The Null Device

Hitler a failed artist, Mao a failed poet... Josef Stalin, paranoid mass-murdering fruitcake that he was, is still held in high esteem amongst parts of the Russian population; as such, archives revealing unflattering aspects of his personality (well, other than his penchant for exterminating real and imagined enemies from all sides) have been slow in emerging. But now it is revealed that Stalin was an avid cartoonist, and would sketch his enemies being put to death in various imaginative ways.

In one cartoon, which Ilizarov believes Stalin drew around 1930, his finance minister, Nikolai Bryukhanov, is depicted naked, hanging from a rope by his genitals... Under the heading "Special File", it read: "To all members of the politburo, for all his present and future sins, Bryukhanov should be hung by his balls. If they hold up he should be considered not guilty as if in a court of law. If they give way he should be drowned in a river."

He also tortured cats as a young child and, whilst in office, knocked up a 14-year-old girl, the existence of whose child by him had been suppressed by the KGB for decades. (via Shauny)

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