Stalin: A Biography

by Robert Service

  Rybin, A.I.

  Rykov, Alexei: and Democratic State Conference; membership of Sovnarkom; Lenin proposes promoting; attacks Stalin; Stalin offers resignation to; supports Bukharin’s agrarian policy; Stalin proposes dismissing; Stalin vilifies; reprimanded; tried

  Ryutin, Maremyan,

  St Petersburg (sometime Petrograd; Leningrad): massacre (1905); Stalin operates in; renamed Petrograd; industrial unrest in (February 1917); Soviet; between February and October revolutions; protest demonstration (July 1917); in October Revolution; renamed Leningrad; NKVD purges in; Germans threaten and besiege; supposed conspiracy; local patriotism in

  Sakhalin

  Samoilov, F.

  Saturn, Operation

  Schmidt sisters: legacies to Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party

  Schulenburg, Count Friedrich Werner von der

  science: controlled by Stalin

  ‘scissors crisis’

  Sebag-Montefiore, Simon

  ‘second front’

  Serebryakov, Leonid

  Sergeev, Artëm (Stalin’s adopted son)

  Sergei, Acting Patriarch

  Shakhty coal mine, Don Basin

  Shamil (Islamist rebel)

  Shaumyan, Stepan

  Shepilov, D.T.

  Shevchenko, Taras

  Shlyapnikov, Alexander

  Shneidorovich, Dr M.G.

  Sholokhov, Mikhail

  Shostakovich, Dmitri

  show trials; in post-war eastern Europe

  Shreider, A.

  Shumyatski, Boris

  Shvernik, Nikolai

  Siberia: grain supplies from; see also Turukhansk District

  Simonov, Konstantin

  Siqueiros, David Alfaro

  Sklarska Poreba, Poland

  Skobelev, Mikhail

  Skrypnik, Mykola

  Slánsky, Rudolf

  Slovakia: reparations to USSR

  Smilga, Ivan

  Smirnov, A.P.

  Smirnov, Ivan

  Smolny Institute, Petrograd

  Smyrba, Hashim

  Snesarev, Andrei

  Sochi

  Social-Federalists

  socialism: as Marxist ideal

  ‘socialism in one country’

  Socialist-Revolutionaries: ridicule Stalin; little appeal in Caucasus; leaders return to Switzerland; oppose Kerenski; and Democratic State Conference; support Provisional Government; walk out from Second Congress of Soviets; as potential rivals; arrested and sentenced

  Sokolnikov, Grigori

  Solomin, V.G.

  Solvychegodsk

  Sorge, Richard

  Sotsial-Demokrat (newspaper)

  Souvarine, Boris

  Soviet Union: isolation; federal structure; title adopted (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics); and threat of outside intervention; and autonomous republics; economic development; modernity in; citizens’ rights in; Constitutions: (1924); (1936); and nationhood; political patronage and cliental groups; excluded from League of Nations; foreign policy; armaments production; USA recognises; non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany (1939); Winter War with Finland; Hitler plans to attack; Germans invade (Operation Barbarossa); German conquests and advance in; wartime scorched-earth policy; wartime economic organisation and production; Western Allies support for; wartime refugees in; national anthem; patriotism emphasised; Western Allies’ supplies to; victory over Germany; post-war power; human and material losses in war; post-war regime and repressions; devaluation and economic regeneration; student unrest in; post-war relations with Western Allies; and beginnings of Cold War; and Western containment policy; develops nuclear weapons; corruption and maladministration in; hostility to West; foreign influences excluded; reforms after Stalin’s death; collapse (1991); totalitarianism in; see also Russia (post-1991)

  Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies (Petrograd)

  soviets (councils): formed; as source of power

  sovkhozes (collective farms)

  Sovnarkom (Council of People’s Commissars): composition; Stalin’s role in; and national question; and Gosplan’s control of economy; redesignated Council of Ministers; see also Council of Ministers

  Spain: Eurocommunism in

  Spandaryan, Suren

  Spanish Civil War

  Spanish Communist Party

  specialists: Stalin’s hostility to; tried; and Stakhanovite movement; Ordzhonikidze protects

