87: A Killer Deadlier than Hitler? Joseph Stalin Part 2 | Dark History with Bailey Sarian 36:00

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Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

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Hi friends, I hope you are having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my study and to my podcast, Dark History. This is a chance to tell the story like it is and to share the history of stuff that, you know, we would never think about. So all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let's talk about that hot, juicy history goss. So I would like to welcome you back to a very special two-part deep dive into one of history's most influential and

and destructive dictators the world has ever seen. And that is Joseph the Man of Steel Stalin. If you're like, "Ugh, I missed the last episode. Do I have to go listen to it right now?"

Don't worry, I understand. It was a week ago. I got you. So here's a quick recap of what we learned in episode one. Joseph Stalin had a real rags-to-dictator story, a rough childhood. He rose to the top as a bloodthirsty leader of the Soviet Union. And as soon as he was in control, he made it his life's mission to make the Soviet Union a

world superpower. And Stalin was ready to do this by any means necessary. He stole a ton of farmland and livestock, essentially creating a horrible famine, leading most of the country right into starvation. Millions of lives were destroyed. And girl, that was just the beginning.

So buckle up, baby. We're getting to Stalin part two. Okay, now that we are caught up, maybe you can see why I wanted to make this whole thing a two-parter 'cause oh man, Stalin was like responsible for a lot of shit. Where we left off, Stalin had turned his attention to modern day Ukraine. He was like, "I'm focusing on this area right here." So he forced the villagers to grow crops that he in turn would steal.

And this ends up happening all across the Soviet Union to millions of people, which left them starving, many to death. Because millions of people had no access to food and the government was literally killing them for just wanting a piece of bread, this is when people instead

turned to cannibalism, like for reals. Now, okay, look, the streets were covered, and I mean covered, with decomposing bodies from people that had died from forced starvation, which led to many eating the corpses in hopes to survive. I mean, it was all they had.

And I mean, this wasn't like a one-time thing either. It was really your only chance of survival was to eat a corpse, even if it was a corpse from your own family. Seriously, it happened enough that Soviet propaganda posters were put up like all over different buildings. And these posters, they said, quote, I'm giggling because it's like, wow, okay, that's real. These posters said, quote, remember, it's wrong to eat your children.

Yeah, yeah. Could you imagine? I mean, that's how horrible this situation was. After all was said and done, between five and seven million people died due to starvation and disease. Four million of those deaths were in Ukraine alone. At this point, it was clear Stalin would sacrifice anyone to keep his power. And for the first time, there were serious talks happening about removing him from power.

But by the time those talks were happening, I mean, it was too late. Things were really only about to get worse for the people of the Soviet Union, especially if Stalin did not believe you belong there anymore. He was calling the sh...

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.

Between 1937 and 1949, Stalin got rid of more than 2 million minorities in the Soviet Union. He believed it was extremely important to the security of the country to get rid of minorities that could potentially mess with his vision.

It was essentially an ethnic cleansing. An ethnic cleansing is when people in charge decide to get rid of, aka kill or deport whole groups of minorities. Any minority who didn't seem like they'd be loyal to Stalin and his causes would be deported, sent to exile, or just straight up murdered. Think like what Hitler did to the Jewish community in the Holocaust.

You know, same shit, different dude. So Stalin started these ethnic cleansings with a group of Soviet Koreans. His excuse was that these Soviet Koreans were too much of a threat because there was a risk they would be helping international spies take them out. Soldiers would forcefully remove these people from their land and deport or exile them.

If they resisted, well, they'd be executed. Stalin's men ended up moving 171,000 Soviet Koreans out of the Soviet Union. They were deported or relocated to other countries where life would be extremely difficult for them.

Many ended up dying because of starvation, exposure to the elements, and some just really could not adapt to their new life in exile. I mean, just think about it. If you had to suddenly up and leave your home and like start over somewhere else with absolutely nothing, how would you do? You know? I...

would not do so well, I know that for sure. Their whole life was changed in an instant. As soon as Stalin successfully removed the Soviet Koreans out of the country,

he was showered with praise. I mean, everyone was like, "Oh my God, great call Stalin. We should do this more often." And it wasn't just Soviet Koreans. He did this with 12 different groups of people. This is part of Stalin's regime that is not really talked about enough. I'm gonna link more information below for you to read because it's a chapter from Stalin's story that

really get swept under the rug and it shouldn't be. When I was reading about all the horrible deaths of men, women, and children who starved to death all thanks to Stalin, it made me wonder like, where the hell was Stalin's family during all this? Like, wasn't one of them like, "Hey, maybe you shouldn't do that, dad." Well, turns out with everything that was going on, Stalin, he actually had time to fall in love, get married, not just once, but twice.

