Russia's New Premier Creates Himself? In the Image of Ivan the Terrible
Gitlow, Ben
Russia's New Premier Creates Himself? In the Image of Ivan the Terrible By Ben Gitlow JOSEPH VISSARLONOVTTCH DJUGASHVILI, better known as Joseph Stalin, is the unpredictable figure in...
...Ivan's slaughter gjgjMw people in Novgorod, the horror of which the world" has ~ wgtitteii, is dwarfed by Stalin...
...This change in popular feeling is characteristic of the entire French Socialist cricles as well...
...At the time the so-called new democratic tJ^S*™*1 "of the Soviet Union'rwas being adopted, Liushkov, j^jjg** ofthe Ogpu in Eastern Siberia, declared <forty' thousand U*Wwere executed on suspicion of plotting...
...Its leaders cannot be named because to do so would invite their immediate arrest...
...As a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, I met Stalin on many occasions in 1927, 1928 and 1929...
...But the ghost of Trotsky continues to haunt Stalin...
...Canada Government Conscripts Steel Company For Refusal to Deal With Union tion on the company...
...I was the only one who had ever defied him to his face...
...The crisis was not only in fuel ind production, although- this was very seriooiafecially for citj^dwellers...
...a number «f Socialist students...
...Jwlyin March the CCF (social democratic) group in Par-took a hand—one of their trade union M.P.s giving a* P0Dlic'ty to the situation...
...That was m 1928...
...the average /flaeflman understood the full measure of the atotrophe...
...His ability to carry out specific practical tasks was recognized by Lenin's small group of conspirators, though they were apprehensive of his political maneuvers which betrayed his insatiable "drive for power...
...To be concluded next week...
...But there is a man whom everyone considers the leader...
...Hospitals, sani-^Pto...
...Among the Socialists three distinct groups now exist...
...Ivan the Terrible killed his closest and ablest advisers, ffa rid himself of his best and most loyal generals...
...FOU cannot fathom Stalin by comparing him to the dictators...
...its deputies, municipal leaders and journalists...
...To judge from a number of indications, not all who support him accept his political line in full...
...A list of their vic-*?*mcludes prominent-governors, princes, generals, high priests, "fwnats and' their entire families...
...jJoTl .coniplete record of the» purges icannot be obtained...
...Mussolini bellows and gesticulates...
...It describes him perfectly...
...They did cot hesitate, during the Revolution, to tear down all institutions which they believed represented Czarism...
...He seldom lost his head, but remained coolly rational and sometimes witty in the midst of his barbarities...
...Its JSBag'e agents cover, the world...
...Almost no one except a few small cliques of politicians whom the people regard 'with contempt and hatred any longer hopes for a peaceful agreement with the Germans...
...Stalin never forgot that epithet, for in March, 1938, Bukharin was liquidated...
...The Ogpu is (Stalin's state .SMj|a.state...
...Membership in his group makes it possiole to conduct a struggle against the reactionary police prefects and to defend whatever democratic positions still remain in municipal organizations...
...Ivans band of terrorists became a most dreaded force...
...Afterwards, being charged with friendship for Krubsky was to suffer^ torture and execution...
...2) The taking of a vote by all employees to determine whether or not SWOC was their chosen bargaining agent...
...The proclamations ended with these words: .. "Long Live Free France...
...For this reason one may only speak of certain basic tenets which unquestionably are accepted by all who are drawn into it...
...amounted-to fif-^J^on In 1937...
...The Ogpu stores have the JSjf WppHes, the best food and other necessities...
...He has avoided making open political declaration and for this reason his political position may be characterized only in the most general terms...
...His speeches and his writings betray the influence of clerical teaching and argu-mentation...
...Both are trained exhibitionists...
...IVAN received excellent religious training and feared God more * than man...
...Lenin put Stalin among the top leaders of the Party, though he contributed little of intellectual value...
...The principle of compulsory Conciliation Board awards has still to be decided...
