Introduction to The Essential Stalin Major Theoretical Writings, 1905-1952 by H. Bruce Franklin

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Sun Jun 10 10:42:09 PDT 2001


Introduction to "The Essential Stalin: Major Theoretical Writings, 1905-1952" by Bruce Franklin (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1972), pp 1-38. Franklin's books on the POW/MIA myth, Prison Literature, his autobio published in the mid-70's, and on sci-fi and Star Wars are great, but, what was he thinking here! Carrol care to enlighten us on BARU? Michael Pugliese http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=googlet&q=H.+Bruce+Fr anklin+&btnG=Google+Search http://www.owu.edu/~jawaldma/stalin1.html Introduction to The Essential Stalin: Major Theoretical Writings, 1905-52 by Bruce Franklin (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1972), pp. 1-38. I used to think of Joseph Stalin as a tyrant and butcher who jailed and killed millions, betrayed the Russian revolution, sold out liberation struggles around the world, and ended up a solitary madman, hated and feared by the people of the Soviet Union and the world. Even today I have trouble saying the name “Stalin” without feeling a bit sinister. But, to about a billion people today, Stalin is the opposite of what we in the capitalist world have been programmed to believe. The people of China, Vietnam, Korea, and Albania consider Stalin one of the great heroes of modern history, a man who personally helped win their liberation. This belief could be dismissed as the product of an equally effective brainwashing from the other side, except that the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union, who knew Stalin best, share this view. For almost two decades the Soviet rulers have systematically attempted to make the Soviet people accept the capitalist world’s view of Stalin, or at least to forget him. They expunged him from the history books, wiped out his memorials, and even removed his body from his tomb. Yet, according to all accounts, the great majority of the Soviet people still revere the memory of Stalin, and bit by bit they have forced concessions. First it was granted that Stalin had been a great military leader and the main anti-fascist strategist of World War II. Then it was conceded that he had made important contributions to the material progress of the Soviet people. Now a recent Soviet film shows Stalin, several years before his death, as a calm, rational, wise leader.



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