His first marriage was to a woman known as Cato. And I guess Stalin really loved her. So maybe he had some kind of emotion in there deep inside him. I don't know. But they were only married for like a year before she died of an infection called typhus in 1907. Now, when she died, he was devastated and became totally consumed with grief. I mean, it got so bad that his colleagues took away all of his guns because they felt like he might...

you know, like off himself, you know? Before her death, Cato and Stalin, they had a son. His name was Yakov. But sadly, once Cato died, like Stalin just abandoned his son. So I guess Stalin like really hated his son because he thought he was weak. Mind you, this part made me giggle a little bit because mind you, his son was only one years old and babies, yeah, they're pretty weak. So, uh,

Okay. Yakov struggled with depression his whole life, and he too even tried to, you know, kill himself on multiple occasions, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Now, when word got back to Stalin that his son was trying to do so, kill himself, I guess he laughed. Yeah, he laughed and said like, oh, he couldn't even shoot straight. Weak. Okay.

Okay, you know, okay. And Yakov's story ends in a way that just really paints what a cruel person Stalin was. I mean, even to his own family. During World War II, Yakov was taken prisoner by the Germans. They held him ransom, trying to get Stalin to exchange a German prisoner for Yakov's freedom. And Stalin, his response, he was like, nah, I'm good. You can keep him. And Yakov, he ended up dying in a Nazi concentration camp.

What an asshole. What an asshole. But he also murdered a shit ton of people, so it makes sense. It checks out, I guess. Stalin did end up getting married once again, this time to a woman half his age named Nadezhda.

They actually go way back. I guess they knew each other when they were just little kids, you know? Famously, Nadezhda and Stalin had a very intense relationship. I guess she had a very like take no bullshit type of attitude. Nadezhda was also very smart

and she was not afraid to share her opinions on Stalin's political policies, especially at a time when women were really not even allowed to speak. She was ballsy. There were sources that said that the only person Stalin feared was his wife.

I know, she was a bad bitch. Both of them had piping hot tempers and would fight all of the time. I guess Nadezhda would even confront Stalin about his affairs. Yeah, apparently he had a ton of affairs. And she was like, "Look, bitch,

I'm ending our marriage, okay? I'm done. So she tries to leave Stalin a few times, but in the end, she always found her way back to him, you know? But after a bad fight on November 9th, 1932, Nadezhda took her own life. Now, there are rumors out there that say she only did this to get under Stalin's skin. Yeah, like she was petty and she did this just to piss him off. And I mean...

I guess it worked. Her death really messed him up and he was very distraught over it. Stalin and the other party members knew it would make him look really, really bad if they knew that his wife had killed herself. So he told everyone, including their kids, that his wife died of appendicitis.

I don't know. He's got to protect his own image first. But one of the biggest things Stalin is known for is something called the Great Terror. The Great Terror. Terrorer.

The Great Terror was a horrible time of extreme state-sponsored blood. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere. And the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. Try it.

Now, there was a lot that was happening during this time, and honestly, you know, unless you want a part three, we can get into it. But essentially, the Great Terror started because people were starting to realize that maybe the Stalin guy is completely unhinged.

You know, I don't know. Maybe he was getting a little out of control? Stalin's political rivals started to make public statements saying he was not what the country needed and that he should be removed, like now. So rumors started swirling around that Stalin was about to be assassinated. Oh yeah. And honestly, many felt that was really the only way to get out of this mess.

And then, by the mid-1930s, Stalin realized the only way to make sure he remained in power was to just murder everyone who was against him. So at this point, he just starts panic-killing everyone. Now Stalin, he even went on the record saying, quote,

End quote. Very dramatic. Yeah. Many say the launch of the Great Terror was when Stalin allegedly had one of his closest friends and political allies murdered. Soon after, Stalin's hit list got even bigger. I mean, it was even rumored that he had someone arrested and sentenced to prison work camps after they dared to stop clapping during an 11-minute standing ovation for a speech Stalin made.

This was just one example of his pettiness. Basically, you know, you didn't want to piss Stalin off because he would just get rid of you. It was giving very like North Korea where like you have to like clap and all that. Everyone's like panic clapping. So it reminds me of, huh? Except...