  Stakhanov, Alexei

  Stakhanovites

  STALIN, JOSEPH

  CHARACTERISTICS: reputation and image; reading; mental state; cultivates conciliatory manner; vindictiveness; rebelliousness at seminary; isolation; speechmaking; physical bravery; liking for children; as thinker and theorist; need to dominate; uncouth manner; joking and mimicry; suspects conspiracies and plots; resentment and sense of being undervalued; impatience in Sovnarkom meetings; outfaces rivals in Party meetings; conspiratorial practices; leadership qualities; flirting; gives money to beggar; lacks interests outside politics; national identity; behaviour as ruler; mental processes and moral values; multifaceted nature; smoking; personal austerity; rivalry with Hitler; remoteness from public in war; manner with colleagues and subordinates; aloofness from post-war conditions; daily routine; intellectual interests; pride in Soviet achievements; unpredictability in old age

  PERSONAL LIFE: birth date; official biography (1938); baptised; rumoured illicit ancestry; childhood and upbringing; smallpox as child; schooling; works in Tbilisi shoe factory; attitude to father; injured in accident with carriage; youth in Gori; adopts name Koba; witnesses hangings in Gori; attends Tiflis Spiritual Seminary; learns Russian; singing; knowledge of ancient Greek; early poetry in Georgian; leaves Tiflis Seminary; abandons religious faith; works at Physical Observatory in Tbilisi; dress; on run in Tbilisi; in Batumi; detained in prison; journalism and writings; exiles in Siberia; appearance; courtship and marriage to Ketevan; birth of children; and death of wife Ketevan; visits Berlin; attitude to Jews; begins to write in Russian; learns Esperanto; sexual conquests and illegitimate children; moves to Vologda; adopts pseudonym Stalin; escapes to St Petersburg; in Vienna; fishing; rejected for military service; returns to Petrograd (1917); in hiding with Alliluevs in Petrograd; shaves off Lenin’s beard and moustache; edits Rabochii put; marriage to Nadezhda Allilueva; appendicitis; health problems and treatments; revisits Georgia (1921); abuses Krupskaya; Krupskaya softens attitude to; criticised for inadequate Russian; marriage relations; adopts Artëm Sergeev; diet; homes and family life; holidays; hunting; improves languages and studies Marxist philosophy; unpopularity; personal security concerns; and Nadya’s suicide and funeral; builds new dacha at Kuntsevo; recreations; cultural values and reforms; socialist ideals; and films; accompanies Svetlana on Metro ride; avoids contacts with people; writing; biographies of; remains in wartime Moscow; relations with sons and daughter; sends money to former Georgian friends; ill-health in war; drinking; social life with male friends; and women; billiards playing; Western adulation of; use of nicknames; relations with Churchill and Roosevelt; exchange with Alan Brooke; and Roosevelt’s death; postwar public view of; collected works published; death; persecutes members of family; seventieth birthday celebrations; Western disparagement of; on linguistics; mistrust of medical doctors; health decline; entertaining in old age; seventy third birthday party; suffers stroke; autopsy document lost; embalmed; funeral; book collection dispersed after death; reburied below Kremlin Wall

