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Page "our [ In tho past twn YNll'i\ But th!"]"(' ifl a wny or :m~w('ring truUuully the Stalin's homeland - the ljUCatiOll: Who is Stali}]? The answer given ill _ UUiOll of Soviet Socialist 'his bool{ is baaed upon a simple fad: ltcllulJlks-has l'ccein:!d A iii/tit i~ no mure and 110 Ic~s than ,/.chat life more attention in the JU/,~ ma(/f' him; 11'JU/t hf' 11((.'1 made 1l'ifh hi.'lli/e. newspapers t han a II Stalin's life! other foreign countries combined. Just the straight life story of this man, free When you come to think of it, this is aston of all exaggeration and fiction, rivals the most ishing. fascinating biographies of history. Here is wild But the reason for it is simple enough. adventure and lonely banishment, warm love and The army of the U.S.S.R. succeeded after all haunting tragedy, diabolic cnemies and friends to other armies had failed-succeeded in bringing to the death. a hall the frightful blitz of the Nazi hordes. lt Fl"Om this cxtraordinary life there emel'ges in took us a long time to grasp this. And still longer perfect c1eal"lless the picture of Stalin as he is, to understand what it meant to us and to our chil- the man, the Ih'ing human being, dren. . What Stalin's army did was to make possible the rescue of our Democracies from the horrors of devastation, mass mUl'(\er, starvation and rape into which the people of Europe had been plunged CI[APTER I by the Axis bm'barians. Wlwre in all the earth No wonder we became intensely curious about . . • can be round a land so tho Soviet Union! _ • mysterious, so fabulously For many years we had been subjected to beautiful, so romantic many falsehoods about Soviet Russia. The events t and exciting, as the land of the last two years hav·ing given liS the b-uth of the Caucasian Moun~ about Stalin's army, we demanded the truth about tains,? Stalin's country, Stalin's people. On the map you will see this region lying north Now, what about Stalin himself? of Persia and Turl,ey. It is the southel'llmost Who is this man, Stalin? part of Russia, and separates the Black Sea from A short while ago he was held up to us as a the Caspian Sea. Great mountain chains span it beast in human form; a stupid, ruthless dictator from coast to coast. who murdel'ed evcn his friends. Some men did Deep in the heart of the Caucasus is the coun~ not hesitate to aSSUl'e liS that Stalin ruled by try called Georgia. Pel"ilaps you have never even bl'utality and that his people were praying for hem·d its name. Yet it was known far and wide release. in times before the Bible was written. Now we are told the most astounding contra~ Here in Georgia is Mount Ararat, the highest dictions of all this. It is disclosed that Stalin ]Jeak in Europe. Legend tells us that Noah's Ark personally directed some of the most brilliant rested on this towcring summit when divine wrath maneuvers of the Red Army. Statesmen who have sent the Flood to engulf the ancient world. Twelve met Stalin say that he is highly educated, quick hundred years before C)wist the Georgian people witted, stl'aight~fot"wat'(l. We are told that Stalin had a civilization that was l'espected by the cul~ in privatc life is very fond of children and that tUl'cd Grecks. youngstel's love to talk and laugh with him. Tens of millions of people in the Soviet Union look Who are these Georgians'l upon Stalin with feelings far removed from hate Their origin is a mystery because they estab· and fear. lished themselves in the Caucasus at a time so In spite of all that has been said about this remote that historical record has been lost. Ages man-for and against him-we still do not know ago the Georgians, a pure white race, were called who he is. Stalin, the person, is an absolute mys· "Iberians." This was the name given also to tery to liS. ancient Spanial'ds, and so there is a possibility One might think that after all the evil things that the two peoples were in some way linked in said of Stalin, and now all the lay ish compliments pre-historic times. At any rate for more than two paid to him, it would be impossible to get a true, thousand years the Georgians have maintained a impartial picturc of thc man. Im)lOSsible it would distinct, almost pm·e nationality. This is remark be, indeed, if we thed to ~ce Stalin through the able, for the Caucasus region (Tl'ans-Caucasia) eyes of other peoplC'. has been since time imnwmorial a cradle of races, STALIN·S LIF'E Page Five
This time the }ilt!(' tuwn W;.lS ehnSC'll for one for him. a liff' h{'yond llw 11!l\"('rty of Gori. Her of the fljwning Stl'Ill'S in a tl'V!l1C1H\OUS rll'ama. A hll~hal1d \\ or\;r'd liard Hlid sill' lH'n:;clf hat! tn arid drama that would one nay move on to the ,,·orld's to the family in("ome by .... isiting the homes of the stage, to shalw the t'arth and its fiY(~ continents rich, where she wal:ihed tiothcs and bali.Cd bread. with the shouts of millions of marching feet, And there \\1\S quitp HllOt}W1" nason fol' Kather marching not to war but to build peace out of a ine's amhition. ZOZI) had a weak left arm. It dream! l'Cef'llwd unlilwJ.v thai he conld en:r take up his 1n GOl'i li\"('c1 a sllOemaJ.;er. His uame was father's tmlil'. 80 it \\:lS g\'ncl"ally ugreed in Cori Vissal'io Juga~h\"ili. lIe 'made h, (lnler the famed that little Zow \\ !lull! be educated for the priest Caucasian riding i)()ots, and he was a splendid hoori. At an ('arl..,. 3g't' he was admitted to Ow craftsman. In his youth Vissario had \)cen quiLe parish s(.'hool. an adventurer. It was rumored that he h'ld kid- Yt'tIl·s afll'l'wanls the man Stalin was to re 11aped his beautiful wife Katherine, who was not (::111 tht, IHIPPY thildhood of the boy Zozo. Sur('ly, a Georgian at all but an Osseline. The Ossetines what mOl'(! thrilling place could there be than arc a mountain clan:it:; intelligent, JlI'oud and fierce Gnri? l\fagllific~11t Sct'Ul'ry, J'f)ml.mtic adventure as the people of Georgia, so it is not improbable storie:) tliid by n1ountailH'eJ"s, daring brigands who that. Vissal'io had to wjn his bride ill the most df,ji("d tht! Cr.ar's :-;nldil'rs, ('xci li ng" tdps uy raft I'Omantic fashion of all. 011 till' Kunt riv('r, wild awl liaullting music at But that was long ugo. l!ll' festivals. Tll/!s(' Lhings Zozo ]'l1ew. Lire had since U1('11 b(!cum(! sOl'l'uwfui in Gori. lie abo loww thal Ccol'gia was under the heel The Hussians wel'e rulr)':-;. C('orgifl)ls had nevel' or Lhe CZIlI', and that the LlSllrpt!r:; wcre becomillg leamcd to bow their heads even to native princes, CWl" mOJ"(' iJ)f;oit'ni. Many a man of God thought and aiLhol1gn the Czar's representatives \vcre fully fing'cl"e(l his claggt'l' in those days, and lis cal'eful not io f.m the smolflering Caucasus into tened sull{'nly to the II a1' songs of the poet Shamil. a blaze of revolt the people found it hard to obey But the Czar had imported an effective weapo]] Ule foreigner's law, to complete his COlHjlH st of unlamed G{'ol'gia. Not Look at the customPl' who has just stamped a gun or a bumb. The \\"<'aj)on was Hunger. F01' into Visl:iarios' shop, You must address him as cenLuries the ltus~ian mass('s had been disciplined "Your Serene Ilighnrss." nut the fellow is just by stan"ation. 1\ow Gcorgians began to feel its an ordinary strutting Russian nolJlcmall decked pungs, out in all the silk and gold regalia of his kind. The method llsed hy the Itussians was a fa Vissario is ill at case unlil IIis Serene Highness milial' une. Theil' business men smelled rich prof begins to talk about the nc\\.-· 11air of hunting boots its in GCOl·gia. 1<'01' {'xample, they decided to make i>cing made rO!' him, Caucasian boots on a mass 15cule, in a factory at A small shadow falls acl'Oss the open door of Tiflis. In a short time Z()ZO'S father realized what the shop. Nobody pays any attention. It is only had haplJf'ned. First-class l"iding boots were being Vissario's little boy Joseph come to watch the turned (Jut at H fraction of the hand-made cost. princely customer. Vissal'io's busincsS dropped to almost nothing. Soon there was only IIis Serene Highness left to The people of Goei like this youngsim' with the buy. For gcnenitions the family trade had been hcavy, tousled IJluck hair and twinlding, thought shoe-maldng, but at last it was finished. Hunger ful eyes. But they sec nothing extraordinary about camc to vi:;;it at the Jugashvili home, sat down at him. His nickname is "Zozo." the lable ami smiled mocldlJgly at Ute family's 1Iis Screnc IIighness docs not give Zozo e .... en pride. a glance. How can he possibly guess that the day Vissal'io was forced to seck his livelihood else will soon come when all the Serene Highnesses of wlH're. With his wife and child he left Gori and lmperiai Russia will be swept into oblivion ... wcnt to the capital city, Tiflis, where he got work and hundreds of millions of people in every coun in the same shoe Jactory that had put him out of try of the world will wonder at Zozo, after he hus business. taken the name of Stalin! 1t is not hard to imagine the bewildered SOl' Joseph Vissariono\"jtch (son - of - Vissario) row that filled the hearts of Vi:;;sario and Kather Jugash\'ili. called by his ehildhood friends Zozo ine as tbey left forewr their mountain village. and by the friends of his youth Stalin, was born in Gori in ]879. lie was Katherine's fourth child, Tillis. the capiuli city, \\";.IS like a place out of the only olle to sun'ive infancy. Xaturally his the "Arabian Xights." Don\.;f'Ys and camels and bazaars and sulphur baths and teeming street mother was more than fond of him. As SOOI1 as the child began to show signs of unusual intelli life. And, of course, the fadory. gence Kalherine started to dream of a better life The mother's ambition for her son proved to STALIN'S LIFE Page Seven be iustified. Zozo en.ioyed the amazing oriental just of Christianity but of the Georgian church, utmosph(: secret police? f'HAPTER TIT And the workers. they were powrly-stl'icken, they could scarcely keep their o\\n families from star The lIame of Koba be- Yation, , • came J'elwwneo from the , . Bladt Scm, to the Caspiall. Katherine Jugashvili coulll not understand. _ " Within a few months To change fhl'1/'ol'lcl! • :' after his expulsion fl'om She remembered that. Long at'terwaJ'\ls :;ho the Seminary he had a1' remembered how he had stood before hel', not in nlllg('d meetings of the railway wOl'kers, the to· the magnificent embroidered robes of a Geol'gian bacco \Vorkel's, the boot factol'Y workers and even priest, but wearing a rough, cheap, workman's the scientific employees in the Tittis meteorological blouse. He was going to defy the armed might of observatory. Deeds distinguished Koba, Czarist terror and organize the workers so that But he talked, too. In spite of being a cultured they could change the world, scholar he spoke dirf!cUy t.o the workers and th(>ir The cheap workman's jacket blul'l'c(l and wiveR, They listf'lled to him, spcllboullCl not by slowly faded away and gradually in its place U1CI'C his ontto)'y but by the extl'aol'dinary simplicity appeared , . , a brilliant silken Georgian natiYe unc] power of his words, lIe wasted no time dis blouse, the costume of the mountain men, the men cussing loftily "the decadence of the bourgeois who had defied death for centuries beyond human capitalist system and the ine\'itabilitr of its o\'er memol'Y, And whel'e Zozo had carried secret throw," He talked about starvation wages, pamphlets hidden tinder his shirt. ]ww thel'e could w\'elcllcd working conditions, the health of bauies, be seen a magnificent gold Caucasian dagger, the insolence of the bosses, Words distinguished Koba, Was it all imagination? Still, when othcr Marxists got up to Ill'gue One day KathCl'ine met the wives of some Tillis wilh him at the meetings this lIincteen-year-old railway workers. Zozo's identity was supposed t.o boy could talk "theory" too. After he had ex be kept secret, but the women lmew he was Kath plained the t.heories of Marx and Lenin the listen erine's son, Eagerly the mot.her asked for news, ing workers felt that they had these things in theil' hands, like a workman's tools, like picks and "Zozo?" they murmured. "Zozo is gone, He is shovels with which they could dig a grave fol' no more." Cza1'ism and all oppression, He gave them aIL Katherine paled, "The police?" undel'standing of what socialism meant... Knowl edge distinguished Koba, The women smiled, whispC'l'ing: "Zozo is no more, lIe is-Koba!" At times when the meetings gl'ew violent with angl'y debate the workers leftl'lled to call out for KulJa was a title of the GeOl'gian people, a sort this youth and he would come to the hont of the of knighthood that had been confel'l'ed upon l'Oom, usually welll'ing a blue open neckekcotton Joseph Jugashvili by the wOI'kcJ's, Koba had ueen blollse without a belt, with no hut, sometimes with the name of a famous Georgian hero, The name a coat thrown over his shotllder~. He would speak means: The Distinguished Olle. quieti),. He newl' attacked his opponents with The Church could malte pl'iests but it could bittt~l' words. He ncver drew the dagger of hate, not make Kobas, lUcll men could buy Georgian IIe ;u'gued with rads and logit.-, alld when hc was castles but all the wealth in RU!'lsia could not pur finisllcd there was 1he silence of convictioll, Calm- chase the tille of Koba. Anyune might Welll' :l 11<'SS dilltinguishl'd 1\ob:1. Georgian blouse and a dagger, !Jut who cO).lld be Still another quality set l\oba apart. from lhe The Distinguished One? Only a man chel'islwd usual political agitators. lIe lived among the in the hearts of the people, only a hero of the w()rkers. He ausolutely disregarded pel'sonal comfort and secul'ity. He SC01'11ed the romantic Joseph became Koba. As the years went by show-orr tricl{s of the PopUlists and Anarchists, other !lames were given to him, But in the Cauca lIe did not pose to the workel's as their deliverer sus he was Koba and he remained Koba and there -he toiled to condnce them that their deliverance he is Koha today. Stalin still wears the simplest lay in organizing their own power. His variety of clothing without any medals, and yet to t.he of Mm'xisrn immediately attracted the attention eyes of every Georgian thet'e is pinned across of the secret polic<', and Ct'om that time on his Koua's tutJic the highest. of all decomtions. 