The Stalin Society

An interesting statement on another forum today spurred me to this comment. As part of the perennial discussion on 'what is to be done?', a comrade pointed out the need to "educate people about scientific socialism and organise the people in the communist vanguard party". To which another comrade stated: "I'm pretty sure this has been tried before. I feel the results so far have been quite underwhelming." I'm posting my response here as this is a conversation that happens a lot, and seems to me to be the result of a combination of frustration that the task is hard and taking a long time, and a lack of faith in the possibility of success. ——- Wow. October Revolution underwhelming? Its consequences in shaping all the benefits workers everywhere have received since that time? In building socialism, defeating fascism, spreading socialism, national liberation and sovereignty around the world? Its legacy in the Chinese, Korean, Cuban, Vietnamese, Laotian revolutions etc etc? There's a reason the ruling class puts so much effort into spreading anticommunism and suppressing genuinely communist organisations. There's a reason the 'cold war' was actually the anticommunist war, in which untold millions of communists, communist sympathisers and even potential communist sympathisers were massacred. Our movement has suffered some bad reverses, but to call its achievements 'underwhelming' is to display either a lack of seriousness, a lack of knowledge or an internalised anticommunist bias (or a combination of all three). As Chairman Mao memorably put it, 'The revolution is not a tea party.' Class struggle is hard work. Changing society is a long and arduous process requiring dedication and self-sacrifice. And history does not move in neat straight lines. Only a movement that refuses to consider its defeats and retreats as final can keep coming back to arrive at its final victory. Lenin and the Bolsheviks showed us what is needed to organise in such a way as to defeat the imperialists and build socialism. To refuse to learn their lessons is merely to admit that one would prefer not to engage in such a difficult and protracted task, it is not to prove that the feat cannot be achieved.

Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) 73 years since Comrade Stalin’s death. A student of Lenin, a staunch defender of the revolution and a comrade to the proletariat of the world. Under his stewardship the U.S.S.R. went from a group of poor agrarian countries, decimated and pillaged by the imperialists, to an electrified world superpower. It was the Soviet Union who suffered the most losses of the Allies in the Great Patriotic War, and it was also the Soviet Union that pushed the Nazi hordes back until they were able to wave the red flag of revolution from the top of the Reichstag. His memory has been sullied by lies and nonsense created by imperialist shills such as Robert Conquest or Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but his name is resurfacing in conversations within the Russian Federation. Statues are being re-erected. The garbage that he predicted would amass on his grave is slowly being blown away. History has a habit of doing that. And as the crises of capitalism deepen, more workers are once again looking back to the Soviet experience — and to the man who helped build and defend it. Joseph Stalin. Bolshevik. Revolutionary. Student of Lenin. https://youtu.be/poOZFKoEx9c?si=6UjkEzbBKoBdYmN0

