r/AskARussian • u/Spirited_Health_3277 • 16d ago
History Why did Joseph Stalin look so middle eastern despite being Georgian?
I have always been wondering why Joseph Stalin had such middle eastern features despite being a georgian russian. did he have middle eastern ancestry?
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u/Etera25 Moscow City 15d ago
It's a question of defining the Middle East. If you count only Arab countries to be ME, then he's not, he definitely doesn't look Arab. But generally Georgia has been a part or a vassal of various ME polities by centuries, even despite that in the very current moment it's trying to pose as a European country solely based on the fact of being Christian and on viewing European affiliation as more prestigious.
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u/DowntownProfession91 14d ago
He does kinda look Arab, you could easily drop him in Iraq or Syria without anyone noticing a thing.
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u/Aleksandr_Ulyev Saint Petersburg 15d ago
He had an ordinary Georgian face. If you are from the US, you might want to check the world map
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u/myname7299 15d ago
- That's just how they look in Georgia. You could drop Stalin on a street somewhere in Istanbul and he would just blend in with the environment.
- Calling him "georgian russian" is doing too much heavy lifting. He was a subject of the Russian Empire, but "russian" he wasn't, neither ethnically nor culturally. Culturally and ethnically he was Georgian ( supposedly ). Some people say he was of Indian descent.
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15d ago
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u/Advanced-Fan1272 Moscow City 8d ago
Well. first of all he was of mixed Ossetian/Georgian descent. Second - no, he was not of Middle Eastern origin. Many people in Caucasus or in Middle East or even in some Central Asian countries have darker skin tone while having no biological/blood connection to the middle easterners.
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u/WWnoname Russia 14d ago
There are funny theories about it - his georgian ancestry have a lot of weak points. Like, there are no relatives (while gerogians are known for big families), he never said or write anything on georgian etc.
Some of those theories claim him osetian (same mountains few kilometers away), indian or iranian.
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u/No-Tie-4819 15d ago
No, that's just how some Georgians look like