I was just watching the new Oliver Stone history. Footage of Stalin showed him smoking a pipe. It was a large thick billiard, about the size and shape of a Dunhill #6. It proves that all pipesmokers are not peaceful.
This is from an interview with the great russian pipemaker Grechukhin. Well worth to read full interview by the way.I’ve no idea, but I wouldn’t be in the least surprised, if it turns out that this story is yet another skilful move on the part of the PR men. As for Uncle Jo himself, I don’t consider him in any way to have been a serious smoker. What sort of serious smoker would shake out the tobacco from Hertsegovina Flor cigarettes and use it to fill his pipe? Incidentally, the old man once made a pipe for Stalin – on his own initiative as a gift. Then he went to an exhibition where they were showing the numerous gifts that Stalin had been given. He couldn’t find his pipe among the other exhibits, so he decided that Josef Vissarionovitch had kept it for himself... Maybe he did, but there’s no historical proof to confirm it.