Bukharin Speaks To The "Devil" -A Document Of Modern History
In the May 1963 issue of Unser Zeit, the Yiddish-language journal of the Jewish Labor Bund, there appears an important memoir by the late Lydia Dan, wife of the Menshevik leader Theodore...
...He has become a symbol in whom the lower strata, the workers, the people believe...
...shelter you...
...As intermediaries in the negotiations— which finally came to nothing— there served the Russian Menshevik exiles, then living in Paris...
...T.R.B., March 2: "Indeed, Mr...
...USSR, 6.5...
...if someone is a better writer, his fate is sealed, because Stalin alone must be the foremost Russian writer...
...Dan was shaken by Bukharin's words...
...Mathematically speaking, it is impossible to increase appreciably the aftertax income of the lower-income family by means of tax reduction, because that family pays so little in taxes now...
...I am certain that Dan revealed it to no one, not even to Nicolaevsky [his close friend and a leading Russian Menshevik] who should have known of it...
...The balance-of-payments problem remains extremely serious...
...he is being attacked savagely by both the conservatives and the progressives in both parties...
...Perhaps this wretchedness is his one human trait, but there is something inhuman, something devilish in the fact that because of his wretchedness he is compelled to take revenge on everyone, particularly those who are in some way better or more distinguished than he...
...I do not want to take it with me to the grave, and the other participants, Theodore Dan and Bukharin, are now dead...
...lower interest rates...
...is the Washington commentator of The New Republic, James Reston head of the New York Times Washington Bureau...
...To the surprise of the Menshevik group, an official delegation came from Moscow...
...Kennedy reveals the tax 'reforms' he has tied into his package...
...It consisted of Nikolai Bukharin, former chairman of the Comintern, Tichomiroff, and a third Russian whose name Mrs...
...Both are familiar Kennedy supporters, and with the two of them talking this way there's not much the radical left needs to add—for the moment...
...This is the more remarkable since the President is aware of it himself...
...Kennedy's technique is now familiar—to talk a strong line and then com promise...
...But Dan thought that this might harm Bukharin in some way...
...In contrast the $100,000 family would gain by 11.2 per cent...
...The education of our people is still lagging far behind the requirements of our time...
...larger public outlays for housing, education, and health services...
...The President makes the climate of opinion in America and he hasn't done it on the economy...
...indeed, he did most of the talking while Dan listened in disbelief...
...Kennedy conspicuously avoiding showdowns with Congress, and Congress taking a 10-day Easter rest from the burden of not having done anything for three months...
...he is not even a man, he is a devil...
...In the May 1963 issue of Unser Zeit, the Yiddish-language journal of the Jewish Labor Bund, there appears an important memoir by the late Lydia Dan, wife of the Menshevik leader Theodore Dan...
...This simple truth underscores the point that, while tax reduction may alleviate our economic difficulties in some degree, programs other than tax reduction must be found to help first those who need help most, and, concurrently, to provide a sounder basis for improvement of our overall economic performance...
...I was so astonished I could not mask my feelings and this only heightened Bukharin's agitation...
...During the early thirties, relates Mrs...
...lin...
...Dan did not recall...
...EVEN IF KENNEDY'S TAX PROPOSAL WERE TO PASS .. . "The Administration's tax proposals violate seriously those considerations of equity and social justice which no great and rich nation can in good conscience afford to neglect...
...T.R.B., April 13: "The mood in Washington is subtly depressing with Mr...
...T.R.B., December 22: "Here is the comparative average annual rate of growth of the seven largest industrial nations, 1955-1960 reduced to the same scale: Japan, 9.4...
...Negotiations were conducted and then...
...His usually good-natured features were distorted by fear and revulsion...
...In great agitation he began to apologize for coming uninvited and without even telephoning...
...T.R.B., December 1: "It is hard to reconcile the boldness of the Administration in foreign affairs with its timidity at home on the economic front...
...Bukharin was greatly perturbed, and Dan was bewildered, so much so he found it difficult to act the part of the host...
...He asked him: 'But how can it be that under such conditions you and other Communists had such blind faith in this devil to entrust their fate, the fate of the party and the entire country to him?' Bukharin remained extremely agitated: 'You will not understand, for we did not trust him, we trusted the figure he made...
...they would even put up a monument—not a very big one, but they would put it up next to one of Stalin, where Stalin would be holding a pencil, as if to make corrections in Kapital...
...I have just told you that they would buy up Marx's remains and transfer them to Moscow...
...And we know with certainty that he will devour us, and he knows we know, and he is only waiting for the opportune moment...' "At this point I could not contain myself any longer, and asked: 'If that is so, why are you crawling into his jaws...
...and the $200,000 family by 23.8 per cent...
...we he turned hastily to Dan and said: remained with the conviction that we 'Theodore Ilyitch, if fascism should had parted forever with a man who win out in France, go immediately to was pure in spirit but already the Russian Embassy and they will doomed...
...T.R.B., September 17: "As unemployment drags on and the Administration temporizes the demand for Federal spending grows...
...When he rose to leave, Dan asked him, 'And where will you say you spent the time?' Bukharin answered sheepishly, 'I will find something to say.' Nor did it appear strange to him that he should be treated as a schoolboy who had to make his excuses...
...UK, 2.7...
