Of course Stalin was a cruel tyrant who, among hsi other defects, kept anyone even remotely near him in a state of terrified subservience, and often helped them to other sorts of shots, nine grams in the back of the head. But he was _perceived_ as "democratic" in the old Soviet sense, sort of the way that W is perceived as regular guy, man of the people, decent (and formerly) straight-talking fella. (And not as a privileged Yalie/Hahvahd grad from a multimillionaire family.)
Actually, W is precisely "democratic" in the old Soviet sense. And every bit as mean as Stalin, personally, if nowhere near as smart, but, thanks to centuries of democratic (in the normal sense) struggle by ordinary folks here, comparatively constrained in how he can take it out on folks at least at home.
Now, the article is utter nonsense. Reminds me of H. Bruce Franklin's astounding preface to a (Doubleday? Signet?) anthology, which I am sure I still have somewhere, called The Essential Stalin, in which Franklin defends the purge trials of the 30s, denies or justifies the Stalin terror, and generally whitewashes the evil sonofabitch and his crimes. Don't know whether Franklin (who has written excellent stuff on Melville and on the POW/MIA cult, among other things) would still stand by those ravings. Of course a lot of us said and thought foolish things in the old days. Anyone else know that silly preface? The anthology was quite useful for work on the USSR that I used to do.
jks
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Chris Doss wrote:
>
> >If you were
> >to call him a democrat people would look at you
> with
> >slack-jawed amazement.
>
> Alas, I've missed Grover's performances at the MLG
> summer conferences
> where he's laid out this argument, but slack-jawed
> amazement was
> among the reactions that were reported to me. That,
> and screaming
> disagreement.
>
> Doug
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