What was Joseph Stalin's cult of personality?

Answer 1

Throughout the late 1920's and the 1930s Propaganda was used to build up Stalin's image. Like a religious worship, a cult of Stalin was formed. Stalin was like a godlike leader to the people, praised in the newspapers, books and in films and posters. Poems published in Pravda praised his deeds, speeches exalting his skills, his modesty, his wisdom and his brilliance. People who attended these meetings were careful to applaud long and loudly, and the person who stopped first would most likely be arrested as it showed great disrespect and disloyalty to Stalin

Stalin's rise to power was methodical and precise. The construction of his image, too, was well thought out. Nearly every medium propagandized Stalin's image. The great tradition of truthful and imaginative literature was cast aside and became a vehicle for promoting Stalin. The new medium of film, for which Stalin had a particular fascination, was also directed towards creating an image of Stalin. Not only in the arts, but in everyday life the physical image of Stalin was ever-present.

To begin with, Stalin was a strong and vivid personality. When he wanted to do, Stalin knew how to charm people. He charmed Gorky and Barbusse. In 1937, the cruelest year of the purges, he managed to charm that tough and experienced observer, Lion Feuchtwanger.

In the second place, in the minds of the Soviet people, Stalin's name was indissolubly linked with Lenin's. Stalin knew how popular Lenin was and saw to it that history was rewritten in such a way as to make his own relations with Lenin seem much more friendly than they had been in fact. The rewriting was so thorough that perhaps Stalin himself believed his own version in the end.

There can be no doubt of Stalin's love for Lenin. His speech on Lenin's death, beginning with the words, "In leaving us, Comrade Lenin has bequeathed . . . " reads like a poem in prose. He wanted to stand as Lenin's heir not only in other people's eyes, but in his own eyes too. He deceived himself as well as the others. Even Pasternak put the two names side by side:

In reality, however, Stalin distorted Lenin's ideas, because to Lenin -- and this was the whole meaning of his work -- communism was to serve man, whereas under Stalin it appeared that man served communism.

Answer 2

Joseph Stalin used violence to justify his cult of personality because he believed it was the only way to keep his following under control. Stalin was known to use whatever means necessary to ensure order amongst his people.