1t was existence was hazardous in the extreme. lie was given to him when he was scal'cely twenly years fOI'{'rod to live "uJl(h~I'gl'oulld" and in poverty. Be old and he has worn it e\'er since, took shelter WhC'I'{,WI' trusted workers would offer Page Twelve STALIN'S LIFE it to him, and he ntr w11rn th('r(' was food to shnrC'. ill th(' stl'r('t~. In :1.1\ thi~, Kohn was the guiding Sacrifices distinguished Koba. inspiratioll. Steadily he became more important When he was twenty years old Koba so COlll III the eyes of the Czarist officers \\'ho were re IJlctl!ly organized the railway workcl's of Tillis sponsible for lUuilltainillg "IHW ami order" ill the that they were able to carry out a strike in demand Caucasus. The hunt for Koba was intensified fOl' a living wage and civilized working conditions, everywhere. This was the first strikc that had eyel' been at Now '\ hen the young labor leader appeared tempted in all the Caucasus, and because of the at meetings he was accompanied by two or three despotic Russian government the demonstration friends who would take tip positions by the doors was far more than an economic struggle, It was in order to give warning if the dreaded uniforms political defiance-the fist of organization being appeared. And at this time Koba burdened him shaken under the Viceroy's nose. In spite of self with another responsibility. In Geneva, Lenin moderate demands the strike was mercilessly had begun publishing the famous newspaper crllshed by troops. Koba answcrcd by organ izing Spade, and the few copies that had been smuggled all May Day, 1901, a tremendous parade and mass to Geol'gia had been so enthusiastically welcomed meeting of TiOis working people, that Koba decided to print a paper in the native But the leader was known. The Commissioner language. He obtained a small, pOl·table printing of Police issued the first warrant for Koba's press and pl'Oceeded to issue a steady stream of arrest. leaflets and papers. In a short while this secret But where was Koba'! Indeed, was not "Koba" press became almost as famous as Koba himself. only the name of a hero of ancient times? Worl{ers He took it everywhere with him. When the Labor shrugged when they were arrested for questioll Parly was declared illegal the precious printing ing. Kaba? How could onc identify a legend? outfit had to go into hiding along with those who But police spies had seen this particular legcl1d operated it. Often it was set up in the grave yal'ds al'OlllHl Batum, where, by ghostly moonlight with their OWll eyes. Koba had to flee from Tiflis. Under such cil'cumstances it was customary for inside some crumbling tomb, Koba and his com a fugitive revolutionary togo up into the moun panions would patiently turn out the literature tains and take a long holiday in hiding. Instead that was slowly but surely stirring the Georgian Koba went straight to the seaport city of Batum, people. center of the Caucasian oil fields. He was eagerly Many are the stories told to this day about welcomed. At Batum were the great plants of Koba's press. Once it was kept jn the house of the multi-millionaire Rothschild and Mantashev an old peasant of Moslem faith. Koha's friends families. Within a short time Kaha had organized would come to visit him there, for safety's sake a branch of the Russian Labor Party among the dressed in long female robes and with their faces workers in these plants, and soon afterwards he covered by the Mohammedan veil. It was a secure led the first of a series of strikes. Conditions in hiding place, although the neighbors suspected the the fabulously profitable oil fields and factories "women" of printing counterfeit money instead of Batum were indescribably bad. On the sweat of a political paper. Long after the revolution and misery of this city lived some of the most the old peasant dug up the press from where it Javish "smart sets" of Europe. With the hunger had been bul"ied in the yard during stormy times. of Batum's haggard workel's, great lords and He cleaned the mud fl'om it and then called his ladies paid for sumptuous banquets in Paris, son. London, Moscow, Vienna and Berlin. "Look," he said quietly, "It is with this that Koba explained how the economic and politi the revolution was made!" cal system made this possible. But he shook his Rathel', with dozens of sllch presses all ovel' head at the allarchist notion of winning justice Impel'ial Russia, were the people roused to fight and freedom by murdering the rich. Not violence against tyrann.y. but organization, mass action, demonstrations. By the spring of 1902 the Labor Party was These principles spread like wildfire, Georgian being hounded day and night. The persecution tra(litions of fearlessness swept the people to was becoming almost intolerable. Yet Koba boldly Koba's side. The older timid Marxists were annoullced to the world that on May Day the bl'ushed aside. The struggle against Czarism took greatest of all demonstrations would be held. The on a sharply militant form. The Labor Party workers responded, The monster parade was held. rapidly gained in strcngth and influence, despite And at its head marched-Koba himself! the fact that there was no democracy of any The Viceroy had prepared for just this. The nature in Impel"ial Russia, no parliament or con old warrants and the new ones, the police, the gl'ess, no elections, and so the Party could test troops, the Cossacks, all were ready. A violent and demonstrate its P0\\,('l' only by popular action attack was launched upon the demonstrators and STALl:-.... S LlFE Page Thirteen the young leader Wa."! seized. Bu('h wag Lpnin's f:l.mon~ IIr(lVOllliionnn'" pro Koba was twenty-three years old when he was g)'am, It was drawn lip not for the pleasHl'e of a thrown into the political prison of I{ut..ais. No few It118sian l'mlical intellectuals, buL for the chal'g~ was laid against him. He was left to medi ueeds of the Ru... sian lll.l",Ses. 1t could bt: under tate upon the hOlTiblc fate that had befallen so stood uy the jm/lovedshed {"u'mel's, tens of mil many hundreds of brave men who had entered lions of country ])eople unable to read, believing the dungeons of Kutais. devoutly in ridiculous supet'stitions, mutely suf He met this terror in typical fashion -by fering inhum::l.ll toil and hal'{]ship, It coult! nlso organizing a strike of the pl'iSOnel's against tll1- be g)'aspcd by the TIussian industrial workcn;, endurable conditions in the jail! who lived almost like slaves, working in factol'ies that resembled prisons, for incredibly low wages. The police were unable to decide what section of the criminal code the young organizer had vio So great was the stir caused by this program lated. So they fell back upon an old Czarist trick. of Lenin's that the llews reached even far off Without any trial Koba was "banished for admin Novaya Uda, The exiled Koba studied the plan, istrative reasons," and sent all the way from the enthusiastically agreed with it, wrote about it to Black Sea to the village of Novaya Uda, .in the a friend, The friend wrote to Lenin. Shortly Siberian province oC Irkutsk, This desolate place aftei', a letter was smuggled in to the Sibel'ian was a long, long way from Tiflis, and with typical place of banishment, It was signed "Lenin," With Czarist stupidity the authorities thought: "Out of this letter the two men met. In spirit they shook sight, out of mind," hands across two continents. Koba was definitely out of sight, but empllat Some would have us belie,'e that Koha (Stalin ically not out of action. He began rounding up an to-be) tollowed Lenin all his life like a worship the despondent, desperate exiles who had been in ing disciple. taking the blindly faithful attitude Irkutsk fol' years, convincing them that escape that Lenin could do no wrong. We have already was possible and that the struggle for emancipa seen how Koba made decisions, He supported tion was making vigorous progress under the Lenin for the same reason that he abandoned a banner of Lenin's Labor Party. That year, in career in lhe priesthood and chose the Marxist 1903, while Koba impatiently waited fol' the end group among all other - Koba supported Lenin of the bitter Siberian wintet', the Second Congress because he thought Lenin's program was right. of the party was held in London. It accepted these This is the most natural decision the human aims: mind and sOlll can make. 1t is also the most diffi 1. To overthrow the brutal Czarist govel'l1- cult. 1'0 think, to choos(, the 'right, to act ac('onl ment. ingly. 2, To establish a democmLic l'epublic ruled by A year passed after Koba's arrest at Batnm a parliament. before he was able to escape from exile in h'klltSk. 3. To give ~ll workers the 8-houl' day. He eVJoseph Stalin regards the details oC his personal 1t is no exaggeration to say that this astonish life to be of no more significance to the public ingly simple program laid the basis for the ulti than "the number of times per minute he mate success of the Russian Revolution. Countless breathes," we are unable to give any details of lies have been told about the bloodthirsty aims of Koba's romance. All we know is that his young Lenin's g)'oup. The five points of the Russian wife was a Georgian girl. lIer name was Svanidze, Labor Party were as set fOl'th here, They were She was beautiful, as most Caucasian women arc, formulated in 1903 and remained in force until But she saw little of her husband, The Czarist after the revolution. Lenin held that only after authorities ceaselessly hunted Koba ns though he winning the conditions of freedom guaranteed by were an animal, and as a i'estllt Svanidze lived a the democratic form of government could the lonely life. Her great joy was her baby SOil. people of Russia have the oppol'iunity to study Then it was Koha's turn to be lonely. socialism and capitalism and to choose freely be Often the police had separated this young man tween the two systems. Gell'id of inhuman Czar and his wife fol' months at a time. Now death ist oppression, establish democracy, relieve the llarted them forever. w,orkers and farmers of their most crushing Where is Svanioze's grave? Did Koba stand burdens - then the Russiall Labol' Pal'ty could beside it as the Georgian pri('sls cl1antt'tI theil' talk about socialism. age-old songs of mOtll'lling? OJ' wen' tlH' Viceroy's Page Fourteeo STALIN'S LiFE spiel:> \\'I.m'li iug f(lt' ::ouch au uJlllul'tuJlily lo ll'ap pcl'atc allempt to give Hm~sia a diversion from its the husband'r inlernal agonies, proved to be a disastrous adven These things are buried in the past. Koba's ture, The lmperial Army leadership was incap~ grief is the portion of his life that must be his able and corrupt, The great Russian far eastern alone, the locked door past which we quietly walk, naval base of Port Arthur fell to the Japs quickly, Svanidzc's son, after the revolution, livet;! with One paralyzing defeat came after another, his fathc!' in their small Kremlin apartment. He Far from turning the people's minds from grew to manhood and joincri the Red Army, As grievances against the despotic regime, the wal' a junio!' officer he was decorated for bravery at with Japan acted as a torch to set all Russia the front. in the first ;re.al' of the war against aflame, Once Czarism showed it was no more Hitler, capable of carrying on a war than it had been But here we' are brazenly stepping over a able to govern peacefully, revolution against Czar~ whole epoch in the wol'ld's history! Let us return ism passed from words to action, The people rose. to 1901, OIlC of thc most difficult years in Koba's In January, 1905, the struggle fOl' democratic life. rights and economic justice had reached such The 1903 Congl'ess brought about a rapid heights that ovcr 400,000 factory workers were out growth in the Itussian Labor Party. Lenin's sup~ on strike at oncc. And IOl' what were they strik~ portel'!'l wel'e marked men in the eyes of the police, iug? For socialism '? Fal' from it! Their demands Extraordinary prccautions had to be taken to were for a shOI'tel' working day and living wages. protect the escapee! Koba, and at this time he These demands they backed with clenched fists, began to use olher names, Sometimes he was fOl' lhis was a slrike against the Czarist govern David. 