Death of the Stalin Myth
YOURIEVSKY, E.
DEATH OF THE STALIN MYTH By E. Yourievsky The dictator's heirs have cut him down to human size Stalin has been dead less than 18 months, but the gigantic edifice of idolatry which he created has...
...It was clearly essential to destroy what the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute called the "cult of personality" characteristic of the "Stalin era...
...There is no question that Stalin was seized by panic when the Nazis first invaded Russia...
...together with Lenin, he surely, boldly, firmly and carefully led the Party, the working class to the armed uprising, to the Socialist Revolution...
...V. Stalin headed the armed forces of the USSR, leading the Soviet people's struggle against Fascism...
...What, for example, were the wartime achievements of Marshal Voronov...
...Comparison of the two editions of the Philosophical Dictionary reveals other significant changes, all of them calculated to shrink Stalin from superman to mere mortal...
...On July 3, 1941, Stalin made an historic speech to the people in which he pointed out that the Soviet Union faced a mortal danger, that it was a matter of life and death for the Soviet state, of life and death for the peoples of the USSR, of whether the peoples of the Soviet Union were to be free or fall into slavery...
...So, too, with Marshal Zhukov, who was banished to the post of military commander at Odessa after his capture of Berlin brought him too much fame...
...V. Stalin is the creator of the Constitution of victorious socialism, approved on December 5, 1936 by the extraordinary Eighth Congress of Soviets...
...In reality, Stalin stole these ideas from others, notably Trotsky...
...After that, the press consistently attributed every victory on the battlefield to his superior wisdom and generalship, thus paving the way for the legend of the "ten Stalinist blows" which routed the enemy...
...The earlier edition, for example, contained this eulogistic passage about the Vozhd: "J...
...V. Stalin is a theoretician of genius and leader of the world proletariat, a great comrade-in-arms and friend of V. I. Lenin...
...The 1952 edition of the Soviet Philosophical Dictionary depicted Stalin in glowing terms as the architect of military victory: "Under Stalin's direct leadership, the Red Army wore down the enemy...
...He did not dare assume the post of Supreme Commander, leaving the military leaders to bear all responsibility for the early defeats...
...Or let us take an even more important figure, Marshal Vasilevsky...
...One of the most interesting features of the new historiography is its revision of the military history of World War II—an obvious concession to the Soviet marshals, who chafed under Stalin's cavalier treatment and his assumption of all credit for the victory over Hitler...
...Let us look at several volumes published while Stalin was alive, of the new edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia...
...In the old hagiography, Stalin is given personal credit for the Soviet Constitution of 1936 as well as the famous Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks...
...Though it is 703 pages long, as compared with the previous edition's 614, its biographical section on Stalin is almost a third shorter...
...In the process of cutting Stalin down to size, the new rulers of the Soviet Union have—for their own unaltruistic reasons—given the outside world a more accurate version of recent history than it has been used to receiving from that source...
...In the ideological training of Party and state cadres, a tremendous role is played by the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), written by Stalin, which arms the Party with the brilliantly generalized experience of its history...
...The Stalin myth was doomed the moment its originator was dead, for it made his successors' claims to governmental authority ridiculous...
...Under the leadership of J. V. Stalin, a plan for the uprising was worked out...
...The historical fact, of course, is that Stalin played an insignificant role in the October Revolution and was in no sense its co-organizer with Lenin...
...The new stage in the history of the All-Union Communist party which begins with the Bolsheviks' coming to power is linked with new, exceptionally bright pages in the activity of J. V. Stalin—as organizer of victory on the Civil War fronts, as Party theorist, as great statesman and brilliant transformer of the country...
...Under the leadership of the Communist party, the Soviet Army crushed Hitlerite Germany and hoisted the banner of victory over Berlin...
...When this series of expurgations is complete, little will remain of the fantastically inflated Stalin myth...
...Stalin developed the advanced Soviet military science, worked out the principle of active defense and the laws of the counter-offensive, of the role of great masses of tanks and aviation in contemporary war, of artillery as the most powerful military arm...
...The old edition had this to say about Stalin's part in preparing the October Revolution: "On October 16, 1917, a center to direct the uprising was elected, with J. V. Stalin at its head...
...Clearly, Stalin deserved all the credit and Voronov none of it...
...the genius of Stalin found the correct solutions...
...While he lived, he was presented to the Russian people as the all-wise, all-powerful being from whose brain sprang every worthwhile achievement of the regime...
...The Molotovs, Khrushchevs and Malen-kovs remained no more than errand-boys, humbly executing their master's orders...
...On June 30 [1941], the State Defense Committee was created, and Stalin was appointed its chairman...
...This paragraph, one of the most important in Stalin's previous biography, has been completely expunged...
...Here is the new, less lyrical version of the late dictator's wartime contributions: "J...
...Zhukov, we learn, "carrying out the brilliant Stalinist plans, . . captured Berlin in May 1945...
...The new—and historically accurate—version is that both the Constitution and the Short Course were written by special commissions, not by Stalin...
...The new edition of the Philosophical Dictionary, published last November, presents an altogether different picture...
...With the greatest perspicacity, Stalin pointed out the trustworthy roads leading to victory...
...This, too, has now been dropped...
...The revelant passages in the Philosophical Dictionary read as follows: "J...
...This has been completely dropped from the new edition...
...He proved himself a worthy pupil of Generalissimo J. V. Stalin...
...Vasilevsky, it turns out, "profoundly mastered Stalinist military science and the methods of Stalinist leadership...
...DEATH OF THE STALIN MYTH By E. Yourievsky The dictator's heirs have cut him down to human size Stalin has been dead less than 18 months, but the gigantic edifice of idolatry which he created has already been leveled to the ground by his heirs...
...This piece of barefaced fabrication has been omitted, as has the following: "Stalin worked out the magnificent program for socialist industrialization of the country and collectivization of the peasants...
...The words "the Great Stalin" are still in use, presumably to keep up appearances, but they are now no more than an empty phrase...
...The old Philosophical Dictionary described as follows Stalin's activities in the years immediately after the Revolution: "After the triumph of the Revolution, Stalin entered the first Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin...
...If Stalin was a towering genius beside whom all other Soviet leaders were dwarfs, what right did these puny creatures now have to seize the reins of power...
...Only in 1943, after the tide had turned at Stalingrad, did he appoint himself Supreme Commander...
...At various stages of the war...
...Together with Lenin, Stalin was the organizer of the Great October Revolution...
...The old edition contained this: "In 1906-1907, articles by J. V. Stalin were published under the general title, 'Anarchism and Socialism.' These articles are part of our Party's ideological treasure-house...
...He took part "in the first Stalinist blow to smash the siege of Leningrad,' "in the fourth Stalinist blow to crush the Finnish armies,' and "in the eighth Stalinist blow to crush the German Fascist armies in the Baltic region...
...Calling Stalin a friend of Lenin is as absurd and dishonest as calling him a genius...
Vol. 37 • August 1954 • No. 34
