In a letter addressed last month to the editor of Kommunist ("Theoretical and Political Journal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), the Soviet historian Peter Yakir proposed that a be made of the late Stalin. convinced', writes Yakir, "that a posthumous and legal'. He set out the crimes for which Stalin, he felt, should be tried.
Yakir's exposition of Stalin's criminality, though couched in terms of the law, goes beyond questions confined to Soviet jurisprudence. It takes in the question of Stalin's role in negating revolution throughout the whole of Europe, in both liquidating a generation of old Bolsheviks, the heroes of the Russian Revolution, and in destroying the most formidable foreign communists who took refuge in Moscow during periods of repression and war.
Kommunist did not publish Yakir's letter; the Black Dwarf, however, is doing so, as an aid to the evaluation of Stalin's historical role. An explanation, however, must preface the letter First, neither Yakir nor the Black Dwarf should be counted amongst the ranks of counter-revolutionaries (liberals, social-democrats, Labour MP's), to whom the Russian Revolution was an abomination and who use a tendentious list of Stalin's excesses to discredit socialism and revolution wherever it appears. Yakir, in particular, cannot be counted amongst the liberal scientists and writers Ginsburg, Litvinov, and so on - whose voices, however well-intentioned, lack the Yakir's father, for instance, ago. joined the Bolsheviks in April 1917, fought throughout the Civil War, and remained thereafter in the army. A general in 1937, he was shot at Stalin's direct instigation. Condemned, he wrote to Stalin to protest his innocence (Stalin noted on his letter 'Scoundrel and debauchee'); and, before the firing squad, cried out 'Long live the party! Long live Stalin!' Second, Yakir wrote his letter in response to an article which Kommunist carried at the beginning of this year (Thrilling Pages from the Annals of the Great Fatherland War') an article dealing partly with Stalin's military career and concluding with a judgement on Stalin's "distingushed' military leadership. Yakir inveighed against the article as forming part of a history', to which the article in Kommunist referred, who portray Stalin as having conducted the war on the basis of school-room globe.
Third, and most important, the policy and methods of the late J.V. Stalin serve to define the position of different sections of the left. In the international field, Albania and China eulogise his role; and in domestic, British terms, the Communist Party is partly divided from the other groups, and these groups divided one from the other, by divergent recollections and nterpretations of that role. In future issues oi the warf, contributors will examine a numbe of these points of view.
In his letter, Peter Yakir set out, point by point, the crimes of which Stalin stood accused and their place within the Soviet legal code; included here are the most important points in his list.
*** SIGNATORIES OF THE PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN International Socialism General Union of Arab Students General Union of Palestinian Students International Marxist Group Black Dwarf New Left Review Arab Revolution Free Palestine Friends of Palestine Committees -TOI sonicanty with the Palestine Revolution Revolutionary Students Federation Revolutionary Socialist Students' Federation British Vietnam Solidarity Front.
Would other wishing to sign this Manifesto Lone, co send TRICS Solidarity Free Palestine, BCM Box 327S COMMITTEES SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINE REVOLUTION The CSPR have been set up as groups of British and 1) We know that it was at Stalin's behest that the decision was taken to employ physical methods in influencing judicial investigations which had as its result physical blows deprivation of sleep for up to seven days, and other tortures, to which the author of these lines (arrested in 1937 at the age of fourteen as a member of the family of a public enemy') was personally a witness. These acts are punished according to the terms of Articles 113 and 17 [of amt irisonment for up to by a Soviet legal code] 2) A large number of leading functionaries put an end to their days by suicide, certain of them because of the repugnance they felt towards participating in the crimes commi N, to which the letters written before their death bear witness: S. Ordjonikidze, Kosior, Furer, ... and numerous others. A whole series of persecuted people put an end to their days as a protest or through fear of torture:...M Tomski,... V. Lominadze .. . and numerous others. All these fall under Article 107 (instigation to suicide) which carries with it the loss of liberty for up to five years. 3) Mass repressions were accompanied by insults addressed to the victims, their friends and families; insults broadcast in the press, on the radio, at meetings and conferences. Actions of this type fall under Article 130 ('calumny')
punished by up to five years - - and Article 131 ('giving offence') - hard labour for up to a year 4) Numerous people, victims of the repression were shot or simply killed, or died of injuries received during the investigations. Among them were 110 members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union out who had been elected at the seventeenth congress of the party, and hundreds of thousands of other honest men.
On Stalin's orders were arrested and killed in the majority of cases representatives of all the opposition: many of them have not yet been rehabilitated, though the accusations laid against them were complete fabrications.
Stalin did not recoil from the liquidation of foreign communists who had taken refuge in country in escaping persecution from fascist, semi-fascist, and monarchist dictatorships: among them the Germans H. Remele, Schubert, Heinz Neumann, Werner Hirsch; the Hungarians Bela Kun, Mesan, Gidas, Gabor Farkas and others; Bulgarians Stamoniakov, Tanev, and others; the Poles Dabal, Leszczynski, Prochniak, and others; the Estonians Kh. Pegelman and others; the Iranians Sultan-Zade and others; the Yugoslavs V. Copitch, D. Serditch and others; the Swiss F. Platten (who shielded V.I. Lenin with his body when the first attempt was made on his life and others. 5) Stalin was chief of state when, during and after the great patriotic war, a series of peoples of our country (the Tartars of the Crimea, the Kalmuks, the Chechins, the Ingushes, the Balkares, the Koreans, the Greeks, the Turks, the Germans and others) were victims of a forced and illegal deportation from their home lands.
