About
Joseph Stalin was a Soviet revolutionary and political leader known for his dictatorial rule of the communist Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. While his ideals were a blend of Marxism and Leninism, his policies came to be known as Stalinism. Stalin is widely regarded as one of the most notable figures of the 20th century, both for establishing the Soviet Union as a superpower but also for the atrocities he and his government committed, including exiling political enemies and families to labor camps (“gulags”), executions, and repressions. Online, Stalin has been the subject of parodies and satires due to his notoriety and ideology.
History
Joseph Stalin was born December 18th, 1878 in Georgia.[1] He joined the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labor Party as a young man, and after the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, Stalin helped form the Soviet Union in 1922. That year, he became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After consolidating power, Stalin ushered in a centralized command economy, turning the Soviet Union from an agrarian society to an industrial power. From 1934-1939, Stalin organized “The Great Purge” in which he exiled or executed alleged “enemies of the working class,” including senior political and military officials. The executions numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and Stalin exiled millions. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was able to defeat Adolf Hitler, capturing Berlin in May of 1945 and ending World War II. However, Stalin oversaw the start of the Cold War with America, developing a nuclear weapon as the Soviet Union emerged as a superpower. Stalin died on March 5th, 1953.
Online History
Much like Adolf Hitler, Stalin’s notoriety has led to a number of parodies and satires of him on various internet sites such as 4chan, Reddit, and more in the form of image macros and ironic communist posturing reframing Stalin in a positive light, similar to the Hitler Did Nothing Wrong meme.
Related Memes
Stalin Says
Stalin Says is a template on Meme Generator created on June 25th, 2011.[2] As of October 3rd, 2017, the template ranks 164th on the site. Memes created in the template generally reference Stalin’s Great Purge in parody or joke about his brand of authoritarian communism.
Dear Diary
Dear Diary… is an image macro series featuring photographs of people scribbling on a page with captions written as if they are penning thoughts in a personal journal. As early as October 2010,[1] a page was launched on the image macro creator website Meme Generator,[2] featuring a photograph of Joseph Stalin with captions depicting him writing thoughts in a diary, many of which contain “OP is a faggot” punchlines (shown below).
Rainbow Stalin
Rainbow Stalin is a series of YTMND videos that center around the joke of hearing the lyric “Rainbow styling” from “All This Love” by Swedish pop group The Similou as “Rainbow Stalin.” A Rainbow Stalin YTMND usually consists of “All this Love”, the original or a remix, and an edited Soviet propaganda poster. The posters usually are brightly colored, and depict Joseph Stalin DJ-ing for a rave.
Handsome Stalin
Handsome Stalin refers to a picture of Stalin in 1902 at the age of 23 that grew notable online as people found the photo of Stalin attractive.
One of the earliest known appearances of the photo was on the cover of Der Junge Stalin by German biographer Simon Sebag Montefiore.[3] The photo has been edited in various ways to emphasize Stalin’s attractiveness (examples shown below).
Your/Our
Your/Our refers to a series of four-panel image macros that jokes about the singular possessive pronouns in company names, such as YouTube and MySpace, by juxtaposing them against angry-looking photographs of historical figures, particularly Stalin, whose political interests lie in community rather than selfish needs. The punchline of the joke comes in the bottom two panels, where a picture of the same figure smiling is shown next to the company’s name changed from a singular possessive pronoun (your) to a plural possessive pronoun (our). Similar to Drakeposting.
