[Cowboy Bob]

Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway's coast, devouring everything in their path.

The author never explains why Uncle Joe brought the crabs to Europe in the first place. Anyone out there know?

[Cowboy Bob]

Never mind..the answer was at the end of the story.

[SAMWolf]

Stalin, in plotting his many megalomaniacal projects, didn't limit himself to transferring human populations. It turns out he also had ideas about how to repopulate the animal kingdom. In this case, the plan was to take thousands of giant red king crabs, also known as Kamchatka crabs, from their home in the North Pacific and drop them half a world away into the Barents Sea near Murmansk, with the hope of creating a new food source for the Arctic waters of European Russia.

The Soviet leader did not live to see his project come to fruition, but his heirs dutifully carried out the transfer in the 1960s. Thousands of the monster crabs, which measure more than a meter across when mature, were loaded onto rail cars for the seven-day journey from Vladivostok to the Kola Peninsula. Others were transported by boat and dumped overboard at their new home.