--
These are my personal observations - he talked with other people too, who may have other impressions - I was never able to read the gent clearly - one thing old bolsheviks were VERY good at was hiding what they really felt and thought.
Please do - with the qualification above.
Yours AL
-----Original Message----- From: Chris Doss [mailto:lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com] Sent: 26 July 2006 18:43 To: Liakhov, Andrei Subject: RE: offlist
Andrei, do you mind if I pass our discussion on to other people? It's fascinating.
----
Unsophisticated? Hm, he tried hard to potray himself a "mestechkovuy evrei" who struck lucky, was very convincing at times, his beliefs were really simplistic by today's stanbdards, BUT sometimes a very different person looked from behind his shoulder....
-----Original Message----- From: Chris Doss [mailto:lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com] Sent: 26 July 2006 18:46 To: Liakhov, Andrei Subject: RE: offlist
He comes across as quite likeable, albeit not terribly sophisticated (he had, what, zero education?), in his book. It makes me feel a bit conflicted sympathizing with a mass murderer.
--- "Liakhov, Andrei" <andrei.liakhov at nortonrose.com> wrote:
> Kaganovitch would NEVER publicly admit otherwise -
> he sent some 100,000 to death personally (my
> personal count of the PB resolutions on the Supreme
> Court/Central KGB Troika decisions in Art. 58 cases
> between 1933 and 1939). He knew this perfectly well
> and his towing to "the Party line" was in my view
> his inner self-defence against (otherwise)
> realisation that he was a mass murderer. Also his
> public stance does not (and never did on my
> observation) reflect his private beliefs.
>
> His support of perestroika is the best indication of
> his inner beliefs AND a good demonstration of the
> level of devotion to the Party of the old bolsheviks
> - they went to the firing squad with the same level
> of zealocy with which they publicly supported the
> Anti-Stalinisation campaign when it was in the best
> interests of the Party irrerspective of their
> personal beliefs. It is very sad that such people
> dedicated their lives to the person who effectively
> destroyed their beliefs. It is also sad that there
> are no people left like that in modern Western
> civilisation (inclusive of Russia for that purpose).
>
>
> Yours
>
> AL
-----Original Message----- From: Chris Doss [mailto:lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com] Sent: 26 July 2006 18:01 To: Liakhov, Andrei Subject: RE: offlist
In the book, he repeats over and over that, while the Party made mistakes and there were excesses, that the general struggle against "vreditelstvo, diversiya i shpionazh" was correct. I was very surprised to discover that he was in favor of perestroika.
It's a rather sad book, actually. It contains his last will and testament to his daughter.
--- "Liakhov, Andrei" <andrei.liakhov at nortonrose.com> wrote:
> I spent many hours talking to Kaganovich in the mid
> 80s. I was left with a distinct impression that he
> accepted that the terror was part of the Stalin
> faction of the Party struggle for control of the
> party. He took a bit more cynical view in our
> discussions in respect of the inter-faction
> struggle, the culmination of which for him was the
> XVII Congress, but as to the military nothing could
> move him from a 110% conviction that there was a
> wide spread conspiracy lead by Uborevitch, Bliukher
> and Tukhachevsky. He cited the famous Czech dossier
> and not even the relevant Abhwer documents proving
> 110% that it was falsified by the German
> Intelligence to provoke the clean-up of the RKKA
> could convince him otherwise.
>
> At the same time he regretted that they had to kill
> Nikki II and was totally convinced that Trotsky
> would have been a much worse option as a leader than
> Stalin: "Disaster for Russia, disaster for the
> world, that what Trotsky as leader of the party
> would have been." - As close to his original words
> as I can remember.
>
> Yours
> AL
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Doss [mailto:lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com]
> Sent: 26 July 2006 17:20
> To: Liakhov, Andrei
> Subject: RE: offlist
>
> I thought they would do something like that, or
> assert
> that socialism was in a transitional state and the
> stuff spoken about by Marx and Engels would only
> show
> up after the pobeda mirovogo kommunizma. The
> contradictions are just so glaring...
>
> On the subject of the Terror and popular support for
> it, I'm reading Kaganovich's "Pamyatnie Zapiski" and
> he seems completely convinced that the counrtry was
> full of cells of German-Japanese-Trotskist spies and
> saboteurs that had to be stamped out at all costs.
> Completely convinced.
>
>
> --- "Liakhov, Andrei"
> <andrei.liakhov at nortonrose.com>
> wrote:
>
> > They told us that Marxism is a living thing and
> what
> > was correct in XIXc may not be necessarily correct
> > at the end of the XX. That simple!
> > I got almost thrown out of aspirantura for
> publicly
> > voicing the idea of USSR being a state capitalist
> > state. Let the Lord be kind to my tutor's soul!
> > Prof.Movchan covered by ass big time on this.
> >
> > Yours
> > AL
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Chris Doss [mailto:lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com]
> > Sent: 26 July 2006 12:55
> > To: Liakhov, Andrei
> > Subject: offlist
> >
> > I just don't get it. How did the CPSU justify its
> > glaring lack of conformity with what Marx wrote?
> > It's
> > all there in black and white.
> >
> > --- "Liakhov, Andrei"
> > <andrei.liakhov at nortonrose.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > It certainly is. Was mandatory reading for law
> > > students by the way.
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From:
> > >
> >
>
Untimely_Thoughts_An_Expert_Discussion_Group_on_Russia at googlegroups.com
> > >
> >
>
[mailto:Untimely_Thoughts_An_Expert_Discussion_Group_on_Russia at googlegroups.com]
> > > On Behalf Of Chris Doss
> > > Sent: 25 July 2006 17:40
> > > To:
> > >
> >
>
Untimely_Thoughts_An_Expert_Discussion_Group_on_Russia at googlegroups.com
> > > Subject: [UTExpertsDiscGrp] Re: Chavez in
> Belarus
> > >
> > >
> > > I always wondered how Soviet ideology dealt with
> > the
> > > obvious inconsistencies lying between their
> > practice
> > > and what Marx and Engels actually wrote. Didn't
> > > Soviet
> > > people read The Critique of the Gotha Program?
> > > That's
> > > a very radical democratic document.
Lyubo, bratsy, lyubo, lyubo, bratsy, zhit!
ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ËÞÁÎ, ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ÆÈÒÜ!
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com