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Patricia Lovejoy-Johnson and Tyler Hardy
Professor Blair
UWRT 1103
21 March 2016
A Man of Many False Words
Most people know Joseph Stalin as the ruthless dictator of the Soviet Union who
transformed the Soviet Union from a small, poor society into a communist country with a strong
military and industry. Stalin gave a famous speech on Red Square during the celebration of
the anniversary of the October Revolution. The October Revolution occurred in 1917 and
was the was revolution that created Soviet Russia. To become leader of the USSR, Stalin
used many different harsh tactics to get ahold of the power he held such as executing and sending
those who didnt agree with him to labor camps. World War II started and in 1939 the Soviet
Union signed a nonaggression pact with Germany. The nonaggression pact was signed in
hopes of keeping these enemies peaceful so they could put their focus on other parts of the
war. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and broke their pact. The Soviet Union
then retaliated and entered the war, fighting against Germany. Later that year, on November 7,
1941, Joseph Stalin gave the famous speech on red square during the celebration of the October
Revolution. During his speech, Stalin used many fallacies such as glittering generalities, name
calling, bandwagon and transfer as ways to rally his citizens into believing that the Soviet
Union was a major player in the war, and that the fate of the war would be up to the Soviet
citizens.
The first common fallacy that was used in his speech was glittering generalities. Ann

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McClintock says a glittering generality is when, Advertisers surround their products with
attractive-and slippery-words and phrases. They argue terms that are difficult to define and that
may have different meanings to different people (McClintock, par. 6) Stalin uses this tactic
multiple times in speech when he says; Our glorious men and women (Speech on Red Square,
par. 1), glorious motherland (Speech on Red Square, par. 19), and The war you are waging is
a war of liberation, a just war. (Speech on Red Square, par. 15) All of these are examples where
he uses certain words or terms that make it seem that everything he is doing is for the Soviet
Union and that its okay. He uses these words to make everything that is happening seem more
attractive. These are statements that can have a different meaning depending on who is listening
to them.
Another fallacy that Stalin uses during his speech is name calling. Name calling is, a
propaganda tactic in which negatively charged names are hurled against the opposing side or
competitor. (McClintock, par. 4), according to Ann McClintock. Multiple times during his
speech he called Germans out and attacked them and their war efforts. For example, Stalin calls
the Germans out by saying; The German brigands treacherous attack, yoke of Fascist
tyranny, and boastful assertions of German propagandists (Speech on Red Square, par. ,8,
10). These all prove how Stalin would use negative labels as a way to promote his own political
agenda. The name calling tactic helped the audience associate the negative words with
Germany and made them seem like a threat to Soviet citizen life.
Stalin used emotional fallacies like bandwagon appeal to gain support for the war
from his Soviet Union. He needed all of his citizens on board and in support of the Soviet
Army for them to have success in war. Nancy Wood says that bandwagon appeal is, that
since everyone is doing a particular thing, you should too. (Wood, par. 21) In his speech

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Stalin says, Comrades, Red ArmyThe enslaved peoples of Europe under the yoke of the
German invaders are looking to you as their liberators. A great mission of liberation has
fallen to your lot. Be worth of this mission. (Speech on Red Square, par. 13,14,15) He uses
this part of the speech to convince the Soviet citizens to join and support the war effort
because everyone else is. He also puts the pressure of saying that their support of the war is
their duty to the rest of the world.
Even though there are many other fallacies used in the speech, the last popular
fallacy was transfer. According to McClintock, transfer is when, Advertisers try to
improve the image of a product by associating it with a symbol most people respect.
(McClintock, par. 8) There are multiple examples where Joseph Stalin uses transfer in his
speech by bringing up the names of other famous historical leaders. He lists, Lenin
Alexanders Nevsky, Dmitri Donskoi, Kusma Minin, Dmitri Pozharksy, Alexander Suvorov,
Mikhail Kutuzov! (Speech of Red Square, par. 6,9,15) He is hoping that the importance
of their names will inspire the Soviet citizens to join him and support the Red Army. These
names have importance to the history of the country, and by associating these names with
the way is supposed to make people join the war effort to have the same level of importance
to Soviet Union as their ancestors had.
Stalin has used all these fallacies to make big claims, but doesnt give any support. After
further research on his dictatorship and this time period, there is no actual evidence to support his
speech. He is not a credible source. In other parts of the speech he makes claims about how
before his rule, Soviet Union, Had no allieswe experienced a shortage of bread, a shortage of
arms, a shortage of equipment. (Speech of Red Square, par. 5) This part is false because on the
History Channels summary of his life and rule it is explained how there was widespread famine

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and all of the military power they gained was from his brutal force of the citizens. They were
forced to work for Stalin to build the machinery the military used and some were even forced
into the military. Your options were to either join Stalin or die. He also said in his speech that
under his rule there was, no serious shortage either of food or of arms or equipment. (Speech
on Red Square, par. 8) This also evidence of why he is false, because the way he obtained all of
the farms and equipment was through force.
Joseph Stalins speech was set up on a bed of fallacies. He understood that as the
USSRs leader he had to convince his country that the war was not just something they
needed to do to protect themselves, but it was their duty and should be their honor to serve
their country. Stalin used his role as dictator to control what his citizens knew and told
them lies to raise their spirits before the hard times ahead started. He used glittering
generalities, name calling, bandwagon, transfer and other types of fallacies to manipulate the
citizens of the Soviet Union to join the war effort. Historians have proved how this speech is
false because the claims he was making were not supported by what was actually happening and
going on. All of this is proof that Stalin lied in his speech, because the claims he made in other
parts of his speech were false, and the fallacies he used were to support those claims. He used
fallacies to amp up his speech because he knew it was his responsibility to rally his citizens
together and prepare them for war.

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Works Cited
"Joseph Stalin." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.
"JOSEPH STALIN'S SPEECH ON RED SQUARE ON ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF
THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION." JOSEPH STALIN'S SPEECH ON RED SQUARE ON
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION. Web. 01 Mar.
2016.
McClintok, Ann. Propaganda Techniques in Todays Advertising. The Longman Reader. Ed.

Judith Nadell. New York: Longman, 2003. 304-311. Print.

Whitnet, Craig R. "Soviet Writer Quits Union Row." The Globe and Mail [Toronto] 21 Dec.
1979: 1-17. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Wood, Nancy. Essentials of Argument. Upper Saddle River: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2006.
Print.

"Russian Revolution: The October Revolution of 1917." Infoplease. Infoplease. Web. 20 Mar.
2016.
"German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 20 Mar.
2016.

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