Joseph Vesarioovich Stalin (December 18, 1878 – March 5, 1953, Note: Stalin's official birthday was December 21, 1879, but historians have confirmed that his birthday was December 18, 1878), originally surnamed Dzhugashvili, Georgian, Politician of the Soviet Union, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Grand Marshal of the USSR, the longest reign of the USSR (1924-1953) Supreme Leader.
He assisted Lenin in leading the October Revolution, and after Lenin's death he became Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (later renamed the Council of Ministers of the USSR). During his tenure, he put forward the idea of "building socialism first in one country", abandoned Lenin's new economic policy, and went all out to carry out socialist industrialization and collectivization of agriculture, making the Soviet Union a heavy industrial and military power, but also led to the Great Famine in Ukraine and the Great Famine in Kazakhstan. In World War II, he led the Soviet Red Army and worked with the Allies to defeat the Axis Powers and win the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union.
After the war, he fostered the camp of socialist countries and confronted the US-led NATO in the Cold War. He also fostered a cult of personality, connived at Lysenkoism, launched the "Great Purge", massacred and oppressed opposition leaders and even ordinary cadres and the masses, and in 1930-1953 3778234 people were suppressed, including 786098 executed by shooting, in criminal cases prosecuted by the General Directorate of Political Protection of the USSR, the NKVD and other agencies. He died of cerebral hemorrhage in Moscow on 5 March 1953 at the age of 74.
The question is, how did he do it during his 30 years as leader of the Soviet Union, when he was at the pinnacle of power and no one could challenge his position?
In fact, the people around Stalin had a clearer understanding of what was going to happen next. As long as Stalin could maintain mutual suspicion among the members of the Politburo, he could consolidate his dominance.
The politburo members knew all about this, but none of this could be changed except for the assassination of Stalin. Even if such a thought flashed in the minds of his subordinates, they would quickly dispel it. The risk of assassination was too great, because Stalin's defenders were loyal to him personally.
If any politician dares to gather together in a conspiracy against Stalin, then other politicians will soon unite against them and use this to curry favor with Stalin, and the conspirators will certainly be arrested.
Stalin liked to have lunch around 4 or 5 p.m., and dinner was scheduled after 9 p.m., so the entire leadership had to collectively adjust their biological clocks to suit Stalin's habits. The elite elite of the Soviet Union had to do the same – and their families had to endure it all, the price they had to pay to sustain their lives and enjoy their privileges.
The work schedule of the Communists of Eastern European countries also had to be adjusted according to Kremlin standards. From the Soviet Union to Berlin, Tirana and Sofia, the leaders of the party and the state did not dare to stay away from the telephone, because Stalin would call at any time of the day or night.
Stalin was exhausted by his efforts to find differences in the narratives between the leaders. By chance, he found an economically practical way to spy on the existence of secrets in the "Kremlin corridors."
Stalin had other secret sources of information. The MGB, which had left the Ministry of Internal Affairs in March 1946 and remained independent, would periodically report to Stalin on conversations between Soviet leaders they had obtained through wiretapping.
During the war against Germany, Stalin ordered the installation of eavesdropping equipment in the rooms of millions of military personnel, and civilian personnel were not spared, as were eavesdropping equipment in civilian rooms. Even Molotov and Mikoyan were wiretapped in 1950.
Stalin's other tactic was to make his subordinates jealous and quarrel with each other, and Stalin was the only arbiter.
He never allowed any top political leader to stay in one position for too long. It was his principle not to allow anyone to take root in the Kremlin.
Stalin knew that the more volatile the political fate of his future successor, the more favorable it would be for him to control. From time to time, Moscow's political "carousel" threw some people off, and the survivors had to constantly "get on and off" and move from one position to another.
This complex work is clearly not enough to rely solely on Stalin himself. Stalin's illness made it difficult for him to regulate as he did in the 1930s and during World War II. Just as Lenin had asked him for help in April 1922, Stalin needed someone he could rely on to act as an eye and ear.
In the years after 1945, Stalin would have preferred someone politically, sometimes implying that the person was the chosen successor, but he would not explicitly grant him the right to succeed, in order to easily abandon him after he had lost his usefulness.
In this case, no one can take Stalin's place. Stalin's means of controlling his subordinates were constantly being renewed. In 1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR consisted of 48 ministries, each responsible for a large state-level department.
Stalin no longer personally presided over the council of ministers, and he added the post of assessor instead. This was actually a vertical system, and Stalin assigned the leaders of the CPSU Central Committee to be responsible for several aspects of work. Stalin needed to ensure that the entire country obeyed the intentions he had set, while at the same time wanting to make fluidity and ambiguity the patron saints of his rule.
The system of deliberators is his solution. They often met him, but they did not know when they might fall into a doomed situation due to whistleblowing from other agencies. Different departments in each agency compete with each other.
The Politburo wanted as many departments as possible in each institution, and this practice was approved by Stalin and authorized by Stalin. If the number of institutions in any sector is on a downward trend, it indicates that the sector is already in the shadow of Stalin's criticism – even the leader's fatal suspicion of it. Stalin's colleagues always lived under high pressure, and they always feared that they would bring disaster to themselves because of some low-level mistakes made by their subordinates.
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