Stalin hid under the bed of a Pittsburgh grocer

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

From The News 65 years ago this week, a Pittsburgh grocer who grew up in Russia recalls the story of Stalin — in the years before Stalin became a ruthless, murdering despot — as a fugitive who hid under the grocer’s sleeping bench inside an Odessa saloon.

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.