Another view of Stalin

FOREWORD............................................................................................................................................................................. 5

INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF STALIN........................................................................................................ 6

STALIN IS OF VITAL IMPORTANCE IN THE FORMER SOCIALIST COUNTRIES................................................................................................ 9

STALIN IS AT THE CENTER OF POLITICAL DEBATES IN SOCIALIST COUNTRIES............................................................................................9

STALIN'S WORK IS OF CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE IN THE THIRD WORLD..................................................................................................... 9

STALIN'S WORK TAKES ON NEW MEANING GIVEN THE SITUATION CREATED SINCE CAPITALIST RESTORATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

IN COMMUNIST PARTIES AROUND THE WORLD, THE IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE AROUND THE STALIN QUESTION PRESENTS MANY COMMON

CHARACTERISTICS...................................................................................................................................................................... 11

THE YOUNG STALIN FORGES HIS ARMS..................................................................................................................... 13

STALIN'S ACTIVITIES IN 1900¡ª1917..........................................................................................................................................15

THE `SOCIALISTS' AND REVOLUTION............................................................................................................................................. 20

STALIN DURING THE CIVIL WAR..................................................................................................................................................22

LENIN'S `WILL'........................................................................................................................................................................ 25

BUILDING SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY...................................................................................................................32

SOCIALIST INDUSTRIALIZATION.................................................................................................................................. 39

HEROISM AND ENTHUSIASM.........................................................................................................................................................40

CLASS WAR.............................................................................................................................................................................. 43

AN ECONOMIC MIRACLE............................................................................................................................................................. 46

COLLECTIVIZATION.......................................................................................................................................................... 48

FROM REBUILDING PRODUCTION TO SOCIAL CONFRONTATION.............................................................................................................48

Weakness of the party in the countryside.........................................................................................................................49

The character of the Russian peasant............................................................................................................................. 50

New class differentiation................................................................................................................................................. 51

Who controlled the market wheat?..................................................................................................................................52

Towards confrontation..................................................................................................................................................... 52

Bukharin's position..........................................................................................................................................................53

Betting on the kolkhoz .................................................................................................................................................... 54

... or betting on the individual peasant?..........................................................................................................................55

THE FIRST WAVE OF COLLECTIVIZATION......................................................................................................................................... 56

The kulak......................................................................................................................................................................... 56

The kolkhozy surpass the kulaks......................................................................................................................................57

A fiery mass movement.................................................................................................................................................... 58

The war against the kulak............................................................................................................................................... 59

The essential r?le of the most oppressed masses.............................................................................................................60

THE ORGANIZATIONAL LINE ON COLLECTIVIZATION.......................................................................................................................... 61

The Party apparatus in the countryside.......................................................................................................................... 61

Extraordinary organizational measures.......................................................................................................................... 62

The 25,000....................................................................................................................................................................... 63

The 25,000 against the bureaucracy............................................................................................................................... 64

The 25,000 against the kulaks......................................................................................................................................... 65

The 25,000 and the organization of agricultural production.......................................................................................... 65

THE POLITICAL DIRECTION OF COLLECTIVIZATION............................................................................................................................ 66

The November 1929 resolution........................................................................................................................................68

Reject Bukharin's opportunism........................................................................................................................................68

New difficulties, new tasks...............................................................................................................................................69

The January 5, 1930 resolution.......................................................................................................................................70

`DEKULAKIZATION'.................................................................................................................................................................... 71

Kulak rumors and indoctrination.................................................................................................................................... 72

What should be done with the kulaks?............................................................................................................................ 73

Struggle to the end...........................................................................................................................................................74

The resolution on dekulakization.....................................................................................................................................75

The kulak offensive picks up strength.............................................................................................................................. 76

Kautsky and the `kulak revolution'.................................................................................................................................. 77

`DIZZY WITH SUCCESS'............................................................................................................................................................... 78

Stalin corrects..................................................................................................................................................................79

Rectify and consolidate................................................................................................................................................... 80

Right opportunism rears its head.................................................................................................................................... 81

The anti-Communists attack............................................................................................................................................ 82

Retreats and advances..................................................................................................................................................... 83

Remarkable results.......................................................................................................................................................... 83

THE RISE OF SOCIALIST AGRICULTURE........................................................................................................................................... 85

The second wave of collectivization................................................................................................................................ 85

Economic and social creativity........................................................................................................................................86

Investments in the countryside........................................................................................................................................ 88

The breakthrough of socialist agriculture....................................................................................................................... 89

`Colossal support'............................................................................................................................................................90

THE COLLECTIVIZATION `GENOCIDE'..............................................................................................................................................92

COLLECTIVIZATION AND THE `UKRAINIAN HOLOCAUST'..................................................................................95

A BOOK FROM HITLER............................................................................................................................................................... 97

A BOOK FROM MCCARTHY.........................................................................................................................................................99

BETWEEN 1 AND 15 MILLION DEAD........................................................................................................................................... 99

TWO PROFESSORS TO THE RESCUE OF UKRAINIAN NAZIS............................................................................................................... 100

`SCIENTIFIC' CALCULATIONS...................................................................................................................................................... 101

