THE DOWNFALL OF BERIA By Abe Stein • THE JUNE UPRISING OF EAST GERMAN WORKERS By H. F. Stille • STALIN'S PLACE IN HISTORY By Albert 6tltes • INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN THE as. By 1. N. V"nte 351 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL How Available in English A Marxist Review THE NEW INTERNATIONAL A Marxist Review Rosa Luxemburg's Yol. XIX. No. 3 Whole No. 159 MAY-JUNE 1953 Yol. XIX. No.3 MAY-JUNE Whole No. 159 "Accumulation of Capital" TABLE OF CONTENTS Notes of tlte Montlt: The Downfall of Beria Introduction by Joan Robinson THE DOWNFALL OF BERIA ...... 111 Exploding the Myth of Kremlin Democratization Yale University Preis. 475 pagel. $5 by Abe Stein

Order from Surely amidst the many ironies Motorized units of the army rolled Arflcles: of history, there is none greater than through Moscow's streets on the after­ LABOR ACTION BOOK SERYICE THE JUNE UPRISING OF the reason assigned by many observ­ noon of June 27th, and just as swiftly EAST GERMAN WORKERs ...... 130 ers for Beria's downfall. The liquida­ withdrew. That evening Beria was 114 W. 14th St•• New York 11. N. Y. by H. F. Stille tor of the Bolshevik Party in the not among the group of top party Transcaucasian Republics, the perpe­ leaders who attended an opera at the STALIN's PLACE IN HISTORy ...... 144 trator of genocide against five minori­ Bolshoi theater. The next day this Published bi-monthly by the New Inter­ national Publishing Co. at 114 West 14th by A lbert Gates ties during the last world war, and the news item was flashed to newspapers Street, New York 11, N. Y. Re-entered as overlord of a many-millioned slave in every part of Russia-an unusual second-class matter March 8, 1950, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Booles In Review: empire is now being presented in his procedure in Russia for so minor an Act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates: last hours as the defender of civil lib­ item but obviously intended as a sig­ $2.00 per year; bundles, 25c each for five lNCOME DISTRIBUTION IN U. S...... I67 copies and up. Foreign, $2.50 per year; erties and the rights of oppressed nal to party and government officials bundles, 30c each for five and up. by T. H. Vanr.e minorities in Russia. Beria, we are of what was soon to come. Address all editorial and business com­ munications to 'rhe New International. told, fell because he was the chief On July 7th or 8th, a hastily sum­ 114 West 14th Street, New York 11, N. Y. author of the new policy of conces­ moned meeting of the party Central SUBSCRIBE TO sions. If this is so,· then like Cawdor Committee took place in Moscow with in Shakespeare's Macbeth, nothing in Malenkov as the main reporter. MAX SHACHTMAN, Editor LABOR ACTION his life became him like his leaving it. Beria's crimes (he was apparently al­ JULIUS FALK, Managing Editor Two Dollars a Year In what sense Beria became the ready under house arrest) were de­ champion of the oppressed national­ nounced and his ouster in the name ities we shall see. Suffice it to say here of the party and the "collective leader­ that in the complex swordplay that ship." The Central Commjttee gave accompanied the struggle for power its "enthusiastic support" to the col­ Subscribe now to THE nEW InTERnATionAL inside the Kremlin after Stalin's death, lective leadership, now more unified each side sought to force the issue and monolithic than ever, and on 114 West 14th St., New York 11. N. Y. on ground where it felt strongest. The J ul y 9th, Pravda carried the official general policy of large promises and communique of the Central Commit­ Rates: 52.00 per year. 51.00 for six months small real concessions, was not and is tee dismissing the Minister of Internal not even now, the exclusive property Affairs from his post as a "traitor and of any particular element in the re­ capitalist agent" and ordering his case Hame...... gime. The visible proof is that the be turned over for disposition to the Kremlin propaganda line has not al­ Soviet Supreme Court. tered in this respect ~ince Beria was Address ...... On June 26th, the day before Beria purged. . was presumably put under house ar­ rest, he seemed to be the first or sec­ THE EXTERNAL MECHANICS of Beria's City...... Zone ...... State...... ond most powerful figure in the Krem­ catastrophic downfall are meager. lin hierarchy. As late as July 9th, foreign observers were still drawing tors' plot" of January 13th had been the doctors must have had Beria as party apparatus as party secretary, but detailed graphs showing a rising curve a frame-up. The doctors were declared one of its intended victims. Those ob­ of the secret police through Ignatiev. for Beria and a rapidly descending innocent and Beria's wrath turned servers who speculated that this was Moreover, this group must have been line for Malenkov. The next day the against the former Minister of State the meaning of the many editorials in terrified at the possibility of an open illusion of Beria's power was uncere­ Security, Ignatiev and his deputy and Pravda attacking the "intelligence or­ clash immediately following Stalin's moniously punctured before the Rus­ head of the Investigation Section, gans" (Beria) for neglect, have been death. The possibility that such a sian people and the outside world. R yumin, who had personally fabri­ proven right. And behind the under­ struggle might lead to the collapse What immediately leaps to the eye cated the case against the doctors. lings, Ignatiev-R yumin, stood more of the regime must have been very is the swift and seemingly painless Ryumin, Beria's statement declared, powerful forces, Stalin-Malenkov. real in their panic-stricken minds. It manner in which this piece of poten­ had been arrested for violating the \Vhat, however, is of importance explains the very first words of the tially dangerous surgery was executed rights of Soviet citizens and obtaining to us here, is the fact that on the day regime, exhorting the Russian people at each stage of the operation. It im­ confessions by impermissible means. of Stalin's death Beria did not con­ to stand firm and avoid "disorder and mediately raises a question: why was The former Minister, Ignatiev, was trol the state security police. And the panic." We know now where the Beria unable to defend himself, if censured for "political blindness and events that have occurred since Beria's panic and disorder prevailed. he was the victim of a conspiracy? Or inattentiveness." On April 7th, an downfall reveal that neither did he The decisive role the "Old Stalin­ if it was he who was conspiring against even harder blow was struck at Igna­ control what had been the Ministry ist Guard" played in the struggle, ex­ the rest of the Kremlin gang, how did tiev. He was dismissed from his post of In ternal Affairs. Kruglov, the head plains the changes which took place he fall so easily into the counter-trap as secretary of the Party's Central of the MVD until March 6th, and in the party and governmental struc­ that was set for him without putting Committee. then named Beria's deputy, imme­ ture during March. The Presidium up any considerable resistance? Why was Beria so interested in de­ diately became Beria's successor on of 25 members was reduced to 10, giv­ The answer lies in the social nature stroying Ignatiev? Ignatiev had sud­ July 9th. Since such prizes are re­ ing it the decisive voice in any cru­ and function of the secret police. By denly come into prominence when he warded only for disloyalty and be­ cial dispute. The strength of the itself it only has the illusion of power. was elected to the Presidium at the trayal, Kruglov must have had a hand group was also reflected in the inner Separated from the party, it is like a 19th Party Congress in October, 1952. in bringing about Beria's downfall. cabinet of the new Council of Min­ sword without an arm to wield it-it At the time it was noted that Beria's Had he remained faithful to Beria, he isters. Malenkov was Premier, but is powerless to strike and lacks direc­ deputy, Abakumov, formally Minister would have suffered the same fate. surrounding him as his four First tion. Stalin purged Yagoda and re­ of State Security since 1946, had not If Beria did not control the secret Deputy Ministers were Beria, Bul­ placed him with Yezhov. Yezhov car­ even been elected to the Central Com­ police on the day Stalin died, then he ganin, Kaganovich and Molotov, with ried out the bloody purges which have mittee. That Ignatiev had taken had no real power. Malenkov, whom Mikoyan added as a plain Deputy entered history under his name-the Abakumov's place was not known we can assume was Beria's chief an­ Minister. In late March this group Yezhovchina-and was then replaced publicI ytill February, 1953, when he tagonist, had every advantage, Beria compelled Malenkov to make a fur­ by Beria. Now Beria has been re­ was nominated by the employees of none. What brought about the sudden ther retreat. He "voluntarily" yielded placed by Kruglov. To continue, to the Ministry of State Security to the change for the better in the latter's the key post of first party secretary speak, as some observers do, of the Moscow City Soviet. Ignatiev's loyal­ fortune? The only explanation con­ to Khruschev. Ignatiev's dismissal secret police in totalitarian Russia as ties, then, did not lie with Beria. sistent with the events which followed from the Secret Police and his own an independent "lever of power" is Where they lay was revealed by his Stalin's death is that Malenkov's re­ removal from the position of first to demonstrate the power an illusion appointment in the new March 6th treat was forced, not by Beria, but secretary deprived Malenkov of di­ has to generate the illusion of power. regime to the secretariat of the party. by a group which was fearful of see­ rect control of the party and police He was Malenkov's representative in ing Malenkov acquire too much apparatus. IN THE NEW GOVERNMENT THAT was the secret police. power. This group, the "Old Stalinist With the central police apparatus formed on March 6th, Beria took con­ 1£ Beria, furthermore, was inter­ Guard," consisting in its core of Molo­ once more in his hands, Beria moved trol of the combined ministries of the ested in vindicating the innocence of tov, Kaganovitch, Mikoyan and Voro­ to consolidate and extend his power. State Security Police (MGB) and the the arrested doctors, it was not out shilov, must have formed a temporary The release of the doctors and the at­ ordinary police-slave labor camp ad­ of some sudden access of conscience, alliance with Beria against Malenkov. tack on Ignatiev- R yumin were the ministration (MVD). A month later, a change of heart, but as a simple act By restoring Beria's position, this first measures. So long as the doctors on April 3rd, Beria created a world of self-defense in the jungle of Stalin­ group was immediately able to check were under arrest, Beria remained in sensation when his new Ministry of ist intrigue. The case which R yumin­ Malenkov's growing power, which danger of suddenly being charged Internal Affairs announced the "doc- Ignatiev had been preparing against now included not only control of the with complicity in the plot to murder 112 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 113 the top military and party leaders. his clique and fellow Georgian.· A was to win the support of the local ians was banned. The history of And in quashing the frame-up, Beria palace revolution on a local scale had population against Great Russian Uzbekistan had to be rewritten to must certainly have had the support taken place. chauvinism. Unpleasant as it'is, the show that Tsarist Imperialism had of the "Old Stalinist Guard." It was Moving with feverish haste as if right to be oppressed by policemen played a progressive role in Central imperative for the Kremlin clique to his life depended on it, (with the wis­ of one's own nationality or race, can Asia during the 19th century. Russi­ indicate to a nervous and fearful dom of hindsight we can now say it be admitted as an aspiration of ra­ fiication did not simply remain a bureaucracy as well as to the masses did), Beria carried through shakeups cial and national minorities. negative matter of criticism. A steady that "unity" prevailed at the top, and in the police apparatus of seven na­ stream of teachers poured out of Len­ that the show trial and purge which tional republics besides Georgia. By THE DESPERATE TEMPO at which Beria ingrad and Moscow into the national had been in preparation before Stal­ April 21, that is, in little more than set about reconstructing the police ap­ republics. In Kirghizia, which is a in's death would not be carried a month, he had replaced the secret paratus is the compelling proof that typical example, hundreds of Russian through. police chiefs in Latvia, Lithuania, the he had lost complete control of it be­ teachers were incorporated into the The dissolution of the "doctors' Ukraine, the Karelo-Finnish Republic, fore Stalin died. The question na­ educational system from the very first plot" and recovery of real control of Azerbeijan, Tadzhikistan and Byelo­ turally arises: when and why had elementary grades up. the police apparatus was conducted Russia. It is curious to note that Beria, Stalin decided to dispense with Beria? It is truism that the ideology of by Beria under the cloak of concern the new champion of oppressed na­ Was Stalin merely following his su­ chauvinism is the mask of class and for the "civil liberties" of Soviet citi­ tionalities, installed a Great Russian preme rule of statesmanship-never national exploitation. Stalin demon­ zens. The fortune of war now forced in each of these instances as the head trust one man-particularly the head strated this when he transformed the Beria to assume the role of defender of the police apparatus. On April of the secret police-with too much ideological purge -into an organiza­ of the rights of national minorities. 27th, Esthonia was added to the list power for too long a time? Or did the tional housecleaning of the non-Rus­ An attack on those who "inflamed na­ of republics where a change in the matter lie deeper? We shall simply sian national republics. In 1951-52, tional antagonisms" provided the police apparatus was effected. anticipate the answer given by events one local bureaucratic clique after propaganda cover he needed for shift­ In the case of Latvia, the purge of and say that Beria was a casualty of another was ousted for the simple rea­ ing the struggle to a field where he the apparatus was not limited to the the never-ending struggle between the son that each had grown exceedingly felt potentially strong and the enemy police. The entire government was local bureaucracies in the different re­ corrupt in office, and, intent on its weak. also ousted and six Great Russians publics and the central apparatus in own interests, was unable and even On April 3rd, Beria had announced were appointed in place of the Lat­ Moscow. unwilling to efficiently exploit the na­ the release of the doctors and the ar­ vian Ministers who had up till the:~ In 1950-51 the post-war campaign tionalities for Moscow's exclusive ben­ rest of Ryumin. Ignatiev was officially composed the Cabinet. Beria's choice against "bourgeois-nationalism" be­ efit. dismissed as party secretary on the of Great Russians to replace the came a veritable storm. In the first Moscow's complaints are familiar 7th. On April 15th, Beria swept out ousted officials in all these instances stages it was waged on the "ideolog­ enough and need only be sketched the entire party and police apparatus was a strange way to act if his interest ical front," to use the horrible journal­ briefly. In Uzbekistan, for example, a in his native Georgia. The chief vic­ ese of Russian writing. Poets, play­ number of party workers had been *Dekanozov's official biography is of suf­ tims of Beria's onslaught were Mge­ ficient interest to warrant a thumbnail wrights, historians, educators and dismissed for "financial and other ir­ sketch. It shows the impossibility of dis­ ladze, first secretary of the Georgian entangling the police from any other ap­ journalists fell under a ban in the regularities involving collective farm Communist Party and the head of the paratus in totalitarian Russia. Until 1939 various republics for failing to glorify funds." A letter to Pravda from Uzbe­ he was Deputy Premier of Georgia. In state security police, Kotschlabaschi­ June 1939 he was named as Molotov's dep­ the leading role of the Great Russians kistan "cotton farmers" further re­ vili. These two functionaries along uty in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A -past, present' and future. To sing vealed that the theft of crops, year later Dekanozov appeared in Lithu­ with their underlings went to jail. ania as supreme Russian gauleiter after the praises of one's own l~nd was a livestock, farm machinery and the like Out of the same jails, where they had that country had been taken over by Rus­ major crime and to recite its truthful was a common practice. Tens of sian troops. Six months before Germany been languishing for some time came invaded Russia, he became Soviet ambass­ history an outrage. In the Ukraine thousands of acres of collective farm the former chiefs of the Georgian ador to that country. In 1943 he was the poet Sosyura was denounced for land were being misappropriated by named envoy to Bulgaria. After the war, party, police and government appara­ he was once more installed as Molotov's his poem "Love The Ukraine," writ­ "individuals" for their private bene­ deputy, and stayed there until Beria sum­ tus, who were restored to their former moned him for the all-important job of ten in 1944 and which simply cele­ fit. And to make matters worse, the positions and privileges. In the key reconstructing the latter's apparatus in brated virtues of the country. In corruption at the top had its effects Georgia. Judging by Dekanozov's career, position of Georgian Minister of In­ who always functioned as a police agent Armenia, the classic 19th century at the bottom. The peasants were also ternal Affairs, Beria placed Vladamir for Beria, one is tempted to define Russia novel "Flames" which described the looking out for their own interests as a country where paranoia has been Dekanozov, a long-time member of perfected as a social system. independence struggle of the Armen- and refusing to give up their private 114 THE NEW INTER.NATIONAL May-June 1953 115 plots so that the land could be turned only were the collective farms being The drastic measures taken in ing Ryumin was to completely reverse to cotton growing. The end result looted on a grand scale of money, Georgia show that Stalin's purge of the purge which had taken place in was that production goals for cotton crops, livestock and other property the non-Russian national republics Georgia between November, 1951, were not being met. What was true by their chairmen, party and govern­ had, as one of its essential ingredients, and September 1952. The officials of the Uzbekistan Republic was true, ment officials, but in addition a vio­ an intrigue against Beria, the prep­ whom Stalin had then placed in power with only minor variations, in Azer­ lent crime wave was causing a panic aration for his liquidation. But the were arrested and the very same cor­ baijan, George, Kozakhstan, Byelo­ in the capital city of Tiflis. Several intrigue in itself was not the cause rupt bureaucrats who had been jailed russia, Moldavia, Armenia, the gangs of auto thieves were making life of the purge, as the facts themselves in the couse of the purge were "re­ Ukraine, and Estonia. And in all these hazardous for bureaucrats who dared indicate. The purge began in 1950, habilitated" and restored to power by republics purges of the party-state ap­ resist their occupational activities. but 1950 was the year in which the Beria."· paratus took place. The corruption of the apparatus invasion of South Korea began and Beria was not content merely to Because they were the original seat was described by the new first secre­ war tensions reached new heights. act. He indicated in his propaganda of Beria's power, the conditions in tary of the Georgian Communist The need to supply Chinese and barrage against whom he was acting. the Transcaucasian Republics have a Party, Mgladze, in September, 1952, North Korean forces plus the increas­ A series of editorials and statement's special interest. Bagirov, the head of when he attacked the local and dis­ ing expansion demanded by the ac­ appeared in Zarya Vostoka in April, the Azerbaijan party, lashed out, in a trict bureaucrats in the following celerated rearmament program placed the newspaper controlled by Beria's speech delivered to a party meeting terms: "Those who think they are a tremendous strain on the Russian agents in Georgia which directly in the summe rof 1951, at the failure going to parcel out Georgia for their economy. This meant the Kremlin linked the case of the Jewish doctors to meet production goals. The oil in­ own benefit like tribal chieftans are was forced to squeeze the masses even with the fabrication of the case dustry, concentrated in the famous going to be smashed as Stalin taught harder. But Stalin discovered that in­ against the Georgian party and gov­ Baku fields had failed to meet 1950 as to smash such evils." stead of getting more, he was getting ernment leaders whom Beria had just production quotas by a large percent­ A total purge of the Georgian party, even less. The very means of exploita­ "rehabilitated." Ryumin, the former age. The drilling program for new police and state apparatus was be­ tion, the bureaucratic apparatus, had Deputy Minister of State Security was wells was more than 70 per cent be­ gun in November, 1951, and con­ turned into a serious obstacle. It had denounced together with the former hind 1950 schedules. In the fields of tinued through September, 1952. It become so disorganized and corrupted Georgian State Security Minister, power, transportation and building was by far the biggest and lasted the in the national republics that a com­ Rukhadze, for having prepared the construction the picture was just as longest of the purges that shook the plete shake-up was necessary. It was case against Beria'shenchmen in dismal. national republics in 1951 and 1952. then, apparently, that Stalin decided November, 1951. Zarya Vostoka de­ The peasants Bagirov said bitterly, It had a special significance since the Beria had to go, since he and his clared that both cases had leaned were committing the crime of trying clique of bureaucratic thieves who deputies were no longer able to carry heavily on false charges of racial and to serve their own interests instead were ousted were Beria's hand-picked out their police functions of keeping nationalist bias: If said, further, that of the collective farms. The urban agents. In destroying this clique, the apparatus in check in the national both cases were but two facets of a consumers, that is, the workers, were Stalin was destroying the original and republics which fell under Beria's conspiracy which used false evidence being supplied with inadequate quan­ most important base of Beria's power. supervision, the Transcaucasian Re­ to pursue personal animosity and per­ tities of consumer goods. And what The sweep of the purge is indicated publics, the Baltic states and the area sonal ambition. And in an editorial was supplied was of poor grade and by the fact that among those ousted of Central and Western Asia. Aba­ piously entitled "Soviet Legality is In­ the food produced under unsanitary were two of the five secretaries of the kumov, Beria's deputy, was dismissed, violable," Zarya Vostoka warned that conditions. If this was what Bagirov Georgian Communist Party, the first and Ignatiev and Ryumin installed to both the doctors case and the openly admitted, one wonders just secretary of the Georgian YCL, the carry through the purge. Georgian case would be the "objects how bad the real situation was in chairman of Georgia's Supreme Court, Beria himself provides the proof of the strictest prosecution ... and 1951. the Minister of Justice, and many that just this happened. Not only be­ the defendants brought to criminal In Beria's native Georgia, which other minor figures. Although news cause the palace revolutions he ex­ responsibility." Beria had already ar­ came under his very special protec­ of this drastic change was allowed to ecuted with blitzkrieg swiftness cen­ rested Rukhadze and Ryumin, Igna- tered on these areas, but in the propa­ tion, the general picture of corruption filter to the outside world, it was not *Zodelava. formerly first secretary of on top and a restive population be­ until much later that it became ganda barrage which accompanied his the YCL was made deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. Baramija. form­ low, was enlivened as so often in known these bureaucrats had been reconstitution of his apparatus. As we erly second secretary of the Communist Georgia's troubled history, by some not only been dismissed from office pointed out earlier, Beria's first move Party was made Minister of Agricultural Requisitions. Rapava. formerly Minister of especially picturesque features. Not but also arrested. after releasing the doctors and arrest- Justice, made Minister of State Control. 