Stalin and the making of the leader cult in the 1930s

Abstract

While the cult of the leader has been a distinctive feature of communist regimes since the time of Lenin, Stalin’s cult was a particularly striking example of the phenomenon.1 A recent study regards it as the defining theme of public culture in the Stalin era, symbolising the ‘moral economy’ of the USSR.2 Not surprisingly it has attracted considerable attention from scholars who have analysed its political, cultural and social dimensions.3 This chapter uses recently accessible sources to shed light on Stalin’s own analysis of the phenomenon and to consider how he shaped the making of the cult.4.