The Crisis of Soviet History of the Stalin Period and What We Should Do About It

Speech by Grover Furr

 

The history of the first workers’ state, the USSR, during its heroic period, when it was led by Joseph Stalin – that history is withheld from us. It is smothered by lies from dishonest and very influential sources.

How do we know this is so? What is the situation? Who are the liars? Why is this important? Finally, what should we do about it? The future of the world’s working class and the fight for an egalitarian world of what Marxist researcher Charles Andrews has called “No Rich, No Poor,” depends on what we do. 

I began to discuss this question in an earlier article titled “Marxists Behaving Badly” which you can download from my Home Page. However, that was a very partial discussion of this enormous challenge to all of us. In my talk today I intend to confront this crisis more directly.

Katyn Massacre Revisited: Declassified archival evidence disputes the “Soviets did it” narrative

A fabrication of Nazi Minister of Propaganda Dr Joseph Goebbels, the “Soviets did it” version of the Katyn Massacre remains for decades a major weapon in the arsenal of anti-communist, anti-soviet propaganda throughout the world. 

Almost two months after the resounding defeat of the Nazis in Stalingrad, on 13 April 1943, a mass grave of Polish POWs was found in the Katyn Forrest, a few miles away from Smolensk. Under the guidance of Goebbels, the blame was cast against the Soviet leadership and this falsehood was eagerly adopted by the imperialists and bourgeois historiography in Europe and the United States. 

“Medieval Inquisition” returns to Europe with anti-communism as a spearhead

By Nikos Mottas.

Do you remember the so-called “Velvet Revolution” back in 1989 in Czechoslovakia? Do you remember the promises of the then leaders of the counterrevolution, like Vaclav Havel, about the supposed coming of “freedom” and “democracy”?

Well, more than 33 years later, it has been proved that the “Velvet Revolution” had nothing to do with revolution but, on the contrary, it was a major setback for the working people of Czechoslovakia. 

NCPN: On the recognition of the myth of "Holodomor" as "genocide" by the Dutch House of Representatives

From the Editors of Manifest, newspaper of the New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN): 

On Thursday 6 July, the Lower House adopted a motion by the coalition parties VVD, D66, CDA and Christian Union regarding the famine in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. Against all historical facts, the famine is labelled a ‘genocide’ of the Ukrainian people. The motion claims that the famine was deliberately “planned and carried out by the then Soviet regime to oppress the Ukrainian people and identity.” The purpose of this unprecedented falsification of history is nothing but to further demonise communism.

Anti-Stalin Falsehoods from a “Socialist” Writer

Prof. Grover Furr refutes Alex Skopic’s article “Stalin Will Never Be Redeemable"

 

By Grover Furr.

 

In the January – February 2023 issue of Current Affairs there appears an article titled “Stalin Will Never Be Redeemable”. Its subtitle reads:

 

Stalin was socialism’s worst enemy. History is easily forgotten, so nostalgia for the “Man of Steel” needs to be guarded against.

Estonia's "Institute of Historical Memory" shamefully falsifies WW2 history, promotes anti-communism

In an effort to re-write history, the so-called “Estonian Institute of Historical Memory” (Eesti Mälu Instituut/ EIHM), an anti-communist institution, in collaboration with the German Embassy in Tallinn, has launched since 2018 a “Summer School” focusing on “the history of crimes against humanity and human rights violations during and after the Second World War.

Promoting anti-communism and the distortion of history, EIHM tries to equate the Soviet Union – the major liberation force in WW2 – with Nazi Germany!!! More specifically, in the website of EIHM's “Summer School” someone can read the following:

 

"Yes, but Stalin...", by Nikos Mottas: New book exposing anti-communist lies released in Greece

The book's cover.

What were the Moscow Trials and the so-called “Great Purge” of 1936-38? Who was the actual perpetrator of the Katyn Massacre? What was the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact and is it true that Stalin allied with Hitler? What was agreed at the Yalta Conference? Why was the Berlin Wall built? What happened in Hungary and Czecholoslovakia in 1956 and 1968 respectively? Who were Aleksandr Solzenitsyn and George Orwell? Is there a dictatorship in Cuba? How does the EU systematically promote anti-communist revision of history?

The above are some of the questions answered in the new book written by “In Defense of Communism” editor in chief Nikos Mottas and published in Greek language by Atexnos Publishing House. 

Book: Truth and Lies about the famine in Ukraine, by Nikos Mottas

The mythology surrounding the so-called Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933, is exposed in a concise 78-pages book edited by Nikos Mottas and published in Greek language by Atexnos Publishing House.

For many decades, the issue of the Ukrainian famine in 1932-33, the famous Holodomor, occupies a prominent place in the arsenal of anti-communism. Especially after the counter-revolutionary overthrows in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, the Holodomor is at the forefront of a systematic and persistent attempt to vilify socialism of the 20th century and present it as an evil, inhumane system which is supposedly responsible for millions of deaths. 

