Re: AN OUTBREAK OF PRIMITIVE STALINISM ON MARXMAIL

[Nicholas Siemensma <nsiemensma@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Gould wrote: 

> These people, who attempt to deny the truth about
> the political mass murders
> of communists, socialists, and ordinary people, by
> the Soviet bureaucray and
> ultimately by Stalin himself, are in the same
> category as the denier of the
> Second World War Jewish Holocaust denier, David
> Irving. The really macabre
> aspect of this communist and socialist Holocaust
> denial phenomenon, is that
> there is now an enormous literature about Stalin's
> crimes, based on
> interrogated eye witnesses, survivors' testimonies,
> and fantastic quantities
> of documentary evidence, out of the Soviet archives.
> 

Adherence to the historiographical scenario which
equates Stalin's Russia with Hitler's Germany as a
comparably evil 'totalitarianism' (with its own
'Holocaust') is the point at which relentless, tedious
anti-Stalinism becomes just another form of
redbaiting.  

Obviously listmembers don't agree in how we
characterise Stalin the man or how we evaluate the
Stalinist system or era, but any discussion must
entail actual reasoned debate, and not simple
assertions of dogmatic viewpoints, from both sides,
especially those expressing a Cold War mindset which
owes nothing to historical fact or logic, and
everything to ideological necessity.  This includes
the pretence that the historical record is now very
easy to address, that so-called open state archives
have provided scholars and ourselves with all the
answers and statistics.  We still have to establish
historical methodology, along with the basic, central
facts themselves.  Needless to say perfectly rational
arguments can still be put which contradict the
dominant anti-communist viewpoint, which itself often
involves a cavalier disregard for the historical
record, factual inaccuracy combined with an easy
contempt for the average reader.  Conquest, Volkogonov
et al feel free to say anything in the certainty that
no-one will contradict.  In any case, the archives
have proved generally resistant to disappointed
purveyors of sanguinary horror-stories.

Lou won't let us trawl through this stuff here, with
good reason, but one thing the regrettable flaming and
cheap slanders of this thread prove is that - however
much history has passed a negative judgement on the
lives, work and political bequests of both Stalin and
Trotsky - understanding the lessons of the 20th
century and of the fSU still forms part of our
conspectus of concerns.  We only try to avoid it
because it tends to get captured by sectarianism, with
its general sterility and futile tail-chasing.  But
the issues are only barely, temporarily suppressed,
and bored antiquarianism is surely not a sufficient
explanation, for the 1917-1991 world system must have
something to teach us about the present epoch and its
historical trajectory.  Or else a lot of people are
wasting time and listspace.

Finally, Bob Gould, who apparently has entered
internet-land only recently, will soon realise that
the medium mercilessly interrogates various
pretensions, so he should ease up on typing/shouting
in upper case, on his unyielding rhetorical
condescension, and especially on the whole
"thunderers" routine.  Otherwise he'll find himself
swiftly equipped with a personal net leper-bell. 

Nick

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