То Save Vienna: how the Red Army liberated the Austrian capital The Wehrmacht troops were preparing to blow up the city in case of retreat. Vienna is the heart of European culture with magnificent palace arches, cobbled streets and medieval history at every turn. Helmut Zilk Square is located in the very center of the Austrian capital, and is perhaps the only place that quietly recalls all the horrors of WWII. There used to be an apartment building here, but in 1945 an aerial bomb hit it. Several hundred people died. There stands a small monument here. The central part of the composition consists of the so-called "gates of violence". On the left are people who died from the war, on the right are the tortured victims of concentration camps. The sculpture is made of granite, which has a special meaning. Thousands of prisoners of the Austrian Mauthausen concentration camp, including our Soviet people, carried the heaviest pieces of granite up the 186 steps of the "death ladder" in the quarry. 600-700 people died every day. Almost all Austrian men served in the German army. And even when the Soviet soldier confidently moved the front line to the West, the Austrians still believed in a miracle that would bring victory to Germany. However, when the Red Army came close to Vienna, the "defenders" hid at home and changed into civilian clothes. Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin commanded the offensive. He not only stopped the German resistance, but also saved his main striking force. 18,000 Soviet soldiers died in the Battle of Vienna. From August 1945 to the present day, in the very center of the city, there stands an 8-meter-long colonnade with an inscription in Russian: "Eternal glory to the Heroes of the Red Army who fell in battles with the Nazi invaders for the freedom and independence of the peoples of Europe". A soldier with a PPSh machine gun stands majestically on a pedestal. In his right hand is the flag of the Soviet Union, and in his left is a shield with the coat of arms. Here, during the battles, the borders of the occupation zones converged, dividing Vienna into four sectors. The composition itself is ingenious in its design, and every detail is filled with symbols. On the pedestal is an excerpt from the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: "Today, April 13, at 21 o'clock, the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, on behalf of the Motherland, salutes the valiant troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, who captured the city of Vienna, with twenty-four artillery volleys from three hundred and twenty-four guns." The Wehrmacht troops were preparing to blow up the city in case of retreat. Vienna was taken into the "cauldron". The Red Army soldiers managed to prevent the explosion of one of the most beautiful bridges in Europe, the Imperial Bridge, which the Nazis mined during their withdrawal. Until 1956, it was called the Red Army Bridge. "This is an award list for awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to Red Army soldier Nikolai Denisovich Borisov. On the night of April 12-13, 1945, he and a group of soldiers went to the bridge in order to neutralise it. Breaking through the enemy defenses, they reached the middle of the bridge along the trusses and cut the wires, and threw explosives into the water," says Yulia Wenger, chief documentarian for media and public relations at the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. I.Stalin ordered the Soviet troops to preserve the Austrian capital. Just five minutes from the Liberators Memorial is the famous Belvedere Palace. The lower part of the complex was seriously damaged by German air raids. By 1955, it had not only regained its historical appearance, but also acquired a special meaning. Here, five foreign ministers, led by Vyacheslav Molotov, signed an agreement on the Eternal neutrality of Austria. This meant that the Red Army and Allied troops could return home. 80 years later, the same warrior stands guard over the historical truth. Source: TV Zvezda video transcript, edited #Victory81 @BeornAndTheShieldmaiden 🚀Boost🚀

A country of proletarian dictatorship, surrounded by capitalism, cannot remain economically independent if it does not produce its own tools and means of production, if it gets stuck at a stage of development where it has to keep its national economy tied to the capitalistically developed countries that produce and export tools and means of production. Getting stuck at this stage means submitting to global capital. - Josef Stalin, The Economic Situation of the Soviet Union and the Policy of the Party.

The Road to Space — by Yuri Gagarin Not long before the scheduled flight date, I visited Moscow. And all the way to the cosmodrome, I remembered the excitement that overwhelmed me when I stood near the Mausoleum. For Soviet people, it had become an inner need to go to Red Square, to the Kremlin, to Lenin before taking a decisive step in life. On bright June nights, young men and women who have received their maturity certificates walk hand in hand here. Twenty years ago, in the stormy year of 1941, Moscow militia regiments passed by the Mausoleum on their way to the front. No matter where Soviet people came to Moscow from, they would definitely visit Red Square. Our foreign friends do the same. I slowly walked along the Kremlin walls on the river embankment. Under the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower, I crossed Red Square. With my hand raised to my cap, I stopped at the Mausoleum, watched the changing of the guard, and, soothed by the flight of pigeons and the rustling of the State Flag fluttering in the wind over the Kremlin Palace, I slowly wandered through the city, which is unparalleled in the world. Around me, a crowd of people, filled with the anticipation of spring, was bustling. Thousands of people were walking towards me and passing me by. No one paid any attention to me, and no one knew that a grand event, the likes of which history had never seen before, was about to take place. "How our people will rejoice when what we have planned comes true!" I thought. That same night, we flew to the cosmodrome... Source 👉 Here you can read the book (in Russian) either on a web site or in PDF format. #Gagarin1961 @BeornAndTheShieldmaiden 🚀Boost🚀

The "Until Victory" Delegation Attended the OKP's Commemoration of Felix Dzerzhinsky in Moscow! The members of the "Until Victory" Delegation, who are in Moscow on their way to Iran, were invited on 19 July to attend the 'Felix Dzerzhinsky commemoration' organised by the OKP in Russia. On the anniversary of the death of Felix Dzerzhinsky (Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky)—known as "Iron Felix", the founder and first leader of the 'Cheka', the Soviet Union's first intelligence and secret security service, as well as a Bolshevik revolutionary and member of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party—the OKP organisation in Russia held a commemoration that included a visit to 'Red Square' and Lenin's Mausoleum. At the commemoration, attended by approximately 50 people and to which the "Until Victory" Delegation had been specially invited, carnations were also laid at the graves of Soviet heroes and leaders such as Stalin and Sverdlov, and a minute's silence was observed in front of the cemetery.