01" in certain districts he was lvanovitch. ment as well as against individual fact01'y owners. Sometimes Nishel'adze and often Chichikov. Lenin was right; Koba was right, To the workers he was always Koba, They The rising tide was peaceful until the evening l'is\{ecl prison and banishment to give him shelter, of January 9th, That Sunday a huge crowd of to hide his printing pl'ess. On this press Koba men and women moved through the streets of St. was no\v tUl'!1ing out an illegal newspaper, The Petersburg in a semi-religious procession, intend~ [<'if/Itt Of the Workers. This served to rally the ing to approach the Czar's palace and humbly people, For just that reason it brought down the petition him to ease the desperate plight of the full wrath of the Czarist police, people. Utterly unable to grasp what was taking There was a belief in old Russia that exile to place, the despot who ruled Russia gave an order Siberia either killed a man or gave him an iron for the troops to open fire on the populace. constitution, It was the latter in Koba's case. The slaughter that followed was ghastly, More From a rather frail youth he de\'eloped into a than a thousand meJl and women were left dead strong, hea\'y~set, healthy man with a tremendous in the streets, and over two thousand more were wounded. News of this massacre dumfounded ~f!e~~itXllf~t~ ~~o;;~ ~Z~s ~~::~;\~~~~~e fS~~~g~~:' the whole civilized world, lIe became the living symbol of his newspaper's Maxim Gorky, the famous Russian writer, name: The Fiuht Of the WOl'km's. Those revolu~ tionaries who opposed Lenin's program hated voiced the horror and indignation of humanity in a public proclamation against Czarism. He was Koba and lashed out at him constantly. They pre~ ferred to talk rather than to organize, to talk th!'own into Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Peters about socialism as though it wel'e the moon that burg, At once a l'oar of protest echoed over every could be wished down out of the sky, continent. To lhe opposition Koba would say quietly: The events of "Bloody Sunday" were discussed "Only WHit a few years and you will sec who is by all classes in every country. Czarism had right and who is wl'ong." branded itself as a regime of murder. The people rose. It should be understood .that the Russian Labor Pal'ly, although it was active CHAPTER IV in some of the larger centers, had an insignificant membership and extremely small influence with Who was right and who the people in 1905, The masses of workers and was wrong? The verdict farmers rose spontaneously, almost without lead~ _ • came with shocking sud ership, demanding immediate economic reforms denness. In 1905 the and the introduction of political democracy. They , Czar's sacred empire re demanded 1t'hat has been set forth in Lenin's ceived a mortal wound. f)-point pl'Oarorn! An inexcusable war with Japan, begun in a des~ And now appeared one of the most astonish· STALIN'S LIFE Page Fifteen ing discoveries in history. It took place before iug that of Lenin and Kobn. One hundred and Koba's eyes. The masses of the l{ussian people fifty million pC'oplc had rushed to join Ull army made the discovery. Without poliLicaI direction, marching towards freedom-and there were uo and solely as a result of their tClTible conflicts leaders to point the way. with the factory o\vners and the great country The enemy was strong and mC'rciless. Tho landlords, the peoplo discovered hUll' they could leaderless Soviets were drowned in blood. Maxim achie11c their demanded 1·(,/0I'ln8, hon' they could Gorky fled to the United Slales and raised funds estubli.'1h democracy. for the causo of Russian freedom, but it was too They set up the first Soviets. late. A period of frightful reaction and revenge We would ("all lhrse organizations "councils." had set in. The Soviets were fOl·med by groups of workel's \Vhat happened in Georgia, in Koba's country, or farmers galhered togethC'l' to elect reprcsenta~ was horl'ible to consider. The Czar's governOl"~ tives from among themselves; the voting was general Gryasnov set out to destroy the nation. conducted freely, with the object of carryil. I)ut To accomplish this he made use of lhe weapon that the will of the people. ~ was to be<:ome Hitler's favorite instrument of The Soviets came into being as a living, acting conquest, Gryasnov used meG halted. He intro expression of the people's desire to govern them- duced this frightful poison into a land where selves, to establish a new and democratic law and thirt)' races had lived together in peace for cen order in opposition to the Czar's dictatorship, to turies, carry out the most urgently needed reforms. Gl"yasnov had the Russian police dislribute Thus, immediately the Soviets were formed they arms first to the Al"menil;ln population, then tf) began passing local rules and regulations. Soviets the Tatars. When this was done Gt'yasnov's secret in factory districts took the 8-houl' day from a . agents spread horl'OI' stol'jes about outrages and program on paper and put it into practice, by the threatened attacl;:s. The two races were delibel' amazingly simple method of taking a vote of the ately tormented beyond endurance. Finally, when workers, declaring that the 8-hour day was a the fll·st shot was fired, fiel'ce race l'joting bl'oke Soviet laon·, and then seeing that nobody worked out. This spread into race massacres in which more than eight hours! whole sections of the Armenian and Tatar people Likewise, Soviets in the country took a vote were slaughtered. J{oba's group of organizers of the farmers, declared that the great estates was far too small to stem the horrible wave of of the landowners must be divided up among the hatred. By dividing the people, all of whom should starving peasantry, then J1l"oceeded to divide up have joined as bl·others in their united struggle the estates according to the new Soviet law! ~~~. ;i~m~~l~\~~h{~~e~~~t s~~~;::I~~vG~,~~~e~~~dw!~ Accustomed as we are to the workings of de~ assassinated. But his beastly experiment was set ~~l~cl~a:~iett~~~~e!S o~o~~~I~~Ci~:? l~a~,~~~l s~~r~ down in blood on the pages of history. a new working form of democracy, discovered And e'l.!cn toduy, UIIlonfJ 1/,';, the poi::;oncl"8 arc and applied by lhe Russian people. And to them, rLt work, secking to divide us in ordcr that thc to workers and farmers who had never enjoyed freedom fo/" which our bravest mcn arc dying even the most elementary types of free govel'll- shall be destroyed at home. ment, the Soviets pointed the way lo liberation. The crushing of the struggle for frecdom in ] n Koba's region, in the Caucasus, the 1905 the Caucasus, by the weapon of racial hatred, Revolution reached the stage of general open made a profound impression upon young Koba. insutTcction against the CZili'. So powerful was He realized at once that the Czar, and all other the Labor Party organization, backcd up by cnemies of freedom, would from now on use Koba's secret paper The Fiaht Of the Workel"l~ national hah·ed at every opportunity. Koba began and a new legal papcr called Time, lhat all Georgia to ponder this question. He was the first of the took lip the slruggle for fl'cedom. This response revolutionists to appreciate how tremendous, how was wholly unexpected. It was the first large frightful a part race hatred would play in the scale demonsli'atiol1 of the power of Koba's organ- futut'e course of the ·world. izational ability, his influence among the people. In 1905 Koba went to TammeJ"fors, Finland. At the height of the Revolution, Maxim Gorky There at a conference of the Russian Social Demo was released from prison. The whole democratic cratie Labor Party he tiJ·st met Vladimir Lenin. world extended its sympathies lo the Russian Koba was astonished when he came face to people. face with the man whose work he had read and But the R~volution collapsed. There wel'e whom he had for years regarded as a genius. He scarcel), a dozen leaders of calibre oven approach- expected Lenin to enter the conference hall after Page Sixteell STALl:-;-'S LIFE e"eryone was respectfully s('a1(>11 ami waiting. But pel"sccutinll, and in the spring of 1908. after a even though Koha eamc vcry Ntri:,>' Iw found Lenin larg{' public demonstration, police spies informed already there, talking earnestly with a group of upon KolJa. delegates. Lenin lookerl Iilw an orriinary working Officers laid a trap for him in the little village man. He was not a giant. lIe had none of the of Balal{han. The trap closed and Koba found mannerisms of a "celebrity." hims('lf in prison for a second time. Eight months But when Lenin spoke, I{oha nondqd and he l'cmained in the cells. He was viciously be~\te n. smiled privately. The powel' of conviction of Hut again the police cnuld I111r1 no crime ot' which Lenin's words proved to Kolm that his estimalion llicy might accuse their victim ill the courts. They of OlP man han been COITe('t, Upon his return to knew only that he h~ld been banished and had G('orgia, Koba told the workers and farmel'S, in csca})ed. the language they instantly understood, that They banished him again. They transported Lenin was "a mountain ('agle"--Lcnin's mind and him to the village of Solvichf'gorisl.;, in the wilder personality soared highel' than all others. lleoSS of Vologda province, Siberia, a dreaded place The Mountain Easde and The Distinguished of pcrmancnt confinement. 1n thl'ce months Koba One met again in 10U6, at the Fourth Congress had broken free and was greeting his comrades of the Party in Stockholm. At that time began in Daku! the close collaboration that was to unite tllCir two In the shadow of drastic police and military names fot'ever as symbols or the gl'(~atcst experi b'lTol"ism Koba operated his printing press. He ment in all the histol'Y of mankilHI's fight fO"!: edited and published The I1nlm Worlcer. He lia-including the replacement edge; calmness in debate: utter disregard of per· of Cza.l-ism by Democracy-socialists like Stalin sonal comfot"t or reward-these characterized the who were daily risking their lives to carry Lenin's man of 1912 as they had the youth of 1900. But pl'ogl'am into l'eality, socialists who had exhausted the rigol'ous yeat·s had been an anvil upon which, their patience with the opposition speech·makel's. under the blows of life itself, Koba's chal'acter Not only Koba, but lhe whole Russian libera· had been forged into maturity. tion movement had become steeled in battle with Lenin saw that time had steeled this man. Czal'ism. The Bolsheviks of Czarist Russia rallied Events had inseparably welded Koha to the work the majority of people who were prepared to back ing people. His name "The Distinguished On~" UI) their hope of freedom with determined action, had been outgrown; it recalled too strongly the but their 1912 pmgl'sm does not sound very "revo· old mountain heroes, their spirit of exclusiveness, Jutional'Y" to us today. Still, the wildest fal~e· superiority. hoods pel'sist about the Bolsheviks. One of the Koba was a man of the people, steeled in the commonest fantasies is that relating to Stalin and struggle for liberation. He had become a man 0/ TI·otsky. 1111912 Tl'Otsky, the brilliant l·evolution· steel. Hence forth that would be his name: Stalin. ary intellectual, denounced Lenin with all the In their Paris conferences Lenin and Stalin vituperation at his command, and he mal'ched thoroughly discussed the problem of national free· across to take his place with the Mel1iiheviks, to dom. From Paris Lenin WI'ote to Maxim Gorky write and fight against Lenin. Consider the who was resting on the Isle of Capri: "Here with boundless audacity of this man who almost twenty us is a wonderful young Georgian. He has col· years later, years after Lenin had died, announced lected the material on the question of nationalities to the world that all along Ile had been Lenin's and has settled down to prepare a book on the chosen disciple, forced out of Russia by the usur· subject." pel' Stalin! The book, famous though it eventually became, Trotsky became a Bolshevik only in 1917, attracted almost no attention when Gorky pub· when he saw that Lenin's pal-ty undoubtedly lished io in his magazine "Enlightenment." We would be the leading force in Russia. will l'etul'll to it later on. Now we go to Prague When the Prague conference ended Stalin for the historic Sixth Conference of the Russian went immediately_ to St. Petersburg, the capital. Social Democratic Labol' Party. It had been decided to slad a large daily news· Koba's name had been changed to Stalin. A paper. Stalin's dependability and experience as far more significant change of name took place at editor and publishcl' in Georgia fitted him for the Prague. With the way prepared by his explosive task of directing the Bolshevik daily. lts name article "What Is To Be Done?" Lenin launched a was Pl'avda. In Russian this means Truth. The general attack on the oppositionists within the Pl'a1'da of 1912 became the Pravda that is world Labor Party. These men had for some time been famous today for the accuracy of its news. JIl called "Mensheviks," meaning "the minority," spite of the Czar's seven·year effort to tel'l'oriz(} while Lenin's supporters had been known as "Bol· the ~dlOle of Russia into permanent submission, sheviks," meaning "the majority." In 1912 Lenin Stalm and Molotov began publishing Pravda deliberately split the Party, breaking his Bolshe· openl.Y, although they personally had to remain viks away from the opposition Mensheviks, set· in hiding.
