John, Mandelstam wasn’t joking, at least one sense. Stalin was, almost certainly, of at least partly Ossetian background. Nevertheless, for Mandelstam to describe the Soviet leader as such was intended to be insulting for just the reasons you say.
John, Mandelstam wasn’t joking, at least one sense. Stalin was, almost certainly, of at least partly Ossetian background. Nevertheless, for Mandelstam to describe the Soviet leader as such was intended to be insulting for just the reasons you say.