116 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 117 tiev had been dismissed from the post Earlier, we quoted Bagirov's com­ expelled from the Central Commit­ size, he also was made an alternate, of party secretary and presumably plaints on the lamentable state of tee of the party in Azerbaijari. Bagi­ an indication that he was still held in would be arrested. After Ignatiev, the affairs in Azerbaijan in 1951 and 1952. rov's dismissal had been presided high favor. His links with Khruschev next object of assault could only be But while the purge destroyed the over by an agent of the Kremlin are established by their long period some-one higher up, named Malen­ career of many a lesser bureaucrat, clique, Pospelov, a member of the of cooperation in "pacifying" the kov. Bagirov was not touched. Instead, secretariat. What makes Bagirov's Ukraine. His tie to Malenkov is more Bagirov received further honors. At ouster puzzling is that no direct link indirectly indicated. During the brief If IS NECESSARY TO PAUSE for a mo­ the 19th Congress of the Party in with Beria was made, and that his period when the official press was ment and examine Beria's new-found October, 1952, he was elected to the past history did not indicate he was glorifying the new Premier and still reputation as a defender of the op­ Central Committee and became a part of Beria's personal apparatus. We first party secretary, the Ukrainian pressed non-Russian nationalities. In member of the Presidium which re­ shall postpone an explanation until press was louder and much more un­ pursuit of his highly partisan interest, placed the old politburo. In the new we have dealt with the question of restrained and for a longer period, Beria, released the doctors and pro­ government that was formed after Melnikov, party boss in the Ukraine. than the central organs in Moscow claimed his devotion to the cause of Stalin's death, Bagirov remained as The acid test of any change in the and Leningrad. "civil liberties." This act was, there an alternate on the reduced 10 man policy of "Russification" has been, is, The news, therefore, that Melnikov is no doubt, a tremendous event. But presidi urn. It would seem his career and will be till the demise of Russian had suddenly been dismissed on June his attack on Great Russian chauvin­ had not been affected by Beria's de­ totalitarianism, the treatment of the 13 as first secretary and buro mem­ ism is another matter. To cover his cline even though he had a record of Ukraine. No other nationality has ber of the Ukrainian party seemed to local palace revolution in Georgia, he past collaboration with the doomed suffered so greatly from the repres­ point to Beria as the instigator. Fur­ took up the defense of those who were chief of the secret police. sions and pacifications of the Kremlin thermore, the crimes of which Melni­ unjustly accused of "non-existent na­ Observers have noted that after the as this second-largest national group­ kov was accused seemed to fit into the tionalism." What Beria did in prac­ new regime had been established and ing in Russia. While Stalin, for ex­ propaganda pattern Beria was ex­ tice was simply to put one group of Malenkov, to all appearances, seemed ample, allowed other non-Russian ploiting to oust his enemies and re­ corrupt Georgian bureaucrats in jail in the ascendancy, the Azerbaijan nationalities the sop to their national constitute his apparatus. Melinkov and take another group out of jail. press outdid itself in fulsome praise pride of being nominally ruled over was accused of "Russifying" the West­ And in shaking up the police appara­ of the new Premier and studiously by "native sons," this was not the ern Ukraine, - that is, the section of tus, he installed Great Russians in an avoided mention of Beria. On April case in the Ukraine from 1938 on. the Ukraine which Russia had taken obvious attempt to win support in the 2nd, 1953, for example, the Bakt~ After the terrible purges of the from Polish rule. Specifically he was Russian dominated Central appara­ Worker~ dedicated a long article to Ukrainian party which saw the wild­ charged with placing persons from tus. The curious fact is that the two the 50th anniversary of the formation est excesses of brutality, Stalin in­ the Russian or eastern regions of the most important measures taken of the Caucasian Social-Democratic stalled Khruschev, the Great Russian Ukraine in leading positions in the against Great Russian Chauvinism in Party without once mentioning Beria. as first party secretary in the Ukmine Western Ukraine; of imposing Rus­ the world of reality were not the work In the middle of April, Bagirov re­ and directly responsible to the Krem­ sian teachers and Russian as the ex­ of Beria's hand. The two measures, ceived still further honors when he lin. clusive language of instruction in the which have great significance, were was made Premier of Azerbaijan. And The "Russification" of the Ukraine, new higher schools. In addition, the the ouster of the local satraps in two in his opening speech to the Azer­ both its eastern and western parts was Ukrainian party boss was condemned important national Republics, Bagi­ baijan Supreme Soviet, Bagirov called largely the work of this vicious Stalin­ for having "committed major errors rov in Azerbaijan and Melnikov in on the party and government to "rally inst careerist. And his second in com­ in the work of the organizational and the Ukraine. around the Leninist-Stalinist Central mand during these years was L. G. economic strengthening of the collec­ Bagirov, like Beria, had begun his Committee of the Party and around Melnikov. When Khruschev was tive farm system in the Western career as a GPU agent in the Trans­ Malenkov, the head of the Soviet called to Moscow in 1950 to enter *The charge of "Russifying" the West­ caucasus and had served under the Lenin and close collaborator of Stalin's immediate entourage, Melni­ ern, non-Russian Ukraine, while silence is maintained about the Russian Ukraine latter as one of his chief deputies. government and the true pupil of kov took his place as the iron fisted raises a political question of foreign pol­ While Beria carried out the pacifica­ Stalin." (Baku Worker, April 19, icy. Is the Kremlin preparing to return ruler of the Ukraine. His reward came to Germany, the eastern areas given to tion of Georgia, Bagirov cleaned 1953.) at the 19th Party Congress when he, Poland, and preparing to share with Po­ land the administration of an "independ­ house for Stalin in Azerbaijan. For However, on July 18th, a week after like Bagirov, was chosen to the en­ ent Western Ukraine?" This is only a his labors he was rewarded by being Beria's purge, the Moscow radio an­ larged Presidium. When Stalin died political speculation, but why, then con­ demn Melnikov for abuses in one part of made party boss of the republic. nounced that M. D. Bagirov, had been and the Presidium was reduced in the Ukraine and not the other. 118 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 119 Ukraine." The last charge translated same time, first secretary of the local tective facade of the "collective trol, under the Supreme Commissar, into simple language means Melni­ party, premier of the government and leadership" had not the mighty wave to use Moscow's own phrase, Vlada­ kov pushed the collectivization of the alternate to the Presidium of the All­ of discontent, with its premonition of mir Semyenov. The same change was peasants in the newly-acquired area Union Communist Party. Me1nikov revolution, swept the satellite empire. in trod uced in the Soviet zone of at too fast and brutal a rate. This had acquired a similar garland of posi­ Whatever plans either side had, these Austria on June 7th. Were these charge, like the others is true, of tion and prestige as first secretary of tremendous stirrings from below must measures intended also to. appeal to course, but as his accusers know, the the Ukrainian party, member of its have sharply accelerated the need to the nationalism of the population in entire . policy was ordered by the directing buro and alternate to the come to a decision. No ruling class Austria and Germany? If so, they Kremlin itself. presidium. As the undisputed satraps can afford the luxury of an internally failed of their purpose, as the Rus­ So far no great changes have taken in their respective republics, they divided state power, least of all a sians learned to their sorrow on June place in the Ukrainian party and gov­ were living reproaches to the slogan totalitarian regime, when faced with 17th. ernment apparatus-with one signifi­ of "collective leadership." In addi­ the resistance of the masses. The dem­ The fact is that except for the cant exception-in terms of appeas­ tion, they had exceedingly unpleasant onstrations and strikes in Czechoslo­ amnesty measure, the course followed ing nationalist sentiment. Alexander reputations as "Russifiers." vakia and East Germany, to speak by the Kremlin in the satellite coun­ Korneichuk, the poet and playwrite The possibility arises then that only of those events directly known tries was the exact opposite of that has been named first deputy chairman these two local autocrats were pulled to have happened, were not the sort taken inside Russia itself. The shadow of the Ukrainian Council of Min­ down in a struggle that goes beyond of trouble that could be resolved by regimes in Eastern Europe began to isters, and on the same day that Mel­ the Malenkov-Beria conflict. Their the manipulation of the apparatus. increase instead of relaxing the in­ nikov was dismissed, was appointed to downfall may have been a warning The entire weight and authority of tolerable pressure on their subject the buro of the Ukrainian party. that concentration of too much power the Russian imperial power had to peoples. Korneichuk's promotion is directly in the hands of one man is forbidden. be brought to bear in support of the The clearest example that the aimed at the nationalist feelings of And since both had engaged in an ex­ feeble shadow power of the satellite Kremlin was continuing Stalin's line the Ukrainians. For it was Kornei­ cessive campaign of glorification of regimes if the demonstrations were was the currency reform of May 30th, chuk who achieved an unhappy no­ Malenkov at the time when he, too, not to turn into the first stages of a in Czechoslovakia, which was in­ toriety for bourgeois-nationalism in seemed to concentrate a great deal of revolution. The independence and tended to solve the inflation at the 1951. At that time the libretto he had power in his hands as Premier and conflict of the police power with the expense of the workers. No regime helped write for the opera "Boghdan First Party Secretary, in the early rest of the Russian state apparatus which planned a policy of concession Khmelnitzky" was subjected to severe weeks of March, we can surmise at had to be ended immediately. would have enacted so crude and criticism by Moscow as a particularly whom the warning is being directed. Until that time there was no turn naked a measure. But this was not the rotten example of "nationalist devia­ to a line of concessions in domestic only measure enacted in Czechoslo­ tion." And since it was none other THE REASONS FOR BERIA'S downfaU affairs either in propaganda or fact. vakia, although the most far-reaching. than Melnikov who, as party boss, are implicit in the course which he The only measure that remotely re­ On June 1st, the very day on which took the platform at a plenum of the followed. The "Old Stalinist Guard" sembled the new line proclaimed in­ the Czech workers and the people in Ukrainian party in November, 1951 in our opinion originally restored side Russia was the amnesty decreed general began their protest demon­ and attacked Korneichuk and his col­ Beria's power as a counter-balance to in Rumania on April 4th, a week strations, the regime issued a decree laborator, Rylsky, the Ukrainians Malenkov and to prevent the latter after it had been announced in Rus­ that all men less than 60 years of age must have gotten some small sense of from setting the machinery of a purge sia. In Hungary, an amnesty was and women less than 50 could be gratification to see Korneichuk rise and trials of Beria and his adherents promised by the government on April forced to work unlimited hours for on the day Melnikov fell. The plan­ once again in motion. Yet here was 12th, but was not put into effect until the state or community outside of ning of both moves was too deliberate Beria pursuing a course that was con­ some time later under very different regular working hours. The workers to be accidental. centrating a great deal of power in his conditions. had begun to fight the inflation by The cases of Bagirov in Azerbaijan hands and which he was threatening The measures of "liberalization" to absenteeism-what point was there in and Melnikov in the Ukraine differ to use to purge Malenkov and his which one can point were not at all working when wages had no purchas­ in many circumstances, but they do clique. All of this must have caused related to the internal life of the ing power? The currency reform and share two important features. They this group to reconsider the wisdom satellites, but were moves in the field the disguised forced labor decree were were both known as "Russifiers" and of its alliance with Beria. of foreign policy. On May 28th, Mos­ the regime's answer to the problem. both had accumulated a great deal of Yet it is possible that Beria might cow announced that Eastern Germany The struggle within the Kremlin power and glory. Bagirov was at the have been subdued behind the pro- had been placed under civilian con- seems to have been very muted and

120 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 121 not to have extended to the East Eu­ The regime also enacted broad parently in the East German govern­ the first time with a novel force-the ropean regimes in too open a manner. measures to mollify the religious feel­ ment on applying these measures to workers en masse and it did not know Beria seems to have been content to ings of the middle-class. A truce was the peasants and middle-class, the how to deal with the imminent ex­ have regained control of the police called in the struggle with the church, question of whether the new "liberal" plosion. A similar situation developed apparatus and to have confined the and the regime issued a joint decree course should be applied to the work­ in Czechoslovakia after the early June struggle to Russia itself. The only with the Bishop of the Protestant ers apparently became a matter of demonstrations when the regime in­ area in which there is a possibility Evangelical Church promising there dispute. It is at this point that the troduced severe penalties for absen­ that the Kremlin conflict burst into would be no further attacks on church question arises as to whether the dis­ teeism. The next week it was com­ the open is in East Berlin on the eve youth groups and arrest of Church of­ pute amongst the East German hire­ pelled to rescind the decree. of the great demonstrations and ficials. To further convince the pop­ lings of the Kremlin was a private Two changes followed in the satel­ strikes. ulation that a new turn was really famil y quarrel or was inspired by lite countries directly after Beria's intended, an amnesty was immediate­ the conflict inside the Russian appa­ bll. One was the loss of independent In April, Semyenov, who had been ly put into effect on June 13 and ratus. The spark that immediately set status by the secret police. Under chief political adviser to the Military hundreds of persons, jailed since last off the workers' demonstrations was Beria they had remained outside the High Commissioner of the Russian November were released. On the same the contradictory statements made by control of the shadow government Zone, was replaced by Pavel Yudin. day, the Taegliche Rundschau, the the East German regime on one side and the Communist party in each (Yudin's history is a particularly un­ official Russian paper in East Germ­ and the trade-union bureaucrats, country, were directly responsible to savory one. During the entire course any, declared that its former Military through their newspaper, Tribune on him in Moscow. They have now been of the struggle with Tito, he played Control Commission, which in the the other. The regime promised to merged with the Ministry of Internal the role of direct Kremlin agent and meantime had been dissolved, had rescind the recent 10 per cent increase spy over the propaganda and admin­ Affairs in each country and subje~ted been guilty of some errors.· The edi­ in work-norms while Tribune de­ to control from Moscow through the istrative apparatus of the Comin­ torial also demanded that the "per­ clared they would be restored in a party-government apparatus. The sec­ form.) In May Semyenov returned as sonal rights .and security of citizens short time. Some observers have pro­ supreme Civilian Commissioner and ond change in the apparatus has been of the Democratic Republic must be fessed to see the reflection of the Yudin was demoted to his deputy. the abolition of the post of secretary­ protected by the Constitution, which Beria-Malenkov dispute in this di­ Was their a conflict of loyalties be­ general in the party. The party secre­ is to be adhered to closely by all vision among the German leaders. tween Semyenov and Yudin as some tary has now become the secretarIat organs of the state." One of the aims They believe that Semyenov, an em­ observers and journalists assert? The in accordance with the Kremlin's the Kremlin was pursuing with this ployee of the secret police before he former representing Beria and the principle of "collective leadership." change of line is indicated in the edi­ entered the diplomatic service in latter Malenkov? But if the first measure signified the torial which declared "The decisions 1945, pursued Beria's "soft" line and liquidation of Beria's attempt at in­ On June lOth, the East German are of greatest international import­ worked in conjunction with Zaisser, dependence, at whom is the second government issued a series of meas­ ance. . .. They are aimed at the great the East German secret police chief measure aimed? ures "liberalizing" the regime. The to put it into effect. Malenkov, work­ goal of re-unification of the German While Beria pursued his aim of distinctive feature of the new policy ing through Judin and Ulbricht, the people in a united national German reconstructing his apparatus inside was that it appealed exclusively to head of the Eastern German Commu­ state." We can hardly attribute this Russia under the cloak of "liberal" the peasantry and the small shop­ nist Party, resisted the extension of change in line to Beria, since the propaganda, he made no such attempt keeping, trading and manufacturing concessions to the workers. The alter­ course adopted by the Kremlin has in the satellites, contenting himself class. The peasants who had fled to nate and contradictory statements on not changed since Beria's fall and will with regaining control of the already West Germany were promised the re­ not in the coming period. the cut in work-norms was, therefore, turn of their farms they had aban­ only a reflection of this struggle in existing police apparatus. The turn doned or new ones. The promise was the Kremlin: in the Kremlin line was compelled WHILE THERE WAS NO conflict ap- made that crop quotas would be re­ by the elemental uprisings of the To attribute the confusions of the masses. For if we seek to date the first duced and penalties for non-delivery *This explains the recall of General of crop quotas or non-payment of Chuikov and his replacement by an ob­ regime simply to the struggle within signs .of a change in policy, we find scure Ukrainian general. Chuikov was the apparatus between the adherents that the Kremlin began to retreat taxes would be revised. Small shop­ saved the humiliation of being blamed for keepers, wholesale traders and small past Kremlin errors. Protocal demanded of Beria and Malenkov would be to after the strikes and demonstrations that a war-time hero Chuikov be spared oversimplify problems the shadow re­ in Czechoslovakia in the first week industrialists were promised the re­ the humiliation of the demotion implied turn of their properties and cheap in being subordinated to his former aIde, gime in East Berlin faced in the mid­ of June. This new policy, a careful Semyenov, who was now Supreme CivIlian state loans. CommissIoner. dle of June. It was face to face for mixture of real concessions, large 122 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 123 promises and the use of terror be­ absenteeism, or leaving their job THE ELIMINATION OF BERIA has :not himself, Beria ousted or shifted the came more pronounced after the Ger­ without permission were abolished. elimated the acute crisis the Kremlin secret police chiefs in eight of the man workers rose up on June 17th. Overtime work was no longer com­ faces in the satellite countries. The national republics and overturned the The terrible blows dealt to the pulsory and the free time of the uprising of the masses' has caused government, party and police appar­ Kremlin by the uprisings in Czech­ workers was to be their own and not Moscow to call a temporary halt to atus completely in one republic, his oslovakia and East Germany have subject to the orders of the state or the super-industrialization program, native Georgia. found their strongest reflection in the Communist Party. the collectivization of the peasantry Imediately following his denuncia­ Hungary. The Kremlin evidently de­ and the liquidation of the middle­ tion, the Kremlin clique began to Besides the specific economic mea­ classes-the causes of the economic undo Beria's work. Dekanozov, Be­ cided to experiment with a program sures designed to win the support of misery which drove the masses into ria's trusted deputy, whom he had of concessions in one of the countries the different classes and to revive the action in June. installed as Minister of Internal Af­ where dissatisfaction had not taken economy, Nagy announced other and fairs in Georgia was expelled from on stormy and uncontrollable fea­ more general measures. The concen­ The policy of small re~l conces­ the Georgian Communist Party and tures, and the program could be con­ tration camps were to be liquidated sions, large promises and the use of from his post as Minister. Along with trolled. On July 2nd, the Budapest and the middle-class elements who terror faces its greatest test in Eastern Dekanozov, the bureaucratic clique radio announced a complete reorgan­ had been thrown into them would be Germany. For here the problem of ization of the government. Rakosi, Beria had rescued from jail where allowed to return to the cities. There reviving the satellites economically Stalin-Malenkov-Ignatiev had thrown the boss of the Communist Party and was to be greater religious liberty by allowing a breathing spell is com­ premier resigned from the govern­ them in November, 1951, were also and "forcible measures" against the plicated by the stubborn pressure of expelled. In the Ukraine, the same ment and his place was taken by Imre church would not be tolerated. the masses which will not permit the Nagy. The program announced by Kremlin and its puppet governments chief of the secret police, Strokach, Nagy is important since it was di­ Even as mere propaganda, the pro­ to extricate themselves with trifling whom Beria had ousted in April, was rected not only to the peasants and gram the Kremlin has ordered for measures. The strength of the workers promptly reappointed to his post. middle-class but to the workers as Hungary is imposing in its sweep. in East Germany lies not only in And it is safe to say that each of the well. And the peasants and workers did their own magnificent resources, but secret police officials whom Beria got Nagy declared that the country's not wait for the government to fulfil in the weakness of the Kremlin. The rid of will be returned to his post and economy was based on the individual its promises. A recent editorial in pivot of Rusian foreign policy in the present incumbent demoted or farm. The forced collectivization Szabad Nep~ the Hungarian Commun­ Europe is to detach Germany from jailed. would come to a halt and persecution ist paper declares: "In most enter­ the Western bloc, to prevent its ab­ While these changes in the bur­ of "kulaks," that is, peasants resisting prises the government's program sorbtion into the Western European eaucratic apparatus are important as collectivization, would cease. Further­ speech has been misunderstood and Defense Community. It cannot em­ signs of what the struggle at the top more, peasants already in collectives the clockwatchers proclaiming that bark on a program of total terror in was about, they are not yet a purge could leave them, and the govern­ 'everything goes' simply stay away Eastern Germany while it pursues in the sense of the bloody annihila­ ment, to show its good will, would from work." Other articles complain this aim. Its own internal instability, tion that occured in the middle thir­ permit peasants to rent land free and that since Nagy's speech, unwilling the economic crisis throughout the ties. One must ask: does the regime would also guarantee their crops. The members of farm . cooperatives are satellite empire, the demands of have the means to carry through a shopkeepers and wholesalers were leaving them en masse or reclaiming foreign policy, and the pressure of large-scale purge? It is a remarkable promised similar' freedom to reopen fields that had been absorbed into the the· masses com pel the Kremlin to fact, which few observers have com­ their shops instead of being liquida­ cooperatives. pursue its present general line of mented on that the secret police has ted and forced into state controlled The government, alarmed that the "concessions," or more accurately, of suffered three blows in succession, cooperatives. workers and peasants were taking "acillation and retreat. each one greater in inten$ity than the Turning to the workers, Nagy de­ Nagy's program too literally, has The opinion has been expressed in one that preceded-blows to its au­ clared that "nothing justifies exager­ attempted to stem the flood. It has many quarters that Beria's liquida­ thority from which it cannot recover ated industrialism when we lack the ordered a stop to the disintegration tion would be followed by a large­ so quickly and which make it an un­ essential materials. The tempo of of the collective farms and also de­ scale purge. But one must see what serviceable instrument temporarily. mechanization must be diminished creed that farmers who do not deliver this means in terms of the regime and At the time of the "doctors' con­ and emphasis put on consumers goods their quotas will have them raised ten its relation to the bureaucracy and spiracy" in January, the secret police and food." The regulations punish­ per cent and be forced to hand them th~ masses. In his attempts to create was accused of not being vigilant ing workers for lack of punctuality, over on the spot. an apparatus solely answerable to enough in uncovering plots against 124 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 125 the state. This was the Stalin­ To DISPOSE OF BERIA, the "collec­ journalists to talk about the Russian bargaining power. Only the army Malenkov preparation for a blow tive leadership" had to assure itself Army as the real power in Russia and kept the empire from collapsing wh~n against Beria and a wide-scale purge. of the army's support. There is not of Zhukov as the new Napoleon. All its bayonets put down the revolts In In April, Beria "discovered" that the only the visible evidence of the active the talk is concentrated heavily on Czechoslovakia and East Germany. secret police had been fabricating participation of the Moscow garrison that incomparable phrase "levers of And the supporting role it played in plots that violated the rights of Soviet on June 27th. There is also the fact power," with the