#and of course no one was taking that-esc considering the unsocialist way he was taking it

[antebellumite]

muined replied: Express them!

ohhhh ok so essentially after reading that book i can't shake the feeling of... the sheer....awe?

i think im just immensely intrigued by how fitzpatrick describes stalin and the politburo as functioning as being like a very dysfunctional family.

she emphasizes a lot how the story of stalin's team is kind of a tale of stalin shooting himself in the foot in regards to all his personal friendships so many times that at the end of things the only people he can rely on (and even then-) are the literal politburo, his work buddies. and the way he treated them interchangeabley with abuse, threats, attacks against their friends and family, as well as protectiveness and paternalism ("he valued friendship deeply, which wasn't to say he couldn't be disloyal").

whats debatable is how much of that his team: the rest of the politburo: recognized or reciprocated.

(and honestly, also a bit of possessiveness?) (fitzpatrick describes stalin a lot as being like a old senile grandfather figure/family figure in the later chapters)(and i mean its not hard to see why: late into his life he was dragging all of the team to join his vacations/nightly parties with him lmao)

(but there's a moment in the book where she points out how stalin was always afraid of flying on planes and as a result he forbade the politburo from flying in them. and another where she makes a point how stalin didn't save any of his relatives from the purges because he thought that if his team couldn't save their friends and family from the purges, then he shouldn't either. (which is her opinion ig))

(so. he cares. in his own highly disturbing way)

she talks a lot about the interrelationship between the politburo as well! the ties of friendship and how these friendships are so easily dropped in the environment these people are in, the cycles of betrayal and blame and denunciation, how there was, despite everything, despite what all of them would later claim-- there was- if not friendship- attachment and care and camadiereship there!!!

(otherwise why would there have been a time when the team fought tooth and nail to keep molotov and mikoyan on board? why would there have been a time when malenkov and khrushchev went on nightly strolls together and why would khrushchev have made an active effort to connect with them when he first came into moscow? why would they have joined together so smoothly to meet stalin at his dacha at that infamous story of them bringing him back from self-seclusion int othe government? what about the car rides and drunk sessions where they were the only company each other had and had to be driven home by each other? molotov implies later that beria convinced the other members of the politburo to stand by him when stalin was in his uhh Moments out of self interest but like. really? )

the interrelationship between the politburo is certainly interesting but i dont have any words to describe it aside from how when stalin was in his final days he told the team how they were like "kittens" and wouldn't survive a day without him.

except they did survive! for a while there mikoyan and molotov and malenkov and beria nad khrushchev and bulganin Were! Able! to form to functioning collective leadership! its like no matter how much stalin wanted to impose his will and influence onto them he was never able to fully do it- sorry stalin but the men you've chosen to be your confidants/cronies/surrogate friends for your fucked up lonely life/yes-men are actually competent with individual goals that they found would better come to fruition with each other than with you!

(i have a very vague suspicion that after stalin's death beria was trying to usurp stalin's position as protector/paternalistic figure for the team for lack of a better word btw. that's what the whole conversation with khrushchev that he has- the one where he says "i promise to give all of you your own houses and dachas and private property to give to your heirs" - conversation reads like to me)

it's the way that how stalin viewed the politburo differed from how the public viewed them and how they viewed each other.

so stalin saw their servility as a Cabal Effort to work together, hide their dissidence, and undermine him and he was so mad about it v. the team seeing it as a form of self preservation- i don't think they were nearly as close as Stalin thought they were

and there's a third aspect: how the public saw it and how they tried to shape the way the looked to the public

(doglike yes-men obedience, according to some observers (and most of the western media!), heroes or villains, representatives of the Old Bolshevik past or degenerate traitors, just non-existent to others)

and oohhhh god not to put Horrid American Democratic Opinions onto soviet politics but the impact of public opinion and the way they tried to shape it (writing their memoirs, caculating their actions based on public approval, the shifting on blame of stalin era atrocities onto one another (especially on beria) while trying to reap the benefits) (they cared! they cared about what the public thought so damn much!!)

theres a certain level of tragedy to how they came to Be, especially with mikoyan and voroshilov and molotov for example starting out genuinely fond of stalin on a personal level and having all these personal stories (fitzpatrick cites kaganovich abt how they + stalin used to stroll moscow sometimes and tease kirov about how he didn't have mustache)(he mentions in particular how in those days stalin didn't have bodyguards and. god. isn't that something?)(it says a lot about how by the end of his life the people stalin had in his closest circle were the same ones who didn't know him before the 1930s) and how it Ended (the team spllintering apart, in old age, unable to contact each other despite- or because- of the shared weight of history between them...)

and this is all without getting into the Shticky Wicky with the Old Bolsheviks because. Uh. what the fuck was that.

anyways, the point is, tldr: au in which all the politburo members (kaganovich, khrushchev, molotov, mikoyan, bulganin, beria, malnekov, maybe zhdanov and voroshilov) at the moment of their deaths travel back in time and have to live in the poast with each other and stalin again (with stalin, of course, not being time travelled himself) and having to deal with theyr Many Hangups and unresolved tensions regarding each other. many things are stopping me from writing this and one is that I Do Not Know That Enough About Soviet Politics Culture and Society In This Era to do it Justice.

the Thoughts im having after reading on stalin's team....they can't be safely expressed in a Normal setting