Dear Memnoch,

Dear Memnoch,

A good introduction of the role of the Soviet Union played under the guidance and leadership of Lenin and Stalin can be found in the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) statement “Propaganda for Global Competition is Propaganda for War”.  It won’t answer all your questions about Stalin and the Soviet Union, but it does give a great outline of its role, duty, and responsibility it had in the world. It is an important statement because although it speaks of the Soviet Union, the context of the message is what is happening right now (even if it is from a Canadian perspective).

Propaganda for Global Competition Is Propaganda for War
http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmld2006/D36023.htm#1

Here is also an excerpt from the late Hardial Bains founder and leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) in 1994:

“Historically, communists have stood at the head of all movements for profound social transformations nationally and internationally and at the head of all movements for enlightenment and it is necessary that they play the same role at this time. It is the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 which put an end to the First World War and led to the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), as the condition for harnessing Russian-chauvinism so as to guarantee the sovereignty of member states. During the 1940s, the Soviet Union and the anti-fascist fighters all over the world were the decisive force which put an end to the Second World War.”
(http://www.mlpc.ca/briefs/19940615foreignpolicy.html)

Investigation into the Soviet Union, Lenin and Stalin requires a lot of work, patience, and perusal of literature and sources(which are not made easily accessible by historians in the service of imperialism). Majority of the time, the historians omit the primary and necessary sources from the public, and the public simply relies on what the historians have to say, without even realizing there is a vast amount of information out there that gives quite another picture of reality.

The point being is not to take things for granted, nor rely on other people’s conclusions (including this one), but to use it as an opportunity to rely on your own research and thinking and draw your own conclusions.

The Soviet Union is often presented by the monopoly press and media where millions died and were imprisoned under the direct guidance of Lenin and Stalin.  Millions did die in the Soviet Union, through revolution, famine, civil war, and the enstranglement of imperialist and fascist powers against the Soviet Union. The historical context of the events must always be known. The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution (1917)  in Russia was in response to the brutal nature of Tsarism and to the brutal reality of the First World War. In the First World War (circa 1914-1918), the Tsar led millions of Russians, mostly made up of the peasantry to their deaths in an imperialist war for annexation of other lands and territory. The First World War can be characterize as a global war between contending imperialist powers, known as the Great or Central Powers. When the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, with support from the Russian people and peasantry, along with many elements of the military, they withdrew Russia from the War, which assisted in ending the First World War. (In the US there was broad resistance to the US entering the war.)Even then however, Soviet socialism and what the Bolsheviks stood for and represented, posed a serious and grave threat to the imperialist powers who had annexed much land, terrority etc.  After the October Revolution, the young new Republic faced a civil war, which resulted in millions of deaths. Many reactionary trends of socialism (such as the Mensheviks, the Social Revolutionaries etc) within Russia began taking up a stance against the New Republic and collaborated with the White Army who were opposed to socialism in Russia. These groups sought international financing and backing from foreign imperialist powers to smash the new Soviet state, an opportunity that the Imperialist encirclement (The Entente or the Intervention) could not ignore nor refuse. The traitors (for that is what they were) also resorted to terrorizing the countryside and committing atrocities against the people in waging their war of aggression the new Republic and against the popular will of the Soviet people. The Soviet state had to act in defense of the people and continued to strengthen the people’s army, the Red Army. Along with this period of civil war, the new Soviet state also had to face a famine which resulted in many deaths of its citizens.   As the late Mark Jones puts it in his letter to a certain David Johnson, “So Lenin won, because the alternative was not a native, home-grown Russian capitalism; it was colonial plunder, the dismembering and death of a nation. The Civil War was death made visible; the Intervention, when eleven states from Japan to the USA, showed them what to expect if they could not defend themselves. Seven million died, and many of those by the catastrophic mistakes Bolsheviks themselves made, mistakes which Bolshevik indifference made into crimes, as famine came to be seen as one more weapon in the war to defend the Commune, even against its own recalcitrant peasantry. “ (Dear David Johnson)

