Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Stalin: Man of Steel, Episode 4

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Joseph Stalin’s bank robbing days have earned him a top spot as a Revolutionary, just as things are falling in place for Russia’s government to be toppled. The allure of communism has spread, but the message of course, wasn’t the reality. Stalin takes on a new role as an enforcer, a position that would show just how brutal and heartless he was. And this time, he has a new, very young, love interest by his side. Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Craig Thompson Writers/researchers: Mandy Reid, Amy Watkin, Kari Anton, Sharon McMahon, Melanie Buck Parks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Visa and OpenTable are dishing up something new. Get access to primetime dining reservations by adding your Visa Infinite Privilege Card to your OpenTable account. From there, you'll unlock first-come, first-served spots at select top restaurants when booking through OpenTable. Learn more at OpenTable.ca forward slash Visa Dining. Here's where it gets interesting is now available ad-free. Head to SharonMcMahon.com slash ad-free to subscribe today. The man we've come to know as Coba has lived less 15 years underground as a revolutionary and outlaw, hunted by authorities and jailed and exiled again and again. He left his birthplace and would never return to live full

time in the mountains of Georgia. Now it was time to do something he'd done before, create a new identity. Lenin had given himself his new name to evade authorities. Other Bolsheviks were giving themselves names that made them sound tough. Koba wanted a macho name too. And maybe more importantly, he wanted to be like Lenin. He kept Koba but added a surname, a name that sounded Russian, with only two syllables like Lenin, a name that means man of steel, a name that will terrorize his country for decades to come. Koba was now Stalin. And as always, he was ready for a fight. I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting. In 1917, World War I was destroying Russia, which had more casualties than any other country.

Given how gruesome and bloody this conflict was, it was a monumental toll. and bloody this conflict was, it was a monumental toll. Russia's economy was devastated, and the food shortages were bad enough that women were rioting in St. Petersburg. Even the Russian soldiers were starting to revolt, questioning what they were fighting for. Nicholas II abdicated the throne in March of 1917, and the Romanov family were prisoners in the Alexander Palace outside Petrograd. A provisional government took over Russia without the full backing of Russia's military or its citizens. The imperial government had been overthrown, but there was no time for revolutionaries to celebrate. There was a power vacuum in Russia, with more than one group poised to fill it. The Bolsheviks, nicknamed the Reds because of the red flag they carried,

were ready to battle for the government they felt Russia deserved. Many people were unhappy with the temporary provisional government of Russia, set up after the Romanovs were forced out. It was a mess. Various groups were vying for power, and the provisional government tried and failed to get everyone to work together. One group, the Petrograd Soviet, was ready to do something about it. Soviet has come to mean something with the political bent, right? But originally, a Soviet was just a word that meant government council.

So the Petrograd Soviet was a group of delegates that included workers, peasants, and soldiers. Lenin knew the Petrograd Soviet could get something done. And 90% of the people serving in the Petrograd Soviet were Bolsheviks like Lenin and Stalin. Peasants and factory workers became more and more impatient and frustrated. Most Russians were rationing food by this time and felt fighting in a war that had taken so many lives was pointless. Lenin called for peace, land, and bread. So what's Stalin doing during all of this? Sleeping around, apparently. Stalin moved in with a longtime friend, Sergei, and his family. Sergei and his wife, Olga, had helped support

Stalin by sending food and clothing when he was exiled in Siberia and hid him in their home while police hunted him after his escape. Sergei and Olga had been revolutionary activists for a long time. Olga was part Georgian and bonded with Stalin over their shared ancestry. But historians don't talk much about Olga's ethnicity, as they're far more concerned with other more racy things. Olga has been called things like notoriously promiscuous and a temptress. Though we know that there are holes when it comes to piecing together Stalin's history, it seems that Olga had an affair with Stalin around 1901 or 1902 when her fourth child,