PageoEillihtaen ..LI STALIN'S LIFE The pnp('1' ll(>\'Cr changc(l hands. Its policy ~tl11in wa!"; n markc'il man, was tersely summed lip ill its name. Truth had lle wa~ alTpsted in !\lardl, 191a, for tile last long bt'l'll sC\(,l"dy rationed by the police in St. tim . Thl'Y cUlllll'lllnt.:d him to banishment in a Pclersburg. l'ra/'dft swiftly gained pople in conditions of wretched pfimitive crossed the continent! ness! Jt \\ as a Jllace of utter desolation, a mere There follow('d a period of astOllishing growth tIust('I' of mi:;('rable huts <.:1·o\\,(1('d together in a in the circulation of the paper. It played a leading l'rigi(ll'xpansc ur snow. part in building the inltuence of the Bolshevik Stalin faced all undeniahle fact. He could not party, and in stiffening popular determination to escape from Kureika. force from the Czar concessions of personal lib This banished Georgian, this prisoner in erty and economic justice. In the offices of Pravda KUl'eilH'\ beyond the Arctic Circle, this man who was concentrated a gl'eat part of Bolshevik activ from boyhood had devoted his life to liberating ity in the two years preceding the \Vorld Wal', It all peoples condemned to exisi 'within the Czar's served as t.he voice nnd gu ide for the wOl'kel's anel pl'isoll of natiol)s- ·ihis man of steel now set him fal'men., fearlessly protesting and demanding. ~01f 1he 1a::;1\ or wailing 1'01' lhe pcople to free him, Pravda. was continually being raided by the CZal"S the lells or millions 0(' oppressed to whom he had police. Time and again it was prohibited. But given PmI'd/(, the l)'uth, the masses of workers each time it was banned, Stnlin would have it on and farmel's in \\"I1Om he believed. the streets next day, with a minor change of name. With faith of sl('C'i h(' waited through the Trllth on Monday would be For the Truth on hh'ak, slow polar years. Tuesday and The Pull! 0/ TI"Idh after the next }'aid, But the contents did not change. Pmrda, was one of the powerful influences that forced a relaxation of tenor throughout the Russian Em pire in 1913, CHAPTER V Symbolic of the general pardoning of ]913 was Maxim Gorky's officially permitted return With the order that sent from exile, 1n the same year the Czar allowed a thl" armies of Imperial Parliament (Dumn) to be elected, Fighting nussia marching into the against sevel'e l'estl'ictions the Bolsheviks \von a Great \Yar, Czarism coru gl"OUp of seats. And because Lenin still could not mitted suicide, When safely leave Switzerland, it fell to Stalin to direct Stalin was banished in the Bolshevik parliamentary group. As a polltical 19]3 the whole of the ElnJ)iJ'c was in a state of 1'ol'ce this grol1p l'rJ)J·esented an infinitely small economic <1CC<1Y all(I political disintegration. War proportion of the Uussinll people. But as the lead intcmdfll'd lhe c)'isis, Om lle\\·spapers.:tmtay are illg voice in the stl'llggle 1'01' liberation, Stalin's fond of llsing the wont "collapse," but rarely be gJ'OUp and his papCl' l'mt'da ga\'e practical ex fo1'c 01' Rim:!' dicl a n:'l.tlon suffcl' suc.h utter dis pression to the deepest strivings and hopes of mil organization as did tlw Czal"s domaIn 111" three lions of oppressed human beings. years of "":.ll' against the Cenb'al Powers. Stalin i'otlght fot' the Five-Point Pl'ogl'am. He FourLeen million ("If TIllssia's nnest men were Jabol'eel unceasingly to conYince the people that c\l':)rtpd {'O)' ~('rYi('e on the Eastel'll Front, They this program ('ould be eal'l"ied into rcality by werc fOJ'cNj into Ilnifol'm without regard for the mmns of the pcople's own discO\·ery: S01}irt Dc needs of industl'Y ane! the farms. The enormolls mO('f'((('!f, baLlle casualties were .\lmost terrorizing in effect; The Cz.u·'s relaxation of sevel'e l'esLJ·ictions the lists of dc'ad and "ouncled monnted into hun did not apply to til(' Bolsheviks. PI"(I/'d(l, and an dreds of thousands nnd then into mllJions upon otht'I' papt'r ('alk"d Z/'(',wJa (Star) were crcating millions. TIll' war hl'eame a nightmare of un sllch ('nthusi:lsm that the authorilies look .llal"ln. J1:lnjonablp slaughtel'. SUl'yiyOl's told of whole It was one thing to J)t'l'mit pI'ople to lalk about didsiolls .lIlt! al'mips bl'ing hurled into the Ger Il'cedom, ullt qllitl' ,\I1ot \11'\, to ~lllo\\" tlWln to mal;:c man and Austrian lillI'S wilhout shells for their dt'mands. sllPJloi'ting al'lilll'I'Y, sOIlH'liml;'s without even
STALI~'S LIFE Page Nineteen bayonrts, ri11e:! fir cartl'illgcs. Russian general flnd 11'f'}lt ()Ile!' to the .<:!ir/r of til" '(Ieoplr. This ship, which in earlier wars had \\"on the highest. action signalled the dawn of freedom. recognit.ion, pl'oycd in t.he Greal W~U' to be a March 1 ~lh saw till! February Hemlutioll. vanished quality. The foul bl'utality, gross jgno Undel' the leadership not of the Bolsheviks but ranee and outright trcachery of the Czarist High of tlH' anti-Czarisl Kel'ensky a pl'o\'isional gov Command was largely responsible for the succe::l ernnwnt was set up. Realizing the impossibility sion of disasters tbat gradually reduced the popu of further l'uling through the Czar all the "best" lation to a st<"lte of numbed horror. people-that is, the millionaires and their fellow But this shock did not long paralyze the Rus travellers---rtlshed to support Kel'ensky. The sian people. As they verified the tales from the Prodsional Government had but olle purpose: to froni they began to see with terrible clal'ity the 1'001 the people with promises. It had uut one state of affairs at home. The industrialist.s wen' pl'incillle: to give the people what freedom they malting fabulous profits fl'om re-equipping fresh had already seized themselves. armies to ruplace lhose annihilated by the Ger BecaLlse the people were liberating political mans. The nobility, the manufacturers and the prisoners wherever they could, Kerensky was l'ich merchants had built up a profiteering machine forced to declare a general pardoning of exiles that functioned mil'acuiously to tum the blood of from Czarism. He knew the consequences of t.hia. Russian soldiers into gold l'Ubles. Leaders of the But he could not evade the most elementary dem() ruling class, fl'om the Czarina down, were traitor c]'atic action. And although he had rigorously ously dealing with the Kaiser. Patriotism hacl excluded all Bolshc\dks from his government ht' become a hOlTible mockery. The rulers wanted could not bar their way to release from prison only to extend the wal·. Millions of young men and exile. were perishing in defeat for t.he sole pm'pose of Southward tow Ro\'icts h(' ha(l ol'cl('1rrcl wiped ont, l('d council of hankers, industrialists nnd rich m{'l'~ chants, and was to function as a sort of clictator by the Bolshcviks he had tried to exterminate. :ship. There was HUt. the flimsiest eXCtil)C for this [1, \\as a di11i1.:ult political IJPsitiun. Ami the committee of brigands to exist. Realizing that people fully grasped its meaning. During the the march of events would be bound to lead to {[crem\(' against KOl'nilov till' St. Petersburg the establishment uy the people of the Soviet SUl'id.'1 /wd uriuall!l functioJJcd (1,<; governing democratic form of government, the new council (JOdi!'};. Bow well the Soviets worked at a time announced that all flirting with any form of when the Pro\"isional Goyernment was tottering democracy was finished. Henceforth the people with confusion and fright, the people had seen would be ruled by the iron heel. But in order to with their own eyes. The people themselves were create this new form of Czarism it was necessary the Soviets and they had sayed the nation. to destroy the Provisional Governmellt, to wipe Kerensky's government began to break up. out the Soviets. Such a crime even Kerensky All o\"el· ltus:;ia the inlluence of the Soviets grew, hesitated to commit. and their leadcn;hip passed OV01' to the Bolsheviks. General KOl'nilov was willing. This lackey of Early in the atliumn of 1917, from a new hiding a handful of l·ich men brought llbout one of the place across the border in Finland, Lenin con~ most ironic situations the world has ever seen, cluded that the decisive moment had come. It was fitting events for a Shakespearean drama! Dis time lOt' the world's fn·st government of \vorkers carding all semblance of legality, Komilov rushed and farmers to take over the rule of all H.ussia. up the Third Mounted Army Corps to launch an Stalin WIlS the person to whom Lenin com attack against St, Petersburg and overthrow the municated his decision, by lettel·. A fcw days hesitating government. Picture this: Kornilov latcr Stalin sent a reply calling Lenin to the and the council that bossed him, the very men capital. who howled about the Bolsheviks planning to take On October 7th Lenin arrived. On the 10th over "theil''' government, themselves throwing in the Central Committee heard an appeal drafted an army to drown that government in blood! And by Lenin and Stalin, calling for the Soviets to the crowning irony: Kerensky branding Kornilov immediately seize power from Kerensky, before a mutineer, then going into green panic, and fili this traitor could arrange for another mutiny ally calling upon the pelF])ie in tht streets to save such as Kornilov's. Trotsky wanted to postpone his government! the seizure. Other Bolsheviks strongly opposed it. Fortunately for Russia, Stalin and the other But the majority agreed with. the leaders. leading Bolsheviks had already taken action. Al On October 16th the Bolshevik Party set up though they were not members of the Pro\'isional a special Center to direct the seizure of power Government, and indeed vigorously exposed its by the Soviets. Stalin was placed in charge of failings, the Bolsheviks realized that the govern this, as head of the "Committee of Five," ment must be saved from Kornilov. Stalin issued E\'ents repealed lhemselves. Again, it was an urgent caU to the workers of St. Petersburg. not lhe Soviets that used violence; it was their The trades unions mobilized and armed theil' enemy, Kerensky. On October 24th he ordered a members. Working women joined their men. general armed attack on all Bolshevik groups, Trenches were dug, barricades thrown up, rail printing plants, and so on. roads guarded, Battalions of soldiers and great But Stalin was prepared. At dawn Soviet sol Jlumbrlrs of sailol's from the Kronstadt naval base diers and m·med worl,ers known as Red Guards marched in to help save the city. 1·ushefl in armored cars to the railway stations, "Letjl~S' Ilsten to the quiet and truthful and post office, telegraph office, banks and govern sometimes astonishing voice of history. The ter ment buildings. Sailors turned warship guns on rible bloody fighting between General Kornilov's the Winter Palace and undel· Stalin's personal forces and the defenders of St. Petersburg took direction this center of resistance was stormed. place to save the Ptovil;iona/ Gorernment in 11'hich There were a few other scattered combats with the Bol,~he!'iks had no pco·t. It took place long White Guards. Then it was over. befol·e the Bo!she1,iks began to seize pOH'er. This What history calls the "October Bolshevik bloodshed had nothing to do with the Bolshevik Re\'olution" was formally carried out with less revolution, although in the world's newspapers it bloodshed than was suffered in a small, brief was presented as a Red reign of terror. engagement at the front lines. Government power The Komilov revolt was crushed. St. Peters swiftly passed into the hands of the Soviets. burg was saved. The government remained in 1{c>rellsj,y fled to Moscow. The famous Soviet power. And when the telTified Kerensky looked D(,Cl'l'CS· wCI·e adopted, calling for peace, giving around for his saviours he discoyt'!'cd thal lht,y till' J:l1ld to lil(' ral'mers, declaring that the nation's STALIN'S LIFE Pa,;e Twenty.two. resources lx:-Ionged to the people'. The \'arioU!l Bolshe"ism on the I'l'I;t of the world. But Lenin departments of government passe(\ from the hands and Stalin made pea{'e at the earliest opportunity, of Kel'ensky's ministers into the hands of People's and proclaimed that the Soviet army would be Commissars. All this tool, place on October 25th, for defense only. 1917, by the old calendcl' (now figured as Novelll Soon lhe new Soviet regime, governing a na· bcr7th). tion exhausted by almost four years of the Great During the next few days the dty of l\Ios('ow \\"al', faced internal disaster resulting from criti fought. powerful White Guard regiments. K('n'l1- cal shortages of every vital commodity, especially sky l'ushC'd Cossack units to Si. Pl'tersburg. ned foodsluffs <\11(1 medical necessities. Still the Bol Guards and sailors overwJlelmec! t.his opposition. shevik government did not collapse. The great In a few days Kerensky abandoned his forces ami nations of the world decided to starve the Soviets disappeared in the disguise of a woman. From to death. A blockade, called the cordon sanitail'c, that time on the Soviet Revolution spread like a was extended around the earth, to prevent 8 single prairie fire from the Arctic to the Crimea, from ship ("om entering a Soviet port. Europe to Mongolia. The slogan "All POWCI' '1'0 Blli til(l Soviels did not. yield. The Bolsheviks the Sovi('is!" had become an accomplished fad. appealed jo tJ1C people of the world for support One hundred and eighty million pcople had set allcl undel·standing. 'flwir enemies decided that forth UJlon the greatesl social, political and eco if the Soviets coulrl not. be Qverthrown by propa nomic experiment of all time. ganda or famine, thell the time had come to de Even in 1917, 1.ellin and Stalin were aware ::;l.roy I.hem Ly military fot'ce. of the objectives for which the new Soviet Slale should aim. But the rest of the wol'id regarded the Odoucl' Rcyolulion simply 'lS disorder on a CHAP'I't:R VI mass scale. Tilere wa!'