"Another View of Stalin"

  1. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    Just thought I'd bring this book to everyone's attention.
    http://www.plp.org/books/Stalin/book.html
    It debunks misconceptions about Stalin pretty thoroughly.
    I haven't managed to finish the entire thing just yet..
    Besides defending Stalin, it goes on the offensive against Trotsky for his call for a coup d'Etat in the midst of the Nazi threat, among other things.
    I doubt much would be gained by me rambling too much, so I'll just stop there and consider this an addition to a library of anti-Revisionist works here.
  2. RHIZOMES
    RHIZOMES
    I have an actual copy of this book. It's amazing and an eye-opener. I think every leftist should at least consider the arguments made in this book, and it's a shame many do not know about it.
  3. Winter
    Winter
    I have an actual copy of this book. It's amazing and an eye-opener. I think every leftist should at least consider the arguments made in this book, and it's a shame many do not know about it.
    I must find that book! So far, no luck. You were very fortunate to come across it.
  4. DiaMat86
    DiaMat86
    Its tough to read in the middle, as it goes into production statistics. Like 10,000 pork bellies, 5,000 tons of steel in this five year plan, etc.. At the beginning and the end its more readable. A bit like Fascism and Social Revolution.
  5. Harrycombs
    Harrycombs
    I agree that this is a great book. There is a person at my school, who is the only other communist, but she considers her self a bit more of a social democrat. I am trying to convince her to read this book. I already sent her a link to it.
  6. Wakizashi the Bolshevik
    The next thing on my to read list is Another view of Stalin.
    I'm looking for it, which isn't difficult since I live in Belgium and often go to meetings and organisations of the PVDA, the party founded by the author of this book, Comrade Ludo Martens.

    Note: Comrade Ludo Martens is seriously sick, I don't knwo exactly which disease, but it's possible, and even pretty probable, that this disease will be fatal.
    His position of Chairman of the PVDA is now given to Comrade Peter Mertens.
    Comrade Ludo Martens, we will never forget you or your great contributions to the cause of the People!!!
  7. Honggweilo
    Honggweilo
    Note: Comrade Ludo Martens is seriously sick, I don't knwo exactly which disease, but it's possible, and even pretty probable, that this disease will be fatal.
    !!
    Tropical disease caught in Congo which stimulates early stages of alzheimer...
  8. Wanted Man
    Wanted Man
    I must find that book! So far, no luck. You were very fortunate to come across it.
    http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/publications.html

    I think you can order it through this site.
  9. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    Tropical disease caught in Congo which stimulates early stages of alzheimer...
    Really...? That's terrible. May his last moments be made as painless as possible.
  10. Charles Xavier
    I remember in Highschool I tried to read this book. It was blocked from the school's computer as hate speech.
  11. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    I remember in Highschool I tried to read this book. It was blocked from the school's computer as hate speech.
    LOL. Yes, we hate bourgeois lies .
    That's why I've stuck to reading the actual, not online, book "The Battle For China's Past: Mao & The Cultural Revolution" by Mobo Gao". It's much less of a hassle.
    I could try to find it, and I'd scream if the school computers here blocked it...they haven't even blocked David Duke's web site, apparently.
    Unfortunately I was a newbie and ill-equipped to refute everything, but they had use read "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Heart of Darkness"...Looking back, if I'd known then a lot of what I know now, I could have easily refuted several points made/lies echoed...a few about Mao, but more about Stalin in particular, as he's an easier target since he had to resort to drastic measures to fight the Nazis, Japanese imperialists, and potentially others.
    Better get some sleep now, I'll expand on this tomorrow or later. Cheers!
  12. Honggweilo
    Honggweilo
    Its funny btw how this Greek hoxhaist party calls Ludo Martens the "Leader of Revisionist Krusthevite Internationalism"
  13. Charles Xavier
    A lot of hoxhaists I've met are weird. What happened to being a Leninist these days?
  14. Cumannach
    Cumannach
    This is a great book everybody should read it.
  15. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    Yeah. I've got to brush up on a lot of that stuff (Anti-Revisionism and just countering anti-Communists in general). This weekend, I'm seeing my aunt who. oddly enough, is a Trotskyite-turned Corporate lawyer. I kid you not. If Socialism/Communism comes up one way or another in a discussion, especially in light of the back-to-work legislation for CUPE local 3903 (York University strike), I'm in for a bombardment of Capitalist propaganda.
  16. Cumannach
    Cumannach
    trotskyite corporate lawyer no surprise there
  17. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    Well I'm back from a visit with this Aunt.
    First of all, I may have misheard. She claims that she was not a Troskyite, but simply said she was "Communist" in high school, but she did say quite clearly beforehand that she likes the ideals of "Lenin, Trotsky....".

    What's bothering me now, however:

    She dismissed any support for Stalin as an internet fad and said she wrote a paper on Communism and studied a lot of Russian history for said paper.

    She just gave me "Gulag: A History" by Anne Applebaum as a "present" so that I'd "know what I'm talking about".
    The importance of the fact that Capitalism has resulted in more deaths, even if the maximum alleged figures during Stalin's time are taken seriously, is apparently lost on her. She just said "Stalin was still a murderer"...and I wondered what to think when she claimed that Stalin had personally signed orders that killed millions.

