Faniticism

Head-on deliberate midair collision is a weapon of heroes. Glory to the Stalin's falcons, threat to the fascist predators!

When I created an entry for propaganda I had found this fascinating image that I believe says a lot about the type of army that Stalin was trying to build. It seems as though he was constructing an army that was closely related to the Japanese of WWII. The Japanese are well known for the Kamikazes, which is the exact strategy that is being advocated above. The reason that the Japanese willingly did this was that they believed they were bringing glory to their homeland, which is exactly what I believe Stalin wanted. However, the Japanese had constructed the concept of self sacrifice through tradition, dating all the way back to the days of the samurai. Stalin however, was forcing this ideology that was relatively nonexistent through Russian history. So, the question that must be asked is why would the Soviet people adopt this concept?

I believe the to answer this question is that they did not willingly adopt this concept, but were forced to with such orders as order 227, which I discussed in an earlier post. But, why did they not turn on Stalin when in many cases they were forced to march to their death in a fashion with an outcome similar to a banzai charge? I believe the people feared Stalin's power to such an extent that they were unwilling to go against him. If they failed to usurp his power they would have surely been killed, but if they had begun to organize there was a strong chance the NKVD would have discovered them and subjected them to similar circumstances as the trials that either killed or banished anyone that was suspected of conspiring against Stalin. I believe Stalin was able to create a fanatical army like the Japanese not through tradition like them, but through pure fear of the power that Stalin was capable of unleashing.

Soviet Propaganda Posters    

Bibliography

Russian WWII Propaganda Posters. n.d. http://www.allworldwars.com/Russian%20WWII%20Propaganda%20Posters.html (accessed April 15, 2012).