Koba
Born: c. 1875-1880
Profession: Political agitator, robber, brigand, murderer, red army general.
Though details of his early life are unclear, What is known is that he was born Josef Visarrionovich Dzugashvili near the city of Tiflis in Georgia. He is thought to be an only child and once studied at the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary before leaving and joining the Russian Social Democratic Labour party, aligning himself with the Bolshevik faction under Vladimir Lenin. As part of that organisation he became one of the party's most effective fundraisers, leading a campaign of robbery and extortion that sometimes went as far as daylight bank robber in efforts to secure funds for the cash strapped political movement.
Arrested several times each time exiled to Siberia only to escape, Koba avoided the worst penalties open to him by carefully distancing himself from direct involvement in the most heinous crimes such as murder, and, it is rumoured, occasionally providing information to the Okhrana about fellow party members, invariably rivals, who would suddenly find themselves arrested. This cycle of arrest exile and escape would continue until the revolutions of 1917. While the February revolution resulted in little change for Koba's immediate situation other than that he no longer had to live in fear of arrest, had he feared such a thing at all. The October revolution and his role in instigating it propelled his party and himself to the position of premier political force in the collapsing Russian Empire.
Elected to the party's central committee he took charge of red army forces in southern Russia where he faced the Armed Forces of Southern Russia under General Wrangel. Enjoying some initial success the summer of 1919 saw his forces crushed in the Don-Volga campaign. After a desperate last stand at the city of Tsaritsyn Koba disappeared after the city fell to the Whites. His exact fate remains unknown. At first it was commonly presumed he had been killed in the fighting, his body buried in the mountain of corpses he had created throughout the city. Now however a disturbing alternative possibility has emerged.
South of The Caucasus mountains lies the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A communist state which the Whites never reconquered during the civil war. Protected by the mountains and seas that surround it, this secretive state has for more than a decade now been ruled by the All-Union Communist party, formed out of the ashes of Bolshevik movement by an individual known as "Stalin". There are a number of parallels between Koba and Stalin: They are of the same age, or would be if Koba is indeed alive; they are both Georgian; both scared by smallpox and; most concerning, the both are crippled in their left arm.
If they are two different men, then the legacy of the criminal Koba, who's name is well known in Russia still, may be left behind as that of a criminal and killer, albeit an infamous one. If, however, he and Stalin are the same. Who knows what crimes he has committed in the years since he abandoned Tsaritsyn.
Though details of his early life are unclear, What is known is that he was born Josef Visarrionovich Dzugashvili near the city of Tiflis in Georgia. He is thought to be an only child and once studied at the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary before leaving and joining the Russian Social Democratic Labour party, aligning himself with the Bolshevik faction under Vladimir Lenin. As part of that organisation he became one of the party's most effective fundraisers, leading a campaign of robbery and extortion that sometimes went as far as daylight bank robber in efforts to secure funds for the cash strapped political movement.
Arrested several times each time exiled to Siberia only to escape, Koba avoided the worst penalties open to him by carefully distancing himself from direct involvement in the most heinous crimes such as murder, and, it is rumoured, occasionally providing information to the Okhrana about fellow party members, invariably rivals, who would suddenly find themselves arrested. This cycle of arrest exile and escape would continue until the revolutions of 1917. While the February revolution resulted in little change for Koba's immediate situation other than that he no longer had to live in fear of arrest, had he feared such a thing at all. The October revolution and his role in instigating it propelled his party and himself to the position of premier political force in the collapsing Russian Empire.
Elected to the party's central committee he took charge of red army forces in southern Russia where he faced the Armed Forces of Southern Russia under General Wrangel. Enjoying some initial success the summer of 1919 saw his forces crushed in the Don-Volga campaign. After a desperate last stand at the city of Tsaritsyn Koba disappeared after the city fell to the Whites. His exact fate remains unknown. At first it was commonly presumed he had been killed in the fighting, his body buried in the mountain of corpses he had created throughout the city. Now however a disturbing alternative possibility has emerged.
South of The Caucasus mountains lies the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A communist state which the Whites never reconquered during the civil war. Protected by the mountains and seas that surround it, this secretive state has for more than a decade now been ruled by the All-Union Communist party, formed out of the ashes of Bolshevik movement by an individual known as "Stalin". There are a number of parallels between Koba and Stalin: They are of the same age, or would be if Koba is indeed alive; they are both Georgian; both scared by smallpox and; most concerning, the both are crippled in their left arm.
If they are two different men, then the legacy of the criminal Koba, who's name is well known in Russia still, may be left behind as that of a criminal and killer, albeit an infamous one. If, however, he and Stalin are the same. Who knows what crimes he has committed in the years since he abandoned Tsaritsyn.
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