Fun Facts About Totalitarians, part 8:


Gilbert and Stalin's "H.M.S. Pinafore"


So, I'm listening to an interview with an historian called Simon Sebag Montefiore who recently did this massive biography about Stalin ("Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar")and I got a little more than I bargained for. Sebag had access to basically all of Stalin's private correspondence, as well as the documents from the USSR. Did you know that in addition to being a cold-blooded mass murder [he liked to have the wives of many of his underlings shot in the head for the motive of pure jealousy (I guess this is because Stalin's wife killed herself in 1937, but I am going out on a limb here...fun guy!)],



Alternate caption: "I'm a little teapot, short and stout/Here is my handle, here is my spout/ When I get all steamed up hear me shout, comrade"

Stalin was also

1) incredibly well-read...he knew his Dostoyevsky, Pasternak, Dickens, and world history front and back, and- get this- Stalin and the entire Politburo read the "Forsythe Saga!"


-"The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."
-"Did I wax my moustache?"

2) had an incredible knowledge and love of westerns (evidentally loooved John Ford)


How the East Was Won


and musicals


Steppin' Out With My Bolshevik!

...and even wrote lyrics for Soviet musicals.

Oh, and Happy July 4th, comrades!

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