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Stalin: An Insider’s Account: Part 1 (of 3)

© Nick Bendel

"History," wrote Milovan Djilas, "does not know a despot as brutal and as cynical as Stalin was. He was methodical, all-embracing, and total as a criminal. He was one of those rare terrible dogmatists capable of destroying nine tenths of the human race to 'make happy' the one tenth. However, if we wish to determine what Stalin really meant in the history of Communism, then he must...be regarded as being, next to Lenin, the most grandiose figure...[He] transformed backward Russia into an industrial power and an empire...Viewed from the standpoint of success and political adroitness, Stalin is hardly surpassed by any statesman of his time."

Stalin is one of the most extraordinary personalities in human history, perhaps the most extraordinary. Much has been written about him, but it is from the testimony of insiders that we can best understand his unique character and how it enabled him to become undisputed ruler of the Soviet empire. While Djilas, in the statement above, has shrewdly analyzed the complex nature of his personality, one thing not difficult to discern is his cruelty.

Djilas, after a series of meetings with 'the Boss,' recognized him as "a dark, cunning, and cruel individual." "Every crime was possible to Stalin, for there was not one he had not committed. Whatever standards we use to take his measure...to him will fall the glory of being the greatest criminal in history." Khrushchev thought similarly: "There was unquestionably something sick about Stalin," he wrote, and noted that it was "Stalin's compulsive urge to arrest people and have them eliminated," that resulted in "the butchery of the purges." Ryutin called him an "evil genius... motivated by a personal desire for power and revenge," Bukharin "a Genghis Khan," Trotsky "a ferocious savage," and Zinoviev a "bloodthirsty Ossetian."

Despite this "compulsive urge" to be cruel to people, Stalin nonetheless managed to climb from the position of anonymous revolutionary to omnipotent leader. It is clear, then, that he must have possessed certain qualities that seemingly outweighed or obscured his brutality.

One of these qualities was intelligence. Khrushchev revealed Stalin to be "a man of outstanding skill and intelligence," who "truly did tower over everyone around him." One of his "great gifts" was his ability to "express himself clearly and concisely." He "was possessed of a tremendous power...Everyone who knew Stalin admired this talent of his." Zhukov, in turn, was "impressed by his ability to express his thoughts clearly, his inborn analytical turn of mind, his erudition and retentive memory, all of which made even old hands and big shots brace themselves and be 'on the alert.'" Even Trotsky admitted that Lenin esteemed "his direct mind."