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™
petuation of Stalin's memory or the
annihilation of it can be of no real
importance. The clue to this is a fact
which too many in the free world
have too long tried to ignore: Stalin
was communism, as Lenin before him
was communism, and as Khrushchev,
after him, is communism, and all that
has been done in their names is communism.
The purported renunciation of Stalinism and the proclaimed return to
Leninism can be regarded only as a
piece of dialectical sleight of hand.
Even to speculate about it implies a
differentiation that, in reality, does
not exist.
The Same Pattern
Ever since Stalin's accession to
power, various observers have debated in all seriousness whether Stalin's
program represented a continuation
of Lenin's or whether that which
Lenin had inaugurated was being corrupted by an irrational despot. The
disputation is a sterile one. The
threads of Stalinism and the threads
of Leninism have been woven so
tightly together into the fabric of communism as the world now knows it
that they can be separated only if the
entire fabric itself is torn apart. The
Soviet and Communist empire which
Stalin created stands firmly upon the
foundations left to him by Lenin. To
speak of a Stalinist "counterrevolution" is to discard history; the "counterrevolution" was Lenin's seizure of
power from the Russian Social Democrats and the implantation of dictatorship upon the Russian people. The
development of the Soviet Union since
that time has been consistent and
continuous.
The goal of Lenin, and the goal of
Stalin later, was to bring the rest of
the world into the orbit of Communist power. The methods which Stalin
used to accomplish this were not invented by him, but only perfected.
Stalin's great contributions to the theory of communism dealt with the
Problems of Leninism. The purges, the
famines, the mass oppression of Stalin's
reign, were all part of the Leninist
program, too. It was Lenin who, at
the Second World Congress of the
Communist International, formulated
the Blueprint for World Conquest, as
William Henry Chamberlin has aptly
designated it: a detailed description of
Communist objectives and the methods for implementing them. And it
was Lenin who formulated the "colonial" strategy, still followed at this
very moment by the Soviet Union, of
striking at the major Western nations
from behind, by provoking uprisings
in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
To regard Leninism as a supposed
program of peace and Stalinism as one
of war would be to blunder into a
morass of fatal speculation. Neither
was a program of war or peace in itself. They utilized one or the other as
political exigencies required. It was
Stalin who liked to pose as the great
man of peace and who, in the course
of this imposture, justified his pact
with Hitler and the Red Army's invasion of Poland and Finland as part of
the pattern of bringing peace, Soviet
style, to one nation after another. It
was Stalin, too, who introduced the
concept of collective security which
gave rise to the ill-famed popular-front
governments of thc thirties. This was
the prototype of the kind of "parliamentary democracy" which later
brought thc nations of Eastern Europe
under the Soviet heel and which today
Khrushchev is busy reviving. It is
Stalin who must be credited with the
creation, too, of the Communist-led
"Partisans of Peace" movement which
Khrushchev is refurbishing as a colossal front organization for gathering in
neutralists throughout the world.
Alternatives: "Capitulate or Perish"
Just as "peaceful coexistence" has its
origin in Stalin's reign, so, too, the
concept of "collective leadership" represents no innovation. Stalin himself
established collective government
after the death of Lenin as the first
step in his consolidation of power.
With his liquidation of the men with
whom he shared power, the device
quickly became obsolete.
To differentiate Leninism and Stalinism is to obscure the essence and
substance of communism itself: the
denial of Cod and the manifold values
by which men must live if they are to
remain civilized. The evil of communism does not depend upon the man,
or the men, who rule in its name. By
its very character it is capable only of
breeding further evil, regardless of
who occupies the throne.
When the verbiage is swept aW3|
Khrushchev can be seen to offer
same alternatives that the Kremlin
always offered — capitulate or pert
His purposes are not to abandon
policies of Stalin but only to el
them better, and to extend the achirv
ments of Stalin still further. To do thi
it is necessary to replace the cruder^
of the Stalin era with craft and subuj
ty, to transform its wintry climate in'
sunny blandishments.
Khrushchev already claims the risjj
to speak for a majority of the won
population. Should one more conn"
fall under his sway, that right will''
incontestable. This is the great da™
of the sweet reasonableness of an"
Stalinism. For there are many anil"*
this country's allies — and many W»
in this country itself — whose Sjfl
pathies, consciously or unconscious?
rest with the Soviet Union and *
humanitarianism to which it pretend1
Performance ...
Fantasies on the Kremlin Stage
t!.
It is Khrushchev's hope that
audience of the free world in its low
ing for an end to the threat of war *j
accept whatever fantasies are enac'^
on the Kremlin stage, and that it *
forget that in the wings, committed J
the service of Soviet peace, the i"1
tary might of the Soviet Union '
mains intact. ,
Interpreting the meaning of Khn|S
iii*
chev's statements properly requl
perhaps a kind of simultaneous-US
lation machine. What comes throw
when the headphones are attache"
the true cry resounding in the Kr^
lin: "The Vozhcl is dead. Long live*
Vozhd. Stalinism is purged: Stalin1'
endures." If we fail to heed tl<
Stalin, purged, will have won a
greater than any which he cons1
mated as Russia's master.
The Committee on Un-Ame^
Activities wishes to thank the coV\js
utors to this symposium for *
splendid efforts to create an
standing of the Soviet Union ->
policy. It is the hope of the coinn11 ^
that their analyses may aid in
lishing an effective program *
which to countervail the dang1'^
anti-Stalinism — and in main1
reason and vigilance in that dim" .,
ing part of the world that is stiff
Page 4
I- vi is I'niirvi News, Septembet
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