...As I came in I heard Dan say, 'You can hardly suspect me of sympathies for Stalin, yet even I could not talk or think of him in the way you do.' "With great excitement Bukharin hastened to reply: 'That is because you do not know him as well as I do, as he has revealed himself to us...
...Reston, March 8: "Kennedy's domestic proposals, meanwhile, have run into serious opposition on both the extreme right and left on Capitol Hill...
...No, Theodore Ilyitch, he is a wretched, a malicious man...
...Dan could not help exclaiming at Bukharin's naivete: 'Have you forgot-A post-script to Lydia Dan's meten that my Soviet passport was taken moir: Theodore Dan emigrated to from me and that should I set foot New York, where he died a natural on Soviet soil—the Embassy is Soviet death...
...Leon Keyserling, "A Time for Boldness," The Progressive, April 1963 From the Mouths of His Friends Compromise, Retreat, Inaction: T.R.B...
...Among these other programs are social security expansion...
...But here we turn directly to Mrs...
...If someone is a betetr orator than Stalin, he is doomed, because that person is a constant reminder to Stalin that he is not the first among orators...
...understanding one another...
...The transportation of the country is a disgrace...
...The quickness of these compromises is startling and lowers supporters' mo rale...
...T.R.B., August 27, 1962: "As to public apathy, that's Kennedy's fault...
...a more realistic wage policy...
...The proposed personal income tax reduction schedule would increase the spendable personal income—income after taxes—of the $3,000 (before tax) family with two children by only 2 per cent...
...West Germany, 6; Italy, 5.9...
...Compromise and moderation are misplaced if the need requires something more radical...
...Not a word about cutting the 27/2 per cent oil depletion allowance, the granddaddy of all loopholes...
...Bukharin To remain in emigration...
...Kennedy may find that a middle-of-the-road course won't work in a two-lane expressway...
...improved minimum wage laws...
...Bukharin was speaking about Sta...
...Not a very proud position for Americans is it, at the tail end of the procession...
...Mr...
...Perhaps it is our fault, but that is how it happened, and that is why we all stick in his throat...
...The result—when he needed grass roots support for a tax cut it wasn't there...
...And apparently very little thought has been given to the effect on the American character of policies that drive people off the land into urban areas that in many cases are not worthy of a civilized nation...
...I can see no possible defense—economic, social, or moral—for this kind of maldistribution of the subsidies involved in a planned Federal deficit in the form of tax reduction...
...the $10,000 family by only 3.5 per cent...
...Bukharin, who in his blind territory—I would be shot.' It was as good-will had urged Dan to entrust if Bukharin had not really grasped himself to the Soviet Embassy, was one what Dan was saying...
...No, I could left with genuine regret that such as not live an existence like yours.' Then valuable person as Dan was 'lost...
...The economy is sluggish and uneven...
...larger public welfare outlays...
...Why do you go back?' "A look of naive bewilderment came who takes this matter of citizenship seover Bukharin's face, and with an al-riously?' most disparaging gesture he said, "And that is how we parted, not 'What would it mean not to return...
...When I returned an hour later, the conversation was extremely animated...
...John F. Kennedy maintains a cool, confident demeanor and sticks to the legislative 'rhythm' theory that Congress, left to itself, will ultimately act...
...The Soviet government, which somehow heard of this, put out some feelers offering to buy the papers, and the German Social Democrats, desperate for funds, expressed some interest...
...James Reston, January 11, 1963: "As Mr...
...he added that no one knew about it, that no one should know...
...Dan's memoir, translating, in slightly condensed form, from the Yiddish...
...I opened the door and to my complete amazement—I saw Bukharin...
...the $5,000 family by only 3.1 per cent...
...France, 4.2...
...and above all, effective measures to cut unemployment...
...Stalin is wretched because he cannot convince everyone, not even himself, that he is greater than anyone else...
...I will never forget the expression on Bukharin's face as he said these words...
...And President Kennedy, who was going to get the country moving again, hasn't improved it much...
...It was publicly mentioned for the first time at the famous Kravchenko trial in Paris.] "Once—I cannot recall the exact date—around two in the afternoon there was a ring at the bell of our apartment...
...In this situation, Kennedy's style and his philosophy of patience are not working...
...He is losing gracefully on Capitol Hill and in the Alliance, but he is losing...
...USA, 2.3...
...On some pretext I left the room, to make it easier for them...
...Dan, either when Hitler's asccession to power seemed imminent or shortly after he had already taken power, the German Social Democrats were concerned over the disposal of Karl Marx's papers, which had until then been kept in their files...
...Kennedy knows better than anybody else, the problems he identified in the campaign of 1960 remain...
...He wins the admiration of the Capitol but not its votes...
...Soon thereafter an event occurred which I want to relate...
...At first the conversation was stiff...
...However, both Dan and I received him with warmth, and Bukharin remained at our house until eight that evening...
...He said that his decision 'to talk things over' came from an irresistible 'inner need' (I remember this expression very well, for at the time it took me completely aback...
...The single greatest failure of Kennedy is the continuance of massive unemployment and the sluggish economy...
...I am convinced that Bukharin also took the 'secret' with him...
...He replied in of the defendants at the Moscow all earnestness, 'But, Theodore Ilyitch, Trials, after which he was shot...
...T.R.B., February 2: "Mr...
Vol. 10 • July 1963 • No. 3
