1917-1941 - The Cult of Personality

• The Soviet government developed 2 cults of personality in the 1920s and 1930s.
• As soon as Lenin was buried, he was hailed as the hero of the revolution.
• Images of Lenin appeared in newspapers, statues and the cinema and his likeness was used to motivate the population to imitate his commitment to the revolution.
• Lenin was embalmed and put on display in the mausolem in the Red Square of Moscow.
• Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in 1924 in honour of his achievements for the revolution.
• For Stalin, who actively promoted himself as the worthy continuer of the work of Lenin, this cult was very useful politically.
• The cult of personality for Stalin started in 1923 when the town of Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad.
• Soon after Lenin's death in 1924, the slogan "Stalin is the Lenin of today" became used widely.
• Stalin's popularity in the 1930s was built up through endless images of Stalin as a great leader.
• Propaganda also highlighted Stalin as a man of the people with images of Stalin with workers or peasants.
• Stalin was always presented as a down-to-earth man happy in his plain clothes and smoking a pipe.
• The cult of personality made use of traditional Russian attitudes and the population had been used to expressing their loyalty to their leaders from the rule of the Tsar's.