Stalin

name taken by Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skriabin (1890-1986), Soviet minister of foreign affairs 1939-1949, from Russian molot "hammer," cognate with Latin malleus, from PIE root *mele- "to crush, grind." Molotov cocktail "glass bottle filled with flammable liquid and a means of ignition" (1940) is a term from Russo-Finnish War (used and satirically named by the Finns).

name of southern Russian city from 1925-1961, from Stalin (q.v.) + -grad (see yard (n.1)). Now Volgograd, formerly Tsaritsyn (1589), from Turkish sarisin "yellowish," in reference to the river water, but associated in Russian with Tsar.

1927, from Stalin + -ism. Related: Stalinist.