UK. Communist Has “Bellyfull” Of Russia

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28259, 23 April 1957, Page 11

UK. Communist Has “Bellyfull” Of Russia

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 22. A grey-haired mathematics professor told delegates to the twenty-fifth congress of the British Communist Party last night that in a fortnight’s visit to Russia “I got a bellyfull to last me the rest of my life,” London newspapers reported today. He is Professor Hyman Levy, aged 68, professor of mathematics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology from 1923 to 1954, and a long-time Communist Party member. Speaking during a discussion on inner-party democracy, he said: “I went to the Soviet Union. I saw and heard things that shook me to the foundation. “I got a bellyfull that will last me to the end of my life. “I must have the truth. I am not going to remain a member of a party that has been deluded by the leadership. “In Russia I saw great positive achievements coupled with castiron bureaucracy, terror and fear: a form of gangsterism battening on a Socialist economy.” (He was understood to be referring to the persecution of the Jews.) “All this did not spring out of the blue —out of one side of Stalin’s character, as we have been told here,” Professor Levy said. “It has been growing for years. It was part of the history

of socialism.”' pie professor also attacked the British party’s leadership. “How much did they know?” he asked. “I am not going to be a member of a party that is going to be deluded by its leaders. “Is it not the truth that the leadership knew and kept it from you—could not trust you or the working classes to take it?” he asked.

Professor Levy left the platform amid cheers and boos.