Homage to Catalina

[Armisas]

Here recently in my spare time I've been reading Homage to Catalina by Orwell, and about a little half way through the book. But, from what i can understand so far, it would seem Stalin did more to hurt the revolution. Then again I'm only half way through, and would like to here some of y'alls opinions.

[Blake's Baby]

Firstly, Catalina is a girl's name, what you're thinking of is 'Homage to Catalonia' which is one of the regions that constitutes Spain. Or, perhaps, doesn't, but let's not get into the whole Catalan v Spanish thing.

It's certainly the opinion of many people that Stalin and the Communists in Spain did an awful lot to harm revolutionary prospects during the War in Spain. Is that a problem? If so, why?

[Armisas]

Sorry for the typo, and its not so much of a problem. I just don't understand why he would put his fellow comrades in harms way, or stall the workers revolution. Then again, I still have a lot of reading and learning to do.

[Prometeo liberado]

Simply put the anarchist wanted to fight a revolution and a civil war simultaneously. The communist saw what was coming on the world scene and new that resources could not be wasted on a revolution and civil war at the same time. Orwell was a Fabian socialist and a nationalist. His book is his a distorted view of the events that took place in the POUM regiment that he was in. Had he originally been with the communist columns I'm sure his book would have been quite different. Point being is that he wrote from reaction rather than a structured analysis. This narrow thought process would reveal itself time and time again in his writings and his actions. One example was when he gave English intelligence the names of known communists. Stalin took a huge gamble in getting what little arms and personnel assistance he had to Spain. Along with Mexico no other countries came to republican aid. Orwell's books get extremely shallow as one reads them more. As for the book "The Spanish Cockpit" that is mentioned in Homage, don't bother with that either.

[Ned Kelly]

the catalina wine mixer

[daft punk]

Simply put the anarchist wanted to fight a revolution and a civil war simultaneously. The communist saw what was coming on the world scene and new that resources could not be wasted on a revolution and civil war at the same time. Orwell was a Fabian socialist and a nationalist. His book is his a distorted view of the events that took place in the POUM regiment that he was in. Had he originally been with the communist columns I'm sure his book would have been quite different. Point being is that he wrote from reaction rather than a structured analysis. This narrow thought process would reveal itself time and time again in his writings and his actions. One example was when he gave English intelligence the names of known communists. Stalin took a huge gamble in getting what little arms and personnel assistance he had to Spain. Along with Mexico no other countries came to republican aid. Orwell's books get extremely shallow as one reads them more. As for the book "The Spanish Cockpit" that is mentioned in Homage, don't bother with that either.

This is completely wrong. This is just the Stalinist excuses. Stalin deliberately crushed the revolution in Spain for 2 reasons:

1. he wanted to keep the west happy.

2. he was scared of any socialist revolutions, because is socialism existed in Spain, people in Russia might well want it.

This is why at the same time as crushing Spain's revolution he purged the communists in Russia, killing tens of thousands of them, and expelling hundreds of thousands from the Communist party. Half the Centarl Committee were purged, and only TWO of the original Bolshevik Cantral Committee survived apart from Stalin, Trotsky (who was in exile) and Kollantai (who was abroad).

[Mr. Natural]

Armisas, Welcome! I went to school at Sewanee. My bad.

I had thought with your "Homage to Catalina" that you might be trying to establish a radical surfer tendency at RevLeft. That's about the only tendency we're missing, I believe.

Now to the Spanish Civil War, anything but a humorous matter. I read Homage to Catalonia and find it mild in its denunciations of Stalinist actions in Spain. I'm currently reading Anthony Beevor's Battle For Spain (2006), but slowly. I can only stomach a few pages of Stalinist betrayals, butcheries, and incompetence at a time.

Stalin never intended to help Spain. He was only interested in using Spain to serve his interests and regime. Spanish anarchists understood that if they won the civil war, they would then have to fight the "communists."

The NKVD kidnapped Andreu Nin, the leader of the left communist POUM militia to which Orwell belonged, and skinned him alive. Orwell died a committed socialist who hated the British Communist Party, which hated him.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Stalin was a humongous asshole and that was reflected in how his "help" was metted out to the Spaniards. To illustrate just one aspect of this: the purging of Marshall Tukhachevsky during the conflict meant that his ideas, which were innovative and could've made a difference for the Republican forces, esp. in the area of tank warfare, which the Republicans actually had an edge over the Nationalists in (unlike aerial warfare, which was just the opposite), were suddenly banished from military discourse.

[Zukunftsmusik]

okay, I'm no Stalin defender, but seriously, I never understand such arguments as stated above. "Stalin was a humongous asshole", and therefore he fucked up the spanish revolution? Also, I would find it more... proper (?) to say USSR instead of Stalin here (a state is ruled by a class, not a person etc.)

[Os Cangaceiros]

What's not to understand? The man was definitely an asshole. That was reflected in how his assholeness affected Spain, aka NKVD goon squads and the rest. Also, I'm refering to Stalin here, not the USSR proper. While it is true that there were other forces in the USSR besides just Stalin, there's also an ample amount of evidence to show that Stalin, the asshole, had a fair deal to do with influencing events both at home and abroad. That has nothing to do with the "great man theory", that's just a fact.

It's true that he did supply material assistance to Spain, but the Republicans could have done a number of things that would've helped them a great deal independent of Stalin, for example declaring Morrocco free of it's colonial bondage.

[Os Cangaceiros]

There were big problems with the anarchists, though, they were no prize pigs either.