! scarcely a single obsen:('I' to be found who crNlitcd the Sovi(!ts and their In 19"11, when the Nazis Bolshevik leaders with a chance to survive. . .. •. had (li'ivel1 ahead untit _ thcy were almost in sight. Then came the explosion. Thc llolsheviks, who of Moscow, Stalin was before October had only talked tlnd organized, appointed commander·in~ now began to put their f.tmoLls decrees into force. chief of the Red Army. The enOI'mons estates of the rich were given over This came as a severe shock to the world. Our to the poor fal'mel's. Control of banking, manu experts regarded it as a final s:ymptom of impend facturing and so on was taken over by public ing Soviet defeat. ] f lhe trained generals of the bodies appointed by the elected Soviets. Socialil'!n~ Red Army were going to be overruled by a poli· began to ?rork. tician, what. hope was left·? By what right did Immediately the financial Hnd industrial lend Stalin talte into his hands the power to make ers of other counlries took wild alarm. The intel' suprcme military decisions? national anti-sociali>:l forces ,vcl'e determined that Stalin was made head of the armed rorce~ in the Soviets and the Dolshedks must be destroyed, 19n p"eciseiy because he was then and had always by force if necessal'y. The former : pl'csellted wilh man disaster, smashed the Nazi myth of invinci the bogey of "Red Imperialism" - the Soviets bility, showed the Axis the lengthening shadow were going to ol'ganize a vast al'my to force of its doom. STALIN'S r.WE And you willrcmember that "Tinston ClmrrhM took alarm. Tn a stormy seGsion it was decided ill, who has no mf)l'('\ flattery nt' hypocrisy in him La rUflh Slalill and VOl'Oshilov, a young Bolshevik than has a bulldog, called Stalin: "that great war soldier, to the Volga front. For reinforcements rior chief," To the skeptical, Churchill pointed they took with them only a few hundred Red out thai the ned At'my in nine months had in Guards. flicted upon the IIiticrites more casualties than SLalin 'was appalled by the situation at Tsar Germany had suffered on all fronls in the entire it5in. The learling ofIicers lefL by Trotsky in Great War. charge of the Red Army were former Czarists. Stalin did noi become the Soviet Union's The city itself was practically in control of civil~ "warrior chief" in nine months, For more than ian anti-Soviet clements. Amusement places were in full s\ving. The pro-Soviet inhabitants \vcre twcnty y('(!rs he has held that distinction! During all ihis time the rest of the world regarded Stalin l.::epL unaware of Lhe critical danger. as anything but a bl'illiant man, while in the \\'ithout an hour's hesitation SLalin l'evealed Soviet Union the nation knew him to be.a miliiary his sLcel will. ]lc sounded the alarm to the work genius. BuL whai basis of fact was there for such ing people of Tsaritsin, Then with his Red a belief? Simply the facts of Stalin's life. Guards he proceeded Lo clean house, All Czarist officel's were ::.tripped of authority, with Guards· We must examine these facts. To us as ciLi men replacing Lhem, The WhiLe fifth columnists zens of the UniLed Nations, forever indebted Lo were court m!l.rtialed and executed, The city was the heroic Soviet people fOl' theil' part in l'escuing placed uncleI' militar,v Jaw. As the St. Petersburg civilization, some of the fads of Stalin's life arc Soviets had prepared to l'esist KOl'llilov, so Tsat' noL only sm'pl'ising but also rather painful today. itsin was transformed into a fortress by the Still, we cannot evade history. And the past is efforts of the people. an excellent teacher. But the defense work had scarcely begun when ]n 19]8 certain leaders of the great nations, the White armies rcached the outskirts and those merciless plotters who guided international opened a flirious attack. Stalin sent out an appeal destiny at that time, decided to attack Russia and to the factory workers and miners of the whole destroy the Soviet'system by outright interven DoneLs Basin, Thousands of untrained men and tion. The invasion was well planned and was women poured into Tsaritsin, where they had launched ai many points: Archangel, Poland, no opportunity for drill but were rushed at once Odessa, Vladi,'ostok. In a short time there was to the front lines, As resisLance stiffened the a united fronL against the Soviets, with armies White Army began a great encircling movement, made up of British, Amel-jcan, French, Japanese, bl'ought up heavy artillery, unleashed a violent German, Halian, Czecho-Slovak, Turkish and assault directed by experienced German and Czar· anti-Soviet White llussian troops, Even nations ist generals and carried out by picked Cossack that were baWing each other in the greatest con l'egimcnts. flicts of the WOl'ld War joined hands to make Trotsky chose this moment Lo fly into a rage war on Lhe Soviets. Soon Lhese "interventionists" before Lhe \Val' CounciL He denounced Stalin's had pretty well united theil'forces behind one reorganization of the Red Army as an act of Admiral KolchalL He swept through the areas in personal defiance. He maintained that to defend which Lhe Soviets wel'c weakest, from the Far Tsal'itsin would be useless. In spite of Lenin'g East westward acl'OSS Siberia, and ,,,as pro conviction that to lose ihis city would be to give claimed "Supreme Ruler of Russia," By 5pl'ing- the whole nation Lo the enemy, Trotsky sent orders to the besieged towll, countermanding Slalin's in ~~S~i~f'ili~J'?ufc0t~::~. h~~ o~.~:n~~p~:~a~~i~~i~~~ structions. Volga River. From Lhe opposite direction Ger· Stalin remained calm, unmoved as a Georgian mails and White Cossacks were dl'iving through the Don country to meet Ko\Chak at a strategic mountain. Across the face of Trotsky's telegram he wrote: "P;;w no attention." He had been sent Volga city which at that time was called Tsal'itsyn. by Lenin to save TS8l'itsin. For Stalin, the man The military situation seemed hopeless. If the did not live who could turn him from such a two armies joined, the nation would be cut in mission. half. Then nothing could sa\'e the Soviets. During endless days without sleep, living one In 1918 the Red Army was guided by a War hout' in the front line, the next hour at head Council made up of leading Bolshe"iks. with Leon quarters, Stalin completed the reorganization of Trotsky as the actual commander. When Lenin the defending Red Army. And he began to form~ learned thai Trotsky'S preparations to hold Tsar 1IiaLe an exceedingly daring plan. He launched itsin were apparently based 011 the idea that the counter·aLtacks to test the invader's strength. city was doomed, jmmediately the War Council Vcr~' soon he informed Lenin at St. Petersburg Page Twenly·four STALlX'S LIFE that if sl.Iffici{'nt supplies wcre sent to Tsarilsin of tl1(! pet'lp\c's Man of Steel. The Tsaritsin of it coulrl not onlv be defended, but could become HllH is the Slillingrad of loday, tiw gl'avcyal'd 'of the While Armies! Trotsky It call easi\v he grasped that Stalin's extra ridiculer1 lhis as prepostcrolls, Lenin gave orders ordinary achi('~('ment on the Volga brought him 10 send the required equipment. lo the fOl'ef)'ont as a military leader, However, Stalin's plan has a familial' sound to liS today, he did not. displace Trotsky, Stalin refrained It was vcry simple on papel'_ He called upon the from further lIiJ'(~dion of the war until the Soviets working mcn alld women who made up the TIed WPl'f' again ~(,l'iougly thl'caten£'d, This time, with Guards to hold their ground, to <.usorb e\-ery Kolrhak oncc mOl'C nearing the Volga, a mixed ferocious attack. to force the enemy to bring up al'llw uml!'l' General Yudenich advanced rapidly all the reserves in the nl'ca, This was done, The on St. PdCI'8UUl'g' while another force struck V;h[te Army 1cac\erR, infuriated by Tsaritsin's north rl Kokhnli.. As before, he smoked Ollt Finall.v, at lhe very moment when it seemed the tl'ailol'otls clements and called upon the work lhal the Whites had unleashed a final irresistible ers and (';HmCl'S Lo take lip arms, Kolehak's lOrllaflo of firc and sleel, Stalin gave his Red conquering hordes were delivered a paralyzing Guards an eletll'ifying order: Ihe orde1' to cease blow, df'/I'm:i('(' op{'f((fion.'l and to go immediately into From the caslel'l1 front Stalin raced to the aUnck, S1. Pelersburg region, With the city about to Tsal'ilsin's haltel'ed army of farmers and fall he discarded a!l advice of the "experts," working m('11 anrl their wives rose like a tidal reminding them that when rules and regulations wave of heroism, Al'ound the whole encircled fail it was still llossible to win with daring and ring of defensive positions the allack broke out, COli rage, He opcned .\ "pincers" around Yude With incredible valor the defenders poured into nitch, Oil one hand Stalin had a land army made lhe White Army lin('~, Crack German and Cos up of a few al'mol'E"d cars and thousands of starv sack regiments melted away, Swarms of l'esel-ve ing, ill-equipped workers, On the other hand he troops vanisher! OJ' tU1'lled in panic, Along the sent. out a srjuaril'on of small boats filled with entirc TSHritsin front the enemy collapsed, With men Hlw Olll' commandos, sworn to destroy the one Rupremely hcroic blow, delivered at precisely enemy, Both attacks appem'ed to be ridiculous, lhe time wllCn lhe besiegers had reached the pcak But. Stalin imparted to them his own steel deter of lheir assault, Stalin's forces transformed the mination und devotion to the Soviet cause, The battle into a disaslrous rout, eventually hurling pincers closed and Yudenitch's army was extcr the Whiles back to the River Don. minated, The battle of Tsal'itsin saved the Soviet The siluaLi(J1l remained critical. B,Y U{is time Union, 'I'his victo)'y went. clown as the outstand lhe effects nt' lhe blockade wete being felt, Mil ing military feat in foul' years of war against lions were starving, Due to lack of medic'al sup th(' inl('l'ventionist l-\1'mies, It wa~ a new kind of plies epidemic di~was('s ,nppeal'crl. The Soviets battle, fought and won by a new kind of al'my. facco exhaustion within, enemies on every front, commanded by a new kind of officet'. A people's ] n 1919 Kolchuk renewed his powerful blows from \'idory, a people's army, a general of the people. the cast. 1'~aritRin symbolized the eno),mous power of the In the Bolshcvik \Val' Council matters were Common Man liberat('o from tyranny, It showed approaching a crisis, Trotsky insisted that the th(' el'iminal intc)'ventionists that the Soviet Red Armv could not defeat Kolchak but ShO\lld pr'ople would ~mash evel'y ailempt to destroy their be salisfi~d to tie his forces down in the Ural frecdom, even if they had to forge weapons out Mountains, Lenin and Stalin realized that so long of nothing but steel Y.aloJ', as a single fOl'eign army remained on Soviet soil And that iii hOIl' the city of Sfalingrad gal its the country would be in peril. Already the great nnme, llutions were pouring reinforcements to Kolchak, Tsaritsin was I'e-chl'istened in honor of the Trotsky was out· voted, Because of his personal Bnlshe\'ik who sawd the Soviet system, in honor influence with the Menshevik population, he was STALIN'S LIFE Page Twenty-ove Left - House In which Stalin was born and spent his childhood
Below - Stalin as Koba In 1902·3
left as nominal ('ommander. Bn1 til(' Council The Polish il\vafif'rs were partially eJeared ordered him 10 refrain from in1erference on the f1'0111 Ukrainian soil hy thl' famous First Cavalry eastern front. Stalin was sent to talte command. Army of the farmer-gcncral Budyenny. (~ot With surprising suddenness Kolchak's forces until l!'J.IO did th(' Soviel amlies liberate tnat pO!'~ were swept out,of the Urals. Kolchak himself lion of the ekraine which had been forcibly held was captured, court-martialed for the unspeak hy the Polish Pans for twenty years). lt was able atrocities that had been committeo unr\er Stalin who g]'asperi the impm·tance of Budyenny's daring tM·tiCS. Hf' .';('nt a g-reat force of 11OI'SI':'· his direction, and executed. men on a tholls;Ul(\ mile dash to (lI'i\'e back the Stalin returned from his triumph only to find Poles, Wilh Ihis yietorious opcralion the War of disaster taking a ncw form. Britain, France, Intervention W~\S brought to a close. America and Germany were being forced by mutinies and strikes at home to wilhdmw all open ThC' Snvif'l i",vst('m had bef'n sawd from de intervention against the Soviets. But they marie struction. Millions of m(ln ami women and youth onc last supreme bid. They armed the White had tak('n l)al't in that tCrI'ible war o[ onc ex~ generals Denikin and Wrangel, whose armies hallsled nation against a dozen powerful foreign plunged from Europe into the Ukraine and the govcnlm('nts. The people had saved the Soviets. Donets Basin. Wrangcl's [orces I'cached the Bul the pcopl(' understood that during the biller Volga. The entil'e southern front crumbled. By struggle two mel! had stood out above all other kadel's, and by lhe force of their genius anrl Octobe!', ]919, Denikin had Tula and Orcl, and was threatening Moscow. devotion llac\ letl the Sovid people to victory. Those two men were Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin was given complete control of the south· Stalin. ern Red Armies. At once he organized an offens ive, a bold plan to advance not along the "propel''' Stalin has been distinguished as the military military route but through regions where the f/rniu.,"i of f},r ."l'oilirt. Union f1"Om the very earliest workers and farmers were strongly behind the days of the llevolutinn. Every major \'ictory dur~ Soviets, This campaign saw the beginning of ing the Wnr of lnlf'!'venlion was achieved under Stalin's pdnciple of guerrilla warfare behind the Stalin's personal direction. And since that time enemy lines. Instead of fighting on sharply cle· Stalin hus never ceased to take the leading part fined fronts, Stalin carried the attack in every in Soviet defense pl'eparations and in all matters direction at once, incessantly raiding enemy sup· I·elating to the Red Army, Navy and Air Force, ply lines and headquarters, This was a radically II is utterly false lo hold the view taken by new type of guerrilla warfare. It was immediately so many ignorant commentators, that Stalin was successful. The White Armies ancl their foreign made commandc!··in·chief for political purposes. accomplices were hammf'l'ed into retreat alrmg the Slalin was given ('ommand of the greatest armed wholc front, theil' defeats turlled into headlong for'ces in the \\"o1'ld for oue :>tarkly simple reason: flight, and enormou~ quantities of supplies fell ILl' -is in all }!/"O/mhilifu the ab/cstmilitaryJ CO'IJL into Red Army hands. IIItl.n(/l'"I' in. thr H'(JI·{rl. He won that distinction not as a rC!illlt of IJolilics or noble birth 01' by having After all other armies were driven from Rus· his uniform 1001dcd wilh medals and ribbons. sia, the Polish nobility, while "celebrating" the in Sialin II'()I~ /ii,'1 trpu(a.