    Sorry if I'm rambling...I just find that one of the most difficult struggles involved in Anti-Revisionism is a feeling of isolation. People are so sure about Socialism/"Communism"'s alleged crimes that one starts to doubt oneself.
  18. Das war einmal
    Das war einmal
    On recommendation of our 'comrade' LZ I am reading this book at the moment (ok thats not entirely true but he flamed the book, so it must be good one way or another). I am currently at the beginning of chapter four, about the so called 'holodomor'
  19. Das war einmal
    Das war einmal
    She just gave me "Gulag: A History" by Anne Applebaum
    LOL! My mother brought that book for me also from the library when I gave 'Another View' a first try, years ago. I didnt really bother reading it, since I know its a lot of gibberish by some woman who is praised by capitalist libertarians and besides I didnt finish Another View yet, just maybe I give it a try sometime, only to prepare myself to debunk the greatest bullshit stated in this book.

    Side note: I'm not convinced that Martens will debunk every critic I have on Stalin and I dont expect it to be neither, its mostly good material against the most blatant and grotesque lies, like those of Conquest.
  20. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    Yeah.
    I referred her to "Another View of Stalin", and a couple of other sources, but all she could focus on was that one of them, which admittedly was a mistake, although I was in a rush at the time, was an essay on the Stalin Society's website.

    I think I got her pretty well off guard, though. I pointed out that, upon opening the book, the first thing I noticed was one name...you guessed it:

    SOLZHENITSYN!

    ...I pointed that out, and a bit about who he was, and she could only say "...Who?"
    Conquest is absurd, yeah.

    A real show of her objectivity: "If Stalin killed one man, he'd still be evil.", but she didn't seem to have much of a reply in defense of Capitalism when I pointed out how many people that Capitalism has killed.

    Thanks, it helps to get a response from someone here...it's too easy to feel isolated/crazy sometimes.

    I'll try to figure out what to do with this book. Oh well.
  21. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    Oh, you'll love it.
    Apparently Lenin was the original creator of concentration camps :P.
  22. Cumannach
    Cumannach
    don't feel isolated brad. Anti-revionism isn't some lunatic fringe. There are thousands of good comrades all around the world that reject the falsifications levelled at stalin, including whole communist parties like the KKE, (Greece), as well as many brilliant scholars like many of the above authors^. The majority of the masses in Russia and China still revere stalin and mao.
  23. Wanted Man
    Wanted Man
    Oh, that reminds me. A KKE-member writes a regular column for the paper of my party (the NCPN, i.e. the Dutch CP). In the latest one, she mentions that the KKE's theses for the 18th Congress openly spoke of Soviet socialism under both Lenin and Stalin. Many bourgeois commentators and journalists were "disappointed" by this, because it supposedly means that they "have gone back to Stalin" because they allow open discussion on the subject in their paper.

    There is no glorification of leaders or a cult of personality, but still, it's "disappointing" to them that communists have objective and sober discussions on the matter. As the writer says: "Even this is too much for some. Silence or slander is the method, that serves lies better."

    I agree with this. A strong and principal communist party is much more dangerous to the bourgeoisie than one that meekly apologises for socialism in the past. It's no wonder that more European communist parties are rediscovering anti-revisionism on their own. The international cooperation between these parties, like in the International Communist Seminar will be increasingly necessary.
  24. Cumannach
    Cumannach
    Absolutely.

    In the end it all comes back to Stalin. His leadership of the CPSU is the defining feature of the history of the 20th century. A communist party that doesn't correctly analyse socialism in the USSR is simply not serious.
  25. Soviet
    Some more sights about Stalin and stalinism in English:
    http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/
    http://www.stel.ru/stalin/
  26. The Intransigent Faction
    The Intransigent Faction
    Not "Stalinism", no.
    As far as I've seen, that's just a derogatory term used by reformists/Anarchists/etc.
    It's simply Marxism-Leninism.
  27. Brother No. 1
    Brother No. 1
    only the Detractors of Anti-Revsionism call us Stalinits. We wear that name with Pride. We are the Bolshievks. We are Supporters of Stalins Era.
  28. Charles Xavier
    I'm not uncritical of Stalin's leadership, he did make mistakes, we should recognize that, but my criticism of Stalin are not the same as a Trotskyist's criticism of Stalin would be. For one I think the Third Period policy of Stalin was a mistake and it was wrong to be promoted, what really should have been supported was industrial unionism and the united front policy which was eventually adopted at the 7th congress at the Comintern. My other criticism is the problem with the continuation of suspension of democratic norms within the party post-war, which allowed opportunists to infiltrate the party after the second world war.
  29. Brother No. 1
    Brother No. 1
    He did make mistakes like Mao and other leaders. But then again dont all humans make mistakes whether a leader or a worker.
  30. Soviet
    Not "Stalinism", no.
    Of course,there is no such doctrine.There was a marxist-leninist practice of building the socialism in hostile sorroundings,which we can call "stalinism".
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