Death Of "uncle Joe".

[icecreamicecream]

I see from the papers one of the greatest statesmen and politicians of the 20th century died exactly 62 yeas ago today.

[youngmafbog]

Farrier? You mean Jake surely ?

[icecreamicecream]

To add to your list DB,Prokofiev also died the same day as Stalin.

[icecreamicecream]

At YoungMB and 3T-What are you guys(gals) taking?

[jno]

Stalin turned the USSR from a country of peasants into an economic superpower, and the winner of the race to space. Quite an achievement.

[Peter Pedant]

// Sorry-"steam tugs"-"farrier"-You've lost me there,old boy.//

I am sorry but if you are gonna draw off the wall comparisons like Maggie Thatcher was like Uncle Joe then you have to put up with someone else's out-to-lunch comment

steam tugs = wu-wu = cuckoo

[Baldric]

I thought it was just a tad too coherent to be farrier!

[Peter Pedant]

Best answer for Baldric !

apparently Mme Stalin spent a lot of time wondering when there would be a knock at the door and she would go off to Siberia

and the parallel - direct I think
is that Sir Denis spent a lot of time waiting for a knock so he cold knock back his gin sling and go off to the golf club ( and knock back a bit more )

I mean obvious really innit

[mushroom25]

molotov implied in his memoirs that Beria poisoned Stalin, and his reported symptoms during his final illness might suggest warfarin as the deadly agent.

to draw a parallel, then, who might have been MT's nemesis?

[Mick-the-Miller]

I've read he was responsible for the deaths of 20 million of his own people in addition to the 20 million Russians who died in the War.

A evil monster would be a fitting description!

[icecreamicecream]

Apparently at time of his death Stalin had some doctors under a death sentence-If Joe died they all walk free Next thing you know Joe died.

[Peter Pedant]

// Stalin turned the USSR from a country of peasants into an economic superpower,//

interesting take on the forced collectivisation and starvation of the peasants

the economic indices in 1928 were lower than 1918

[SirOracle]

Around 50% of the UK population.

[SirOracle]

That was in response to Mushroom's question.

[Peter Pedant]

I thought that was the doctors' trial and they all went to Siberia
BUT.....

it was the doctors' plot ( not trial geddit ?) and Stalin dies and they all go free. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot

Kruschev's speech on de-Stalinisation follows soon after

[icecreamicecream]

Old Djugashvili was certainly an unwholesome character,but there wre lots of them going about in the 20th century.

[ladybirder]

Agree with Baldric @ 16.14. Definitely a step or two up from you know who.

[ToraToraTora]

"/ Stalin turned the USSR from a country of peasants into an economic superpower,// " - So the queues for a turnip were for show then jno! PMSL If there ever was a demonstration of why Communism cannot work it was provided by the Soviet Union from 1917-1989. As for Joe, he made Hitler look like a juvenile delinquent, how any one can make any comparison with any other politician save the afore mentioned Hitler shows a level of brain power so low it won't measure.

Steam Tugs = Drugs, Farrier is another poster with similar traits to your own, I remain to be convinced you are not he in a poor disguise.

[ichkeria]

Stalin was a thug who was in the right place at the right time for him: the wrong place and time for everyone else. He was a paranoid, lying street fighting man. His achievements are comparable with those of Hitler. Like one like both

[Jackdaw33]

In his 'secret speech' in 1956, Khrushchev, who was not much better when you consider his activities under Stalin, bitterly attacked the 'cult of personality' surrounding him, in which the leader can do no wrong. The true heir of Stalin is not Putin, as some would have us believe, but the North Korean, Kim.