It was bitterly cold night in the
winter of 1878 when the woman was
about to give birth in a place that
was little more than a stable. She
was in a fearful state and had much
to fear, after having lost her
three previous sons in childbirth
She worried too for her future should
they both live. Being married to
a violent alcoholic shoemaker, who
despaired at her previous efforts
to give him a son or even a child
controlled every moment of that
fear. The painful spasms started
suddenly as the midwife exhorted her
to push hard. When the pushing
finally stopped, she had, at last, given birth to a son.
The next day, when the Father saw his
son, strangely he became
suspicious. His wife feared for
a moment that he thought she had been
unfaithful; but it was the infant’s
feet the father was fixated on.
“You have given birth to the devil.”
He screamed. The mother struggled
to her feet desperately searching for
what he had seen. The infant’s
right foot had two toes joined
together. She despaired at what he
might be thinking and cried when he
said what he thought: “He has a cloven foot,” he stammered drunkenly, “It
is the mark of the devil.”
As the boy grew up, the drunken
shoemaker would not stop trying to
beat the devil out of him. When he
became a teenager, he joined the
priesthood, and the old man seemed
content for a while but was a victim of habit.
The years wore on and the old man
wore on too and died alone in a pauper’s grave. Those same years would see what
the father had sown after the son had left the priesthood and entered politics.
He would go on to become the leader
of his people and be responsible for over 25,000,000 of their deaths. His name
was Joseph Stalin
Barry Clifford
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