Stalin Is a Bolshevik
OAK, LISTON M.
Stalin Is a Bolshevik By LIston M.Oak Tm foreign policy of any nation b rooted in that nation's P**t—ita history, traditions, institutions, banc concepts, and especially ia ita...
...is the duty of every class conscious worker," wrote Trotsky...
...Staliu will never do so—the security of the USSR and his bureaucracy come first...
...THERE are greater differences between the imperial nationalism of the Tsar and of Stalin, than between the expansionism of Stalin and Lenin...
...Bolshevism is an application of Communism to Russian conditions—to geography, traditions, history, customs, national interests...
...That is the whole value of democracy in the eyes of Stalinists, and explains their lip-service to civil liberties...
...Ilya Ehrenburg is encouraged to write bloodthirsty stories calling for revenge, damning tvrry German as a beast...
...foreign .policy, c.qutrol of s wide security sphere in Central and Eastern Europe, as interpreted by Dallin, is confirmed in large part by events since he wrote Russia and Post-War Europe...
...Stalin insists that there must be "a strong and independent Germany," for a weak Germany would be a pawn in the hands of Anglo-American diplomacy...
...Ha elucidates tat trends of Soviet policy, snd devotes his final chapters to conclusions as to Russia's role in ppst-war Europe...
...It may be possible for the Red Army to convey a ready-made Polish Communist Party into Warsaw...
...sjtmvd...
...There is little probability of sn immediate revolutionary transformation of Nasi Germany into a Soviet Germsny...
...Russia is insisting on unilateral action in settling the Polish border dispute, on establishing' a made in Moscow government in Warsaw, on absorption of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia into the USSR, as well as eastern Poland, parts of Finland, Bessarabia, and Bukovina, and the organization of the Communistled Tito-Ribar government in Yugoslavia...
...The German people must not be identified with the Hitler clique...
...he might not have starved some'five or six million peasants to accomplish the rapid and forcible collectivization of all farms...
...The Bolshevik pattern haa been exemplified in the Far Eastern Bepabfle...
...The primary objective at Sovtet...
...But it is better to foresee the difficulties lying ahead than to entertain wishful illusions which in the days to come may once again be shattered...
...Stalin thus formulated again the basic idea of Soviet foreign policy—followed since 1918...
...Dallin writes with clarity and vast erudition...
...Germany is the key to the whole post-war European situation...
...If Russia joins with Britain and the United States to suppress social revolutions in Germany and elsewhere, it will be to purge critics of Stalin, Social Democrats and others who believe in democratic Socialism, and to avoid a conflict with the western powers during the reconstruction and transition period...
...Trotsky might not have so cruelly purged sll opponents...
...but this time with neither a Weimar Republic, nor a Nazi regime, but a thoroughly pro-Soviet government which, eventually, may become a Soviet Republic...
...Tibsae raeaat books smpaasis* the continuity of Rusgfcp) niawry: A Sktrt History of Russia, by B. H. tjstrm- (Reynal and Hitchcock...
...And no other government has possessed a weapon such as the Comintern...
...Thar* follows a period of democracy daring which the Communist Party ks bwitt ap, and economic aad political ties are strengthened between the eonatry and Moscow...
...he might have pursued the world revolution somewhat more openly and vigorously, along lines set by Lenin...
...There is need for time to build a revolutionary party, reconstruct the devsstated areas of the Ukraine, strengthen the Red Army which has suffered terrific losses...
...Despite all this, the outlook may not be as dark as Dallin portrays it...
...a democratic country, thongh it may appease, ggplr* for long actively support totaliurian Fascism 0 astaliurian Catnmsntsm Aad vies versa, a totaliIggBa commaaiat rogima will not permanently promote gfegtaeracy or capiteiism, except for temporary ends...
...Certainly Stalin is a Bolshevik—with more distortions...
...If, as Dallin hopes, the United States, Britain, Russia, and China achieve the international cooperation promised is the Moscow and Teheran agreements, it can only be on the basis of clear realistic understanding, and only if Russia abandons Isolationism and adopts a foreign policy radically different from that followed from 1918 to 1944...
...Russian National Bolshevism has certainly evolved like everything else—but in its own direction...
...We would be in a position to say that the victory of Socialism in the Soviet Union is complete, if our country were situated on an Island and if it had not many capitalist countries around it...
...Ivanov was accused of Trotskyism, but Stalin wrote, "You are right, Comrade Ivanov, and your opponents are wrong...
...The alternative—collective security within a European federation, as part of a world federation—involves a repudiation of Bolshevism and its consistent foreign policy...
...Bat, Snally, that country I* subjected to a process of drastic social reofgaaltatloa, and through a "plebiscite'* ia absorbed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with Ha "autonomy" guaranteed, of coarse...
...What Moscow wants is a period of democracy during which the German Communist Party can be reestablished...
...When Chiang Kai-shek defeated the Ch inese Communists, led by Russians, in 1927, ha prevented the Bolshevitation of China...
...Furthermore, the imperialism of the Tsarist era had limited aims—its expansionist ambitions ware directed only toward adjacent territories—not toward China, India, Germany, or France, The limits of Bolshevik ambition are defined only by circumstances, opportunities, political realities...
...It is only unfamiliarity with Bolshevik theory and practice, and the history of Russia before aad sines 1917, that makes Stalin seem •oigsaatic Following an exposition of the principles of Bolihsriim and their application to Soviet foreign policy, Dsilin analyses Communist nationalism...
