The Capitalist and Revisionist Attacks on Stalin
Joseph Stalin has been viciously slandered by the capitalists and revisionists, who make him out to be the devil incarnate. The reason for these unbridled attacks is clear. Stalin's name is synonymous with socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat. He was, during the years he led the Soviet people, the most formidable and implacable enemy of the capitalist exploiters. Even now that he has died, his ideas and the system that he represents remain a fatal danger to the capitalists and the revisionists. For this reason they must attack him with all their resources; they must use every lie and deception to defame this great working class leader.
Among those who attack Stalin are a whole array of political forces which call themselves Marxists. First there are the Soviet revisionists, who have destroyed the socialist system created under Stalin's leadership and are determined to vilify anything connected with the years when the dictatorship of the working class existed in the Soviet Union, and to attack the basic principles of genuine Marxism-Leninism. (The Communist Party, USA repeats the Soviet revisionists' attacks on Stalin.) Then there are the Trotskyists, the arch-enemies of Marxism-Leninism and Soviet socialism, who have made a profession out of slandering Stalin in the service of the capitalists for over half a century. These anti-Marxist tendencies are joined by various other opportunists, and have recently found a new ally in their attacks on Stalin in the so-called Marxist-Leninist Party (MLP) in the United States. The MLP, which for many years proclaimed affiliation to the international Marxist-Leninist movement headed by the PLA, has, since 1984, shown its true colors in a series of scurrilous attacks on the Party of Labor of Albania and on Stalin. Their arguments are essentially a rehash of the lies and distortions put forward by the Trotskyists for decades.
Stalin: A Touchstone of Marxism-Leninism
All genuine Marxist-Leninists are proud to uphold Joseph Stalin as one of the great teachers of Marxism-Leninism. The question of Stalin and his work is not simply one of historical importance. It is a question of critical importance to the ongoing development of the Marxist-Leninist movement worldwide. All of the basic ideas of Marxism-Leninism and especially the heart of this theory, the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat, are tied up with the defense of Stalin. The capitalists and revisionists attack on Stalin is at the same time an attack on the ideas of Lenin and of Marx. The upholding of Stalin is a touchstone differentiating genuineMarxism-Leninism from all of the theories that defend capitalism (although they may do this under a myriad of "radical" and "revolutionary" signboards). Only those who uphold and defend the work and teachings of Joseph Stalin will be able to build the kind of political party necessary to lead the working class to victory and to establish and maintain the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Enver Hoxha, the great Albanian communist who died last year, spoke for all genuine Marxist-Leninists when he said:
"The historic merits of Stalin are undeniable. Those merits constitute his fundamental characteristic as a great leader and revolutionary. The revisionists' slanders against Stalin cannot in the least obscure his outstanding figure andmonumental work, which will remain brilliant through the ages and will always serve as a great and inspiring example and a banner of struggle for all Marxist-Leninists of the world."
A Short Biography of J.V. Stalin
Comrade J.V. Stalin,
Dec. 21, 1879 - Mar. 5, 1953
"As for myself, I am merely a pupil of Lenin, and my aim is to be a worthy pupil of his." Thus spoke Joseph Stalin, the great leader of the Russian working class, who proved himself a truly worthy pupil of Lenin. Stalin was a dedicated revolutionary who fought together with Lenin from the beginning of the Bolshevik movement. He worked tirelessly to build the Bolshevik Party and helped lead it to victory in the struggles to overthrow Czarism and capitalism in Russia. He succeeded Lenin as leader of the party and of the Soviet State.
The son of a peasant woman and a cobbler, Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili (Stalin) was born on December 2 1, 1879, in Tiflis, Georgia. Georgia was one of several oppressed nations in the Transcaucasian region of the Czarist Empire. At the age of 15 Stalin joined the revolutionary movement and at 18 he enrolled in the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). At that time, the RSDLP was just being formed. The first Georgian Social-Democratic organization, the "Messameh Dassy," which Stalin joined, was not a politically homogeneous organization. The majority of its members were "legal Marxists" who inclined toward economism and bourgeois nationalism. Stalin, Ketskhoveli, and Tsulukidze formed the core of the revolutionary Marxist minority which gave rise to the revolutionary Social-Democratic movement in Georgia. This revolutionary minority broke with the old narrow methods of the Messameh Dassy and, instead, engaged in widespread revolutionary political agitation among the masses of workers.
Stalin threw himself tirelessly into the work of building up this revolutionary organization in Transcaucasia, leading workers' study circles, writing leaflets, organizing mass activities among the workers - mass agitation, political meetings, strikes and political demonstrations. Stalin also led the ideological struggle against the counter-revolutionary views of the "legal Marxists." When, in December 1900, Lenin's newspaper Iskra appeared, Stalin supported it whole-heartedly. Although Stalin and Lenin did not meet until 1905, they were already linked closely by their dedication to the same revolutionary ideals.
Joseph Stalin, 1902. Photo from the files of the Czarist police.