This is really bad too. All right. In the end, Stalin got rid of over 75% of his own generals, commanders, and top military leaders. He wasn't taking any chances. And it wasn't just about the officers and government officials he worked with. He also needed to send a message to the everyday person and keep instilling fear into them, you know, just to make sure that they would stay in line. He would send soldiers to nearby towns to randomly round up

hundreds of thousands of quote-unquote enemies just going about their business and he would accuse them of random ass political crimes. These quote-unquote enemies would be anyone from doctors, writers, artists, students, anyone he suspected of plotting against him. But sometimes they'd capture people who were literally just...

minding their own dang business. Just to keep everyone scared and on their best behavior, soldiers would round up these so-called conspirators and execute them on the spot. Or they would send them to a gulag.

Mmm, gulag. The word gulag came to represent terror and fear for millions of people in the Soviet Union. That is because the gulags were forced labor camps where Stalin would send his political enemies and really anyone he felt was a threat. Actually, this is where he sent all of those kulak farmers. Stalin called these labor camps a second chance.

You know, where enemies could be changed by doing hard labor for the state. He was doing it for the people. At least that's what he told everyone. But that was nothing more than some public relations BS. I mean, these labor camps were essentially concentration camps.

So let's talk about the living conditions at these places first. The Gulags had some rough living conditions, alright? The buildings where all the inmates lived were not built with, you know, comfort in mind. Come on, Stalin, why would he? First of all, some of these buildings, aka barracks, were about 1200 square feet, about the size of a nice one-bedroom condo. But inside there were dozens of bunk beds.

if you even wanna call them beds. They were essentially wooden boards where people were forced to sleep. And the barracks were so packed, two to three people would share these wooden beds. And on top of that, people would still be sleeping on the floor, you know, because there was no beds. Blankets, you know, not guaranteed pillows, get off your high horse. In terms of amenities, there was one light bulb for the whole place.

One light bulb. The bathrooms were often busted for weeks at a time. One person who was imprisoned in a gulag reported that for seven full weeks, he couldn't even wash himself or change his underwear. And starvation, which seems to be Stalin's theme here, was everywhere in the gulags. Families of four would get five slices of bread to eat per day, and often the food was moldy and rotten.

When things got really bad, people would eat raw chicken heads from the slaughterhouse. And when those unforgiving Soviet winters rolled around, people lost fingers, toes, and ears to frostbite. So yeah, I guess you could call this a living hell. Yeah. Because of all that, disease would spread

really fast. And violence among prisoners was common. They would often have to steal food and supplies from each other just to survive. And on top of all that, the whole point of these camps were to put the prisoners to work for the country. Even though people were massively hungry and tired, they were forced to work at least 14 hour days in extreme conditions. So there's a massive blizzard outside? Eh, shut up.

Get to work. And these weren't small projects Stalin had them working on. It was actually the opposite. These prisoners worked on huge construction and mining projects because, you know, Stalin was trying to give the impression that the Soviet Union was doing great. So these people would be sent to work building canals, railroads, highways, doing like the really hard job.

And when they were sent off to work these rough jobs, they weren't even given proper tools. They just kind of had to figure it out themselves. Some workers reported that they worked for days chopping down trees or trying to dig into like the frozen dirt with just a small ax. And some of the people

on mining projects said that they had to dig up coal with their bare hands. Oy vey. Now, if a worker got hurt, they got rid of him as, you know, as if he were a piece of garbage and he was simply replaced with another worker. Because according to Stalin, everyone was just a number. He made sure that workers who didn't hit their daily quotas were punished horribly. Some were even physically assaulted. Some would be given less food.

I mean, even if they got any. And others were just, once again, murdered right on sight. Now, these gulags were disturbing. And it's almost an understatement to call them a violation of human rights. It was a crisis of epic proportions.

One gulag survivor named Alexander described an especially dark form of torture prisoners sometimes experienced. He said people were thrown into a box with blood-sucking parasites. And these hungry parasites would just swarm and crawl all over a person and start going to town drinking their blood.

Of course, prisoners would freak out at first. But Alexander says after hours, people would just be exhausted and give up. I mean, there was really no way out. All they could do was quietly let the bugs drink their blood until there wasn't anything left. This reminded me of our medieval torture episode. Remember? You remember. With the rats? Ugh. Torture.

