Sunday special: Stalinism

a limerick

Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Joseph Stalin, and Nikolai Yezhov on the banks of the Moscow-Volga Canal, April, 1937. Photo by F. Kislov

The Vanishing Commissar
"Tell Stalin that I shall die with his name on my lips."—Nikolai Yezhov*

There once was a fellow called Alan.
He loved to impersonate Stalin.
All the friends that he feared
(inevitably)
             disappeared—
and so did that little fellow
called Alan. 

Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, and Joseph Stalin, on the banks of the Moscow-Volga Canal, April, 1937. Photo by F. Kislov

*Nikolai Yezhov (1895-1940) was a secret police official under Joseph Stalin. As head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, he oversaw arrests, torture and executions during the Great Purge. Unfortunately, Stalin changed his mind about the Purge, and Yezhov found himself accused. This led to his own execution and erasure from the photographic record.