[PEN-L:15171] Re: Cambodia Part 1

[Brad De Long]

>
>  > In "Democratic Kampuchea," in Stalin's Russia, in Mao's China, in North
>>  Korea, there was little that was functional about the death and the terror.
>>  Does anyone think that the Soviet famine of the early 1930s or the Great
>>  Terror itself made the Party more secure?
>
>It may have not made the party in toto more secure but the purges and
>the Ukrainian famine was certainly functional to Stalin's rule and his
>control *over* the party. I don't think its even controversial.
>
>Sam Pawlett

Robert Tucker's _Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above_ 
disagrees as far as the Ukrainian famine is concerned. As Tucker 
tells the story of the 1930s, Stalin's assault on the party was the 
result of the fact that the Ukrainian famine had undermined his 
position. And certainly that part of the Great Purge that hit the 
army left Stalin's seat very shaky indeed, as he found out between 
June and December of 1941.

But haven't you forgotten which side you are arguing for? You started 
out saying that those who saw "DK [as] a literal example of George 
Orwell's anti-communist fable ... have relied on poor evidence and in 
many instances resorted to outright falsification..." Now you are 
saying that the lies and violence committed by the pigs in _Animal 
Farm_ had "exactly the function [as] the lies and violence had in 
'Democratic Kampuchea'."

Not that I mind your making the case that _Animal Farm_ can shed some 
light on what happened in "Democratic Kampuchea," after all. But are 
you sure that this is a point you want to make?

Brad DeLong