The one thing that's hard to understand in reading the new biography of Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore, is what exactly Marxism, Leninism and Bolshevism has to do with Joseph Stalin, and what his legacy is.
Marxism, was nothing more than an insight. it was not a belief. It was not a moral, or ethical base, or even truly a goal. Not a goal of Lenin, and not a goal of Stalin. Almost immediately after seizing power, [much along the vein of the Cuban revolution, with a small cadre of true believers, vastly outnumbered, yet unopposed due to corruption and disorganization of those in power] they began to turn on the people.
Supposedly, their agenda was the liberation of the proletariat. Yet, the rub in all philosophical ideas, is the tension and inherent conflict between those who truly believe, [either in the name of the people, or not] and their belief that the very people that they are fighting to liberate and lead, must be controlled, oppressed and at times liquidated or robbed of their basic human rights, in order to achieve their "true" liberation. The Marxist/Leninist in this respect were true political "missionaries" exhibiting all of the most ruthless and detrimental inhumane aspects of missionaries to the darker continents and inhabited areas of savages. Saving them from themselves through a purging of their ideas, culture, way of life and often, oppression and abuse of their very bodies as they are literally scourged and cleansed in order that future generation may make benefit of their newfound truth.
Stalin grew up in a violent household with an alcoholic cobbler father and a very cunning and scheming mother. both were sadistically brutal to the young Stalin. Stalin also suffered from being sickly, and many horrific injuries and traumas, such that he walked with a permanent limp and had a lame arm too weak to hold onto a female dance partner.
Stalin's true talent, and gift, was a voracious appetite for knowledge, especially subversive knowledge, and a nature fire, passion and acumen for evaluating others and using all possible personality tools to effect his will and gain support for his agenda.
Stalin's practical education was composed of the seminary, where he not only received an excellent education, but also received a second excellent education in subversive activities, such as forming outlawed political and literature discussion groups, avoiding and ducking trouble, building consensus and a fervent base of supporters, while also devising ways of manipulating his environment to conjure up money, travel, and experiences to further his cause.
When he felt he had learned enough, he was expelled, with his grace. From here he went on to organizing labor, which in Baku, an oil rich area of the Russian domain, consisted of extortion, kidnapping, assassinations, bank robberies, blackmail, beatings, bombings and terror. Stalin was the leader and main figure in the black underworld of Baku.
Constantly under the surveillance of the Tsarist police and secret police, Stalin formed a link with Lenin. From my interpretation of events, their bond was not so much philosophical, rather, they both rose to strong positions within the "party" and anyone who experiences success in something, is apt to stick with it. As far as their articulation of party philosophy, it was not from the heart, it was purely from the head, and their interest was in devising a idea that would achieve two ends. 1. be philosophically sound, 2. ensure that they were in power, as the ones to dictate policy.
meanwhile, Stalin had been sent into exile on several occasions, seduced many under aged girls, had several children out of wedlock, escaped exile several times, in drag as a ruse at several junctures, meanwhile travelling across Europe to meet other Bolsheviks, and Lenin, learning several languages, writing prolifically, and staging a major, internationally known bank robbery that netted an equivalent of $3.5 million for Lenin's coffers.
The belief of the Bolsheviks, which numbered perhaps 2,500 at the time of the revolution, and had a core leadership of only 15-20 individuals, was that the revolution was inevitable, as articulated by their theorist/saint, Karl Marx. So that when the conditions were ripe for revolution, they, being prepared and ready with their plan, were able to take control of a vast empire, virtually unopposed, disorganized and almost in a comedic way.
But if the way they gained power was comedic, almost immediately after seizing power, it became bloodthirsty.
Stalin lay in wait, through Lenin's term, opposing him strongly at some points, and counteracting his mandates boldly at other times.
when Lenin died, Stalin consolidated his power against Trotsky. once he had slowly built enough power to seize control of the party outright, the terror began. having struggled against enemies for so long, his mind became interminably obsessed with paranoia and a fear of enemies. This is where the childhood beatings, the persecution of the seminary, the exiles, the gangsterism, the experiences of being covert, under constant surveillance and horrific injuries and crimes all culminated in the terror, where an estimated 25-40,000,000 Russian citizens were starved to death, shot, worked to death in the gulag, or died in exile.
Stalinism, Bolshevism, Leninism, Marxism, became wholly superfluous, once the ends were achieved, because the strength in the ideologies, was in their ability to represent the priorities of their adherents, and in the power of their propaganda.
It made no matter to Lenin (who had a brother executed for an assassination attempt of a Russian czar), that the conditions for the proletariat revolution were not present in Russian. Marx himself "corrected" Marxist/Russian adherents in letting them know that the proletariat revolution could never arise in a peasant state with communal farms. Russia would first have to pass into an age of private ownership, and then industrialization for a working class to emerge and become exploited enough to serve as a basis for the Marxist revolution.
other problems with Marxism in Russia, was the 5-year plan started by Stalin, became a 1-year plan as Stalin forced collectivism/socialism upon the peasants and their lords, all in the service to the industrialization predicted by Marx. The peasants rebelled, killing half of their field animals and not planting crops. Stalin's response was to take every bit of grain from the peasants, and imposing the death penalty for the theft of even a cup of grain. This caused the mass starvation in the Ukraine. the only known or recorded wide spread man made "famine" in the history of man.
all of this done, in service to Marx's proletarian revolution and proletariat freedom from capitalist exploitation.
if war is peace, then it can certainly be seen that any political ideology can be used to justify any political action or oppressive action, as long as the adherents, believe that the deviation, however great, is in service to the ultimate ends.
No comments:
Post a Comment