And murder was all too common. Prisoners would be killed by a firing squad just because. Others were killed in mobile gas chambers. Some had even slower, more painful deaths, like in those bug boxes, or from starvation, or just for being worked to death. During the time these gulags operated, there were over 18 million people who were imprisoned there. 18 million! That's a fucking lot.

Which makes sense when you realize that there were 30,000 gulags in total and they were all spread across the whole Soviet Union. 30,000!

The Great Terror came to an end around 1938. The trauma from what happened during it would last for many generations. I mean, when you really think about it, 1938 when this was happening, I mean, it really wasn't that long ago. A lot of people's grandparents were born during this time. So all of these atrocious events happened just two generations ago. And I bet it's still fresh in many families' minds.

I mean, at literally the same time across the world. While all of this was going on, Americans were like lining up at movie theaters, going to see The Wizard of Oz, munching on their popcorn, slurping down Coca-Cola. I mean, just living a totally different life, you know? It was just wild. It was a wild comparison. One of the reasons the Great Terror came to an end was because Stalin had another project to focus on. He was like, "Mmm, idea!"

This project was called World War II. Yeah. Remember back during the kickoff of Stalin's five-year plan? He believed another major war was coming. I mean, this proved him right. But this time was different. The country was prepared. Because they spent the last few years not only building highways and canals, but also manufacturing tons of weapons. But listen, there's a wild thing that I think people forget from this time.

Even though Stalin was known around the world as a brutal dictator, by the end of the war, he was actually on the side of the Allies, fighting side by side with the United States and England. But how he got there involved some real juicy frenemy backstage.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.

Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.

So around the start of the war, one of the first things Stalin did was reach out to a guy named Adolf Hitler. So the two end up meeting, okay? And they have a little sit down, a little one-on-one. And they must have really hit it off, you know? They probably bonded over their mustaches. Not sure, but I could see that. So they're bonding, they're connecting, whatever it is they're doing. The two of them end up signing something called a non-aggression pact.

This essentially meant that Stalin agreed not to attack Nazi Germany. And Nazi Germany would stay the hell out of the Soviet Union, right? So they're like, okay, we're good, great. And to the rest of the world, this essentially signaled that Stalin was A-okay with whatever the hell the Nazis were doing, right? Well, at the end of the day, Hitler was gonna Hitler. I say that because in 1941, he launched something called Operation Barbarossa.

And this was the secret codename for an invasion of none other than Stalin's beloved homeland,

Plot twist. This was actually the largest German military operation of World War II. Hitler was planning to screw Stalin over the entire time. Oh yeah, backstabber. Yep. He successfully duped Stalin into thinking that they were buddies. So Stalin was completely caught by surprise when the Germans showed up and ripped the Soviet Union apart. Now this mission would end up being a huge success for Hitler. But Stalin?

Oh, he was real salty. Sources say that Stalin was so saddened and upset by this that he locked himself in his office for a few days, you know, probably hugging a pillow with Hitler's face on it and crying and eating chocolate. You know, why, Adolf? Why would you do this to me? I thought we were friends. I bet, yeah, you know. But then,

Stalin was pulled out of his heartbroken depression by a message from none other than Winston Churchill. Random. I know. I don't know. I was like, this is a small world, isn't it? So Winston Churchill, he wanted to have a sit down with Stalin and pitch him an idea. He's like, Stalin, honey, baby, listen, there are other fish in the sea, baby. And the best thing for a breakup is to just get out of it. So grab some wine and come on over.

So the two of them meet and they, you know, giggle, smoke some cigars. And the two of them ended up forming an alliance to take down the Nazis. So the two of them end up bringing this plan to the United States president at the time.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was getting intense pressure from America to cut ties with Stalin. But President Roosevelt realized that Nazi Germany was a bigger threat to the world. So to take down Hitler and his army, Roosevelt said that he would, quote, hold hands with the devil. And that devil was Stalin. So Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt walk into a bar.

I'm just kidding. Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt are like, Hitler, baby, we're coming for you. And word got back to Hitler, and I guess he lost his damn mind. So right away, Hitler started planning to invade the Soviet Union. But he wanted to hit Stalin where, you know, it would hurt the most. Yeah. Yeah.

So he's thinking, I mean, he loves drama, okay? And Hitler decided the saltiest way to do this would be to destroy a city named after Stalin himself. It was called Stalingrad.

