And a flashback to Soviet history (cartoon by Clifford Barryman):
Apropos Stalin, here is a paragraph from Vasily Grossman's Life
and Fate (p 21) which somehow
crystallized what went on there, more than all other sources.
Getmanov's life had been relatively uneventful. He had not
taken part in the Civil War. He had not been hunted by the police and had never
been exiled to Siberia at the decree of a Tsarist court. At conferences and
congresses he usually read his reports from a written text. Even though he had
not written them himself, he read these reports well, expressively and without hesitation.
Admittedly, they were by no means difficult to read – they were printed in
large type, double-spaced, and with the name of Stalin always
in red. As a young man, Getmanov had been intelligent and disciplined; he had intended
to study at the Mechanical Institute but had been recruited for work in the
security organs. Soon he had become the bodyguard of the secretary of the
kraykom, the area Party committee...
Жизнь Дементия Трифоновича была довольно бедна внешними событиями. Он
не участвовал в гражданской войне. Его не преследовали жандармы, и царский
суд его никогда не высылал в Сибирь. Доклады на конференциях и съездах он
обычно читал по рукописи. Читал он хорошо, - без запинок, с выражением,
хотя писал доклады не сам. Правда, читать их было легко, их печатали
крупным шрифтом, через два интервала, и имя Сталина выделено на них было
особым красным шрифтом. Он был когда-то толковым, дисциплинированным
пареньком, хотел учиться в механическом институте, но его мобилизовали на
работу в органы безопасности, и вскоре он стал личным охранником секретаря
крайкома.
What a difference a decade makes! Putin in 2005:
You know, after the disintegration of the USSR the Russian Federation lost tens of thousand of its ancestral territories . So what do you suggest now? Start partitioning everything again? Get us back Crimea, parts of the territory of other republics of the former USSR, etc.? Let's get back Klaipeda? Let's start partitioning everything in Europe . Is that what you want? No, probably not. We appeal to the Lithuanian politicians to cease engaging in political demagogy , and engage in constructive work. Russia is ready for such work.
Жизнь Дементия Трифоновича была довольно бедна внешними событиями. Он
не участвовал в гражданской войне. Его не преследовали жандармы, и царский
суд его никогда не высылал в Сибирь. Доклады на конференциях и съездах он
обычно читал по рукописи. Читал он хорошо, - без запинок, с выражением,
хотя писал доклады не сам. Правда, читать их было легко, их печатали
крупным шрифтом, через два интервала, и имя Сталина выделено на них было
особым красным шрифтом. Он был когда-то толковым, дисциплинированным
пареньком, хотел учиться в механическом институте, но его мобилизовали на
работу в органы безопасности, и вскоре он стал личным охранником секретаря
крайкома.
Since we are taking about the USSR, perhaps it is
appropriate to mention the most knowledgeable American diplomat on the USSR – George
F. Kennan
On Congressmen meeting Stalin, page 291:
I cannot recall the tenor of the discussion between the
Congressmen and Stalin (the Washington archives, I am sure, would show it); but
I have a vivid memory of our approach to this occasion. The interview was
scheduled, I believe, for 6 P.M., in Stalin’s office in the Kremlin. Just prior
to it was scheduled a visit of the congressional party to the Moscow subway
system. Having seen the Moscow subway on a great many occasions, I decided not
to accompany them on that last venture, but arranged to pick them up, at 5:30
P.M., at the exit from the Mossovyet subway station, where their tour was to
end. I came there at a proper time and waited until well after 5:30. To my
growing concern no Congressmen appeared. Inquiry elicited the information that
the part was being entertained at “tea” somewhere in the bowels of the subway
system. I never discovered the premises in which this repast was being
served, but frantic indirect messages finally brought my compatriots to the
surface, at about ten minutes before six. To my horror I discovered that the
“tea” served to them by their genial hosts of the Moscow subway had, like he
tea in Novosibirsk, been not only of the nonalcoholic variety: varying amounts
of vodka, depending on the stoutness of character and presence of mind of the
individual concerned, had been poured into my charges while they were on the
verge of their interview with the great Soviet leader.
We tore away, in two limousines, in the direction of the
Kremlin, I riding in the front seat of one of the cars. As we approached the
Kremlin gate, protected but what was the most vigilant and elaborate system of
guarding of any place in the world, I was horrified to hear, from the
interior of the car behind me, raucous voice saying: ”Who the hell is this guy
Stalin, anyway? I don’t know that I want to go up and see him. I think I’ll get
out.” Elaborate arrangement had been made, including even the submission of
every passport to the Foreign Office, to assure admission of the party to the
Kremlin, and I knew that if anyone were missing, things would be royally gummed
up. So I said with great definiteness: “You will do nothing of the sort. You
will sit right there where you are and remain with the party.” There ensued the
formalities at the gate. Doors were opened, identities were established,
seats were looked under. A car full of armed men was before us, and
another one behind. Thus guarded, we drove off up the short incline to the
heart of the Kremlin. At this point the same raucous voice became audible one
more behind me: “What if I biff the old codger one in the nose?” My heart
froze. I cannot recall what I said, but I am sure that never in
my life did I speak with greater earnestness. I had, as I
recollect it, the help of some of the more sober members of the
party. In any case, our companion came meekly along. He sat in
Stalin’s office at the end of a long table, facing Stalin, and did
nothing more disturbing than to leer and wink once or twice at the
bewildered dictator, thus making it possible for the invisible gun
muzzles, with which the room was no doubt studded, to remain
sullenly silent.'"
On
Stalin, page 294:
Those
of my colleagues who saw more of him than I did have told of being able to
observe other aspects of his personality: of seeing the yellow eyes lit up in a
flash of menace and fury as he turned, momentarily on some unfortunate
subordinate; of witnessing the diabolical sadism with which, at the great
diplomatic dinners of the war, he would humiliate his subordinates before the
eyes of the foreigners, with his barbed, mocking toasts, just to show his power
over them. I myself did not see these things. But when I first encountered him
personally, I had lived long enough in Russia to know something about him; and
I was never in doubt, when visiting him, that I was in the presence of one of
the world’s most remarkable men – a man great, if you will, primarily in his
iniquity: ruthless, cynical, cunning, endlessly dangerous; but for all of this
-one of the truly great men of the age.
(1) Our
first step must be to apprehend, and recognize for what it is, the nature of
the movement with which we are dealing. We must study it with same courage,
detachment, objectivity, and same determination not to be emotionally provoked
or unseated by it, with which doctor studies unruly and unreasonable
individual.
What a difference a decade makes! Putin in 2005:
You know, after the disintegration of the USSR the Russian Federation lost tens of thousand of its ancestral territories . So what do you suggest now? Start partitioning everything again? Get us back Crimea, parts of the territory of other republics of the former USSR, etc.? Let's get back Klaipeda? Let's start partitioning everything in Europe . Is that what you want? No, probably not. We appeal to the Lithuanian politicians to cease engaging in political demagogy , and engage in constructive work. Russia is ready for such work.
