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A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

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Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#11

Post by Zuider »

FredPret wrote: post #9
Zuider wrote: post #7

Hitler was also a voracious reader with a private library of some 2000 books. Surprisingly, Schopenhauer appears to have been Hitler's favorite reading rather than those books of Nietzsche which proclaim the right of the amoral Superman to impose his will on all, or the repulsive racist theories of Alfred Rosenberg and Houston Stuart Chamberlain which surface in Mein Kamph. Maybe it was Schopenhauer's notion of the n…

Nietzsche was staunchly against nationalism, socialism, and Prussian militarism. Pretty much the anti-Hitler.

Nietzsche was also contemptuous of anti-Semitism. Like Machiavelli, his ideas and motivations were misunderstood and reduced to caricatures in the popular mind. It did not help that Elizabeth Nietzsche, his sister who survived him, was a fanatical supporter of Hitler, who edited his books to make them appear supportive of National Socialist ideology. For this reason, the older editions of Nietzsche's works available free online from such sites as Project Gutenberg are worthless.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#12

Post by recuter »

FredPret wrote: post #9
Zuider wrote: post #7

Hitler was also a voracious reader with a private library of some 2000 books. Surprisingly, Schopenhauer appears to have been Hitler's favorite reading rather than those books of Nietzsche which proclaim the right of the amoral Superman to impose his will on all, or the repulsive racist theories of Alfred Rosenberg and Houston Stuart Chamberlain which surface in Mein Kamph. Maybe it was Schopenhauer's notion of the n…

Nietzsche was staunchly against nationalism, socialism, and Prussian militarism. Pretty much the anti-Hitler.

He is one of those frequently quoted, rarely read, often misunderstood - and this association is unfortunate, unfair, and not accidental.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#13

Post by recuter »

bsedlm wrote: post #4
panick21_ wrote: post #2

A lot of that rings pretty true. Stephen Kotkin's own biography that I have been reading his some of the same points. Because of the new archives you can really get an insight into the day to day operation of an empire that combined the power and function of New York, Washington, LA, Detroit and SF into one centrally run from an office. Its a a baffling process where Stalin moves between editing movies, deciding how…

wow, I can't help but imagine a similar scenario but replacing Germany with Russia and Russia with China but maybe I'm just squinting my 'eyes' too hard

Or if you ask a Russian, they'd say replacing Germany with the Ukraine and Russia with the USA in your analogy.

I don't think you are squinting too hard, there is a common view in geopolitics as Russia being a peer (super)power and future tie breaker between the US and China. Or at least there was until two weeks ago.

One explanation for recent events is China letting Putin stick his head out and by literally sitting back and doing nothing they'll essentially get to own Russia now. Which fits their style of doing things historically.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#14

Post by Zuider »

oh_sigh wrote: post #8
Zuider wrote: post #7

Hitler was also a voracious reader with a private library of some 2000 books. Surprisingly, Schopenhauer appears to have been Hitler's favorite reading rather than those books of Nietzsche which proclaim the right of the amoral Superman to impose his will on all, or the repulsive racist theories of Alfred Rosenberg and Houston Stuart Chamberlain which surface in Mein Kamph. Maybe it was Schopenhauer's notion of the n…

I wonder if those books were just for show, or for merely confirming/justifying his pre-existing beliefs. Hitler apparently loved to hold after-dinner "discussions"(mostly soliloquies), and by all reports his viewpoints on the topics that he himself was obsessed with were extremely banal and unsophisticated.

Hitler does appear to have actually read the books as evidenced by the passages marked by coloring pencil. There is not any ready evidence that he gleaned any deep wisdom or moral edification from his reading, and it is far more likely, given his temperament, that he only read to reinforce his prejudices, and that he would become furiously impatient with anything he did not readily understand.

Given that, it is one of history's great disappointments that Martin Heidegger never met his hero. One could imagine Der Fueherer's face twitching in increasing rage as Heidegger effused about the great leader's seminal position in the hierarchy of being-in-the-world, leading in short order to a defenestration.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#15

Post by faffernot »

recuter wrote: post #12
FredPret wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nietzsche was staunchly against nationalism, socialism, and Prussian militarism. Pretty much the anti-Hitler.

He is one of those frequently quoted, rarely read, often misunderstood - and this association is unfortunate, unfair, and not accidental.

He rails against Nihilism, but is the poster boy for being a nihilist.

Ironic.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#16

Post by Zuider »

faffernot wrote: post #15
recuter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is one of those frequently quoted, rarely read, often misunderstood - and this association is unfortunate, unfair, and not accidental.

He rails against Nihilism, but is the poster boy for being a nihilist. Ironic.

Nietzsche's quest was to discover how to lead the good life despite the implications of nihilism.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#17

Post by zabzonk »

IMHO the best view of Stalin and Stalinism, and certainly the funniest if your taste is for black humor is the film "The Death Of Stalin" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin often available on streaming services. A new version with s/Stalin/Putin/ would be good, and perhaps given oligarchs etc. even funnier.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#18

Post by hutzlibu »

narrator wrote: post #5
panick21_ wrote: post #2

A lot of that rings pretty true. Stephen Kotkin's own biography that I have been reading his some of the same points. Because of the new archives you can really get an insight into the day to day operation of an empire that combined the power and function of New York, Washington, LA, Detroit and SF into one centrally run from an office. Its a a baffling process where Stalin moves between editing movies, deciding how…

Often times there's a lot of controversy about if a leader is really in charge, or if they are merely a figurehead for some group of masterminds behind the scenes. The thing I like about studying Russia under Stalin is that Stalin was the one actually in charge. More than any other leader of the 19th or 20th century, he held the whole thing together almost singlehandedly. He had to because he got rid of people so reg…

"The other interesting thing about studying Stalin is that very few people liked him enough to hide his dirty laundry after he died."

I think that comes naturally, if everyone important around him, had to fear for their life for years. One wrong look, or just one bad mood of the great leader - and someone gone again. They never knew what to expect, when being summoned, praise or prison - and that was intentional. Absolute power. Reign of terror. And always in paranoid fear, of a plot against the great leader.

I think there was a great relief in the inner circles, with his death.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#19

Post by yyyk »

pasabagi wrote: post #3

I'm reminded a bit of Marx's Eighteenth Bruminaire of Louis Bonaparte, where the line 'once as grand tragedy, and the second time as rotten farce' was coined, because just like Napoleon III to Napoleon I, compared to Stalin, Putin is a dwarf. Sadly, I don't find the comparison particularly reassuring. Hilter, another 'moon-calf', with his 'first available dozen debt-encumbered lieutenants', did far more damage than S…

>a fairly sane if shaky revolutionary party

Lenin started the Checka. Trotsky's complaint was that Collectivization didn't go far enough. We can go on and on. This party was rotten from the beginning.

Re: A Voracious Reader: Stalin through his books

#20

Post by hutzlibu »

recuter wrote: post #13
bsedlm wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow, I can't help but imagine a similar scenario but replacing Germany with Russia and Russia with China but maybe I'm just squinting my 'eyes' too hard

Or if you ask a Russian, they'd say replacing Germany with the Ukraine and Russia with the USA in your analogy. I don't think you are squinting too hard, there is a common view in geopolitics as Russia being a peer (super)power and future tie breaker between the US and China. Or at least there was until two weeks ago. One explanation for recent events is China letting Putin stick his head out and by literally sitting…

"by literally sitting back and doing nothing they'll essentially get to own Russia now."

That would be Taoism, but overall, I do not see modern china as a non interfering power. Also, it is not settled yet, how all of this will play out.

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