Stalinism

[mikem3]

Dear Mr. or Ms. King (sorry but the address isn't clear),

I'm a historian, not a Slavic languages scholar (but I hire them!)

In my view, V. I. Lenin was a 'true believer' in Bolshevism - while the
first thing "Great Stalin" did was begin a purge (political, then
liquidation) of the revolutionaries while concurrently re-establishing the
secret police (the Chekists) with many of their cadres being former Czarist
secret policemen (you need 'organization men' for such an enterprise).

Yes, V. I. Lenin was the father of all that came afterwards, but he's also a
'father' poisoned by his 'son' who 'stole his patrimony' - if that metaphor
may be stretched so far.

Would Lenin have continued the N.E.P.?  Would he have become a mass murderer
like Stalin?  Questions unanswered.  Its like speculating on how we would
remember Hitler if he had died before invading Poland and Goering had
avoided war - and not built the death camp machinery...  And in myth and
memory, we in the West remember the Holocaust while ignoring the far greater
crimes of Stalin (we saw one first had and the other is still partially
hidden).

Mike Murley

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