CHAPTER ELEVEN
Stalin
Stalin was born Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili, in the mountain village of Gori in the province of Georgia in 1879. His father was a peasant from the town Dido-Lilo. His mother, Ekaterina Geladze, was a devoutly religious woman whose forebears had been serfs in the village of Gambarouli.
Not a great deal is known about Stalin’s father, except that he sometimes worked as a labourer and sometimes as a cobbler in a shoe factory in Adelkhanov. He is said to have been an easy-going individual who liked to drink a great deal. Stalin’s mother, however, was a devoted mother and worked hard. She took in washing to earn extra money for her family’s benefit. Her ambition was to see Stalin become a priest. She skimped and saved to provide him with the necessary education. Young Stalin attended the elementary school in Gori for four years and won a scholarship which entitled him to attend the Tiflis Theological Seminary. But Stalin wasn’t cut out for a religious life. He was continually getting into trouble with the seminary authorities. He was expelled after completing four years of study. He then joined a group of young revolutionaries.
Stalin first married Ekaterina Svanidze, who bore him a son, Yasha-Jacob Djugashvili. This boy was never very bright. Even after his father became dictator, he worked as an electrician and mechanic.
Stalin’s second wife was Nadya. Allilyova who bore him two children, Vasili, a son, and Svetlana, a daughter. Vasili became a major-general in the Soviet Air Force. He usually led the flying demonstrations on special occasions of state after his father became dictator. He was thrown into the discard after his father died.
Stalin and his second wife don’t seem to have got along very well together. Stalin had an affair with a beautiful Jewess, Rosa Kaganovich. She is reported to have been living with Stalin when his second wife, Nadya, committed suicide.
It is believed that in addition to Stalin’s love affairs, Nadya became more and more depressed as the result of the ruthless way in which Stalin slaughtered so many of her co-religionists whom he accused of being diversionists.
Rosa’s brother, Lazar Kaganovich, was a great friend of Stalin’s. He was made a member of the Politburo and retained his office until Stalin died. Kaganovich proved his ability as Commissioner for Heavy Industry when he developed the Donetz Basin Oil Fields and built the Moscow subway. Kaganovich’s son, Mihail, married Stalin’s daughter Svetlana.[1] What became of Svetlana’s first husband remains a mystery. It would appear that Svetlana’s first hubby removed himself, or was removed, to allow Kaganovich’s son to marry Stalin’s daughter, just as Stalin’s second wife removed herself or was removed, to allow Stalin to marry Kaganovich’s sister, Rosa. It is reported that Stalin did marry Rosa after his wife’s suicide.
Molotov, vice-premier to Stalin, was married to a Jewess, the sister of Sam Karp, owner of the Karp Exporting Co. of Bridgeport, Conn. Molotov’s daughter was engaged to Stalin’s son, Vasili, in 1951, so the Politburo was to a certain extent ‘A Family Compact’.
As was mentioned previously, Stalin only became a member of the Upper Crust of the Russian revolutionary party because, during the preliminary phases of the Russian Revolution, many of the better known leaders were in jail. Stalin never rose to any very exalted position in the Communist Party during Lenin’s dictatorship. It was during Lenin’s last illness that Stalin jockeyed for position, and then he moved out in front, to eliminate Trotsky and other Jewish contenders. Once he took over the leadership he never relinquished it until his death.
How Stalin rose to power is an interesting story. Lenin suffered a paralytic stroke in May 1922, and this affected his speech and motor reflexes. In December of that year he appointed a triumvirate composed of Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin to share the problems of government. Shortly after Lenin suffered another stroke and died. Trotsky has suggested, and his followers believe, Stalin helped bring about Lenin’s death because he was irritated by Lenin’s incapacity and prolonged illness.
When the triumvirate started to function in Moscow the Politburo included of Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Bukharin, Tomsky, and Stalin. Zinoviev and Kamenev had been Lenin’s right hand men from the day he became dictator. They naturally regarded themselves as the senior members of the triumvirate and logically his successors. Zinoviev treated Stalin in a circumspectly patronizing manner and Kamenev treated him with a touch of irony.[2]
Zinoviev and Kamenev considered Trotsky as their real competitor for the dictatorship after Lenin died. In Trotsky’s book “Stalin” he records that Stalin was used by both Zinoviev and Kamenev as a counterweight against him (Trotsky) and to a lesser extent by other members of the Politburo also. No member of the Politburo at that time thought Stalin would one day rise away above their heads.
