple fact. Think about the noted cults of personality (Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Kim, etc.). They are all socialist not capitalist regimes. In addition to these obvious examples of personality cults, other Communist dictatoes such as many in Easrern Europe tried to establish their own smaller scale efforts.
Josef Stalin was the first modern leader to create a cult of personality. Hitler a few years later would be the next. We see this phenomenon repeated again and again where ever Socialist based Communist regi,es seize power.
Mass media along with spectacles, government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create the required mystique--the idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of an allpowerful, natioinal-socialist leader. Socialism was essential because of the claim of benevolence and the ability to create a one party state confering control of the media.
Joseph Stalin's cult of personality became a key component of Soviet culture as soon as Stalin established dictatorial control of the Soviet state. It began with a lavish celebration of Stalin's 50th birthday (December 1929). For the next 23 years of Stalin's rule, the Soviet media and institutions like schools, youth opganizations, unions, civic hroups, atristic grouos presented Stalin as an all-powerful, all-knowing leader. Stalin's name and image appearing everywhere. Loud spoeakers in parks and city centers began to blare out the cult message. A new title was added--Father of Nations' (1936).
Lennin saw the Communist Party as the vangard of the proleterit. Stalin saw it differently because there was considerable opposition within the Party as he rose in the leadership. Through considerable ingenuity with a mixture of guile and ruthlessness, he managed to outmaneuver his enemies.
Stalin's Cult of Personality made his horrific crimes possible. It made it impossible to criticize Stalin. nfact might making stalin perfect, antcriticism was a virtually tresinous or traitorus act. Stalin ruthlessly disposed of his enemies so that by the late-1920s he controlled both the Party and Sovier state. The purges of the 1930s dealt with those who had dared question or oppose him. And people were targeted in large numbers for no apparent reasons. This caused Soviet officials to realize that it was not enough just to not opposed Stalin, but one had to be seen actively supporting him. This was the origin of the cult of personality.
It is probably not correct to say that Stalin himself created the practice, but the system that he built created it.
Officials competed with one another in paying homage to Stalin. Cerimonial homages to Stalin were legendary. At a noted Moscow meeting, the assembed audience aplauded Stalin at the beginning of the meeting. Then there was a realization that it would not be wise to be seen as the first person who stopped clapping, so the aplause went on intermably. Afterwards a procedure had to be adopted which signaled when the applause should stop. signal lights had tio be installed to indicate when the apalause should end. Stalin maintained that the Party itself was affected by a false consciousness (partly the result of spies and traitors) and thus needed his guidance. Stalin's image was everywhere in the Soviet Union. His potrait was displayed everywhere. Government offices, schools, factories, and homes all had virtually mandatory portraits of Stalin. There were huge numbers of stautes and many more posters.
The Soviet people were forced to virtaully worship him.
A city were named after him to raise him to the level of Lenin. Most importantly Stalingrad (now Volgagrad), but there werea also Stalino and Stalinsk. There were also towns and villages. The highest mointain in the country was remamed Mount Stalin. Eventially In print, radio, and the movies, Stalin was acalimed as agenius without equal in human history. His speeches were printed in million of copies in over 100 laguages.
He took credit for the Soviet Union's successes. Failures were blamed on others. Perversely, a part of the cult was that Lenin was portayed to be a modest man.
While he participated in the Stalinist Terror, his single most important achievement was surely launching the De-Stalinization process (1956). No one in the leadership could have not participted and survived. Khrushchev stunned the delegates at the end of the 20th Party Congress when he without warning delivered his 'Secret Speech' which went on for 6 hours. He denounced both the Stalin's excesses and the dictator's personality cult as well as charging that Stalin made serious mistakes, especially not preparing for the German World War II invasion. Even after Stalin's death (1953), no one until the 20th Party Congress dared say anything negative about the former dictator. Today Khrushchev's speech seems timid given the enormity of Stalin's crimes. It was not only timid, but in many ways did not attack the underlying criminality of Stalin;s rule, in part because Khrushchev was involved in those crimes. There were three fundamental flaws in his Secret Speech. First, Khrushchev limited his denuciatons to crimes against thae Party. Cimes against the people were not mentioned. Second, he talked about the thousand killed while the body count of Soviet citizens he niredered was in the millions not to mentionn millions more of broken and ruined lives. Third, Khruschev did not criticize ll oc Stalin's crime, he maintained that some of the killing was not only justified, but important. Despite these failures, the impact Within the Soviet empire was electrifying. It was the beginning of the end of Stalinism, but not politicl repression. Despite his many negative actions and behavior as the Soviet leader, this was a courageous and critical action. Under Khrushchev many were eventually released from the Gulag--but the camps were not emptied. And in fact some received transports of Hungarian patriots. It should also be remembered that in his last years in power that the regime was again clamping down on disidents.
Khruschev's decesions to cruticize his former mentor created problems for Soviet propaganda. They had to prove that stalin was an aboration. But the fact that Stalin created a cult of personlity meab=nt that soviet Communism id not provide safeguards preventing such a travesty from occurring. Great efforts were extended to show how Stalin was an aboration who diverted the fledgling Soviet Union from Lenin's intended path. That may partialy be the case, although the instruments of repression (secret police, extra-jusicial arrests and executions, and concentration camps) were all put in place by Lenin. It is true that Stalin significantly expanded the unstitutions of state terror. It was commonly said that Lenin wanted Communism to serve the people while Stalin wanted people to serve Communism.
Khruchev at the Soviet 20th Party Congress after Stalin's death criticised him for creating a "cult of personality" (1956). This of course was not a term used during Stalin's life time, but it does aptly described the Soviet state he created. After Stalin's death, Khruschev criticised him for departing from Lenin's more colegial decesion making process. Since the 20th Party Congress, Communists have argued that Stalin and the cult of personality were an aberation. The problem for Communists is that the Stalinist practices are more the standard practice than the exception. They were repeated in Mao's China and common in the Soviet Eastern European empire. They can be seen today in countries like Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela.
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