Re: [Marxism] Deaths under Stalin

[Octob1917@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 1/28/2005 8:19:35 AM Pacific Standard Time,
cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
The Chinese Communists were free to ignore this "instruction". He had no
means of enforcing it. The whole position has as a premise that the Chinese
Communists had no minds of their own, had not made an assessment of the
situation , did not make their own choice in tactics.

Reply:

You may or may not be aware, but in the period of history concerned all
international Communist parties took their instructions on strategy, tactics,
political line, etc. from Moscow. The Bolsheviks, after all, were the only
revolutionary party to have succeeded, the Soviet Union the first worker's 
state. The
moral authority which this lent the Soviet Union as a consequence, and Stalin
at its head, was all pervasive. To say 'the Chinese Communists were free to
ignore this instruction', makes sense when considered through the prism of
history. However, when placing events in their proper historical context, 
wouldn't
you agree that it is an analysis which diminishes to the point of absurdity?

J
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