Something about the Moscow Trials (Times Magazine) [Archive]

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Delenda Carthago

13th April 2012, 16:22

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755449,00.html

...a fresh battle has opened over Stakhanovism and thus far enraged workers have done most of the shooting. In coal mines, factories, railways and even on the Dictator's favorite collective farms in recent weeks desperate Russian workers have slain Stakhanovites. Pride & Sabotage. Six months ago the most violent of Dictator Stalin's henchmen, big-nosed, hot-eyed Commissar for Heavy Industry Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze. demanded that Russian workmen pitch in and really learn to use the machine tools their Government was buying from the Capitalistic world at drastic sacrifices of food and other Russian goods...

...In the Gorky automotive works the Brothers Ivan and Feodor Kriachkov assassinated their fellow worker Ivan Schmerov because he had speeded up his daily output 200%. Tried before a military tribunal, they were sentenced to death. In the coal mine at Stalino two assistant foremen, a checkweigher and an electrician were arrested for the murder of a fast-working Stakhanovite who had peached on them to the Bolshevik labor boss as "opposed to Stakhanovism." In a nearby mine a worker shot at his Stakhanovite mine manager, missed. Most spectacular blow against Stakhanovism is supposed to have been struck by Engineer S. Plotnikov, a member of the Communist Party up to the time of his arrest. According to the Soviet Press, Engineer Plotnikov became so vexed at Chelyabinsk by the boastful uppishness of the local Stakhanov gang that he ordered the fastest speeder-uppers to dig in an extremely dangerous (Continued on p. 28) pit of Mine No. 204. Sure enough, the pit caved in on them...

The same people who was swearing that no terrorism, no assasinations, no sabotages of economy were taking place in USSR and the trials were just about the blood-thirsty freak named Stalin, they were saluting the "free thinkers workers" some years ago.
;)

Rafiq

13th April 2012, 16:46

Edit : Fuck nvm

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Per Levy

13th April 2012, 16:50

Delenda Carthago

14th April 2012, 12:43

to quote yourself here:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2408234&postcount=90
Yes. Cause its just the same thing.

Grenzer

14th April 2012, 17:37

If the media said something good about the Soviet Union, then it must be true for no other reason than that. If they said something bad about the Soviet Union, then it must be false for no reason other than that. This kind of reductive logic is the rule among Stalinists.

The bankruptcy of the Stalinist reign of terror and the sham Trials are well known, it does not even need to be corroborated with third party media, as there is a mountain of primary source material from witnesses in addition to the Soviet archives themselves. It's absolutely critical to debunk the Stalinists that cling to the failures of the past. They have no conception of what socialism is, or how to get there.

In the end, what matters is not how many workers the regime murdered, but that they utilized the capitalist mode of production. This by itself consigns the Soviet Union and all those who worship it to the scrap heap by default.

Per Levy

14th April 2012, 17:51

Yes. Cause its just the same thing.

pretty much yes, i mean what does this have to say to workers nowadays? what does that mean for them? nothing, it also means nothing for greek working class or does it?

i also find it funny when bourgeois media supports a claim of an ML its super reliable abut when bourgeois media does claim something else it cant be trusted because its bourgeois media after all.

Os Cangaceiros

15th April 2012, 02:15

Workers rebelling against ramped up productivity and work speed-ups ("Stakhanovism")...hmmm...where have we seen that before...

Seems like a hallmark of commodified labor power. ;)

daft punk

15th April 2012, 19:49

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755449,00.html

The same people who was swearing that no terrorism, no assasinations, no sabotages of economy were taking place in USSR and the trials were just about the blood-thirsty freak named Stalin, they were saluting the "free thinkers workers" some years ago.
;)

Forgive me for being thick, but I dont understand you comment. The article implies that some of the people shot by Stalin's regime had killed Stakhanovites. What does this have to do with the false accusations made against Trots of sabotage and terrorism? Are you saying these "desperate Russian workers" were Trotskyists? It was a Trotskyist plot? If someone made it look like you should be doing twice as much work per day, when you were already struggling, would you need to be a saboteur to attack them?

I knew a bloke who got beat up at work one day. He was a right bastard. He wasnt a Trot.

scarletghoul

15th April 2012, 21:03

If the media said something good about the Soviet Union, then it must be true for no other reason than that. If they said something bad about the Soviet Union, then it must be false for no reason other than that. This kind of reductive logic is the rule among Stalinists.

Lets look at these two scenarios a little closer, comrade :p

Why would the bourgeois/imperialist media publish falsehoods that undermine the soviet union ? We all know the answer to this.

Now, why would they publish falsehoods that benefit the Soviet Union ?? There is no logical explanation, especially in the period this article is from. thus we can assume that its an overall honest piece of reporting

ridethejetski

17th April 2012, 03:48

[

The same people who was swearing that no terrorism, no assasinations, no sabotages of economy were taking place in USSR and the trials were just about the blood-thirsty freak named Stalin, they were saluting the "free thinkers workers" some years ago.
;)

But was this part of some "trotskyite-nazi-japanese-bukharinite" conspiracy or whatever?

Or was it workers pissed at the state demanding they work harder and faster while facing falls in their living conditions?