Stalin drew cartoons of his victims' fate Mark Franchetti, Moscow
Killing joke: Bryukhanov as drawn by Stalin in about 1930. He was executed in 1938
NEWLY discovered cartoons and doodles believed to have been drawn by Joseph Stalin could provide an unusual insight into the mind of one of the 20th century's most ruthless dictators.
According to Boris Ilizarov, a historian and member of the Russian academy of sciences, Stalin used to draw offensive sketches of some of his victims while attending politburo meetings. In one cartoon, which Ilizarov believes Stalin drew around 1930, his finance minister, Nikolai Bryukhanov, is depicted naked, hanging from a rope by his genitals.
The sketch was found with a note written and signed by Stalin in which the tyrant made no effort to disguise his pleasure at the fate he had in mind for Bryukhanov, a politburo member for four years.
Under the heading "Special File", it read: "To all members of the politburo, for all his present and future sins, Bryukhanov should be hung by his balls. If they hold up he should be considered not guilty as if in a court of law. If they give way he should be drowned in a river."
Bryukhanov was executed on Stalin's orders in 1938 on trumped-up charges. He was rehabilitated in 1956, three years after Stalin's death.
A copy of the cartoon and the note were taken from a state archive by Ilizarov, who recently also uncovered KGB documents revealing that Stalin had an illegitimate son from a relationship with a 14-year-old girl. The affair was hidden by the Kremlin for decades. Hundreds of files on Stalin, who ruled Russia from the 1920s until his death in 1953, remain closed, even to academics.
"These drawings give us a unique chance to look into his complicated mind," said Ilizarov, who is writing a book about Stalin. "I have no doubt there are many more such drawings which fully reveal the inner depth of hi s soul."
The archives contain more than 500 sketches and cartoons. Dozens were drawn by members of Stalin's inner circle, including portraits by Nikolai Bukharin, a confidant who was also executed in 1938. Another prolific sketcher during meetings in the Kremlin was Valery Mezhlauk, Stalin's right-hand man, who died the same year.
However, Ilizarov believes many were drawn by Stalin himself during the years when his policies and repressions claimed 20m lives. Several experts have confirmed that the note about Bryukhanov was written by Stalin.
"The drawing and the note come from the same file and I have no doubt that both are Stalin's work," said Ilizarov, who noted that in the doodle Bryukhanov is depicted crouching like a cat. He said this echoed episodes from Stalin's early years in which he watched and probably helped other children torturing cats.
"As a child he watched several executions when criminals were hanged," he said. "He had the sense of humour of a hooligan. He loved humiliating and mocking those who surrounded him. He was cruel and a sadist, especially with people who made fun of him."
Stalin often doodled with a blue pencil during long Politburo meetings. Archives also contain dozens of books from his personal library in which he scribbled in the margins, often making offensive silhouettes of characters he was reading about. In his copies of the works of Lenin, he wrote comments deriding the father of the Russian revolution, pencilling in huge question marks and writing "Ha Ha Ha!!" alongside.
"Stalin loved to scribble all over his books and papers," said Larissa Rogovaya, an archivist with access to Stalin's files. "He also doodled in his books. And in his remarks he did not mind his language.
"After defeating the Nazis he became even more megalomaniac. He wrote speeches and scribbled in the text at what point the audience was meant to applaud and for how long."