Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili was born in Gori, Georgia. However, in his 30s, he changed his name to Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. Stalin means in Russian “man of steel.” This man of steel was the leader of the Soviet Union from the early 20s to the early 50s, when he died from natural cases or because Lavrentiy Beria poisoned him.

Stalin grew up in Georgia where, as a young boy, he got smallpox. As a result, he had numerous scars on his face. When he was a teen, he went to a seminary in Tbilisi. However, his seminary days were short-lived; the seminary expelled him for not taking his exams.

Stalin was responsible for the killing of 20 million Russians during his reign of terror as a Soviet leader. Nonetheless, Stalin also liked his nickname, Koba, which was a Russian version of Robin Hood. However, Stalin robbed from anyone and kept it for himself. He worked equally hard to punish anyone who disagreed with him. However, to control his power, he conducted a long list of purges and sent hundreds of thousands to Russian gulags. He was driven by vengeance, and it was meted out to anyone that he suspected wasn’t a supporter of his.

However, he had an interesting means of showing that he was the leader…the only leader. For example, Nikolai Yezhov was water commissar who Stalin disliked. So, Stalin had him killed and then had him removed from this photo. Can you tell who Nikolai Yezhov was in the first photo?

An example of an early version of Photoshop

Stalin changed the photo below four times in order to reduce his competition.

See, I’m the leader.

Stalin was able to pose in pictures to look more important. This one is of him sitting with the ailing Lenin. He is sitting forward to make him look larger than life in comparison to Lenin. Wearing a white jacket made him the center of attention of the photo.

Lenin and Stalin

I have written many articles about the value to picking mentors that you can emulate in your life. Obviously, we do become at least shadows of our mentors. This is my list of mentors:  Brooks Oakford, Louie Palmer, Teddy Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Norm Vaughan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Bobby Kennedy, T. E. Lawrence, Carl Sagan, Steve Biko, Don Quixote, William Forrester, Anne Perry, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Aung San Suu Kyi, Randy Pausch, and Elizabeth Warren. If I can approximate in some small way any one of them, I will feel that I have accomplished something of value in my life. Therefore, I have encouraged my readers to make their lists of mentors.

However, underlining that suggestion, there is an assumption that your mentors have been able to accomplish something of value in their lives. Ask me why I picked any one of my nineteen mentors, I will give you many examples of what they have done to assist others and me to live good and responsible lives.

Ask our fake president, Donald the Dumb, for his list of mentors. The two that he mentions the most are Kim Jong-Un and Vladimir Putin. He really likes both of them and looks up to them for their leadership. Trump admires dictators, especially from Russia and North Korea.

Had Stalin still been alive today, Donald the Dumb would have him as his archetypal model for being a great leader. Even without Stalin still being around, Trump acts like him. This is Trump pushing himself in front of the prime minster of Montenegro at a NATO meeting.

Donald the Dumb loves having those on the radical right doctoring Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s a recent speech. If Stalin were still alive, he would see Trump attempting to become like him.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tweets-heavily-edited-video-of-pelosi-played-by-fox-news/

This essay reminds be of one of Rod Stewart’s songs, Every Picture Tells a Story.

This is another interesting video.

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