Lecture 3: Philip, Stalin and Connected Issues

Something about Stalins name being synonymous with superman.

King Philip was born in Ambala, India. He took the science of Espionage to a
different level. The idea of spy agencies is glamorous but the idea of a spy is
despicable. Spies arent seen as good or courageous human beings. If a spy is
caught, information is taken out of him and he is killed but on the other hand
organisations like the FBI and CIA are looked up to. Their dirty groundwork is
done by others. What kinds of motivation would a spy need?

1920 1960 is called the phase of Soviet Experimentation. People were

motivated by ideology and not nationality.

1920 40 there was hope for the idea of socialism. People wanted to try it out
because the flaws of capitalism were already known. Socialism seems more
innocent and nice and convenient and comfortable. Hitler, off course was against
the same, but for all the people who thought competition was wrong favoured
socialism. People started saying Karl Marx has come up with this system of
socialism which actually offers equality unlike capitalism where unless you are an
absolute winner you get left behind. Socialism was more accepting. People
started gravitating towards the ideology and this country.

1960 70, people knew socialism wasnt working. The romantic notion doesnt
exist any longer. Somewhere here, in middle east oil was found and both Russia
and USA were vying for it, hence money became more dominant in this phase. It
became the force behind motivation.

1970 90, came a third phase. Religion started motivating people. There was a
succession of wars. USA invades Vietnam and Russia invades Afghanistan. Spies
came up, anti America and Anti Russia.

In the 4th phase, an interesting phenomenon develops. What motivates the

modern spy is being smart enough to be able o hack into CIA systems. What
drove spies was no longer nationalism or patriotism.

King Philip studied in Cambridge and he had a close circle of 3 friends. They all
had a similar line of thought. This quadrant was very fond of communism even
though they were based in Britain. Philip becomes a correspondent for the Times.
He is a journalist and propaganda master during WW2. His advantage was that
he had spent his early life in the Balkan regions. The British make him an offer to
spend more time in the Balkan region and gather data about the spies Russia is
trying to plant. He accepts the offer.

He is officially made a part of Military Intelligence Department 6 (MI6). He knows

languages like Estonian and Latvian hence he makes the perfect spy. He is also
made head of propaganda. He is made to correct people who believe in
communism. He serves with distinction and he is remembered for being very
brave and courageous.
In the cold war, it becomes even more important to have information about
Russia. Philip takes short courses on Russian and becomes fluent easily, being
the linguistic master that he was. In 1948 a Russian spy Walter Kavitzki
Something defects over to Britain. He tells the Britain intelligence that there are
61 Russian spies based out of Britain. On being asked for names, he says he does
not have names but he describes personalities. One of them is born in Ambala.
Philip is born in Ambala but nobody takes walter seriously. He is put up in a hotel
room, and in 2 days is found dead. It is mysterious. The issue is left passed. In a
couple of others, the quadrant rises even more in power and Philip begins to
head Division 10 and he will head the spies on the soviet The Anti Soviet
Division. One of his team members Anthony Blunt has been knighted by the
queen for his services it is a very powerful team. Another soviet spy Egor
Something says that information says that there are spies in MI6 itself. This is
obviously a cause of concern. They appoint Philip to investigate further but he
finds no truth. MI6 finds that Philip is whenever put to a particular task, it fails
and information seems to be getting past.

However, he is told to go to Balkan regions and build a network of spies there in

his second phase of contract. He goes there, gets paid handsomely, however, in
1960 he suddenly disappears. MI6 tries to contact but he in unreachable. 2 years
later he turns up in Moscow. And that is when he breaks it that he was a Russian
Spy. The head of the Anti Soviet section was a Soviet Spy. He said he was
always loyal to the KGB who paid all my bills, the British were stupid to let me in.
This shook the faith of British Intelligence. Philip died in late 1980. He also wrote
an autobiography. He was celebrated as a Hero in Russia.

VIDEO (Almost 8 minutes long)

Stalins father came from a village called Gori in Georgia hence technically he
was not Russian and this bothered him. In the same way, Hitler was born in
Austria and always felt like a misfit. Stalins father was a cobbler and Stalin was
the 3rd son. His elder brothers dies in infancy and he grew up an only child. His
father wanted to make him a cobbler. At 4 he got small pox and his face would
be scarred. All his pictures were touched up to remove scars. Competitions were
held to see who could hide his scars best.

