Re: [Marxism] Deaths under Stalin

[Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx>]

Lance Murdoch wrote:
> In terms of accusations against the USSR or Stalin, the only there
> there I have ever seen is that a 1st Special Section of the Ministry
> of Internal Affairs (MVD) summary, dated December 11, 1953 documents
> 681,692 executions occurring in 1937-1938.  Aside from this, I don't
> see much repression in the USSR.
What about the millions in the Gulag? The existence of the prison camps
isn't seriously disputed by anybody.

> This seems to be a list mostly of Trotskyists,

Since these so-called Trotskyists include the majority of teh delegates
ate the 1934 Party Congress, the so-called "Congress of the Victors"
(Stalinists all) and the majority of the Central Committee members
elected there it seems to me that this is a rather loose use of the term
"Trotskyist", to say the least.

> so I doubt anyone would
> dispute the above any more than NBC News would, although I'd be
> interested in anyone disputing the accuracy of the report, or who
> would be sympathetic to the circumstances surrounding the Great Purge.
>  Molotov in his old age said the Great Purge was necessary for the
> survival of the Soviet Union in the face of the coming Nazi invasion,
> and he was probably right.
Molotov being self-justificatory - I suppose beheading the Red Army,
killing nearly all the military leaders who had led the victory in the
Civil War, was  a necessary step for the defence of the Soviet Union!

> In the end of course, Stalin's real crime was not 1937 and 1938
> executions, but standing up to capitalism, fascism and imperialism.
Some on this list would call this into question.

However, I'll say no more since the Stalin/Trotsky dispute is taboo on
this list - but if somebody posts nonsense such as this i can't leave it
unanswered. This will be my last word on this topic.

Einde O'Callaghan


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