今年11月22日辞世的斯韦特兰娜•斯大林娜(Svetlana Stalina)以往总是说，父亲斯大林(Stalin)"毁掉了我的生活"。她坎坷的一生向人们揭示出，权力是如何破坏、腐化、侵蚀家庭的。即使是在民主国家，无止境的权力欲也是令人疲惫、进而起到破坏和腐蚀作用的。在暴君们的长期统治下，专制程度越高，这种腐蚀性就越强。家庭的温情纽带被权力的铁轮碾得粉碎。大权在握者，比如斯大林和希特勒(Hitler)，往往将自己视为无私而孤独的骑士，在佩剑纵马前行时被吸引至敌人的疆土。即便对卡扎菲上校(Colonel Gaddafi)、萨达姆•侯赛因(Saddam Hussein)或阿萨德(Assad)家族这类人（在他们眼中，政治就等于王朝）来说，权力也有着至高无上的重要性。
到头来，正如我们在卡扎菲倒台过程中所见证的那样，卡扎菲的儿子们预计将沦为他那自恋式妄自尊大的祭品。萨达姆曾竭力不让他那些恶魔儿子之间的争斗失去平衡；他的女儿们则在这场同根相煎的争斗中受到打压，最终，他听任儿子将女婿杀死，彻底毁掉了一家人的生活。阿萨德家族则深受家族内讧的困扰。卡扎菲培养了几个性情残暴的儿子，为将来掌权做准备，尽管他们曾密谋反对他——但这几个儿子全都在卡扎菲那混杂着撒哈拉版《诸神的黄昏》(Götterdämerung)与阿拉伯版《李尔王》(King Lear)的贝都因悲剧中成为牺牲品。
独女面对的环境要更为简单。当我研究斯大林与斯韦特兰娜的关系时，我发现，虽然斯韦特兰娜宣称她的回忆录开诚布公、揭露了事实真相，但她实际上只是在重述历史，同时保守了一个也许是她本人的最大的秘密。在有关斯大林的文献中，我找到了被斯韦特兰娜略掉或遗忘的一段生活：一方面，她的童年备受娇惯与溺爱；她父亲宠爱她，喜欢亲吻她，把自己盘子里的东西喂给她吃，还说她的红头发和雀斑就像她祖母凯克(Keke)一样。另一方面，当她的母亲娜佳•阿利卢耶娃(Nadya Alliluyeva)在1932年自杀时，斯韦特兰娜人生头六年的正常生活也画上了句号，当时斯大林正面临他最大的危机——集体化。
斯大林和娜佳的子女——斯韦特兰娜和哥哥瓦西里(Vasily)被告知母亲死于腹膜炎。但当斯大林杀害自己的同志、甚至连斯韦特兰娜的亲人也不放过时，她和哥哥不禁意识到，这个世界正变得越来越黑暗。尽管娜佳的自杀令瓦西里精神崩溃，它却使斯大林父女的关系走得更近：女儿放学回家后，斯大林和她共进晚餐，并在她的家庭作业上签字；他还骄傲地把女儿引见给温斯顿•丘吉尔(Winston Churchill)。如果说斯大林在一生中真心喜欢过什么人的话，那就是斯韦特兰娜。"我是他的宠儿，"斯韦特兰娜说，"他充满了慈爱。"
我在档案中找到了他们两人之间的信件。斯大林称女儿为"我的小麻雀，令我无比快乐的小东西"。斯大林鼓励时年11岁的斯韦特兰娜假扮俄罗斯的独裁者。斯韦特兰娜写信给莫斯科的联共政治局，命令全苏联的学校推迟开学。斯大林的副手在回信中写道："向我们的领袖斯韦特兰娜致敬！我等您推迟开学的命令已经等了20天！"联共政治局签署命令时附加了风趣的评语："同意！您顺从的农民！"斯韦特兰娜在给斯大林的另一封信中写道："今日3号令：我命令你向我汇报中央委员会的动态。严格保密。领袖斯韦特兰娜•斯大林娜。"自称为"您的小秘书"的斯大林答复道："您的来信为我们在复杂的政治问题中指明了方向。"然而，即便是这种纵容式的父爱也没能抵御住渴望控制一切的专制念头：当斯韦特兰娜发现母亲死于自杀时，当她寻求感情上的独立时，这对父女的融洽关系走到了尽头。斯大林这个有着维多利亚时代古板的性道德观、同时又很重传统的格鲁吉亚父亲，被女儿与犹太剧作家阿列克谢•卡普勒(Alexei Kapler)之间的恋情激怒了。当时卡普勒40岁，斯韦特兰娜16岁。斯大林扇了女儿一记耳光，撕毁了她的情书（至少在这方面，斯大林的表现与大多数父亲没什么两样）。后来，他将卡普勒流放到西伯利亚。斯韦特兰娜的头两次婚姻先后破裂——而斯大林认为是女儿的责任。
二战后，斯韦特兰娜开始认识到父亲的残忍：她无意间听到斯大林下令杀死一名犹太演员。后来她将父亲的罪行归咎于秘密警察头子拉夫连季•贝利亚(Lavrenti Beria)。在她的回忆录中，贝利亚被描绘成了一个魔鬼。但她隐瞒了自己年轻时最大的秘密：她一生中真正爱的人只有贝利亚的儿子谢尔戈(Sergo)，她曾非常希望嫁给谢尔戈。但贝利亚决心阻止这一会让自己儿子陷入险境的婚姻。当谢尔戈与其他女子结婚时，实际地位是斯大林公主的斯韦特兰娜曾试图迫使二人离婚。
身为伟人的女儿是一种负担，身为伟人的儿子则是一种诅咒。斯大林认为自己的大儿子雅科夫(Yakov)性格懦弱……后来雅科夫被德国纳粹俘虏后自杀：当斯大林得知雅科夫表现英勇时，甚至他自己也被感动了。斯大林的另一个儿子瓦西里被破格提拔为空军司令，但他实际上是一个软弱、酗酒、跋扈的纨绔子弟——感到丢脸的斯大林多次对其进行羞辱和降职。
全能父亲的成功是无法承受之重。对父亲而言，儿子令人失望，而权力又始终是第一位的。斯大林为达成自己的政治目标，毁掉了一生中的所有爱情和亲情。他最后孑然一身，郁郁寡欢。
