25 photographs of Stalin's personal belongings and 10 facts about the leader of the Soviet people

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Joseph Stalin is one of the most controversial personalities in Russian history. Someone talks about his contribution to the Victory and the restoration of the country, and someone - about the terrible repressions. In our review, there are several interesting facts about Stalin and photographs of his personal belongings, which can be used to compose a portrait of the Generalissimo.

Date of Birth

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin changed his date of birth from 18 to 21 December after the occultist Gurdjieff told him that with such a horoscope he would not become a leader.

Features in appearance

Stalin had some physical defects: two fused fingers on his left leg and a face bruised by smallpox. As a boy, Stalin fell under the phaeton and received a serious injury to his leg and arm. Because of this, his left arm did not unbent at the elbow and therefore seemed shorter than his right. Stalin was short - only 160 cm.

Resignation petition

During the first decade of his reign, Joseph Vissarionovich submitted his resignation letter three times.

Ascetic

In relation to himself, Stalin was a real ascetic. His wardrobe was more than modest, and he wore personal items almost to the last. When, after death, his property was described, except for boots, he only had a pair of boots and two pairs of felt boots.

Personal pistol

Stalin, leaving his dacha, always carried a loaded pistol with him. It was for this reason that his tunics were kept secret. In the tunic, in the inner left pocket, there was a special metal ring with a chain on which the weapon was attached. Upon returning home, Joseph Vissarionovich put the pistol into the drawer of the sideboard.

Stalin's favorite slippers

They say that Stalin never parted with his slippers, he took them with him on all trips. In December 1945, when Joseph Vissarionovich was returning from Sochi to Moscow, they forgot to put slippers in his luggage. As soon as it became clear, the slippers were sent to Moscow by plane.

Stalin treated sciatica with folk remedies

Periodically, Stalin suffered from sciatica attacks. Then he went to the kitchen, where there was a stove with a stove bench, put bricks on a wide board and lay down to warm up.

Stalin's collection had over 3,000 records

By 1953, more than 3,000 records had accumulated at the state dacha in Volynskoye. These were speeches delivered in different years by Lenin and Stalin himself, anthems of different states, opera, symphonic, ballet, chamber and dance music. On the records that he liked, Stalin put a cross.

Stalin's library

Stalin did not collect books. He took them away. There were tens of thousands of volumes in his pre-war Kremlin library. After his death, books from Blizhnyaya Dacha were transferred to the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. More than 5, 5 thousand volumes. And all with Stalinist marks in the margins.

Time magazine about Stalin

Joseph Stalin was twice on the cover of Time magazine. In 1939, for the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which the magazine called the last attempt to resist the Third Reich by means of diplomacy, and in 1942 for fierce resistance to the invasion of the German army in the early years of the war.

In 1939, Time journalists wrote about Stalin "".