Did Stalin and Hitler meet in 1913 ?

Did Stalin and Hitler meet in 1913 ?
Andre Willers
29 Sep 2011

Synopsis :
They certainly met .
Shaw would have loved to write the play .
It would make a fantastic movie and TV series .
Pity the Reality Show involved 50 million dead .
But that's Show Business .

Discussion:
Quote from
http://cnparm.home.texas.net/Nat/Rus/Rus07.htm
“1913 
==late.Jan-late.Feb > ~Stalin visits Vienna, arriving disguised as a Greek peasant - he writes the pamphlet Marxism and the Nationality Question, which advocates national/ethnic autonomy under socialism (which he privately calls “all sorts of rubbish”) - he first encounters Bukharin and Trotsky (to whom Stalin only grunts) - he uses the pseudonym ‘Stalin’ for the first time, on Jan.25  “

The young Hitler was there , moving in the same circles . Impoverished , vociferic socialists hanging around in the same cafe's . While Vienna was a large city , the social strata were clearly defined . A small circle .

Stalin was evading police interest , but not too energetically . At the time , he was a charismatic individual (think Che Guavara) , who was a strong advocate of socialism . Spending a lot of time in the cafe's , talking and chatting up the girls . He was very attractive to women . He was a romantic poet of some note , as well as a dashing revolutionary .

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin's_poetry
“Stalin published all of his work anonymously and never publicly acknowledged it. WhenLavrenti Beria secretly had Boris Pasternak and other noted translators prepare a Russian edition of Stalin's poems for the ruler's 70th birthday in 1949, Stalin had the project stopped.[1] “

Stalin was 33 years old (b1879) , a veteran revolutionary , a charismatic figure of socialism .
Hitler was 23 years old (b1889) , a person of inchoate passions , opinionated , intelligent but undirected . Ideal recruitment material .

Did the two meet ?
Hitler almost certainly saw Stalin around , in the charmed circle where he desperately desired acceptance .

Now note the pamphlet Stalin wrote then :
“Marxism and the Nationality Question, which advocates national/ethnic autonomy under socialism (which he privately calls “all sorts of rubbish”) “
This is textbook definition of National Socialism .
It made a huge impression on Hitler .

Did Stalin remember Hitler ?
Almost certainly yes . Even at 23 , Hitler was no callow youth , but a seasoned survivor of the slums of Vienna . Full of passionate fury . You know the type . Pushy .
A possibly useful tool .
Hence Stalin's continual underestimation of Hitler .

Stalin believed that nationalism was a spent force . Hence the non-national structure of the USSR.
Hitler believed in National , Ethnic Socialism , partly because of Stalin's pamphlet .

Both started as romantic idealists (the poet and the painter) and ended up as cynics of the blackest kind , settling matters in other people's blood .

Oh , well . Things could be worse . One of them could have won .

Andre

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