Introduction to I.V. Stalin, "Liquidating Trotskyists" Introduction

Introduction to I.V. Stalin, "Liquidating Trotskyists."

file added 981024
latest minor change (restore links to English version) 20060725

Ob"yasnenie latinskoj azbuki vospolzuemoj zdes'
Explanation of Russian transcription used here

I.V. Stalin

"On Defects in Party Work and Measures for the Liquidation of Trotskyists and Other Double-dealers"

A report and concluding remarks at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 3-5 March 1937.

Editor's Introduction

Note on citations: They are given for both a Russian version (at this site), and for an English edition
J. V. Stalin, "Mastering Bolshevism," Workers Library publishers, New York City, 1937. The English edition was scanned by David J. Romagnolo for his on-line Stalin library.
Since the English edition is not my file, I cannot embed "NAME" labels for exact hypertext cross-references within chapters. The English text is marked with page numbers, however: even numbers on the left margin, odd numbers on the right margin; those should get you close enough. They are put before, rather than after, the page they refer to.
The style of the English translation is a bit choppy in places. The original Russian text is clear and simple.

This speech may be the Great Leader and Teacher's only extensive public comment on the need and objectives for the Great Purge of 1936-1938. How you evaluate it depends heavily on what you already believe about the Great Purge.

Authorized version
Counterrevolutionary version
Skip ahead to Table of Contents

Authorized Version:

No one, least of all the Great Leader and Teacher, would deny that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, died in what some call "the Great Purge." Nevertheless, two points should be made.

(1) The public danger was clear. The oppositionists (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Bukharin, et al.), embittered by their defeat in the 1920s, really were doing everything they could to sabotage the economy and betray the Soviet Union to a fascist invasion. After all, they themselves (except for the exiled Trotsky) confessed to it in public trials, trials that were vouched for by many respected international observers. See, for example, the

"Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre"

Times were desperate: weigh the death or imprisonment of a few thousand spies and murderers against the 40 million Soviet people who would die in only a few years from the Nazi invasion.

(2) The death toll from the "Great Purge" has been wildly exaggerated by anti-Soviet propagandists like Robert Conquest. Read the speech. Toward the end (Section 7) of the "concluding words," the Great Leader and Teacher makes clear that there were only a few thousand dangerous Trotskyites [English version, p. 59-60; Russian version]. In addition, he warns over-zealous subordinates against jumping on decent workers who had long ago grown disenchanted with Trotskyism, or who had only agreed with Trotsky on one issue [English version, pp. 43-44; Russian version]

Far more revealing (and deeply moving) is the Great Leader and Teacher's understanding and concern for ordinary workers and party members, sometimes ignored or bullied by mid-ranking party bureaucrats who needed a reminder of the Party's proletarian roots. [English version, pp. 58-63; Russian version]

Counter-revolutionary version:

Citations below of "Great Terror" refer to Robert Conquest, "The Great Terror: A Reassessment," Oxford Univ. Press, 1990.

It was no coincidence that this speech was made only two weeks after the forced suicide (18 Feb 1937) of Sergo Orzhonikidze, till his death Commissar of Heavy Industry. Ordzhonikidze had tried to shield patriotic and hard-working subordinates from fantastic and ridiculous accusations of "wrecking." By February 1937, however, Stalin refused to accept any more delays. Sergo's older brother, arrested in Nov 1936, was tortured, then shot on 9-10 Feb 1937 ["Great Terror," p. 168.] According to some versions, Stalin told Sergo himself that "Sabotage in Heavy Industry" was on the agenda for the next Central Committee meeting: either Sergo would have to throw his own people to the wolves (as L.M. Kaganovich never hesitated to, even pushing his own brother Mikhail to commit suicide), or face arrest as a wrecker himself.

The 3-5 March speech is, at least in part, directly aimed at Ordzhonikidze's heritage. Competent and faithful execution of one's duties would no longer be a defense against charges of Trotskyite sabotage. [English version p. 30; Russian version] The death of Ordzhonikidze was followed by massive arrests of his best people around the country.