[ion 1mdcl' fiTe in the course dependence of their country (it harl been part of ofl"irmin{J OJ'eM 'vid01'il'8 lhn.t cha:rlaed the COU"l'SC the Czar's Russian Empire) by ruthlessly eXJ;lloit of history, iug their working people and poor farmers and by continuing the Czarist policy of anti-Semitism, We have hriefly sketched the battlcs of 1$)18· embarked upon all outrageous adventure. The IfU1. Now we coulrl devote a whole book to Polish "Pans" (lords) organized a powerful army studying the baWes of 1911-1913! Suppose we and launched an attack upon the Soviet Ukraine-, lake just one look at one battle: Stalingl'ad. This was an outright wa!' of conquest, The ma Perll m;"h de(llh. ;:liso become tnowu j'l'JlL nationaliU('s, ~peakillg scores of' lan ism." Th is I)ook has become a classic ami has been guages, inhabiting an al'cu lhaL covers one-sixth translated into almost evcry language, Immefli of the earth. at{'ly it appeared the aulhor acquired unquestioned History tells of numberless occasions \vhcll leadership among those who carl'ied on the task kings and ('mpe-rors ;.md princes were crowned Karl Mal'x had begun . • , "to change the world." supreme rult'rs of great domains. What. COl'ona tion cct'emoni('s, what spectacles of lavish splen Some people have come to believe that Vladi dor have m;:U'ked the l'ise to power of the world's mil' Lenin handed the rulenship of Russia Lo most famous tYnluts! Some such men inherited .10seph KLalin lhe way a father ucl', \\ riter, publisher and leader of the Sovicts, of the Communist Party, and how Stalin Bolsheviks, first in the l'egion of Trans-Caucasia had ruthlessly ploUed Trotsky's "overthrow." \VI" and later at St. Petersuurg (the Czarist capiLal need only rcmcmbet· here that Leon Trotsky was ciLy that was re-named Leningrad), He had one of tlte bittel'est enemies Lenin had to fight, played a most impOl'tHnt part in the 190;:; Re .... olu· before and during and after the Re\'olution, jf tion, He had run Pr«rda, the printed yoice that Stalin had ne\'er been born, Trotsky was the last rallied millions to rise against the Czar. He had man who would ha\'c been chosen by the Com organized the defense of the Provisional Demo munists to take Lenin's place! cratic Goyernmellt of 1917 'against the Kornilov mutineers. Under Lenin's guidance he had di Lenin died. It W;lS Stalin, his closest comrade, rected and 1('(1 til(' Orio)wl" RC'ynlntioll that hronght who rleliv('l'(,(\ an histo1'i(' mOlll'lling s])cech, That Page Thirty ST,\LTN'S LIFE gp('('{'h wa!\ lll'rri!".(', dNtr-cut. Stalin );1101;:(' of ing the tlll'ottlr still wifl!']', l;:C'pL thC' lncomoti\'c of hi"l{ll") 011 til SII('iuii.,L lraLks, 'This is the cle Leniu's !J~'I'ilaJ.:'c. It" <1:0 nol bequeathed La any man, II \\ ~\::> \\ ilkd to the people, their mh{;!'ltance, ci::.i\c ::,\;;1'\ic(; ::;t.liin ha.. l'(;llllel'cd history." Lenin's So\"iet Hevolution was the priceless wealth Dut the "socialist tl"Uc};:s" that Stalin had to 1);lSSillj! into 1he possellssion of no individual 01' dl'in' on \\'e]'t' pradi(ally nOll-existent when he gruup UI" pal'ty lmt iu10 the hands oJ the toiling tl)uk 0\"('1' Lt'llin's n'sl)OJlsiliilitics in 192"1. The milliolls who had but OllC obligation: 10 sweal' on locomotive oj' history had run wild in Russia. Lenin's memol'Y that 1heY would build reality F)'om the Vmls cust to China, from the Volga with his \'isiOl~, that they would change tlu if' west to Poland, the SO\ let enioD was a land laid 1t'orld. waste with lcnible deliberation, The White Arm~ The response was absolutely unforscen, Until iei'., once their doom was sealed, had destroyed that hOlll" the m~\jority of the nussian people, bchind them the few l'ailways, bridges, factories, while filled with deepest Jove for Lenin, had re pow(~r pl:mts and feed l'esenes that had remained mained aloof fl'om the Communist Pmty. Foreign aft('l' eight years uf raging war, Millions of the obsel'vcl'$ eXj}e<:led the Soviets to break up when slt'ongcst men and women had perished. Hunger Lenin died, fol' lack of his unifying inftuenee. But and disease had ravished the surviVal'S. The suddcnly the masses of w01'kers and farmers, Soviet socialist system was born amidst desola roused fl'om the grief-stricken silence with which tion, Impo\'cl'jsh;d had been the land of the Czars, Ul('Y hnd g,'ectcd Stnlin's words. They flooded the but the S(Jvid people ,,,ere faced with the talik General Secl'et"l'y with applications for member ot chang-ing :.l \\lorld that almost did not exist. ship in the party of Lenin, It was dec.ided to The intervcntionists viewerl the handiwork of open a sp(;'cial Lenin Enrollment. Despite the seli' their armies with cruel satisfaction, What kind sac!'ifice and work demanded of members, over a of socialism could the Soviets build out of nothing? quarter of a million men and women joined. Stalin 1mew, Even then he had in his hands This was a tribute to Lenin's historic inftuence. the first hlueprint of the mighty Sm'iet Unioll we It wus ulso a mighty demonstration of faith in know today. Our experts are only now talking ~talin, al'oulld whom the people oC the Soviet abont fi post-war phm, but even before the last (Inion ra1\iC'u to bear the bmdens of the future. war was OYeI' Lenin had gh'en to the Russian Slnlin once told Emil Ludwig: "Ne\"er under Ae,1 d"i\'l'l" ur l!tt' \Il('omolin'. Stalin, boldly open~ Didn't Ill' J1W;\11 ju::;t Jlhl/llw! (,OIl!>tJ'l]ction, t.he way,
STALI~'S LLFE Page Thirty--one our countries haw' plmmC'fl wtlr pro(luction '? rt('hir>v(>m(>llb~ of hifl plan with thr shocking stnt(' (.If affairs ill olher countries, where vast quantities In OilH~l' worus, what is thi~ liociulisln uf the SO\ jet Union? I,)r foot! weI'\.: being dCt>tl'Oycd so that pl'it.es woulu Hot drop further. You will find many people who haye the most astonishing idea of socialism. Many J)€ople, both 111 the prcsent warlime emergency, capitalism rich and pOOl', think that socialism is a system has provcd capable of producing tremelldous of handling production and wages so that there amounts of war equipment. But in peace time, as is no "unfairness," so that everybody gets "a all of liS remember, it could not give employment fair share"-and by this is meant that e\'erybody and a living wage to millions, and capitalist lead gets a living wage, In that way there are no ers were fnmk in confessing their inability to rich people. Everybody, while not exactly poor, cope with the "crisis." And our principal concern lives at "the working man's leyel." Now belieyc today, apal't from the war effort, is to discovel' it or not, this idea is actually what millions of how capitalism C
lJo ,VUli J'(..'ml'lllUCl' llJe people in Ollr cOLIn tries, Nuw fnmldy, is this propuganda for sociali.sm 'r during the terrible depression, who asked how on \Ve 3re following the course of Stalin's life, earth Ollr gOH'rnments were guing to spend mil· and the gn':tV_'st accomplishment ill Stalin's life lions to keep the unemployed from starving? The is Ihe sori(lli.'lt plun by m(::lLnS of which two hun same type of people asked Stalin: "Where are you dred million people changed their 'u·orld. If we going to get the billions needed to finance your did not examine the greatest thing in Stalin's life, plan?" All O\'er the world the financial experts then what on earth would be the use of paying smiled. Imagine Stalin trying to start socialism him any attention? Millions of people outside the without any money! Ewryune knew that indus Soviet Union, including some of our leading in· tries could be flllanced only by."capitnlist enter· dusLriali8ts and statesmen, bave publicly stated prise and investmellls." that the influence of Stalin's plans upon the whole A year went by. In ]926 the Soviet Union 1rorlrl \vill hencefol'th be extremely powerful. Ex could scrape together only one billion rubles for pl'essing such frank and realistic views certainly building new industries and farms. But that same does not make these men socialists! Likewise, om yea!' production jump(~d sixty percent. Three examination of Stalin's pla,ll does not make the more years went by. Stalin gave the people a faelR socialist pl'opaganda! new plan. IL <:a1l('(1 1'01' building new socialist H we "ovc}'lookecl" Stalin's socialist plan and industries and fal'ms valued ~lt mute than fifty what it has accomplished in the Soviet Union, we billion .l'uhle$! would lJe evel'y bit as ridiculous as if we wrote In accordance with Stalin's plml, Soviet inuus about Geol'ge Washington and "overlooked" the ll'ies and farms were expected to operate at a Declaration of Jndcpendence, or about King pl'ofit, in order to maintain a high efficiency. At John and "overlooked" the Magna Charta. lhe end of the year, (Ill profits from illdustl'ies and Now let us retul'll to the Soviet plan for build· farms were talwll by t.axes that went to the ing socialism. We ha\'c seen how Stalin financed central stale bank. There the profits were turned the plan. lIe found the cash. But money alone over to lhe Illanning organization, which used the would not build giant industries and farms. The money fol' "socialist investments"-that is, for labor of millions of men and women was needed. building new industries or farms according to the Armies of scientists, engineers, managers and plan. All the profits were llsed to build llew in skilled workers wel'e required. And here we come dustries and farms. Not a single penny went to up against anoth(,I' reason why the outside world individuals or prh'ate interests. All the new in· said that Stalin would fail completely. dustries and fm'ms were the property of the Soviet Union, of all the pe simplicity itself. In Soviet to wOl'k applied only to a very, very few people, neWBpapel'S evcI'y single detail of the plan was those who had a chance of becoming rich or "com· pI'inted ~() tliat TJl'oplc could follow it. They did fortalJly well of 1'." The vast majority of the follow it. Stalin's plnn nevcl' mentioned such world's workers had no incentive to work except thing$ as the guld standanl, inflation, reserve the biUer necessity of keeping from starvation. banks, Ule! iudex of in\'eslment securities, or any Under the socialist plan those millions of workers of the jal'gon that fills the "financial pages" in 11'ould lutve u lremendous new incentive to work, our countries. It was understandable to everyone. because all their labor would go into building up industries and fal'ms that belonged to the whole And another "rather important" fact: the nation, that would produce ever greater quantities plan worked. Stalin did not have to make speeches of goods for sale to the people, that would pay Lo his pt'Opl~ giving them €.'(cuses for "having the people evt'l' more wages with which to buy failed. I Ie did 1I0t have to promise them that those goods! "pro~]J(>rily i~ just 31'oulla the next cornel'," be ('3use tilt! Suviet Jleople had anived at that corner Stalin frankly told the world many years ago STALIN':::; LIFE Page Tbirty-three that Soviet ~ociali."m wa~ going' to rai~(' milli011~ Ntl'ivc t.o producc the t'llm'motiS amount of goods of ol'din, To som~' exteul we in the Democracies Soviet Uniou'! CUll undt'I'stand hO\\ tremcnclotls this new incen tive \\a. ..;, Ul'I:1H\S\' wc ha\c seen whal wonders or The <111;;\\'(')' comes as quite a shock. production our U\\ II \\()rking people were able to If S/(I/,'I1.' ,wII'io/isi I;1('(' l'C'$tured, we l:iJIll[\ i1l1l1l1l/(1i/ lludal ystcll/,
Pagll Thlrty·four STALIN'S LIFE Oil!' h;lI; oilly 10 !'l'idi7,(' tlHll th(· sm:ialisl syt;tcJn al;tollis/H'd you, You wonder why 'yOU previuusly was lilt' only p081:lible ::;y"tem that coulr\ have knew so little about. the man, But werc we not rais('r'! ruined, hatkwl1n\ Russia, in t\\'enty ),('ars, ail equally ignnnl!lt-;voll ann. I and the world's to such colossal heights thal enabler'! the Soviet leading newspaper ('(Iitol's, commentators, gen Union to withstand Hitler's might, the concen crals and stat('sllH,'n! Just think of the learned trated industrial und military might of all Europe famous and powerful people in our count.ries, who -to ,yitilstand and to grind to rleath the enOl' a mere fOlll' )'l'Ul'S ago could not find words veno mOllS legions of frig-hlfulncss that would other mous enough to hurl at Stalin, could not find wise have O\'{'I'will'ln1<.'rl the ealth, \\"Ol'ds scornfnl enough to fling at the Red Army, the people who now hm·e had their eycs opened And so it is deal' that SL:llin pel'frH'med not by lhe ignorance-shattering events of the war, one but two decisive seJ'vices to history. [11 the who now arc honest enough to speak of Stalin and Soviet Union he :oct the locomf)tive of history the Soviet lTnion with voices no longer choked driving forwul'd at full speed on the socialist by hate, ~{)me of these great people have met tracks, Ill' also :::;avcrl Olll' capitalist nations from Stalin Pl'l'sonally, nec.Hlse he is the living symbol being COllrjllCI'NI by lhe Axis cannibals, he pre of Snvi(,t pl)Wel', dctrrminalion, idealism and self vented the history of Olll' own count.ries from sacrifice, the impact 01' coming face to face with being driven uacl\wunl into the inhuman Fascist Stalin wus tn:mcndou;;, AI! of a sudden these systcm, I)('opie g/'iu1jlL'd with painful clearness that a man J ndeed, many of (JUI' hmdillg' capitalists, out who brought the gt'calcst lJaLion on earth through f .. spokcl1 opponents of socialism as ,11 sy"tcm for out' wal'S and mines, a man who guided two hundred cOllntries, tJow realize full well that capitalism milliolls sllcccs;;rully in thc stupendous task of could not have mil:!cd the Russia of H)25 to the changing one-sixth of the world, a man who pre present lewl of the Soviet Union, either in twenty pared for more tlHm teu years to do battle with yeill's ()l' a hundred ,Veal'S, Only the socialist sys Ilillcl'ism and thus was able to save the civilized t.em could lJave ac(:ompli"hcrl this historic feat wol'id - on meeting Stalin his famous visitors that saved the \\'o1'ld, have suddenly fell the truth of history strike them like a physical blow. And without a doubt If Stalin UC("OIll111ishes nothing more for the many of these great ones are now busily reading rest of his whole life, history will remember him up on Stalins history, his life, just as we are at fo)' this immortal victoJ'Y· this moment. They too are getting onc surprise And hel'c is what Stalin modestly says about after another. They too are having their deepest his achie\'ement: and most evil prejudices swept away by facts. "Victory nevel' comes by it:ocl[-it usually has Why did -it take a fri!Jht/ul war to make us to be pulled by the hand," see the truth auout Stalin!'
