STALIN: THE AUTHOR OF TOTALI-TARIAN SYSTEM. PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TYRANTʼS PERSONALITY AND ACTIVITY (TO THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF «THE GREAT PURGE» IN THE USSR)

Abstract

In the history of the former USSR, 1937–1938 were marked as the tragic years of «The Great Purge», when millions of innocent Soviet people were physical-ly exterminated. Ruthless totalitarian system crippled the citizens of the Stalinʼs empire morally and psychologically. The entire territory of the Soviet Union was wrapped in fear. No one could be sure of the safety of his life. The legal norms, such as rights, freedoms, honor and dignity, human integri-ty were declared only. In practice, there existed anti-law, anti-legality and absence of civil rights. The whole system created by the dictator served virtually to his goals and interests. Skillfully exterminating his opponents and objectors, Stalin sheltered himself behind the interests of building socialism in the USSR and its protection from both internal and external enemies. An awful result of Stalinʼs policy and activity was hunger in Ukraine, artifi-cially created by the tyrant and his onhangers: it was a deliberately planned geno-cide against the Ukrainian people Moral and psychological state of the leaderʼs personality was one of essen-tial causes of terror and genocide in the USSR. Stalin was a paranoid personality, and he had other mental deviations, affecting his behavior and activities. Psychology as a science characterizes paranoids as individuals tending to the formation of the so-called overvalued ideas, they fill the psyche of a paranoid and make a dominant influence on their behavior. Usually, the idea of an utmost significance of his personality is the most important and overvalued one of a para-noid. Accordingly, the main features of psyche of people of a paranoid nature are selfishness, constant self-satisfaction and excessive arrogance, self-admiration (nar-cissism). Social realm is important and interesting for them only to the extent it con-cerns their personality, everything that is not interesting for him and close to his «I» is considered for a paranoid as not worthy of his attention. All people he has to communicate or deal with are evaluated exclusively from the point of view of rela-tion to his activities and to his words; he does not forgive indifference or disagree-ment. Anyone who disagrees with the paranoid, who thinks not the way he does, is, at best, just a stupid man, unworthy of his attention, and at worst he is his personal enemy. The most characteristic features of the dictatorʼs psychology were aggres-siveness, cruelty, suspicion and revenge. Moral standards such as sense of con-science, honesty, goodness, conscientiousness compassion, Christian virtues have been simply ignored and rejected by the tyrant. The entire system he created was built on psychology of total fear and hum-bleness, since no man in the Stalinist Empire was insured against open violence and lawlessness.