Book review: Darwin's influence on Stalin

From Michael Burleigh's review of Montefiore's Young Stalin:

Djugashvili was a ragamuffin who escaped the violent rages of his father by leading one of the town's violent street gangs. He was also bright and gifted at acting, poetry and singing, talents that led to his enrolment aged 15 at the seminary in Tiflis. Various patrons helped out Keke, Stalin's impoverished seamstress mother.

An early reading of Darwin apparently corroded his religious beliefs, which were rapidly replaced by Marxism. Most of Djugashvili's energies went into petty power struggles with an autocratic priest nicknamed 'Black Spot'. In 1899 Djugashvili was expelled, and he started the one and only legitimate job of his youth when he joined the Tiflis Meteorological Observatory, a cover for his burgeoning activities as a revolutionary agitator in the manner described by Dostoevsky in The Devils. Djugashvili began to dress the part; beard, long greasy hair, a black satin blouse and dirty shoes.

Today, I was just rereading Richard Weikart's From Darwin to Hitler, and was struck by the number of Germans at the turn of the twentieth century who had a similar experience. He and Montefiore might like to compare notes.

Mindful Hack: Recent posts

Today at the Mindful Hack, O’Leary’s blog on neuroscience issues,

More on the flies that think

Also at the Mindful Hack:

Primate ancestor had small brain, but don't think that Darwinists will see that as a setback for Darwinism. Indeed, this story beautifully illustrates the reason why Darwinism cannot be disconfirmed..

Michael Novak, reviewing Christopher Hitchens discusses the mindset within Western Christianity that made science possible.

Secular fundamentalism in Turkey promotes renewed interest in democracy among the religious.

My other blog is the Mindful Hack, which keeps tabs on neuroscience and the mind.

If you like this blog, check out my book on the intelligent design controversy, By Design or by Chance?. You can read excerpts as well.

Are you looking for one of the following stories?

Animations of life inside the cell, indexed, for your convenience.

Anti-God crusade ... no, really! My recent series on the spate of anti-God books, teen blasphemy challenge, et cetera, and the mounting anxiety of materialist atheists that lies behind it.

Catholic Church A summary of the Catholic Church's entry into the controversy, essentially on the side of ID.

Collins, Francis My review of Francis Collins’ book The Language of God

Columnists weigh in on the intelligent design controversy A summary of recent opinion columns on the ID controversy

Darwinism dissent Lists of theoretical and applied scientists who doubt Darwin

Gilder, George A summary of tech guru George Gilder's arguments for ID and against Darwinism

Intelligent design academic publications.

Intelligent design-friendly students should be flunked, according to bio prof Evolutionary biologist’s opinion that all students friendly to intelligent design should be flunked.

Intelligent design controversy My U of Toronto talk on why there is an intelligent design controversy, or my talk on media coverage of the controversy at the University of Minnesota.

Intelligent design controversy timeline An ID Timeline: The ID folk seem always to win when they lose.

Intelligent design and culture My review of sci-fi great Rob Sawyer’s novel, The Calculating God , which addresses the concept of intelligent design.

March of the Penguins A critical look at why March of the Penguins was thought to be an ID film.

Origin of life Why origin of life is such a difficult problem.

Peer review My backgrounder about peer review issues.

Polls relevant to the intelligent design controversy A summary of recent polls of US public opinion on the ID controversy

Stove, David O'Leary's intro to non-Darwinian agnostic philosopher David Stove’s critique of Darwinism.

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