Stalin and the cult of personality

ME. 06.02.05. The real, full-blown cult really got going around 1933-1934. Before that, in around 1929, Stalin was actually seen as rather cold and distant. He tried to assume a modest image, and wanted to be seen by the people as a hard-working man of moderation. After Lenin died, the party members knew it was essential that the party stick together if it were to accomplish the huge task of transforming an unwilling population into good socialists. …

…everything in the Soviet Union takes place under the fixed stare of the plaster, bronze, drawn or embroided eye of Stalin [...] In shops they sell millions upon millions of images of him, and in every home there is at least one portrait of him...he is everywhere, he sees everything..." Stalin got what he wanted; he was now practically instead of God for the Soviet people, Stalin dominated the USSR physically as well as politically.