WHAT STALIN BELIEVES

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 15

WHAT STALIN BELIEVES

Leninism. By Joseph Stalin. Vol 11. Allen and Unwin. 468 pp. (12/6 net.) I t Reviewed by Dr. C. E. Beebv.l Volume I. of this work appears to have been a general treatise on the aims and ends of revolution. Volume 11. consists of speeches, letters, and answers to questions, covering a bewilderingly wide field. Every foreign student of Soviet affairs must have, in the back of his mind, a score of questions that he hankers to put to some responsible Bolshevik. In this book he will probably find S them all. Whether the answers will! satisfy him will depend very largely upon what answers he himself j wanted. One thing there is that | will satisfy him, the bold figure of | Stalin that stands out from every page. It is this harsh and vigorous self-portrait, rather than the details of Communist policies and politics, which will constitute, for the foreign reader, the chief attraction of the book.

Here is a man who knows exactly what he wants. For him there are none of the doubts of the social philosopher, or the "hedgings" of the politician. He has the clear faith of the simple type of Christian. For the Bible he has substituted Marx's "Capital" and the works of Lenin. If he had any doubts, they would only be those of the commentator and disciple. To quote chapter and verse from Lenin is to end all argument for Stalin. Any appeal to facts in the face of such proof is not only blasphemous; it is silly. The reader may be heartened periodically by his appeals for self-criticism, until trial brings proof that the term does not mean any review of ultimate faiths, but only the purging of the Communist party of those who are not in agreement with Stalin. A large part of the book, indeed, is taken up with attacks upon the Left and Right deviations within the Communist party of the 'Soviet Union. The Lefts (Trotskyists), it appears, want to proceed towards Communism too quickly for expediency, and the Rights too slowly for principle. The Stalinists want to go at just the right speed, although Stalin characteristically refuses to be dubbed a "Centreist." He out-lefts the Lefts, because "Leftism" is just "Rightism" in disguise. To one who finds difficulty in classifying himself and his politics, it is all very confusing. One must, apparently, be labelled: Leftist, Riglrr-f. Menshevik, kulak, bourgeois. Having been labelled, one is generally "liquidated."

The ordinary liberal-minded reader who has toyed with communism as a theoretical social concept will find it very difficult to get inside what Stalin would call the Bolshevik "ideology." Once inside; however, he will know exactly where he is. There are no shades in Leninism, only black and white:, no opinions, only truth and lies; none of the "intuitions" of the western philosopher, only tire cold logic of a machine: "Class is class, comrades. You cannot get away from that truth." No one with a democratic background can find much meaning in the statement. Yet, once you accept their distinctions it is as simple as sorting potatoes through a sieve. The "poor peasant is lauded, the "middle peasant" is tolerated, the "kulak" is liquidated The difference between the first and the second is a sheep or two, and between the second and the third an old bit of farm machinery or a paid farm hand. . The book covers the period from 1927 to 1930. The earlier speeches are concerned largely with the speeding up of grain production and the elimination from the party of an tendencies towards compromise with capitalism. The 1927-23 period appears to have been one of considerable internal strain in the Communist party in Russia. The long and detailed "Political Report to the Sixteenth Congress" (1930) . strikes a different note. The party is more stable and the outside wo-M considerably less so. The Western economist should be interested in Stalin's analysis of the world economic crisis. „j„„ c None but the hardiest of readeis will get right through "Lenimsm, but even the dilettante should diD. Both the ardent Communist and the ardent anti-Communist should read from cover to cover. It will do much toTure them both. The theoretical Communist will find there no vague idealism but a world of c ear tight ideas and a policy of ruthless extermination of all who stray from the narrow oath, or who even break step with the official partv. There are no flowers on the wayside. The anti-Communist will search in vain fnr red devils and unscrupulous lihwti'nes. H* w" find, theore*--allv at least. Ihe efficiencyof a we£ run office, the 1 of » convent, and a soif-sumcip™ fni+h that never donM.s, never flinches, and never regrets.