Stalin’s Ghost Haunts Capitalism

A Riposte to Stephen Kotkin’s ‘Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941’

By Raj Sahai*.

Source: Marxism-Leninism today.

Princeton University historian Stephen Kotkin is writing a monumental three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin. Kotkin’s is the latest in a large number of books on Stalin, starting with Isaac Deutscher in 1949. So, why yet another book on Stalin?

Kotkin says Stalin represents a “gold standard” in “personal dictatorship”, and more archival documents are now accessible, so now a definitive biography of Stalin can finally be written. He takes Isaac Deutscher’s three-volume biography of Trotsky as a model for his own work. Published in 2015, Kotkin’s first volume was titled ‘Stalin: Paradoxes of Power 1878 - 1928’. Volume 2, published in November 2017, is titled ‘Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929 – 1941’.

“Gulag Archipelago”: Exposing the anticommunist fabrications of Solzhenitsyn

 By Nikos Mottas*.

One of the most famous and celebrated works of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, the “Gulag Archipelago”, has been for a long time a kind of “holy bible” for every anticommunist. Firstly published in 1973, it- supposedly- consists an analytical record of the conditions existed in the so-called “labour camps” of the Soviet Union. Within the framework of the slanderous anticommunist campaign, bourgeois historiography has extensively promoted Solzhenitsyn's work as a source of arguments about the so-called “Stalinist dictatorship” and “communist crimes” in the Soviet Union.

However, there is a fundamental problem in the work of the deeply reactionary Solzhenitsyn: Gulag Archipelago is a completely antiscientific book, based almost entirely in rumors, speculations, third party opinions as well as interpretations of opinions by Solzenitsyn himself! In other words, the reader of this book becomes “hostage” of a novel type, unverifiable, recording to alleged events by Solzenitsyn and others who supposedly “saw”, “heard” or “learned” something.

When Donald Trump Falsifies History

A response to U.S. President Trump's blatant falsification of historical events.

By Nikos Mottas.

Donald Trump seems to have his own version of history. A version that falsifies completely the real historical events. The tycoon- turned President of the USA- decided to demonstrate his ignorance (or, perhaps, ability to distort history) during a Republican Party's rally in Pensacola, Florida on December 8th. 

What did Trump say? Among others, the U.S. President said the following: “We are the nation that dug out the Panama Canal, won two world wars, put a man on the moon and brought communism to its knees".

Vile anticommunism from SYRIZA's daily "Avgi"

The true face of social democracy's anticommunism is expressed through the pages of SYRIZA's daily newspaper, known as "I Avgi" (The Dawn). In a recent article, under the title "A tragic page of european history", the newspaper actually adopts the vile anticommunist-antisoviet imperialist propaganda regarding the so-called "Katyn massacre". 

Regarding this unhistorical and provocative article, KKE's daily "Rizospastis" points out that:

"The whole goebbelist propaganda about the murder of thousands of Polish officers by the Nazis at Katyn forest in 1941 (which was attributed to the USSR by the crumbling Nazi Germany in 1943) is, once again, adopted by "Avgi" and her known anticommunist "stalinologist" article writer Vlasis Agtzidis. The article reproduces one of the most characteristic products of History's counterfeiting during the counter-revolution period of Gorbachev and Yeltsin in the USSR, in 1991-92, when the notorious document of the 5th March 1940 appeared, according to which Stalin supposedly gave his permission for the slaughtering of the Polish officials.

Trotsky’s Lies - What They Are, and What They Mean

Trotsky’s Lies - What They Are, and What They Mean

 

By Grover Furr*.

The personality and the writings of Leon Trotsky have long been a rallying point for anticommunists throughout the world. But during the 1930s Trotsky deliberately lied in his writings about Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. My new book, Trotsky’s ‘Amalgams’, discusses some of Trotsky’s lies that have fooled people, and demoralized honest communists, for decades. 

In January 1980 the Trotsky Archive at Harvard University was opened to researchers. Within a few days Pierre Broué, the foremost Trotskyist historian of his time, discovered that Trotsky had lied. Trotsky had always denied that any clandestine “bloc of oppositionists” including Trotskyists, existed in the Soviet Union. Trotsky called this an “amalgam,” meaning a fabrication by Stalin. This “bloc” was the main focus of the second and third Moscow Trials of January 1937 and March 1938. Broué showed, from letters in the Trotsky Archive by Trotsky and by his son Leon Sedov, that the bloc did exist.

The Truth about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Imperialist Propaganda

By Nikos Mottas.

"If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible...”

- Harry Truman, 1941.