Nadia, was still a baby and her husband, Sergei, was in exile. It was well known in Olga's family that Olga always had a soft spot for Stalin. And baby Nadia seems to have grown up knowing that her mother had a relationship with him. And we will come back to that a little later in our story. A decade earlier, the family lived in a home with a yard that dropped off into the sea. Six-year-old Nadia was wearing a pretty white dress one day and fell over the edge and into the water. Stalin jumped in and rescued her. Throughout her life, Nadia heard Stalin's name constantly as a child she had learned to idolize him, even from a distance. And then in 1917, when Nadia was 16 years old and Stalin was 39, Stalin moved into her parents'

house to spend more time with her. Young Stalin was handsome, with great hair that had the kind of volume most of us buy expensive products to get. But he was also skinny with a scruff of a beard, always looking disheveled as though he wasn't fully able to care for himself. He was arrogant and obsessive and ruthless. But many who either liked him personally or aligned with him politically chose to see him as eccentric. Most people at the time saw Georgian men as passionate and romantic. People said that Stalin's eyes were the color of honey. He was known to sing love songs to women and bring them flowers and small gifts. During the time he lived with Sergei and Olga's family, Stalin owned only one shirt and jacket, so they bought him a

new suit. He didn't like neckties, so Olga sewed a high collar onto the jacket to make it look like a military tunic. Stalin was not the first to wear this type of coat as a fashion statement, but he made it popular. This type of semi-military coat would soon become typical of a Bolshevik leader. Even Lenin started wearing that style. Stalin became enamored with teenaged Nadia. Nadia's sister Anna described her as very vivacious, open, spontaneous, and high-spirited. her as very vivacious, open, spontaneous, and high-spirited. By the summer of 1917, Stalin and Nadia were together most of the time, often in his room with the door closed. He called her Tatka, and she called him Soso. Stalin's enemies would later spread a rumor that he was really Nadia's father. He'd had an affair with her mother after all, but historians dispute that,

saying the timelines don't match up. Meanwhile, back at the revolution, the Russian people were tired of having no say in their government. They wanted a government that responded to their concerns with something other than a firing squad. It's not too much to ask, right? The message of Bolshevik leaders spoke to those concerns and provided something different. Lenin's Bolshevik party demanded land reform, peace, workers' control of factories, and voting rights for non-Russians. Lenin's slogan, all power to the Soviets, was a demand for the end of World War I and the beginning of land redistribution. Countries' workers and peasants actually began to feel hope. If the Petrograd Soviet, the Bolsheviks' government, took control, they believed it

could be the first time that these impoverished groups would have real representation in the government. The mix of the powerful message and the artful speakers who delivered calls for the overthrow of the Tsar drew large numbers to the Bolshevik cause. The tension mounted and the battle for power intensified, which brings us to the end of 1917. intensified. Which brings us to the end of 1917. First, the Bolsheviks worked with the provisional government, or at least pretended to. Lenin's Bolsheviks even occupied meeting rooms in the same building as some members of the provisional government. But Lenin never really wanted to cooperate with the provisional government. Instead, the Bolsheviks began their next revolution. The Bolsheviks got to work, feverishly hunched over tables for days. They tossed their coats

carelessly onto the floor and labored over decrees about land and peace until the rooms filled with a thick haze from the cigarette smoke. Messengers ran notes back and forth between the two groups so they didn't have to speak directly to one another. But the Bolsheviks weren't going to take the provisional government at its word. Many of Lenin's followers were young and eager for action. Enough sitting in rooms, just talking. Let's go out and fight for what we believe. They distributed weapons throughout the city. Armed Bolsheviks started taking over bridges, the post office, the power station, the train station. Yes, thought Lenin.

This is the kind of immediate bayonet charge I've been calling for. We'll take the country over by force. But this was not an epic uprising. This was more like Keystone Cops, okay? Resistance to the Bolsheviks was unimpressive because Russia's best soldiers were off fighting World War I, leaving only 400 teenage military cadets left to guard the Winter Palace with some Cossacks and an all-female battalion who were hastily trained and mostly there to shame men into fighting. Inside that building, government officials reported feeling like doomed men, abandoned by everyone, roaming around inside a giant mousetrap.