At 9 his mother gets him enrolled to a kind of theological society. All his
classmates were Russian, making him the only Georgian. In his first term her
scored miserably. His father had taken to alcohol and he was viciously beaten up,
and his mother was beaten up in front of him when he did not do well. His father
did not want him to learn in the seminary because that means he would never be
able to become a cobbler. The day he got admission, his father broke the
neighbours window and beat up the police constable. They were spared because
people were sympathetic towards his mother who had lost two children and was
now having to live with abuse.

If no charges were to be pressed, his father was to move to another city and
sponsor education for his child from a distance. Though stalin remained a
Georgian at heart, he learnt his Russian well and studied hard enough to top his
school. His father was unhappy and threatened to cut funding. In his 2 nd year of
school he became an ardent fan of Victor Hugo. He became such a fan, he told
the Bishop that they should all convert to atheism. He was threatened with
expulsion and told to not read forbidden literature. Stalin was dejected. A horse
drawn carriage rides over his left arm while he was walking back, he recovers,
and as he is going back, another horse cart hit him in the same hand. He could
not longer hold his left arm totally straight. Hence, in a lot of his paintings his
hand in inside his jacket.

He kept doing well in this seminary. By 15 he is told he needs to have a right of

way and suggests conversion again. Hence, his fee is hiked and unless paid he
cannot complete the term. There is no funding and his last formal education was
@15. This is in 1902.

At 16 he starts reading Karl Marx communist manifesto. He keeps getting

convinced that socialism is the future. A lot of socialist parties are coming up. As
of now Russia is still being rules by the Czars who have their secret police.

Stalin is caught at 17 for spreading propaganda about communism and

socialism. He is sent to Siberia. The prisoners find his left arm cannot be
straightened. The gulags force him to straighten the arm, hand cuffing it and
making him do manual labour from another arm thereby putting him in a
perpetual state of pain.

Somehow, he manages to escape, a feat considered impossible. He escapes

again and spreads propaganda again. He keeps escaping multiple times. He calls
himself made of steel. Hence, Stalin / Man of steel becomes his nickname. To
commemorate his escapes, he robs a bank in Moscow. He could barely make 20-
30 rouble a month in Moscow, and he robbed 3.4 million rouble. Only stalin in
caught out of the 4 associates. He is sent back to the Gulags in solitary
confinement. He escapes again while killing 2 Russian guards. He is jailed again,
and escapes again. He escapes 7 times from Siberia. He is already a Legend.

There was a Georgian girl who was the apple of his eye. E-Katrina. They had a
boy called Yaakov. Stalin hated him. Growing up, Staling beat him up for no fault
of his. Yaakov was so frustrated, he shot himself in the head. It missed his brain.
He was in a coma, and Stalin spent 2 weeks next to his bed and on him waking
up blamed him for being idiotic enough to not even be able to shoot right.

On having grown up, Staling forced him to join the Russian Army. He gets caught,
and on being asked his lineage, he reveals he is Stalins son. They tried to
bargain with Stalin for his son, but Stalin did not give in. Yaakov was so frustrated
that he ran into an electrified fence and killed himself. A year later, Katrina died
of Typhus. On her gravesite Stalin was weeping, and his friends tried to pull him
away. He said he has now lost all feelings for humanity. Stalin becoming worse
because of trauma was a very dangerous turn.

Against the Czar government, there is a group called the Social Democrats.
There are two main intellectuals Lenin and Martov having follower groups
namely Bolsheviks and Mensheviks respectively. Both agrees
communism/socialism should be followed. Lenin felt a small core group should
exist with others on the periphery. Martov believed the former may lead to
autocracy hence he wanted to involve as many people as possible.

Stalin wanted a smaller party for dictatorship, hence he became a follower of

Lenin, earlier on however, he had supported Martov and he had to publish a
paper against that. All traces of his previous papers and those who had read
them were wiped off.

The Bolsheviks staged The Russian revolution.

VIDEO (The revolution and Stalins role in it)

The last thing Lenin says is Dont allow stalin to take over. Though, because he
was mental, he said this to Stalin who obviously never mentioned this warning to
anybody.