army as the favorite the liquidation of Beria gives it even citizens under the constitution. This that the regime called upon the most "lever," because it has wide popular more influence. How will it use this was his propaganda cover for the at­ prominent leaders of the armed forces support, is really progressive and now new-found influence and power? tack on Malenkov-Ignatiev. And the for declarations of support after Beria holds the balance of power. The present generation of Russian present collective leadership deliver­ had been arrested and publicly de­ However, comparisons with other military leaders, the Marshals and ed the heaviest blow of all when it nounced. This may be interpreted countries and other situations are out Generals are all in their late forties accused the secret police (Beria) of as one pleases, but it is unprecedented of order since this army occupies a or early fifties. They are all children setting itself above the party and pre­ in the political history of Stalinism. unique position in a unique society. of the Stalinist regime, a regime that paring to overthrow the state and I t could not and did not happen True, the army has popular support. has rewarded them with incompar­ overthrow capitalism. under Stalin. The only time Stalin That support was heightened by the able social and economic privileges. A purge is impossible without the called for loud declarations of loyalty victory of the army over the Nazi They have every reason to defend the use of the secret police, yet how can from the army was after he had de­ invaders. In the national conscious­ source of these privileges. Further­ the present clique in the Kremlin capitated 99 per cent of the general ness it looms large as the armed de­ more, these army leaders were all proceed to one with so blunted and staff. fender of he nation. And no one can young, junior officers when the Red compromised a weapon? At the pres­ Immediately following Beria's ar­ read the stream of post-war biogra­ Army General Staff, headed by the en t time the secret police is being rest, the first military figure of impor­ phies, memoirs and fictionalized ~is­ brilliant Tukhachevsky, was decapi­ purged of Beria's adherents in the tance to make a public statement was tory produced by the new generatIon tated by Stalin in one dread blow. name of the party, and party members General Antonov, commander of the of Soviet refugees without being im­ We can be sure they took the lesson are being urged to assert the party's Transcaucasian military district. Ad­ pressed by how much hope was pin­ to heart. Military conspiracies, as the control over the secret police. We dressing a meeting of army Commu­ ned on the army as the great force unhappy fate of the Decembrists read in a New York Times dispatch nists, that is, officers, he pledged full which would liberalize Russia or teaches, has always ended disastrously of July 23rd that Communist Party unity to the party and the govern­ better free the country from the tyr­ in Russia. meetings in the Azerbaijan and Mol­ ment. And on July 16th, the leading annical yoke. Yet nothing came of These psychological inhibitions are davian republics as well as in the figures of the Russian armed forces these dreams. Zhukov and the others complemented by certain objective Leningrad area have "subjected local heard Bulganin and a Colonel Zhel­ were forced into the shaddows while difficulties. In a capitalist or semi­ organs of the Ministry of Internal tov, chief of political administration the cult of Stalin as the great general­ colonial country the seizure of state Affairs to sharp criticism." In Mol­ in the army, report on the Beria issimo who had "forged the victory" power by the military can be accom­ davia, one party meeting heard criti­ affair. The popular Marshals, the flourished under official sponsorship. plished without causing a single cisms that "MVD officials were said heroes of the Second World War, An army, Trotsky once remaked, is ri pple in the economic and social life to pay no heed to the voices of Com­ Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Sokolovsky, as a copy of society-except at a higher of the country. But if the army aspires munists and not to take into account well as other important military fig­ temperature. The Russian army is to power is Russia, it must have a the attitude of primary party organi­ ures participated in the public ritual popular, but what other army knows program. It must either envision the zations." To arrest Beria and to put of pledging support to the party and of so vast a gulf between a privileged overthrow of the present system of him on trial is not too difficult an the regime. And in every military officer cast and the rank and file? state-owned property, the nationalized affair. Even to liquidate hundreds of district a slavish imitation of this rite What other army enforces so dracon­ industry or its maintenance. Since his supposed supporters will not con­ is being performed. These political ian a disciplinary code? The privil­ this officer caste was nurtured by the vulse the country. But the present demonstrations, they are nothing else, eges and power of the officer cast bind present system and has never known shaky regime simply cannot manipul­ intended to assure the country and it to those who rule in the Kremlin, anything else, it is doubtful that any ate the party and mass organizations the outside world that the regime does not to those below who dream of section of it longs for capitalist restor­ as it pleases, one day turning them not fear the military, are obvious overthrowing the unbearable despot­ ation. This assumption is borne out towards an attack on the secret police, signs of the Kremlin's weakness and ism. by the remarkable unanimity of op­ the army's strength. the next day subjecting them to its The dramatic events since Stalin's inion among officers who have fled persecution. This has immediately led some death have given the army greater Russian-controlled territory since the 126 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May... u •• 1953 127 end of the war. They all express and which the present regime will years, writes in the New York Times march. The Stalinist style did not their opposition to the dictatorship seek to satisfy. But there is a limit of July 22nd, that "for the first time end with Stalin's death. The weaker but agree that the nationalized in­ to what the army can ask for and what in years the Kremlin seems to be the regime, the stronger its declara­ dustry cannot be uprooted without the regime can give without bringing showing some concern for Ivan Ivano­ tions. The more disunited within, desroying the economy. down the entire system in ruins. vich, the average Soviet citizen." the firmer the assurances of unity The army has no intention of According to Gilmore, a rumor spread and solidarity. destroying the social basis of its class. ANY AlTEMPT TO ASSAY the path the through Moscow in the last days of Every ruling class needs unity of if And it were to overthrow the regime will follow is almost an impos­ June that the ruble was going to be governmental will. Just this is lack­ present regime, it would have to take sibility without knowing something of devalued again, Those who had ing in totalitarian Russia. The disin­ full responsibility for running the the mood of the masses in Russia and money in the bank began withdraw­ tegration of power which occured economy_ In totalitarian Russia, the the attitude of the regime towards ing it; a wave of scare-buying spread, when Stalin died is intolerable and spool on which all the economic, them. Fortunately, although the wall and the psychology of panic prevail­ dangerous and cannot be hidden by social and political threads are wound of censorship is almost impenetrable, ed. Through the Ministry of Finance the present fiction of "collective lead­ is the party. The army, therefore, some few pieces of informati.on have the government issued a statement ership." Within the regime, a clash would overthrow this party regime in begun to filter out. With regard to declaring there would be no devalua­ of personalities goes on that is gov­ order to install-another party regime. how the Russian people felt after tion. Gilmore's comment on this is erned by the lure of absolute per­ This is the great obstacle to any Stalin's death, we can only cite in­ valuable. He says, "That was a rare sonal power and reinforced by the military coup d'etat. direct evidence. In the New Leader step. Under Stalin it would not have pressure of conflicting social forces The army caste would intervene of July 13, we read of an interview happened. The people would have and interests. From without, the under one condition-not against the with a Soviet officer recently escaped been left to panic, they didn't matter." regime is menaced by elemental and power of the present ruling class-but from East Germany. The officer de­ This, to be sure, is only a small powerful forces that rise to the sur­ in order to save it from being shat­ clares that when Stalin died: "Many sample of the relation between the face at the slightest sign of weakness tered. Should revolution break out soldiers and officers dared to speak regime and the masses. The anxiety and threaten to tear the whole system in the satellites or at home, and the freely. Many drank to Stalin's death of the rulers in the Kremlin, their apart. The purge of Beria and the regime prove incapable of gaining and left their barracks without per­ concern with the slightest change in June days in Berlin are the first control of the situation, then the army mission. Party discipline in the Army the mood of the masses, is a sign of bitter fruits of the new "collective most certainly would step forward in was seriously endangered. A political fear and uncertainty. It is this which leadershi p." We can be sure they the role of savior. The events in East officer in one of the neighboring dictates the present and future do­ will not be the last. Germany and Chechoslovakia are a units was thrown into the water.... mestic policy of the Kremlin. The Abe STEIN premonition of this possibility. Again, During the days immediately after large promises and modest but im­ should the regime be paralyzed by Stalin's death, many soldiers and portant real concessions: the amnesty, internecine strife, the army would be officers felt emboldened to make the reduction of prices, the slicing in Now available! compelled to play the role of the friends with Germans and visit in half of the compulsory state loan, the arbiter. But feverish though devel­ their homes. (As you know, this is ambitious programs announced for COMBINATION OFFER- opments inside the Russian ruling punishable by confinement in a producing more consumers' goods; BOUND VOLUMES class are today, they have not yet, so forced-labor camp.) Many members all this adds up to a policy of con­ (Completely indexed) far as we can tell from the outside, of the Soviet Army were arrested, but cession and forced retreat. And the reached this explosive pitch. after a few days an order apparently internal divisions within. the regime for 1951 Meanwhile, because the regime is came that these offenders were not to and the tremendous pressures of the and 1952 be punished. At any rate, most of masses in the satellites do not make weak, because its role has increased in Labor Action ...... $3 importance, the army will surely push these prisoners were released. These it any stronger. The elimination of for greater privileges and recognition outbreaks were not confined to the Beria has not eliminated the crisis. New International ...... $4 Soviet zone. I have heard the same in the period ahead. The desire to The July 9th editorial announcing BOTH (for 1 year) ...... $6 from Poland and assume that things curb the arbitrary power of the secret Beria's doom begins, as all such BOTH (for both years) .... $11 got even more out of hand inside police inside the army, the desire to Stalinist falsifications do, with massive Order from: Russia." play a greater part in making the boasts about the growing strength, Independent Socialist Press political decisions, these are the de­ Eddy Gilmore, Associated Press unity and inflexibility of Stalinist 114 West 14 Street. New York City mands the army can and will advance correspondent in Moscow for eleven society in its strange downward 128 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 129 policy became defeatists in the new useful comparison difficult. In both The East German Workers' Revolt struggle of liberation from the totali­ cases it was the proletariat, and tarian state-capitalism. A third way among the proletarians mainly the Background and Implication of the Uprising out could only be considered an ab­ industrial workers, who led the entire stract idea or as a speculative possi­ movement, with the silent or open The June uprising of the Russia was not recognized by those bility which seemed to be contrary to approval of the peasants and what­ workers in East Germany is one of the who were responsible for political set­ the reali ties of the situation. ever it may have meant or may mean great events in modern history. What tlements after the second world war The historical meaning of the up­ again-of the urban middle classes. actually happened may be observed in the Western world. It seemed to be rising in East Germany is that it But the differences are just as im­ by biased or official reports. The im­ possible to arrange a peaceful divi­ opens up the vista of a third way out. portant and may give us an even bet­ plications of the events will not be sion of the world in the old style of It is a historical warning that a new ter insight into the nature of the new liked by most governments in the international cartels. It was believed era of revolutionary liberation move­ movement than the similarities: Western world though the inner that "socialist" state planning would ments is possible. It is directed not Eastern Germany has become one weaknesses of the Russian empire make the Russian imperial govern­ against an old feudal or semi-feudal of the most proletarianized areas in were openly revealed by the German ment more peaceful and self-sufficient regime which has not yet "completed the world. A tiny totalitarian bureau­ uprising and will therefore greatly than was old Czarist Russia. In such the bourgeois - democratic revolu­ cratic hierarchy, the obedient tool of improve their bargaining position in a world-divided up among two or tions." It is a liberation movement a foreign imperialist power, stands on future dealings with Moscow. three big powers-there was no place against the latest type of state capital­ top of a social organism which con­ The uprising in Germany will open for a German industrialism. Europe ist enslavement which makes use of sists mainly of three social categories: up new historical opportunities was destined to become a subordinat­ extreme methods of nationally cen­ "free" proletarian workers, slave which seemed to have vanished with ed section of the Russian and Ameri­ tralized planning. Therefore it opens workers similar to the type of slaves the defeat of the European labor can empire, permanently divided. up new vistas also for all countries of ancient despotic regimes, and the movements during the last twenty Such plans had to be thrown over­ which have been subjugated by totali­ absolute paupers who have sunk to years and the emergence of the Stal­ board because they were politically tarian state-capitalist regimes. the deepest level of the economic­ inist state. unworkable. The Russian system of The historical meaning of the social struggle for survival. Two world wars, a defeated prole­ state-capitalist planning had pro­ events in East Germany may be de­ The percentage of industrial labor tarian revolution in Germany and a duced the most aggressive type of fined as the first act of a new social is relatively great, and most industrial "successful" proletarian revolution modern militarism and therefore be­ and national revolutionary libera­ workers are concentrated in a few that failed in Russia, finally the vic­ came an acute threat to the survival tion movement. Its historical mean­ areas. Furthermore, the workers still tory of fascism in Germany coincided of all other nations and national ing overshadows the historical role of are affected by the old traditions of with the decay and destruction of the states. It seemed to be impossible to the first Russian revolution (1905) the Western labor movement. They old traditional labor movement in defeat such a regime except by form­ which shook the Czarist empire with­ consist largely of skilled and intelli­ Europe. It seemed to be impossible to ing a counterpart to Russian imperial out leading to its downfall. Lenin and gent workers. Advanced elements of escape from new wars and the rise of militarism-a huge centralized state­ his closest disci pIes often reminded these workers had opportunities to totalitarian states. The hopes which planned militarism which could fight their comrades in later years that the absorb the lessons of the most ad­ the Russian revolution of 1917 had the new totalitarian power with its events of 1905 were a necessary ex­ vanced labor movements of the nine­ raised among the radical wing of Eu­ own means and methods. But such a perience without which the revolu­ teenth century in the course of the ropean labor movements after the first struggle between two totalitarian tion of 1917 would not have succeed­ experiences of the great social revolu­ world war had faded away. Already giant powers will extinguish the best ed. The June, 1953, struggle of the tions at the beginning of this century, during the Thirties most members of achievements of Western civilization East German proletarians may turn of the totalitarian Nazi regime, of the radical labor movements had con­ and the opportunities to use them for out to be a necessary introduction to final collapse of society after the sec­ vinced themselves that the revolution new social progress. A third way out a greater revolutionary struggle which ond world war, and finally of the new which in Rl!ssia had freed the peas­ of our social world crisis appeared no will be political and social dynamite totalitarian colonial regime. It is iron­ ants and workers from the rule of an longer to exist. The only alternative for similar societies all over the world. ical that the new proletarian revolu­ absolute semi-feudal capitalist state seemed to be appeasement of the Rus­ A comparison with ~e Russian tion started in one of the most prole­ had created a new type of oppressive sian totalitarian system of enslave­ Revolution may easily lead to false tarianized areas of the world and im­ totalitarian monster. ment. conclusions. Internal and external mediately clashed with a power which The nature of the new regime in Adherents of such an appeasement conditions differ greatly and make a was a fruit of the first "successful" 130 THE NEW INTEINATIONAL May.June 1953 131 proletarian revolution in modem tion, with a working class where some (4) The methods of centralized Moscow itself, since the death of Stal­ times. kind of labor aristocracy seemed to state bureaucratic planning under the in-and before-leading bureaucrats Without a class of national capital­ emerge among the best-paid sectors guidance of a totalitarian bureau­ were purged or were in disfavor. The ists as the ruling class, with a state­ of labor, only three social classes now cracy, together with the delivery of a leaders of the satellite states felt se­ capitalism under control of a foreign survive. At the bottom of the social large percentage of the industrial cure in their positions only if their power, the major part of the "nation­ ladder there are the slave laborers produce to the foreign imperialist personal ties with the new cliques in al income" must be spent in accord­ who work for the state without mone­ overlord, have created a higher de­ the Kremlin were secure and if they ance with the policies of the foreign tary compensation. Then there is the gree of economic anarchy and waste were supporting the right man in imperialism. rest of the population, most of whom of the social produce than there ever the Russian party leadership. In addition, the new German bu­ belong to the completely proletarian­ existed under private capitalism. reaucratic hierarchy has to rely on an ized type of working class, controlled, (5) The weaknesses of the regime apparatus which is very costly, which oppressed and exploited by the state­ THE NATURE OF THE RUSSIAN REGIME are multipled by the high degree of intervenes and interferes with produc­ capitalist bureaucracy. The latter re­ and the prospects of liberation move­ centralization of industrial labor and tive efforts to such an extent that an lies on a new social hierarchy-the ments in the Eastern German areas by the fact that the tradition of the effective control of production be­ upper ranks of the party and state have been discussed by small intel­ German labor movement-a high de­ comes impossible. Absolute scarcity bureaucracy and of the armed forces. lectual circles, former students and gree of social consciousness among in­ of many kinds of goods and materials They are a tiny minority among the ex-officers, and in particular by for­ dividual workers, and of social class or man-power coincide with large­ people, divorced from the rest of the mer members of the labor movement. discipline and solidarity-has not yet scale economic waste. The economic population, without native or social But a genuine underground move­ been eliminated by the experiences of costs of mistakes of the planners must roots among other sectors of the peo­ ment able to withstand the pressure the Nazi regime nor by the new be paid with sweated labor, wage cuts ple, relying directly on the bayonets of a totalitarian regime could be built pseudo-communist dictatorship. and the hanging of "saboteurs." of their police forces and those of a up only by the industrial workers. We may summarize the social and foreign power. (6) The new regime of totalitarian What helped them was the fact that isolation of the individual could not they had daily contact with each political conditions which were basic (2) Thus a real native ruling class for the emergence of a new type of be organized effectively. Immediately other through their work and their has been missing. There were-and neigh boring areas are populated by working and living conditions. Fur­ social revolutionary liberation move­ there are-new rulers and a new social ment as follows: people of the same nation, living un­ thermore, there were many workers hierarchy which tends to become a der relative personal freedom. Their experienced in underground work. (1) High degree of proletarianiza­ new ruling class. But it lacks basic tion of the people. area, too, is occupied by a foreign Finally they were unwilling to be­ elements of a ruling class. It is too power, and the latter also imposes its come the tool of another power and Most members of the middle classes small in number. It has not been able own political control system. But it declined advice and in most cases even had ei ther vanished or had become to create a sufficient stratum of mem­ still represents a power where private contact with circles or parties out­ mere proletarians. As proletarians bers of the party or of the state-bu­ capitalism is being defended as a sys­ side of their own area. Members of they were not working for a private reaucrats who may be considered as tem superior to state-capitalism. The foreign intelligence organizations capitalist but for the state which had "reliable" for the regime. The social absolute power of the state cannot be were carefully ignored as far as pos­ become a more fierce and more bru­ produce which the new rulers have at sustained by one-party totalitarian sible. tal exploiter than the worst type of their disposal does not make it pos­ rule. Furthermore the new interna­ The situation was different for private capitalist at the time of early sible for them to extend the rise of a tional power struggle has made it members of the old middle classes and capitalism. A similar experience was new social hierarchy into a new social necessary to promote or at least to members of academic professions. undergone by the old type of indus­ class which has real national roots. encourage opposition movements They had lost their old social status trial worker, and also by the white­ (3) The weakness of the social and within the totalitarian Eastern Reich. collar workers. and had declined to the bottom level political structure is greatly increased (7) Finally, the upper crust of the of social stratification. There were no The entire social class structure by the foreign imperialist enslave­ new ruling hierarchy in the Eastern comrades and no social milieu where tended to become very simple com­ ment. The Russian overlord has not zones is not a firm unified mass fol­ they felt that they were members of a pared with the old one. Instead of a established himself as a victor who lowing one specific direction. It con­ group or of a circle to which they felt large layer of various types of middle intended to take his loot and go sists of "leaders" and underlings who responsible and which may haye classes and an upper class which had home. He may want to retire but only belong to cliques which are in an helped them in an emergency. As des­ strong traditional and native roots after having secured permanent rule acute stage of confusion and of per­ perate, isolated individuals they felt among a vast sector of the popula- over the new satellite regime. sonal rivalries. At the center, Le., in frustrated unless they were given new 132 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 133 hope for a change by a foreign pow­ of the workers. "Old Communists" sought to copy the pattern of the Rus­ countries or areas which cannot be er. It was easy for organizations which among workers who would support sian state in Germany. The historical shut off air-tight from the rest of the had been given money and moral sup­ the new regime were almost non-ex­ role of these cliques was necessarily world is the emergence of under­ port by foreign occupation powers in istent. The same applied to former based on a policy of keeping Germany ground circles of a small number of Western Germany after the deteriora­ members of the Social-Democratic divided and of preventing a unifica­ oppositional workers. They may es­ tion of East-West relations to estab­ party. At the beginning some success tion of Germany except through war, tablish a few personal contacts with lish underground contacts