And yet, outside, it did not feel like victory was at hand. Every once in a while, gunfire sputtered in places around the city, but no one was actually engaged in battle. At Bolshevik headquarters, Lenin paced and shouted and tried to rile up his supporters for a fight. Eventually, he called an emergency meeting of the Petrograd Soviet. At 2.35 in the afternoon of November 7th, they met any former girls' school that they had been using as their headquarters. The room was opulent with huge white columns and a table on a raised platform. Lenin stood in front of an empty frame that had once held a portrait of Tsar Nicholas II and announced victory. Now, don't get this wrong. There was no victory yet, but he needed to get people moving.

He needed to pump the revolutionaries up. Take the palace, he shouted. And in fact, a small group of eager Bolsheviks responded by grabbing weapons and racing toward the Winter Palace. Well, they tried to arm themselves. They could only find six guns and only one that actually worked. So thinking fast, they ran and got smaller guns, which might have been better than nothing, except this ragtag team of men, inexperienced but eager, could not find any bullets. Lenin would have torn his hair out if Stalin hadn't shaved it all off weeks before when Lenin needed to travel in disguise.

And many of the teenage cadets and the women's shock battalion and the assorted Cossacks chose that moment to leave their posts guarding the provisional government at the Winter Palace. They were hungry. They had not eaten all day. All day, the Bolsheviks had been fanning out across the city, waiting for the signal to storm the palace. And finally, the perfect time had come. They had all been told what the signal would be. A red lantern would be raised atop a flagpole at the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was a military fort across the river from the Winter Palace. I'm betting you've guessed what happens next.

You're right. No one had planned ahead, and now they couldn't find a red lantern. They sent one guy to search for one, but none of the lamps he came across were red. During his search, he became disoriented and fell into a bog. And by the time he finally fought his way out of the wet, muddy ground, the Bolsheviks had already started moving forward without the signal. Bolsheviks had already started moving forward without the signal. I'm betting you can also guess what Lenin thought watching his team literally sink into the mud. Irate, he ordered that Bolshevik ships be sent towards the palace demanding surrender by 7.10pm or they would open fire. Finally, the revolutionaries were going to fight.

But it turned out to be an empty threat. 710 came without a gunshot. It's been a while since we talked about Stalin in this story. Where was he throughout this day of revolution? The running for guns, issuing of threats, being yelled at by Lenin. The answer is in his office. Though he was deeply invested in the revolution and had been working up to this day for years, risking arrest and repeated banishment to Siberia for exactly this revolution, Stalin sat in his newspaper office. Well, he wasn't just sitting there. He was staying out of the main revolutionary action in order to be Lenin's rescuer if the revolution failed.

Stalin had mapped out an escape route and knew that his job was to get Lenin out of the city if everything went wrong. But Stalin had also been writing. On the day before the October Revolution began, Stalin published in the Communist newspaper an appeal to the population, to the workers and sailors. And it said, if you all act together and steadfastly, no one will dare to oppose the will of the people. The old government will make way for a new one. And the stronger, the more disciplined, the more powerful your show of force, the more peaceful the old government's departure will be. Show power. Be strong. Follow my orders.

And I promise you, peace. On the morning of the revolution, government troops stormed the newspaper's print shop, tossing things around and rifling through drawers until they found all remaining copies of the newspaper. They sealed the entrance as they left so no one else could get in and print more papers. Even then, Stalin seems to have remained in the editorial office. Even then, Stalin seems to have remained in the editorial office. It's hard to know exactly what is true, considering Stalin spent a lot of time rewriting history. But since there's no evidence of Stalin being elsewhere during that momentous day, most historians agree that he likely did stay in his office. But outside the newspaper office walls, the provisional government wasn't ready to back down just yet.

