Lot 333
Stalin, Joseph (born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) (178-1953) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953; one of the most ruthless dictators of all time. ALS ("Iosif"), 1p, in Georgian, 8¼" x 5¼", n.p., 1930 Jan. 6. To his mother, Ekaterina Geladze, Stalin writes: "Hello Mom, How are you doing? What's new? I received the preserves. Thanks Mom. I was a little sick but now I'm better. Nadya [Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who committed suicide in 1932] and the kids [Vasiliy, a son, and Svetlana, a daughter] are also doing well. Hello from Nadya. I wish you a long life. Yours, Joseph." He adds, "Hello to Alex and Basil and everybody I know." The letter is written in dark blue ink on half of a larger sheet and folded; the page is creased and toned, with chipping around the edges and separation at center fold; the entire page is laid to a second sheet for reinforcement. Very boldly penned and signed.
Stalin was the son of an an ex serf, Ekaterina Geladze, and an illerate Georgian cobbler, Vissarion Dzhugashvili, who beat his wife and son and abandoned them when Stalin was about ten years old. Stalin's mother wanted him to become a priest, and he did attend the Seminary of Tiflis because he received a sholarship, but he quit before finishing and became a professional revolutionary, adopting the name "Stalin," (from the Russian word for "steel") in 1913 and rising through the ranks of the Communist Party after the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917. In 1922 he was elected general secretary of the Communist Party, a position that allowed him to build an apparatus loyal to him. Although Lenin thought Stalin a competent administrator, he was critical of him as a theoretician, and recommended, before his death, that Stalin be removed from his position, in favor of Trotsky. The document was suppressed after Lenin's death and by the late 1920s, Stalin had maneuvered himself into position as the country's sole leader. During World War II Stalin met with Roosevelt and Churhill at Tehran in 1943 and with Truman, Churchill and Attlee at Potsday in 1945; his negotiations maneuvered the Soviet Union into a position of hegemony in Eastern Europe after the war and he established the Soviet Union as a rival with the United States for world leadership. Nonetheless, Stalin's legacy is one of totalitarianism and the murder of millions of Soviet citizens.
Stalin's relationship with his mother and the rest of his family has been the subject of much debate. He installed his mother in a palace in the Caucasus before her death and wrote short letters, such as this one, to her in Georgian (she never learned to read Russian), but when she died in 1937, he did not attend her funeral. ABPC has records of only three Stalin ALsS sold at auction. The last one sold for $39,000 plus the buyer's premium at Christie's in 2006.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 15,000.
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| Realized $8,050 |