  POLITICAL LIFE: Khrushchëv denounces; operates within Soviet system; opposition to; embraces Marxism in Tbilisi; suspected of being Okhrana agent; revolutionary activities in Georgia; circulates ‘Credo’ on return to Tbilisi; and national question; commitment to Bolshevism; attends Fourth Party Congress (Stockholm, 1905); in London for 1907 Party Congress; preeminence as Georgian Bolshevik; arrested in Baku and imprisoned; accused of organising armed robberies; Lenin co-opts onto Central Committee; arrested (1912) and sent to Narym District; issues proclamation (May Day 1912); Le
nin praises; meets Lenin in Poland; rearrested (1913); questions Lenin’s policies; initial support for Provisional Government; denied place on Russian Bureau on return from exile; admitted to Russian Bureau; attitude to Mensheviks; follows Lenin’s leadership; attitude to First World War; elected to Central Committee at April 1917 conference; at Sixth Party Congress (1917); Party work in Petrograd; policy of ‘socialism in one country’; supports Lenin’s revolutionary policy; in Executive Committee of Petrograd Soviet; hostility with Trotski; and Kerenski’s actions against Bolsheviks; role and standing in Central Committee; activities in October Revolution; improved reputation and acceptance; Lenin favours; as People’s Commissar for Nationalities’ Affairs; helps draft RSFSR Constitution; advocates and practises state violence and dictatorship; and revolutionary activities abroad; claims full military powers in Volga region; supports separate peace in First World War; assigned to procure grain (1918); in Civil War; official appointments and activities; and war with Poland; threatens resignation; criticised at Ninth Party Conference; supports Lenin in dispute with Trotski over trade unions; Lenin asks to secure control over party apparatus; appointed General Secretary of Party; foreign policy; supports NEP; Lenin’s view of and relations with; disputes with dying Lenin; favours dominance of RSFSR over republics; and recognition of Baltic republics; and Caucasian national and ethnic settlement; and formation of autonomous republics; in Lenin’s Testament; Kamenev and Zinoviev protect and support; reports at 12th Party Congress; Zinoviev acts against; at Thirteenth Party Conference; organises and officiates at Lenin’s funeral; encourages cult of Lenin; escapes reading of Lenin’s Testament at 13th Party Congress; reports at 13th Party Congress; requests to be released from posts; builds up supporters; defeats Left Opposition; in Politburo disputes with Zinoviev and Kamenev; outlines programme and purpose; defeats United Opposition; and NEP; abandons NEP; aggressive agrarian policy; and collectivisation; forced industrialisation; organises trial of Shakhty engineers and specialists; adapts to change; radical policy changes; represses ‘anti-Soviet’ groups; proclaims patriotism; despotism in rule; title as General Secretary; mistrust of factional groups; demands capital punishment for adversaries; aims and ideals; and industrial unrest; dominates economic policy; near-exclusion at 17th Party Congress; and Kirov’s assassination; eliminates opponents; oversees new Constitution (1935–6); peasant hatred of; and Soviet patriotism; appointments and promotions of functionaries; threatens to annihilate enemies of state; comments on Lenin’s Materialism and Empiriocriticism; instigates and supervises Great Terror; cult and public image; dominance; redesignated Secretary of the Party Central Committee; attempts to eradicate political patronage; and pre-war Germany; intervenes in Spanish Civil War; ethnic deportations and executions; and foreign Communist Party activities; overtures to Nazi Germany; and war in Far East; and assassination of Trotski; receives reports from foreign sources; and non-aggression pact with Germany (1939); annexes Baltic republics; and Winter War in Finland; and German military successes in West; and German threat; surprised by German invasion of USSR; recovers control after German invasion; as Supreme Commander in war with Germany; withdraws in early days of war; wartime strategy; and German atrocities; orders no retreat at Stalingrad; co-operates with wartime commanders; and Stalingrad victory; argues for major offensive after Stalingrad; and conduct of war after Kursk; relaxes cultural rules in war; wartime concessions to Church; dissolves Comintern; wartime policy changes; encourages Slavophilia; broadcasts to nation after start of war; avoids fighting front in war; Western Allies confer with; attends conferences with Churchill and Roosevelt; demands Allies open second front; and post-war European settlement; and Warsaw Uprising; and capture of Berlin; justifies Red Army brutalities; at Potsdam Conference; knowledge of US atomic bomb; broadcasts on victory over Germany; victory celebrations (1945); view of world leaders; awareness of post-war dissatisfactions; resists post-war reform; post-war foreign policy; policy of coexistence; maintains east European territories; and Truman’s policy; and development of Soviet A-bomb; attitude to China and Mao; control of countries in eastern Europe; anti-Tito campaign; and ‘people’s democracies’ in eastern Europe; manipulates and humiliates colleagues; intelligence and information reaches; appoints ‘curators’; postwar political control; retrospective view of war; and Korean War; concern for Italy and France; excludes foreign influences; ideological motivation; succession question; purges Jews; reorganises Party structure at Nineteenth Congress; posthumous reputation; achievements assessed

  WORKS: ‘Anarchism or Socialism’; ‘Dizzy with Success’; The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR; Foundations of Leninism; History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): A Short Course; Marxism and the National Quesion (earlier The National Question and Social-Democracy); Marxism and Problems of Linguistics; On Questions of Leninism (or Problems of Leninism)

  Stalin Prizes

  Stalin, Vasili (Stalin’s son): birth; upbringing; on father’s Georgian origins; accompanies sister Svetlana on Metro; war service; relations with father; behaviour; disgraced after Stalin’s death

  Stalin, Yakob (Stalin’s son by Ketevan) see Dzhughashvili, Yakob

  Stalingrad: battle of; see also Tsaritsyn

  Starostin, Mikhail

  State Committee of Defence: proposed; powers; Stalin in

  Stavka (wartime Supreme Command): formed; strategy; meetings; disagreements in

  Sten, Jan

  Stepanov, General

  Stockholm: Stalin visits (1905)

  Stolypin, Pëtr

  Stroev, Lieut. Pëtr

  Struve, Pëtr

  Sukhanov, Nikolai

  Sukhova, Tatiana

  Sultan-Galiev, Mirza Said

  Supreme Command see Stavka

  Surin, Semën

  Suvorov, Alexander

  Suvorov, S.A.