in 1947-50 was recorded by the appeal of the i.e., with the direct aid of the Russian men who belong to key sectors of with former members of the old mid­ new S.E.D. (Socialist Unity Party or army. For any other kind of unifica­ labor and who are a major influence dle classes or expropriated members official State Party) among young tion would have been incompatible among them. Such groups of workers of the old upper classes. They were workers. But this appeal virtually van­ with the role of Ulbricht & Co. as who, because of their positiorr, are desperate, personally isolated or help­ ished after several years of practical "leaders" of the new totalitarian state. able to act more independently than less and looking for a "strong power" experience with the Ulbricht appara­ They had to build up their totali­ other workers, will be able to use to help them. But the net of under­ tus. tarian party under the protection of their particular group of workers as ground contacts which relied on such A new kind of underground has a foreign army. It was not possible for a kind of advance guard which at a social elements was completely smash­ emerged. It is a combination of loose­ them to follow the pattern of the Rus­ critical moment will be followed by ed by the new regime in 1951-52 when ly and also tightly knit organization. sian revolution or even of the Nazi other sectors of labor. the East-German satellite regime had Only a minority of politically ex­ movement. They could not create The government spy system was not the task of restoring industrial pro­ perienced workers, mainly former their totalitarian party in competition able to penetrate the underground of duction and the industrial capacities communists who had already been with other political parties and con­ industrial and skilled workers effec­ of East Germany. It therefore had to disillusioned by their experiences quer the state administration of a par­ tively because the latter were able to increase the social and political with the German CP,had realized liamentarian government "from with­ detect unreliable elements from work­ weight of the industrial workers. the nature of the transformation of in" or with the aid of popular mass ing and living experiences, and also Something should be said about the the Russian revolution when the sec­ movements. Therefore the fate of because the underground was made political role of industrial labor in ond world war ended and the Russian Ulbricht & Co. depended on the for­ up to a great extent of a net of con­ East Germany: armies marched into Germany. Most eign policies of Moscow. They were tacts which were not a closely knit or­ sure that Moscow would need them East Germany includes areas with social-democratic workers and also ex­ ganization but which relied on per­ as long as the Russian government highly concentrated industrial labor, Communists who had joined the CP sonal experiences with those who was for a continued division of Ger­ where masses of industrial workers onl y a short time before the rise of were willing to resist the new regime. many and opposed to any kind of have been concentrated for several Hitler to power sincerely believed, What helped was the fact that the peaceful unification. For the same generations, with proud traditions of until the end of the war, that Moscow government has superseded the old reason, it was completely out of the social-revolutionary struggle and so­ would become some kind of social private capitalist boss. The govern­ question for Ulbricht & Co. to play cialist-communist organizational in­ liberator. But these hopes faded away ment does not appear as a physical the role of a Tito. Moscow did not fluence. We refer in particular to the within the first 24 hours of Russian person. have to fear such a danger in East industrial centers in Saxony, Thurin­ occupation. Thereafter a personal Essential and helpful for a real un­ Germany among the leading members gia, the area of Halle-Merseburg (incl. struggle for survival started. Such con­ of the East-German Party bureau­ derground center was the fact that it Leuna). The old political and organi­ ditions were extremely unfavorable to creasy. But other and even greater had the cooperation and more or less zational split between socialist and any political thinking and movement. dangers emerged. active support of numerous sympa­ communist workers seemed to play a Some "sincere" Communists still thizers, and active helpers among One of them is the underground minor role at the end of the Nazi re­ believed that after the initial transi­ members of the bureaucracy, within gime, at the end of the second world tional period from war to peace a new organization of the labor opposition. the S.E.D. hierarchy and even among war. There was a spontaneous move­ German democracy would emerge and It does not consist of a real mass or­ the highest ranks of the S. E. D. hier­ ment to overcome the old division. At the foreign terror regime would end. ganization. Experienced underground archy. Through them, a few contacts first, the new Communist (and S.E.D.) But the German party chiefs who had workers in totalitarian countries will also existed with' old-time members of party apparatus tried to exploit this been called from their Moscow head­ agree that a mass organization or an foreign Communist Parties in Eastern spontaneous drive for unity among quarters, Walter Ulbricht & Co., in organization which is part of a mass countries, and also with a few Rus­ the workers. But the new experience cooperation with a clique of Social-­ organization-perhaps organized from sian bureaucrats. As a result there was under the Russian-controlled regime Democratic "leaders" who were easily abroad-will not survive for any not one single decision of the govern­ completed the process of unification absorbed by the Ulbricht-clique, length of time. What is possible in ment which did not become known 134 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. May-June 1953 135 to the underground OpposItIon. played a prominent role in the Com­ ered and understood by the political many, and the formation of a neu­ Warnings of planned arrests of old­ munist Youth Movement during the leaders of the S.P.D. in Western Ger­ tralized Germany and, if possible, also time communists or socialists were Twenties and joined various opposi­ many and that "something new" will of Western Europe. sometimes given in time. This was tional Communist groups thereafter. have to be created. In the meantime, A mere attempt to test such a policy done on the highest levels, as well as Leaders of the West Berlin S.P.D. they have to form their own "inde­ would require the end of the political for rank-and-file members and are used to considering their own sit­ pendent" leadership. role for Ulbricht and his clique. The through contacts with the Administra­ uation as different from the situation A small circle of "underground latter tried to liquidate any social or tion. in any other part of Germany and as leaders" had been concerned for some political force which might have made It was known that the position of directly related to foreign big-power time with the desperate mood of the it possible to find a successor to his Ulbricht and his clique was under­ politics. Nowhere in the world are workers and also of the peasants and regime immediately after having re­ mined and collapsing immediately foreign policies and world-wide politi­ the urban middle classes. It was also ceived news about Stalin's serious after the death of Stalin, and after cal shifts of so much immediate con­ known that the Ulbricht clique tried sickness and especially after the death the apparent eclipse of the position of cern to the local leaders and to the to create a fait accompli for Moscow, of Stalin. But shortly thereafter, it Malenkov within the ruling "inner population as in West Berlin. in alignment with and in support of was felt that Ulbrich was bankrupt in circle" in Moscow. Ulbricht was care­ The labor movement in East Berlin Malenkov's position: the creation of the eyes of the new supreme masters ful to follow a "wait and see" line, at is also unique. East Berlin is the only a totalitarian satellite state of East of Moscow. Ulbricht himself knew it the same time closely watching the area in the Behind-the-Iron-Curtain Germany. The entire state edifice and he himself tried to open up a way personal attitudes of the individual world where an anti-Communist party would crumble if an attempt were of retreat, hoping against hope that bureaucrats toward his own group is officially permitted and actually made to reform it in such a way that he could ride out the tempest which and toward Moscow. tolerated. At the beginning of the it would be fit for an arrangement was blowing from Moscow. Something should be said about the East Berlin regime, attempts were with a non-totalitarian West Ger­ But personal rivals of Ulbricht special status of Berlin and the new made to liquidate the Social-Demo­ many. Therefore an East German within the apparatus suddenly gained, role of the Berlin labor movement. cratic Party in East Berlin, too, and Five-Year Plan was revised in such a influence and power. The Ulbricht This applies to West Berlin as well as to terrorize individual party members. way that a greater share of the "na­ clique tried to make a hasty retreat. to East Berlin. In spite of the Iron But the West Berlin Social Democrats tional income" was to be devoted to Promises were made to permit open Curtain which goes straight through answered with effective counter-meas­ the extension of heavy industrial or criticism of the regime. Berlin, there are, of course, many ures and threats of retaliation. As a armaments projects. The remnants of During the 12 months which pre­ contacts between both sectors of Ber­ result, some kind of unofficial modus non-Communist "bourgeois" parties ceded the uprising, the living stand­ lin which do not exist in other East­ vivendi developed. were to be liquidated. The state was ard of the workers in particular had West border areas. These special ties The underground organization in to become "monolithic." The inde­ fallen off, though, officially and ac­ have been very important for the East Berlin relies more or less on for­ pendent status of the church was to cording to government statistics, liv­ struggle in Eastern Germany. At the mer trade unionists, largely ex-Com­ end, thus creating an even wider rift ing conditions had improved. Con­ same time, East and West Berlin rep­ munists (sometimes still official mem­ between East and West Germany. It sumer goods had been de-rationed. resent two different worlds. bers of the S.E.D.) and former mem­ was perfectly clear to the Ulbricht Practically all consumer goods had to In West Berlin the Social Demo­ bers of the S.P.D. Contacts exist be­ clique that it would be sacrificed if a be purchased at "free" prices. The cratic Party dominates the political tween the S.P.D. organization in West unified sovereign Germany would latter had declined but they still were life of the city. The West Berlin So­ Berlin and the labor underground in emerge, and that the Russian dicta­ higher than prices for rationed goods cial Democrats are under the leader­ East Berlin. But such contacts rely on tors would have to throw the Ul­ had been before. Thus items which ship of highly experienced members a few personal ties. A distinctive fea­ bricht clique overboard if ever Mos­ could be bought only by the small of the old pre-Hitler labor movement. ture of the underground in East Ber­ cow would make a serious effort to privileg<:d new aristocracy had be­ West Berlin is the only part of West­ lin and East Germany is that it relies support the creation of a unified sov­ come cheaper while bread, margarine, Germany where the local organization on groups of workers who have com­ ereign German nation. potatoes, etc., had become more of the Social-Democratic Party is un­ mon traditional ties and who do not It was known that influential circles expensive. der the leadership of a political group acknowle'dge any center "abroad," in Moscow were for a Russian with­ In the early Spring, practically al­ which derives from a real fusion of not even in Western Germany, includ­ drawal from Germany and Central ready in March, near-famine condi­ former left-wing young socialists ing the S.P.D., as their leadership. Europe under certain conditions: tions developed in many areas of the ("J ung-Sozialisten") and anti-Stalinist There is a strong feeling that their Simultaneous withdrawal of the Eastern zone. In most towns, even in ex-Communists. Some of them once problems are not sufficiently consid- U ni ted States armed forces from Ger- Berlin, rationed meat, fats, butter, su- 136 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 137 gar and vegetables could not be sup­ paign of criticism of the old party the scope and intensity of the oppo­ except the Party elite and the new plied. Many people waiting in queues leadership was to prove to the West sitional movement which soori gained aristocracy. wasted their time and had to go home Germans that a real change is occur­ the character of mass uprisings, Working and foodstuff conditions empty-handed and hungry. At the ring in the East and that the East though there was not one single un­ became so desperate that many acts same time, it became known that the Germans enjoy a high degree of free­ derground leadership which believed of spontaneous resistance occurred in dom and independence. Trade-union government was building up huge that the situation was "ripe" for a real many industrial towns. But the Party representatives were told that the s~o.cks of foodstuffs, apparently for po­ revolution. leadership somehow welcomed the lItIcal reasons and "on orders from workers would have the right to make The underground leaders of the justification for intensified terror. It Moscow." demands for better working condi­ also may have believed that the Mal­ tions. opposition had often talked about the The complete record of the histori­ risks of open opposition. One of the enkov clique in Moscow would use cal events of the uprisings cannot be When the underground circles were great difficulties was the inability of the signs of hostility of the East Ger­ written now. There are many details advised about these new directives of the participants of any movement man masses in order to justify the which are only locally known. There Moscow, experienced former Com­ which defies the Party or the Party very policies which would widen the were no "central leaders" who direct­ munist Party members were skeptical leaders and therefore also the entire gulf between East and West and ed or organized the uprisings in such about the change. Would the new regime, to protect themselves against which would increase the need of a way that they were able to antici­ party line only be a short-term, tem­ the terror regime. A small-scale group Moscow to use Ulbricht as its tool. pate the events and to keep them­ porary affair? What would happen action for improved living conditions It seemed that Malenkov could not selves informed about the actual situ­ afterwards, after having revealed the exposed the participants to almost the assert himself in Moscow. Instructions ation at all major industrial or popu­ identity of the members of the same risks as an open political action were sent to East Germany through lation centers. But an underground opposition? Would the party bosses against the regime. The workers the new Russian Commissars that the center in Berlin does exist. It relies on provoke the oppositional or potential­ themselves were fearful of isolated methods of Ulbricht must be changed groups of workers who have unchal­ ly oppositional workers to reveal small-scale actions of resistance. "If and that Moscow must retain a lenged authority among new col- themselves only in order to purge all workers of all industries would higher degree of maneuverability to­ leagues. They followed a wait-and­ them thereafter? Experienced former rebel. ..." This "if" was repeatedly ward West Germany than would be see policy and resisted the temptation Communist Party members also sug­ talked about by the workers, as an possible with the crude terror meth­ of heroic actions which would not gested that an attempt should be excuse for not being able to act them­ ods of Ulbricht. The latter seemed to make sense, or which would expose made to turn the semi-legal move­ selves, but also as a ray of hope. feel that the magic power which radi­ them, their families and "innocent" ment for improved work and wage It was easy for the building work­ ated from Moscow was slipping away opposionists, to the new super-Ges­ conditions into a political struggle from him. tapo. which would spread among all indus­ ers and the workers of the Hennigs­ But the old anti-labor instructions tries and also other social classes in dod Steelworkers to convince them­ Then, in early Spring, something and orders for 10 per cent more work East Germany. There was much re­ selves that their resentment over the happened that stirred all oppositional without more pay were not cancelled. luctance among former active Com­ higher work norms and lower wage workers and that was much discussed They could not be rescinded also be­ munist party members and among so­ schedules would be useless and even among the underground circles: Ul­ cause of the shaky economic founda­ cialists, to appear openly as leaders dangerous if they merely launched a brich t and his personal adherents tion of the state economy, and be­ of the movement or to take the initi­ small-scale group struggle for better were no longer in favor with Moscow. cause of Moscow's unwillingness to ative for the call for strikes and dem­ economic conditions for themselves. His protector in Moscow, Malenkov, give up the claims for large tribute or onstrations. Much thought had to be They had to get out the workers of seemed to be losing his battle as the other factories, the women and men preferential supplies from the ex­ given to the aftermath, and to the successor to Stalin. The new man of the working class districts, in one hausted economy. need of survival during the terror pe­ whom Moscow had sent to East Ber­ big mass movement against the gov­ Yet, a softness in dealing with re­ riod which could be anticipated as a lin (Karlshorst), Semyonov, apparent­ ernment, against the entire regime. bellious workers became apparent. sequel to any attempt at open resist­ ly was a follower of Beria. The failure What was secretly discussed and ex­ The drive against the independent ance against the regime. of Malenkov's policies in the satellite pected as the only chance, had to be­ peasants and for collectivization was countries was to be revealed. A new Everybody, the underground lead­ come true. The professional pride of suddenly called off. The entire Five­ policy was to be introduced. Moscow ers as well as the leading members of the building and steel workers turned Year Plan policy was omitted from wanted to shake off the shadow of the S.E.D. or of the East German gov­ into a political pride to "be at the helm public appeals and admonishments of Ulbricht, the most hated man in East ernment, and in particular the Rus­ of a movement which was acclaimed the leaders of the regime. In addition, Germany. At the same time, a cam- sian representatives, were surprised at by practically the entire population, real famine condi tions spread in some 138 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 139 areas. Living conditions sharply de­ (4) Important international behind­ other plants, in order to spread the The action had started under the clined. Many rationed goods were not the-scene negotiations were being .movement. Many thousands of work­ leadership of workers who were es­ distributed at all, or they were re­ held in Eastern and Western capitals ers marched to the East German gov­ pecially reliable and courageous in placed with inferior goods which were where the fate of Germany was to be ernment and Party headquarters. their defiance of the regime. They offered at greatly increased prices. decided. These negotiations could be This action was still relatively peace­ were skilled workers traditionally Under such conditions the workers favorably effected by an open act of ful. Two members of the government, known for their personal willingness felt encouraged to discuss their griev­ defiance of the regime. Rau and Selbmann, who had the rep­ to take risks in the struggle against ances openly. It was obvious that the (5) The political parties and the utation of not being especially close oppressive authorities. The building top-leaders of the regime were unable government in Western Germany to Ulbricht, personally tried to pacify workers of Berlin and the steel work­ or unwilling to act ruthlessly and with were to be aroused about the urgency the masses. They were frequently in­ ers of Hennigsdorf were known for totalitarian terror methods against of the problem of unity and liberation terrupted when they talked to the their support of revolutionary actions the critics of the regime. of East Germany from the Eastern workers but they were not personally during the pre-Nazi era 1918-1933. Then the leading members of the totalitarian state and the unbearable attacked. Then, on June 17, the order They were strongholds of the Com­ underground had to deal with the is­ conditions imposed by it on the peo­ for new work norms and wage cuts munist movement in Berlin during sue: "What to do next?" There were ple. was withdrawn. It was too late. In the that period. Under the Nazis they contacts with some leading members On June 7, the building workers of evening, the slogan spread among the defied the regime wherever possible. of the Social-Democratic Party in the Stalin-Allee project in East Berlin workers in all East Berlin districts: They certainly did not become adher­ The next morning, all workers of ents of Nazism. These workers were West Germany, but the latter was not for the firs t time received 'their weekly East Berlin would go on strike and called out for an open act of defiance directing or controlling the move­ wage on the basis of the newly-intro­ march against the government. The of the regime, but under slogans ment in East Germany. Contacts were duced work norms, i.e., at greatly re­ next morning, the workers of the mu­ which at first concerned their own minimized as much as possible, for duced rates. The bureaucrats of the nicipal utilities (gas, water and elec­ economic interests: against the new personal safety reasons, also for po­ trade unions and of other official trical power plants) joined the strike work norms and for better living con­ litical reasons. But it was known that agencies refused to lis ten to the com­ and marched against the government ditions. The economic demands were Dr. Adenauer's position would great­ plaints of the workers and threatened headquarters, too. In a matter of min­ fulfilled by the regime almost within ly depend on his ability to prove to police action against "sabotage" and utes Russian tanks intervened and a few hours after the start of the the people in Western Germany that "resistance" against the state authori­ saved the S.E.D. and government strike. But an immediate "transition Eastern Germany must be written off ties. Then, on June 9 and 10, the headquarters from destruction by the of the economic into a political strug­ for all practical purposes for a long official decrees about a change of the infuriated workers. Without the last­ gle" took place in the best tradition time. party lIne were made known. Now minute intervention of the Russian of the old tactical experiences of revo­ So, the decision to call the workers there seemed to be confirmation of tank division, the workers would have lutionary action. The advance guard out for strikes and open demonstra­ what had been said in the whisper­ seized party and government head­ of the Berlin working class had called tions against the regime was made in campaigns: The Ulbricht-apparatus quarters with little chance of escape out the other workers and the entire view of the following factors: will find it difficult to use methods of for the S.E.D. leaders. working class population to defy the (1) The people were hungry and physical terror in order to suppress regime and to march to the centers of desperate but the regime had im­ open mass resistance. The workers The workers did not run away the administration with the demand: posed new additional burdens, includ­ will have a chance if they express when the guns of the Russian tanks immediate resignation of the govern­ ing new increased work norms with­ their dissatisfaction with the bureau­ were turning against them. They ment. out extra pay. crats. Moscow will hesitate to appear faced them with desperate courage (2) The peasants were desperate in the role of the mass liquidator of and iron discipline. Politically con­ Spontaneously, in towns and vil­ and would support any action against the industrial workers of East Ger­ scious workers advised their col­ lages where the underground did not the government in the towns. many. On June IS and 16, the build­ leagues not to engage in an open and have direct contacts but where local (3) The terror apparatus of the re­ ing workers of the Stalin-Allee project unequal fight with the Russian forces. underground leaders existed, too, or gime was not fully effective, for the openly demanded withdrawal of the One step further, and the tanks would where such leaders arose during the government was dependent on a for­ new work-norms and wage cuts. Ul­ have been used against the unarmed action itself, workers went on strike eign overlord who was dissatisfied bricht's apparatus still refused to give workers. It was too early to attempt and local populations, often openly with the government. Its members in. Then the workers stopped work­ a revolutionary coup against the gov­ supported by peasants, marched to were confused about the further ing, left their jobs and marched into ernment and against the Russian the prison buildings where political course of action. other workers' quarters, especially to armed forces. prisoners were kept or where the