...Stephen Graham in his biography of Ivan the Terrible wrote: "Unwilling to believe that a man in his senses could be as monstrously cruel as Ivan was, many will be apt to dismiss him as mad...
...France Socialists Organize Secret Opposition To Petain and Nazis in Paris Sectors By Boris Nicolaevsky FRANCE has experienced a very difficult winter...
...In the Image of Ivan the Terrible By Ben Gitlow JOSEPH VISSARLONOVTTCH DJUGASHVILI, better known as Joseph Stalin, is the unpredictable figure in international • power politics...
...But Stalin is not an orator...
...The proclamation had a tremendous effect among the youth...
...FoHa brief •period during the life of his first wife, the Czarina Anastasia, Ivan IV, led a religious and, for rulers of that periwL righteous life...
...that to make the new conditions tolerable jwas necessary to engage in a bitter and merci-m struggle for existence...
...He carried a long wooden"1 staff with a sharp steel p^int...
...His Vast semi. European and Oriental empire cannot be ignored...
...Nikolai Bukharin, at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Russian- Communist Party, called him a "Chingiz" Khan...
...His efforts to expand the vast Russian Empire East, West and South into China is evidence that the old Czarist ambitions for expansion dominate him...
...He still holds that the gravest crime is to be guilty of Trotskyism...
...Much now will depend on the Government's attitude in dealing with other disputes...
...Faure today unquestionably has the support of a considerable section of the former Socialist deputies and municipal leaders...
...He favors full support of the Petain government, supports all the proposals for the reorganization of the economid structure of France on a corporative basis,, but opposes the policy of repression adopted by the government, the mass liquidation of the Socialist and radical municipalities, the arrest of the political and civic leaders of the Republic Faure also opposes the complete subjugation of French foreign policy to the interests of Germany, and the anti-British position which is so often expressed in L'Effort...
...His reign for the thirteen years of happy married life was highly commendable and won for him the love and tod-miration of the Russian people...
...Many do so out of practical considerations...
...Five years before the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution...
...With the-gfry its head it revelled in orgies of blood...
...For an understanding of Stalin we must look to the history of the Tartar •chiefs and to the inhuman Czars of ancient Moscovy...
...Once when one of his secretaries failed to bring him the proper papers and again in 1929 when, in the Red Hall of the Comintern, I told him that I did not like his action on the American Communist Party and would therefore conduct a fight against him...
...I have said that the names of these leader* cannot ho made r jblic...
...It made an interesting report recommending (1) The provisional reinstatement of the union president...
...But J^tt'is' known to indicate that the number of those liquidated hundreds of tlwUsands...
...Hitler speaks like a snarling dog...
...Now, four hundred years *we have under Stalin, a replica of Ivan's Oprichnina in the ch?ariat °f Internal Affairs, the MKUD which we still speak the Ogpu...
...From the one he developed hatred toward man, from the other, daring . This activity, at which Stalin was so proficient, .and which financed the Bolshevik Party, brought him to the attention of Lenin...
...He murdered people in anger, but he murdered more in an icy coldness of disposition...
...jfUt that was in the sixteenth century when the world was just SSSpng from its barbarian ways...
...The offer was accepted and the demonstration thus became a manifestation of a return to national solidarity...
...the ties between individual units are maintained only sporadically...
...more and more supports, a German orientation in foreign policy and stubbornly recommends that the German example be followed in internal affairs...
...This" was equally true in the occupied and the free zones...
...The plant is the privately-owned National Steel * Corporation at Hamilton, Ontario...
...Only twice did he lose his temper...
...Labor has enemies who will claim that the principle involved in the Hamilton case was the enforcing' of a Conciliation Board award and who will demand that awards, be made compulsory in all cases...
...The long staff of death was wielded in the form of a sharp stone-cutter's pick by Jackson...
...He seldom betrays signs of passion or emotion...
...Parliamentary Bloc QITAWA.—Here in Canada's capital, training planes are sooming overhead, preparing young aviators to fight 'udsm abroad...
