How Stalin Rose to Power: Brutality, Strategy, and Animated Satire

Depending on how you look at him, Stalin was either brutal, bloodthirsty gangster or.., well, a brutal bloodthirsty gangster with a plan.  Regardless on where you stand on the man and his legacy, learning about his rise to power is not one of those boring history lessons you had to sit through at school, because there was so much bloodshed that it makes a Game of Thrones look like an Enid Blyton adventure in comparison.  He certainly did have a knack for getting where he wanted to be (the top) and those who underestimated him never saw it coming. And even if they did, there wasn't much, apparently, that they could do.

So, the story of his rise is QI.  It’s made even more interesting, here, because Netherlands-based Mitsi Studio has taken it upon themselves to tell the story in the form of an animated (tragi) comedy.  This comes complete with character animations that, if they were timelords, are seemingly the new incarnations of Michael Bentine’s Potties (do you remember Potty Time? Well, that puts a sell-by date on you for sure).  This video shows Stalin's rise – and we are promised a second instalment in the near future which shows what happened when his absolute power was secured (more blood).  This is great fun – very knowing and ironic (“because Russia is Russia” is given as the reason why the Royal Family were murdered).  Watch it below:  It may seem a little callous to laugh at such a bleak time in history but, you know, comedy is comedy.