140 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 141 hated administration was located. The only elements who were really THE LIQUIDATION of entire social peasants. Moscow did not intervene Overnight the net of underground reliable from the viewpoint of the classes and of large sectors of the pop­ when the Ulbricht clique acted in this organizations was multiplied and a Ulbricht clique and of the Russian ulation in order to solidify a totali­ way against the middle classes and new revolutionary organization was commander were the former S. S. tarian state. regime has become com­ the peasants. East Germany is only born. members or Nazis who had joined mon. Any underground leader and part of the German nation, and purge active member of the resistance move­ actions against the East German There was a serious danger that lo­ the S.E.D. and the new Security For­ ment had to be aware of the possibili­ workers are apt to create such hatreds cal hot-heads would go too far and ces of the regime. But the old Com­ ty that the regime would take ven­ in West Germany that Moscow's hope that the government would provoke munist party members who had geance on him if it could ever gain of neutralizing Germany and Western a revolutionary uprising or an all-out joined the new administration were absolute power. For all practical pur­ Europe would never be realized. struggle under conditions which in most cases "unreliable" and except poses, the Ulbricht clique would want Furthermore Beria did not want Mal­ spelled defeat for the movement. An for' a few top leaders bore withing to physically liquidate them and or­ enkov's adherent, Ulbricht, the Rus­ underground leadership which exist­ themselves the germs of disintegra­ ganize a purge on the scale of the sian Pro-Consul and his German un­ ed in nucleus-form intervened. The tion. Russian liquidation of the peasant derlings who wanted to repeat the spontaneous demand for a general In one town, the mayor, an old­ class or of the purges against the "old purge actions in the old Stalinist strike was declined. For such an ex­ time Communist, personally knocked Bolsheviks" during the Thirties in or­ style, to remain in control of the tension of the action would have been down with his fists the policeman, a der to solidify their power. But does S.E.D. and of the German satellite an attempt to seize political power former Nazi, who was shooting at the anti-government people. The Com­ Moscow want to return the Ulbricht regime. and would have involved the move­ clique to absolute power and will the munist mayor was later arrested and The Russian masters are now fol­ ment into an open premature strug­ Russian regime support such purges? condemned to death. lowing two opposite courses. They are gle against the foreign occupational This is a foreign policy issue for Mos­ taking vengeance against the revolu­ power. There was no chance to win There was one great disappoint­ cow. It presents itself as a dilemma tionary opponents. Large-scale puni­ against the Russian tanks and ma­ ment: The response in West Ger­ either to rule the satellite countries chine guns, while open support from many, especially in Bonn. The Aden­ with the iron fist of the ruthless dic­ tive actions are planned in order to the West was not available. The local auer government protested but it did tator, or to make concessions in the liquidate the opposition. They also seek to pacify the aroused masses and leaders of the movement were warned not do as much in support of the up­ hope of winning support at least to avoid any clash with the represen­ rising as it might have done. The or­ among some sectors of the population to pave the ground for a new appeal in Europe in order to "neutralize" tatives of the Russian occupational der of the commandant of the occu­ and therefore foreign political ma­ powers. When Russian tanks and pational forces in West Berlin not to neuverability. Germany and Western Europe. guns controlled the streets and fur­ hold an open mass rally against the Moscow may follow either course, ther mass action would have resulted terror in the East and against the The Russian leaders are expeli­ enced in administrative rule and op­ or it may seek to combine the two in an open clash with the Russian East German Administration was reg­ courses. The freedom of action of the forces the action as such was called istered as a sign that the Western pression of oppositional movements. But they are not too experienced with Russian overlord will depend mainly off. powers were afraid of the conse­ on his relations with the Western quences of further struggle. It was such movements in satellite countries But in many towns and industrial especially in areas forming the border powers. Will he get enticing offers of centers open mass resistance still con­ considered as a gesture by the West agreements which if accepted would German administration to Moscow line between East and West, and es­ tinued. The leaders of the under­ pecially not in highly industrialized seal the fate of the national and so­ for negotiations and an agreement cial liberation movements in Europe ground discovered that they had un­ which would perpetuate the division countries with proletarian leaders known sympathizers and active sup­ who are trained in the tradition of the and in Asiit? Or will the pressure of of Germany and its dependence on such movements be used in order to porters. The basic weakness of the po­ foreign powers. old labor movements and with work­ ers who also have a tradition of de­ proclaim the task of the restoration lice machine of the regime became Th~ uprising improved the bar­ fiance against their exploiters and of free and independent nations apparent: it was acting on behalf of gaining position of the Western pow­ oppressors. which will work together in order to a foreign power and it relied on "se­ ers. But the desperate masses would solve the social and economic prob­ Oppression of these social elements curity forces" recruited largely from have to pay the price. Would it mean lems of their time? young workers who did not want to the physical liquidation of anyone tends to create political dynamite. A act against their own people. Many who had turned out to be an oppon­ drastic solution would be the liquida­ A violent suppression of the anti­ acts were seen of heroism and evi­ ent of the regime or who was poten­ tion of such elements in the style of totalitarian national and social liber­ dence of disintegration of the regime. tially an enemy of the regime? the action against the "kulaks" or the ation movement in East Germany and 142 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 143 other Russian satellite countries, with political warfare effectively in Eu­ able leaders of the present Central Com­ vocating the structure of the new the silent or indirect consent of the rope. mittee might, quite innocently, lead to a state on a basis of "federated repub­ Western powers, would liquidate the This is the international back­ split, and if our party does not take measures to prevent it, a split in conse­ lics." One of the "peppery dishes" only force which makes it possible to ground to the events in East Ger­ quence, might arise unexpectedly.... this Georgian cook prepared in his avoid a third world war. For the Rus­ many. They are either the beginning Lenin proposed that the Central triumph as an expert on the national sian overlord will see to it that the of a new era of revolutionary national question, was the subordination of suppression of such movements will and social liberation movements, or Committee of the party be so enlarged in order to neutralize the relations of all the minority nations to the su­ be used in order to propagate the idea they will seal the fate of any social premacy of the Great Russians, in no of betrayal of any progressive move­ liberation movement in our time. Trotsky and Stalin in the leading commi ttee and, as he hoped, to serve fundamental sense different from the ments by the Western powers and in The Western powers are in greater way great Tsars had ruled. order to build up a stronger police danger of being defeated in Germany as a unifying force in the summits of Our reference to the "testament" and military machine than ever ex­ if they refuse to support such move­ the party. is for the purpose of recalling Lenin's isted before. It would be used in or­ ments because the final consequences One year later, however, on Janu­ extreme sensitivity to the problem of der to wage war against the Western of such a struggle are much more far­ ary 4, 1923, he added a postscript to the encircling and strangulating bu­ powers at a later stage, under condi­ reaching than it may appear to the the "testament" saying: reaucracy in the state and party, his tions where the Western powers casual observer. H. F. STILLE "Stalin is too rude, and this fault, en­ forecast of a split as a result of a pe­ would be unable to use the means of Germany, June, 1953. tirely supportable in relations among us culiar constellation of forces in the communists, becomes unsupportable in the office of General Secretary. There­ leadership, and his appraisal of the • fore, I propose to the comrades to find two principal figures in the subse­ Stalin's Place In History a way to remove Stalin from that posi­ quent struggle, one of whom was tion and appoint another man who in all world famous, the other, an unknown respects differs from Stalin only in su­ Assessing the Social Role of the Great Assassin periority-namely, more patient, more and obscure figure. loyal, more polite and more attentive to The "testament" made clear that Stalin is "the greatest man of all measures to prevent a split, so far as comrades, less capricious, etc. This cir­ while Stalin was unknown to the times, of all epochs and peoples." such measures can be taken. . . . Our cumstance may seem an insignificant -Sergei Kirov party rests upon two classes, and for trifle, but I think that from the point of world and perhaps to the Russian people and the party at large, inside "Stalin proves himself a 'great that reason its instability is possible, and view of the relation between Stalin and man' in the grand style ... Style if there cannot exist an agreement be­ Trotsky which I discussed above, it is the broad leadership of the organiza­ is Lenin's heir. Stalinism is Com- tween such classes its fall is inevitable. not a trifle, or it is such a trifle as may tion he was a prominent and domin­ munism." -James Burnham . . . I think that the fundamental factor acquire a decisive significance. in the matter of stability-from this ant figure. Consequently, while it is p.oint of view-are such members of the Shortly afterward, and immediately true that he rose from obscurity, it • Central Committee as Stalin and Trot­ prior to a turn in an illness that left was as a member of the leading cadre When Lenin lay gravely sky. The relation between them consti­ him incapacitated until his death, of the revolutionary party. ill, he gave much thought to the fu­ tutes, in my opinion, a big half of the Lenin, in a letter to Stalin, broke off danger of that split.... Lenin's "testament" became known ture of the Revolution and the party all personal and comradely relations Comrade Stalin, having become Gener­ only after his death. The persistent which he, above all, helped to create. al Secretary, has concentrated an enor­ with him. A chain of events leading demands of the Trotskyist Opposi­ Fully aware of the dangers which sur­ mous power in his hands; and I am not to this final act, was followed with a tion and its surreptitious circulation rounded the young, new state, un­ sure that he always knows how to use proposal by LeQ.in to Trotsky for a throughout the party forced an offi­ certain of its future as an isolated and that power with sufficient caution. On the political bloc against Stalin. The im­ other hand, ComradQ Trotsky, as was cial admission of its existence. We backward nation, he concerned him­ proved by his struggle against the Cen­ mediate cause for this was the sharp shall refer to these episodes shortly. self with the internal situation in the tral in connection with the question of disagreement that broke out between First, however, it is necessary to deal party which now ruled the country the People's Commissariat of Ways and Lenin and Stalin over the national with the significance of Lenin's refer­ alone. In his famous "testament" he Communications, is distinguished not question, particularly in Georgia, only by his exceptional ability-person­ ence to the "obscure" Stalin who was turned directly to the problem of re­ ally, he is, to be sure, the most able man where the latter sought to Russify the the second "most able" man in the lations within the leadership which he in the present Central Committee-but country and had assumed bureau­ Central Committee. Upon the publi­ described in the following unequivo­ also by his too far-reaching self-confi­ cratic control over the party. cation of the letter many said: See, cal manner: dence and a disposition to be too much attracted by the purely administrative The seriousness of that dispute is we may not have known this man. By the stability of the Central Com­ side of affairs. further revealed by Stalin's attack on But evidently he was one of the giants mittee, of which I spoke before, I mean These two qualities of the two most Lenin's "national liberalism" for ad- of the Bolshevik party. Even Lenin

144 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 145 couples him with Trotsky as the two high quality. At unfavorable histori­ When Lenin said that the two most and a system of organization which most able men of the Central Com­ cal conjunctures they exhibited their able men in the Central Committee was in many respects peculiarly Rus­ mittee. And that accounts for his weaker sides as theoretical, political were Trotsky and Stalin, he caused no s'ian, and, except in its centralism and place in the leadership and his rise and organizational-administrative cri­ little concern to those whose opposi­ forms of discipline, not unlike all the to power. Trotsky was always wrong ses arose. tion to the latter was accompanied by other illegal parties, including· the in calling Stalin a "mediocrity." This Peculiarly enough, Tsarist society a complete rejection of the man as Mensheviks and Social Revolution­ misjudgment of Stalin, moreover, ob­ in the pre-Revolution days provided having no qualities whatever. Trot­ aries. With its leading staff living in viously led to an underestimation of a favorable arena for the development sky, as we shall show, was not guilty exile, the Bolshevik Party had to de­ his ability and the defeat of Trotsky of revolutionary movements of a high of such an underestimation of the velop an illegal organization in Rus­ and every other prominent associate order; many of them having men of man; neither were some other oppon­ sia, the same as the other parties. The of Lenin. considerable quality in their various ents of Stalin. The basic reason for party could not survive and develop On the face of it, looked upon leaderships. All the parties had their their defeat is to be sought in politics unless it progressed on various levels, purely as a struggle between person­ thinkers, writers, orators, organizers rather than psychology, important as theoretical, political and program­ alities, this view appears credible. For and practical men as distinguished the latter may be in trying to under­ matic (for the most part designed by example, more than twenty years af­ from organizers. The Bolshevik Party, stand the personalities in the struggle. the emigre leadership), and organiza­ ter the beginning of the struggle be­ as history has affirmed, contained Thus, the "testament" directed atten­ tional, administrative, and in the field tween Stalin and his opponents, them in greater abundance than any tion to the fact that Lenin, who was of action inside of Russia. It required James Burnham discovered that great­ other party. For all the grave differ­ extremely perspicacious in his under­ for' the latter, men of exceptional ness really fits Stalin-greatness being ences which separated these parties at standing and estimation of men, re­ courage, skill, tenacity, men prepared equated with success. varying times in their common devel­ garded Stalin as next to Trotsky, the to give their lives in the struggle to Several things require an immedi­ opment, the other parties had respect most able man of the Central Com­ free Russia from Tsarist oppression. ate discussion of this evaluation of for the leading men of Lenin's Party. mittee. There were many such men in the Stalin. What exactly did Lenin mean, Throughout the bitter struggles be­ Stalin was an obscure figure of the party; Stalin was among the best of and could he have meant, in coupling tween the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, party and the revolution, as history, that type, inadequately described as the names of Trotsky and Stalin? Did perhaps the most bitter factional despite its falsification if.1 Russia, has the "practicals." Trotsky really underestimate Stalin's struggle experienced by any party, firmly established. Prior to the revo­ The post-revolutionary period ability and therefore err in his strug­ many of the leaders on both sides had lution, through it as well, he wrote brought with it a new selection of gle to the point where he guaranteed respect and even admiration for the little or nothing. He initiated no men demanded by the new conditions Stalin's victory? What place in history abilities of their opponents. does Stalin have as a figure for prog­ great ideas or struggles and contrib­ of revolutionary reconstruction. Many uted nothing whatever to the ideo­ ress or retrogression, for the advance­ The outstanding men of Lenin's were found wanting; others displayed logical life of the party, the most in­ ment of humanity or its retardation? party were many-sided. They we~e an expanding ability and capacity un­ theoreticians of socialism, great wnt­ tense and active of any party we 'der the new state. In the case of Stal­ • ers, orators, agitators, and leaders of know. He was, and remained to his in, who was originally a co-opted THE WORLD SOCIALIST MOVEMENT, men. A mere mention of their names death, a speaker of poor quality in member of the Central Committee, from the time of Marx and Engels, will recall their deeds: Bukharin, content .and technique. While the the post-revolutionary period of the has had two basic levels of existence: Preobrazhensky, Bogdanov, Zinoviev, party press contained the names of all expansion of state power and admin­ the level of theory, principle and pro­ Kamenev, Riazanov, Sverdlov, Rykov, leading men of the organization, Stal­ istration, gave him an opportunity he gram; and the level of action, organi­ Tomsky, Sokolnikov, and Krassin. in's rarely if ever appeared. At party did not and could not have had be­ zation and administration. In the best There was, of course, Trotsky, already congresses he was usually a silent ob­ fore. The sudden death of Sverdlov parties and individuals, a synthesis is a famous figure beginning with his server. which robbed the party of its greatest established between these levels in a youthful leadership in the 1905 revo­ What attributes, then, did he have organizer elevated Stalin from a fig­ natural, synchronized manner, with lution-an exceptional thinker, writ­ that recommended him to the leading ure of second rank to one of first. He all the unevenness, differences of qual­ er, and orator-who joined the Bol­ staff of the party in the pre-revolu­ became,· upon the recommendation or ity, strength, weakness and capricious­ sheviks in 1917; Rakovsky, from the· tionary days, and caused Lenin to de­ proposal of Zinoviev, secretary of the ness that attach to all movements and Balkans, Chicherin, Lunacharsky, scribe him as he did in 1922-23? The party. Yet prior to that time~ Lenin men. Under the most favorable social Piatakov, Serebriakov, and others, Bolshevik Party, as an illegal party too had pushed Stalin, we believe conditions, these movements and men each of them making invaluable con­ under Tsarism, had forced upon it with Trotsky, because he valued his progressed and produced results of tributions to the movement. methods of work, a character of life, "firmness, grit, stubborness, and to a

146 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 147 certain extent his slyness as attributes leaders of the Bolshevik Party, nei­ a dictator of the party and new state. party," he had in mind Stalin and his necessary in the struggle," which the ther prior to the Revolution, nor af­ It is an unusual dictator, indeed, _who new administration. weak state was experiencing. It is cer­ ter. There are no lasting theoretical could not affect the removal of a sub­ L~nin was outraged at the Georgian tain that Lenin did not require or ex­ contributions made by him. His writ­ ordina.te offici~l before he had fully affaIr, as we indicated before. He pect from Stalin "independent ideas, ings are indeed exceedingly scarce in consolIdated hIS post. And yet, this, wrote to Trotsky: "I beg of you to political initiative or creative imagi­ the years before he became the chief too, is the historical fact: Lenin's re­ look after the Georgian affair at the nation." of the Russian state and party. What quest that Stalin be removed from his Party Congress. The 'persecutions' In all ideological matters, other he did write was anything but out­ post as general secretary was unheed­ carried out by Stalin and Dzerzhinsky men made the necessary contributions standing or even worth remembering. ed not only by the rising new bureau­ must be considered, and I do not trust which gave the party and the new Not even the Stalinist school of falsi­ cracy in the party, but by what has their impartiality. On the contrary. If state the rhythm required for consoli­ fication has been able to resurrect been called "Lenin's general staff." you agree to undertake the defense, dation of growth. A review of the any body of writings prior to 1924 to Twice Stalin offered his resignation, my mind will be at rest." various congresses, conferences and make a respectable volume of his col­ once in anger, another time with in­ To Mdivani and Makharadze, vic­ other gatherings show these men of lected works. Where other leaders of difference. On both occasions, he tims of Stalin's machinations, he knew the resul ts beforehand. A ideas to be Lenin in the first place, the Revolution were widely known w~ote: "I am following your business Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kame­ for their public activities as writers, packed committee and a packed con­ with all my heart. Disgusted with nev, Piatakov, Preobrazhensky, SO,kol­ speakers, and organizers Stalin was gress cried out: "No, No!" That end­ Ordjonikidze's brutality and the con­ nikov, etc. They made the main po­ correctly described as an "obscure" ed all proffers of resignation. nivance of Stalin and Dzerzhinzky, I litical and policy reports. It would be figure, strong only in the ranks of the Behind this refusal to carry out am preparing notes and a speech on wrong to believe, however, that the leading cadres of the party, and not Lenin's proposal lies the whole story your behalf." contributions of these men were ideo­ greatly loved among them. of the subsequent degeneration of the Simultaneously, Lenin advised: "It logical only. They were, all of them, Stalin was general secretary of the revolution and the leadership which is, of course, necessary to hold Stalin men of great practical skill, too, head­ party for only one year when Lenin m~de it. It is a story of inner party in­ and Dzerzhinzky responsible for this ing the most important divisions of wrote his "testament" to warn about tn~ue, of political deals among dif­ out-and-out Great Russian nationalis­ the state and the party as "practical" the dangers of a split. In another few fenng groups, the achievement of mo­ tic campaign." He prepared material for Trotsky men. months, he proposed the removal of mentary periods of internal peace, the to use as his "bomb" since he was too Yet, in the many-sided character of Stalin as secretary. Thereafter, he outbreak of new inner crises resulting ill to be present at 12th Congress. party life, a party which dominated broke off all comradely and personal finally in Stalin's complete victory as th~ When Trotsky wanted to inform the new state, the practical direction relations with him. These are the in­ the undisputed, single leader, the dic­ Kamenev, once involved in Georgian of its affairs required a man of no contestable facts. They show that, if tator of party and state. It ended in matters, Lenin said "Under no cir­ average skill in such matters. In the Lenin erred in his sponsorship of the defeat, dispersal and physical an­ cumstances. Kamenev will immediate­ selection of Stalin for the post of par! Stalin, it did not take him long to see nihilation of all other leaders of the ly show- everything to Stalin and Stal­ ty secretary, there is no doubt that the mistake and to attempt to remove party, his inferiors as well as superi­ ors, personal friends as well as in will make a rotten compromise and the Central Comm.ittee felt it had that him. He did not propose t~ remove enemies. then deceive us." kind of person, strong-willed, experi­ Trotsky, or Bukharin, or even Zino­ The Georgian Affair was the final enced and devoted to the party, one viev and Kamenev, to save the unity Lenin was fully aware of the forces straw for Lenin. It brought about the who could keep the organization of the party and to fight every bur­ of degeneration which were operating en~ of any comradely and personal re­ functioning at its highest capacities geoning bureaucracy. No, among the in the nation during the years follow­ latIOns between Stalin and Lenin, in the tests that seem to confront the leading staff, he proposed to remove ing the Civil War. He was deeply con­ and while it in no way determined organization daily. Stalin, and only Stalin. But, as history cerned with at least two of the most what happened in the post-Lenin his­ If this be doubted, one has only to has shown, it was already too late! powerful expressions of this degener­ tory of Russia, in the Stalin era, it did ask: In what other sense could Lenin Too late? Yes, too late, for already ation: the rise of bureaucratism in the establish what were Lenin's true rela­ have termed Stalin one of the two the bureaucracy inside the party and tions to Stalin. History shows Stalin most able men of the Central Com­ the state had grown too powerful and state and party, and the growth of to be anything but Lenin's disciple. mittee? All of the biographers of Stal­ resistive to heed a proposal from the "Great Russian chauvinism" in the in and the Russian Revolution agree leader of the party and the state. This national question. When' he said, "We on this: That Stalin was in no sense, in itself is a forceful reply to the crit­ have bureaucratism not only in the TROTSKY ONCE WROTE:• "Those theo- at any time, one of the ideological ics of the Revolution that Lenin was