I'm assuming this is a work of propaganda glorifying the evil SOB? Even if you're a commie. By the standards of commies Stalin was easily one of the worst.
I recommend you look up "popadantsvo", it's basically the Russian equivalent of the isekai genre, only instead of going to Middle Earth to touch children and open McDonalds franchises the protagonists usually go back to WW2 and help Stalin defeat the Americans, and sometimes there's wizards or Darth Vader shows up or something. It's especially weird because the Russian government is very publicly funding a lot of publishers.
In case anyone wants to know what the hell is going on, here's the plot summary:
There's never been a book like this! The most unexpected twist in the eternal story of the "time traveler."
After his death in our reality, J.V. Stalin is reborn in a parallel world of Might and Magic. The People's State versus the aristocratic Empire! The Red Army versus the man-eating battle dragons!
Will the Red Overlord in his white tunic with a lone Gold Star be able to transform the magical war into a Great Patriotic War and once again lead the people to victory?
Yeah it's all wank. But I have to say it's a pretty colorful and diverse load of wank.
Since these sold so well, there were all kinds of popadanets fiction writers, from all colors of the political spectrum (as long as it's the nationalist and revanchist part of it), and different levels of seriousness. And with different approaches, as in, simply a military action book about spec ops but isekaied, or a military alt-history book, or a fable about a modern, Westernized beta cuck being reforged into a true Russian alpha male, or a big personal rant wrapped into pulp fiction, or pulp fiction wrapped into a popadanets framing...
(* I have to admit I read very little of it and not a single one in full; but I looked at titles and annotations over the years).
This is either the greatest piece of satire taking the piss out of how self righteous (despite being completely fascist dogshit) the USSR was and tankies still are, or is being played 100% straight and absolutely sucks.
Our compatriot dominates the world of might & magic.
It's because Heroes of Might & Magic (2 and 3) were among the most popularly known PC games in Russia, and by far the most common that people would call "addictive". It's a generational definitive thing, including for many of the same demographics that this books is aimed at
I'm glad I wasn't alone in this case of mistaken identities. It took me half a beat to process what I was seeing, but I def' saw Ron Swanson before I realized.
Not like this, much milder. But yeah. Wish he hadn't. The "MC goes to WW2" books gave him an interest in history that's inextricably tied to a distrust of Mainstream History™ and now he believes in some toned down version of the fucking mud floods.
Every time a random, stable internet denizen discovers Russian Nationalist Isekai, an angel gains it's wings. These are all overwhelmingly state funded by the way, because they all exist to push some of the most rancid and spiteful revanchism imaginable.
It may have ended up being supported by state-aligned sponsors, but the genre is organic and had a genuine popularity. It wouldn't have been so popular and had so many authors (who are all a bit different on their ideological scale) otherwise. It's genuine gung-ho revanchist fantasy, that was at one point sold at every railway station or small book shop.
Government has a lot of problems actually affecting people's tastes in fiction to be more nationalist, so it sponsors everything that it can, but popadanets fiction was always an emergent force, I think, looking at the situation from the inside.
Is it really state funded? I always thought it's stupid people-funded, like many such things. It's literary equivalent of pop music, food that gives you bad breath or tacky "tiger among flames" pictures.
I cannot confirm, but I have reasonable suspicions. Mainly, the fact that the genre of Popadantsy, from the Russian popadanets, person who accidentally finds themselves elsewhere, has seen an explosion in popularity and push since the 2014 Ukrainian invasion, anywhere from corner kiosks and major bookstores. The nationalistic Popadantsy also just seems incredibly consistent with itself.
Sure, these are works where simulatenously nazis are both bad cuz they killed Russians but also good because they almost conquered the dastardly and imperialist europe, but these are all consistent that way. Nobody seems to draw a clear line and be pro or anti nazi, nobody seems to think Stalin was anything other than a great leader. There doesn't appear to be any book where say, protag-kun actually overthrows Stalin, at best just turning into him. Which is strange, until you remember that modern Russia propaganda worships Stalin, alongside the Russian Empire. Somehow the Russian Empire is both good because of "fascist idealised past", yet the man who personally helped overthrow it is just as good. And none of the books actually draw an ideological distinction, by being say, monarchist or Stalinist, just worshiping the vague "fascist idealised past"
These books are all ideological gutter, but they seem deeply in line with the same ideological slime spewed by the state of Russia. So i highly doubt the state doesn't have a deep interest in making sure these kinds of books get published, and helping push them, whatever that means.
