Stalinism

[mikem3]

All of these excellent comments beggar one fascinating question (which falls
more into social history), to wit:

Why, then, did the Soviet Union have any credibility among certain Western
academics of the post-World War 2 era ?  (I pose this question because I
personally have never had any degree of sympathy for the Soviet government,
even though at least 15-20% of my undergraduate professors were Marxists -
any would have been described by Lenin as 'useful idiots' - and participated
in 'popular front' activities that were probably, at the very
least,encouraged by the Soviet Union).

Was it disenchantment with the perceived materialist West?

I understand the infatuation of some Depression-era Western academics and
intelligentsia with Communism.  Just as many of the most brilliant minds of
that time flirted with fascism for the same misguided reasons.  But the
institutional terror and the crimes against humanity of the Soviet state
have never caused the revulsion that we in the West feel for the horrors
perpetuated by the Nazis and their collaborators.

Is it just because the perception is that the Soviet holocaust was largely
internal?   Because "Uncle Joe" was our 'ally' against fascism?  Because a
large number of highly influential people were active apologists for the
Soviet union?  Because it was 'smart' to be 'progressive' and
'anti-reactionary' in the West (heck, it still is fashionable in some
circles)?

Let me end this wool gathering with a 'what if'.  "If" the British and
French had not gone to war with Germany over Poland in 1939 and Hitler had
been satisfied with his situation, would the Nazi holocaust be an 'internal
matter' like the Soviet holocaust?  Is artificial famine, small scale
(relatively speaking) liquidation and the Gulag less horrible, less evil
than Auschwitz and Terblinka?

Well, I'm off to read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" again and
then I'll start tracking down some of the literature you all have suggested
(I've missed place my copy of "The Gulag Archipelago").

Mike Murley

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