Since the end of the Second World War, the bourgeois historiography has tried to distort various incidents in order to vilify Socialism and the USSR. One of these incidents- which has been a "banner" of imperialism's apologists and other anticommunists- is the so-called “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”* which was signed in 1939. In it's unscientific, unhistorical effort to equate Communism with Nazism, the bourgeois propaganda presents the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact as a medium of expansive policy by the USSR and Hitler's Germany. The distortion of historical events, the amalgamation of lies and the half-truths by the Imperialists and their collaborators aim in defaming the huge role of the Soviet Union in the anti-fascist struggle of WW2.

However, the reality is different than the one presented by the bourgeois historiography. Here, we will examine the circumstances and the events which led to the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, in an effort to debunk the anti-communist propaganda on this matter.

The Real Story of the Katyn Massacre- Exposing an anticommunist fabrication

PREFACE

One of anti-communists' favorite fairy-tales is the so-called 'Katyn Massacre'. According to Neo-Nazis, fascists, liberals, trotskyites, opportunist leftists, anarchists and other anti-communists, the Soviet NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), under Stalin's orders, carried out mass executions of Polish nationals in April and May 1940. Even Wikipedia (the very popular but completely unreliable source) says it! Despite the fact that there is strong, undisputed evidence that the crime was carried out by the Nazis, this anti-communist myth continues to exist. The post-1991 bourgeois-capitalist establishment of Russia, under Yeltsin but also under current President Putin, has done everything in order to blame the Soviet Union. They even fabricated letters- supposedly sent from Lavrentiy Beria- in order to defame Stalin and the then Soviet leadership. In this post, we collect and present some interesting information, including historical documents, which prove that the 'Katyn Massacre” was a crime committed by the Nazis and not by the Soviets. The pity propaganda against Socialism, against the Soviet Union must be exposed in every possible way.

In Defense of Communism ©.

READ:

1. Ella Rule: The Katyn Massacre.

2. Interview with Prof. Grover Furr.

3. “Beria’s letter” was written on two different typewriters.

4. Katyn Graves Story declared Grim Fraud.

How many people did Joseph Stalin really kill?

Source: anti-imperialism.com.

When discussing the merits and achievements of the Soviet Union, detractors of various stripes, from anti-communist to anti-Leninist, often point to a 2013 International Business Times article named “How Many People Did Joseph Stalin Kill?” by Palash Ghosh. The article, which depicts Soviet leader J. V. Stalin as an inhuman cold-blooded mass murderer, claims that up to 60 million people, nearly one-third of the USSR’s 1941 population, were killed on the part of the government and the leadership of the country.[1][2] But do these figures actually hold up? Through a careful read of the article, one can find glaring problems with the logic and the conclusion and deduce that the article is not much more than crude propaganda.

The article, having been published on the 60th anniversary of Stalin’s death, introduces Stalin as “one of history’s most prolific killers”, proceeding to list various events as atrocities. Included in the list are “imprisonment in labor camps”, “manufactured famines” and “forced displacements”, all of which are implied to be inherently atrocious like the other items listed. While these are indeed atrocious events, this should raise the question of hypocrisy, as a neo-liberal news publication lists these events with the intention of portraying a socialist leader as a “prolific killer” when historically they have happened on a number of occasions in the imperialist states and their semi-feudal colonies à la the American internment of Japanese and Germans in World War II, the systematic depopulation of indigenous lands by the US government, and the number of famines in British India in the 19th and 20th centuries. One might in response concede that the USSR was by no means alone if it is responsible for such atrocities, but,nevertheless, the actions of other nations does not absolve the Soviet Union. This is true. Therefore, we move on to see Ghosh’s backing for the assertion of Stalin as a mass murderer.

Robert Conquest's lies about Socialism, Stalin and the USSR - A presentation by Mario Sousa (VIDEO)

         

Source: ProletarianTV.

This presentation by Mario Sousa - less than an hour in duration - will change your view of history. "Most sane and educated people accept that there were serious human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, during the Stalin period." he says. The evidence is 'everywhere' - everyone says so, and there's no smoke without fire, after all. But what is the evidence? And where does it come from?

Mario Sousa- Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union

From Hitler to Hearst, from Conquest to Solzhenitsyn.

The history of the millions of people who were allegedly incarcerated and died in the labour camps of the Soviet Union and as a result of starvation during Stalin’s time.

In this world we live in, who can avoid hearing the terrible stories of suspected death and murders in the gulag labour camps of the Soviet Union?  Who can avoid the stories of the millions who starved to death and the millions of oppositionists executed in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s time?  In the capitalist world these stories are repeated over and over again in books, newspapers, on the radio and television, and in films, and the mythical numbers of millions of victims of socialism have increased by leaps and bounds in the last 50 years.

But where in fact do these stories, and these figures, come from?  Who is behind all this?