Zinoviev was considered senior member of the triumvirate when he was delegated to give the opening address of the 12th Party Congress, a function Lenin had always reserved for himself on previous occasions. Zinoviev didn’t go over too well. Stalin was quick to take advantage. Before the congress was over, Stalin had secured control over the Communist Party machine and held a dominant position in the triumvirate. This was the situation when Lenin died in 1924.
In April 1925 Stalin had Trotsky removed as war commissar. He then broke relations with Zinoviev and Kamenev and allied himself with Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomsky. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Trotsky then united forces in opposition to Stalin, but they had moved too late. In February, 1926, Stalin had Zinoviev expelled from the Politburo; then from the presidency of the Petersburg (Leningrad) Soviet; and finally from the presidency of the Third International. In October, 1926, Stalin had Kamenev and Trotsky expelled from the Politburo. Next year Stalin had his three enemies removed from the Central Committee of the Communist Party and shortly afterwards he had them read out of the party altogether.
In 1927 Trotsky tried to start a revolt against Stalin on the grounds that he was departing from the Marxian ideology and substituting an imperialistic totalitarian dictatorship for a genuine Union of Sovietized Socialist Republics. What everyone seems to have failed to realize was the fact that Stalin had been nominated to rule the Soviets by the international bankers. He had to purge Russia of all men who might obstruct their Long Range Plans.
During the purge several million people were slain and about an equal number sent to forced labour. Many men who had been leaders of the revolutionary movement, since the First International was formed, were hounded to death or imprisoned. Amongst the leaders Stalin purged were Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Martynov, Zasulich, Deutch, Parvus, Axelrod, Radek, Uritzky, Sverdlov, Dan, Lieber, and Martov. About the only Jews close to Stalin at the time of his death were Kaganovich, his brother-in-law and Rosa, his third wife.
Stalin continued to develop Lenin’s policy to establish the Communist sphere of influence between the 35th and 45th parallels of latitude right around the northern hemisphere. Many revolutionary leaders in other countries became convinced that Stalin had developed personal Imperialistic ideas and was intent upon making himself ruler of a world-wide totalitarian dictatorship. They were right. Stalin took his orders, as Lenin had done, from the men who are “THE SECRET POWER” behind the World Revolutionary Movement, until 1936 and then he began to ignore their mandates, as will be proved.
Stalin did not want to involve his armed forces in wars with other nations. His policy was to feed the revolutionary fires in all countries to the south between the 35th and 45th parallels of latitude. His policy paid off exceedingly well. At the time of his death, Communistic control had been established over half the territory in the Northern Hemisphere. About half the world’s population had been subjugated.
Lenin had stated in 1921 that Spain was to be the next country Sovietized. Upon his death Stalin accepted the subjugation of Spain as a pious legacy. Once Spain had been turned into a so-called proletarian dictatorship it would be an easy matter to subjugate France and Britain. Germany would then be between the nut-crackers. If by some mischance the subjugation of Spain failed to materialize, then the incident could be used to help bring about World War II.
While preparing for the Spanish revolution, Stalin was ordered by the international bankers to take an active part in an economic war which was planned in 1918 immediately after the Armistice had been signed. Generally speaking, the people who had not been engaged in the actual fighting became prosperous during World War I. When the fighting ended the people in the allied countries enjoyed two boom years. Then, after speculative investments had just about reached their peak, vast amounts of money were withdrawn from circulation. Credits were restricted. Calls were made on loans. In 1922-25 a minor depression was experienced.[3] This economic juggling was a preliminary experiment before the Powers-That-Be brought about the great depression of 1930.
After 1925 financial policy was reversed and conditions steadily improved until prosperity in America, Britain, Canada, and Australia, reached an all-time record. Speculation in stocks and bonds and real estate went wild. Then, towards the end of 1929 came the sudden crash, and the greatest depression ever known settled down over the free world. Millions of people were rendered destitute. Thousands committed suicide. Misgovernment was blamed for the economic upset which made paupers out of tens of millions of people, and trillionaires out of three hundred who were already millionaires.
