Cult of Personality (2)

Joseph Stalin:

Stalin is perhaps the finest example of a cult of personality. His cult of personality is considered to be the first and the most influential and the measuring rod for all other similar cults.

Stalin satisfies all five conditions(refer to my previous article) for a cult of personality to flourish:The Soviet Union was dominated by workers who were controlled by a small ruling elite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU),The majority of the Soviet Union's citizens were illiterate,Stalin came to power in the chaotic aftermath of Vladimir Lenin's death,Stalin had many loyalists in the CPSU giving him enormous political capital and Stalin was very charismatic.

Stalin was a originally a low ranking member of the CPSU and played many roles in the Russian Revolution mainly in the Soviet invasion of Georgia, he kept a low profile which helped him rise through the ranks and eventually become the third most powerful man in the USSR after Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Lenin had decreed,in his last testament, that after his death the USSR was to be ruled by a council of three people(Leon Trotsky,Stalin and Gregory Zinoviev) but Stalin used his supporters to suppress the testament and through a combination of muscle power and cunning was able to become the general secretary of the CPSU(Effectively the most powerful post in the USSR).

Once in power Stalin began to consolidate his power by expanding the powers of the Soviet secret police(The NKVD) and eliminating anyone he considered a threat to his power culminating in the Great purge which lasted from 1925 to 1940 and resulted in the death of many CPSU members,army generals,ordinary Soviet citizens and even two heads of the NKVD who were considered to be dangerous.

When the purge ended,Stalin became the absolute ruler of the USSR and to reinforce that power,he created an enormous cult of personality around himself.He named many cities,towns and villages after himself(including the famous city of Stalingrad),he also accepted many grand titles to his name (e.g., "Coryphaeus of Science," "Father of Nations," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," "Gardener of Human Happiness," and others) and in many paintings and statues he was made to look tall and powerful(He had many artists shot when they did not depict him 'right') when he really was only around 5 ft 5in. He also rewrote Soviet history to make it look like he played a major role in the revolution and he downgraded Lenin's part in it to look like he was only a small part of it.

During World War II Stalin's cult of personality reached new levels with his name being included in the Soviet National Anthem and Stalin became the subject of many films,poems,songs,books etc which credited him with God-like qualities and suggested that he had single handedly won the war.Images of him appeared everywhere from government offices to small back streets.

After his death his successor Nikita Khruschev denounced Stalin and his policies and above all his Cult of Personality which was dismantled soon after Stalin died.Stalin's style of leadership was named Stalinism and inspired many other world leaders such as Mao Zedong,Enver Hoxha,Nicolae Ceausescu and Kim-Il-Sung. Stalin's cult of personality has amazed many historians and politicians and is considered to have been the measuring rod for all other cults.

Though Stalin's cult of personality is definitely impressive, even it pales in comparison to the next cult of personality I shall write about with which I shall conclude my articles on the Cult of Personality.

A Cult of personality

This might be a new term for all of us,a cult of personality is a phenomenon in which an individual uses propaganda and mass media to create a an idealized and heroic image of himself,often through the use of praise and flattery. This phenomenon is very much closely associated with dictators.

A cult of personality is very much like hero worship, the difference being that unlike hero worship it is supported by mass media and propaganda.Surprisingly it also bears a close resemblance to the third category of Max Weber's Tripartite classification of Authority,Charismatic authority wherein an individual is able to gain power through the use of his charisma.

A cult of personality is always used to promote a political or religious ideology and enforces conformity by herd mentality and constant praise and adulation of the "leader" and his work.

Cults of personality have been around since the Roman empire,where Emperor worship was promoted and enforced,but gained prominence during the traumatic years after World War I,specifically in the countries of Italy and Germany. Both of these countries suffered greatly from economic depression,political instability,loss of international prestige and a plethora of social problems. All of these problems gave rise to a sense of desperation,in which people looked out for a leader who could solve all these problems and restore their national prestige by any means necessary.

From my observations a cult of personality needs all of or most of five situations to appear and manifest itself:

1)A majority of the population must be poor or middle class and be ruled by a small elite.

2)A majority of the population must be illiterate.

3)An extreme event must have taken place which creates fear or desperation in the populace(War,Revolution and the like)

4)Any group or individual must have enormous political capital. i.e:the group or individual must have the support of a prominent part of society(the army or the poor etc.)

5)The individual being glorified must be very charismatic.

To better illustrate what a cult of personality is I'll cite two very famous examples:

Adolf Hitler:The infamous German dictator is the earliest example of a cult of personality.Hitler's case satisfies 4 of the 5 situations required to foster a cult of personality. During his time, a majority of the German population were part of the middle class and the farmers, Germany had just lost a war and was suffering from the effects of economic depression and the payment of reparations hurt it's prestige, By appealing to the German middle classes by promising to restore Germany's tarnished image he had enormous political capital and finally Hitler was a very charismatic person.

When the Nazis took power in1933,they consolidated their power by eliminating their political opponents and enacting laws that made the Nazis and Germany a single entity. To ensure that the entire population supported the party. An enormous cult of personality was built around Hitler portraying him as the savior of Germany and as a hero. The entire armed forces and the civil service swore an oath of loyalty personally to him(instead of to Germany).Images of him were put up in many public places all over Germany,streets and public squares were named after him and the famous slogan"Heil Hitler" became common.His book"Mein Kampf" became the bible of Nazi Germany and people everywhere would often cry upon just seeing him.His 50th birthday(April 20 1939) was lavishly celebrated with a parade by the armed forces held in his honor and a palatial mansion was built for him by the Nazi party. His image was so well promoted that even in other countries such as Australia, U.S.A and even Britain, people admired him,kept pictures of him and even promoted Nazi ideology and because the Nazis made sure that the party and Germany were made one entity. Hitler,in effect, was Germany itself,this was famously highlighted by a party member during a Nazi party rally. The oath sworn to him by the armed forces helped the German Army's morale during World War II and even during the last years when Germany was losing badly. When Berlin was surrounded by the Allies,Hitler's closest aides begged him to leave Germany and even offered to sacrifice themselves. Once the war was over, Germany was de-Nazified and Hitler was denounced for his crimes.However,interestingly, his image and his ideas still survive today as small groups of Neo-Nazis try to recreate his deeds and some world leaders even claim inspiration from him,his legacy shows how well a cult of personality can promote an ideology that has lost it's appeal.