...3WOC national officials, the CCF group in the GjrenJ)* Cojnmons again swung into action, pressing the ^n*nt to enforce the Conciliation Board's recommendavolved except the company, which immediately inserted half-page attacks On the Government in large eastern dailies...
...To most people Stalin is an enigma.' He is not at all like the two other dictators...
...A group of monarchist students approached the organizers of the demonstration and offered their assistance...
...l*o days ago the Minister of Munitions and Supply an-•wnced to the House of Commons that the Government had '•ko over the management of one of Canada's largest war "^faction plants, installing a controller to take charge of Wuction...
...When the manage-**t refused to comply with the interim report of a Federal *onment Conciliation Board, the Government took mat-*> into its own hands...
...A special oath provided that its members should know neither father nor mother, only the Czar...
...This group may now be clearly defined as aiming, for the still vacant position of the French Hitlerite organization...
...Days passed and the contr dfl^iJr*811 dangerous strike-breaking tactics...
...He rushed to the platform, wild with rage, heaping invectives and insults upon me and the American Communist delegation...
...HPHIS third bloc has neither newspapers of its own nor the opportunity to appear openly...
...Instead they converted it into the symbol of present day Bolshevik rule...
...The position which L'Effort has taken has lost for it a considerable part of those Socialists who last July voted for the repeal of the constitution and for granting full powers to the Petain government...
...The apparatus of this group is still embryonic...
...Both of these groups derive their members excusively from the representatives of the ruling layer of the party...
...On the other hand, there seems to be virtually no indication of any reverse trend...
...All sympathies are'on the side of England and the name a* General de Gaulle is surrounded with an aura...
...This third group is especially active in German ocqupicd France, particularly -fe Paris, where the Socialist organizations have issued several proclamations...
...It must be noted, however,' that in the Hamilton dispute no award had been made by the Board...
...Yet this man of no dynamic personal...
...If we add to their number thtise ^^ed to prisons, concentration camps and to the forced- labor SST-n?8 we" as *ne 111 a^y who have died of starvation as a policies, the'number will run into millions...
...They may be formulated as follows: 1. Against the armistice signed last June in Compiegne and in favor of an armed stljlggle against Germany...
...Ivan was vindictive and cruel...
...A paradox of the Russian Revolution is found in the attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the Kremlin...
...Recently it has continued to move in the same direction...
...In this matter, however, public opinion will be solidly with-the Government* which is to be commended for refusing to allow a big business concern to dictate to it...
...Stalin had his Krubsky in Leon Trotsky., But Stalin lacks the courage of Ivan the Terrible...
...He baft, not wield the staff of death himself...
...Stalin, the atheist, also had religious i'*>"lqg- Bis mother sent him to a seminary to prepare tor the priesthood...
...Ivan the Ternot have done a better job...
...Furthermore, its influence grows steadily...
...Government action m this particular case has done much to allay cynism and suspicion on the part of La bo rites who feared that the Government would be merely the tool of Big Business...
...In brief Paul Faure supports the foreign policy followed by Petain, which seeks indecisively and feebly to oppose German demands...
...The program of the "national revolution," prop-tpted by those who capitulated to the Germans, aeets with only scorn...
...Stalin gets"his alias from the Russian word meaning steel...
...take over control of the plant brought satisfaction to all inBy Grace Maclnnis Secretary, C.C.F...
...The people be-ame psychologically prepared for the unavoid-ible conflict that was ahead...
...Hitler is a mystic,-Mussolini a rabble rouser...
...The manage-natfy refused to comply with the Board's recommendation...
...There are many instances of individuals switching from the first two groups to this one...
...I*HE leader of that new group of Socialists * which supports the Petain government but does not endorse UEffort, is Paul Faure, former General Secretary of tbe Socialist Party...
...Yet it cannot be said that even among these people the majority support the Petain gorvernment...
...He is a cool, collected, cunning, and crafty politician...
...Ihmble began three months ago in the plant when the ***gement's tactics of discrimination...
...summer villas run for the Ogpu are the finest in Russia...
...Trotzky was cornered in his own home in Mexico and his brain pierced—not his heart...
