Mystery of malignity, A brilliant exploration of one of the great monsters of history

MercatorNet - New Media Foundation ^ | 06.20.07 | Francis Phillips

[Coleus]

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[wagglebee]

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[FormerACLUmember]

The mind set of Stalin is no different than many of the endless mind-numbed drones at Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, and MoveOn.org.

[tet68]

Who killed Kirov? Stalin asked, but he already knew the answer.

Bump.

[kalee]

I read a biography of him years ago that said he walked away from his first wife’s grave a heartless man. How might he have been different if she had lived?

[livius]

A friend of mine is off in the Peace Corps teaching English in Stalin’s birth place - and he said the locals still think Stalin’s a great guy! Too bizarre for words.

[shield]

bfl

[Logophile]

A friend of mine is off in the Peace Corps teaching English in Stalin’s birth place - and he said the locals still think Stalin’s a great guy! Too bizarre for words.

And not so unusual. Saddam Hussein is still worshipped in his hometown. Adolf Hitler has his admirers. John Gotti was a big shot in his neighborhood.

[neverdem]

Thanks, Happy Fourth of July!

[gcruse]

It’s Darwin’s fault.

[ken21]

thanks.

[denydenydeny]

I enjoyed Sebag Montefiore’s other Stalin biography. He writes in a breezy, gossipy style that reads very quickly.

[balch3]

In 1893 Stalin passed the exams to Tiflis seminary. He had no vocation — at the age of 13 he had read The Origin of Species and lost whatever belief in God he might have had -

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another illustrioius Darwinist.

[Clintonfatigued]

“How might he have been different if she had lived?”

Given how his family and life in the seminary was, it’s unlikely to have made any difference.

[flowerplough]

In Stalin’s Russia, the prudent took care to never be the first to stop applauding.

[Abcdefg]

FDR called him “Uncle Joe”, a man he could work with.

[steamroller]

just being funny here-simon sebag?wow,i hope this guy didn’t enlist in the navy-he’d never live it down

[rxgalfl]

And not so unusual. Saddam Hussein is still worshipped in his hometown. Adolf Hitler has his admirers. John Gotti was a big shot in his neighborhood.

Ceausescu (of Romania) is still worshiped in his home village. You need to remember that all these dictators made sure their cities/villages of birth were taken care of and the locals always had special privileges.

[MountainFlower]

Thanks for the ping! Interesting read!! Bookmarked for a re-read later.