Svetlana Stalina, who died on 22nd November 2011, always said that Stalin, her father, “broke my life”. Her troubled life illustrates how power coarsens, corrupts and corrodes family itself. Even in democracies, the relentless demands of power are wearying, then coarsening then corrupting. In the long reigns of despots, the more absolute, the more corrosive. The gentle ties of family are ground to dust by steel wheels of power. Men of power such as a Stalin or Hitler usually see themselves as selfless, lone knights riding with swords drawn into hostile territory. Even for those such as Colonel Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein or the Assads for whom politics is dynastic, power is paramount.
今年11月22日辞世的斯韦特兰娜•斯大林娜(Svetlana Stalina)以往总是说，父亲斯大林(Stalin)“毁掉了我的生活”。她坎坷的一生向人们揭示出，权力是如何破坏、腐化、侵蚀家庭的。即使是在民主国家，无止境的权力欲也是令人疲惫、进而起到破坏和腐蚀作用的。在暴君们的长期统治下，专制程度越高，这种腐蚀性就越强。家庭的温情纽带被权力的铁轮碾得粉碎。大权在握者，比如斯大林和希特勒(Hitler)，往往将自己视为无私而孤独的骑士，在佩剑纵马前行时被吸引至敌人的疆土。即便对卡扎菲上校(Colonel Gaddafi)、萨达姆•侯赛因(Saddam Hussein)或阿萨德(Assad)家族这类人（在他们眼中，政治就等于王朝）来说，权力也有着至高无上的重要性。