Grigori Schreider, mayor of Petrograd, had had enough and marched right down to the palace to defend it himself. He brought several friends and colleagues from the city government, all well-dressed in their coats with velvet collars and pocket watches, all well-dressed in their coats with velvet collars and pocket watches, marching toward the palace, carrying an umbrella, a lantern, and a salami. They didn't have weapons, but they did have dinner. What happened next is straight out of a Monty Python skit. Let us through, the mayor's group demanded of the Red Guards. The guards said no.

No one was getting into the palace. The mayor said, well, then you'll have to shoot us. And the guards were like, no, we're not going to shoot you. Get lost. A journalist on the scene at the time wrote down the exchange. The mayor insists, we will go forward. What can you do? We can't let you pass. We will do something, the soldier replied. Another soldier laughed and called out, we will spank you.

Any tension that remained within the group, holding sausages and umbrellas, and the guards was lost and everyone laughed, probably partly because they were all getting pretty drunk on the wine the Tsar had left behind. And so went what would turn out to be the most significant revolution of the 20th century. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together, we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind-the-scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve!

It is my girl in the studio! It's my girl in the studio. Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests. And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode.

Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. By 9.40 p.m., the Bolsheviks were finally ready to make their big move. They finally had enough fighters to overwhelm the palace, and they signaled this by firing their cannons. First a blank to signal their troops, then small cannons, two of which hit their target, terrifying everyone inside the palace. Then Bolsheviks in wagons outside covered the building with machine gun fire.

And that is when the guards abandoned their posts. The doors were literally left unlocked. The Bolsheviks entered the Winter Palace at about 2 o'clock a.m. Lenin didn't show up yet, as the scene was potentially still too dangerous to risk their leader being hurt or killed. still too dangerous to risk their leader being hurt or killed. But the person who did show up was Leon Trotsky, another member of Lenin's inner circle who'd been involved in the Bolshevik movement from the beginning. Trotsky had been in the thick of things like Stalin and had gained Lenin's support and confidence like Stalin. He had even been exiled to Siberia like Stalin, but unlike Stalin, who was always

self-conscious about his perceived lack of education, Trotsky was deeply academic and an effective speaker. Stalin thought Trotsky was snobby and book smart. Trotsky found Stalin to be rude and uncivilized, and they each had a point. If all of life is like high school, these two were mean girls from two different cliques, and they refused to try to resolve their differences. To extend the metaphor, Trotsky won the popularity contest that was the Russian Revolution. Arriving at the palace, Trotsky confronted another clique of revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, a more moderate group who were critical of Lenin. Mensheviks wanted some of the same changes as the Bolsheviks, but they were more interested in collaboration than armed resistance.

Trotsky was appalled by their mild approach and called out to them, You are pathetic bankrupts! Go where you belong into the dustbin of history. The full throated reply was silence. They knew not to argue with Trotsky at all. And then someone yelled, then we'll leave. And they did. As the Bolsheviks pushed their way into the palace, some members of the provisional government were still in the Romanov's green and gold dining room at a table covered in green wool. There they sat in front of the red brocade curtains, arguing over who should be the next dictator. No one knows exactly what the final straw was, but with Trotsky's appearance at the

gate, all of a sudden these last provisional government officials decided to surrender, and Trotsky entered the building. By November 7th, 1917, the Bolsheviks had taken over Russia. There's something that I didn't mention, though. Through all of this, Lenin, who had been a wanted man at the start of the day, had been wearing a disguise. Only after Trotsky secured the palace for the Bolsheviks did he take off his wig, glasses, and the handkerchief that he had wrapped around his head like those old images of people with toothaches. He was safe now. He was the new leader of Russia. The three men, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, and Vladimir Lenin, spent that night at Bolshevik headquarters. Lenin and Trotsky spread newspapers on the floor and laid down to sleep. Stalin slept in a chair and woke up laughing.

