Askov American., 1943-08-12


came to the use of violence and
purges. He, of all Bolsheviks, never
shuddered at the shedding of Russian
blood when rubbing out rivals and
enemies. One of the great ironies of
our time was the .squawk put up by
Trotskyites over Stalin's purges.
Trotsky's ideal of world rev.
olution was doubtless a sound slogan
for distant future, but it was ILL
conceived for our day.
Stain falls far short of Lenin as a
dialectician and of Trotsky as fiery
revolutionary spellbinder. But he is
the supreme practical leader, of which
Russia stood in sore need about 1928,
in order to make good the promise
of the revolution. Stain created the
new material Russia and made it
work through his Five Year Plans.
Stalin's decision to abandon the
primary dynamic of world revolution
and to concentrate on revolution in
one country" Russia - was surely
wise for the time. There is little
doubt that Stain is as enthusiastic for
an ultimate world victory of revolu-
tionary socialism as was Trotsky. His
policies, however stern and Sanguin-
ary brought unity and discipline to
Russia in the most critical period of
Soviet history.
Socialists have criticized Stain
because his policies have not followed
Marx to the letter, but Marx never
wrote about revolutionizing an d
mechanizing quasifeudal economy.
Stain has also been denounced be-
cause he has not produced pure COM
munism. The latter is, however, only
a dream of a very remote future.
Stalin's progress in socialiZing Rus
sia has been nothing short of amaz-
ing, when the handicaps he has faced,
both as regards domestic problems
and the threat of foreign aggression,
are taken into consideration.
No honest and informed student of
recent Russian history can doubt
that sabotage, intrigue, and treason
were rife in the Soviet Union
in the mid '30s. Stalin's purges
were certainly necessary, even if
carried out with unjustifiable saw
agery at times, but we can hardly be
final judges on this latter point.
In short, in the controversy about
the Soviet Union and Stain, the
proof of the pudding is in the eat
ing. Stain carried through vastly
impressive mechanization of an i'm
poverished, demoralized, and unde-
veloped economy. He worked out mil
itary preparations without equal in
history, when the obstacles are reck-
oned with. His forces successfully
withstood the onslaughts of the
mightiest army of all history, COM
manded by great strategists.
A Story for Babes.
But all this does not justify the
mystical vision of Stain as a COM
bination of Jesus Christ, Tolstoy,
Clara Barton, and Harry Hopkins.
He is a tough baby, hard realist, a
relentless foe of capitalism and
super er-naturalism, the leader of the
Russia First" movement, and not a
man likely to wreck the Soviet Union
in behalf of the Fourth Term, the
augmentation and perpetuation of the
British Empire, and the revival of
the Interchurch World Movement.
The recent public reputation of
the Communist International (Com-
intern) by Stain is, of course, only
| "story for babes" and Cordell Hull
Stain abandoned any primary in
terest in world revolution over a
decade ago. Nevertheless, when de-
sirable, Stain can readily swing his
party boys all over the world without
any Comintern. American Commun-
lists repudiated the latter some years
back, but they have toed the Mos
cow line just as speedily and faith
fully ever since.
In final analysis, 1 believe that our
pure and simple Socialist friends are
the worst pipedreamers about the
Soviet Union-even more cockeyed
than the fantasies of Mission to Mos
cow. The greatest social revolution
of all history is no polite affair, to
be conducted like a forum and after
noon tea at the Band School.
| Norman Thomas is one of the most
ingratiating personalities and the
noblest characters of all American
history. 1 yield to nobody in my ad-
miration of the man. Yet, venture to
assert that, if Norman had been in
Uncle Joe's shoes, he would have
shed just as much blood. If he had
not, he would probably have left
in the night, with his shirttail re-
sembling a battered cullender.