Soviet line on the Spanish revolution

[red cat]

This is a discussion of the points raised by Menocchio here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/single-country-socialism-t144825/index.html?p=1928662#post1928662).

I am looking for an anti-revisionist view of the Soviet line on the Spanish revolution. Can this in any way be related to the Khruschevite revisionist line of peaceful coexistence ?

[Soviet dude]

"The cause of Spain is the cause of all humanity." - Stalin

[un_person]

"The cause of Spain is the cause of all humanity." - Stalin

Of course that's only true as long as you stick to the Communist Party line and they don't decide to identify you and your group as Trotskyist. A great book on the Spanish Civil War is Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.

[Soviet dude]

Of course that's only true as long as you stick to the Communist Party line and they don't decide to identify you and your group as Trotskyist. A great book on the Spanish Civil War is Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.

That's actually a terrible book, but funny when you read between the lines, like how Orwell complains the anarchist front doesn't do any actual fighting.

But it makes sense for the anti-communist phoney-Left to hold up a ridiculous, racist, anti-Semite piece of trash like Orwell as their hero for Spain.

http://exiledonline.com/big-brothers-george-orwell-and-christopher-hitchens-exposed/

[Kiev Communard]

Actually most Soviet books on Spanish Revolution I've read could be summarised the following way: the apologetic defence of all actions of PCE, regardless of their outcome, the constant denigration of POUM and CNT and the allegation (sometimes open, sometimes veiled) of their "co-operation with the bourgeoisie, and at the same time - the lauding of the coalition with the bourgeois parties and the pro-bourgeoisie policies of the Popular Front as an example to be emulated.

[Rakhmetov]

Stalin desired to industrialize the USSR rapidly and in peace. In order to do this Stalin wanted to come to an agreement with England and France to prevent Hitler from invading the USSR. When revolution broke out in Spain, in order to demonstrate his "good faith" to England and France, Stalin told the Spanish revolutionaries that took the Soviet line that they should fight for a bourgeois republic not a proletarian socialist revolution.

But Stalin also had his spies everywhere in England and Europe. He came to the conclusion too late that the "allies" desired to see Hitler invade the USSR. That was what Munich agreement between Chamberlain and Hitler was all about. Appeasement, which is now a dirty word was much in vogue in those days.

So when Stalin saw that the allies would not save Spain from a fascist takeover, he decided to seek a nonaggression pact with Hilter and thus save time to keep up with the industrialization of the USSR anticipating an invasion from the west. Hilter, having made the nonaggression pact with Stalin, then moved against France and England, invading one and bombing the other.

The ironies of history are very cruel indeed.

http://books.google.com/books?id=pqkqpAr6_s4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=myth+of+the+good+war&hl=en&ei=vLbqTPDPHIOC8gbO7dWoCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Catillina]

Stalin betrayed the Spanish Revolution, and did Counter-Revolutionnary Actions all over the world.
His aim was to "deepen" the Revolution in Russia, and to do so, he wanted to ally with countries like France and Britain, and the overall CPpartyline in those countries was counterrevolutionnary.

Nobody should defend the crimes against the working class of "comrade" Stalin

[red cat]

Stalin betrayed the Spanish Revolution, and did Counter-Revolutionnary Actions all over the world.
His aim was to "deepen" the Revolution in Russia, and to do so, he wanted to ally with countries like France and Britain, and the overall CPpartyline in those countries was counterrevolutionnary.

Nobody should defend the crimes against the working class of "comrade" Stalin

Please stick to the Spanish revolution instead of throwing in your personal opinion on what Stalin did all over the world, or why Marxist-Leninists "should" accept "comrade" Trotsky's historical line.

[syndicat]

Stalin desired to industrialize the USSR rapidly and in peace. In order to do this Stalin wanted to come to an agreement with England and France to prevent Hitler from invading the USSR. When revolution broke out in Spain, in order to demonstrate his "good faith" to England and France, Stalin told the Spanish revolutionaries that took the Soviet line that they should fight for a bourgeois republic not a proletarian socialist revolution.



uh, not exactly. when the Communist International met on what to do in July 1936, they took a two-stage position. according to Dimitrov, they shouldn't start by talking about soviets and nationalization. rather, they should support the rebuilding of Republican state and try to gain control over the new military and police forces. the PCE's plan was to then use their control over the military and police to gain control of the state. they had gotten very far along this line after the May events in 1937 when Largo Caballero & the CNT were ousted from the government. by 1938 they were pushing for nationalization of the economy through the control they'd gained over the UGT.

in Spain the capitalists had already been expropriated by the workers. that is, most of the industry and farm land of the old capitalist elite was seized by the workers. but in English-speaking countries the Communist parties lied about what was going on in Spain, not talking about the actual proletarian revolution, saying they were just trying to "defend democracy." but their actual aim was a nationalized economy with the CP in power.

part of the rationale for lying about what was going on in Spain and trying to discourage any deepening of the workers revolution was a naive concept of trying to persuade the capitalist powers to provide arms to the Spanish republic...as if British and American capitalists didn't know what was really going on in Spain.

there are some documents from the Soviet archives on the stagist approach of the CI in "Spain Betrayed."

[KurtFF8]

Shouldn't this be in the history subforum?

/nitpick

[red cat]

I kept it here for the peaceful-coexistence/ revisionism allegation.