By: Zac Walker

About Stalin:  Stalin was born on December 21, 1879 in Gori Russia and died March 5,  As a young adult he lived the life of an out law taking parts in crimes like robbery, kidnapping, and extortion.  These actions where his first political moves.

Stalin Continued:  He gradually moved up through political parties and slowly gained power.  Throughout all his hard work he finally gained power of Russia in 1924 till  He was never removed from power instead he passed away.

Thesis:  This research project demonstrates that Stalin, like the Party from 1984 attempted to eliminate history so that he can conform Russia to the ideology he believes in. Stalin tried to do this through many ways but the three main ways include editing novels written by former politicians and erasing people from images.

Attempts to Eliminate History:  Stalin was a well educated man, he was an editor not just for pleasure but as profession.  One of his achievements as an editor was when he became editor of a the first Bolshevik Daily.

Attempts Continued:  Two major examples of his attempts where discovered in his personal library upon his death.  The two major pieces where The History of the Bolshevik Revolution by Leon Trotsky and The State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin.

History of the Bolshevik Revolution:  This book describes events that took place in Russia over the time period of the Russian Revolution.  The novel was found in Stalin’s library with his famous blue pen written all over it.  The blue pen was a common editing tool used in this ere because it could not be seen when printed.

 An example of Stalin using the famous blue pencil:

Bolshevik Rev. Continued:  Inside contained Stalin’s notes, and comments.  Many of the pages where crossed out and had the words lies written in big bold letters across many of the pages.

State and Revolution:  Like the History of Bolshevik Revolution, the novel by Vladimir described historical events that took place.  In this novel the same things where written in the book, words like lies, traitor, and among many more.

State Continued:  Although among the many other notes wrote by Stalin, in the margins of the book there where notes written by Stalin.  Thesis notes summarised examples of leadership and things that Stalin could use to lead better.

Connection of the novels  Both of these novels stated historical facts that could not be argued. But since they did not match what Stalin believed in. His ideology, he criticised them and tried to argue, unarguable facts.  Stalin did not only argue their points but use what they have written as advice on how to lead.

Events continued  Stalin did not stop at just documents and letters, he also proceeded to actually remove people from photos.

Images:  These two images include Trotsky, someone Stalin did not agree with as shown with his edits on the book The History of the Bolshevik Revolution.  The are examples of how ruthless Stalin was with his attempts to eliminate historical events since he would use photos which are proof of events and actually remove someone from these photo’s.

Explanation:  Stalin did this based on two reasons. The first was he simply enjoyed editing, it was a passion of his. The second, a little more in depth is that he has a idea for Russia. One that he did not believe others like Trotsky and Lenin shared.

Explanation Continued:  He wanted to eliminate the events that they strongly wrote about so he can become more powerful and do what he believed was better for Russia.

Connection to 1984  Must like Stalin, the character Winston from the novel 1984 written by George Orwell had a job in which he eliminated historical events.  He worked for the Ministry of Love which was part of a party who ruled much like Stalin did.

Connection Continued:  The party had workers delete historical events based on the fact that they contradicted what the party stood for. Much like what Stalin did.  Both the Party and Stalin represented their use’s of power and how they must do everything they can to have people believe in the same ideology they do.

Conclusion:  In conclusion both Stalin and the Party from 1984 use their power to attempt to erase history so that they can conform people to believe in what they think is true and right.  Both Stalin and the Party do this mainly through editing documents and also even photos.

Works Cited:  Jonathan Brent. Dir. Jonathan Brent. Perf. Jonathan Brent. Pritzker Military Library, Film.  "Joseph Stalin, a Lifelong Editor, Wielded a Big, Blue, Dangerous Pencil." Open Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct  Lourie, Richard. The autobiography of Joseph Stalin: a novel. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, Print.  "Prominent Russians: Joseph Stalin." Joseph Stalin – Russiapedia Leaders Prominent Russians. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct  "Stalin's Blue Pencil." The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct chronicle.com/article/Stalins-Blue- Pencil/142109/

Works Cited Photo’s:  “Falsification of history." Falsification of Photographs. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct <http  "Prominent Russians: Joseph Stalin." Joseph Stalin – Russiapedia Leaders Prominent Russians. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct russians/