Koba

Starving Children

One death a tragedy A million a statistic Koba’s, a hope

Stalin was nicknamed Koba by friends (if he had any) and family (which he must have had, logically and bio-ditto speaking).

Stalin is reported to have said, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” I believe this quote grimly illustrates this insane tyrant in a few, very poignant words.

Did he actually say this? Apparently, yes.

The earliest evidence linking this saying to Joseph Stalin was published in 1947 by the popular syndicated newspaper columnist Leonard Lyons in The Washington Post. Here’s a brief excerpt:

“In the days when Stalin was Commissar of Munitions, a meeting was held of the highest-ranking Commissars, and the principal matter for discussion was the famine then prevalent in the Ukraine. One official arose and made a speech about this tragedy — the tragedy of having millions of people dying of hunger. He began to enumerate death figures… Stalin interrupted him to say: ‘If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.’”

The ultimate source of this report is unknown, but seems to have been corroborated since, and what is known is that the saying then took on a life of its own and is now (and forever) attributed to Koba slash Stalin.

It is estimated that Stalin and his regime killed 20 million of its own citizens, mainly through starvation.

As a horrific aside, I once saw a photograph of two Russian peasants sitting outside their snow-flecked, barely standing cottage looking into the camera with dead eyes, the remains of their eaten child to one side.

A horrifying picture of how far human beings will go when driven by hunger.

As another aside, the People’s Hero, the benevolent Chairman Mao, not to be outdone by Stalin, was responsible for the deaths of 45 million (a low estimate) of his countrymen.

There is no hell deep enough.

I’m sure they’re keeping each other company as we speak.

© Wolfstuff