B-MOVIES.............................................................................................................................................................................. 102

HARVEST OF SORROW: CONQUEST AND THE RECONVERSION OF UKRAINIAN NAZI COLLABORATORS..................................................... 103

CONQUEST'S FASCIST SOURCES...................................................................................................................................................107

THE CAUSES OF FAMINE IN THE UKRAINE.................................................................................................................................... 108

UKRAINE UNDER NAZI OCCUPATION............................................................................................................................................111

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST BUREAUCRACY.............................................................................................................. 112

ANTI-COMMUNISTS AGAINST `BUREAUCRACY'..............................................................................................................................112

BOLSHEVIKS AGAINST BUREAUCRATIZATION................................................................................................................................. 113

REINFORCE PUBLIC EDUCATION.................................................................................................................................................. 114

REGULARLY PURGE THE PARTY..................................................................................................................................................115

THE STRUGGLE FOR REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRACY........................................................................................................................ 116

THE PARTY ELECTIONS IN 1937: A `REVOLUTION'........................................................................................................................117

THE GREAT PURGE........................................................................................................................................................... 118

HOW DID THE CLASS ENEMY PROBLEM POSE ITSELF?..................................................................................................................... 121

Boris Bazhanov..............................................................................................................................................................121

George Solomon............................................................................................................................................................ 122

Frunze............................................................................................................................................................................124

Alexander Zinoviev........................................................................................................................................................125

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST OPPORTUNISM IN THE PARTY................................................................................................................... 126

THE TRIALS AND STRUGGLE AGAINST REVISIONISM AND ENEMY INFILTRATION.................................................................................... 130

The trial of the Trotskyite-Zinovievist Centre................................................................................................................130

Trotsky and counter-revolution.................................................................................................................................................. 131

`Destroy the communist movement'......................................................................................................................................131

Capitalist restoration is impossible....................................................................................................................................... 133

In support of terror and insurrection..................................................................................................................................... 135

The Zinoviev--Kamenev--Smirnov counter-revolutionary group...............................................................................................136

The trial of Pyatakov and the Trotskyists...................................................................................................................... 137

Sabotage in the Urals................................................................................................................................................................. 138

Sabotage in Kazakhstan............................................................................................................................................................. 141

Pyatakov in Berlin..................................................................................................................................................................... 143

Sabotage in Magnitogorsk..........................................................................................................................................................144

The trial of the Bukharinist social-democratic group................................................................................................... 145

The February 1937 decision to purge.........................................................................................................................................145

The Riutin affair.........................................................................................................................................................................148

Bukharin's revisionism...............................................................................................................................................................149

Bukharin and the enemies of Bolshevism.................................................................................................................................. 150

Bukharin and the military conspiracy.........................................................................................................................................153

Bukharin and the question of the coup d'¨¦tat..............................................................................................................................154

Bukharin's confession................................................................................................................................................................ 156

From Bukharin to Gorbachev.....................................................................................................................................................164

The Tukhachevsky trial and the anti-Communist conspiracy within the army..............................................................165

Plot?...........................................................................................................................................................................................166

The militarist and Bonapartist tendency.....................................................................................................................................170

Vlasov........................................................................................................................................................................................171

Solzhenitsyn...............................................................................................................................................................................173

A clandestine anti-Communist organization in the Red Army....................................................................................................175

THE 1937--1938 PURGE........................................................................................................................................................ 183

THE RECTIFICATION..................................................................................................................................................................187

THE WESTERN BOURGEOISIE AND THE PURGE..............................................................................................................................191

TROTSKY'S R?LE ON THE EVE OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR........................................................................ 192

THE ENEMY IS THE NEW ARISTOCRACY, THE NEW BOLSHEVIK BOURGEOISIE...................................................................................... 193

BOLSHEVISM AND FASCISM........................................................................................................................................................195

DEFEATISM AND CAPITULATION IN FRONT OF NAZI GERMANY........................................................................................................ 196

TROTSKY AND THE TUKHACHEVSKY PLOT................................................................................................................................... 197

PROVOCATIONS IN THE SERVICE OF THE NAZIS............................................................................................................................. 199

TROTSKY ENCOURAGED TERRORISM AND ARMED INSURRECTION...................................................................................................... 201

STALIN AND THE ANTI-FASCIST WAR.........................................................................................................................203

THE GERMANO-SOVIET PACT................................................................................................................................................... 203

DID STALIN POORLY PREPARE THE ANTI-FASCIST WAR?.................................................................................................................. 209

THE DAY OF THE GERMAN ATTACK.............................................................................................................................................214

STALIN AND THE NAZI WAR OF ANNIHILATION.............................................................................................................................. 224

STALIN, HIS PERSONALITY AND HIS MILITARY CAPACITIES............................................................................................................... 229

Stalin, the `dictator'....................................................................................................................................................... 230

Stalin, the `hysteric'....................................................................................................................................................... 234

Stalin, of `mediocre intelligence'................................................................................................................................... 238

Stalin's military merits...................................................................................................................................................239

FROM STALIN TO KHRUSHCHEV.................................................................................................................................241