...Prince Krubsky, one of Russia's ablest men, fled his .wrath...
...2. For the support of General De Gaulle in union with all who favor war to the finish...
...symathj to the British people...
...It was during the course of his clerical studies that he came in contact with the revolutionary movement...
...Ivan organized a terror band, a special army of secret police...
...So is Stalin...
...Proclamations were plasterefl over the city calling upon the people to protest against the German army of occupation...
...The French police maintained neutrality during this skirmish, which was un-doutedly one of the reasons for the arrest at'-many leading police officials soon thereafter, 1" Unfortunately it rrjust be noted that the attempt of the organizers of that demonstration'' to obtain the support of the workers was unsuccessful...
...This report was designed merely to prepare the grc<und for > either an award or for further negotiations between the management and the union...
...jflUlm.'s lust for power and thirst for vengeance were amply JT^W'by the Ogpu after the assassination of Kirov in 1934...
...The first is the L'Effort group, graviating •round the newspaper of that name edited by Charles Spinasse and Paul Reves...
...He opposes the Laval line which favors flail fledged cooperation with the Germans even to extent of a military alliance...
...As a youngster he was encouraged to throw dogs from the high fortress walls of the Kremlin in order to see them crash to an ugly death below...
...In every conflict involving Europe and Asia, Stalin must be "considered...
...Stalin's counterpart is Ivan the Terrible who ruled Russia from 1533 to 1684...
...much more profomtfwas the moral crisis, flsjrin these past months has...
...Republican and democratic feelings grow stronger from day to day, eren among those who had previously not been tne -democrats...
...Stalin'sjtfp has nothing to commend it...
...He is a Georgian and speaks Russian with a Georgian accent...
...Stalin got his training in his youth front the beatings of a drunken father, the squalor of hit JWWlty-stricken home, and in the early days of his revolutionary activity as a member and leader of the robber bands which robbed banks, held up stages and similar exploits...
...4. Against the Petain regime and its entire policy, foreign and domestic...
...Working Hoo« S...
...That was the real sgnificance of the past winter...
...Several thousand persons participated in the demonstration which was accompanied by fighting with trie Germans who opened fire *oa the crowd...
...Stalin's Red Army, the largest standing army in_ the world, with its air armada and large submarine fleet, commands positions clear across the continents...
...against employees **° *ere members of the Steel Workers Organizing Com-^tee anion led to the union's application to the Government •Conciliation Board...
...3. Against the coup d'etat of July 1940 which repealed the French Constitution...
...ygPfl lives in the best houses...
...Communists in Russia subscribe to the same kind of oath and do not hesitate to betray immediate members of their family...
...I have already •scribed in the New Leader the political position, of this grou pduring the first month of its existence...
...Had I not been an American-born citizen, I neve rcould have returned to the United States...
...Last No^»WI»l>e6-lltKi,'4 demonstration was organized by...
...1U5 e w°*ers went out on strike...
...If someone aroused his displeasure he would strike him, and stick the steel point into the heart...
...For tbe first time be really felt ¦hi there was no return to the old peaceful tfe...
...Ivan was a religious zealot who justified bis inhumanity in the name of God and the Church...
...characteristics has more absolute power than either Hitler.or Mussolini...
...He is more Tartar than Russian, more Asiatic than European...
...But after his wife was poisoned by the plotters in the Kremlin, he became savage...
...He- concludes that all condemned in the Jr*!Hlli Concentration camps, labor camps, etc...
...Company officials did everything to y ??• Prevent the granting of the Board, refusing to co-°**^te;;ekher with the employees or the Government...
...The heroic struggle of the British is followed with general admiration everywhere in France and consequently it is natural that the only political action which this third group has been able to take thus far, has been to send congratulatior.s to the British government and to express...
...An icy coldness of disposition characterizes Stalin...
...Ivan was trained to be cruel and heartless like all the rulers of his time...
...of Europe and Asia...
...Stalin is a fanatic who justifies his measures > in the (name of a new religion, Communism, and a new God— Lenin...