In 1925 Stalin started his five-year industrial plans to increase the so-called Sovietized countries internal recovery. The plan was to exploit the natural resources, manufacture raw materials into useful commodities, and modernize industrial and agricultural machinery. This vast Five Year Plan was financed by loans from the international bankers. This programme, when added to the development of the Russian and German war potential under the Abmachungen (agreements) previously referred to, gave a great boost to Soviet economy. The fact that the Rulers of Russia could use millions of men and women as slaves gave those who enslaved them an additional advantage over nations which employ paid labour, and maintain a high standard of living.
The next move was the collectivization of farms. For centuries the serfs in Russia had been little better than slaves of the landed proprietors. Lenin had won their support by promising them even greater concessions than they had been granted under the benevolent rule of Premier Peter Arkadyevich Stolypin from 1906 to 1914, when over 2,000,000 peasant families seceded from the village mir and became individual land owners. By January 1st, 1916, the number had increased to 6,200,000 families.
But, in order to secure the loans they had made for the Abmachungen and industrial development programmes, the international bankers insisted that they control the import and export trade of the Sovietized nations. They also demanded the collectivization of farms as the only means to obtain greatly increased agricultural production.
History records what happened when Stalin enforced the edicts. He has always been blamed personally for the inhuman atrocities which made the peasants comply with the laws. Many versions of what happened have been given. The truth, as I reported it to American newspapers in 1930, has never been published to date. It is acknowledged that over 5,000,000 peasants were executed, or systematically starved to death, because they refused to obey, or tried to evade the edicts. Over 5,000,000 more were sent to forced labour in Siberia. What is not generally known is the fact that the grain which was confiscated from the Russian farmers was pooled together with a vast quantity of grain purchased by the agents of the international bankers in other countries except Canada and the United States. In addition to this corner on grain the international bankers bought up huge supplies of processed and frozen meats in the Argentine and other meat producing countries. Canada and the United States could not find a market for their cattle, or their grain.
During the period 1920-1929 the international bankers subsidized shipping in most countries except Britain, Canada, and the United States. As the result of this commercial piracy, it became impossible for ships owned in Britain, Canada, and the United States to compete with ships owned by other countries. Thousands of ships were tied up idle in their home ports. Export trade fell off to an all-time low.
The falling off of exports from the allied nations was accompanied by increasing the importation of cheaply manufactured goods from Germany, Japan, and central European countries. To enjoy reasonable prosperity, five out of every eight wage-earners in Canada must obtain their pay directly or indirectly as a result of the export trade. When the export trade falls off a recession immediately follows, due to loss of purchasing power among five-eighths of the population. This immediately affects those who earn their living by rendering services of one kind or another. If the export trade remains down, then the recession deteriorates into a depression.
To make absolutely sure that the skids were completely knocked from under the economic structures of allied countries, the men who had cornered grain and meats began to dump their supplies on the markets of the world at prices below the cost of production in Canada, America and Australia. This action brought about a situation in which the granaries of the countries allied together in World War I were bursting with grain they couldn’t sell, while the people of other countries were starving to death for want of bread and meat.
Britain needs to earn £85,000,000 a year from her ocean services in order to offset her unfavorable annual trade balance each year. The British economy was given a severe jolt when unfair competition made it impossible for her to earn this money. The British people were forced to buy their bread and meat in the cheapest markets. This artificially produced economic mess-up was used by the men who master-mind international intrigue to cause grave misunderstanding between different units of the British Commonwealth of Nations and thus weaken the bonds of Empire.[4]
As the result of this economic war, the shipping, industrial, and agricultural activities of the allied or capitalistic countries were brought to a virtual standstill, while the Soviet States and the Axis Powers worked at full capacity. Once again it must be remembered that the men who plot and plan the World Revolutionary Movement always work on the fundamental principle that wars end depressions and pave the way for revolutionary action in countries that still remain to be subjugated.
This being a fact, it was essential to the furthering of their Long Range Plans to arrange international affairs so they could bring about World War II when they wished to do so. As Spain had been indicated by Lenin and Stalin as holding a key position, the manner in which Spain was used will be studied next.
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1 The marriage of Svetlana Stalin to Mihail Kaganovich was reported in the Associated Press, July 15th, 1951.
2 Note : ‘Stalin’, by Trotsky, page 337 (ibid page 48).
3 This is explained in Chapters 1 and 2 of “The Red Fog”.
4 This phase of history is dealt with more extensively elsewhere.