IS RUSSIA A DEMOCRACY?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 51, 22 February 1944, Page 4

IS RUSSIA A DEMOCRACY?

Sir,—ln the Herald of February 10 there was an article entitled "Is Russia a Democracy ? There are certain statements in this article which arc definitely misleading and extremely deleterious, to our gallant, ally. It is very had policy surely to publish such disruptive articles which play Hitler's game of sowing dissension among the allies. We have space to deal with only one or two of the most glaring mis-state-mentjs. 1. "Fnmates of labour camps now number millions . . . these people being guilty of political offences:." The Herald should quote its authority lor this obvious mis-statement. 2. ''The Russian State is i die-r tatorship . . . its rule is as auth-» oritarian as that of Hitler." This is untrue, as we will show. If it were true what is Britain deling signing an agreement for 20 years of collaboration with an oritarian dictatorship ? 3. "Stalin tolerates no rival. Crit-> icism not tolerated." This is what Stalin himself says about leadership: "Single persons cannot decide. The decisions of •single persons are always, or nearly always one-sided decisions. From our experience, out of every hundred decisions made by single persons that have been tested and corrected, collectively ninety are onesided. In our leading body . . . the Central Committee of our party there are about 70 members. Everyone is able to contribute his experience. Since everyone is able to correct the errors of individual persons, and .since we pay heed to such corrections,. we arrive at more or less correct decisions." Every member of the Soviet Government is subject to recall if he does not fulfil the demands of the electors. Is that dictatorship ? No . . . it is fuller democracy than any other country enjoys. Staiio is an elected member of the Central Committee and as such is subject to recall or dismissal if necessary if he docs not carry out the correct policy. He is the recognised leader of the Soviet people because of his own personal capacities and the fact that he has proved in prao« tice that he is the ablest man for the position. 4. "Stalin in ''Leninism" says; The state is a machine in the hands of the. governing class for suppress-? ing the resistance of its class antagonists. In this respect the dictatorship of the proletariat differs in no way essentially from the dictatship of any other class." The Herald stops here in the middle of the sentence. ". . . . for the proletarian state is an instrument for the suppression of the. bourgeoisie." Stalin then goes on, "There is this tssential difference. All class states that have existed heretofore (by this he means capitalist states, feudal states or slave states) have bee'n dictatorships of an exploiting minr ority over the exploited maiority, whereas the dictatorship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of this exploited majority over the exploiting minority." In other Avords, in the U.S.S.R. it as the majority who rule in contrast to the minority who rule in the capitalist countries. Stalin also' writes: "Those who identify dictatorship of the proletariat with dictatorship of the lead-, ers are wrong. If it were so it us. as though the word, is given to the leaders. You can enjoy the luxury of a certain amount of self complacency. You can give yourself, a few airsi if you like. There is JW> need to heed what the non-party masses say. We have tile dictatorship of the leaders." Do those sound like the words of a dictator ? He then quotes Lenin as saying: "Among the masses we Communists are but drops in the ocean and wo will be able to govern only when, we properly express that which the people appreciate.' 1 [ It. is because the government o| j the U.S.S.R. does try to "propery express that which the people I appreciate" that the members of the Soviet Union have been welded together more strongly than ever un-. der the stress of war. Yours etc., SECRETARIAT, Edgecumbe Branch, Communist Party of; New Zealand*