IMAGES OF WAR: JOSEPH STALIN

Joseph Stalin was a monster. He sacrificed his friends and allies in pursuit of power, murdered thousands with sadistic brutality to maintain it and callously obliterated millions more of his own people over a quarter century of his leadership. Yet almost as frightening as the horrendous crimes he committed is the idolatry that allowed this ogre to flourish. Just like fellow monster of the twentieth century Adolf Hitler, Stalin saw himself as a master of destiny, a role that to him excused the vilest atrocities. And, bafflingly, just like his Nazi counterpart, he was allowed to dominate his nation and overrun others with the enthusiastic support of the majority of the citizens whom he had subjugated. Stalin was lauded as a national saviour right up until his death, which was marked by mourning crowds so vast that untold numbers perished in the crush. This unquestioning adulation is not only a mystery to today s historians but a cause for alarm. For, under the Soviet Union s present rs