Social Conservative Stalin

Here's an idea I had earlier this morning while I was eating breakfast. What if Stalin, due to a POD in his early childhood, became a Social Conservative politician who was fanatically anti-communist? How do you think his personality would blend with his staunch conservatism? It is up to you what country he is in, but he should be in some position of power wherever he is.

And yes, I know the POD will need to be before 1900, but since the focus is almost entirely on the post-1900 period and because I figured I'd find more interest here, yeah. ;)
 
He might actually become a priest, instead of just studying to be one.
Would rising relatively high in the Church count as a position of power in regards to this challenge/POD?
 
He might actually become a priest, instead of just studying to be one.
Would rising relatively high in the Church count as a position of power in regards to this challenge/POD?

It could if a Theocracy appears in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Holy Russian Empire and all that, what?
 
Here's an idea I had earlier this morning while I was eating breakfast. What if Stalin, due to a POD in his early childhood, became a Social Conservative politician who was fanatically anti-communist? How do you think his personality would blend with his staunch conservatism? It is up to you what country he is in, but he should be in some position of power wherever he is.

And yes, I know the POD will need to be before 1900, but since the focus is almost entirely on the post-1900 period and because I figured I'd find more interest here, yeah. ;)

What you mean like he banned abortion, believed a woman's place was in the home and looked down on minorities?

Perhaps Stalin would then become General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union?

Sorry, this is not a DBWI?
 
Uh, what?
Stalin WAS Socially Conservative.

Thats true. He didn't go out very often. Hung out with the same small group of friends and was very cautious in meeting new people. Usually ordered the same drinks all the time and didn't try new foods. He was a conservative socialite.
 
Uh, what?
Stalin WAS Socially Conservative.

Wot 'e said. Stalin's USSR was a couple steps back (OK, a couple of giant leaps back) from the very early Revolutionary periods. He was a staunch believer in pro-life causes, anti-gay, believed in the family as crucial to societal survival, a hell of an autocrat, and loved to dish death out. Basically Nicholas I with Communism instead of Orthodoxy, Nationality, Autocracy as the unifying factors of his Russia.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_conservative

Social Conservatives are generally very hard right. Stalin, though he might have had a few conservative views on certain issues, was still a Communist.

Stalin's form of Communism (and Mao's as well) bore a strong resemblance to fascism, chiefly because totalitarianism is indistinguishable in practice however much it was in theory different.

And Stalin as a former seminary student was far more socially conservative than most Bolsheviks. Even though he was Communist, in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, Russian Orthodoxy was still ass-backwards and years of education in Tsarist Russia could still leave a mark.
 

Susano

Banned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_conservative

Social Conservatives are generally very hard right. Stalin, though he might have had a few conservative views on certain issues, was still a Communist.

Doesnt matter. Social Conservatism refers to how the government handles social liberties. So Stalins was a Communist Social Conservatism - it doesnt matter at all. What made it still Communism were the economical aspects of it (otherwise it would be a 08/15 authoriatrian dictatorship).
 
A POD in Stalin's childhood means he would not become the leader of the Soviet Union. I thought we had been through this before...
 
I don't believe I said he had to be a leader of the USSR.
Then either Trotsky, Zinoviev, or even Bukharin, (discounting an new figure emerging) becomes top dog or a power-sharing government, not dominated by a single figure, emerges. Iosif Jugashvili becomes a priest or stays a bandit and dies without even assuming his infamous name. Now the first point is an interesting discussion but I suspect that you are more interested in the latter, ie the fate of Iosif

Long story short, Stalin was not the cause of the Russian Revolution and his absence would not significantly change history prior to the mid-'20s. Conversely his emergence as some sort of right-wing figure would equally lead to few changes

Snake Featherston said:
Stalin's form of Communism (and Mao's as well) bore a strong resemblance to fascism, chiefly because totalitarianism is indistinguishable in practice however much it was in theory different.
Both Stalin and Mao were peasant leaders who were clearly more conservative in some matter (such as homosexuality and women) than their intellectual peers but there's no need for the comparison with fascism. You might as well compare the attitudes of both to mid-50s USA

As for the "totalitarianism" remark, Stalin's methods were only really distinguishable from those of Trotsky, Lenin, or Dzerzhinsky by a certain streak of paranoia and a willingness to turn on former comrades
 
He can rise to prominence in some other country besides Russia to. The US, or maybe a Georgia that remains independent, or some European country. His parents could've moved while he was still in his mother's womb so he could technically be born into any of these places if it is a requirement.
 
He can rise to prominence in some other country besides Russia to. The US, or maybe a Georgia that remains independent, or some European country. His parents could've moved while he was still in his mother's womb so he could technically be born into any of these places if it is a requirement.
Which begs the question... why? What is it about Stalin that made it inevitable that he would occupy high office?

You could take Stalin out of Georgia, have him become an immigrant in the US, and then become a leading industrialist/politician but frankly I'd consider that to be a fantasy. But then maybe I'm just not getting the whole alt-history thing

What I would say is that as the peasant son of a local cobbler Stalin's opportunities for advancement outside of his native Georgia or revolutionary Russia (or, at a stretch, the USA) are nearly nil. And it wouldn't have mattered if Jesus himself was President of Georgia when the Bolsheviks finally came knocking ;)

Thande said:
Not forgetting Jews
At the risk of going off topic, I've always been under the impression that Stalin's anti-Semitism, almost non-existent prior to '45, was the result of his ever growing paranoia rather than any real discriminatory tastes. Especially the Doctor's Plot. Certainly in theory the USSR always recognised its Jewish population as a distinct and equal ethnic group within the Union

Of course if Stalin were to become a social-conservative figure then its almost certain that he would have either picked up or revealed anti-Semitic tendencies long before WWII
 
Which begs the question... why? What is it about Stalin that made it inevitable that he would occupy high office?

You could take Stalin out of Georgia, have him become an immigrant in the US, and then become a leading industrialist/politician but frankly I'd consider that to be a fantasy. But then maybe I'm just not getting the whole alt-history thing

What I would say is that as the peasant son of a local cobbler Stalin's opportunities for advancement outside of his native Georgia or revolutionary Russia (or, at a stretch, the USA) are nearly nil. And it wouldn't have mattered if Jesus himself was President of Georgia when the Bolsheviks finally came knocking ;)

Of course it is unlikely. :p You're suppose to assume he DOES manage to get really really lucky and rise to power in some country. I was more curious about how people thought he would handle being in charge of...say an independent Caucasian Union that might've survived and held out against the Soviets with western support. Or the US. That's always fun.
 
He can rise to prominence in some other country besides Russia to. The US, or maybe a Georgia that remains independent, or some European country. His parents could've moved while he was still in his mother's womb so he could technically be born into any of these places if it is a requirement.

Ah... Joe Steele. (spoiler warning) :)
 
Top