所有的权力都会影响到个人，即使在民主国家也是如此。伦道夫•丘吉尔(Randolph Churchill)受累于自己父亲的伟大，很年轻的时候就因酗酒而去世。俾斯麦(Bismarck)阻止儿子赫伯特(Herbert)娶心爱的女人为妻，致使赫伯特借酒消愁、早早离世。
斯大林这位苦行僧式的布尔什维克从未给予家人任何权力。但在大多数独裁统治中，权力是属于最高统治者的——受到儿子威胁的父亲阻止儿子获得权力。因此才有押沙龙(Absolom)反抗大卫王(King David)；乔治二世(George II)与威尔士亲王弗雷德里克(Frederick Prince of Wales)长期争斗；威廉二世(Wilhelm II)憎恨父亲腓特烈皇帝(Emperor Frederick)。这种威胁如此真实，以至于独裁者们往往不可避免地采取杀掉子女的做法：大希律王(Herod the Great)杀掉了自己的三个儿子；君士坦丁大帝(Constantine the Great)、成吉思汗、伊凡雷帝(Ivan the Terrible)、彼得大帝(Peter the Great)、波斯阿巴斯大帝(Shah Abbas)、塞利姆一世(Selim the Grim)和苏莱曼大帝(Suleiman the Magnificent)全都杀死了自己的儿子——彼得大帝和伊凡雷帝亲自杀死了自己的儿子。苏莱曼大帝在门帘后看着自己的儿子被绞死。
斯大林对子女的恶毒诅咒以斯韦特兰娜的辞世告终。丘吉尔对待家人的态度可能是所有统治者中最健康的，尽管他对伦道夫感到失望。当丘吉尔的外孙尼古拉斯•索姆斯(Nicholas Soames)问道："外公，你是世界上最伟大的人吗？"丘吉尔答道："是的。现在你滚到一边去。"
本文作者著有《斯大林：红色沙皇》(Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar)一书。他的最新著作是《耶路撒冷传记》(Jerusalem: the Biography)。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001042071
Svetlana Stalina, who died on 22nd November 2011, always said that Stalin, her father, "broke my life". Her troubled life illustrates how power coarsens, corrupts and corrodes family itself. Even in democracies, the relentless demands of power are wearying, then coarsening then corrupting. In the long reigns of despots, the more absolute, the more corrosive. The gentle ties of family are ground to dust by steel wheels of power. Men of power such as a Stalin or Hitler usually see themselves as selfless, lone knights riding with swords drawn into hostile territory. Even for those such as Colonel Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein or the Assads for whom politics is dynastic, power is paramount.
In the end, as we saw in Gaddafi's downfall, the sons were expected to sacrifice themselves on the pyre of his narcissistic megalomania. Saddam struggled to hold the balance between the rivalries of his own diabolical princelings – his daughters were squeezed in this filial vice and in the ultimate poisoning of family life, he allowed his sons to murder his sons-in-law. The Assads have been cursed by familial rivalries. Gaddafi groomed several atrocious sons for power, even when they plotted against him – but all were sacrificed in his Bedouin hybrid of Saharan götterdämerung and Arabic King Lear.
