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CEO: Another Way of Saying Dictator
A Stalinist corporate model is a poor fit for American democracy
There is a reason Soviets called Stalin “The Boss.” Over the course of his quarter century rule of the largest country on Earth, the one-time village seminary student grew ever more powerful, eradicated his enemies, and established the ability to exert direct control over nearly every aspect of his citizens’ very uncivic lives.
Soviets were reminded daily of his ever watchful eye. Entire cities took his name. There was of course “Stalingrad” along the banks of the Volga but also Stalinsk in Siberia, Stalinogorsk and Stalino in Ukraine, and Stalinabad in Tajikistan. Further afield in the countries of his crushed enemies there were Sztálinváros (Hungary), Stalinstadt (East Germany), Orașul Stalin, (Romania), Qyteti Stalin (Albania), and, just for simplicity’s sake, “Stalin” in Bulgaria. Industrial sites, tanks, dozens of schools, the country’s highest peak and a canal built by slaves who died by the thousands — all of them bore the name in some form of “Stalin.”
“The Boss” (“Хозяин”) approved all of this naming as he approved every decision he had the actual time to address directly. But, of course, in a country of many millions not every lever could be thrown by Stalin personally. Instead what rose up beneath him was a…