From the July Lalkar: Soviet preparations for a new war, contrary to the assertions of bourgeois detractors of the USSR and Stalin, began at the end of the 1920s. During the 1930s, the share of national defence in the budget rose from 10 to 25 percent. The Red Army’s strength grew from under a million to more than four million. By 1939, the Soviet Union had the largest and most extensively equipped army in the world and was annually producing 10,000 planes, 3,000 tanks, 17,000 artillery pieces and 114,000 machine guns. Russian military strategist Boris Shaposhnikov believed, like Carl von Clausewitz before him, that war was a continuation of politics and, therefore, that the war’s goals and overall direction were the prerogative of the political leadership. While the general staff needed to grasp the interrelations of domestic, foreign and military affairs, the political leadership needed a good grasp of matters military. https://thecommunists.org/2026/07/01/news/history/stalins-library-geoffrey-roberts-resume-book-review-pt9/

A song festival dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. Performance by a women's amateur choir. USSR, 1954.

July 7, 1907 - Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov, a member of the Soviet special services, a saboteur, and one of the leaders of Soviet foreign intelligence, Lieutenant General, and a member of the OGPU (later NKVD–NKGB), was born in Melitopol into a miller's family. Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was born in Melitopol into a miller's family. In 1919, at the height of the Civil War, Pavel left his hometown with a Red Army regiment, where he fought against the White Guards, was taken prisoner, but managed to escape to Odessa. After the Red Army occupied the city, he rejoined its ranks. From 1921, he served in the state security organs. In 1933, Sudoplatov became a member of the Foreign Department of the OGPU, specializing in Ukrainian nationalists. Between 1933 and 1938, Pavel Anatolyevich managed to conduct a large number of successful operations abroad, including the elimination of OUN leader Yevhen Konovalets. After returning to the USSR, Sudoplatov moved into a leadership role in the Soviet intelligence organs. In 1940, under his leadership, an operation was carried out to eliminate Leon Trotsky. During the Great Patriotic War, Pavel Sudoplatov led reconnaissance and sabotage operations in the occupied territories of the USSR. The 4th Department of the USSR NKVD, which he headed, carried out thousands of sabotage and reconnaissance operations during the war, causing irreparable damage to the German fascist invaders. In the post-war years, Pavel Anatolyevich continued to lead the sabotage and reconnaissance work of the Soviet special services. In 1950, during an operation led by Sudoplatov, the MGB eliminated UPA commander Roman Shukhevych. After Stalin's death, Pavel Sudoplatov was convicted of "aiding Beria" and sentenced to 15 years in prison. After his release in 1968, he returned to Moscow and engaged in literary activities. The outstanding Soviet intelligence officer died on September 24, 1996. Source.

July 6, 1923 - The Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted and implemented the first Constitution of the USSR. The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Union People's Commissariats were established. December 30, 1922, the First All-Union Congress of Soviets approved the Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - a new state appeared on the political map of the world, uniting four Soviet republics: the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SSR. The Union needed a Constitution that would regulate the interaction between the center and the republics and unify the state structure. Work on it began in January 1923. Six special commissions under the Central Executive Committee of the USSR worked on the draft Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. By June 1923, the draft was ready and sent for review to the Central Committee of the RCP(B). After lengthy discussions and final amendments, the document was approved by the party leadership and handed over to the Central Executive Committee. On July 6, 1923, the II session of the Central Executive Committee was held, at which the draft Constitution of the USSR was approved and a resolution "On the Enactment of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" was adopted. On the same day, in accordance with the provisions of the Union-wide Constitution, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the People's Commissariats were established. On January 31, 1924, the Constitution of the USSR was unanimously adopted by the II All-Union Congress of Soviets. The basic law of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics consisted of the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR and the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR. The Declaration proclaimed the creation of a new type of state - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - on the principles of equality and voluntariness. The Union was to become a bulwark against world capitalism and the basis for the creation of the World Socialist Soviet Republic. The Treaty became the main section of the Constitution. It regulated the issues of interaction between the center and the republics, the order of formation of the highest organs of state power, and also contained provisions on the state emblem, flag, and capital. Source.