Why 'were 'Il'a miF:in/ol'lned about Stalin, be fore he led the Red ArmfJ into battle against oltr enemy HUle1'? CJJM''l'ER IX Why were ?JJe misinformed about the Soviet 'fhe time has come for Union's 1)OUtical anA economic weaJmess. before liS to pause, We arc ap ~h(Lt country 8hoU'cri in battle that the unity of proaching the darkest 'lts 1)Cople and the might of its industJ'fJ were and m 0 s t dangerous without equal anyu'lwl'e else? Why u'cre we told chapters of Stalin's life, that areat numbcl',~ of pe01Jle hated Stalin's (ule, No doubt Stalin would before Hitler failed to find such people in the be happy to forget these eveuts, But we cannot Soviet arcus he captured? Where 1/'e1'e the Rus afford to forget them, because these happenings ~ian traitiors, the Qui~lin9s, Lavals and Bec!;::;? in Stalin's life ha"e affected our life ill vital ways, The answer can be found in Stalin's life, they have a great deal to do with the cause of this war, and even now these evil deeds are reach \\' orld blockade failed to starve the Soviets ing out of the past tOW3l'ds the future of peace to death, Intervention armies failed to crush and frcedom fol' which the world hopes and prays, them in batlle, About the time when Stalin It all starts with a question that must surely: assumed leadership of the So\·iet Union, the intel'~ be .lurking in your mind right now. national anti-?oviet conspirators began to adopt two new tachcs, They decided to create dissen Many: of the facts about Stalin's life have sion within the Soviet Union, by using the type
STALIN'S LLFE k. Page Thil'ty·n~·e of agents we hA.ve come to li11(l1V as a "Qltisling." By pHhlirly \'owing that he was wholeheartedly They also flccidcd to Immch a world-wide cam bC'hind Stnlin'g plan Iw was able to organize a paign of slander against Stalin, the Soviet system smnll gang of Quisling industrial managers who and its people. The purpose of the first tactic wormed their way into key positions, These saba· was to weaken the U.S.S.H.. internally so that it tellrs cleverly deV('lopC'fi bottlenecks in critical would quickly collapse when another interven industries. The trouble became extremely seriOllS. tionist war was started. The purpose of the sec For a bl'icf time in 193:3 it seemed as though the ond tactic was to pr('par(' world opinion, to justify funrinmf'ntal prin<"ipl(> of Stalin's Five-Year Plan another criminal anti-Soviet war. had fail('cl. It WH:'I thrll that Stalin pel'sonally tOl)k on']" invf'1'tig-atintl (Jf thl' "faiIUl·f's." Swiftly he This inf Pl'('.'1S got infOl"ml'llion on Sovif:':t For twenty yeal's the Soviet people have been produdinn c1iffkttIUeR, sOllwlimes eVf'n before he waging an incessant struggle against these con got. th('m himself! Of course he did not dream spirators, against the Quislings who worked wilh that ml'n who posed as his supporters could be in the U.S,S.R. and against lhose who worked in capable of such sabotHge and hypocrisy. our countries. During all this time Stalin himself was the main target of the plotters, he was their Immedialely Stalin had defeated the bottle relentlessly vigilant opponent and around him the l1"ck scllf'mc llie plotters adopted new tactics. fiercest conflict raged. Along with hOll{'st foreign engincers they broug-ht. In the cady nays of the Soviets their enemies, in cxpcl'L'I in violC'nt ~mbotage, and aided them in as we have seen, eXCl'ten ('vcry effort to destroy blowing up importPage Thlrty-~i% STALIN'S LIFE Grinko achieved some success. In 193<1-35 the fanll machinery at such a rate that in a few years Soviet aulhol'itics were faced with severe disloca the entire primitive fal'mhUlds of the Union Re tion of Ukrainian industry and farming, Grinko publics would be mechanized, raising crop output arranged for bottlenecks in consumer's goods, and the standard of living of the rural population held up \vages, caused farm co-operatiyes to go at an extraordinary rate. The purpose of Stalin's broke, and generally tied Ukrainian affairs up in progl'am for agriculture can be briefly summed knots, At the same time Dan managed to get all up: it lI'as to /1'('(' ten.~ of millions of i-mpov61ished this "news" out to the democratic countries, And fanners fl'om the state of semi-serfdom under Ukrainians living in our countries were visited 1chich they lilled before the Revolution, by Ukrainian National Fascist organizers directed by Gl'inko and the Polish government, to agitate No sooner had Stalin begun this task of libera for a world war against the Soviet Union for the tion than vcry powerful opposition appeared, Re purpose of "liberating" Ukrainians. peatedly Stalin stressed that both the poorest and the middle-class farmel's wcre to be given the full So shrewd was Grinko that at the height of benefits of the plan. The kulaks, wealthy land the Ukrainian h'oubles he corresponded with owners, had started grabbing up the land that had Stalin, cleverly masking his treachery, and was been taken from the estates of the nobility and even ejected to the central committee of the Com given to the poor and middle~class farmers. They munist Party! began to take advantage of the widespread pov erty after the War of Intel'vention, buying up the But Stalin penetrated the enemy's camouflage. pOOl' farmer's land and home, grain and livestock, He appealed to the Soviet Ukrainian people, who forcing him to return to the old system of being remembered the past, when both their own brutal the hited hand oI rich farmers in order to exist. "Hetman" and the Polish "Pans" had stamped All this was accompanied by an alarming drop in out freedom in the Ukraine. It was the S.oviet output of farm crops. The kulaks refused to plant Ukrainian Republic that was free, not the Ukrain grain and hoarded what was on hand. Exactly ians living under the Polish reign of terror, Stalin was .. ble to expose Gl'inko's nefarious plans as Stalin had warned, a general anti-Soviet move ment was started by the kulaks, the wealthy land fol' selling the Ukraine to Poland, and the move owners, who dreamed of becoming feudal lords ment collapsed. Although the Ukrainian Fascists in our countl'ies clamored for a war against the if the Soviet system could be o\·erthrown. Soviet Union, and were able to get all sorts of The kulaks declared war on the Soyiet system, non-Ukrainian anti-Soviet leaders to support this the Soviet people, the Soviet farmers and upon campaign, the majority of Ukrainians understood Stalin as lhe leader of the U,S.S.R. The free that it was their countrymen living under Polish dom that had been won by the Revolution, and rule who needed liberating. the prosperity guaranteed to the farmers by No sooner had Stalin settled the Polish-Griuko Stalin's socialist plan, were in grave danger of conspiracy than he faced the most serious of all being lost, The issue was freedom or slavery for the internal anti-Soviet plots. It was not limited tens of millions of Soviet farmers. to one nationality, but spread over great areas of Indeed, Stalin faced a situation very similar to that in the United States of America just be ~:s ~~~i~~I~~:~~~;~~ 'rh:~c;f~'~~ng regions. This fore the Civil \Val'. Abraham Lincoln had to face Before the Revolution, half the land in Russia the issue of Democracy against Slavery of the was in the hands of ]8,000 rich noblemen. The Negro People. Stalin had to face the issue of other and poorest half was owned by 25,000,000 Soviet Democracy against Slavery of the Soviet farmers. This tells its own stol'y of farming pov Farmers. Like Lincoln, Stalin did not flinch. erty. The Russian farmer under Czarism lived in Recall Lincoln's famous words: "As I would heartbreaking toil, crushed by superstition, primi not be a slave, so 1 would not be a master. This tive methods and the cruel greed of the nobility. expl'esses my idea of democracy, Whatever dif From the earliest days of the Revolution, Lenin fers f!'Om this, to the extent of the difference, is and Stalin made far-reaching plans to free the no democracy." farmers, Stalin was equally blunt: "We must pass from For example, electrification of Soviet farms the policy of restl'icting the exploiting activities began twenty yeal'S ago. It has reached a highly of the kulaks to the policy of eliminating the advanced stage under Stalin, although in OUT kulaks as a class." countries large-scale rural electrification is only Lincoln plunged America into a terrible civil now being considered. Likewise, the Soviet plan war of North against South, in order to preserve included the pl'oduction of tractors and general American Democracy and liberate the slaves. STALIN'S LIFE Page Thil'ty·seV6!l Stalin culled upon the wll!)lc! S()viet Iwuple 1u Staliu':! cOlllidellcc in lheir loyally to the Soviet eliminate the 1ml,ll\s, in (,["del' t() J1rcser\'(~ ::)()\'i('t gU\"l'l'nnll'nt. Democracy and liberate the fanners from serf Now the eJimax was fast approaching. One dom. cOl1!-;piracy after another had led Stalin to insist In each case the l'truggle was violent. But in llDon increased police vigilance. Having aban the Soviet l'nion nothing lilw a ddl war bl'olw dOlled all hope of gaining popular support, and out. The Uussian Quislings inside and outside the fearing imminent discovery, the plotters sank to U,S,S.H., the Polish PHns, Ckl'ainian Fascists and the VCl'y dCjlths, To their depraved minds there the German Z\,llzis, backed by cwrr b'pe of anti was Lut onc hope oJ seizing puwer in Russia-to Soyiet conspirator, joinl's to this generation. turl's That Once Were .Men!' and "Mother" will With the collapse of the Imlaks, the Quislings Ijye £ol'e\'e1' in all languages. Gorky once had llilW ' ill ltll;r:f;ia." ni1.\'if'~' vipw was time the S('(:l'('l ::l0!'\'i('e drew a nct of eddcncc slUlI'ed l>,\ ll1J.1I\ ;Illparlial flUSel'\'el's. But thpir around iis own deputy chief, Yagoda. The net \I1H,:' \ 1.':< Jlu II d 11l a \\a\e of anti-Stalin grew. Qile by one the \CrimInals \\crc al'1'estcu. h,}stcria. The eOHspiracy unfolded. When al last the evi No pn:\'iom; ~1andtr reached such heights all dence was closed SCOl'es of Quislings were trapped, 0\'('1' the \\'ol'ld :1.'> did that ('(')Iltl'l'ning the "'Mos half a c\olf.C'n fOI'C'ign nations WCl'e in .... o]w,d, and cow Trials," \\ hy'! Quit!' simple. Til(' ".lJo.'''.{'O/l' tlw wodd was pl'esclltt'd wilh a tnlc- of infamy TI'''/Ij''/I (1I1Irl/ Ih{ ',(1/ i('III/II of Sln/in,'s jiuM that has hardly becn t'<[uallcll sine!! the days (,f fllJl/'nA Ihe /iii/rlf?! tJl/ilvrs, fhl' (n!l 01 nil f/lf> the noloriOUlil Borgias. Quisliny,~,'1 (Icstrll('tion of manldncl's ~ti1l gl'(,:1.t(,1· 110rrorR. BC'('[Lnsc 011('e Hitler il'l talent and works would have been prevented! crushed Stalin may try to force Communism upon IL is frightful to thiuk that the allti~hulUallity countries outside tile Soviet Union, perhaps upon conspirators still overate frcely ill our DenlOCl'a. all Europe. eie!!. Bluntly: we fear that Stalin may embark upon For ,,,,hnt nre thcy conspiring now'? n policy of spreading Communism by fOl'c~e . They are enraged that our Democracies and Is this fear justifIed? Soviet Democracy together are being strengthened One way to find out would be to put the ques· in the war against IIitlerism. Their plot is to tion dirccUy to Stalin. But even if he did answer destroy this mighty Unity of Free Peoples that "No," could be belieye him'! The other and prac· is symbolized by the great personalities of tical way to find out is to examine Stalin's life, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. Their purpose is to to search for clues that indicate Stalin's policy smash the universal hope of a free and peaceful in l'egal'c1 to other nations. Such clues are not People's World. Thl'Y prdend to hate only Stalin hard to find. and the Soviet people, but they 'reserve fheir mo.<:t From 1879 to 190fi Stalin lived in Trans· intense hatred for De))wcracy and freedom, jor 'Us . Caucasia, known the , .... orld ovel' as "a melting pot For twenty years Stalin waged a grim and of nations" where the pl'Oblem of national free· finally victorious struggJe against these evil men, dom was acute. whose successors are among us even now, redoub· In 19Q.5 anclJ.?06 Stalin witnessed the ghastly ling their efforts to lllUlermine OUl' heed om. As slaughters ol'gallized by Czarism among the Call he spoke to his own people, Stalin speaks to us: casian races, and the utter destruction of Cauca ';On !1l1ard!" sia.n fl'eedom by the Russian conquerors. In 1912 Stalin wrote a book called "The Na· tional Question," a masterpiece of clear and pro· phetic reasoning which won him recognition as CHAPTER X the spokesman of Bolshevik policy on the freedom of nations. Less than t1wee years ago In 1917 Stalin was appointed "Commissar of Stalin was only a name Nationalities" in the Bolshevik Government. It in our papers, a strange, was his task to try to keep together all the peoples forbidding figure whose who had been held captive in the Czar's "prison life seemed farther re~ of nations" and who had been poisoned by mutual moved from our than the hatred. North Pole. In 1917 Stalin startled Russia and the allti~ With shocking abruptness destiny swept the Bolshevik world by announcing boldly: "It must Soviet Union ancl our Democracies into a united be said that the oppressed nations fO)'ruing part battle for existence. Now we begin to realize how of Russia must be allowed the right to decide f01' closely Stalin's life and OUl' lives actually were themselves whether they wish to remain part of linked for years before the war: how Stalin's the Russian state or to separate and form inde historic plan of socialist development saved our pendent states." capitalist democracies, how Stalin's extermination of Quislings foiled the international conspiracy Did Stalin really mean that the Bolshevilcs to betray nussia the way France and other 113- were willing to allow parts of Russia to bl'eak tions were betrayed, how Stalin's military genius away fl'om the Soviet system and form non-Soviet changed the whole course of the war in the battle nations? Exactly. What is more, Stalin's govern for the Volga, ment backed up his statement with deeds. The Red Army withdrew from Mongolia, China, Per Closer and closer we have been drawn towards sia (now Iran). Finland and Poland declared Stalin, until we can almost feel the touch of themselves independent nations. So did Armenia friendship. in the Caucasus. , . and even Stalin's native land But! We are not quite that close. Something of Georgia! holds us apart. It is feal'. Even as our admiration In 1920 Stalin offered the remaining peoples and gratitude for Stalin grows, the shadow of of Russia a plan of independence. He scorned the fear chills our hetU'ts. idea of giving them freedom in name only. He \OVe are afraid that after this hOl'l'ible war is defined freedom thus: the right to use one's native ended, another war may plung(' the world into languagl:' at home, in JlUblic, in the courts, in the
