No no. Stalin was part Russian and part Georgian which was specifically regarded as a separate race by the Russians of the era. "Slav" as we refer to it now pretty much refers to the entire eastern-european ethnicity. You could say that generally speaking "Slavs" of the period of the soviet union regarded Georgians as "not-slav" and there was animosity with a clear belief they were somewhat lesser than Russians. Russian superiority towards other states in the union was a consistent problem being battled against by leaders of the ussr.
I mean, now you're getting into the whole bizarre history of weird vintage racism in European countries where everyone hated everyone else and they thought some group of people living like 50km away was a vastly different and inferior race. But that's another story. I'm pretty sure that some anglo or whatever would just consider Lenin or Stalin a filthy slav or "asiatic". It's kind of cheating to consider them a "person of color" because, like, almost everyone was a "person of color" by that standard, according to where they happened to be at that particular moment.
Perhaps yes. But the point, generally speaking, was that during that time period Stalin was in fact regarded as a POC within the context of their cultural attitudes. A half-Georgian leader was a big deal to them of the time period.
Now? Not so much. We all regard them as pretty much the same.
This is the point. Our perception of race itself is arbitrary and heavily affected by whatever the active social currents are that are sweeping through society.
I can imagine that. For instance, I legitimately can't imagine a prime minister of Albanian descent in Greece even today. Some people were pissed at a former prime minister because he was like part American and an eighth Polish.
No no. Stalin was part Russian and part Georgian which was specifically regarded as a separate race by the Russians of the era. "Slav" as we refer to it now pretty much refers to the entire eastern-european ethnicity. You could say that generally speaking "Slavs" of the period of the soviet union regarded Georgians as "not-slav" and there was animosity with a clear belief they were somewhat lesser than Russians. Russian superiority towards other states in the union was a consistent problem being battled against by leaders of the ussr.
I mean, now you're getting into the whole bizarre history of weird vintage racism in European countries where everyone hated everyone else and they thought some group of people living like 50km away was a vastly different and inferior race. But that's another story. I'm pretty sure that some anglo or whatever would just consider Lenin or Stalin a filthy slav or "asiatic". It's kind of cheating to consider them a "person of color" because, like, almost everyone was a "person of color" by that standard, according to where they happened to be at that particular moment.
Perhaps yes. But the point, generally speaking, was that during that time period Stalin was in fact regarded as a POC within the context of their cultural attitudes. A half-Georgian leader was a big deal to them of the time period.
Now? Not so much. We all regard them as pretty much the same.
This is the point. Our perception of race itself is arbitrary and heavily affected by whatever the active social currents are that are sweeping through society.
I can imagine that. For instance, I legitimately can't imagine a prime minister of Albanian descent in Greece even today. Some people were pissed at a former prime minister because he was like part American and an eighth Polish.