Joseph Stalin – that is not his real name, by the way, he
was born Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili and went by a number of aliases –
was the son of a poor Georgian cobbler who was seldom home during his son’s
childhood. Stalin probably would have remained a dirt-poor peasant had he not
been able to obtain a position in the seminary. He was never ordained, probably
due to his reputation as a troublemaker in school.
Stalin had ambition, but could never quite bring himself to perform his own misdeeds. He always enticed others to do the dirty work. Somewhere in his early years, Stalin became a dedicated Marxist, and believed he was championing the cause of the simple workers. Eventually Lenin and Stalin came together in their common cause, but Lenin never trusted Stalin.
Following Lenin’s death Stalin weaseled his way into becoming the head of the Council of Supreme Commissars. Stalin had always been Paranoid by degrees and had no qualms about steamrolling over friends and colleges to achieve his goals. In later years, that included having friends and colleges killed or condemed to gulags at Stalin’s whim.
Had WWII not broke out Stalin might have been just another
footnote in Russian history. He took the reigns of the military and through
little real military talent of his own managed to allow his generals to fight a
war that nobody gave the Russians a chance of winning. The Soviet people were
duped enough to believe Stalin had accomplished this feat, and with the
ruthless elimination of his top generals at war’s end, no one could or would
set them right.
With Europe in a volatile state of flux after the war,
Stalin had little trouble gobbling up countries that Hitler had invaded then
abandoned. Thus the Soviet Union was formed.
Fast forward to Glasnost, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Boris Yeltsin taking the reigns of the Soviet Union. Up to this point the communist state existed as Stalin had left it upon his death. Yeltsin brought an end to the one-party system and opened the country to western ideas. Communism collapsed of its own oppressive weight, and countries under the thumb of the Soviet system were able to finally achieve sovereignty.
Okay, the communists didn’t just dry up and blow away. They
gave themselves new titles and assimilated into the reorganized Russian
government. Sixty some years of communist indoctrination didn’t just flip a
switch and disappear. It remains as an insidious virus within the new Russian
government.
Putin is a large part of that holdover from the old Soviet
system. In the last fifteen years, he has solidified his power base, and now
appears to enjoy the same degree of power Joseph Stalin wielded.
But is Putin another version of Stalin? The personalities
may be different – Putin doesn’t seem to be as paranoid as Stalin, although he
may be just as ruthless – but you can bet Putin has the same desire to restore
the old Soviet Union. The question is what lengths is he willing to go to
achieve his goals? He has recently shown that may have no hesitation at using
atomic weapons, and even test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from
a nuclear submarine.
Taking Obama at his word about being flexible, Putin took
Georgia and the Crimea with only hollow protests from our Commander-in-Chief.
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that the full Ukraine is next on his
shopping list, and he is certain we will do nothing more than impose sanctions
that he can circumvent.
After the Ukraine falls, what is next, Latvia, Estonia,
Lithuania, maybe even Poland? This guy is only 62. Imagine the damage he can do
with the rest of his years.
Putin may not be Stalin, but he is certainly following in
his footsteps. Are you ready for another cold war?
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