...Such s miracle is greatly to be desired, but hardly to be expected...
...Stalinism differs from Leninism only as historical necessities have dictated, plus some modifications due to the dictator's personality...
...Trotsky might have risked the safety of Russia in supporting revolutions abroad...
...But Russia will insist upon a pro-Soviet Germany, with which there will be close collaboration to be turned into a military alliance when conditions are fsvorsble...
...However much Stalin's Russia has restored the old Tsarist traditions, aad despite the tremendous growth of nationalism in tht past decade, Bolshevik imperialism differs profoundly from the imperialism of the Tsars, and from that of Britain and the United States...
...Stalin Is a Bolshevik By LIston M.Oak Tm foreign policy of any nation b rooted in that nation's P**t—ita history, traditions, institutions, banc concepts, and especially ia ita political •ronotnr A capitalist country, bow*rer liberal, can be expecUd to promote social revolution...
...and in th* Baltic states...
...The degree depends on complex and imponderable factors...
...No Tsarist or other regime ever plsnned such complete attack on tha traditional social relations existing in an acquired area...
...It is probable that Soviet Russia will join an international superstste organization, and it might surprise the cynics and work...
...If traditional Soviet policy is followed, Russia will return to her pro-German orientation...
...Stalin remains a Bolshevik—whether or not he advocates an October revolution today in Chins, in Germany, or in Spain...
...Stalin has also made it clear recently thst he does not trust the pacific promises of the United Nstions any more than in the psst...
...That Stalin Is a follower of Lenin is shown by his statements about Germany during this war...
...A Communist Party is not a mechanism for conducting elections," writes Dallin, "but a ruling body for the future—the future state itself...
...As late as February 12, 1938, Stalin upheld Ivan Filippovich Ivanov in the latter's argument that "full insurance against intervention can be provided only by the final victory of Socialism in other countries...
...Those who expect this war to usher in "an era of universal peace, harmony, and happiness" may be disillusioned...
...kia conclusion that behind all the labyrinthine twists and tortuous turns of Soviet policy, domestic and international, there is a consistent line, is Inescapable...
...Russian collaboration today with the United Nations, like former collaboration with Germany, and pre-war pacts with France, Japan, the United States, and Britain, are all maneuvers of temporary value...
...But this strong Germany must be pro-Soviet, and Moscow has its Free German Committee and Union of German Officers ready to help establish a friendly government...
...CROM the New Economic Policy of 1921, through the * 1936 adoption of the "people's tront" line, to the "dissolution" of the Comintern and the American Communist support of free enterprise, commentators have hailed each change as an evolutionary development toward nationalism and the abandonment of Bolshevism...
...Only when there are pro-Soviet governments in encircling countries will tha USSR feel secure—and not completely until all tha world is Communist But sines the wsvc of revolutions subsided after World War I, the Soviet government has not been in a favorable position to take the offensive, and, through the Comintern, to organise revolutions...
...that will'not be possible in a nation such as Germany...
...He is skepticsl sbout our profered friendship, ss we are about his...
...Hence the changes of "line" in the Comintern, corresponding to Soviet needs in relation to the big powers...
...This problem can be solved only by uniting the serious efforts of the international proletariat with the still more serious efforts of the entire Soviet people," Stalin wrote...
...A pro-Soviet government in which German Communists and their fellow-travelers, and German officers aa stooges, plus whatever other elements can be found to cooperate closely, including some Social Democrats, industrialists, and pre-Nszi diplomats and officials, will likely be organized for the transition period...
...To defend the USSR as the msin fortress of the world proletariat against all assaults of world imperialism...
...This might open the road toward democratic Socialism in Russia...
...and Rttssim and Post-War Eur ops, by David BaHin (Yak University Press, $2 75) Th* latter has particular value, as a guide to the probable course of gjiirt foreign policy, and an understanding of what Churchill termed "a riddls wrapped in a mystery in(ids an enigma...
...If in 1945 or 1946 the Red Army is strong enough, and if the Russian economy is not b» greatly devastated, and if the Communist parties of Central snd Eastern Europe are able to organize sufficient forces, that area will be, to some degree, Bstshevised...
...But if Trotsky had not been defeated by Statin he would have been defeated by inexorable historical developments—by capitalist encirclement and stabilization, by the failure of revolutions, by the growth of Russian nationalism, by the predominance of Russian national interests over the orthodox ideology of Communist internationalism as originally conceived by Lenin...
...Trotsky insisted until his assassination by th* GPU that the Soviet Union is "a workers' state with.bureaucratic distortions...
...First, aa area adjacent to th* USSR signs a n*naggroatisn, mutual aaemtaaee pact, ia which th* sovereignty and tadsprwd—fs of the country is guaranteed...
...Russia under Trotsky would have witnessed the same main trends...
...It also means the actual dissolution of the Comintern...
...Tks Russia* gtifjm, by William Henry Chamberlin (Scribners, aj.7...
...When the Polish army stopped the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw in 1920, it stopped the Bolshevitation of Germsny and all of Central and Eastern Europe...
...It is fsr from impossible thst there csn be s compromise of nations I interests, a reconcilistion of conflicts, sn avoidame of World War III...
...In addition, Soviet Russia has never sought permanent allegiances with capitalist powers—only pacts of limited content to meet immediate needs...
...But in building "Socialism in one country" Stalin has not abandoned the hope of Socialism in other countries, preferably nearby lands...
...But Stalin has consistently declared that "it is not our aim to destroy Germany...
Vol. 27 • February 1944 • No. 8
