STALIN, Joseph (1878-1953)

STALIN, Joseph (1878-1953)

Autograph letter signed « J. Stalin » to Marietta Sergeevna Shaginyan
N.p, 20th May 1931, 1 p. in-folio, red ink, in russian

Very scarce letter of the Russian tyrant, as General Secretary of the Communist Party, coming to the aid of the communist activist Shaginyan

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Translation from Russian to English:

“Dear Comrade Chaguinian! 
I must apologize to you for the fact that I do not have the opportunity, at this time, to read your work, or even to give it a preface. Three months ago I could still have fulfilled your request (I would have done so with pleasure), but now – believe me – I am deprived of the opportunity to satisfy it due to a daily overload of practical work that exceeds expectations.
As for accelerating the output of “Hydrocentale” and protecting against attacks out of measure of a “critical” criticism – then I will do it without fail. Just tell me concretely who I need to put pressure on to get the case going forward.
J. Stalin. 20/V/31″

Original version:

“Уваж. тов. Шагинян !
Должен извиниться перед Вами, что в настоящее время не имею возможности прочесть Ваш труд и дать предисловие. Месяца три назад я еще смог бы исполнить Вашу просьбу (исполнил бы ее с удовольствием), но теперь – поверьте – лишен возможности исполнить ее ввиду сверхсметной перегруженности текущей практической работой. Что касается того, чтобы ускорить выход « Гидроцентрали » в свет и оградить Вас от наскоков со стороны не в меру « критической » критики, – то это я сделаю обязательно. Вы только скажите конкретно, на кого я должен нажать, чтобы дело сдвинулось с мертвой точки.
И. Сталин 20/V/31″

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At the beginning of the massive industrialization of Russia, Stalin wrote to the propaganda author Marietta Shaginyan: he proposed to him to ensure the release of his book and to suppress any hostile reaction to it! This signed autograph letter, of a remarkable rarity, is a new testimony to the omnipotence of the Soviet tyrant.

The Western gaze, no doubt biased by the Soviet contribution to the Allied victory in 1945, no doubt downplayed Stalin’s appalling dictatorship of Russia and the Soviet bloc. Let us recall the career of Iossif Vissarionovich Djougashvili, better known as Joseph Stalin. From an anonymous Bolshevik insurgent of the October Revolution, Stalin became in a few years the despot leader of the USSR. Establishing a regime of terror and the most accomplished personal dictatorship of the modern era, he is considered by historians to be the greatest mass criminal of all time, responsible to varying degrees for the deportation and death of nearly twenty million souls.

To rise to the head of this Empire, Stalin showed exceptional political sense: intriguing, maneuvering, and relying on the all-powerful bureaucracy of the Party and its police apparatus. Installed at the top of the state, he created an unprecedented climate of terror, suppressing all opponents, rigging trials, incessantly resorting to propaganda and encouraging a delirium of denunciations of all kinds.

In 1931, the year this letter was written, Stalin had just begun what he called the “collectivization” of land, five-year plans that actually abolished private property and starved his people. The peasant revolts that followed were drowned in blood.

This is precisely the subject of the novel Hydrocentral that is discussed in this letter. Marietta Sergeevna Shaginyan (1888-1982), the recipient of this letter, was a Soviet writer and activist of Armenian origin. She was one of the “Companions of Travel” of the 1920s led by the Serapion Brothers and became one of the most prolific communist writers of the time, experimenting with satirical-fantasy fiction. The content of Hydrocentral was precisely linked to Stalin’s economic and political objectives at the time. Marietta Shaginyan was one of the most interesting Soviet authors for the Stalinist system: she was read and adhered to the line of the Communist Party.

Behind the words, and beyond their original meaning, several ideas appear, and in filigree, the personality of their author, the all-powerful Stalin:

« Just tell me concretely who I need to put pressure on »

What appears very clearly in this letter is the propaganda work carried out by Stalin to serve his person and his regime. By offering support to an official message, and proposing, as one can read, the removal of any opposing person and any dissenting voice: “With regard to the acceleration of the release of ‘Hydrocentale’ and your protection against attacks beyond measure of a ‘critical’ criticism – then I will do it without fail.” “Critical criticism” must not exist in the USSR! This letter perfectly illustrates the organization set up and controlled by Stalin for the suppression of fundamental freedoms in Russia, and freedom of expression in the first place.

Even more terrifying to note: J. Stalin’s character trait underlying this letter: his absolute and constant concern to control EVERYTHING, his control over the smallest details. Let us consider that he is then one of the most influential men in the world. Nevertheless, he practices direct intervention, in a case of apparently low degree of importance, taking the pen to respond personally to the solicitation of a novel author, and to offer him his services directly. “I must apologize to you for not being able to read your work at this time, or even give it a preface.”

His biographers, and especially Montefiore, have placed great emphasis on this behavior and this way of leading. Endowed with a prodigious brain, capable of slaughtering two dozen hours of work a day, the Little Father of The Peoples wanted to establish a closeness with each writer, each general, each factory manager… all this for a single purpose: to maintain influence, control, and maintain an infernal pressure of deterrence on any potential opponent. It is also this impressive daily work that is discussed in this letter. “I am deprived of the possibility of satisfying [you] because of a daily overload of practical work that exceeds expectations,” Stalin apologizes.

His involvement in literary publications also speaks volumes about the Soviet system. The disguise of the truth into an official message truly responds to a desire for brainwashing. In the words of Andrei Zhdanov, “Writers must become engineers of souls.”

Paranoid, in search of absolute control, Stalin managed to master everything. Warned of all the attempts that could be prepared against him from the moment they began to organize, Stalin had understood, before Adolf Hitler, the need for a state police – the Gepu – allowing him to control collaborators and leaders. Hitler copied Stalin and the Gestapo was very closely inspired by the Gepu.

Joseph Stalin’s letters are remarkably rare.
Those written in ink, as is the case here, are even more so, since from 1933, Stalin will write only in pencil. We are thus in the presence of one of the last letters written in ink.

Indeed, as Yves Cohen explains in his article Des lettres comme action: Stalin au début des années 1930, published in 1997 in Les Cahiers du Monde Russe, a clear break took place in Stalin’s writing between the years 1931/1932 and 1933. Before this changeover, Stalin’s letters were written in ink (variously green, black or purple) and of a coherent and tight spelling. After that, Stalin writes his missives in pencil, systematically, giving an impression of greasy writing, and sometimes writing only one word per line. This change of writing is the indisputable sign of a mental shift in the mind of the Soviet tyrant.

The suicide of his wife Nadezhda Allilouieva in the Kremlin on November 8, 1932, pushed Stalin to infinite and constant paranoid delusions.