Soviet institutions but also in the reticians who attempt to prove that May-June 1953 148 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 149 the present totalitarian regime of treats, advances, ideological dishon­ Communist movement. The shame­ organizer, the assigner of tasks, the USSR is due not so much to historical esty, directionless, except as to the less aim of Zinoviev and Kamenev dispenser of jobs, the trainer and mas­ conditions, but to the very nature of goal of complete power, unprincipled succeeded too well; it prepared their ter of the bureaucracy." No sooner Bolshevism itself, forget that the Civil blocs and counter-blocs. It would own downfall. For the defeat of Trot­ was the Left Opposition disposed of, War did not proceed from the nature seem that his victory was the product sk y did not result in the rise of Zino­ than he began the task of destroying of Bolshevism but rather from the ef­ of pure individual superiority in all viev and Kamenev to new heights but the "Right Wing," the Bukharin forts of the Russian and the interna­ spheres of human activity in which all rather thrust Stalin forward as a new group. In another year, they too tional bourgeoisie to overthrow the opponents are defeated precisely be­ national and international figure and would go. It would all end in the Soviet regime." cause of their corresponding inferior­ hero. Moscow trials as his crowning achieve­ The chaos visited upon the new ity. If history was solely the story of The party machine was already ment. For in the full glory of his regime resulted from the long years individual endeavors and conflict, the Stalin's. From 1922 on he had been "greatness," in his unchallenged and of Civil War, the stress, poverty and story of Stalin's rise would be simple building carefully, expanding the ap­ unprecedented power, Stalin had to disintegration which it provoked. The indeed. But it is anything but simple. paratus with his hand-picked func­ destroy physically every old leader of decline of the revolutionary curve in His victory came after long struggle tionaries and old cronies, all of them the party and the State including his Europe resulted in enforcing the iso­ characterized by momentary victories distinguished by similar traits, prac­ own original group of political and lation of the revolution, an isolation and defeats, fears, hesitations and new ticals without great learning, anti­ personal friends. fortified by the technical and cultural advances, followed by stalemates, new intellectual, untrained in the great Political factors alone cannot ex­ backwardness of the country. The cul­ blocs, new battles won and new exul­ world socialist school, provincials, plain everything about Stalin's career. tural backwardness of the country tations over the prostrate body of a more at home in day-to-day political They provide the general setting in made reconstruction more difficult, new opponent, or personal-friend­ affairs on a lower plane. They were which he functioned, but he contrib­ many of the tasks posed to the new turned-enemy-over-night. old party members, it is true, but a uted to these his specific personality state appearing insurmountable. Len­ Trotsky was willing to grant that wide gulf separated them from the which has been so difficult to pene­ in once remarked that "their culture he made mistakes in the fight agai.nst great figures of the party. trate. The enigma of Stalin is in part (the old classes) is at a miserably low Stalin. We believe he made grave Though the first struggles saw Stal­ due to the fact that he "seems to have and insignificant level. Nevertheless ones. But in re-evaluating that strug­ in's bloc with Zinoviev and Kamenev no pre-history." it is higher than ours. Miserable and gle in the light of the objective social dissolved and a new struggle arise be­ "The process of his rise," wrote low as it is, it is still higher than that situation in the country, it is impos­ tween a bloc now of Stalin-Bukharin­ Trotsky, "took place somewhere be­ of our responsible Communist admin­ sible to gainsay Trotsky's thesis that Rykov-Tomsky against the Trotskyist hind an impenetrable political cur­ istrators." the world situation more than any left opposition, joined by Zinoviev tain. At a certain moment his figure, The factor of cultural backward­ other factor made Stalin's reactionary and Kamenev-the new blocs being in the full panoply of power, sudden­ ness piled on to the isolation of the victory certain. dissolved as soon as this battle was ly stepped away from the Kremlin country, the decline of the revolution­ "My illness," he wrote in Stalin, won by Stalin-the great figures were wall, and for the first time the world ary curve, the growth of weariness "and my subsequent non-participa­ already undermined in the party. became aware of Stalin as a ready­ throughout the land, the change in tion in the struggle was, I grant, a If the 12th Congress in 1923 was a made dictator. All the keener is the the composition of the party through factor of some consequence; however, packed congress, the subsequent con­ interest with which thinking human­ the influx of tens of thousands of new its importance should not be exagger­ gresses, 13th, 14th, and above all, the ityexamines the nature of Stalin, per­ members, and the loss of the revolu­ ated. In the final reckoning, it was a important 15th Congress· in 1927, sonally as well as politically. In the tionary cadre, made it easier for the mere episode." were Stalinist congresses in the true peculiarities of his personality it seeks new bureaucracy and the new leader­ Stalin's bloc with Zinoviev and sense of the term. The 15th Congress, the key to his political fate." ship under Stalin to progress and con­ Kamenev was made at a time when the most vulgar in the history of the Trotsky proceeds to provide a key solidate its rule. These are the ob­ they, not he, were prominent and party, expelled the Left Opposition to this personality: jective social factors which acted as favored public personalities. Togeth­ and resulted in Trotsky's exile to It is impossible to understand Stalin favorable forces in Stalin's rise to er they began the filthy campaign Alma Ata in 1928. Thus, ten years af­ and his latter-day success without under­ power. against "Trotskyism" in an effort to ter the revolution, the organizer of standing the mainspring of his person­ ali~y: love of power, ambition, envy­ The story of Stalin's victory in his destroy Trotsky and prevent his re­ the Red Army found himself once actIve-never-slumbering envy of all who long drawn-out struggle for power placement of Lenin at the helm of the more in Siberia. are more,~ powerful, rank higher than has already been set down in history. party and the state. The campaign Stalin had emerged as Trotsky said he. With that characteristic braggadocio succeeded in Russia and in the world which is the essence of Mussolini, he I t is marked by endless duplicity, re- "with increasing prominence as the told one of his friends: "I have never THE NEW INTERNATIONAL 150 May"' ••• 1953 151 met my equal." Stalin could never have ponents. The proof? He won in all against the Opposition coincided both uttered this phrase, even to his most in­ the internal struggles in the post-Len­ of the new membership, the repre­ timate friends, because it would have with the nationalistic bias of the Stal­ in era and rose to be the supreme sentatives of the new bureacracy, sounded to crude, too absurd, too ridicu­ inist. faction and the strong national­ leader of Russia, achieving a status which thrust him forward as their out­ lous. There were any number of men on ism of the masses against the "foreig­ the Bolshevik staff alone who excelled that even Lenin never enjoyed. In a standing representative and leader. ners" (the exiles in the leaderShip). Stalin in all respects but one-his con­ country where theory and generalized It was to this new movement to which centrated ambition. Lenin highly valued evaluations have small currency, but Next in importance to the change he lent his character. power as a tool of action. But pure love in the objective conditions of the revo­ of power was utterly alien to him. Not so where success is the measure of Stalin's early victories brought with with Stalin. Psychologically, power to achievement and truth, this view of lution, is the change in the party it­ them a complete transformation of the him was always something apart from Stalin's rise to power is highly prized. self. Stalin's victory in the old Bolshe­ Russian and international movements. the purpose which it was supposed to vik Party, we have a right to believe, serve. The desire to exert his will as the Whatever ones private opinions The first victim of his rule was not would have been impossible. Stalin's the old leadership. The first victim athlete exerts his muscles, to lord it over may be about the personal character­ others-that was the mainspring of his faction, an immense layer of the new was the idealism of the movement, its personality. His will thus acquired an istics of the men engaged in the great bureaucracy, ignorant of theory and socialistic mores. The whole great ever-increasing concentration of force, internal struggles of post-revolution­ caring less, without a strong tradition, goal of man's liberation from oppres­ swelling in aggressiveness, activity, impatient - with genuine politics, range of expression, stopping at nothing. ary Russia, the fact is that Stalin's rise sion and exploitation gradually disap­ The more often Stalin had occasion to to power did come wi th a decline of could win only in another kind peared in favor of an exaltation of convince himself that he was lacking in the revolutionary curve, in a period of party. "practical" successes, until the goal very many attributes for the acquisition of mass reaction not only against the Five years after the revolution, the of power, the more intensely did he com­ was lost completely. The revision of pensate for each deficiency of character, policies of the old revolutionary party's composition had completely theory and program which accompa­ the more subtly did he transform each leadership, but against the instability, altered. The revolutionary genera­ nied the change was so complete in lack into an adv.antage under certain insecurity and conflict of society it­ tion which gave the party its absolute­ its scope that the great democratic conditions. self. The continued chaos of Europe, ly unique character, had all but disap­ and liberating traditions of Marxism • not a revolutionary chaos, but the con­ peared. Where it remained, it was disappeared entirely from this move­ THE MOST DIFFICULT thing to compre­ servative chaos of capitalist stabili­ overwhelmed by the new layers of the ment. The concept of socialism took hend in Stalin's rise to power is his zation, enhanced the conservative ten­ post-revolutionary generation, drawn on an entirely new meaning under triumph over all the great leaders of dencies within the Russian society. to the party because it had been vic­ Stalin. the party and the Revolution. One The Stalinist faction rose with this torious. These new party masses had Immediate aims, industrial indices, shakes his head at the incredibility of conserva tism, this desire for peace and chosen a winner. Like the Stalinist ingot production, increasing state the results-one after another, Trot­ work. To say this is not to imply that faction, they were impatient with the­ power, nationalization and collectivi­ sky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, the leaders of the revolution sought oretical and political discussion, indif­ zation of property became an end in Tomsky-all of them superior men­ to continue the policies of 1917. An ferent to the traditions of the party, themselves and forced upon the new are defeated. The empirical observer examination of the discussions in the and unconcerned with its long and bureaucracy new goals and theories shies away from the necessary and dif­ Russian party and the Communist varied history. In Lenin's party, that no longer had anything to do International shows that main ori­ Pravda ficult task of explaining an event or a could never have said as it did with socialism. Under socialism, in­ series of them in an all-sided manner, entation was toward an accomodation in 1926, that "The Party does not dustrial advance is inconceivable with­ in their relation to objective social to what was called the "stabilization" want arguments." For in Lenin's out the simultaneous rise in the stand­ factors, as events in motion, at a of capitalism, with all it's contradic­ party, the revolutionary party, there ards, economic, political, social and given time and place. He short-cir­ tory rythms. But it is obvious to the were nothing but arguments, i.e., cultural, of all the classes. For social­ cuits these requirements for a judg­ student of the Revolution and the in­ there never was a period in that party ism, all-sided progress means the grad­ ment based on the simple criterion: ternal struggle, that the masses, gene­ in which great theoretical and poli­ ual decline of the forces of coercion, success or non-success. Where Stalin rally, and the "new" party, did not, as tical disputes were not current, politi­ the state and its armed forces. For was concerned, the views of his victory it were, trust the old revolutionary cal factions did not exist, function and socialism, social advance means the and his role has been as variable as leadership. They put their faith in carry out struggles for their views. gradual rise of an "administration of the political views of the observers. the rising Stalinist faction which never Ten years after the revolution there things" an increasing democracy, and No explanation of Stalin's victories ceased to attack its opponents as inter­ remained in the party less., than 1 per a gradual disappearance of the old makes any sense to them except that national "adventurers" who threat­ cent of the membership of the pre­ classes and the class society. The re­ Stalin, the unknown, was obviously ened the very existence of Russia. revolutionary days. Stalin's reaction­ ality and the tendency of Stalinist superior in all vital respects to his op- The nature of this kind of an attack ary struggle rested upon 90 per cent society are not merely different from 152 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May·June 1953 153 socialism, but more in another di­ in favor of a simpler thesis: Stalinism side the party and the society. Or, to which can only be explained most rection. grew out of Bolshevism and was its put it more accurately, the social satisfactorily on the basis of objective Under Stalin, the revolutionary natural heir. Even more intelligent counter-revolution in the party which historical factors. Yet it is a phe­ party disappeared and with it went historians who readily assert that is supposed to have produced the phe­ nomenon which is so filled with the all the forms of the independent in­ Stalinism and Bolshevism are antago­ nomenon, logically and inevitably. personal element, the involv:ement of tervention of the working class in the nistic, antipodean, destroy their own What is more, these same critics are people, that it is not enough to pass it social process. The soviets as soviets valuable contributions by a pyscho­ forced to admit, in contrasting the off by the above generalized statement. disappeared. The trade unions be­ logical inability to draw the inevitable two epochs of the movement, that Len­ The factor of culture, a low or back­ came transformed from the independ­ conclusions to their own material. in was a democrat and that the party ward culture, contributes much to our ent economic organizations of the Thus, at the end of their excellent was free despite the conditions of il­ understanding of the phenomenon. working class into state organizations studies, protrudes the simplistic idea legality and the sea of backwardness So long as society is not free, so long for the purpose of chaining more se­ that Stalinism is not so much a new in which it had functioned. It was as factors of exploitation and oppres­ curel y the masses to the needs of the phenomenon as it is the natural, evo­ obviously not the discipline of the sion remain, i.e., so long as human bureaucratic state. In the factories, lutionary product of Leninism. Why? party, nor the system of cooptations society remains backward in relation the managers, making up an enormous Because Lenin's conception of a cen­ which paved the way for Stalinism, to the attainment of total democracy, section of the bureaucracy, ruled un­ tralized party when carried out in life, but for the more important factors al­ culture will remain backward and molested and workers' control disap­ had to produce Stalinism. These his­ ready cited.· bureaucracy will be an ever-present peared even before it had an oppor­ torians, too, leave the field objective The advocates of the aformentioned phenomenon. theory are left somewhat helpless to tunity of fully expressing its economic analysis, for in arriving at this con­ The bureaucratization of Russian explain why, under the conditions of role. cl us ion, they express not the results of society, then, can be best understood, bourgeois democracy, especially in the Party life was completely trans­ their studies, but their own political not as a chemically-pure product of a United States, practically all organiza­ formed. The old free party, already bias as it has developed over the years certain type of party, but the expres­ tions, political and economic, are suffering malformations because of and, whether they understand it or sion of a counter-revolution, in a back­ either totally or partially bureaucra­ the long drawn-out civil war and eco­ not, conform to a particular world ward country, whose culture has lag­ tized. They run the gamut from AFL nomic distress, had lost all of its old political situation of which they are ged historically behind even the West­ craft unions to the bourgeois political traditions and characteristics. There an active part. ern world. Stalin is no more the heir parties which are run exclusively from were no longer any free discussions, There is no doubt that a highly of Lenin, than a Hoover or an Eisen­ above, or by factions of the big bour­ no factions except that of the new centralized party such as Lenin cre­ hower is the heir of Lincoln, no more geosie. Not even the smaller political leadership, no elections of importance than Morris Hillquit was and Nor­ ated to meet the conditions of strug­ parties are exempt from this process. and few if any congresses of dele­ man Thomas is the heir of Eugene V. gle against Tsarist absolutism also cre­ To say, as some do, that organiza­ gated bodies. The point was finally Debs, On the other hand, John L. ated tendencies toward bureaucrati­ tion (any organization) means bureau­ reached were congresses began to be Lewis, William Green and David zation, no more nor less, however, cracy is again a simplification that held five years apart, and then ten, Beck are the heirs of Samuel Gompers. than the other parties which function­ confounds rather than explains. and even more. Leadershi p of the And J oe Ryan is a kind of heir of ed in the same milieu, (the Menshe­ Bureaucracy is a social phenomenon bureaucracy, if not the individuals, American craft unionism. They re­ became permanent without any possi­ viks and the Social Revolutionaries): If the party of Bolshevism contained *If other parties had existed at the time flect the long bureaucratic tradition bility of intervention by the party of the struggle in the Bolshevik Party, of the AFL. In saying this, however, ranks. Yet this condition suited the the seeds of bureaucratic degeneration, unquestionably that struggle would have so did all the parties in Russia, and so taken on some other forms. The Civil War we are describing only the surface as­ new membership of the new party. which Stalin. led inside the Party. may do all parties or organizations, per se. well have burst out in the country as a pects of the phenomenon and do not The degeneration of the Bolshevik whole, and a different constellation of touch the heart of the bureaucratic • force would most certainly have appeared. problem which demands a study all THE CRITICS OF BOLSHEVISM seem not party, however, did not come as a re­ But it would have resembled the con­ tending groups. Given the existence of a its own. to understand the above transforma­ sult of an inner-logic of a specific or­ single party, that party reflected, in a dis­ tion. In referring to it, the whole na­ ganizational concept or practice, but torted way, the tendencies within the coun­ Lest anyone protest at these analo­ try as a whole. Whether it would have ture of the objective situation which as a result of historical factors. The brought results other than what did oc­ gies to point out that there is a sub­ had contributed so much also to the test of that truth is that the victory of cur is impossible to say, given the general stantial difference between the ex­ state of affairs. In any case, it is possible destruction and degeneration of the Stalinism came only after years of the to say, after the experience of the revolu­ amples cited we may add that the dif­ social democratic movement, and of most intense internal struggle and in tion, that it would have been much, much ference is primarily quantitative ra­ better had there existed not one party. what remains of capitalism is rejected the form of a counter-revolution in- but many parties. ther than qualitative. That which the 154 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 155 Stalinist, bourgeois, union and politi­ fier of first principles and usurper. He Bolshevik Party, there was no end of tial talents, Stalin had to be trans­ disbanded the Society of Old Bolsheviks, differences, violent disputes and even formed into a semi-God, a genius cal bureaucracies have in common is the Society of Former Political Prison­ their indifference to the desires and ers, and the Communist Academy, the at times, splits. Lenin was more than from childhood, the first disciple of needs of the masses and their right to institutions which the spirit of Bolshe­ once a minority in his party. This Lenin, and not merely the first dis­ decide their own fates. Stalinist bu­ vism had as its last refuge. These moves happened not only prior to 1917, but ciple, but Lenin's lifelong friend and indicated the stretch of the road he had after 1917, and most prominently dur­ counselor. No truly great man would, reaucratism, coincident with state travelled since he had begun his strug­ power in a one-party nation, gave gle against the 'ex-Menshevik' Trotsky ing the discussions of the Brest-Lit­ of course, require or permit the trans­ way to a totalitarianism which, if not in the name of the Old Bolshevik Guard. ovsk treaty. Nothing like that can be parent hypocrisy of the fawning adul­ more extensive than others we have He now appealed to the young genera­ said about the era of Stalin's dictator­ ation expressed for Stalin in the twen­ tion, not, of course, to its restive spirit, ship, for the simple reason that no dif­ ty-five years of his rule. There was known, is certainly a more extensive but to its more timid and yet very im­ system of rule than those of the fas­ portant mass, which, though eager to ferences were permissible and no dis­ absolutely no precedent for it in the cists. What makes it so, is the charac­ learn and advance socially, knew little cussions possible. In the Stalinist era, whole history of socialism. It was a ter of the social order which governs or nothing about the pristine ideas of not even agreement and abject fealty part of Stalin's vulgarity, and the Bolshevism, and was unwilling to be to the Boss was a guarantee of one's length to which it went was obscene. in Russia, the system of bureaucratic bothered about them. This younger gen­ collectivism as an anti-capitalist, anti­ eration, as far back as it could remem­ activity or life. In Souvarine's words: Beatram D. Wolfe wrote: socialist society. It is not the Russian ber, had always seen the leaders of the It would be difficult to distinguish in . . . if we try to represent him "the climate or the organization of Lenin's various opposition in the roles of either Stalin's professions of socialist faith at best disciple' of Comrade Lenin" and to whipping boys or of· fiaggelants. It had party which made it so. that time, the varying proportions of present all other leading "disciples" as been accustomed from childhood to look hypocrisy and ignorance. But as one weaklings and foul and unfaithful This Russian society did not emerge up to Stalin wrapped in Mystery and watches the sacrifice of the individual traitors; if further we wish to portray at once with Stalin's victory. Trotsky Authority. workers to the parasitic state, and that him as "Lenin's closed collaborator once wrote that if Stali~ knew where To enforce his rule Stalin intro­ of the revolutionary generations to the throughout the history of our party ... he was leading, he might have hesi­ duced the police regime into the life myth of the too-f,ascinating Plan, one from the very inception of Bolshevism, cannot doubt one primary fact: five Lenin's co-worker in the building of the tated in his drive for power. This is of the nation and the party. Discus­ years after Lenin's death, Leninist no­ party" (Molotov); if, despite' the ten of course, purely speculative. But it sion ceased as the method of resolving tions of socialism had no longer any­ years of difference in their ages" we is certain that Stalin had no idea in differences. There was no need for thing whatever in common with the doc­ would picture Stalin as advising Lenin the Twenties where his rule would it since differences were ruled out by trines put forward under the same label. from the start and "having no little in­ ... Russian history throws a better light fluence on Lenin" (Kalinin); if, more­ end. Stalin was above all a political decree. Only the Boss had the right on the Soviet regime devoid of soviets, over, he is indeed "the greatest of our improvisor, whose policies developed to changing views, and only he had than the arbitrary references to Marx­ contemporaries" (Barbusse, Mikoyan, from day to day, without long range a right to change what was once adop­ ism, of which Stalin actually represents Beria, and others); "the most profound perspective. If he is to be credited ted. Hooliganism and rudeness re­ the antithesis. theoretician of contemporary times" (Beria); "no one so able to penetrate with the revisionist and nationalist placed the old inner life of the party. THE FALSIFICATION OF HISTORY or­ into the most secret recesses of the hu­ theory of "socialism in one country", Souvarine points out that "The an­ dered by Stalin had as its aim the ele­ man heart" (Shvernik); "the God-ap­ a reading over of the disputes on this nals of Bolshevism contain plenty of vation of Stalin to greatness, nay, to pointed leader of our military and cul­ question show that neither he nor any bitter fights, barbed polemics and tural forces" (Patriarch Sergius); "the the rank of genius. The whole his­ father of us all" (Yaroslavsky); "the of his followers knew exactly the sig­ noisy and passionate episodes. But in tory of the party and the revolution greatest man of all times, of all epochs nificance of the theory or its practical this party, where Lenin practically was rewritten not once but many and peoples" (Kirov)-then the need to possibilities for transforming the never used the familiar 'thou' to any­ times. Since each new year required establish the precocity of his genuius whole character of the revolution. one, the strictest courtesy was always and the vast sweep of his early rebel­ a new myth, since each new history liousness becomes more understandable. Once in power, Stalin, driven on by the rule~ even in the midst of the Civil could not match the imperative psy­ the logic of his dictatorial rule, had to War, and exceptions strike a jarring chological yearnings of a Stalin in ab­ In ordering the rewriting of his wipe out every tr~ce of the old party. note. The era of Stalin inaugurated solute power, the rewriting of history entire life, Stalin was fully aware that As Deutscher vividly described it: new usages." became a permanent profession while he had to rewrite, too, if it were at all The snide critics of Lenin, who take the lives of successive historians were possible, the history of all the other He knew that the old generation of qui te tern porary. Where ordinary leaders. And this he tried by por­ revolutionaries, though weary and hu­ political revenge on Bolshevism and miliated, would, with very few excep­ the Russian Revolution, by likening mortals develop from childhood to traying eveyone of them as spies, sabo­ tions, never be wholeheartedly converted the leadership of Lenin to Stalin, manhood in accordance with objective teurs, enemies of the people, and for­ to Miracle, Mystery and Authority overlook this simple truth: While circumstances and opportunities, to eign agents in the pay of bourgeois [Stalinist leadership-A. G.]; and that which they lend their real and poten- and fascist governments not merely in it would always look upon him as a falsi- Lenin was the authentic leader of the May.