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Stalin
12/1/08 Fitzpatrick
defines revolution: Modernization:
Weaponry, Health Care, Education Social
Mobility Terror:
Buruma: Machiavellian cynic, Bolshevik, Vozhd (leader)
What
is the relationship between terror and modernization? Terror is the stick
which drives modernization? What
is the relationship between terror and social mobility? If you kill off the
ruling class every few years, then anti-revolutionary forces are defeated and
also the rise of the younger and poorer is enabled. Tolstaya
argues that people have always been aware of ‘the little terror’ and the
peasants who were alive during the Stalin years willingly participated in the
purges. The
prospect of class mobility helped give the Stalin Terror its peculiarly
intense momentum. 12/01 7
M Buruma & Tolstaya
on Stalin
So who is right? Tolstaya’s thesis: The Little Terror in Russia has been around from time immemorial. It has lasted for centuries and continues to this very day…. God forbid we should ever witness a Russian revolt, senseless and merciless," (Pushkin). [I]n Russia there is practically no civilization, and history lies in deep, untouched layers over the villages, over the small towns that have reverted to near wilderness, over the large, uncivilized cities, in those places where they try not to let foreigners in, or where foreigners themselves don't go…. The savage, barbaric, "Asiatic" part of the Russian empire was invited to participate in the "construction of a new world."…. Arrogant, impatient, cruel, barely literate people took advantage of the historical moment. Civilized culture [is submerged] under a thick layer of gilded, decorative "Asiatic savagery," governmental piracy, guile elevated to principle, unbridled caprice, an extraordinary passivity and lack of will combined with an impulsive cruelty, incompletely suppressed paganism, undeveloped Christianity, a blind, superstitious belief in the spoken, and especially in the written, word; the sense of sin as a secret and repulsive pleasure (what Russians call Dostoevskyism). The intelligentsia: by 1917 Russia had given birth not only to an educated class, but to a large number of people with high moral standards and a conscience, to honest people who were not indifferent to issues of social good. This is the intelligentsia—not really a class, but a fellowship of people "with moral law in their breast," as Kant put it. Lenin hated them more than anyone else, and they were the first to be slaughtered. When Gorky wrote to Lenin in their defense, saying that "the intelligentsia is the brain of the nation," Lenin answered with the famous phrase: "It's not the brain, it's the shit." But the question ‘Why?’ remains unanswered. Perhaps the only answer is "Because." Period. Cannibalistic times didn't emerge out of thin air. The people willing to carry out Bolshevik orders had to ripen for the task. They matured in the murk of Russian villages, in the nightmare of factory work conditions, in the deep countryside, and in the capitals, Moscow and Petersburg. They were already there, there were a lot of them, and they could be counted on….. Rejecting reason, the Russian universe turns in an emotional whirlwind and can't manage to get on an even footing. Looking into the depths of Russian history, one is horrified: it's impossible to figure out when this senseless mess started…. During Stalin's time, as I see it, Russian society, brutalized by centuries of violence, intoxicated by the feeling that everything was allowed, destroyed everything "alien": "the enemy," "minorities"—any and everything the least bit different from the "average."…. Without popular support Stalin and his cannibals wouldn't have lasted for long. Literary References: Chekhov, Peasants…. Heart of a Dog: Peasants incapable of handling freedom… Kelly, In The Promised Land The regime created a time warp, the past is reviled/ the future extolled, and the present ignored to create a sense of mass mobilization. People were so focused on the coming utopia that they separated themselves from the terrible violence going on around them. Today’s miseries are bearable because they are already part of the future being built. “This too shall pass.” It is not that “War is Peace” but that “War is Building Peace.” In addition to violence, the media blares hossanahs to exemplary workers. Blueprints. Assumptions that economic goals will be achieved, and the gtrue Homo Sovieticus shrewdly plays the system. The didactic style of Socialist Realism: characters exist in the real world but in the perfect socialist world as well. The new Soviet Man works hard, is honest, is dedicated, is selfless, and puts the future first. He is willing to sacrifice what is necessary in order to create the socialist world, and these are the people are going to inhabit this world. These people are creating the world in which their children will live. Grossman and Socialist Realism: “In the Town of Berdicev”: a woman gives birth to a child in a village under attack by Polish troops, and she joins a suicidal mission “Letter to Yezhov”: he accuses the NKVD of having made a mistake in accusing his wife of treason for having failed to denounce her husband and Grossman writes to the head of the terror suggesting that a little mistake has been made. (When in reality, it did not matter whether you were guilty or not: you were shot just because…. But that was not the argument in this case. And Grossman’s wife gets off on a technicality.) “In the Main Line of Attack”: Grossman’s propaganda account of the heroic defense of Stalingrad. This is Soviet Realism in that it is not about cowardice, brutality. It does not claim that the victory is due to the ‘social development’ of the fighters. Instead, the nationalist patriotism of the soldiers is celebrated (indicating the shift in Russian propaganda from socialist to nationalist orientation) Evidence to suggest that Stalin’s program was ultimately successful. For a Just Cause (Novel) Superior to socialist realism because al least the characters seem real, but it was denounced because Grossman was jewish and Stalin was attacking ‘cosmopolitanism’. Life and Fate is banned and copies of the novel are confiscated. Grossman writes to Krushchev unsuccessfully, He writes Forever Flowing as an old man, an unpublishable attack on the regime. |