This is a public domain photo. My surprise at seeing Stalin smiling like that tells me I should browse more photos like this.
But then there probably aren’t many of these showing leaders in their light moments. Nor photographers allowed near them when they’re having a conference break.
Is anyone wondering where could Roosevelt be? If that’s him to Stalin’s right, then he’s not conspicuously inconspicuous as I thought, considering Wikipedia says this was Yalta; when the three of them Greats were brainstorming to reorganize Europe.
Stalin’s facial expression distracts me from targeting Churchill’s cigar, and sets my imagination loose on lands and famines wrought by agriculture upheavals against a country’s transformation to industrialization.
Such as Chairman Mao’s alleged tip for Philippine dictator / Martial Law architect Ferdinand Marcos: you want people to bend to your will? Starve them.
Fortunately, my childhood recollection of anyone Chinese was of Apak who was a picture of bounty, not people in communes. He ran Monte View, a restaurant my parents held their wedding dinner at in 1970.
Lands as broad as foreheads that spread to shiny oblong skulls take me to great uncle C inspecting his daughter’s Sunday market loot. If he didn’t find pork, he would sulk and launch himself in starvation mode. His propensity to take food for granted was as suicidal as Churchill’s V sign was defiant. Uncle C would have fared well in Chairman Mao’s peasant militia.
Only he was not peasant. He was considerably landed. Old and spoiled. He would promptly stare out the window so still and forlorn in his wheelchair after discovering he had been deprived of pork chops; Pop-Eye mouth sagging with the weight of his pipe, adding attitude to his double chin.
Wait. Could that be why Franklin Roosevelt was not on the photo with Stalin and Churchill? The US president was wheelchair-bound, wasn’t he?
Churchill was portrayed in Sepia so well in that biography I read many years ago. Recalling that traditional book makes me feel like I would never hunger for a Kindle, a tool brought on by technology developments that went with industrialization advanced by these cigar-smoking leaders.
I WOULD HAVE WANTED A CUBAN CIGAR. And Joseph Stalin, err… Levas gave one to Sonny. Under specific instructions by his girlfriend, Joseph flew in from Los Angeles via Havana, and gave me a pair of T-backs before touring Thailand.
To this day I am convinced those gifts were given to the wrong recipients. Sonny is gay. For all I know he could be wishing he got my thongs. And I was hormonal. Downright jealous of his Cuban cigar.
Not that my bellybando self wanted to smoke. That’s just me borrowing Churchill’s favorite cigar, to describe the state of my stomach. I thought a ‘Belly Bando’ was advertised as “one of the most thoughtful gifts you can give to your pregnant friend.“
Enough ado about cigars, famines and bloated bellies. Let’s head over to Sepia Saturday to find what other Sepians have for this week’s prompt.
At those meetings, all the leaders had their secrets.
And that is why RESEARCH is big money.
Hazel, what a fun post … taking us from politics to thong underwear and cigars! Oh, and throwing in your pouty picky eater uncle too. You left me laughing, even though some of the subjects brought up are definitely not funny. Those who control the food supply do control the people.
Thank you for all your hard work on this one.
Kathy M.
I’m glad it made you laugh, Kathy. It was fun skimming a few articles. And that’s right about food and control; sad but such is life and the ways of society.
What an interesting post. So many different ideas, my head was spinning.
Nancy
It was Stalin. Or Mao. They’ve blown up this post ;p
Nice to see Churchill with an iPad.
My thoughts too exactly.
Although I have been banned from smoking my pipe, I did negotiate an agreement which stated that I would be allowed to smoke the occasional cigar whilst on holiday out of the country (it’s the best deal I could get). I now look forward to overseas holidays.
Very popular in the UK during the war. Without Uncle Joe and the Russian effort the outcome would have been quite different and the world might have been nastier than it is today.
Mao’s “Little Red Kindle” doesnt have the same ring about it!
World leaders at their best (or worst?) Millions died because of some of these men, not just in the war. Thought provoking post.
Great photos and informative and humorous post ~ well done ~ ^_^
Hi Hazel, thank you for your visit and sweet comments. I’ll be back to SS next week, though I am making some visits this week, I didn’t have a post.
Kathy M.
An entertaining post Hazel with a nice mix of thought provoking and funny. I love the idea of Churchill with an iPad.