It is easier for a daughter. When I researched the relationship between Stalin and Svetlana, I found that, while presenting her memoirs as frank and revealing, she had rewritten history and left out perhaps her own greatest secret. In Stalin's papers, I found parts of her life that she had excised or forgotten: on the one hand, her childhood was privileged and indulgent, her father adored her, always kissing her, feeding her from his plate, comparing her red hair and freckles to his own mother Keke. On the other, the normality of her first six years ended when her mother, Nadya Alliluyeva, committed suicide in 1932 at the moment of Stalin's greatest crisis – collectivisation.
Their children, Svetlana and her elder brother Vasily, were told she had died of peritonitis. But they could not help but notice the darkening world as Stalin destroyed his colleagues and even Svetlana's aunts and uncles. If Vasily went to pieces after Nadya's suicide, it brought father and daughter closer: he dined with her after school and signed her homework; he proudly introduced her to Winston Churchill. If he truly loved anyone in his life, it was she. "I was his pet," she said. "He was very affectionate."
In the archives, I found their letters. Stalin called her "my little sparrow, my great joy". Stalin encouraged Svetlana, aged 11, to pretend to be dictator of Russia. Svetlana wrote to the politburo in Moscow ordering the postponement of school term in the entire USSR. Stalin's deputy replied with this note: "Hail to our Boss Svetlana! I await your instructions on the postponement of school term by 20 days!" The whole Politburo signed it with funny comments: "Agreed! Your obedient peasant!" Another time she wrote to Stalin: "Daily Order number 3: I order you to show me what happens in the Central Committee. Strictly confidential. S. Stalina, the Boss." Stalin calling himself "Your little Secretary" replied "your letter enabled us to find our way in complicated political questions". But even the indulgence of paternal love cannot withstand the autocratic craving for total control: their relationship was ruined by her discovery of her mother's suicide and her emotional independence: Stalin, Victorian prude and traditional Georgian father, was infuriated by her romance with Alexei Kapler, a Jewish screenwriter. He was 40, Svetlana 16. Stalin, in this at least a typical father, slapped her face, tearing up her love letters. He then had Kapler deported to Siberia. Her first two marriages failed – and Stalin blamed her.
After the second world war, she glimpsed his murderousness: she overheard him ordering the killing of a Yiddish actor. She later blamed her father's crimes on Lavrenti Beria, his secret-police chief, whom she demonised in her memoirs. But she concealed the biggest secret of her youth: the real love of her life was none other than Beria's son Sergo, whom she desperately wanted to marry. But Beria was determined to prevent a marriage that would put his son in danger. When Sergo married someone else, Svetlana, truly Stalin's princess, tried to force their divorce.
To be the daughter of a titan is a burden; to be the son, a curse: Stalin regarded his eldest son Yakov as a weakling ... Then he was captured by the Nazis and committed suicide: when Stalin found out he had behaved courageously, even he was moved. His other son Vasily, Svetlana's full brother, was overpromoted to air force general but was a weak, alcoholic, swaggering debauchee whom an embarrassed Stalin repeatedly humiliated and demoted.
The success of the omnipotent father is impossible to bear. For the father, the son is a disappointment – and power always comes first. Stalin poisoned every love relationship in his life for his political mission. He ended alone and morose.
All power, even in democracies, is personal. Randolph Churchill suffered from the greatness of his father, dying young of alcoholism. Bismarck prevented his son Herbert from marrying the love of his life – and drove him to alcoholism and early death.
Stalin, the ascetic Bolshevik never gave his family any power. Yet in most tyrannies, power is monarchical – the son held back by the father threatened by the son. Hence Absolom's revolt against King David; the feud of George II and Frederick Prince of Wales; the hatred of Wilhelm II for his father Emperor Frederick. The threat is so real that filicide often by necessity became the policy of autocrats: Herod the Great killed three sons; Constantine the Great, Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Shah Abbas of Persia, Selim the Grim and Suleiman the Magnificent all murdered sons – Peter and Ivan killing theirs personally. Suleiman watching the strangling from behind a curtain.
Stalin's toxic curse on his children has finally died with Svetlana. Churchill's attitude towards his family, despite his disappointment in Randolph, was probably the most healthy of the potentates. When grandson Nicholas Soames asked: "Granpa, are you the greatest man in the world?" "Yes," said Churchill. "Now bugger off."
The writer is the author of 'Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar'. His latest book is 'Jerusalem: the Biography'
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