...The group also contains persons who never had anything in common with the Socialist Party...
...This group has no clearly fixed and dogmatic program...
...If the Third Republic is blamed at all, it is only for the weakness with which it dealt with its enemies...
...From on a methodical extermination of the old Bolsheviks was Sffir by Stalin and purge after purge decimated the govern-^'^.iW ablest officials, diplomats and generals...
...against trade unions in general and SWOC in particular...
...If, for example, one is to count the number of deputies who in one form or another have expressed any support of the Petain regime, the total would not e iual half of the Socialists deputies and Senators...
...Stalin, whose father was a poor cobbler, was born in abject poverty in Tiflis, Georgia, in 1879...
...Conciliation Board brought in an interim report rec-^ending the reinstatement of the local SWOC union presi-^»ho had been dismissed by the company...
...It has its own army, police, courts, prison...
...Around L'Effort at the present time are_ grouped only that handful of people who have burned their Socialist bridges behind them...
...He is calm and deliberate and speaks barely above a whisper...
...His efforts were followed by **«tablishment of the Board that same day...
...He entered into a war of personal revenge and spite...
...But they did not destroy the Kremlin, sanctuary and symbol of Czardom...
...Boris W^»ne 'n authoritative' history of Stalin's rule, estimates j^i-~,l938 there were' seven million prisoners in the ooncen-¦Wg^camps alone...
...If ever a •man remains-eoolly rational in the midst of his barbarities, it is Stalin...
...Ogpu uniforms- are the most striking and gaudy...
...He caught tbe diplomats of 10 Downing Street and the Quai d'Orsay napping when he made his deal with Hitler which started the war, gave him half of Poland, control of the Baltic and payed the way for his costly, though victorious war against- Finland...
...But its firmness and fairness in handling this case have done much to increase public confidence and should assist it in future decisions...
...One is struck by the similarity 'between the two rulers...
...The growing gravity of the situation 'T'HE Government's announcement that it had used its and the threat of sympathetic strikes throughout the steel *• power under the National Resources Mobilization Act to industry caused much concern...
...Ostensibly addressed to shareholders, these expensive explanations sought to justify the company's refusal to accept-the Board's recommendation and to stir up public indignation...
...The Government will not find it easy to deal justly and effectively with labor disputes...
...Canadians are anxious to ensure the maximum war effort and are indignant about tie-ups and bottlenecks—especially in essential war production...
...That man is Leon Blum, whose prestige and popularity grew among the French people this past winter...
...He makes a poor and uninspiring appearance before a crowd...
...If anything, it has been more brutal than that of Ivan's worst days...
...The Communist who rules Russia, nominally now as well as behind the scenes, has done much to revive the glory of the old Czars, indicating that knowledge of their lives and metHbds have made a lasting impression upon him...
...But actually it will be seen that his wits did not forsake him...
...The common people from whom the Socialist Party derived the bulk of its strength wants no part of either the L'Effort or the Faure organization And it is this rank and file which furnishes the chief support for the third group...
...As far as the party rank and file is concerned, t cse twrf groups have practically no significance...
...Faure's support was particularly vaU uable to Petain during the days of his conflict with Laval...
...Ivan's Oprichnina had its own special court, its ministerial offices, its own army, its own special police...
...They have been jittery about him ever since: Stalin is now able, with the military advantages he gained, to strike more effectively against Europe thin heretofore...
...He depends upon his agents of the Ogpu to da his bloody deeds...
...As a reward Faure himself, as well as a number of his supporters, including L'Heve-dere, Barthelmy and Morin, were included by Petain in the National Council of France while the leaders of L'Effort were snubbed...
...Nonetheless, it is possible to assert now that this (rroup is considerably more important than the other two combined...
...Meanwhile a most important battle has '•'won in the struggle to preserve democracy at home...
...Filled with Communist propaganda, with which I shall deal in another article, the workers of the Paris factories were hostile to anti-German propaganda...
Vol. 24 • June 1941 • No. 20