In furtherance of these ideals, Stalin was the moving force behind the secret press apparatus in the Transcaucasia. Under the noses of the Czar's police, the Bolsheviks ran a secret printing press in Tiflis from November 1903 to April 1906. The Party program and rules, books, pamphlets, newspapers and scores ofleaflets were published in three languages and were printed in thousands of copies. These publications were very important in preparing the working class for the coming revolution.
The Revolution of 1905
In December 1904, a huge strike of the oil workers in Baku (the largest industrial area in Transcaucasia) was organized by the Bolsheviks under Stalin's leadership. "This strike was like a clap of thunder heralding a great revolutionary storm" in Russia. In leaflets, "Armed Insurrection and Our Tactics," "The Provisional Revolutionary Government and Social Democracy," and "Reaction Is Growing," Stalin followed Lenin's lead in preparing the workers for the inevitable revolt. He skillfully explained the necessity for armed insurrection while exposing the Mensheviks who stood for compromise and not revolution.
In 1905, the workers and peasants throughout Russia rose up in revolt against Czarist rule. Stalin led the armed uprising in Georgia and the rest of the Transcaucasian region. The 1905 uprising was defeated and was followed by fierce reactionary attacks by the Czarist government. These attacks did not slow the pace of Stalin's work for he knew that this was only a temporary setback for the workers' revolution.
J.V. Stalin addressing a meeting of exiled Bolsheviks.
In 1907 he directed the party activities in Baku, organizing the publication of Bolshevik papers, the Bolshevik electoral campaign and another massive struggle of the oil workers. "Amid the gloomy night of the Stolypin
(*) reaction, proletarian Baku presented an unusual spectacle, with the proletarian struggle seething, and the voice of Stalin's creations, the legal Bolshevik newspapers reverberating throughout Russia." The Czarist police dogged Stalin at every turn. In 1901, a warrant was issued for his arrest and he was forced to go underground. In 1902 he was imprisoned and then exiled. After only a few months In Siberia, Stalin escaped and returned to his revolutionary post. He was arrested again in 1908, and several more times in 1911, 1912 and 1913. He was arrested no less than eight times. Each time he escaped and returned to his work. Finally, in 1913, he was exiled to the most remote Siberian wilderness where he was held for four years. But Stalin never lost contact with the revolutionary movement. He was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP in 1912 while in exile. He maintained correspondence with Lenin, addressed meetings of other exiled Bolsheviks, and sent messages to Bolshevik publications.
In 1912, Stalin's contact with Lenin became closer. Between periods of exile, Stalin traveled to Krakow, Poland to meet with Lenin. They worked together to develop the Bolshevik view on the National Question. This policy, which is based on the principle of the right to political independence for all oppressed nations, was expressed in Stalin's article Marxism and the National Question. Lenin said this statement "stands in the forefront" of Marxist literature on the national question. The correct resolution of the national question was an important element in uniting the workers of various nationalities in their struggle against the Czar.
1917 - The October Socialist Revolution
In 1917, World War I was raging. Stalin was still in exile when the Russian workers and peasants toppled the rule of the Czar in February 1917. Immediately he made his way back to Petrograd. In March he was back In Petrograd where the party appointed him editor of Pravda. Lenin, also newly returned from exile, outlined in his April Theses the course that the party must take to prepare the workers for the transition from the bourgeois democratic to the socialist revolution. Stalin vigorously supported Lenin's views and combated those within the party who opposed these correct policies. Throughout this complex period Stalin worked energetically to win the masses and organize them for militant action. During 1917, Stalin wrote many articles explaining the revolutionary situation to the masses, including "The Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers Deputies," and "The War." Stalin also prepared a number of important speeches and reports for the Party Central Committee.
In the preparations for the October Revolution, Stalin was appointed to the practical leadership body to direct the insurrection. In organizing the October Socialist Revolution, Stalin was Lenin's closest associate. Stalin had direct charge of all the preparations for the insurrection. At 11 o'clock on the morning of October 24, the central party newspaper came out with a leading article by Stalin entitled "What Do We Need?" calling on the masses to overthrow the capitalist Provisional Government. The moment for the insurrection had arrived.
All night on Oct. 24, revolutionary units of the army and armed detachments of the workers' Red Guard arrived at the Bolshevik headquarters in the Smolny Institute. They were dispatched to surround the Winter Palace where the Provisional Government was entrenched. On the 25th, Red Guards occupied the railway stations, post office, telegraph office, the Ministries and the State Bank. The cruiser Aurora, manned by Bolshevik sailors, trained its guns on the Winter Palace. On the night of October 25, the Winter Palace was taken by storm; the Provisional Government was arrested.
That same night, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was convened. The following night it adopted decrees: calling on all the belligerent countries fighting in the imperialist war (World War I) to conclude an immediate armistice to permit negotiations for peace; abolishing landlord ownership of the land, without compensation; and establishing the Council of People's Commissars, the first Soviet Government. Lenin was elected chairman of the Council. Thus a new chapter in the history of Russia and the world was begun.