Civilization #59: The Man of Steel

How did a poor Georgian high school drop-out help lead a fringe and fanatical political party (the Bolsheviks) into absolute power in Russia? How was Stalin able to eliminate his competitors? How did he defeat Hitler in World War II?

In this talk to his Beijing high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that Stalin was the "ubermensch," the man of steel who willed a new reality into being.

Lenin could not have maintained the Bolsheviks without financing from Stalin's criminal activities. After the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, Lenin was intent on stopping Stalin's rise to power. But Stalin outmaneuvered his adversaries, including Leon Trotsky, the heir to Lenin's legacy.

After the Great Purge, Stalin created a cult of personality, and bent the entire state apparatus to his will. This proved pivotal in World War II when Stalin transformed the Soviet Union from a poor feudal nation into a global industrial power.

References:

1. State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin

2. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

3. Joseph Stalin's wiki bio

4. Vladimir Lenin's wiki bio

Recommended Watching:

I watched many YouTube videos to prepare for this lecture. Here are some recommendations.

1. The Rest of History podcast on Operation Barbarossa:

2. Noj Rants on "Lenin's Non-Marxist Origins":

3. Zoomer Historian on "Operation Barbarossa Myth":

4. Russian History Museum on the Friendship between Lincoln and Czar Alexander II: