Our Notes & References

Luxurious production celebrating the 70th birthday of Stalin, “the dear leader, friend of the Soviet people [and] coryphaeus of science”‘, with songs, poetic letters, proverbs, stories and even fairy tales in praise of the dictator, and collected from all corners of the USSR: many pieces are translated from Belorussian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Kazakh and other, sometimes much rarer languages of the Soviet republics, such as Bashkir, Iakutskii, Udmur etc.

This was the last jubilee celebrated during the Stalin’s life, as the Soviet leader died four years later. On this occasion streets and landmarks were renamed in his honour, monuments built and celebratory government sessions held. For over a year after the jubilee date passed, Soviet newspapers were publishing lists of organisations and citizens from all over the Soviet Union, who had sent Stalin their congratulations in December 1949 – an impressive catalogue of labour reports in lieu of birthday cards.