  Svanidze, Maria

  Svanidze, Alexander (Ketevan’s brother)

  Svanidze, Alexandra

  Svanidze, Ketevan see Dzhughashvili, Ketevan

  Sverdlov University: Stalin lectures at

  Sverdlov, Yakov: with Stalin in Narym; attempted escape; in exile with Stalin in Turukhansk District; heads Central Committee Secretariat; Party work in Petrograd; supports Lenin’s revolutionary policy; and national question; supports separate peace in First World War; prestige; and revolutions abroad; death; Nadya Allilueva requests better accommodation from

  Syrtsov, Sergei

  Taiwan

  Tambov province

  Tampere Conference (Finland, 1905),

  Tarle, Yevgeni

  Tatar-Bashkir Republic

  Tatars

  Tbilisi: location and status; Stalin’s father works in; Stalin works in; Stalin attends seminary in; racial/cultural composition; Stalin leaves seminary; Stalin works at Physical Observatory; Stalin addresses meetings (1921)

  Tehran conference (1943)

  Ter-Petrosyan, Semën (‘Kamo’)

  terror see Great Terror

  Thorez, Maurice

  Tiflis see Tbilisi

  Tikhonov, Alexander

  Til, Katerina

  Timashuk, Dr Lidia

  Time magazine: features Stalin as Man of the Year

  Timoshenko, Semën: appointed to head People’s Commissariat of Defence; plans pre-emptive offensive against Germany; and German invasion of USSR; denied intelligence on Germany; leads Stavka (Supreme Command); in defence of Moscow; considers withdrawing from Kiev

  Tito, Josip Broz

  Titvinidze, M.

  Togliatti, Palmiro,

  Tolmachev, Vladimir

  Tolstoi, Alexei

  Tolstoi, Count Lev: Hadji Murat

  Tomski, Mikhail

  Tovstukha, Ivan; biographical sketch of Stalin

  tractors: supply of

  trade unions: Trotski attacks

  Transcaucasian Federation

  Tretyakov, A.F.

  Trieste

  Trotski, Lev: ridicules Stalin; leads St Petersburg sov
iet (1905); as thinker; criticises Stalin; speechmaking; arrested; returns to Central Committee; revolutionary policy; hostility with Stalin; denigrates Stalin as marginal; omitted from Central Committee assignments; military role in October Revolution; forms Sovnarkom; opposes coalition with other socialist parties; as People’s Commissar for External Affairs; Lenin’s attitude to; controls funds; Lenin overshadows; and revolutionary war outside Russia; and separate peace in First World War; assassinated; as People’s Commissar for Military Affairs; advocates state terror; and Stalin’s activities in Tsaritsyn; believes in conspiracies; Lenin supports as Red Army head; indifference to Party; public appearances; and 1920 war with Poland; in Civil War; attacks trade unions; loses Lenin’s favour; suppresses Kronstadt mutiny; quarrel with Molotov; administrative duties; and Lenin’s health decline; renewed alliance with Lenin; and Stalin’s policy on national question; in Lenin’s Testament; outspokenness with Lenin; at Twelfth Party Congress; unpopularity in Party; appointed to Orgburo; opposes NEP; on ‘scissors crisis’; misses Lenin’s funeral; attacked at Thirteenth Party Conference; Jewishness; as rival leader to Stalin; demands industrial growth; defeated; writings; and socialism in other countries; Stalin and Bukharin act against; in United Opposition; excluded from Central Committee; and economic reform; mocks Stalin’s international policy; and Stalin’s 1922 dispute with Lenin; as continuing threat; Stalin vilifies; exile and deportation; and culture; reviled; supporters arrested; accused of anti-Soviet actions; writes recollections; promotes on basis of competence; Voroshilov disparages; and worldwide socialist revolution; accuses Stalin of betraying October Revolution; Stalin pursues; and Fourth International; Art and Revolution; The Lessons of October; ‘The New Course’

  Truman, Harry S.: succeeds Roosevelt; at Potsdam Conference; and use of nuclear weapons; and defeat of Japan; Stalin unimpressed by; accepts coexistence; mistrusts Soviet intentions; policy on USSR; and Cold War; non-interference in eastern Europe; denigrated in USSR; and Korean War; sends Coca-Cola to Stalin; sends condolences on Stalin’s death

  Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad; then Volgograd): Stalin procures grain and wages war in; renamed Volgograd; see also Stalingrad, battle of

  Tsereteli, Giorgi

  Tsereteli, Irakli