Stalin, Stalin everywhere

You can’t keep a great man down, no matter how hard you might try. At the end of a week-long bicycle ride along the Spree River – from its source near the Czech border to Berlin – is the cemetery and memorial for some of the Red Army soldiers who died taking Berlin and ending Hitler’s fascism. It’s in Treptower Park and if it’s the only think you do in Berlin, it’s worth a visit. More on that and the ride soon enough, but inside the memorial you will find not only hammer and sickles aplenty, along with red stars and other communist symbols, but eight quotations from comrade Joe himself. Each of them is in German and in Russian, on the sides of reliefs depicting scenes of war and peace:

Just to remind us of the vast differences between communism and fascism. But Stalin’s name is on each piece:

And then, even though the large statue of Joe has gone from Karl Marx Allee, his ear and a piece of the moustache remain.

Both originals are under the care of Cafe Sybille, on Karl Marx Allee. But if you have a generous partner, then a copy of the ear may make its way into your own pocket:

(ht cp)

 

Yet more for the Stalin fan club: Domenico Losurdo and Grover Furr III

In some respects, philosophers are like theologians, at least in the way they are the last to pick up what has been happening elsewhere. I am thinking here of the way historians of the Second World War have been debunking the unreflective anti-Stalinist position that has been de rigeur across the political spectrum. I have posted a number of items based on one such historian, Geoffrey Roberts (here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Yet even this is following in the wake of the growing appreciation of Stalin’s achievements in Russia. All this has led to consternation in the largely American business of trotting out tired Cold War stuff about comrade Iosef.

Back to our philosophers. The tireless Domenico Losurdo has published a rip-snorter of a book called Stalin: The History and Criticism of a Black Legend. It has appeared in Italian, Spanish, French and German.

Hopefully, the English version will be out soon, but until then, a couple of articles will give you an idea – here and here. Losurdo also has a blog … if you read Italian (some English). By the way, thanks to Ross Wolfe for these links. I don’t agree much with his Trot approach to such matters (to the detriment of the Australian Left, the ageing Trots still think they call the shots), but I will forever forgive him due to the erotic Russian alphabet book he discovered and posted (full pictures here). It was published in 1931 – during Stalin’s time – as a way to foster literacy, one of the many communist projects.

To add to the fun there is the irrepressibly polemical man with the great name of Grover Furr III, and a title that says it all: Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence That Every “Revelation” of Stalin’s (and Beria’s) Crimes in Nikita Khrushchev’s Infamous “Secret Speech” to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, is Provably False.

 

Is Putin the new Stalin?

Chavez dead today – sadly. The remembrance yesterday of Stalin’s death, 60 years ago. Once again the issue is the veneration of the revolutionary leader. Familiar themes emerge with Chavez once again: the bodily health of the leader becomes a major focus; fears concerning the viability of the project emerge after his or her death; the forces of opposition line up, especially the USA, seeking to exploit what is perceived as an opportunity to overrun the place in question.

But here I’m interested in Stalin, or rather what was written about him yesterday. Three stories did the rounds, reappearing here and there. The most breathtaking was an effort to attribute to Putin and his henchmen the increasing popularity of Stalin in the Russian Federation. Of course, it can’t be due to any genuine appreciation of the man. Let’s see what Putin is supposed to have done:

1. Putin is responsible for school textbooks that speak of Stalin’s ‘effective management’ during the 1930s program of industrialization.

2. He has been behind a campaign to return to name of Stalingrad to the city of Volgograd, the site of the battle that turned the tide of the Second World War.

3. He praises Stalin’s achievement of expanding Russia’s territory in the form of the USSR, describing the dismantling of the USSR under Gorbachev as a major disaster.

4. He has failed to condemn Stalin’s repressions, murders, gulags, failures at the Olympics, and pretty much every other sin in Russian history.

So is Putin the new Stalin? Hardly, since it is clear that he is responding to both the increasing popularity of Stalin among the population, and the growing popularity of the Communist Party under the leadership of Gennady Zyuganov.

However, when the articles in question do note the widespread popularity of Stalin, they fall back on an old trope: the natural propensity of Russians to superstition. This was a line used in response to the veneration of Lenin after his death, and we find it here with all manner of icons of Stalin, signs of the cross, lighting candles in churches, and beliefs in Stalin’s mystical powers. Can’t have people really appreciating the man.

