Bandits - I

Three fine specimens indeed, pictured in 1937 (they were busy with the purges)
Source: here

The picture above is the first in a proposed series of Bandits, my aim being to try to present to you with revealing or at least illustrative pictures of the numerous appalling people who have blighted the lives of the public whilst the gullible cheer.

Here we have three fine specimens, all old Bolsheviks. First Vyacheslav Molotov, loyal Stalinist, implementer of the forced collectivisation of agriculture in the Soviet Union in the 1930s and the seizure of grain from the peasants resulting in millions of deaths from starvation. He advocated "maximum force" in carrying out the programme. Later during the purges of the late 30s he was perfectly willing to sign death warrants for those who after torture had "confessed to crimes". A fine specimen indeed.

On the right we have Kliment Voroshilov, Marshal of the Soviet Union. A remarkable survivor he, since Stalin was not especially loyal to his old comrades - well at least not to those who showed a degree of talent... Personally possessed of physical courage, Voroshilov was utterly incompetent as a military commander, causing great losses in 1941 until he was replaced by Zhukov (ruthless but very competent). As a member of the highest strata of the Soviet régime for many years (until 1960 at which time he was 78 years old) Voroshilov would have been well aware of most of the beastliness carried out in the name of the "people".

The bastard in the middle should need no introduction: yes, he's "Uncle" Joe Stalin, the "Great Leader, Teacher and Father of the Nation". Translate as "The Great Torturer, Murderer and Paranoiac".

"Beat, beat and beat again" he once said to his repulsive NKVD chief Yezhov apropos of the latest framed "fascist wreckers and bourgeois reactionaries".

A fine epitaph indeed.

Until the next time