Stalin joins the applause
anecdote · Soviet/Stalinist ·
retold in 21 talks
When a fascist leader finishes speaking the crowd applauds and he simply accepts it. In Stalinism the leader joins in the applause himself. Žižek (drawing on Dolar's work) reads this as the difference between the fascist structure of voice, charismatic reception, and the Stalinist structure of writing, the enlightened messenger who is 'one of us.'
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 20
“in Stalinism the leader simply joins the applause why because it's still this lecture message of enlightenment I'm ultimately one of you”
“What does a communist do? Stands up and joins the applause. This tells everything. It's totally different logic, Stalinist dictator is not a master, it's a perfect servant of the people.”
“In Stalinism, the leader stands up and joins the applause. So I have chosen my side.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 5 jobsuses
my stalinism / benevolent stalinism
×3
totalitarianism
×2
the big Other
×2
Holy Spirit
×2
Enlightenment inheritance of Stalinism
×2
Its cast and sources
populated by
Anne Applebaum8Nikolai Bukharin6Salman Rushdie4Rudolf Slánský3John D. Caputo3James Joyce4Akira Kurosawa4Arundhati Roy3
alongside works
Every retelling 20
1:00:37 Žižek and Friends - Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and the Spaces Between (Nov. 2017)2017-11-14 · 1:03:09
When a fascist leader finishes speaking the crowd applauds and he simply accepts it. In Stalinism the leader joins in the applause himself. Žižek (drawing on Dolar's work) reads this as the difference between the fascist structure of voice, charismatic reception, and the Stalinist structure of writing, the enlightened messenger who is 'one of us.', illustrating figure of voice vs. figure of writing,authentic tragedy (vs. fascism)
When crowds applaud Hitler or fascist leaders, the leader accepts the applause. Communist leaders, by contrast, stand up and join the applause directed at them, performing their own subordination to the people they allegedly serve. Žižek reads this as expressing a totally different logic of power., illustrating prohibition of stating the prohibition,Stalinism,ideology
In Nazism the crowd applauds the leader who accepts it; in Stalinism the leader stands up and applauds with the crowd, Žižek jokes he has chosen his side (Stalinism)., illustrating Stalinist vs Nazi political authority,unwritten rules of political ritual
When audiences applauded Stalin, he would stand and join the applause, unlike Hitler who simply received it, signalling 'I am not the master, I serve the historical cause,' illustrating Stalinist as opposed to fascist logic of authority., illustrating Stalinism vs. fascism,perversion,master figure
Unlike a fascist leader who merely receives applause after a speech, the Stalinist leader joins in, signaling 'I am one of you, we all serve the cause.' This different subjective position structures the entire difference between the two totalitarianisms., illustrating Stalinism vs. fascism,subjective position,totalitarianism
Watch fascist versus Stalinist leaders receiving applause: the fascist simply stands and receives it, the Stalinist leader joins the applause alongside the crowd. Žižek says he is on the Stalinist side., illustrating ideology,Stalinism,collective vs. individual