 

Marshall of the …

 

I can say that I am not responsible for this one, but it does feel rather comfortable. I guess it goes with the glowing description of a speech I gave in China last year: ‘a velvet-gloved iron fist’ (David Jasper)

 

Found: Stalin’s ear and moustache (part thereof)

One of the few truly interesting and intriguing parts of Berlin is the Stalinbauten, or Stalin Baroque, along Karl Marx Allee (on which I have commented more than once). Central to that appeal is the way communist history can’t be erased so easily. Or should I say, Stalin’s place in that history? You see, what is now Karl Marx Allee used to be Stalin Allee.

And at a significant spot there was a statue of the man who won The Second World War:

But after Khrushchev’s deft moves to secure the succession on his terms, Stalin was unceremoniously debunked. It took some years, but eventually, dragging their feet, the government of the DDR thought they should probably do the right thing and pull the statue down. While they were at it, they renamed the street Karl Marx Allee.

If only they had realised how important Stalin would become once again, they would have left the statue rooted to the spot. Plus, it would have been a fantastic attraction, making Berlin actually worth a visit on its own merit.

However, he is not completely gone (there’s an allegory in there somewhere). Some of Stalin has actually been left behind:

The item on the left is clearly an ear; on the right it is arguably part of the famous moustache. Given that they are still on the Allee, I can’t help wondering if it’s possible to clone statues.

(ht cp for doing the sleuthing on this one)

 

Flowers for Comrade Stalin

Every year in the Moscow winter, a crowd gathers and sets out on a march.

On the way, people buy flowers:

In order to lay them at the grave of Iosef Stalin, who lies buried in the Kremlin wall:

That’s Gennady Zyuganov laying a bunch. This year, 5660 flowers were laid:

 Why? For many Russians, he is regarded as one of the heroes of their history.

More pictures here.

(ht sk)

 

Stalin: Bankers’ Hunter

Trust Hollywood in its chronic unoriginality to borrow yet another idea. The nauseous ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter‘ relies upon the much better ‘Stalin: Bankers’ Hunter’.

(ht sk)

 

Without theory we are dead

Sergey sent me this great link to Zyuganov‘s speech on the auspicious day of 27 October this year. As everyone should know, Zyuganov is the chairman of the central committee of the Russian Communist Party. And the event was the 14th joint plenum  of that committee. The theme: the importance of and need to renew Marxist theory. He points out that Gorbachev took advantage of theoretical stagnation in Marxist thought and was thereby able to defeat the CPSU ideologically. It was the mark of a liberal-bourgeois revolution, from which it was a short step to the dismantling of the USSR. Perestroika is the signal of that ideological defeat. Of course, he calls for a deep re-engagement with the work of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, the latter of whom observed: ‘Without theory we are dead’.

But – and here it becomes really interesting – he has quite a bit to say about religion. He reasserts the old party platform of freedom of conscience in the party on matters of religion, the need for religious institutions and the party to operate in peaceful coexistence, indeed to attract people with religious belief to the party. And then he quotes Stalin to kick off a discussion concerning radical and revolutionary forms of religion, so much so that they share the goals of scientific socialism. Che Guavara turns up, as does Hugo Chavez, along with liberation theology. All of them oppose the Golden Calf of capital, whether socialist, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and so on.

And in outlining the measures needed for theoretical renewal that criticises the mistakes made and draws lessons from the achievements of the past – in terms of history, philosophy, science, religion and so on – he points out: ‘Soviet socialism is not only the past, but the future of Russia’.

I wonder if they need a resident theologian.

 

More for the Stalin fan club

Apparently, there are far, far more people in prison in the USA today than there were at any time when Joseph (man of steel) Stalin was general secretary of the Russian communist party.

 

Am I a Stalinist?

Apologies for the slightly self-serving and icky post, but … a commenter seems to have taken exception to my earlier rather mild observations on the media tart and western sycophant known as the Dalai Lama. Apparently, I am a ‘Stalinist and an apologist for the strong-arm tactics of the Maoists and the PRC‘. Oh my, what a compliment. Must add that to the list of glowing assessments in my ‘about’ page.