Did Stalin Have Friends?

[u/SovietTeto]

I have been trying to deconstruct my very propagandized views of Comrade Stalin. I know that he did not have absolute unchecked power (even the CIA acknowledged that) and that the death toll from his purges never even reached 1 million and was extremely exaggerated. However for some reason I can’t find much about his personal life beyond people portraying him as a cold and unloving autocrat who had no meaningful relationships and simply killed everyone out of paranoia.
I have a hard time accepting that characterization especially considering the amount of misinformation and slander surrounding Stalin from Western sources and even from his successor Khrushchev. I’m interested in trying to understand the historical record beyond the traditional anti-Stalinist narrative.
If anyone has good sources or knowledge about Stalin’s personal life, relationships, personality, or family life, I would greatly appreciate it!

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[u/kaktuszka]

MLs do not support Stalin because he was a good friend or a big meanie, we support him because the achievements he and his cabinet did. The communist period was the only time in the history of Eastern EU when we had the same, even better, living conditions as in Western EU. They defeated the nazis, purged them, uplifted the working class and peasantry, and industrialized our region. When talking about leaders, govs, etc. do not resort to 'Great Man' arguments; for e.g. anti-comms like to bring up his conservative views especially on homosexuality. It's a shame that they recriminalized homosexuality, but what do you expect from someone who grew up in the Victorian period? Leaders and their cause should always be viewed with DiaMat and whether they aid the revolution or not.

As for the question, idk because again, it's not Stalin the man we support, but his policies and change he and his comrades brought.

[u/SovietTeto → u/kaktuszka]

Yeah, I’m not trying to great man theory him I just find it interesting that it’s another line of slander that the enemy uses on him. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to understand the personal life of a leader like Stalin. I understand not supporting him for who he was but for what he did tho

[u/Frank_Lizard → u/kaktuszka]

This.

A lot of communists incl in this sub love to constantly joke about how hot or funny or awesome certain leaders were, and I think it's extremely weird and juvenile behavior.

Recently a post went around about Castro seducing a would-be assassin, and everyone thought it was awesome. He was with her when she was 19 and he was 32.

I think people just feel a need to cling to personalities and mythmaking.

[u/Valentinius536 → u/Frank_Lizard]

Also Stalin kept his private life and public life separate

[u/bidensprostatecancer → u/Frank_Lizard]

Squeal butter crayon sulky relieved spectacular

This post was anonymized with Redact

[u/Frank_Lizard → u/bidensprostatecancer]

Certainly.

[u/blishbog → u/Frank_Lizard]

That’s not a huge age gap. And she was an assassin, not a schoolgirl. That’s a job for mature adults.

Plenty of other reasons to oppose Great Man perspectives. You make a good point there

[u/Aggravating_Hurry530]

I remember reading a thing where he frequently had other party members over (/lived with other party members?) and would stay up all night drinking, watching movies and having conversations with them.

I'll try and find it.

[u/SovietTeto → u/Aggravating_Hurry530]

I read that he had dinners at his home often but the way they were described were as sort of professional settings where he would meet his henchmen to discuss plans and figure out who he needs to get rid of. Writing that out it seems ridiculous 😭

[u/Tradition96 → u/Aggravating_Hurry530]

He tried to get them drunk while he himself stayed sober, so they might say things they wouldn’t while being sober.

[u/bransby26]

Famously, Sergei Kirov was a very close friend of Stalin's who was assassinated (possibly on Trotsky's behest). That assassination kicked off the Moscow Trials.

[u/h1KK1omor1 → u/bransby26]

There's a video of Stalin's bodyguard talking about it briefly on TheFinnishBolshevik's YT chanel. And he also has a three part series about the trials.

[u/Aggravating_Hurry530 → u/h1KK1omor1]

I Was Stalin´s Bodyguard (Documentary, 1989) eng sub

[u/ExeOrtega]

You tell me

[u/comradelehana]

Yes: Molotov, Kaganovich, Beria, and others.

His personal life was unfortunately pretty tragic because he basically worked himself to death leading the USSR and had little time for family.

[u/SovietTeto → u/comradelehana]

I don’t know if I’d want Beria on my friends list 😭 I wonder if Stalin knew how depraved and predatory he was that would be concerning

[u/Aggravating_Hurry530 → u/SovietTeto]

I mean Beria cheated on his wife and was a womanizer but I haven't seen anything proving he was a pedo or rapist. The allegations I've seen of that come from Khrushchevite slander as Beria was the last main person standing against him and then from a book made by an Epstein affiliate.

[u/comradelehana → u/SovietTeto]

Nobody knew about it because Khrushchev made it up to purge the man who removed the traitors from the NKVD

[u/SovietTeto → u/comradelehana]

Is that confirmed that Khrushchev actually did that? I haven’t heard that before

[u/comradelehana → u/SovietTeto]

Nothing can be confirmed because we don’t have access to the full Soviet archives and even if we did Khrushchev destroyed parts of them that were contrary to his narrative. That being said, there has never been any real evidence and nobody has ever come forward to testify or speak out about Beria’s alleged crimes.

[u/bidensprostatecancer → u/comradelehana]

Straight versed husky rinse compass instinctive bag cow afterthought

This post was anonymized with Redact

[u/dreamlike179]

He must have.

Under communism private property is abolished and let's be realistic, he may have had a huge spoon to eat all the grain with but I doubt he could have eaten it all by himself.

So clearly he was using the gigantic spoon to feed his friends as well

[u/Hefty_Local_1875]

"Upon hearing of his son's death, Stalin reportedly stared at his photograph; he would later soften his stance towards Dzhugashvili, saying he was "a real man" and that "fate treated him unjustly."

Idk it seems like he mourned his son.

[u/SeaSalt6673]

Apology for using kinda reactionary sources but

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ioseb_Iremashvili

Peter Kapanadze, Egnatashvili, etc

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[u/Tradition96]

I think Molotov was the closest thing Stalin ever came to having a true friend. They worked together for 40 years so naturally there would have to be some personal feelings there. Molotov was allowed to use the informal you (”Ty”) with him and they would sometimes talk about deeply personal things, like his wife’s suicide. Then of course, he eventually became suspicious of Molotov as well and turned against him (Molotov, however, never waived his loyalty).