<DIV>I'm not saying _I_ think Stalin was a god. I'm saying a hell of a lot of Soviet citizens thought of him, if not as a god, then something damn close, the Vozhd', the Father of the Peoples, the Greatest Leader of All Times and Places, the Tsar of Tsars, Pharoah.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We are talking about a peasant country here. Let me repeat that. ILLITERATE, UNEDUCATED PEASANTS. The world of a peasant consisted of his house, the market, and the traktir (tavern). These are the same people who would earlier denounce Narodnaya Volya activists to the Little God (the tsar). Anecdotally, through the 1800s, a lot of peasants did not believe that any monarch existed in the world than the Tsar of All Russia.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Peasants are big on God Kings.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Stalin and the Cult of Stalin were products in large part of Russian peasant culture and the peasant worldview, I suspect. ("Hey Vova, you hear about those rich kulak fucks over the ridge who were hording their grain? They got deported to Siberia!" "Serves 'em right! Let's have a drink!")</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Let me repeat: the USSR was a peasant country, official ideology about it being the vanguard of the world working class and whatnot notwithstanding. 80% of the population in the 50s was either peasant or the immediate descendents of peasants. Brezhnev was a village bolshak (Big Man) in a suit and a lot of medals.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Always remember: Beware the peasants! :)<BR><BR><B><I>joanna bujes <jbujes@covad.net></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">Chris writes:<BR><BR>"Sakharov cried when Stalin died. Everybody cried. God was dead."<BR><BR>OK. C'mon -- we agree on a lot of things -- but, uh, Winston cried about Big Brother too. The whole point is that we don't need to make anyone into a GOD; it's...not good at all. And I'm no aethist either.<BR><BR>Joanna<BR><BR><BR>___________________________________<BR>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</BLOCKQUOTE><p> <hr size=1><font face=arial size=-1>Do you Yahoo!?<br><a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/hotjobs/hotjobs_mail_signature_footer_textlink/evt=23983/*http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover">Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs </a>