Yeah, Hitler was going there. In the fall of 1942, the Germans ambush Stalingrad in a bloody battle. I mean, it was brutal, especially for Stalin. I mean, he did not see this coming. How dare you attack my town? It was petty. And this lit a fire under Stalin's ass, and he worked tirelessly to beat the Germans back if it was the last thing he did. So there were air raids, soldiers fighting face-to-face in the streets,

buildings being destroyed and to the civilians standing on the sidelines

It just felt like a battle that would never end. It's like the boys were fighting and everybody else was paying the price. So this went on and on for about six months, and in the end, Stalin was victorious. He's like, "Sure, yeah, a ton of people died, but we win." But we know by now, you know, Stalin, his petty ass was so excited to beat Mr. Adolf. He was stoked.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the city was in ruin, but it was still standing. Stalin's men successfully defended the city and the Germans were quite embarrassed. Hitler was looking like an idiot and he was fuming. Everyone celebrated Stalin as a godlike war hero, and many historians say this battle was a huge turning point in World War II. Stalin.

the US and England end up winning the war in Europe in 1945. So I mean, I'm picturing Stalin and his buddies are just popping bottles of vodka, having pillow fights, giggling. I mean, they won, it was exciting. Yeah, it's cute, shut up. Well, even after everything he did, all the land stealing, all the murdering, all the famine and oh, the gulags, Stalin lived the rest of his life deeply loved.

Yeah. People were never going to forget how he stood his ground and fought off those nasty Nazis. And a whole lot of people considered him a champion of the working class. That whole five-year plan idea that Stalin had, it did eventually work. It modernized the Soviet Union and created a whole lot of jobs. I mean, think about it like this. Technology advanced so quickly under Stalin that the Soviet Union actually beat America in the space race.

I mean, they went from a country of mostly farmers to having some of the best scientists and technology in the whole world. But Russia isn't the only place where Stalin stands. I mean, that book I picked up was proof of that. Stalin was actually nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, not once, but twice, in 1945 and in 1948, for his part in bringing World War II to an end. Yeah, make that make sense, huh?

And if you stopped by the magazine stand in 1939 or 1942, guess who you would see on the cover of Time magazine? It was your boy, Joseph Stalin. People loved him. The Man of Steel himself, right there on the cover of a popular American magazine. I mean, Time magazine really doesn't have the best track record. They've put some very questionable people on their covers, you know.

When you ask someone to imagine the most evil man in history, I mean, most would say Hitler.

Right? Duh. But this was not necessarily Stalin's reputation. He was worshipped by some. I mean, many considered him to be godlike. And it seems like a lot of those people were willing to overlook all of Stalin's atrocities. I mean, even today, when there are parades in Russia, it's not uncommon to see people holding up huge portraits of Stalin with ribbons and people are like, "Yay! Don't come for me, people." And I was like, "Why?"

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

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It turns out, while Stalin was in power, I mean, he was given credit for a lot of things. Infant mortality went down, and he almost totally ended homelessness. I mean, if you did even one of those things today, you would definitely win a lot of awards. Well, towards the end of Stalin's life, he just really hated being alone.

So I guess there was a period where he would just wake up and call people on the phone, anyone, his employees, his friends, whoever's available. And he's like, hey, what are you doing? You want to come over? Yeah.

Be my friend, you know? And these meaningless calls would just go on for hours on end. And then sometimes he'd demand that people would come over and like watch movies with him. And you can't say no to Stalin. He might off you, you know? Sure, I'll come. I guess Stalin was like a really big fan of Westerns and he didn't want to watch them alone, you know? Super random fact here. Stalin had beef with John Wayne.

Yeah, John Wayne. The A-list actor from back in the day. Now, Mr. Wayne was pretty outspoken about being anti-Stalin, and this just touched a nerve for the dictator. Maybe it was because he loved Western movies so much, and Wayne was basically the king of Westerns. But apparently, Stalin thought Wayne was a threat.

And he hated him so much that he sent Hitman to America to have the movie star killed. Which is like, doesn't make sense because it's like, don't you like Westerns, Stalin? So if you kill him, there's really not going to be that many good Westerns, right?

Whatever. Okay, hitman, gonna go kill him. And then what happens next is like right out of a Hollywood movie. There was a Russian filmmaker who pulls Wayne aside and tells him, "Hey, Stalin's about to kill you, okay?" I guess this guy had ties to Stalin's secret police. And he tells Wayne that the hitmen are in America and they're coming for him.

So with this knowledge, John Wayne and his buddy found where the hitmen were staying. They had abducted them and they took them to the beach and staged a mock execution. I'm picturing these Russian guys on their knees, hands tied behind their backs and backs over their head.

