Joseph Stalin Research Paper

The wise words of Stalin

“A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.” Are the words of a man known for killing more of his own people than his own people, Josef Stalin. He meant that it is less easy to look at mass human suffering in the way we would look at only one or two victims. I happen to agree with this point.

These words are still true to this day. Take into account the recent shootings of Reporter
Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward of WJBD-TV. They got a huge memorial and everyone heard about it. However, when people look at the millions of victims in the fairly recent earthquake in haiti, peopel tend to be less sympathetic. According to Ph.D. Keith payne in his entry on this subject ( the qoute that is) on Psychology Today qoutes "Joseph Stalin is reputed to have said that the death of one person is a tragedy; the death of one million is a statistic. And Mother Teresa once said, "If I look at the mass I will never act." When Stalin and Mother Teresa agree on a point, I sit up and pay attention. It turns out that the human tendency to turn away from mass suffering is well documented."

The origins of this qoute originate from a caucus held in russia when Stalin was Comissioner of munitions. One of the cheif matters of the meeting was famine in ukraine. One government official stood and gave a speech on the matter and then began to calcuate death figures, Stalin quickly interupted him and stated his well acclaimed qoute " A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a