Extremely rare letter from Joseph STALIN developing his iron fist in Russia.

Joseph STALIN (1878.1953)

Autograph letter signed to Marietta Sergeevna Shaginyan.

One folio page (210 x 298 mm), in purple ink, in Russian.

Without place. May 20, 1931.

“Just tell me concretely who I should put pressure on. »

Extremely rare letter from the Russian tyrant, as General Secretary of the Communist Party, coming to the aid of the communist activist Shaginyan.

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“Dear comrade Chaguinian! I must apologize to you for not having the opportunity, at present, to read your work, or even to give it a preface. Three months ago I could still have satisfied your request (I would have done it with pleasure), but now – believe me – I am deprived of the possibility of satisfying it due to a daily overload of practical work which exceeds forecasts.

As for speeding up the release of “Hydrocentale” and protecting yourself from attacks beyond the scope of a “critical” review – then I will do it without fail. Just tell me concretely who I should put pressure on to move the matter from its standstill. J. Stalin. 20/V/31 »

“Уваж. тов. Шагинян!

Please note that before you know what you are saying, please do not hesitate to contact us. This is where you're going and the date you're predicting. Месяца три назад я еще смог бы исполнить Вашу просьбу (исполнил бы ее с удовольствием) This is a highly practical translation of the work. This is how it happens, it means “hidrocentric” in the light of the night It’s not the story of the “Critical” critic, – it’s the same. я сделаю обязательно. This bag is made of concrete, and it's the same as the one you're looking for. улось с мертвой точки. И. Сталин 20/V/31″

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At the beginning of the massive industrialization of Russia, Stalin wrote to the propaganda author Marietta Shaginyan: he offered to ensure the release of her book and to suppress any hostile reaction to it! This signed autograph letter, of remarkable rarity, is a new testimony to the omnipotence of the Soviet tyrant.

The Western view, undoubtedly biased by the Soviet contribution to the Allied victory in 1945, has undoubtedly minimized the terrible dictatorship that Stalin imposed on Russia and the Soviet bloc. Let us therefore recall the journey of Iossif Vissarionovitch Djougashvili, better known as Joseph Stalin. From an anonymous Bolshevik insurgent of the October Revolution, Stalin became in a few years the despotic leader of the USSR. Establishing a regime of terror and the most successful personal dictatorship of the modern era, he is considered by historians to be the greatest mass criminal of all time, responsible to varying degrees for the deportation and death of many of twenty million souls.

To rise to the head of this Empire, Stalin demonstrated exceptional political acumen: intriguing, maneuvering, and relying on the all-powerful bureaucracy of the Party and its police apparatus. Installed at the top of the State, he established an unprecedented climate of terror, suppressing all opponents, rigging trials, incessantly resorting to propaganda and encouraging a frenzy of denunciations of all kinds.

In 1931, the year this letter was written, Stalin had just begun what he called the "collectivization" of land, five-year plans that in effect abolished private property and starved his people. The peasant revolts that followed were drowned in blood.

This is precisely the subject of the novel Hydrocentral discussed in this letter. Marietta Sergeevna Shaginyan (1888-1982), the recipient of this missive, was a Soviet writer and activist of Armenian origin. She was one of the “Companions of Travel” of the 1920s led by the Sérapion Brothers and became one of the most prolific communist writers of the time, experimenting with satirical-fantastic fiction. The content of Hydrocentra l was precisely linked to Stalin's economic and political goals at the time. Marietta Shaginyan was one of the most interesting Soviet authors for the Stalinist system: she was read and adhered to the Communist Party line.

Behind the words, and beyond their initial meaning, several ideas appear, and implicitly, the personality of their author, the all-powerful Stalin.

“Just tell me concretely who I should put pressure on”.

What appears very clearly in this letter is the work of propaganda carried out by Stalin to serve his person and his regime. By offering support for an official message, and proposing, as we can read, the removal of any opposing person and any dissenting voice: “Regarding the acceleration of the release of “Hydrocentale” and your protection against attacks beyond the scope of a “critical” review – then I will do it without fail .” “Critical criticism” must not exist in the USSR! This letter perfectly illustrates the organization set up and controlled by Stalin for the suppression of fundamental freedoms in Russia, and freedom of expression in the first place.

Even more terrifying to note: the character trait of J. Stalin underlying this letter: his absolute and constant concern to control EVERYTHING, his control over the smallest details. Consider that he is then one of the most influential men in the world. Despite everything, he practices direct intervention, in a matter of apparently low importance, taking up his pen to respond personally to the request of a novel author, and directly offering him his services . “I must apologize to you for not having the opportunity, at present, to read your work, or even to give it a preface.”

His biographers, and in particular Montefiore, have placed great emphasis on this behavior and this way of leading. Endowed with a prodigious brain, capable of putting in two dozen hours of work per day, the Little Father of Peoples wanted to establish proximity with each writer, each general, each factory director... all with one goal: maintain its influence, control, and maintain an infernal dissuasive pressure on any potential opponent. It is also this impressive daily work that is discussed in this letter. “I am deprived of the possibility of satisfying [you] due to a daily overload of practical work which exceeds expectations,” Stalin apologizes.

His involvement in literary publications also says a lot about the Soviet system. The disguise of the truth in an official message truly responds to a desire for brainwashing. In the words of Andrei Zhdanov, “  Writers must become engineers of souls. »

Paranoid, in search of absolute control, Stalin managed to control everything. Warned of all the attempts that could be prepared against him from the moment they began to be organized, Stalin had understood, before Adolf Hitler, the need for a state police force – the GPU – allowing him to control employees and managers. Hitler copied Stalin and the Gestapo modeled itself very closely on the GPU.

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Joseph Stalin's letters are rare, remarkably rare.

Those written in ink, as is the case here, are even more so, since from 1933, Stalin will only write in pencil. We are thus in the presence of one of the last letters written in ink.

Indeed, as Yves Cohen explains in his article Letters as action: Stalin in the early 1930s , published in 1997 in Les Cahiers du Monde Russe, a clear break took place in Stalin's writing between the years 1931/1932 and 1933. Before this shift, Stalin's letters were written in ink (variously green, black or purple) and in a coherent and tight spelling. After that, Stalin wrote his missives in pencil, systematically, giving the impression of bold writing, and sometimes writing only one word per line. This change in writing being the undeniable sign of a mental shift in the mind of the Soviet tyrant.

The suicide of his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, in the Kremlin, on November 8, 1932, further pushed Stalin into infinite and constant paranoid delusions.

He died on March 5, 1953, leaving the mark of the most absolute tyrant of the 20th century.