Stalin on Trotsky

[Liberty Lover]

It's amazing how the years can change ones perception of things:

“All practical work done in connection with the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the president of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the party is indebted primarily and principally to comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the military revolutionary Committee was organised.”

Stalin, in Pravda, 1918

“Trotsky played no particular role in either the party or the October insurrection, and could not do so being a man comparatively new to our party in the October period”

Stalin, Trotskyism or Leninism?, 1924

[Ian]

Thank you for providing those interesting Quotes, he sure had a change of heart

*sigh*Crap, why am I thanking a cappie?

[Ymir]

The second quote could have been taken out of context, and the first could have been misquoted, or simply a fake.

"no particular role" could mean that he was doing many things. It depends on where you put the emphasis in the sentence.


(Edited by Ymir at 3:01 pm on May 30, 2003)

[YKTMX]

Trotskyism or Leninism?

Oxymoron alert!

[Harmless Games]

i dont understand this post, are you trying to prove that stalin was a thirsty tyrant which almost eveyrone realizes already? The man was addicted to power and would lie and kill to get it. You do know he hired a man to put an ice pick in trotsky's head right?

[atlanticche]

these two quotes are taken at very different times, the first was when political allies were needed and the communists and bolsheviks needed to be united because it was so soon after the revolution the country wasnt fully stable yet if enemies in the party at the time the country would of fallen apart
the other quote was after the revolution the country was very well stabalised the party was no longer a focus of attention the party could be split and political enemies could be killed and acussed of anything
this is the reason for the change in stalin's opinion

[Ymir]

And killing Trotsky was wrong?

[Harmless Games]

Yes. anyone is wrong, even more so when you kill someone to solidate your own ruthless power.

[Liberty Lover]

The full article, Trotskyism or Leninism? (http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Other/Stalin/Archive/1924-tro.htm)

[YKTMX]

Quote: from Liberty Lover on 1:52 am on May 31, 2003
The full article, Trotskyism or Leninism? (http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Other/Stalin/Archive/1924-tro.htm)


I'd rather not, he always was a tedious read.

(Edited by YouKnowTheyMurderedX at 2:27 am on May 31, 2003)

[Ymir]

I thought Comrade Stalin's work on Dialectical and Materialist History was very good.

[Ian]

It was alright, his best work far and away was his work 'On the National Question', other than that he is so-so and a rather tedious read due to his prose style.


Also from Joseph Stalin;



in the first edition of his book Foundations of Leninism, Stalin had explicitly rejected the idea that socialism could be constructed in one country. He wrote: “Is it possible to attain the final victory of socialism in one country, without the combined efforts of the proletarians of several advanced countries? No, it is not. The efforts of one country are enough for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. This is what the history of our revolution tells us. For the final victory of socialism, for the organization of socialist production, the efforts of one country, especially a peasant country like ours, are not enough. For this we must have the efforts of the proletariat of several advanced countries. Such, on the whole, are the characteristic features of the Leninist theory of the proletarian revolution.”

In August 1924, as Stalin was consolidating his power in the Soviet Union, a second edition of the same book was published. The text just quoted had been replaced with, in part, the following: “Having consolidated its power, and taking the lead of the peasantry, the proletariat of the victorious country can and must build a socialist society.” And by November 1926, Stalin had completely revised history, stating: “The party always took as its starting point the idea that the victory of socialism ... can be accomplished with the forces of a single country.”
(Thanks to www.marxists.org)

[pilipino ako]

Stalin is responsible for the New Economic Program in 1921 and even the succeeding 5 year NEPs. Industrialization and Agrarian Reform was the major components of it that made it socialism prosper. His only mistake is his declaration that USSR is a classless territory. That major err lead to major and undeniable destruction in the socialist revolution in Russia. Before Stalin died in 1953, he admitted his faults and self-criticized. When Khrushchov heired his position the same year, it is undoubtedly late to rebuke revisionism. It has broaden its base in the bureaucracy and loosen the grasp in the proletarian mode of thinking.