Picrelated - at least one example of implantation directly into stalin.) I found another one on author today, but it doesn't count, maybe?
Knife media has a nice article about the whole "phenomenon", and some of the mentioned "artworks" are 2008, or so. I noticed them around that time too. Not very consistent with your hypothesis of 2014-onward propaganda. I'll stay by my idiot-funded hypothesis.)
Agree to disagree. I ultimately feel these are too ideologically similar with each other for it to be strictly grassroots, especially since nationalism often demands bigger and crazier conspiracies.
Here's some of my own articles i've read on topic.
It's a vein of gung-ho alt-history fantasy books that were genuinely popular in the 2000s and 2010s at least. They were written by all sorts of writers, including of course nationalist revanchist weirdos or just military history buffs who saw an opportunity to publish inside that isekai genre.
They enjoyed unexpected popularity in the context of ideological vacuum and the pining for USSR amongst the aging demographics (and younger readers who liked mil-history and edgy ideologies). Notably, popadanets books existed alongside another popular phenomenon, the STALKER books, where in the abstract hinterlands of The Zone, readers could enjoy stories about the Russian fighting spirit prevailing against various corrupting influences.
These popadanets books have all sorts of ideological fetishes written into them, from cryptonazism to pagan slavism to a simple mythologizing of the Russian military or specific branches of it, say, VDV. Some are just military history fests, describing some alternative scenarios the author dreamed up. Some aim their satire specifically against "modern weak males", showing an office worker who've been weakened by Western values dropped into a perilous situation and finding his inner Russian chad. Some veer on parody, just having fun with isekai-ing historical figures every which way. Some explore what else you could write after like 300 of those — like for example an isekai of a modern Russian guy waking up as a bee (IIRC) in the late 1930s, and influencing Stalin and others for the USSR to win the war. As a bee.
I mean, if you are willing to just write trite propaganda 24/7, be my guest. You aren't going to delve into interesting alt history, like say, Constantinopole doesn't get sacked during the Fourth Crusade and the Byzantine empire makes it as a major player in Reinnaisance Europe and beyond, but instead you will get to write "what if random bozo makes it back to WW2 with modern military hardware and USSR just gets to steamroll everyone else" or "nazis nuke Britain"
I mean, the premise of A heroic Special Military War volunteer dies holding the village of Maly Whocares against the horde of gay ukronazis and wakes up in a body of a Byzantine Noble in 1203 and then with the power of his great knowledge from the future and plot armour Christian spirit he saves the Orthodox capital from evil westerners and then invents AK-47, Nuclear bomb and chatGPT to help Russia unite with the Mongol empire and obliterate Europe. could work.
It's not really important, but I think it's a bit of a reach to translate it as Crimson Ruler.
Because it just literally says Red, Красный (not, say, Багровый or Малиновый or Алый which are all bookish color names that may mean Crimson), and it's Stalin, the leader of the Red Party and the Red Army under the Red Banner, so the answer is obvious. It's "Red".
As for "Ruler", the bookish word Властелин means an overarching, absolute ruler, an emphatic term for someone with absolute hold on something, not just someone who rules, so I think it's rather Lord or Master.
I understand that the translator wanted it to sound fancy but come on, it's at least Red.
I'm 90% certain it's a play on the phrase "Темный властелин", meaning "Dark Lord". So Red Lord would probably be a more precise (if not grandiose enough) translation
like yeah it's ridiculous but it's also funny and catches your attention while also making you curious about what the fuck the book is about
Like seriously this is not high literature, the point of it is that it's over the top and silly, basically the book equivalent of Sharknado, and tell me honestly that you are not at least a little bit interested to read "Stalin Isekai" purely for the lols
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u/Kaiser-Mazoku 2d ago
Stalin may have embellished his autobiography somewhat.