[Marxism] Furr on "Stalin And The Struggle For Democratic Reform"

[Bill Quimby <wquimby@xxxxxxx>]

I hesitate at entering this in the middle of the sectarian debate, but
I wonder if anyone has had a chance to look at, and comment on, the article by
Grover Furr entitled "Stalin and the Struggle for Democratic Reform: Part One"
in the electronic journal Cultural Logic, (Thank you Star and Snedeker for
posting the announcement of the recent issue's appearance.)

http://eserver.org/clogic/2005/furr.html

While stating that the article "is no attempt to "rehabilitate" Stalin",
Furr continues...
--------------------------------
    1. This article outlines Joseph Stalin's attempts, from the 1930s until his
death, to democratize the government of the Soviet Union.

     2. This statement, and the article, will astonish many, and outrage some.
In fact my own amazement at the results of the research I'm reporting on led me
to write this article. I had suspected for a long time that the Cold War version
of Soviet history had serious flaws. Still, I was unprepared for the extent of
the falsehoods I had been taught as fact.

     3. This story is well known in Russia, where respect for, even admiration
of, Stalin is common. Yuri Zhukov, the main Russian historian who sets forth the
paradigm of "Stalin as Democrat" and whose works are the most important single
source, though far from the only one, for this article, is a mainstream figure
associated with the Academy of Sciences. His works are widely read.

     4. However, this story and the facts that sustain it are virtually unknown
outside Russia, where the Cold War paradigm of "Stalin as Villain" so controls
what is published that the works cited here are still scarcely noted. Therefore,
many of the secondary sources used in this article, as well as all the primary
sources of course, are only available in Russian.1
--------------------------------

and later suggests that Stalin appeared helpless in the late 30's against the
deeply entrenched "life and death" power of the bureaucracy.

Cultural Logic states that Grover Furr "is in the English Department at
Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, NJ, where he teaches courses on
medieval literature, the Vietnam war, the literature of social protest, "great
books and ideas 1550-1800," world literature, history of journalism, etc. He is
active in the Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association, and urges you
to join it, too."

Comments?

- Bill


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