From: Sorokin@ps1.iaee.tuwien.ac.at (Sorokin Zhenya)
Subject: Re: Khasbulatov (Was: Stereotypes of Soviet Peoples)
Organization: Inst. of General Electronics and Electroengeneering, TU Vienna
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 12:52:17 GMT

In article <1993Jan2.132646.1@cc.helsinki.fi> thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>From: thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi
>Subject: Re: Khasbulatov (Was: Stereotypes of Soviet Peoples)
>Date: 2 Jan 93 11:26:46 GMT
>In article <Sorokin.36.725923408@ps1.iaee.tuwien.ac.at>, Sorokin@ps1.iaee.
>tuwien.ac.at (Sorokin Zhenya) writes:
>
>> BTW, comparison of Hasbulatov and Stalin is not too stupid.
>> As I remember from the history of CPSU (and Hasbulatov was univ. professor 
>> on this subject), Stalin's way to power was that he turned his bureaucratic 
>> position (general secretary, i.e. head of typewriters) within the RKP(b) 
>> Central Commitee to a dictatorship. Milestones were: 
>> 1. Creation of "Secretariat" under personal control. 
>> 2. Transferring of ALL paperwork to the "apparat" of this Secratariat. As a 
>> result, all activity of CC, _including personal changes_ and _party's press_
>> got under controle of the Secretariat. 
>> 4. Creating of a new undercover security system under personal control.
>> 3. Reproducing of this system downstairs through the party, creating a new 
>> hierarchie of power.  
>> 
>> Hasbulatov's milestones:
>> 1. Conservation of the inherited from the communist epoch "Presidium" of the 
>> Parliament (Congress, etc.) under *personal* control of the Speaker.
>> 2. Transferring of the control of the whole Apparat of the Parliament to 
>> this Presidium (internal information, organization, personal changes).
>> 3. Creation of the independent "parliamentary guard" under *personal* 
>> control. Forbidden by Yeltsin this autumn as anticonstitutional, is now 
>> recreated after special bill of the recent Congress.
>> 4. Permanent *war* against independency of the mass-media. Recent 
>> achievements: Firing of Poltoranin, Yakovlev, takeover of Izvestiya 
>> publishing facilities.
>> 5. Recent creation of a system of so-called "direct information tarnsfer" 
>> between representative structures of all levels, which is parallel to and 
>> independent of executive power structure.
>> 
>> The result was seen on recent Congress: 
>> *All* decisions on important subjects were equal to his personal 
>> opinion, which he always made known before voting.
>> His remark was enough to cancel hearing (!) of the reports of two (!) 
>> parliamentary commissions on some subject (I do not remember which one, it 
>> was in October-November), where it was known that conclusions were opposite 
>> to his opinion. (Guess the result of the voting).
>> He established himself as a second man in the state, capable of 
>> introducing and cancelling changes in Constitution by personal bargaining 
>> with President.
>> 
>> Try to imagine such power in the hands of parliamentary speaker in any 
>> democratic state! Can you remember the name of *any* parliamentary speaker 
>> besides Hasbulatov and your own?
>
>
>According to my understanding, the evaluation of Khasbulatov (Hasbulatov?)
>above is very interesting and well informed.
>
>I have been considered over Khasbulatov's personal guard. During the
>history this kind of personal guardians were always the first step towards
>the dictatorship - like in Athens (the Demagogues) and in Medieval Italy
>(signoria). Still, there seems to be one great exception: Stalin did NOT
>possess a personal guard, or did he?

Yes, he did: He converted personal bureau of the Central Committee to a sort 
of intra-party KGB. Yagoda was not an NKVD minister (narkom), but nothing 
but a boss of this personal bureau. Combining of NKVD with this bureau was 
made only in thirties, under Yezhov (if I remember well). 
You know, Stalin had no outer enemies: all politics was done *inside* the 
party (thanks to Lenin). Thus his situation was different from some other 
dictators.

>
>asks
>the observer
>Tapani Hietaniemi, Universitas Helsingiensis
>                   urbs fennorum

Yours,
Sorokin Zhenya
Vienna, Austria.