The future leader of the world proletariat had more than 30 pseudonyms. Why did he stop at this?
Joseph Jugashvili, an ordinary teenager from the poor Georgian family, in 1894 he entered the spiritual seminary and had to become a priest. But at the age of 15 he met Marxism, joined the underground groups of revolutionaries and began a completely different life. Since then, Jugashvili began to invent "names" to himself. Years later, the choice stopped at the most successful - Stalin. This pseudonym knows more than its real surname; Under him he entered his story. How happened that Jugashvili became Stalin and what does this invented last name mean?
Tradition
The pseudonyms in Russia were the usual and common, especially in the intelligentsia environment and the revolutionaries. All party members and Marxists from the underground were several of them, which made it possible to confuse the police in a strong way (Lenin, for example, had one and a half hundred). Moreover, we widespread customs to form aliases from the most consumable Russian names.
"It was simply deprived of any intelligent claim, it was clear to any worker and, most importantly, it looked for all real last name," the historian William Pokhlebkin in the book "The Great Pseudonym". For example, for registering at the IV-M Congress, the Jugashvili party chose Pseudonym Ivanovich (on behalf of Ivan). Such a derivative on behalf of the alias of Vladimir Ulyanova - Lenin (on behalf of Lena). And even those party members whose real names were derived from the Russian name, also took pseudonyms - derivatives from a different name.
Perhaps the second most powerful tradition was to use the "zoological" pseudonyms - from breeds of animals, birds and fish. They were chosen by people who wanted at least somehow reflect their bright individuality in the submarine name. And finally, the mansion was the people from the Caucasus - Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis. They neglected conspiratorial rules quite often, choosing aliases with the Caucasian "tint". Koba - Jugashvili called himself most often in the party until 1917. It was the most famous pseudonym after Stalin.
Koba
For Georgia, the name Koba is very symbolic. In the ranks of foreign biographers, Stalin will have the opinion that he borrowed him on behalf of the hero of one of the novels of the Georgian classic of Alexander Kazbegi "Otseubyza". In it, fearless Koba from the number of peasants-hustances led to the struggle for the independence of their homeland. Young Stalin This image was probably close, but it should be borne in mind that the Kob's name is secondary.
Koba is the Georgian equivalent named after the Persian king Kobadees, which conquered Eastern Georgia at the end of the V century and made Tbilisi at the capital for 1500 years. And it is this historical prototype, as a political figure and a statesman, Imposed Jugashvili much more. Among the striking were even their biographies.
However, already in 1911, it was necessary to change the main pseudonym - that historical circumstances were required. The fact is that the activity of Jugashvili began to go far beyond the Transcaucasian region, his ambitions, as well as the connection with the Russian party organizations, grew, and Koba as a pseudonym was convenient only in the Caucasus. A different language and cultural environment required a different circulation. For the first time, Stalin's pseudonym, he signed up in January 1913 under the work "Marxism and the National Question".
Where did the pseudonym Stalin come from?
The answer to this question has long been unknown for a long time. In the life of Stalin, everything that concerned his biography, could not be the subject of discussion, research or even hypotheses from some historian. All that the "leader of the peoples" concerned, was engaged in the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, in whose composition was the Foundation of Joseph Stalin with particularly classified storage of materials. In fact, until Stalin was alive, there were no research on these materials. And even after his death, a long time did not investigate any of this because of the condemnation of the cult of Stalin's personality.
Nevertheless, after the revolution, in the early 1920s, the party was common in the party environment that "Stalin" is simply a translation into Russian of the Georgian root of his surname "Juga", which allegedly means "steel". The answer seemed trivial. It was this version that was repeatedly mentioned in the literature on Stalin, and the question of the origin of the pseudonym was considered "removed".
But all this turned out to be a fiction, or rather, simply to settle (and erroneous) opinions, including among Georgians. In 1990, the Georgian writer-playwriter and the former prisoner of Stalin's concentration cisks of China Buachidze wrote on this subject: "" Juga "means not at all" steel ". "Juga" is a very ancient pagan Georgian word with a Persian tint, probably widespread during the period of Iranian dominion over Georgia, and means it is just a name. The value as many names is not translated. Name as a name, like Russian Ivan. Consequently, Jugashvili means just the "Son of Juga" and nothing else. "
It turns out, for the origin of the pseudonym, the real name of Stalin did not have any relationship. When it became obvious, began to appear different versions. Among them was even the story that Stalin took a pseudonym, based on the names of his companion on the party and mistress Lyudmila Steel. Another version: Jugashvili picked up the only one-consistent nickname with the pseudonym Lenin.
But the most curious hypothesis was nominated by Historian William Schlebkin, who dedicated to this research work. In his opinion, the name of the Liberal journalist Evgeny Stefanovich Stalinsky, one of the prominent Russian publishers of periodicals and the translator, one of the prominent Russian publishers and the translator in Russian in Tiger Shkura, was the prototype for the aliasum. Stalin loved this poem very much and delighted the work of Shota Rustaveli (his 750-year-old anniversary was celebrated in 1937 in the Bolshoi Theater. But for some reason, he ordered to hide one of the best editions. The multilingual edition of 1889 with the translation of Stalinsky was seized from exhibition expositions, bibliographic descriptions, was not mentioned in literary articles.
The historian concludes: "Stalin, giving an order to conceal the edition of 1889, took care of the first place that the" mystery "of the choice of their pseudonym would not be disclosed." Thus, even the "Russian" pseudonym was closely connected with Georgia and with the youthful memories of Jugashvili.
Catherine Sinelshchikov