to sleep, Stalin slept in a chair and woke up laughing. Maybe he laughed because he knew that Lenin would indeed appoint him, his right-hand man, to an important position, but it would not come without some ding to his pride. When the smoke of the day cleared, it was Trotsky who was widely considered the hero. And in their never-ending need to one-up each other, considered the hero. And in their never-ending need to one-up each other, Trotsky gave Stalin the nickname, the man who missed the revolution. It's hard to imagine a man with such a temper being okay with this insult. Stalin didn't say anything because he knew that his role in the revolution had already won him a job at Lenin's side. He may also have already imagined that he would one day get his revenge on Trotsky. But that's a story for a future episode. For now, the two were members of Lenin's inner circle, men who called themselves the Council of People's Commissars. A commissar

is a communist party official. Lenin said the name had the awesome smell of revolution. Stalin was given one of the highest roles in government by being named the People's Commissar of Nationalities. And it meant that he was in charge of all non-Russian people in the country. And non-Russian people made up almost half of the population. So this was a huge amount of power. Trotsky in turn was named Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs and of War. Also, a lot of clout. Of all the men in Lenin's inner circle, Trotsky and Stalin are the only two who were allowed into Lenin's office at any time of day. Lenin acted quickly to withdraw Russia from World War I in March of 1918. Hearing rumors that the Tsar's supporters were plotting to rescue the imprisoned Romanov family,

he acted quickly again, ordering the execution of the family, including the young children, which took place on July 17th of 1918. A more intractable problem was the widespread famine his government inherited. At first, he followed the Bolshevik plan. They established communal resources and told farmers to turn over their crops. But the whole idea of sharing the wealth that sounded so good when it was a party platform wasn't so popular in practice as a government policy. Nobody had enough food, not in small villages nor in major cities, so they weren't about to give away what little they could grow or hoard. Lenin tried establishing food squads in each village to take charge of the

food supply, but farmers learned quickly how to hide what they had. Facing widespread starvation and possible revolt, Lenin put Stalin in charge. Stalin was 38 by this time and feeling puffed up with his power. All you had to do was look at his hair, which he wore high on his head, almost a pompadour, or his facial hair, which he'd shaped into that now familiar bushy mustache. His job in charge of the food supply was dangerous work. People all over the country were hungry and desperate.

When they weren't fighting Germans because news of the war's end hadn't reached everyone yet, they were fighting each other for food and resources. But Stalin had a plan to get people in line. Violence was a tactic that had always worked for him, so he did what he knew. He scared people into doing what he said by executing the ones who didn't. In the southern city of Tsaritsyn, for example, grain that should have made its way to Moscow was disappearing on the black market. So Stalin shot everyone involved in the black market and everyone who was a counter-revolutionary. And then for good measure, he also shot anyone who he thought

might one day be involved in either of those activities. He did this in city after city, village after village. For two and a half months, Stalin worked and lived in a stationary rail car during the heat of summer. Outside temperatures soared to 104 degrees that year, and it felt even hotter inside the rail car that had once been owned by a traveling singer and was decorated in plush light blue silk. Suffering along with Stalin was his secretary, none other than Nadia. She wrote, inside the car you forgot what it was like to be cool. Some historians think that it was in this She wrote, and in times of war and famine, paperwork seemed unimportant. Stalin's train car stayed put, but his orders killed many people in the region, and Lenin commanded him to be even more merciless and ruthless. At night, trucks were kept running so that the sound of their engines

would drown out the horror of the pleading, the screaming, and the gunshots. would drown out the horror of the pleading, the screaming, and the gunshots. Bodies were shoved into sacks and buried in communal graves under cover of darkness. When morning dawned, families with missing loved ones looked for the freshest graves and dug down to find their relatives so they could give them a proper burial. Stalin was no longer taking orders from Lenin. He was doing his own thing. In fact, when Lenin learned that Stalin planned to execute a man that Lenin knew, Lenin sent a telegraph ordering Stalin to stop the killing, saying that this man was the son of a well-known revolutionary and should be brought to Moscow instead. But Stalin shot him anyway, and then he shot the man's teenage sons for good measure.

