An American professor defends Stalinism

[kowalskil]

The message below has been posted at our university forum. The author once accused me of spreading cold war propaganda (referring to my two books).

Ludwik Kowalski, author of "Diary of a Former Communist"

http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html

March 7 2013

To the Editor:

Istvan Deak’s review “Could Stalin Have Been Stopped?” (NYRB March 13 2013 - http://www.nybooks.c...…topped/?page=1) is filled with statements about Soviet history that are factually false. Here is a partial list:

* There was no “intentional killing by starvation of millions of Ukrainians” by Stalin. Every Western expert rejects the “Holodomor” myth, which originated with pro-Nazi Ukrainian nationalists in the 1950s.

* Stalin did not “shoot hundreds of thousands of imaginary political enemies in the later 1930s.” NKVD chief Nikolai Ezhov did so, as a part of his conspiracy against the Soviet government. In 1939-40 he and over a hundred of his top NKVD men were tried and executed for these horrific crimes.

* Stalin did not “attempt” to “eliminate much of the Polish leadership”. It was the Nazis who did so, in their “AB-Aktion.”

* There exists an important dispute over who shot the Poles in the murders known as the Katyn Massacre and good evidence that the Soviets shot some Polish POWs and the Germans later shot the rest.

* Stalin was not a “dictator.” He worked collaboratively with other Politburo members and was sometimes defeated. Stephen G. Wheatcroft has termed Stalin’s prewar method of rule “Team Stalin.”

* There were no “combined Nazi and Soviet invasions.” The Red Army did not “invade Poland” on September 17 1939. Abandoned by its government the Soviets had to prevent the German army from marching up to the existing Soviet border, something no country would have permitted. Winston Churchill said that the Soviets were right to do so.

* Though armed and equipped by the Soviet Union in 1941-42 the “anti-Nazi army formed by General Władysław Anders” refused to fight the Nazis until 1944.

* The Polish Home Army”, riddled with anti-Semitism, shot Jews escaping from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and collaborated with the German army against the Red Army.

* American and British pilots were not “routinely denied landing rights” when “trying to help the Home Army.” They were denied such rights for a few weeks in August-September 1944 because, like General Władysław Anders, Stalin considered the Warsaw Uprising to be a crime against the Polish people.

* There is no evidence that the Soviets “massacred thousands of innocent” Poles.

A Hungarian, Deak fails to mention that Hungary invaded the Soviet Union side by side with Nazi Germany, and Hungarian forces murdered at least hundreds of thousands of innocent Soviet citizens, including many Jews.

Grover Furr, Montclair State University

[omarali50]

I think the outlier is the line "the Russians shot some Polish POWs and later the Germans shot the rest".
What happened? did Professor Furr get disoriented for a few minutes? How could the Russians under Stalin have shot anyone?

[Michael Ezra]

Grover Furr, whose post you copy, is a well known defender of Stalin. He published books in the former Soviet Union alleging Khrushchev's Secret Speech of '56, was all, complete, utter lies. You might wish to watch this video. Here he claims that Stalin did not commit one crime. It is truly astonishing.

[J Wolfsberger]

The post would have been more accurately titled: "Stalinist Defends Stalin."

[shlomz]

* There were no “combined Nazi and Soviet invasions.” The Red Army did not “invade Poland” on September 17 1939. Abandoned by its government the Soviets had to prevent the German army from marching up to the existing Soviet border, something no country would have permitted. Winston Churchill said that the Soviets were right to do so.

Quite right, although he only gets half of the story correctly, allow me to add the second half:
* There were no “combined Nazi and Soviet invasions.” The German Army did not “invade Poland” on September 1 1939. Knowing beforehand that it will be abandoned by its government the Germans had to prevent the Martian spaceships from landing on the existing German border, something no country would have permitted. Winston Churchill said that the Germans were right to do so.

Dear lord, calling this nutcase a "historian" is like calling a crackwhore "sociable".

[J Wolfsberger]

Dear lord, calling this nutcase a "historian" is like calling a crackwhore "sociable".

That comparison was a nasty and uncalled for insult to crack whores.

[jmm99]

Not knowing any crack whores, I can't competently comment on the comparison.

Dr. Furr is certainly verbal - and he was 2008 "Scholar of the Year".

Trained indifference and integral rigidity do abound.

Regards

Mike

[shlomz]

That comparison was a nasty and uncalled for insult to crack whores.

I would have agreed, felt ashamed and apologize, but there is no proof that your post was actually ever published

[slapout9]

Dear lord, calling this nutcase a "historian" is like calling a crackwhore "sociable".

I used to know a lot of crack whores and they are very sociable we call them "crackhoes" in the South.

[Steve Blair]

It is interesting to see that he apparently failed whatever course (or boxtop) he read regarding web design.