Page FOl't~ STALIN'S LIFE Rchools; thr right to have complete liberty of re poi~On0l18 doctl'ine of national and racial superi ligion without influence from any "state church;" ority, with pride in the achievements of one's the right to tl'aycl tll1y\\-herc in Soyiet Russia people pen-erted into brutal lust for conquest wiLhout ally I'c~lridi()Il:;; the righl lo vole on all o\'el' olhel' pcnpl('s. lIe foresaw IlitleriSlll. issues, local 01' national; the right to be governed And now one final prediction made by Stalin, by one's own native },f'presentatives; the right to Likc his definition of freedom, this statement was work at any jou wHhmlt (liSCl'imination. This dt'cisively ch'ar, No notion can keep Us nationlll was how Stalin explained the Soviet sland on frCl'doll1l1n/('s8 it IilH'rClte.'l its people b'om pov freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom uty. Side by side developed the Europe of Ver of assembly and freedom from want. . for sailles and the Soviet Union, At the end of two nations, peoples and minorities as well as for in decades the contrast was tnlgically apparent. On dividuals. He made it clear that any talk of free the one hand a group of nations whose ever dom in general, without absolute guarantees of deepening poverty had driven them step by step the specific fl'CI'<10111S stated 1]('1'(>, W:HI mere bluff from what national ft'ecdom they had enjoyed anti deception, into uttel' enHlavcmeut by Fascism, the system Ami this is how he summed it up: E-l'crll fouuded UpO)l abolition of aU freedom, On the nationality n'lUl minorily Ln Smliet RW5sia was uther hand a gruup of republics whose prosperity guaranie(4 (tU UI('. rioht,'1 and freedoms enjoyed had increased aL an unprecedented rate, making by the 1)('oplcs 1IIho 1(i{;}'e in the majority. In this possible the adoption in 1938 of the "Stalin Con· simple, crystal·c\eal' statement of policy Stalin stitution" which firmly established Soviet Demo- "Lranslated" freedom hom the language of cracy, speeches inlo lhe language of life .itself. II may ::;eem, in reviewing these principles In 1921 Stalin ]Jointed to the breaking up of laid down in the }last by Stalin, that we 1U'e the gl'cat E111'OPCll1l natiolls al'tcl' lhe Wurld \Var, beating ::tr'OUlld the bUHh, side~stepping the ques nnd the aW~mpi. to solve lhe pl'ublem of national tion: "Will Stalin try to spread Communism by fl'eeuom by creating new countries su<;h as Czecho fOJ'ce?" Slovakia, Yugo-Slavia, POland, etc, Then he drew Nol at all. Now we have thrce clear facts aLtention to the oppression that some of these with which to judge Stillins' purposes today: "free" countJ'ies were pl'actieing upon their minor ities, and how the little nations of Europe were 1) All nations must have the right to unite already at each other's throats, He predicted in with or break away from other nations, evitable Wal'S, beCausl~ the Treaty of Versailles 2) PeoJlle of any lHltionality or minority must did not giv(> "eal fn'L'dom to lhe peoples of Europe; have e\'ery freedom and right enjoyed by it had simply Cl'(I[licd meaningless national bound- the majority peoples within each nation. ades. 3) A n:t.lion's freedom can be preserved only In 1922 all Stalin's earlier policies were com if its people are f"eed from poverty. bined in one gigantic experiment in national free Let us take each point in turn. dom, The Union of Soviet Socialist H,cpublics was formed. Hithel'to the Soviet countries had enjoyed The first is no idle pl'onouncement, but a basic only vague independence, Now their freedom was Soviet pl'inciple. '1'he stubborn facts of Stalin's delt!!'mint.!(\ exucLly according to Stalin's prin. life beat's tlds out. rl was he who led the success cipks, The "Union" W118 fOl'med for the same ful stnlgglc ~\g'ai!1sl Trotsky and others who ]wul.:tical 1'('a80nli th:lt lhe SiaLes of North America wtUllc<1 to 1.:00Hluer weal, nations in order to "con formed theil' Union: 1.0 improve communication, verL" them to Communism. It was he who with i1Hiustry, forcign rclations and defense, {It'ew the Red Army JI'om China, Mongolia and Penda in tlte early days of the Soviet regime. It nuL Sll1lin mu<1e clcar thal the Soviet Union was he who insisted that Armenia, Georgia, Fin had to be diffel'ent to the Uniteu States, for it land and Poland - countries which had been a was to ue composcd of many distinct nations whose part of Czarist Russia-be allowed to break away national in(lividuality (language, culture, customs, and fOl'm llOn·Soviet natio11s, and it was he who etc.) woult! be prcserved within the national welcomed lhe later decision of Armenia and boundaries. Even more sharply it would differ Georgia to become Soviet Hepublics. from Europe. There each nation preached and practiccd only It,'1 own right."!, The Soviet Repub Certainly it is a fact that during this war lics were \)alow(\ lIpon the principlc of equal rights Stalin sent the Red Army into Lithuania, Latvia, ;or all nnfion.'l (lnd minorities. Stalin said that Esthonia, Finland and the Western Ukraine "national (n'l,dom" in Europe would degencrate (I'ule
PaF:p Fortr-tll'o ST~4.LIN·S LIFE ('lJAl'TEJt Xl Stalin saw hi,'1 \\ ami worl, actively with it.:; member coun , nf I'(>('(>nl years h~.\"c Jx>en ll'i('s. Work fOl' what·! To expose the plans of gone (J\-er again and ag!;S being deslroyed. who were not duped. He warned that the fright or cour~(' Stalin saw through lhis nE'W Nazi ful mass bombings of Spanish christian civilians smoke-scl'('('Il. Its pUl'pOM~ W&1> 10 paralyze Ihe would be repeated with a hundred times the hOl'- Dcmoeraeips still fUI't1wl', tf) turn their hatred of 1'or ... not on Moscow alone but on the great cilies Axi1> tl'!~adl('}'y into hatl'ed of the Soviet Union, of Europe. so lhat th('y would rail t'asier "ictims tu the blitz. Stalin, who i~ l/ccuscrl of !lUtinfJ })eaC(', 7t/·I'I.'r II wns impnssiblt' for Htalin to ('omhal this .\xis ceasell to dcfc7tlt pelLee and to fight the A;rilf W(U' propagand:'l, rOl' it won a!mo::;t universal aen'pl maker8. allce from the demoCl'atic press, {luI pit and pl'lt In 1938 Slalin saw World Peace marched to (orm. the gallows. Hillel' held one arm of the \'ictim, lIitlC'!· I:lv.'cpt through Poland. Chamberlain Chamberlain the othel'. The Ol'dcl' of execution made his futilc dC('ll1ratioll of war. The Red was signed at Munich. With unbelievable frank Army moved into the Western llLl'aine that had ness the wol'lel's anti-Soviet conspiratol's told the nO('11 sC'izcd by Poland lW('Jlty yC':.Wt; Hgo. The cry people that Czecho-Slovalda must be betrayed to went lip lfw.l Stalin had begun to di\"ide up Ole Fascism, in ordel' to save Democl'acy and turn world with Hillel' ... n cry raised by Hitler's the Axis against the Soviet Union, own mout.hpieces everywhere. By this time nothing could surprise Stalin. What did Stalin think'l Even so, it was hanI to believc that the Dcmo Ws thoughts were perfectly sounu. Winston cracies would swallow Chamberlain'S ghastly Churchill, almost (lcrl beyond the wild(~sL offered as a sacrifice to the Axis. Axis hOpr'fl. All the great powers harl swallowed The warning was l'ejected. Stalin's offer to the Nazi mylb about ;,l eoming onslaught against help defend Poland was "premature." t.he So"jet Union. , Hitler now showed his cards. He had nev('r The hI ow r(>ll in 1!l-1O. it was not against planned to attack the Soviets. He offered Stalin H.ussia, 'l'hf' \\'('hrmacht l'ollpd ow\, Denmark, the famous Peace Pact. It was accepted. Norway, liolland, Brlgium anri France, culminat· Never had such a diplomatic blow been de ing in the h('roic British ('ul{"ualion of l>unkirk. livered so un'expecledly. Stalin natUrally expected Almost alt of EU1'OIW looked IIp to see the swastika that this Pact would finally awaken the Demo flying OVCl' the ruins of cities, the fields of dead cracies to the Axis menace. But the Quislings had women and children. England frantically pre carefully prepared. All around the world they pared fol' invasion. launched an overwhelming campaign of hatred Nothing remained but the Channel between Page Forty·four STALIN'S LIFE Hitler's victorious legions and England's 'necked the Pact buckcd up by the Red Army. army ami air force. 'rhe war was ne~tring a ter Monlhs bcfol'e Hillcl' marched agaiust Russia, l'jble end. the Soviet paper Red StaJ' gave Stalin's thoughts At this momcnt St(liin actllally cntcl'cd thc on the situation-pointing out that the threatened war on thc side of the Denwcracie,<;. At this lIW invasion of England was a thing of the past and ment Sl(tlin took the dccisil'C aeUon that saved that the fuJI bl'unt of the war would soon be Englflnd. The Rcd Army marched into the Bal borne by Russia. Stalin then succeeded Molotov krtns, into EllkOt'ina and Bcssarabia., and raised as Premier of the Soviet Union (Chairman of the in Hitler's fuee the I:!]u.'ctrc oj war on lhc Eastern Council of People's Commissars)" And the Axis Front. propagandists, lIsing the notol'iolls Russian traitor Is this Stalin's explanation of why Hitler made Alexander KeJ'cnsky as their mouthpiece, an the incredible "blunder" of not invading England nounccd to the world that Stalin was taking su while she was helpless aitel' Dunkirk? pl'eme command in order to join forces with It is. There was no "blunder." Hitler no Hitler for the final crushing of Democracy! longer was able to invade England. A year later, Now that thc doom of the Axis has been sealed on JUlie 2;31'(1, 19,11, Hitler himself, in declaring these cl'catm'es arc preparing a new campaign. war against the Soviet Union, in trying desper We are fighting for a People's World, They are ately to explain to his people why he had begun plotting fOl' a world ruled by degenerate criminals the, fatal "war on two fl'onts," laid the whole such as Franco, the Polish Pans, the Four Hun blame upon Stalin who had cl'eated an Eastern dred Families of France. We are planning to Fl'ont after Dunkirk, a Second Front for the guarantee a lasting peace by permanent under Democracies, and had thus brought thc whole standing and co-operation between the United Axis campaign to a halt. Nations. They are conspiring lo breed the germs Such arc the facts. of another war before victory is half won in this. Stalin, '11'ho it: accut:cd tudny of l)(dn~ on OUI' It is no accident of history that in the gravest side only b('cCLlWe the Soviets were attacked in struggle ever waged against tyranny by freedom 1941, aet/tally turned the n-ar from the West to loving peoples, three great leaders command our the East in 1940. destiny: Chul'chill, Roosevelt, Stalin. These men To accuse Stalin of joining forces with the have one burning hatred. They hate war. Democracies only when Hitler declared war on The United Nations are fighting for peace, for Russia is exactly the same as parroting the Axis the right of all nations to live peacefully in the lie that Amel'ica joined forces with the Demo same world, whether they be socialist or capital cracies only when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. ist, Such a peace is ours to win, and those who raise the fear of war to come against the Soviets Then why did Stalin ever sign the Pact with are betraying the victory, committing t!'eason Germany? We do not need to penetrate Stalin's against the Peoplc's World. A hundred times so-called "mysterious Asiatic mind" to fathom out Stalin has exposed this baseless fear with words the answer. It is perfectly obvious. The Pact was and deeds. signed to keep peace on the Eastern Front until the Soviet Union could pl'epal'e to withstand the terrible fOI'ces Hitler was mobilizing all over con quered Europe. Just as the United States required CIJAPTElt xu time to prepare before Roosevelt could risk an Axis attack on South America! In the meantime We have briefly covered Roosevelt could do no more than pour supplies the highlights of Stalin's to England, In the meantime Stalin brought up past: his main achieve armies to face Hitler with an Eastern Front all ments, how he came to the way from the Baltic to the Balkans. be leader of the Soviet Just as Britain was unable to aid RUSSia-by Union and a world ftt. launching a full-scale invasion of Europe in 1941 mous figure. Still, our understanding of him js and 1942, but had to limit herself to the defensive that of a far-off beholder. Battle of Britain and to bombings, so Russia was For it is one thing to become acquainted with unable to march against the Axis in the critical a- man by looking down through the distance of monlhs of 1940, and had to limit herself to the his whole lifetime, and quite another thing to invasion oC Lithuania, Esthonia, Latvia, BukovinR meet him, to observe him in the present, as he and Bessarabia. lives. Churchill's defense was the English Channel Very few people from our counh'ies have met defender! by the Royal Navy. fitnlin's nefense was StAlin. Rl1t tonAY how many millions of us would STALIN'S LH'E • rage Forty-1I.ve be stirrcd with the mfl~t int('nse curiosity and tailored nnd closely fitting, of fille~\\'ea\'e cloth. eagel'neS5 if we were ::ilHlrienly offered an ()pp()r~ Usuall.i· this dolh is gray. Dut often it is a soft tunity to come face to face with the Supreme green 01' a faintly pink shade. The trousers too Commander of the ned Army. Marshal Stalin! may be of yellow, blue or even pink whipcord! Such tints are quite common in Russian men's That is not even a remote possibility for you cloUling, but they never fail to catch the foreign and mc. But SUjlj)ose we stretch ollr imaginations yisitOl"s eYl'. Stalin's unifOl"ffi is compleled by -from where we sit, all the way to Moscow where high blac'k polished boots. Contra!"}' to apP<'ar~ Stalin live'}> .•Tust for a mompnt pretenn that we ances in the moYieg, when seen first hand his are actually going to be laken to meet the Marshal. clothing is neai and immaculate. But he wears We don't want simply to stare at him. We want not a :::;ing-Ie ornamelli or decoration of any i,ind. to make the most of our unique opportunity. And Ouly in summer is the uniform markedly varied. SO beforehand we try to discover everything we Then it is of white linen. possibly can about Stalin as he is today, in order to be at least a little prepared for the meeting. Several times in this book we have had Many valuablc facts we can get from others, glimpses of the younger Sialiu. HarrY' Hopkins describes him thus today: "He is built close to people who have lived 01' worked or discussed affairs of state within the Kremlin walls. the ground, like a football coach's dream of a iacJdC'." Now in his mid-sixties, Stalin could First, the Kremlin itself. It is not a pa1:."lcc, hardly be expected io t1'Y a wOl'kout on the grid but actually a small town inside Moscow, builL irOI1. lJut evel"yone agrecs that today he iJears for the Cr,ats and surrounded by a high stOlle no resemblance to the youth who was once de wall. The Kremlin is a very curious place. On scrilJed as Il'ail and slight. Marshal Stalin is arriving there, what would surpl'ise us most would about five and a half feet tall, stocky and mus be the brighUy painted red and green towers of cular. Ilis head is large, his face massive and ancient Russian style, making the walled town resolute. Familiar to the whole world now arc oddly colorful. And then side by side with the his out:::;tanding fealures: the luxuriant black very old churches and palaces we would see mod~ silvering hait· and moustache, ihe thick curved crnistic buildings. In many of these n~wer struc~ eyebrows, and the large, deep-set eyes. lures are the apartments and offices of important Soviet go\'ernment officials. If we were to meet Stalin now, quiic likely htl would bc alone, or with some official and an inter· Stalin Ih'cs in such an apartment. Eyen when preter. For the Marshal is twice a widower. His all his family was together, Stalin's "suite" con~ fir:::;t marriage we ha... e mentioned; and his first sisted of only three small rooms and a separate son, named Jaschka, serves in the army_ In ]91!) dining·room. It was so crowded that his older Stalin married a second time. Then his bride was son had to sleep on a couch in the dining-room. NmlYR Allilvicv, a pcautiful Georgian. But it is characteristic of Stalin that he l:efused 'rhere \vere two children by this second mar to take mOl'C spacious quarters while living accom~ modation was so difficult to find for Moscow's riage. Vasili, the boy, is now 23. The daughter Sveilana is eighteen. Theil' lives arc private and rapidly growing population. The Kremlin apart~ ment is old fashioned when compared with modem they do not take part with theil' father in sLate homes on this continent. 'I'he decorations and functions. Theil' mother died in 1932. 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