THE U.S. TAKES UP WHERE NAZI GERMANY LEFT OFF................................................................................................................. 243

Gehlen, the Nazi, and the CIA....................................................................................................................................... 243

The nuclear bomb against the Soviet Union................................................................................................................. 244

Anti-imperialist struggle and the struggle for peace.....................................................................................................246

Tito's revisionism and the United States........................................................................................................................249

STALIN AGAINST OPPORTUNISM.................................................................................................................................................. 256

Bourgeois tendencies in the thirties...............................................................................................................................256

Weaknesses in the struggle against opportunism.......................................................................................................... 259

Beria's and Khrushchev's revisionist groups.................................................................................................................260

Stalin against the future Khrushchevism....................................................................................................................... 263

KHRUSHCHEV'S COUP D'?TAT..................................................................................................................................................... 268

Beria's intrigues.............................................................................................................................................................268

Stalin's death................................................................................................................................................................. 270

Khrushchev's intrigues against Beria............................................................................................................................271

The `rehabilitated' enemies........................................................................................................................................... 272

Khrushchev and the pacific counter-revolution............................................................................................................ 273

REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................................................... 275

FOREWORD.............................................................................................................................................................................275

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................................................275

CHAPTER 1............................................................................................................................................................................ 275

CHAPTER 2............................................................................................................................................................................ 278

CHAPTER 3............................................................................................................................................................................ 279

CHAPTER 4............................................................................................................................................................................ 280

CHAPTER 5............................................................................................................................................................................ 288

CHAPTER 6............................................................................................................................................................................ 289

CHAPTER 7............................................................................................................................................................................ 290

CHAPTER 8............................................................................................................................................................................ 295

CHAPTER 9............................................................................................................................................................................ 296

CHAPTER 10.......................................................................................................................................................................... 298

Foreword

That a famous Soviet dissident, now living in `reunited' Germany, a man who in his youth

was so fanatically anti-Stalin that he planned a terrorist attack against him, who filled entire books with

vehement denunciation of Stalin's political line in every possible way, that such a man would, in his old

age, pay homage to Stalin is remarkable.

Many who consider themselves Communist have not shown such courage. It is very

difficult to raise one's feeble voice against the torrents of anti-Stalin propaganda.

Unfortunately many Communists do not feel at ease on this battlefield. Everything that

sworn enemies of Communism had claimed for thirty-five years was supposedly confirmed by

Khrushchev in 1956. Since then, angry, unanimous condemnations of Stalin have come from the Nazis

and the Trotskyists, from Kissinger and Brzezinski, from Khrushchev and Gorbachev, and many

others, each adding to the `proof'. To defend the historic r?le of Stalin and the Bolshevik Party becomes

unthinkable, even monstrous. And most people who firmly oppose the murderous anarchy of world

capitalism have become intimidated.

Today, for a man such as Zinoviev, seeing the destructive folly that has taken hold of the

ex-Soviet Union, with its trail of famine, unemployment, criminality, misery, corruption and interethnic wars, has led to the reassessment of prejudices firmly held since adolescence.

It is clear that, throughout the world, those who wish to defend the ideals of Socialism and

Communism must at least do the same. All Communist and revolutionary organizations across the

globe must re-examine the opinions and judgments that they have formed since 1956 about Comrade

Stalin's work. No one can deny the evidence: when Gorbachev succeeded in eradicating all of Stalin's

achievements, crowning thirty-five years of virulent denunciations of `Stalinism', Lenin himself

became persona non grata in the Soviet Union. With the burial of Stalinism, Leninism disappeared as

well.

Rediscovering the revolutionary truth about this pioneer period is a collective task that must

be borne by all Communists, around the world. This revolutionary truth will arise by questioning

sources, testimony and analyses. Clearly, the aid that might be offered by Soviet Marxist-Leninists,

sometimes the only ones with direct access to sources and to witnesses, will be vital. But today they

work under very difficult conditions.

Our analyses and reflections on this subject are published in this work, Another view of

Stalin. The view of Stalin that is imposed on us daily is that of the class that wants to maintain the

existing system of exploitation and oppression. Adopting another view of Stalin means looking at the

historic Stalin through the eyes of the oppressed class, through the eyes of the exploited and oppressed.

This book is not designed to be a biography of Stalin. It is intended to directly confront the

standard attacks made against Stalin: `Lenin's Will', forced collectivization, overbearing bureaucracy,

extermination of the Old Bolshevik guard, the Great Purge, forced industrialization, collusion between

Stalin and Hitler, his incompetency during World War II, etc. We have endeavored to deconstruct many

`well-known truths' about Stalin, those that are summarized --- over and over --- in a few lines in

newspapers, history books and interviews, and which have more or less become part of our

unconscious.

`But how is it possible', asked a friend, `to defend a man like Stalin?'

There was astonishment and indignation in this question, which reminded me of what an old

Communist worker once told me. He spoke to me of the year 1956, when Khrushchev read his famous

Secret Report. Powerful debates took place within the Communist Party. During one of these

confrontations, an elderly Communist woman, from a Jewish Communist family, who lost two children

during the war and whose family in Poland was exterminated, cried out:

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