Stalin's brutal plan worked. He got people out of the way and sent 18,000 tons of grain to Moscow and Petrograd. When Lenin had signed the treaties of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 to get Russia out of World War I, there had been consequences. Russia lost Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic and Polish territories to Germany. The former Russian empire was now fragmented, which led to rival factions fighting each other for control. And then Russian civil war broke out, pitting Lenin's Red Army against the anti-Bolshevik White Army, which included capitalists and democratic socialists and people loyal to the Tsar, basically everyone else in Russia. By 1920, the Red Army had pushed

the White Army into Siberia, and it was looking like the Bolsheviks might win. Unlike the October Revolution, Stalin was in the thick of it, commanding troops around the country, or at least he was for a while. In 1920, after a year and a half of fighting, he asked to be taken off the front lines, threatening to leave if he didn't get permission. front lines, threatening to leave if he didn't get permission. Nadia was about to give birth to their first child. On March 24, 1921, their son Vasily was born. Of course, this was far from Stalin's first child. His son Yakov, from his deceased wife Kato, was 14 years old, only six years younger than Nadia. Yakov had been living with an aunt in Georgia since his mother's death when he was a baby. But in 1921, Stalin brought Yakov to live with his new family.

Yakov was a quiet, sensitive teenager described as being always absorbed in his inner life. You could speak to him and he wouldn't hear. He always had a faraway look. Baby Vasily and teenage Yakov weren't the only new members of the Stalin household that year. One of Stalin's good friends and fellow Bolshevik leaders was killed in 1921. And despite the fact that the baby's mother was still alive, Stalin insisted on adopting the baby boy, born in the same month as his own. boy born in the same month as his own. In 1922, the Russian Civil War ended. Maybe for a minute, it felt to Lenin and Stalin that their worst days were behind them. They had done it. They had taken control of Russia. And yet they disagreed on exactly how to organize the country. As chairman

of this new version of Russia, Lenin created a position for his loyal aide Stalin, who was elected General Secretary of the party. But by now, the two men weren't exactly on the best of terms. The battles of the past few years had taken a toll. Though Lenin was only eight years older, he was considered the elder statesman. And Stalin was getting tired of following Lenin instead of pursuing his own ideas. Stalin wanted the Caucasus region, including his birthplace, Georgia, along with Armenia and Azerbaijan, to be ruled by Russia. Lenin felt that this idea was too imperial, making them into leaders too similar to the Tsar they had already overthrown. Lenin thought Stalin's idea would only exacerbate the ethnic differences that had caused such conflict in the past. Lenin wanted to see

more of a government of equals. Stalin did finally back down and Lenin made his announcement at the end of 1922. The various regions in Russia would have equal rights, he said, giving average working people more control over their government. London's Soviet Union, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which you see abbreviated USSR, would run under democratic socialism, he believed, which basically meant that people would vote on major issues, but once the majority of votes determined the choice, there would be no more debate. And the economic goal was socialism, sharing wealth and resources among all people. Lenin never got to see his vision become reality. Just as the Soviet Union was forming, and the new government was getting started, Lenin suffered a stroke that partially paralyzed his

right side and made him temporarily unable to speak. Doctors ordered complete rest for Lenin. No one was allowed to talk to him about politics because he'd get too worked up. Some historians say that Stalin was a big part of that decision, clearly looking for a way to grab power. If people couldn't talk to Lenin about politics in the new Soviet Union, they would have to talk to Stalin. Stalin saw his comrade and idol struggle and offered ways to help, but some part of him must have also seen this as an opportunity to take over leadership of the Soviet Union. There's a photograph from around this time that seems to

show a power shift between the two men. Lenin sits, leaning back, looking fairly relaxed with his legs crossed and his hands folded together on his lap. His casual shirt is unbuttoned at the neck and he looks directly at the camera with an almost smile, maybe even a smirk on his lips. Stalin sits beside him on the edge of his chair, wearing his classic coat with a stand-up collar. His posture is more rigid than Lenin's, and his hands are on his knees in front of him. He's wearing a light-colored jacket while Lenin's is darker. Stalin's hair looks blow-dried and carefully combed and his mustache is fully formed. Stalin sits just a little bit closer to the camera than Lenin, which puts Lenin sort of behind him. Like Lenin, Stalin looks directly at the camera,

