MY GALLERY OF HISTORY

Stalin allegedly never cleaned his pipes and they gave off a foul smell. He owned many pipes during his lifetime. This pipe, probably one of the many gifts he received from his many admirers, belonged to Stalin and came from a former servant at his summer residence at Sochi where he spent two to three weeks a year. The bowl is heavily encrusted, indicating he smoked it many times. Carved No less iconic than Joseph Stalin's mustache was his pipe. His choice of tobacco was "Herzegovina Flor" which became known as "Stalin's Choice." Since it only appeared in cigarettes, Stalin would take two cigarettes out of a box and shred them into his pipe. Pipe tobacco at the time was cheap and rough and he had become rather fond of the flavor of the cigarettes when he was a young man. The relief on the front of the bowl is the Emblem of The Soviet Union which was adopted on July 6, 1923 (see below) This pipe came from one of Stalin's dachas. Stalin’s pipe was also a signal of responses to people and ideas. The three key signals were: 1. Pipe taken out of mouth, smoking ceases = moment of thought and possible disagreement or change of mind. 2. Pipe placed carefully on table = someone has messed up and is about to be told off. 3. Pipe firmly in mouth and moustache calmly smoothed = deep pleasure and approval. Stalin himself cracked [jokes], including this one about a visit from a Georgian delegation: They come, they talk to Stalin, and then they go, heading off down the Kremlin's corridors. Stalin starts looking for his pipe. He can't find it. He calls in Beria, the dreaded head of his secret police. "Go after the delegation, and find out which one took my pipe," he says. Beria scuttles off down the corridor. Five minutes later Stalin finds his pipe under a pile of papers. He calls Beria--"Look, I've found my pipe." "It's too late," Beria says, "half the delegation admitted they took your pipe, and the other half died during questioning."