I guess Wade and his buddy were sending the message that if these guys tried anything, you know, they're toast. Well, no one knows for sure what happened after that, but we know John Wayne was never murdered, and apparently those Russian agents defected and began working for the FBI after that. USA! USA! USA!

The president at the time, Harry Truman, he wasn't a fan of Stalin either. We all remember from part one that Stalin was a bit of a, you know, he's five foot four inches. Well, apparently President Truman privately referred to Stalin as the quote, "little squirt."

I mean, lol, but Stalin did not likey. Meanwhile, back in the Soviet Union, Stalin comes home on the night of March 1st, 1953 after a night of drinking and raging with his friends. Stalin went to his room and he didn't come out for like a really long time. His buddies had a feeling that something was wrong, but

You know, they were too afraid to go in and like wake him up. I don't know, you know, what if he gets mad? So they just waited and waited and waited. Hours went by and finally Stalin's housekeeper entered his room and found him unconscious, unresponsive, and covered in his own urine. You know, they're probably thinking like, yeah, he likes to drink. He probably drank too much. His housekeeper was sent to call for a doctor, but there was one little problem. There were no doctors. There were no doctors.

Oh yeah, yeah. You see, a couple years before, Stalin was on one of those little, like, paranoia benders. So he had tons of doctors arrested and thrown into prison. It wasn't because he didn't trust medical science. It was because at the time, many of his doctors were Jewish. And I guess anti-Semitic Stalin believed they were, you know, plotting to kill high-ranking officials or something.

Stalin himself called this the Doctor's Plot. And this wasn't some secret mission. This was a public operation. So he fired all

all nine of his doctors because of this. Well, whoops, this turned out to be like the biggest mistake of his life because at this exact moment, he really needed a doctor. Whoopsie. So a new team of medical experts were rushed in. For days, they ended up treating him for a stroke. Imagine being one of those doctors, you know? I mean, there were even reports that said these doctors were shaking while treating Stalin because

I mean, if they fucked up, they could have been sent to exile, you know? They didn't want to be on his hit list.

Everyone's afraid of this guy. He really did this himself, didn't he? Well, I guess these doctors applied leeches to his neck and face to help lower his insanely high blood pressure. But nothing was working. Then, on March 5th, 1953, Joseph Stalin died. After his death, there were rumors swirling around that Stalin was actually poisoned by something called warfarin,

which is an ingredient in rat poison, but also it could be used as a blood thinner in people. Too much of it and you bleed out. Either way, Stalin was dead. Look, in the end, Stalin was responsible for 20 million people dying. Point blank period, 20 million. I don't know about you, but I think that's a lot.

Yeah, there are some experts out there that think the number could be a lot higher than that. I mean, he had people thrown in prison, executed, exiled, and you can't forget about the wars and famine. And he was doing this all to his own people. But hey, Stalin himself even said, quote, The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic.

To him, those millions of people were just a number, a means to an end. And you can see this attitude just by looking at the death camp gulags his men set up. The numbers are on par with the Holocaust. But the crazy reality is that so many Russians still adore Stalin and even carry his picture with them.

I guess maybe like in their wallets or something. I'm not sure. Now this is where, you know, people kind of flip-flop because it's like, okay, sure, he achieved a lot, but at the cost of millions of lives. So let's let history speak for itself. And Stalin's history speaks loud and clear. He sucked. He sucked. This guy sucked. He sucked ass.

Ass. Stalin sucked ass. The next time you see a picture of Stalin, just remember, that shit's probably photoshopped. You're welcome. Well everyone, thank you for learning with me today. Remember, don't be afraid to ask questions to get the whole story because you deserve that. I'd love to hear your guys' reaction to this story, so make sure to use the hashtag Dark History over on social media so I can follow along.

Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there, also catch my murder mystery in makeup. I hope you guys have a good rest of your day. Make good choices. And I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye.

Wow, what a story, huh? Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian High, Junia McNeely from 3Arts, Kevin Grush, and Matt Enloe from Maiden Network. A big thank you to our writers, Joey Scavuzzo, Katie Burris, Allison Filobos, and me, Bailey Sarian. Writer's assistant, Casey Colton.

Production lead, Brian Jaggers. Research provided by the Dark History Researcher Team. Special thank you to our expert, Anita Pish. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. Hi, that's me. Thank you. Bye.