but his head is slightly turned so he's looking out of the corners of his eyes, a half smile on his lips, and one eyebrow raised as if to ask, are you ready for what's coming? Lennon's health had been deteriorating for some time, though the stroke sounded like a death knell to apparently everyone. Doctors spoke of an inevitable second stroke, despite the nearly full recovery Lenin made from the first one. It seemed that all Lenin could do was get his affairs in order before he died. Lenin was willing to accept death, but he preferred to do it on his own terms. Stalin spent more time with Lenin than the other leaders did, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when Lenin chose Stalin for one final task.

Lenin called Stalin into his room, spoke to him for about five minutes, and hugged him before Stalin walked out. During that short conversation, Lenin asked Stalin to get him some cyanide. So when the inevitable second stroke came, Lenin could choose to end his own life. It's the type of request you'd ask maybe only of a very close friend, but that's not why Lenin asked Stalin for this particular favor. Lenin's sister later wrote that Lenin chose Stalin because he knew Stalin to be a hard man, a man of steel, devoid of sentimentality. Whether it was the right thing or not, Stalin didn't do it. And he went back to Lenin to say that the time to carry out his particular request had not yet come. out his particular request had not yet come. Lenin's continued relationship with Stalin seems to have been a case of keeping his enemies close, and each man was doing their own backstabbing.

Stalin had gone along with Lenin's plan for the Soviet Union, but was secretly filling parliament with people who supported his ideas about the future of Russia. Lenin had lost the ability to write after his stroke, so he dictated his secret plans for Stalin. His right-hand man had become too powerful, so Lenin planned to remove Stalin from his post as general secretary. Lenin quietly told his caregiver, a woman named Lydia, who'd worked in Lenin's office, to write down his wishes. She would then type it up and bring it to other members of the government. What Lenin didn't know was that she was secretly making copies of everything and giving them to Stalin, including Lenin's secret plans to remove Stalin from office. Just as everyone seemed to have predicted, Lenin had another stroke on March 7, 1923.

This time, he was completely paralyzed. On January 21, 1924, Vladimir Lenin died. Stalin ignored Lenin's family's requests for a traditional burial and instead preserved Lenin's body in a mausoleum in Red Square. Trotsky and others argued that this went against not only Russian traditions but Marxist thought, but Stalin insisted that Lenin's body be there for public visits and adoration. Stalin had watched Lenin turn Marx and his writings into a god for the Bolsheviks to worship and follow. Lenin had persuaded thousands of people that Marx was literally worth dying for. And now, if Stalin

could raise Lenin up to a godlike status, then position himself as the only person who could properly translate and interpret Lenin's plans and ideologies, he would make himself a god as well. St. Petersburg took a cue from Stalin and changed its name, becoming Leningrad. Once again, Stalin's favorite book would play a key role in his life. Alexander Kazbegi's novel The Patricide had been the reason Stalin took the name Koba as a young man. The character Koba in the book was a fighter, stopping at nothing for freedom and vengeance. And now that Stalin's political father was dead, it was time for Koba the Revolutionary to finally die as well. Joseph Stalin, the man of steel, was ready to rule Russia. I'll see you again soon.

Thank you for listening to Here's Where It Gets Interesting. I'm your host and executive producer, Sharon McMahon. Our supervising producer is Melanie Buck-Parks. The show is written and researched by Mandy Reed, Amy Watkin, Kari Anton, Sharon McMahon, and Melanie Buck-Parks. Our audio producer is Craig Thompson. And if you enjoyed this episode, sharing, rating, and subscribing helps podcasters out so much. Thanks again for listening to Here's Work. It's interesting.

And I'll see you again soon.