The disruption and disorientation brought about by the five year plans and the purges meant that this was a bewildering and confusing time for people. Stalin reassured the people that they had a strong leader to take them through these difficult times.
Paintings, poetry and sculpture all served the cult.
Development of the Stalin Cult
1924-29 Origins of the cult
- After Lenin’s death- modest image
-
Hard working man, Lenin’s disciple and servant of party. “Stalin is the Lenin of today”.
1929-33 Cult Underway
- Stalin portrayed as companion in arms
-
Huge portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin appear on special occasions.
1933-39 Cult fully established
- Stalin’s image is used to reassure people that they have a strong leader to help them through the disruption of the First Five year plan and purges.
- Paintings, poems and sculptures promote the cult.
- All powerful leader
Post 1945
- Image is everywhere- success as a war leader
-
Portraits show him in God like solitude, superior and apart
-
Elaborate celebrations for his 70th bday
Rewriting history
An aspect of the cult was the reinterpretation of history in Stalin’s favor. Stalin was given a more important role in the October revolution, as Lenin’s friend and disciple. Photographs were amended. All the “old heroes of the revolution” were wiped out.
How did Russians react to the cult?
Although the cult was carefully contrived propaganda campaign, it does not seem that the adulation was entirely manufactured.
Three ways people reacted to the Stalin cult (Sarah Davies)
They viewed Stalin as-
- Benefactor
- Traditional defender of the people
- Charismatic leader
There were of course enough people- intellectuals, experienced party members who knew about the absurdities of the cult. There was certain amount of criticism. But even amongst those who did not like him, there were many who respected and admired him. He had industrialized the USSR and made it into a respectful world power. The cult had those helped bring solidity, confidence and coherence to that society during a period of rapid change and development.
The cult was at its height in the 1930’s.
Historiographies
Robert Thurston- People believed that the show trials were genuine and that Stalin was rooting out wreckers and saboteurs. This can account for the huge affection they had for him.
