The world’s political history is full of injustice and bloodshed, and author William Johnson has shed light on it. We are here to walk you through deep inside Stalin’s cult of personality and his Soviet Union, where speaking truth was considered treason and to survive, one had to keep silence, all because Stalin, or the “Boss,” would not tolerate dissent.
The Murderous Marxism book explains how Stalin’s beliefs and opinions were shaping reality. His dictation translated into the Soviet Union collectivization, an iron law, and all yielded to his will. Stalin’s penchant for crushing dissenting opinions stems from several factors. And William Johnson has talked about it in his book.
Soviet Collectivization: Brutality & Russian Revolution
The Bolsheviks’ emphasis on using terror and brutality during the Russian Revolution created a pool of individuals who had no problem killing and intimidating. After the death of Lenin, Stalin and drive to consolidate power rested on his ability to build a personality cult around his leadership and recruit ruthless followers.
Loyal cutthroats were essential to carry out the “Boss’s” grandiose plan of collectivizing Soviet agriculture and industrializing the USSR. It worked; brutality and terror carried the day. Like a conductor of an orchestra, Stalin commanded the organs of the state to seize the livelihood of the peasants. By the end of 1929 through the early 1930s, state propaganda had created a fictitious state enemy, the “kulaks,” or rich peasants.
The rich peasants were accused of stifling the Collectivization Soviet Union of agriculture, so the Soviet secret police executed and imprisoned millions of kulaks. Millions of others also starved. The “Boss” grand scheme worked; the state was able to take control of all the agricultural land.
The grain taken from the peasants was sold to European nations, and the proceeds underwrote Soviet industrialization. At this point, Stalin became synonymous with the Soviet state. The Boss’s word became law.
The Failure Of Trofim Lysenko
Once the enormous cost of collectivization became known to the Soviet elites, the Boss sought to remedy the situation by promoting the hare-brained schemes of a charlatan, Trofim Lysenko. This scientific fraudster was able to convince Stalin that his half-baked ideas could restore Soviet agriculture. All of Lysenko’s fraudulent measures failed miserably. Instead of this fraud being shot, Stalin allowed Lysenko more latitude to manage the Soviet Union’s state sciences.
The Boss would never acknowledge Lysenko’s failures because that would undermine Stalin’s cult of personality and leadership. Adding insult to injury, the Soviet leader backed Lysenko’s attack on the chromosomal theory of heredity. The snake oil salesman denounced the genetics and chromosomal theory as a Western capitalistic plot that was at odds with Marxism. Soviet scientists who refused to denounce genetic inheritance lost their jobs, were imprisoned, and some were killed. If you contradicted Lysenko, you contradicted Stalin. No one questioned the boss’s vision of reality.
The Peace Pact Between Stalin and Hitler
The folly of Stalin’s infallibility would be realized during the Second World War. Just before the war broke out, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler came up with a peace pact, an agreement between the two totalitarian regimes in 1939. However, this Non-Aggression Pact between these two dictators was a Trojan Horse, full of secret protocols of the Nazis and the Soviets for territorial purposes.
Poland was the first victim. This Eastern European nation was attacked and occupied by both Non-Aggression Pact allies. While Hitler turned west and gobbled up over half a dozen countries, Stalin snatched up all the Baltic states, Moldova, and a slice of territory from Finland and Romania.
Let Us Explain Operation Barbarossa
It was June 22, 1941. The sun rose, and the world was not ready for the shock it heard. The world’s politics and power dynamics were about to change forever because of Hitler. He turned against his ally and tried to invade the USSR by launching Operation Barbarossa. The surprise shocked the Soviet leadership, especially Stalin.
Germans already know Operation Barbarossa significance and their attack was anticipated. The Soviets had a large spy network that collected many reports warning that Germany was planning to attack soon. The Soviet military had also observed a great deal of German reconnaissance aircraft leading up to Operation Barbarossa.
The Price People Pay Due To Stalin’s Cult Of Personality
No less than Winston Churchill and a high German official had warned the Soviets. Stalin ignored all these warnings. The Boss’s judgement was unerring; even nature was supposed to bend to his will. To question the Soviet leader was to risk your life. Truth was treason, and silence was survival… at least for the Soviet elites. For the Soviet citizens, it was another story; some 27 million would lose their lives. This was the price for Stalin’s infallibility.