·June 1953 157 156 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL their latter-day live5, but practically He was all of these things: shock­ from the first days of their participa­ brigader, legendary figure, a beloved Poems extol "the great face, the burst out to a comrade: "What more tion in the socialist movement. Such commander, genial thinker, adored great eyes, the great and incompar· does he want. I am doing everything a reckless indifference to truth and to Stalin, the steel colossus, great engi­ able brow of Stalin" whose appear­ he has asked me to do, but it is not life itself, cannot be reconciled to the neer, great pilot, great master, great ance has the effect of a "ray of sun­ enough for him. He wants me to ad­ ideals of socialism, and attest in architect, the greatest disciple of the shine." mit that he is a genius." another way, and that there was not great master, the greatest of theorists, These accolades are summarized in Krassin, who knew him well, called and is not now the slightest aspect of and the greatest of the great. the panegyric of Henri Barbusse who Stalin an Asiatic, not as a racial described Stalin as "The man with socialism to be found in the totalitar· The highest peak in Europe, Pamir, characteristic, but for the "blending the head of a scientist, the face of a ian regime of Stalinism. was renamed Stalin. Cities renamed of grit, shrewdness, craftiness and worker and the dress of a plain sol­ In all history there has never been after him were: Stalingrad, Stalino, cruelty." Bukharin merely called him dier." such obeisance paid a head of state­ Stalin, Stalinabad, Stalinsk, Stalin­ a "Ghengis Khan." The foregoing ex­ not even to Hitler or Mussolini. It Aol, Stalinissi, Stalinir and Stalino­ The scale of this lavish and dispro­ amples of the long ca.mpaign to make would seem that even to a totalitarian gors]c portionate praise is in inverse ratio Stalin a great man, a campaign initi­ to Stalin's real accomplishments. ated by Stalin, emphasizes the accur­ leader, an ever-rising crescendo of hus­ Even this was not enough. He had Whatever Stalin may have been he acy of Trotsky's analysis of his char­ sahs to his political genius and leader­ to be great in all fields. So Revolu­ was never a philosopher or student of acteristics which we have quoted. ship would suffice. But envy was not tion and Culture ranks him amongst philosophy; he was never a literary least of Stalin's characteristics. He the "profound connoisseurs and cri· The campaign to make Stalin a man nor had he ever displayed any was envious of contemporaries who tics of Hegel." Another journal calls genius could only have occurred after unusual interest either in literature excelled over him in intellectual at­ him one of the "most authoritative the annihilation of the old party and or art; he had never until the very tainments To be paid tribute for specialists in contemporary philosoph­ its leading staff. It was possible only last years of his life shown any inter­ his leadership over an entire nation ical problems." Cultural Front writes on the basis of the universal ignorance est or accomplishment in the field of was not, enough. Yet he needed just that "In reality, certain pronounce­ of the new generations that had linguistics or philology, or science. such expressions of servility. He not ments of Aristotle have only been fully grown up under the dictatorial re­ But the lavish praise reached a plane only tolerated but instigated the many deciphered and expressed by Stalin." gime of Stalin, on a falsification of that defies criticism, indignation or expressions of praise to his genius. An instructor as the Communist Aca­ history that never ended, on revised irony. His hypocrisy was nowhere better ex­ demy once said: "The full significance histories become old before they were pressed than in his display of modes­ of Kantian theories can be fully em­ The man knew little or nothing fully circulated, on the destruction ty, perhaps the last in Tiflis in 1926. bodied in contemporary science only about science and philosophy, of lit­ of revisionist historians who had al­ Replying to the eulogies of his friends, in the light of Comrade Stalin's last erature and philology, and his com­ ready destroyed truth, and fell into he said: letter,"-a letter attacking "putrid mand of the Russian language was limbo because they could not keep liberalism" and "Trotskyist contra­ notoriously poor. Yet the need for up with the insatiable and vindictive I must, in all conscience, tell you, appetite of the Velikyi Stalin (Stalin comrades, that I have not deserved half band". greatness was so overwhelming that the eulogy that various delegates have He became overnight a great liter­ he sought to make up for a real fail­ the Great) for fame. here given me. It appears from them ary man. A t the Literary Post wrote ure of intellectual accomplishment by The result of t!te great falsification that I am one of the October heroes, the the bureaucratic device of making of and the campaign to make Stalin a director of the Communist Party of the that Stalin "has always been distin­ E:oviet Union, the head of the Communist guished by his profound understand­ himself a genius by decree. And this genius was a total intellectual stagna­ International, a peerless kni,ght and all ing of literature." Another periodical, was in keeping with his politics. He tion of the country. Stalin's medioc­ sorts of other things. This is mere fan­ Literary Gazette} advised that "It is resolved all problems by police meas­ rity determined the standards in sci­ tasy, comrades, and a perfectly useless ures; he made himself great in the ence, art and literature as the Boss exaggeration. This is the way one speaks up to linguistics and criticism to study at the grave of a revolutionary. But I am Stalin's style." same way. For woe unto those who intervened in all these fields. not preparing to die. We are not done by any means. failed Stalin here. "Literature and art of the Stalinist But if Stalin protested against the The writer, Demian Biedny, counsels Before the great campaign to extol epoch," wrote Trotsky, "were to go "useless exaggeration" in 1926, and de­ literary men: "Learn to write as Stal­ his many and universal virtues, Stalin down in history as examples of the cribed it as "mere fantasy", which it in writes." made demands of his own personal most absurd and abject Byzantian­ was, he made no effort to stop the ex­ "Ask me who best understands the friends and political allies that they ism." Sourvarine listed numerous ex­ aggerations which had become quite Russian language," said Kalinin, "and too recognize his non-existent quali. amples of the utterly reactionary cam­ useful for his purposes. I reply-Stalin." ties and talents. In a state of exasper­ paign in literature and art, a cam­ ation, his old crony Yenukidze once paign comparable to the architect of 158 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 159 that other great totalitarian state of result not of any compelling political ist movement and these contributed cially one backward industrially and our time, Hitler. In more recent need as it was an inner hungry drive as much to Stalin's rise to power as technologically, and above all, cultur­ times we are familiar with the Great in a cold, calculating, narrow and re­ did his victory in the protracted fac­ ally. In the absence of a similar de­ Russian chauvinist campaign against vengeful man who wanted history to tional struggles inside the Russian velopment elsewhere, they hoped they "cosmopolitanism" and the rise of record his life as one of universal party and state. could strengthen the basis of the new Russian Slavic historiography which greatness, as an individual who at­ His rise to power as the dictaotr of state by adopting socialistic measures has discovered that the real begin­ tained the highest pinnacles in all the country was accompanied by an that would begin the long and diffi­ nings of civilization are Russian in fields of human endeavor, as a super­ increasing bureaucratization of the cult development toward a new and origin, as are all advances made by human person. He believed he could land and its eventual totalitarianiza­ free society. The degeneration of the man in science and invention. do it by decree, at the point of a tion. Russia became the most com­ revolution is the story of Stalin's vic­ As a result of all this, the great revo­ Luger, as he ordered all things done plete totalitarian police state the tory as a counter-revolution~ lutionary beginnings in literature, art in his police state. world ha.s ever seen. In this it was dis­ Stalin's counter-revolution was di­ and science, produced by October "It is hardly necessary to prove," tinguished from the Italian and Ger­ rected not merely against the old lead­ were hal ted in their tracks. Under the wrote Trotsky, "that a man who ut­ man examples because while they re­ ershi p. This is the falsification of his­ Stalinist dictatorship these fields of tered not a single word on any sub­ mained bourgeois states, expressing tory by Stalin, a falsification which culture and individual attainment ject at any time and was automatically the same class relations that existed has influenced all the critics of the were subordinated to the needs of the raised to the top by his bureaucracy in the democratic capitalist nations, Revolution as well as some of its political regime and therefore stag­ after he had long passed the age of the state showed a greater mobility friends. The victory of Stalin is still nated completely. No great works of forty cannot be regarded as a genius." of the bourgeoisie and a certain inde­ regarded as a "palace revolution" in literature, of painting, or the cinema To believe otherwise, is to assume pendence of movement and action in which Stalin won out against his ri­ were possible as long as the quixotic that in Stalin we have a case of ar­ the ruling groups which seeped down vals; this being the process of all revo­ moods of the Kremlin determined rested development, the man begin­ through the lower layers of the fascist lutions which have the habit of de­ what should be written, painted or ning his rise to knowledge and great­ structure. Stalinist society, in con­ vouring their children. Among these produced cinematically. Music has ness after the age of fifty. trast, became completely sealed off critics, Stalin represents Marxism, so­ had a similar fate and the leading Perhaps it is too early to make any and its masses were thoroughly atom­ cialism and Bolshevism. Russian composers have been de­ definitive evaluation of Stalin's place ized. Every achievement of the Stalinisk. clared enemies of the people for not in history. But it is certainly possible The objective reason for this im­ regime is a living symbol of its anti­ composing symphonies that could be and necessary to make at least some portant difference in the two types of socialism and anti-Marxism. It is no\. whistled. provisional comments on the subject, totalitarianism lay in the fundamen­ merely a question of Stalin erring ill Stalin's excursions into the fields of since everything that we can possibly tally different social orders which pre­ this or that direction, on this or that culture were not dictated by any im­ know about the life of the man is vailed in these countries. Stalinist so­ specific question. No, the anti-social­ mediate or direct needs of his regime. known. There remains then the mat­ ciety, which we have described as a ism of Stalinism is fundamental-in Whether a Shostakovich symphony ter of giving judgment to his deeds bureaucratic collectivist state, arose its basic conceptions, its practices and could be whistled or not, whether he and accomplishments, not as achieve­ on the foundations of a revolution its results. wrote a quartet, sonata, or an opera, ments independent of their time and which abolished the bases of capital­ Socialism means the elevation of could in no way effect the state of the place, but in relation to several im­ ism and created the groundwork for every man and woman to great social nation, although an anti-Stalinist portant historical factors. a classless socialist society. In the abo­ and cultural heights which are attain­ opera might conceivably be written. Stalin did not live and function in lition of private property in the able only under complete democracy, It certainly never would have been some abstract society, i.e., a socialist means of production, i.e., in its na­ economic and political freedom. Len­ produced and it would have been the society in a single country, walled off tionalization of industry, the Revolu­ in's opposition to bourgeois democ­ last known work of its author. Mod­ from the rest of the world, as Buk­ tion merely set the direction for fu­ racy was not that it was democratic, ern abstract surrealist, or non-objec­ harin once argued in behalf of that ture progress. but that it was not democratic tive art certainly could not and did revisionist theory. He rose to the head The new state was not yet a social­ enough; it was a class democracy and not threaten the regime, yet Stalin of a state, a one-time workers' state, ist state; far from it, in fact. The so­ therefore incomplete. personally forced Russian painting in a capitalist world in crisis. The col­ cialist leaders of the new state under­ "Whoever wants to approach social­ back more than a century. Stalin's lapse of capitalism and its weakness stood full well that so~ialism could ism," he wrote, "by any other path intervention in these fields, as in phil­ as a universal social order coincided not arise on the basis of a working than that of political democracy, will ology, literature and science were the with a tremendous crisis of the social- class victory in a single country, espe- inevitably arrive at the most absurd

160 THE NEW INTERNATIONAl. May-June 1953 161 and reactionary conclusions both eco­ erty. It became a bureaucratic collec­ out of the conditions of backward­ to the grand scale of the entire coun­ nomic and political." tivist state, characterized by the most ness in Russia. In the system of bu­ try," are destructive. Actually the reaucratic collectivism, its superior French Revolution, enormous as it The living proof of this is the Stal­ inhuman exploitation of the Russian position in society, gave it the form was in influencing the rest of the inist dictatorship. There is no ques­ people, and by the introduction of and content of a new ruling class, a world, occurred within a limited geo­ tion that the Revolution had made slave labor as a highly important ad­ ruling class more ruthless than any we graphical area and encompassed small mistakes and grave ones. These have junct to the economy, an indispen­ have known. This class not only numbers of people. No great interna­ been pointed out more than once in sable part of the new system. owned the state as its collective prop­ tional movement embracing millions THE NEW INTERNATIONAL. They were Such a regime could not evolve as erty but reorganized Russian society was associated with it. No figure in the mistakes of a revolution in a back­ any but a police regime to keep the to guarantee and perpetuate its col­ the French Revolution exercised pow­ ward coulHry which inherited all the classes enslaved and to safeguard the lective rule as a class. In doing so it er approaching Stalin's. And finally, retrogressive features of Tsarist abso­ all-powerful and omniscient state. also introduced political and social no other figure in history, was able by lutism. This alone might not have The vagaries of its conduct, its bru­ mores hitherto unknown either ·in his malevolence to alter and deter­ produced a one-party regime, were it tally, its inhumanity are the product bourgeois society or the broad and mine the course of a world movement not for the counter-revolution of of the system which beholds man not general socialist movement which and a state embracing tens of millions Tsarism, the intervention of the as the most important factor in life arose as an anti-bourgeois movement. of people, to upset a system of ideas United States, Great Britain, France, and society, but as an instrumnt of a century old, and to destroy such and their World War I enemies on be­ exploitation for the progress of ma­ powerful tradi tions as were associated half of the rotten old regime, and chine production. If the regime ex­ ANALOGIES ARE OFTEN MADE between wi th socialism. And he did all of this finally, the attempt to overthrow the hibits cruelty beyond even the needs the Russian Revolution and its lead­ in the name of socialism. When he regime by the Social Revolutionaries of this kind of state, it is only the ers and the French. The analogies are said that socialism required a and Mensheviks, which were not out­ added fillip-the State expressing the all faulty, helpful as some of them strengthening of the state, not its lawed after October. The subsequent personalities which dominate it. may be in understanding certain of the Russian events. But the essential withering away, his followers nodded, degeneration, however, was not his­ This writer holds, that while Stalin differences between the Russian and amen. When he asserted that social­ torically determined simply by the was attracted to Marxian socialism in French revolutions are decisive when ism means inequality (only complete conditions produced by the revolu­ his youth, remained a devoted revo­ analogies are made between the Ther­ communism would create equality) tion and the counter-revolution. It is lutionary against Tsarism and a faith­ midor and the Stalinist counter-revo­ grea t hossanahs were sung in his more accurate to say that the degen­ ful party man all his life, he never lution. The Russian Revolution was name. When he proclaimed that Rus­ eration of the revolution through emerged from the mold of backward­ a product of modern capitalism, a sia had achieved full and complete Stalin's rise to power, i.e., the counter­ ness of the 18th Century nation where machine society of modern classes. socialism, amid backwardness, pover­ revolution, never gave the new state he was born. A careful examination The French Revolution came as a re­ ty and exploitation, hallelujahs were an opportunity for peaceful recon­ of his life and work show that in bellion against feudalism and the ab­ sung around the world. struction over an extended period of Stalin, revolutionary socialism was solutist regime. There is no strong The man who was wrong in his time. ,:edde.d to a powerfully ingrained na­ and instructive analogy between the In erasing the achievements of the tIOnalIsm. He sin(:erely desired the estimates and tactics on almost every groupings in the French Revolution revolution, the Stalinist regime, did destruction of Tsarism and saw the important world question, was de­ and the single party in Russia. As a not return to capitalism, as some con­ liberation of Russia from absolutism clared the most practical of men. He consequence, while it is possible to tend, nor did it extend socialism eco­ as a socialist act. His hatred of the helped destroy the German socialist draw some likenessess between Lenin nomically-unconsciously, or histori­ emigre leaders and the boast of his movement by his betrayal of the revo­ and Trotsky and some of the great cally-as others contend, but evolved cronies that they had never left Rus­ lution, paving the way to Hitler's vic­ French rebels, there is no one to draw an entirely new system. It retained na­ sian soil contributed to this national­ tory. He made a bloc with Chiang from to help in understanding Stalin. tionalized property, collectivized agri­ ist bias. The Stalinists were the true Kai-shek in 1927 that destroyed that cultural, destroyed whatever rem­ provincials of the Russian movement Stalin is a unique personality. It is revolution and the old Chinese Com­ nants of a private economy remained, and this provincialism forced itself not alone his personal cruelty, his munist Party. He promulgated the encompassed within the purview of into all their works, their theories sadi~m and his envy which is unique. theory of social fascism, and the third the state all matters economic and politics and practices. ' Other men have had those traits. But period, which isolated the whole political, and therefore, social. In a Stalin was both the creation and his hurts, resentments, bitterness and Communist International from the word, the collective state became the the personification of the new bureau­ attachments which "he transferred world working class. He failed in his collective owner of collective prop- cracy. The bureaucracy had grown from the small scale of the province policy of "collective security" and May-June 1953 163 162 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL took out his spite against Great Brit­ that role has been given than by Trot­ the yardstick of success, or achieve­ in the stage of finance-imperialism." ain, the United States and France by sky when he wrote: ment and accomplishment per se; The And this isn't all. " ... Stalin has signing a pact with Hitler. The pact L'Etat, c'est moi! is almost a liberal greatness of a man ought to be meas­ translated into a realistic political with Hitler almost proved his undo­ formula by comparison with the actuali­ ured as a total contribution to prog­ perspective the dream of theoretical ing by starting World War II which ties of Stalin's totalitarian regime. Louis ress of mankind, the elevation of so­ geopolitics: domination of Eurasia." led to the invasion of his domain. XIV identified himself only with the ciety, the improvement of the eco­ Like all of Burnham's theories, these Were it not for American interven­ State. The Popes of Rome identified themselves with both the State and the nomic, political, social and cultural cannot stand the test of time or any tion in the war and its assistance to Church-but only during the epoch of advance of man collectively and indi­ other measure. And they are not nec­ Stalin, he could not have saved his temporal power. The totalitarian state vidually. Great men are largely men essarily new discoveries. Stalin's theo­ regime. goes beyond Caesero-Papism, for it has encompassed the entire economy of the of genius or near genius in many ry of "multi-national Bolshevism" is The extension of World War II to cou~try as well. Stalin can justly say, fields. They were the initiators of neither Bolshevik nor multi-national. global proportions served to perpetu­ unlIke the Sun King, 'La Societe, c'est great ideas and great social progress It is merely Great Russian Chauvi­ ate his regime and to help it flourish moil and they lived in all ages. nism expressing itself in its most bla­ and expand, not so much because of If tant form; it is the triumph of those IN REPLY TO 1. N. SMIRNOV that Stalin success alone is the measure of its own inner strength, but because very ideas against which Lenin sought is "a mediocrity, a colorless nonenity," greatness, then greatness would in­ the war, in destroying Germany, Italy to organize the party through a bloc Trotsky replied: deed have been commonplace and and Germany, almost destroyed the there would be no men of distinction. with Trotsky. Moreover, it is this very whole capitalist world and gave Stalin . Med~ocrity, yes; nonentity, no. The The yardstick by which a Burnham theory, and the practice which takes a new lease on life. Thus a series of d~alectlCs of history have already hooked could measure the greatness of Stalin place under it, that is the Achilles fortuitous world circumstances, the 111m and will raise him up. He is needed by all of them-by the tired radicals, by could apply to a Hitler or a Musso­ heel of Stalinism, for it keeps the na­ disintegration of capitalism and the the bureaucrats, by the nepmen, the lini, or to any man in any field who tional minorities under Stali~ist rule weakness of the socialist movement, kulaks, the upstarts, the sneaks, by all merely succeeded in achieving a goal. in a permanent state of opposition, allowed for an extension of Stalinism. the worms that are crawling out of