But what of Stalin's professed desire to forgive people who had long since repented of former opposition sympathies? [English version, pp. 43-44; Russian version] What about his sarcastic rebukes of heartless bureaucrats who push around ordinary party members? [English version, pp. 58-63; Russian version]

It was all window-dressing, or, as Soviet Russians of the time might have said, "demagoguery." Stalin reveals his true agenda in section (6) of the "Concluding Words," where he spoke up for the deranged slanderer Nikolayenko in Kiev. [English version, pp. 55-56; Russian version] Her baseless charges against huge numbers of people had been too much for P.P. Postyshev, the Central Committee's emissary to the Ukrainian Party, heretofore an irreproachable Stalinist. He expelled Nikolayenko from the Party. Stalin, however, personally intervened to restore her to favor (and marked Postyshev for elimination in 1938). Eventually, this horrid woman would "have the execution of some eight thousand people on her conscience." ["Great Terror," pp. 144-145]

This March 1937 speech gave clear approval to the slanders of other Nikolayenkos around the country. And the free use of torture would produce enough confessions to satisfy naively credulous foreigners.

Nevertheless, for those who wanted to believe, the moderate language in the speech was rather good window dressing. Even many victims of the Purge (those who survived) continued to believe in Stalin: if only He knew what was happening to them, He would rescue them from incompetent or evil local NKVD investigators.

For English-speaking comrades, the official translation of this speech was given the curiously bland and uninformative title, "Mastering Bolshevism." This title apparently refers to the need for more political education of Party members, as discussed in Chapter 5 [English version, pp. 36-38; Russian version] , and in the final section 7 of the "Concluding Speech" [English version, pp. 58-63; Russian version]

Chapter #	Russian chapter title	English chapter title	page number in English edition
Chapter #	Chapter summary (in English)
---
(Introductory)	(Vvedenie)	(beginning)	5

1	Politicheskaya Bespechnost'	Political Carelessness	6
1	Despite warnings from the Central Committee, subordinate Party organizations have not been sufficiently vigilant to the danger of spies and saboteurs.
2	Kapitalisticheskoe Okruzhenie	Capitalist Encirclement	11
2	Bourgeois states constantly send spies and saboteurs against each other. Obviously their conduct would be even worse toward the world's only Socialist state.
3	Sovremennyj Trockizm	Present-Day Trotskyism	14
3	Ten years ago, Trotskyism was a legitimate political movement among the working class, even though a mistaken one. Today, however, Trotskyite agents have no ideology, certainly none that they disclose to the workers. They are no more than a secretive gang of spies and killers, at the service of fascist intelligence agencies. The advantage of Trotskyite saboteurs today is different from the advantage of foreign bourgeois-specialist saboteurs (eg in the Shakhty case) ten years ago. Everyone recognized ten years ago the need to distrust foreign class enemies, even though we had to rely on them for skills we did not yet have. In contrast, Trotskyites today do not have indispensable skills. They do hold membership in the Party, however, and thus find it easy to slip by the vigilance of ordinary comrades.
4	Tenevye Storony Xozyajstvennyx Uspexov	The Seamy Side of Economic Success	21
4	Unfortunate side-effects of our recent economic successes are empty boastfulness and, even worse, complacency.
5	Nashi Zadachi	Our Tasks	25
5	The Party must do far more to make ordinary comrades aware of the Trotskyist danger, and to refute common arguments for complacency. For example, just because our economy seems to prosper is no reason to relax political vigilance. Trotskyite agents are not fools. They will seemingly make themselves useful in time of peace, so as to infiltrate key positions where they can betray us in time of war. [English version p. 30; Russian version] We need new educational programs to develop additional cadres to meet this heightened political challenge. [English version, pp. 36-38; Russian version]
(end)	Zaklyuchitel'noe Slovo	Concluding Speech	40
(end)	(1) [p. 40] Increased responsibility for political education in no way reduces responsibility for economic development. (2) [p. 42] Only prosecute real Trotskyite enemies. Don't harass decent people for temporary lapses in the distant past. (3) Avoid cronyism in selecting Party workers. [p. 44] (4) Party officials should be monitored not only by their bosses, but also by their subordinates. [p. 46] (5) The Party must be willing to admit mistakes, so that we can learn from them. [p. 48] (6) [p. 53] Party leaders must always stay close to the masses and simple people, who offer valuable new insights. For example, despite the resistance of local Party bosses, rank-and-file Comrade Nikolayenko successfully exposed rampant cronyism and Trotskyite wrecking in Kiev. (7) [p. 58] Heartlessly bureaucratic Party bosses have been expelling good workers for minor infractions. Trotskyites, otherwise a tiny minority, can recruit victims of such injustices. In particular, if a good worker is not sufficiently informed about some aspect of the Party program, he should be educated, not expelled for "passivity."

Return to article on the 1934 Criminal Code of the RSFSR

Return to N.I. Yezhov's home page.

Return to home page of the Cyber-USSR

Return to David J. Romagnolo's on-line Stalin library.