Compare & Contrast: Stalin & Castro

Legal Methods #1

Compare: both parties established single-party states → dismantled existing political structures & centralized all authority

• Stalin: utilized the principle of “democratic centralism” → demanded absolute obedience from all party members to top leadership

• Castro: centralized power in the Office of Revolutionary Plans & coordination (ORPC) & the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) → bypassed the formal cabinet & was answerable only to him

Legal Methods #2

• Stalin: exploited his role as General Secretary to fill Party with personal loyalists → to ensure rivals were outnumbered in votes

• Castro: (1961) merged revolutionary factions (e.g PSP & DR) to form PCP → became sole legal party & controlled media, youth groups & education

Legal Methods #3

• Stalin: enforced a ban on factionalism (established by Lenin in 1921) → effectively banned free speech & criticism

• Castro: reformed judiciary & police immediately after revolution, replaced old system w/ new framework of “revolutionary justice”

Use of Force #1

Contrast: Stalin’s methods were characterized by “total terror” & mass purges, whereas Castro’s use of force was more selective & often used exile

• Stalin: Great Terror (1936-1939) involved systemic purges of military, party & general population → resulted in millions of deaths

• Castro: conducted televised trials & executions of Batista loyalists & anti-revolutionaries to discourage counter-revolution

Use of Force #2

• Stalin: created Gulag system → network of forced labour camps used to isolate & punish anyone deemd a threat to the revolution

• Castro: purged high-ranking internal dissenters (e.g, imprisonment of Huber Matos for opposing communist influence)

Use of Force #3

Stalin: show trials of former Bolshevik colleagues (Kamenev, Zinoviev) → accused were publicly shamed & executed as “enemies of the state”

Castro: utilized “exoduses” (Mariel Boatlift) to maintain power by allowing political opponents & malcontents to leave the country for the U.S.

Charisma & Propaganda #1

Compare: both leaders created a cult of personality that elevated the leader to an infallible, quasi-divine status to bind people to the state

Stalin: portrayed as the “Red Tsar” & the only legitmiate heir to Lenin, appearing as a “fearless political leader” in all state imagery

Castro: cultivated the image of the “Maximo Lider” whose qualities & oratory were seen as the driving force of the revolution

Robert Service: fusion of Stalin w/ Lenin legitimized authority through powerful ideological justification across Paty & broader society

Charisma & Propaganda #2

Stalin: promoted the idea of “engineers of the soul” → artists & writers were required to produce work that glorified his leadership & the Party’s goals

Castro: positioned himself as the symbolic reincarnation of José Martí, the “Apostle of Cuban Independence”, to ground his image in Cuban nationalism

Fitzpatrick: cult blurred lines between individual & state, core feature of Stalinism

Charisma & Propaganda #3

Stalin: word became law → so powerful & increasingly detached from reality, → subordinates fed his ego

Castro: legendary oratory skills and marathon speeches (4-5 hrs long) to speak directly to the masses → bypassed traditional political channels

Jan Plamper (post-revisionist): The sacralization of Stalin filled the void left by the collapse of traditional religion → offered a secular object of devotion

Dissemination of Propaganda #1

Compare: both leaders used state-controlled media & youth organizations to disseminate ideology & ensure total conformity to revolutionary values

Stalin: enforced “Socialist Realism” in all arts → required all creative expression to serve Party’s industrial and social goals

Castro: launched a massive literacy campaign(1961) → used young volunteers to teach rural power & indoctrinate them with socialist tenets

Dissemination of Propaganda #2

Stalin: used the “Short Course” & state-run outlets to curate a particular image of “faultless leader” to the world

Castro: established Radio Rebelde & used state-run newspapers to promote revolutionary success & highlight social programs

Dissemination of Propaganda #3

Stalin: targed youth for indoctrination → ensured younger generation knew he was “a great benefactor for all people”

Castro: carefully stage-manage media (e.g. 1957 Herbert Matthews Interview) to curate illusion of revolution being larger & more powerful than it was

Foreign Policy #1

Contrast: Stalin’s foreign policy moved toward isolationist survival & regional buffer zones, while Castro was aggressively internationalist with exporting revolution

Stalin: “Socialism in 1 country” → prioritized survival of Soviet state over immediate export of global revolution

Castro: actively exported revolution by sending military & medical aid to revolutionary movements (i.e. Angola, Bolivia, & Ethiopia)

Foreign Policy #2

Stalin: Stalin established a buffer of satellite states after WWII to protect USSR from future invasions

Castro: sought to disable US hegemony in America → positoned Cuba as a defiant country to US political & economic dominance

Revisionist View: Bay of Pigs invasion → reflected US imperial overreach & arrogance

Foreign Policy #3

Stalin: signed the Nazi-Soviet pact (1939) as opportunistic move to delay conflict & gain territory in Poland & Baltic States

Castro: after US trade embargo, aligned Cuba economically & militarily w/ USSR → became dependent on Soviet subsidies for national survival