the Burnham writes of Stalin I "Long ferment and struggle. Stalin's "multi­ In permitting that extension, it like­ upturned soil of the manured revolution. He knows how to meet them on their ago . . . he succeeds." Impressive! national Bolshevism" is a state of war wise introduced new and powerful own ground, he speaks their language What test of action? Success at the of the Great Russians against all other forces for the disintegration of that and he knows how to meet them on their murder of all opponents I "The Mos­ nations in the Stalinist orbit. The system, primarily in the national and own ground, he speaks their language cow Trials have stood the test of ac­ measure of Burnham's contribution is social rebelliousness of the new states and he knows how to lead them. He has tion." Indeed! "Stalin's political tech­ that he likens a modernized version now ruled by the Stalinist empire. deserved the reputation of an old revolu­ tionist, which makes him invaluable to niques show a freedom from conven­ of Tsarist policy on foreign affairs Stalinism can no more solve the prob­ them as a blinder on the eyes of the tional restrictions that is incompat­ and on the national question to the lem of national independence than country. He has will and daring. He will ible with mediocrity. The mediocre great theoretical contributions of could Hitlerism and the Stalinist not hesitate to utilize them and to move man is custom bound." Why does it Marx, Lenin and Trotsky. Worst of multi-national state is as much a fic­ them against the Party. He has already started doing this. Right now he is or­ follow? The same can be said of Hit­ all this kind of contribution helps to tion as a Hitlerized Europe would be. ganizing around himself the sneaks of ler and M ussolini-all terrorists "show muddy the already polluted waters in The break with Tito, the dissatisfac­ the Party, the artful dodgers. Of course, a freedom from conventional restric­ the struggle against Stalinism, for it tions in the countries behind the Iron grea~ developments in Europe, in Asia tions." pictures a power in that movement Curtain, the rebellions in Czechoslo­ and m our country may intervene and up.set all ~he speculations. But if every­ that is not there. Or to put it more vakia and the uprising in East Ger­ But his greatness, continues Burn­ accurately, it is precisely in that area !hmg. contmues to go automatically as it ham, lies in Stalin's theory of "multi­ many are all the unmistakable signs IS gomg now, then Stalin will just as of struggle that a movement against of the grave weaknesses of Stalinism. automatically become dictator. national Bolshevism." "As a creative Stalinism is most ripe and contains political idea," he writes, "not merely This was said not in 1935 or 1930, the best possibilities of success. Real Stalin has left the legacy of a new or so much as a general theoretical but in 1924. It was said not in malice, politikl The scientific method! exploitive society, the most reaction­ conception of the nature of politics but quite objectively, on the basis of ary and bureaucratic social order we but as an idea fitted to implement In appraising the methods of Stal­ a keen grasp of the currents which have ever known. He headed that so­ politics in action, multi-national Bol­ in, Burnham quotes approvingly from had developed in a party in control ciety completely without once loosen­ shevism (Stalin's contribution) ranks Hitler that politics was not conducted of the state, the only party in the ing his authority over that state and with Marx's theory of the state, Trot­ to satisfy "a few scholars or aesthetic land. the movement associated with his sky's theory of the permanent revolu­ sickly apes" and which confounds in­ Trotsk y measured greatness not by name. No more apt description of tion, or Lenin's analysis of capitalism telelctuals and writers who live in a 164 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 165 with unparalleled force, cunning and integration, of chaos. Compared to "verbalized atmosphere/' For Burn­ that account that he is a great man is to duplicity. He has enriched the history the struggle of mankind to rise above ham even Stalin's style, his rhetoric, judge him along purely aesthetic lines, of man's malevolence as he has filled its present peaks of achievement to that is, in the sense of the distinction its pages with the blood of countless was "in its own genre distinguished." drawn between the aesthetic approach loftier ones, freedom and progress, But Burnham overlooks this impor­ and the ethical one. The aesthetic atti­ thousands. S.talin's contributions to history are tant fact: All of Stalin's opponents tude is essentially that of the uncom­ 1£ this is greatness "in the grand those of retrogression, as a mockery were not just intellectuals and writers, mitted person, of the detached onlooker style" it is the greatness of barbarism, of man's highest aspirations. gratified by spectacles. It is an attitude observing events "coldly" and "objec­ exhausted by the categories of "interest­ the greatness of social decline, of dis- Albert GATES tively" from behind a typewriter. ing" on the one hand and the "boring" They were the men who organized on the other--categories as modern as and led the revolution. They were they are inauthentic.... But in politics, as in morals, the criteria of aestheticism men of action as well as ideas. They are the least meaningful. In the histori­ BOOKS IN REVIEW stood out in the open, proclaimed cal struggle to which we are committed their views and their goals and went Stalinism deploys enormous forces, and ades, and particularly since the late out and did their deeds. It was against the one thing we cannot afford to do is The Myth of America's to abandon our interests and values in Thirties." To be sure, the same news­ men of this caliber that Stalin organ­ order to covert, through an aesthetic paper, in an article by the same re­ ized the bureaucracy. sleight of hand, the tragic struggle into Social Revolution porter one month later-to be precise a show of "pure politics," a show in on April 3, 1952-carried an article When a Burnham rejects Trotsky's which Stalin inevitably appears as the SHARES OF UPPER INCOME description of Stalin as a mediocrity star-performer. Pure politics, like pure GROUPS IN INCOME AND with the headline: "Living Standards by asserting that the war established a rt. is a delusion. The committed man. SAVINGS. By Simon Kuz,nets, Off 4 per cent Since Korea." This is that is the man who has accepted the his greatness he neglects to see that in assisted by Elizabeth Jenks. Na­ the conclusion of a study by Dr. Julius hazards of his political existence, can no Hirsh on the impact of price rises and so describing Stalin, Trotsky is com­ more attend such ,a show than he can tional Bureau of Economic Re­ paring him with the truly great men attend his own funeral. search, Inc. 1953, 725 pp., $9.00. tax increases on the moderate income of socialism, Marx, Engels, Kautsky, city worker's four person family-"the We think that is good enough for Mehring, Lenin, Luxemburg and type of family ... that occurs most the time being. Time will permit a The political economy even with himself. He wrote, "In at­ of the United States of America is in­ frequently in the varied structure of fuller portrait of the hangman of the tempting to find a historical parallel deed strange, as has frequently been the American urban family." for Stalin, we have to reject not only Russian Revolution. It will assess his remarked by analysts with varying The "social" revolution apparently Cromwell, Robespierre, Napoleon true role and fully, too. But we can points of view in the political spec­ was not too profound, or at any rate and Lenin, but even M ussolini and see the outlines of that role now. Stal­ trum. Moreover, in no other country it proved to be rather short-lived. Per­ Hitler. We come close to an under­ in will be seen as the architect of a has public relations and the art of haps history was rather unkind to the standing of Stalin when we think iI~. new society of reaction, a society that sweeping exaggeration been carried to advocates of the American "social" terms of Mustapha Kemal Pasha or was the expression of the social bar­ such refined lengths. This social en­ revolution by launching the Korean perhaps Porfirio Diaz." barism of our times. It will record vironment helps to explain why a war before the findings of the Kuznets that in the Twentieth Century of One need not subscribe to every crude statistical work achieves front­ study were made public, and before man's development he introduced a word in the above to see the direction page publicity in the New York the advertising agencies could use new industrial slave society under a of Trotsky's comparison and how Times. these findings to launch a campaign totalitarian police regime. He did so much more accurate it is than Burn­ When the preliminary findings of for reduction of taxes on the upper in the name of freedom and socialism, ham's reevaluation. the Kuznets study were released early income groups. by the physical annihilation of a par­ in 1952, the New York Times gave What are the Kuznets' findings? Philip Rahv in his rejoinder to ty which gave him fame and of men them substantial coverage in its issue Lissner summarizes them with reason­ Burnham's article in Partisan Review who made possible his political ca­ of March 5, 1952, starting with a able accuracy in the above-mentioned wrote pertinently on this question: reer. He was helped to success by front-page headline: "Shift in Income article, as follows: methods which have their origins in Stalin's ruthlessness, his indifference Distribution is Reducing Poverty in As a result of little-appreciated to human suffering, and the unprecedent­ earlier and backward societies, using U. S." The lead paragraph by eco­ changes in the distribution of a rapidly ed scale of his autocratic sway certainly cruelty with modern weapons and the nomic reporter Will Lissner stated: growing national income, the United link him, as Burnham remarks, to "the employment of psychology to turn "The United States has undergone a States has gone about half the way to­ tradition of the most spectacular of the against man out of a burning inferi­ ward eliminating inequities in incomes. Tsars, of the great Kings of the Medes social revolution in the last four dec- But it has done this, not by leveling and Persians," etc. But to conclude on ority which drove him to triumph May-Jane 1953 167 166 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL down, but by leveling up. These are some lower 99 per cent group, rose to four Dr. Arthur F. Burns, who directed an It is more than a coincidence that of the changes: times its 1913 level, making a vast im­ important part of these investig'ations, the basic economic program of the The very poor have become fewer by provement in its real income. concludes that we have about reached the two-thirds of their 1939 number. This was much more than a mere con­ limit of the usefulness of the income tax Eisenhower Administration is to re­ The poor have become better off. sequence of the shifts in income distribu­ as a device for redistributing income. To verse this so-called "social" revolution Where three out of four families had in­ tion which have been reducing poverty in raise the large revenues required for se­ by reducing taxes on the upper in­ the United States, reported in detail in comes of less than $2,000 a year in 1939, curity at home and abroad, the tax must come groups, raising the rate of inter­ only one out of three fell into that class the New York Times of March 5, 1952. lie heavily on the brackets where income ten years later. These shifts, called "a social revolution" is concentrated-moderate-sized incomes. est, stimulating venture capital and The well-to-do and the rich have be­ by Dr. Arthur F. Burns, Economic Ad­ thereby encouraging higher divi­ come more numerous. In the late Thir­ viser to the President and research di­ The "social" revolution thus fades dends, and stimulating a slight case rector, on leave, of the National Bureau, ties one family in about fifty was in the into something far short of the ex­ of unemployment so that labor will $5,000 and over income class, and one would have produced only a moderate propriation, or even the impoverish­ proportional decline. not be so demanding and wages can out of 100 was in the $10,000 and over ment, of the bourgeoisie. It would class. In the late Forties, one family out Inasmuch as there have been more be reduced. of six was in the $5,000 and over class, seem to center around the high indi­ and one out of twenty in the $10,000 and profound statistical studies than this, vidual income tax rates and the re­ Only the exigencies of the class over class. including several by Kuznets-none of duction in the proportion of national struggle can account for the absolute­ Over the years, the very rich have which has received notice outside of income going to dividends and inter­ ly unpardonable use of the term "so­ become poorer because the rise in labor the professional journals - one is cial revolution" in connection with incomes has been accompanied by a de­ est-developments Howing from the cline in property incomes. The share of forced to the conclusion that it is the development of the Permanent War the relatively insignificant changes the upper 1 per cent of income receivers label "social revolution" that is large­ Economy. The most important devel­ that have taken place in income dis­ in total income has declin~ in thirty-five ly or exclusively responsible for the opment of the Permanent War Econ­ tribution since the development of years from 16 per cent to 9 per cent. widespread dissemination of the find­ omy, in so far as Kuznets' findings are the Welfare State and, more recently, The Kuznets study, of course, is ings of the present study. And it is concerned, is clearly the sharp reduc­ the Permanent War Economy. Never­ concerned primarily with what has not without interest that Burns, who tion in unemployment. theless, it is still of considerable in­ also carries the title of Professor of terest to examine the changes that happened to the upper income groups States Kuznets (p. xxxvii of his In­ Economics at Columbia University, is have taken place in the distribution -the top one, five or seven per cent troduction and Summary): of the population. In his article in the now chief economic adviser to the of income. May 4, 1953 issue of the New York President. This recent decline in upper group shares, which for its magnitude and per­ Of more interest than the findings Times~ based on release of the entire sistence is unmatched in the record, ob­ of Kuznets are the reports of the Cen­ study, Lissner provides a more up-to­ WHETHER BURNS IS AWARE of the viously has various causes. The most date summary of the major findings meaning of the phrase, "social revolu­ prominent are the reduction of unem­ sus Bureau. These are based on Cen­ of Kuznets' statistical analysis and tion," we do not know. Certainly ploymentand the marked increase in to­ sus surveys and may be considered to identifies the source of interpretation Kuznets is not in any way responsible total income flowing to lower incQme groups (particularly farmers and wage be much more reliable than data of these income changes as a "social" for this remarkable label. He merely earners); shifts in the saving and in­ based on income tax returns, as is true revolution. presents his findings in a technical vestment habits of upper income groups of Kuznets. The Census data are be­ manner, hardly intended for the lay which may have curtailed their chances The decline in upper group shares of of getting large receipts from successful fore taxes and limited to wage or sal­ total individual income was sharpest for reader, surrounds them with the usu­ venture capital and equity investments; ary recipients. Dividing the latter into the top 1 per cent of income receivers in al caveats and tables of derivation lower interest rates; and steeper income the total population. This group had per and substantiation almost without taxes. But conject,ures alone are possible, five groups, we get the following pic­ capita incomes of $5,500 and up in 1948 end. The suspicion must remain, and the discussion in the report is lim­ ture in percentages for selected years and thereafter, and typical family in­ however, that Burns was well aware ited to a statement of facts." (Italics comes of $22,000 and up. Its share, be­ mine-To N. V.) from 1939 to 1951: fore Federal income taxes, dropped from of the fact that referring to the 12 per cent in 1939-40 to 8% per cent in changes in income di~tribution as a 1947-48. After taxes, the drop was from "social revolution" would result in 11 to 6 per cent. . . . Wage or Salary From 1913 to 1948 the per capita in­ extraordinary publicity and presum­ Recipients 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1945 1939 come of the top 1 per cent little more ably in support for redistributing the Lowest fifth ...... 3.0 2.3 2.6 2.9 2.9 2.9 3.4 than doubled. The Consumers Price In­ tax burden-a goal that Burns appar­ Second fifth 10.6 9.7 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.1 8.4 Middle fifth ~~: ...... 18.9 18.3 dex rose two-·and-a-half times its 1913 18.7 18.6 17.8 17.4 15.0 ently favors. Consider, for example, Fourth fifth ...... 25.9 25.7 26.2 25.5 24.7 25.7 23.9 level; the upper group failed even to Highest fifth ...... 41.6 44.0 42.4 42.8 44.3 43.9 49.3 maintain its real income. The per capita the following paragraph from the first income of the mass of the population, the Lissner story: 168 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 169 In other words, so far as wages and Kuznets indicates that the choice was tice to the extensive legal tax avoid­ might well be excluded from Kuznets' salaries are concerned, accounting for between using income. tax returns or ance practiced by the upper income arra y of the data on a per capita basis. about 70 per cent of total income pay­ abandoning the study, and he obvi­ groups, as analyzed in some detail in If the purpose of the study is to dis­ ments to individuals, the middle in­ ously feels that the basic trends re­ Part VI of The Permanent War Econ­ cover something about standards of come groups have gained-not only at vealed by his study are correct. If Py omy, "Tavation and the Class Strug­ living, and not just to collect a lot of the expense of the upper income this were meant the small relative im­ gle," (d. November-December, 1951, figures, then the facts of economic group, but also at the expense of the provement in the position of the mid­ issue of THE NEW INTERNA­ life have to be considered. Using the lower income group. At any rate, re­ dle income groups, as shown by the TIONAL). Kuznets approach, a single individual gardless of what interpretation one Census data, empirical evidence would Our own private sample study of with an income of $25,000 annually cares to make of the above figures, clearly confirm such findings. For millionaires (the only reliable method would be part of the upper one per there is clearly nothing that can jus­ the average number of income earners of estimating what has happened to cent in 1948, but a family of five with tify the use of the term "social" revo­ has increased sharply among factory the incomes of the bourgeosie) indi­ the one income earner admitting to lution. and white collar workers' families, cates that they are managing to sur­ an income of $100,OOC for the year Kuznets, of course, is concerned as unemployment has decreased and vive, although the fees to tax accoun­ might be excluded since the per cap­ primarily with the upper income the percentage of women employed tants and lawyers have increased ra­ ita is only $20,000. Such an analysis groups. His figures show a higher de­ has risen to an all-time high. In other ther sharply. Mansions costing in ex­ overlooks the fact that one mansion cline for the top 1 per cent than for words, on a family basis there can be cess of $100,000 are still being built is usually sufficient for a family of the top 5 per cent-and it is clear that little doubt that there has been an -in fact, in larger numbers than in this type; in any case, five mansions no definition of the upper income increase in the average standard of any period during the last 25 years. are rarely used. An analysis of shares groups can properly extend as far as living since 1939. This is also true on Of course, vacations are frequently of upper income groups necessarily in­ the top 20 per cent. But the major a per capita basis, but it is not so transformed into business trips-or is volves a ratio of two quantities. The decline has taken place since 1940-41, pronounced. it vice-versa? Profits are frequently al­ numerator, of course, consists of the and this is precisely the period in When, however, the claim is made lowed to remain in corporations, in amount of income going to the upper which individual income tax rates that the upper income groups (one the expectation that the Eisenhower income groups, however income is de­ have been raised enormously. The per cent or five per cent) have experi­ Administration will ultimately reduce fined. And it makes quite a differ­ question of the reliability of the esti­ enced both an absolute and relative the surtax rates in the upper income ence as to what is or is not included in mates is an inevitable one, and Kuz­ decline in their income shares, and brackets, so that it will "pay" to re­ income. The Kuznets data necessarily nets is greatly bothered by it, spend­ therefore presumably in their stan­ ceive the dividends that are waiting contain a downward bias (probably ing an entire chapter of 75 pages, in­ dards of living, one should look with to be declared. Some of these factors on the order of twenty to thirty per cluding appendix tables, in justifying a rather skeptical and jaundiced eye Kuznets tries to take into account, cent) in the amount of income cur­ his methodology. The chapter starts, on an analysis that depends com­ but the majority (and they are cumu­ rently (since 1943) going to the upper however, by stating (p. 435): pletely on the reliability of income latively decisive) are beyond statistical income groups. The numerator of analysis. the income ratio is thus understated. We cannot measure the probable er­ tax data. After many comparisons rors in our estimates directly because and reliability test.s, Kuznets refers to WE CAN ONLY conclude that in a But the ratio also depends on the size our basic data are either by-products of a sample audit study of 1948 income period of high tax rates any analysis of the denominator. Here Kuznets tax administration or products of cen­ tax returns (which show a minimum of upper income groups based on tax uses what amounts to his own esti­ suses, subject to all the imperfections of returns is not only necessarily incon­ social records. Some defects are obvious of 70 out of 100 returns in the $25,000 mates of national income. This tends and the adjustments discussed in preced­ and over bracket as containing er­ clusive, but tends to be unreliable. to overstate because of its inclusion of ing chapters were designed to correct for rors) and concludes (p. 466): Kuznets, moreover, bases his analysis income in kind, imputed rent and them as far as possible. But after all on a per capita approach. Aside from other such concepts that are clearly these adjustments, errors inevitably re­ The audit study, as far as the recent certain statistical difficulties in con­ main, and we are faced with the difficult results go, warrants an inference that not part of any analysis of the per­ verting income tax returns to a per task of appraising them. This discussion such underestimation is within a 5 per formance of a capitalist economy. If of the reliability of our estimates must cent margin for incomes at the top 1 capita basis, the procedure as a mea­ the numerator is noticeably smaller necessarily be incomplete and inconclu­ per cent level, and within a 10 per cent sure of what has happened to upper sive. (Italics mine-To N. V.) margin for incomes in the 2nd through than it should be, and denominator 5th percentage bands. (Italics mine- income groups is exceedingly ques­ tionable. While the size of families somewhat larger than is proper for If it is inconclusive as to whether T. N. V.) in upper income brackets is smaller analysis, the resulting ratio is neces­ the estimates are reliable, it may be The difficulty is that the results do than in lower "income groups, an up­ sarily considerably smaller than it wondered why the study was made. not go very far. They cannot do jus- per income group with a large family ought to be. 170 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL May-June 1953 171 Unfortunately, w~ do not have wealth of the bourgeoisie, is being fi­ available the statistical resources of nanced in steadily increasing measure the National Bureau of Economic Re­ by the workers and lower middle search or the Department of Com­ classes. Therein lies the secret of the merce, but the decline in the shares of role of taxation under the Permanent upper income groups since 1939 is not War Economy, while equality of in­ nearly as large as reported. Such de­ comes remains just as much a mirage cline as has occurred, moreover, is on the horizon as it ever was." (Ital­ principally confined to the period ics in original.) upper income groups since 1929 is not Kuznets has contributed data that manent War Economy. The bour­ may be useful to income analysts. As geoisie have not been destroyed or im­ the real pioneer in national income poverished. They have succeeded, so data, and as one who justifiably far, in preserving their basic wealth, claims to be a scientist in his field, he income and property. N or has there should blush at the "social" revolution been any diminution in the political that Burns has produced from his power of the American bourgeoisie. highly qualified data. Above all, What has happened, as we pointed Kuznets ought to investigate why his out in the November-December 1951 da ta are being used as part of the issue of THE NEW INTERNA­ drive, spearheaded by the N .A.M. TION AL (p. 338), is that: uThe state to reduce the tax burden of the upper however, whose function is ,more and income groups. more to protect the rule and the T. N. VANCE

In English - At Last Part One of the Famed Vol. IV of "Capital" KARL MARX'S "A History of Economic Theories" - From the Physiocrats to Adam Smith

The Langland Press 337 pages $5.00 order from

LABOR ACTION BOOK SERVICE 114 W. 14th Street New York 11. N. Y.

172 THE NEW INTERNATIONAL