content: Yes, and that is a strange fact.  I know that he saw himself as sort of new Patriarch to the Russian Orthodox church (even as atheism was on the in) and he certainly used Russian nationalism as part of his tool chest.  The policy of Russification where millions of non Russians were moved from their homelands and Russian-Communist loyalists were shipped in in entire families speaks about a sense of spreading Russian domination and less about Communism or socialist ideals.  How to figure this out? It is perplexing and I need to read more about Stalin and his Georgian roots to fully understand this.  Quite possibly, the Russification/Russian chauvinism was just darn useful, a matter of convenience as Russians could be trusted.  So Stalin certainly was Georgian, playing to Russian pride and nationalism as it formed the means to maintain Soviet solidarity and compliance.