Today’s Non-Productive Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin wanted all writers, musicians, and artists to create works of realism, though what that actually meant was anyone’s guess. The dictator’s purges during the 1930’s-40’s not only silenced the country’s intelligentsia but anyone deemed unwilling to glorify Soviet achievements. The secret police (NKVD) tortured detainees until confessions for crimes, including “low productivity,” were admitted. Soviet author Isaac Babel, tortured and shot in 1940 at the age of forty-five, was one of more than 600,000 exterminated for cultural offenses. Although records have been altered, Stalin is alleged to have killed as many as 1.2 million of his countrymen, and once stated, “Death is the solution to all problems. No man – no problem.”
Culled from: Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages
Hmmmm… I think that quote deserves its own t-shirt!