On 18th December (Monday), the Times of India commemorated the birth anniversary of Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin describing him as ‘The Man of Steel’. Shared as a Trivia factoid, the post eulogised him with a poster listing key facets of his “leadership”. The portrait depicts him in an all-colour pallet of revolution.
Here are the bullet points that the media house noted about the Communist Dictator –
- Joseph Stalin, the dictator who “transformed” the Soviet Union into a “superpower”, was born on this day in 1878
- Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed
- Born as loseb Dzhugashvili, he wasn’t a native Russian, but hailed from Georgia
- A “skilled but ruthless organiser” was the chief architect of Soviet totalitarianism and ruled for a quarter of century
- Industrialised the USSR and forcibly collectivised its agriculture
- Was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice in 1945 and 1948 for his role in World War II
Further, the caption, “You share your #birhday (sic) with…The Man of Steel – Joseph Stalin”, insinuates that sharing a birthday with the ‘Steel Man’ is some kind of an achievement.
Meanwhile, apart from the TOI post, some other users also praised Joseph Stalin on his birth anniversary. CPI(M)’s Puducherry unit praising the Communist dictator wrote, “Comrade Joseph Stalin, born on December 18, 1878, a revolutionary Bolshevik who led the victorious Antifascist war and laid the foundation for a strong working-class state of the planet. His universal contributions live on, shaping history. Long live the legacy of.”
However, the majority of the reactions on the post slammed the media house for eulogising a dictator, reminding that he killed millions.
Criticising the post, one X user wrote, “This colourful depiction and shameless admiration by Times of India of Joseph Stalin… A man who is responsible for the deaths of at least 20 million people..The man of steel… my foot… Cowards at best..”
While several other users lashed out at the media house for carrying ‘trashy’ posts.
One user tweeted, “How about editors of ToI put into the gulag for not complying with the ‘orders’ of Joseph Stalin?”
Criticising the eulogy of a Communist dictator, one user asked, “Next who? Praise Hitler? Or Churchill?”
One user highlighted that the post didn’t include the oppressive regime and actions of the communist dictator including hangings and famines under his regime.
The user wrote, “Should you not also add about the Stalinist purges, the gulags, the famines, etc that were the hallmark of his reign of terror? Looks like your newsroom is filled with Stalin fanbois from radical left universities.”
Historical antecedents of Joseph Stalin: Mass murderer and Genocide enabler
As per various Russian accounts, a whopping 20 million people are said to have perished under Joseph Stalin’s regime, after being at the receiving end of labour camps, forced collectivisation, famine and executions.
Besides these measures, Stalin had also initially colluded with the Nazis during the latter’s Polish invasion in 1939 and at the end of the war, the Communist soldiers under Stalin have been alleged to have raped at least 2 million German women.
In a century, communist states have killed approximately 100 million people, according to Ilya Somin’s articles. Joseph Stalin’s attempts to collectivise agriculture and production in Russia resulted in the deaths of 6 to 10 million people. Stalin imposed collective agriculture, prohibiting people from cultivating on their own, and imprisoning dissenters in Siberian labour camps.
In Russia and Ukraine, millions went hungry, and hundreds of thousands died in prison camps. When Ukrainian production fell short of Stalin’s quota, he punished them even more by taking away everything they had. In Ukraine, Stalin’s forced famine is termed ‘Holodomor’ by joining the words for hunger (holod) and mor (extermination or mass-murder).
Stalin’s atrocities were not restricted to the Soviet famine; he also carried out the ‘Great Purge,’ in which everyone he disapproved of was imprisoned, tortured, or executed. No one was spared, even wealthy peasants, politicians, military men, and ethnic minorities. The Purge alone is thought to have killed over 1.2 million people.