The crimes fall under Article 74 ('violation equality of nations and races, the punishment carrying up to five years imprisonment). 6) In connection with the mass repressions, the leading scientific and technical cadres in all branches of our economy and agriculture were, in the main exterminated or interned, and this had a considerable effect on the country's economy. Thus in 1938, for example, ten per cent less iron ore was extracted than in 1937, though the plan had called for an increase in extraction. And the rotation of qualified cadres put a brake production: in 1940, instance, out of 153 plant managers in the metalurgical industry, 75 had occupied this position for less than a year. 7) Several cases of the desecration of grave: took place (punishable under Article 22 by imprisonment for up to three years. The urn containing the ashes of S.S. Kamenev has been removed from its sanctuary in the Kremlin, the urn containing the ashes of I.A. Gamarnik has been taken, the grave of M. Tomski has been obliterated, the monument standing on the grave of I. Yakir has been overturned, etc. 8) According to what we learn from confidential letter of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party to the party's XXth congress, as well as from the novel recently published by Chakovski, Stalin went into hiding during part of the day on which war broke out; for several hours, none of the country's leaders could find the commander-in-chief. The incident in question is described under Article 247 ('desertion') and carries with it, in time of war, the penalty of death. 9) In 1939 there was constructed in depth a well equipped line in the fortified regions. After the re-attachment of the Baltic republics, of of the construction of new fortified regions, | Poskrebychev, arrested. and despite the protests of the chief of the general staff, B. Shaposhnikov, all the former fortified positions were dismantled on Stalin's orders: which permitted the fascist invaders to cross our territory without difficulty. This appears to us criminal negligence, verging on high treason. As for the elimination of 80 per cent of the corps of superior and commanding officers, which decapitated the army, constitutes a straightforward treason (Article 64 penalty of death.
In the spring of 1941 were arrested and then shot without trial the military leaders who had fought in the Spanish Civil War: Smuchkevich, twice hero of the Soviet Union and to whom a monument had been erected in his own country on February 26 of that very same year; the heroes of the Soviet Union P. Rychagov, Stern, Chernykh, (etc) ...
Partisan liquidated on our territory; tank units were dismembered; certain types of automatic armaments indispensable to the army were not put into production; and there were numerous other measures.
The millions of victims who fell in the first period of the great patriotic war may together be laid to the crimes committed by Stalin... 10). The wives of men who were purged were arrested and frequently shot the wives of Tukachevsky, Uborevich... and others were shot). Veering even to complete insanity, Stalin had the wives of his disciples, Kalinin, Molotov.
Gregory Ordjonikidze called Sergo. Childhood friend of Stalin's, took part in the invasion of Georgia in 1922. Later directed national economy, giving complete priority to heavy industry. But was opposed to the application of the death penalty on the party leaders. Suicide 1937.
Michael Tomski. Took part in 1905 revolution. Was president of the trade unions 1917-1929. Accused of belonging to the right-wing tendency, he committed suicide without waiting to be arrested.
On Stalin's orders had organised the Canton insurrection of 1927. After having criticised the tendencies of the party, he was expelled from the Central Committee in 1930 of the German CP and Reichstag comintern. Arrested 1937, was executed along •Hermann Schubert. Member of the politburo of the German CP. Represented the party on the secretariat of the comintern for central Europe, then became involved in Red defence (Secours Rouge). Was arrested after criticising the campaign led in the west against Trotsky. Heinz Neumann. Member of the German politburo. Went on missions to China and Spain for the comintern. Arrested April 1937. His 11) In camps and prisons were arrested and held the young children victims those of Postychev Kossior ... Kamenev, ... Tomski, Sosnovski Popov and others.
On what bases do the authors of the articles mentioned and the editors of the journa Kommunist seek to rehabilitate the greatest criminal which our country has known in all of contemporary history?
I ask the authors of the articles mentioned to refute the facts which I have set out above To refute them by the sole means admitted ir the society of honest men: by publishing my declaration and then making reply. Should they not do so, it only remains for me to conclud that these authors are in agreement with th facts mentioned in my declaration, and witt the conclusions which flow from these facts Which means that, without waiting for a reply to this declaration, I consider myself in th right in inviting colleagues participating in thi discussion to address themselves collectively t the public prosecutor of the USSR, in order to open a criminal investigation against Stair (Djugashvili) J.V., accused of the crimes liste above. I am convinced that a posthumou conviction is possible and legal, Just posthumous rehabilitations are possible an legal.
P.I. Yakir DRAMATIS PERSONAE Germany in 1923. Member of the presidium o the communist international. Arrested assassinated in 1937.
Vasil Tanev. Accused with Dimitrov of havin provoked the burning Reichstag February 1933; killed during the war. Thomas Dabal. Former member of the peasant party, won over to communism. After havin been incarcerated in Poland, he settled i Russia and founded the Red International-o peasants. Executed in the Soviet Union.
th Commissariat of Nationalities with Stalin, wa involved in Polish affairs. Later secretary of th Polish CP. Arrested, he died in 1939. Edward Prochniak. Former pupil of the schoo ented or the Polish pengume Lenin at Longjumeau in 1911 his party in the Comintern. with several members of his family in 1937 Vlada Copich. Communist deputy. Came to th USSR in 1925 and represented his party in th Comintern. Commanded internationa brigade in Spain. Recalled to Russia in 193 and then disappeared Sultan Zade. Was Russia during th revolution. Member of the executive committe of the Comintern. Executed in 1938. Michael Tukhachevsky. Former tsarist arm officer who rallied to the Bolsheviks at th
steps towards workers control system to their advantage. They have done this by the formation of gangs working together,
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conviction is both possible and legal, just as posthumous rehabilitations are both possible
revolutionary tones of the Bolsheviks of two generations
pro-Stalin campaign; and to do so, we suggest, is not necessarily to side with those "falsifiers of