The “recalcitrant peasantry” Mark Jones is referring to were the rich peasantry, as opposed to the middle and lower peasantry, who enjoyed the exploitation of the lower peasantry and resisted the sovereignty of the Soviet people, especially during harvest season and the distasrous famine that shook the young Republic. They were also known as the kulaks, which monopoly presses make a lot of hoolaboo about, but without context. The monopoly presses go on about how the Soviet state crushed the kulaks who were standing up for their “rights”, when this wasn’t the case at all.  The reality and danger of international imperialism, terrorists, famine, and the scarcity of resources was the situation facing the Soviet people and its leadership. The Soviet state had a role and responsibility to its people and sovereignty. They had to be defended, even in such a situation as this, which could very well mean losing all that they had gain. In a blog on a review of the film “La Commune” one blogger pretty much characterizes the situation that faces majority of countries who have decided to go the way of socialism:

“Several years after the Sandinistas were ousted, Carlos Vilas, an Argentine sociologist and supporter of the revolution, spoke at a meeting in New York. I will never forget how he characterized it. It was like doctors in a delivery room with no electricity during an earthquake. When working people try to take power, they are not only faced with their own inexperience as masters of society, they are faced with the immediate hostility and open sabotage of the old ruling classes.”
(http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/11/05/la-commune/)

A good introduction to this history can be found again from the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) in their article commemorating the 89th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

89th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, 1917
http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmld2006/D36178.htm

A good film on the subject of this period is the 1981 movie Reds starring Warren Beatty, which also provides a window into the problems of the early communist movement in the US in trying to form a party of a new type. I would really like to elaborate more on everything else, but there is simply so much to say, so I will leave you with some reference material to check out for yourself.  Again, please rely on your own thinking and investigation and draw your own conclusions.

* * * * *

Some of the best things I ever read about Stalin comes from sources outside the Soviet Union, sources that actually visited the Soviet Union many times during Stalin’s leadership of the Union. One of them comes from the African-American civil rights and black freedom fighter, W.E.B.DuBois in his euology of Stalin in March 1953. It is relatively short and provides quite another view of Stalin than is commonly portrayed.

W.E.B. Dubois, On Stalin
http://www.mltranslations.org/Miscellaneous/DuBoisJVS.htm
You can also read it at my site as well:
http://soilride.com/duboisStalin.html

I also recommend Reverend Hewlett Johnson, who was a member of the British clergy, who visited the Soviet Union many times in his lifetime, especially in the period of the 1930s where the real danger of fascism was reaching towards a feverish pitch across Europe. I recommend the book “The Soviet Power” by Rev. Hewlett Johnson. It was published in 1940, just before Germany invaded the USSR. Since he was a member of the clergy and represented the religious community, he also had many things to say about religion and socialism drawing his experience from the Soviet Union during the leadership of Stalin, whereas the monopoly presses always say that the Soviet Union and Stalin suppressed and crushed people who were religious, often citing the destruction of the Orthodox Church. I only have one chapter from Hewlett Johnson online concerning religion in the Soviet Union, but it is important:

Religion and Soviet Socialism
Rev. Hewlett Johnson, Love is the Fulfilling of the Law, taken from “The Soviet Power”
http://soilride.com/ReligionSovietSocialism.htm

I consider the late Mark Jone’s essay on Stalin and the madness leading up to the Second World War to be an excellent starting point. It is a lengthy read, but it is a good beginning to understand the period and the events taking place in the Soviet Union and on the international scene.

Stalin, Appeasement, and the Second World War by the late Mark Jones
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mark_jones/appeasement.htmFinally, for now, I will post the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) links to this period as well.It is also lengthy, but just as important also for the context and for the role the Soviet Union played.Causes and Lessons of the Second World War
http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmld2005/D35078.htm#1Supplement:

Act of Military Surrender May 8, 1945 
http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmld2005/D35078a.htm#1

The Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmld2005/D35078a.htm#2

I hope this helps. Would love to hear your thoughts and comments.Sincerely yours,

SR