Gold ducat Cult of personality - Josif Stalin - proof

Cult of personality

The gold ducat of the Czech Mint from the series entitled Cult of Personality features the despicable figure of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.

„Centuries will pass, but every generation will consider us the happiest of mortals, the happiest of men, because we have walked in the century of all centuries, because we have had the honour of seeing Stalin, our inspiring leader. And when the woman I love gives birth to a child, the first word that child must say will be: Stalin. This eulogy expresses how strong a cult of personality Stalin managed to build during the time when he was the unlimited ruler of the Soviet Union. It cost him much prudence, effort and, above all, cruelty. He ruthlessly liquidated real and perceived opponents - businessmen, farmers, intellectuals and loyal comrades. Among his favourite tools were mock trials, bloody executions and inhuman labour camps, where he sent anyone who displeased him even slightly. For every year of Stalin's totalitarian rule between 1929 and 1953, at least one million Soviets were imprisoned or murdered. Other millions perished from starvation. Despite these atrocities, Stalin was respected, admired and sincerely loved by many people."It is unacceptable and alien to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to exalt, to transform one person into a superman with supernatural god-like qualities," Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev declared, but the cult of the "Man of Steel" was not broken. Even today, many people in the countries of the former Soviet Union do not regard him as a mass murderer, but as a man who was instrumental in industrialisation and who led them to victory in the Second World War...

The obverse side of the ducat, which is the work of academic sculptor Jiří Dostál, presents a characteristic portrait of Stalin."The reverse side is filled with a composition inspired by the five-pointed star, which symbolically expresses the expansion and brutality of the Stalinist era. Below, in two lines, a quote said by Stalin is loosely transcribed in Latin: NO MAN, NO PROBLEMS. The letters in the space of the star are abbreviations of Russian words:G – gulag, K – kazni (executions), C – cilka (exile),“ the author explains.

An integral part of the issue is a special appendix that offers an objective view of Joseph Stalin through the eyes of historian Pavel Kosatik.