Something that I have been musing on since our discussion of Stalin’s cult of personality last week is the difference between power and authority and how these concepts were manifested in the beginnings of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
I would define power as en essence that is projected outwards, implying a control given over the people that often results in their fear. \u00a0Authority is an essence more given from the outside, as in a ruler’s influence and their people’s\u00a0subsequent\u00a0respect. \u00a0After talking about the cult of personality, it became clear to me that Stalin was a manifestation of the latter idea, the essence of power, than that of authority. \u00a0The fact that he had to rely on propaganda to grant him legitimacy as the father of the nation is evidence of this. \u00a0His creation of an image that is all-knowing and infallible, and his reliance on the threat of the gulag and secret police to inspire correct action all stem from a need to control and manipulate the people through fear instead of aiming to gain their respect. \u00a0He never gives the people an opportunity to question him or rethink their loyalty to him, and he would punish them if they did. \u00a0It is this fear that kept him in control.<\/p>\n
At the same time that Stalin was being feared by Russia, he also established a balance between power and authority in dealing with the national groups. \u00a0He “directed” them back to their old nationalities without providing much choice, but then Stalin allowed for those groups to maintain their traditions until they joined the Soviet Union. \u00a0This probably gave him authority among those people, since he was not imposing the Soviet ideal on them from the start, however he never would have held as much authority as the local rulers he set up to enforce the Soviet ideology.<\/p>\n
The thing about ruling through power instead of authority is that it is short-lived and unstable. \u00a0Just as was the reasoning behind the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 in the first place, people will only live so long under oppression and fear. \u00a0Despite Stalin’s claim to be liberating the worker, he was just intimidating them into another hierarchal scheme, like his\u00a0predecessors\u00a0the Tsars, that would\u00a0ultimately\u00a0begin to be questioned and undermined. \u00a0I do not think he ever established and garnered true respect from the Soviet people in practice, though ideology would disagree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Something that I have been musing on since our discussion of Stalin’s cult of personality last week is the difference between power and authority and how these concepts were manifested in the beginnings of the Soviet Union. I would define … Continue reading