Question

Describe at least two ways Stalin uses logical fallacies or other forms of faulty argumentation.

Answer 1

Joseph Stalin was a Soviet revolutionary and politician who ruled the Soviet Union from the mid 1920's until his death in 1953.  In his many speeches and official statements, Stalin uses logical fallacies or other forms or faulty argumentation.

One example is how he uses the logical fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc to indicate that the year and a half of peace was a consequence of the non aggression pact he and Hitler had signed. This was flawed because during that time of peace, Hitler could have attcked the Soviet Union at ny given time. It is a logical fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc because it assumes that since event Y followed event x, then event Y must have been caused by event X.

Another example of Stalin's forms of faulty argumentation is the use of the fallacy slippery slope, when he urges that if the Soviet Union does not fight with "everything" they have, they will be completely destroyed. This is an example of a fallacy slippery slope because it is an assumption that taking a small action will lead to an ludicrous consequence.

Answer 2

In Emilio Gentile’s ‘Politics as Religion,’ Gentile describes the sacralising of Stalin’s regime in the following words:

The sacralization of the party opened the way to the sacralization of Stalin when he became the supreme leader.  After 1929, the political religion of Russia mainly concentrated on the deification of Stalin, who until his death in 1953 dominated the party and Soviet system like a tyrannical and merciless deity.