Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 17:58:56 -0500 (EST)
From: ROSSERJB-AT-VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU
Subject: Re: 100 Years of (Mis)Understanding


To Chegitz (sorry about the mislabeling, I get lost in 
the flames):
     So when did the "old Soviets" "all get together in
a room and discuss and vote"?  1900?
     Again, I have not seen a Cuban voting site, so I do
not know what goes on.  Perhaps local voting is more
democratic.  But I find it rather suspicious that there
are so many layers between people voting and the top.  This
does not accord with my notions of democracy.
     Stalin's major book was _Essentials of Leninism_.  It
may be an old argument, Lenin did not like Stalin particularly,
and there was considerable cultural freedom under Lenin.  But
the essentials of political structure under Stalin are directly
derived from those under Lenin.  How do you disprove Stalin's
case.
     BTW, to Scott Marshall, the argument that Lenin's suppression
of opposition was justified by there being enemies was also used
by Stalin in 1937.  Hey, USSR was invaded by Hitler in 1941.  It did
have objective enemies.  
     Further, btw, the Bolshevik regime was saved in the civil war
by the anarchist Nestor Makhno attacking Denikin from the rear at the
lowest point.  But was Lenin grateful?  No, he got the same fate as
did those too popular SRs and those too democratic Mensheviks.
     There is a good reason that this is an old argument (about Lenin and 
Stalin) I have yet to see a definitive refutation.
Barkley Rosser 


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