“COMRADE STALIN.”

I am being asked why I am often referring to Stalin as “Comrade Stalin,” and I find that it may be advisable to explain this to the reader of this blog.

To begin with, rest assured, my good reader, that there is nothing personal in calling Stalin “Comrade Stalin.” He was born in Tiflis Gubernia (part of Gruzia/Georgia, which was administratively part of the Caucasus Namestnichestvo/Viceroyalty) of the Russian Empire. His real (but naturally Russified) name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

Having become a revolutionary, he adopted for himself several noms de guerre, which was usual practice in the revolutionary circles. Among these two particular pseudonyms were to become famous. His earlier such name (since 1903) was “Koba,” which emphasized his Georgian roots and was suitable for his activities as a regional figure. Although initially he was rather fond of it, by the time he had become a national (that is, all-Russian) figure, he clearly needed an all-Russian sounding name. That is why, after 1912, he started signing his name and calling himself Stalin. In accordance with the Bolshevik Party discipline, his comrades were now to call him “Comrade Stalin.”

However, many of his revolutionary comrades, both before and after 1917, kept calling him Koba, trying to emphasize their long-term connection since the pre-Stalin days. It was a sign of familiarity, which Stalin did not appreciate, and most of his “Koba-callers” did not survive the purges of 1936-1938. The same cannot be said of those, like Molotov, Voroshilov, Mikoyan, and others, who knew their distance, and called him by the respectful name “Comrade Stalin.”

It is obvious that for the sake of slogan brevity he was called Stalin in such set phrases as ‘Lenin and Stalin’ and in countless others including the Soviet national anthem (“Stalin raised us”) and the celebrated rallying cry of World War II (“For Motherland, for Stalin,-- Forward!!!”). Yet his official nom de guerre as well as the proper form of address was, I repeat, Comrade Stalin.

It is for this reason, and in order to register this notable historical point with the reader, that I am frequently referring to Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili/Koba/Stalin as “Comrade Stalin.”