Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 09:36:53 -0500 (EST)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: M-I: Re: On Lenin




>Aside from being thoroughly wrong, I can't
>help but think you're trying to deliberately provoke people, which seems
>like an odd job for a moderator.  You're really alienating people in a
>way that doesn't seem to have any positive aspect to it.  


Thanks for writing.  I don't think I've said anything that is not, at
bottom, true.  Or, are you saying that Lenin was *not* ruthless, not willing
to pit one imperialist against another while telling each what they wanted
to hear?  Or, do you think I'm wrong when I (along with Pipes and Carr)
believe that German capital more urgently backed the Nazis because they
feared a Bolshevik revolution in Germany, backed by Stalin? It is precisely
those qualities most reviled by the bourgeoisie ("peculation",
"double-dealing", and "other 'criminal' acts"), together with ruthless
pursuit of power that I find most endearing in Lenin, and which probably
account in large part for his success as a revolutionary leader.

As for the similarities in the writings of Carr and Pipes, compare Chapter
Two ("Why did the Bolsheviks triumph?") in Pipes, *Three "Whys" of the
Russian Revolution* (New York, 1995: Vintage, pp. 31 - 62)) with Carr,
("Lenin, the master builder") in *Studies in Revolution* (2nd ed., New York,
1964:Grosset & Dunlap, pp. 134 - 151).  See also Carr, "A historical turning
point: Marx, Lenin, Stalin", and Pipes, "The origins of Bolshevism: the
intellectual evolution of young Lenin," both in Pipes (ed) *Revolutionary
Russia* (Cambridge, Mass., 1968: Harvard University Press).  Also, for the
response of German capital to the "Stalinization" of the Soviet Union, see
the first five chapters of Carr's *Twilight of the Comintern: 1930 - 1935*
(New York, 1982: Pantheon Books). 

Louis Godena


PS: I just received the latest post from Louis P, innumerating as always his
legions of political supporters.  Apparently, he wants them, by implication,
to endorse his silly letter.  I think they can speak for themselves. 





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