There were rumors, unfortunately untrue, that J Edgar Hoover liked to cross-dress.
Trotsky had quit the Bolshies _and_ the Menshies after 03-04 and was an independent, was close to the Menshies in '05 (they established the Petersburg Soviet which he chaired) and thereafter. He rejoined the Bolshies in '17, rather late in the revo.
It is puzzling why Trotsky didn't use Stalin's gangster past against him. It's possible he thought it would besmirch the Bolshies, but it may be that he didn't know about it, or couldn't make it fit into his picture of Stalin as a dull but cunning bureaucrat mastermind.
My late grandmother, born in 1900, remembered seeing Trotsky in the Bronx in 1916 just before his return to Russia. He was quite a celebrity, it seems.
--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Koba was the guy in charge of expropriations in the
> Caucasus. "Expropriations" is a euphemism. It means
> the Koba was the head of a large organization that
> specialized in armed robbery, extortion,
> kidnap-for-money, protection rackets, piracy on the
> Black Sea, counterfeiting, gun-running, calling hits
> on people, and developing close relationships with
> (non-Revolutionary) organized crime, without which
> it
> is impossible to do any of these things. They had
> actually paid off Baku Gangland to not let
> Mensheviks
> enter parts of the city. It should not be surprising
> that Stalin used gangster tactics when in power
> because he was actually a gangster, or something
> close
> to it. He was a capo. God knows how many people he'd
> killed or had killed even before the Revolution. His
> enforcer Koma (who wrote his memoirs -- it's amazing
> how much of this stuff is lying around unpublished,
> repressed by Stalin and then later gathering dust)
> actually ripped a man's heart out of his chest. Now,
> that is hardcore. And he impregnated a 13-year-old
> girl while he was at it.
>
> OK, so Trotsky probably didn't know about the
> 13-year-old girl. But it boggles the mind that he
> could in good faith describe this de facto gangland
> boss as a faceless bureaucrat, especially when the
> reality would have been much more incriminating as
> to
> the kinds of things Stalin was capable of. I
> speculate, based on nothing but guesswork, that
> Trotsky did not want to draw attention to this
> because
> it would likewise drawn attention to the fact that
> the
> Bolsheviks had engaged in this kind of activity,
> which
> would not have endeared him to the people defending
> him at the Counter-Trial, for instance. I can't see
> John Dewey looking at it favorably. "Oh, so you were
> kidnapping people? Really, you don't say? Hmmm."
>
> As an aside, I find it hilarious that Stalin's
> operation in the Caucasus was being underwritten in
> part by the Rothschilds, as appears to be the case.
> It's almost as funny as the time Stalin tried to
> escape from the Okhrana in drag. I can just imagine
> it. Koba in a dress.
>
>
>
> --- wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
>
> > I think I'll get around to responding to the
> Trotsky
> > baiting. I think
> > that it is both a mistake and extraordinary
> > misreading of Trotsky's texts
> > to refer to them as 'self-serving' and
> 'simplistic'
> > (I'll let tendentious
> > go as that Trotsky probably wouldn't deny that his
> > readings were
> > partisan.) The Revolution Betrayed (not original
> > title) in particular
> > offers a complex analysis of the ways that the
> USSR
> > has transformed under
> > the regime of the time. As for Stalin, yeah
> Trotsky
> > clearly hated the
> > man, but people tend to develop these little
> biases
> > when someone is
> > instrumental in killing many of your closest
> friends
> > and family, but the
> > truth of the matter is that Trotsky tended to
> > emphasize the power of the
> > bureaucracy as a whole rather than Stalin as an
> > individual. If anything,
> > there was a constant underestimation of Stalin's
> > influence, rather than
> > the reverse. The question of the party is also an
> > interesting one. There
> > is a radical shift in who was in the party as
> Stalin
> > gained more
> > influence. He was able to transform the Lenin
> levy
> > in particular into a
> > gain in influence. At the same time, even many of
> > these folks were at
> > risk by 1937. I still have a great deal of
> respect
> > for the opposition,
> > and these comments are not particularly fair to
> it.
> >
> > robert wood
> >
> >
> > > I think it is time to rid ourselves of Trotsky's
> > > self-serving, simplistic and tendentious
> > > interpretation of history. ;)
> > >
> > > Khrushchev's too. "I, Khrushchev, am good.
> Stalin
> > was
> > > bad. It was all the fault of the Georgian guy. I
> > never
> > > killed anybody."
> > >
> > > --- Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
> > >
> >
> > ___________________________________
> >
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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