Famous Relatives (Stalin) -- Maybe

Categories: Rediscoveries , Nonfiction

I don't mean to brag, but one of my uncles might have invented chocolate syrup. I think I heard a family member mention this once. Amino acids are involved.  Uncle Jim is in his 80s, so when I see him this summer, I'll have to discuss this with him.  I don't know though if I can spin a whole book out of my memories of Uncle Jim, especially if it turns out he actually didn't invent chocolate syrup. 

In the stacks I found My Uncle Joseph Stalin, by Budu Svanidze. Here was someone who didn't have to read up on amino acids, the "building blocks of protein," to make an interesting famous-relative-exploitation book!   Budu was a loyal communist, but he fell in love with a Hungarian woman who refused to live behind the Iron Curtain, so they snuck out to Paris and perhaps also South America under assumed names.  The idea is that Budu wrote this and several other memoirs because he needed the money--and he was successful, as his several volumes of memoirs were translated into English and other languages.  He even sold an article on Joseph Stalin's three wives to McCalls.

Budu knew Joseph Stalin off and on for about 50 years.  Except for a period during which Budu served as one of Stalin's secretaries, their paths did not cross all that frequently. Still, Stalin, homesick for their native Georgia, always greeted his nephew warmly and interceded for him several times about work assignments.  Budu wanted to take charge of copper mines in Siberia, for example, while others were insistent that he go abroad in an ambassadorial position.  Stalin pulled the necessary strings to get Budu off to Siberia.

The Stalin depicted in this book is brilliant, athletic, tireless, witty, and an awfully nice guy.  He made his own shoes and when possible tended his own vineyards.  He championed the work of Honore Balzac at a time when others considered him dated.  He was very concerned about the famines caused by the collectivation of Russian farms and argues convincingly that the food shortages stemmed from greedy farmers rather than from his own policies.  The purges are seldom mentioned and never explained.

The second most startling thing about the book is Budu's contention that the embalmed body of Lenin deteriorated so much during the War that it was replaced by a lifelike dummy.  This information is not found in normal books like Lenin's Embalmers, or on Web sites, which gleefully recount the gruesome work necessary to keep Lenin in viewable condition.

The first most startling revelation is that the whole book is made up, that there really was no Budu Svanidze.  According to Paul Blackstock, in an article "Books for Idiots: False Soviet Memoirs," which appeared in the Russian Review (Vol. 25, no. 3, p. 285, 1966), My Uncle Joseph Stalin's real author was Gregori Bessedovsky, one of the earliest Russian defectors.  The non-existence of Budu Svanidze was exposed in the journal Est et Ouest in the 1950s, and Bessedovsky then served as a medium through which other nonexistent Russians channeled their memoirs.  The nephew of Lavrenty Beria, head of the Soviet secret police; for example, and a confidant of Malenkov .  Most famous was Bessedovsky's invention of the diaries of Maxim Litvinov, Soviet Foreign Minister from 1930 until 1939.

It is not clear why a refugee from the Soviet Union would write pro-Stalin fake memoirs--it seems a cynical step for a defector to take.  In a letter to a friend, Bessedovsky claims to be writing these books simply because they're certain to sell.  "Allah has given money to the stupid in order that the intelligent can live easily," Bessedovsky (who was not a Muslim) wrote.

For more reliable information about Stalin's personal life, including the sad story of his second wife's suicide, read Sebag Montefiore's highly praised Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar.

And wish me luck with my uncle.

Update: Ruth Rendell's new book, The Water's Lovely, will be published in the U.S. in July, so get on the waiting list now.