SINISTER FIGURE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 226, 18 May 1932, Page 2

SINISTER FIGURE

RJJSSIAN piCTATpR REVEALING BIOGRAPHY OF STALIN, stlCCESS'OR ' * TO LENJN. ' f! PISLIKE OF AMERICA. Stalin is one of the big men of the World to-duy. In the view .of inany he may be a sinister figure, Jput he is in. a position of power that does not lessen his importance or interest. For that reason the story of his life, which has just been written by Mr. Isaae Don Levine, under the title of "Stalin," will pot only receive attention, but is worthy of ij:, because if is well balanped and informative. Mr. Levine, fpr example, thus gives Stalin's own account of his early assoeiation and admiration for Lenin: " 'My acqua^ntance with the revolutionary aetivity of Lenin at the end of tjae 'nineties,' runs p statement made by Stalin, 'and especially since 1901, after the appearance of the 'Iskra,' convinced me that we were dealing with an extraordinary person. I saw in him, then, not a simple leader of the party, but its actual founder. For he alone understood the inner being and immediatp needs of our party. " 'When I coinpared hina with the other leaders it seemed to me that his brothers-in-arms, Plekhanov, Martova, Axelrod and the others, were a head lower than Lenin, that Lenin in eomparison with them was not just one pf the leaders, but a leader of a higher type, a mountain eagle, who did liot know fear in the struggle, and who boldly led the party forward over the unexplored paths of the Russian revolutionary movement. Lenjn's Letter. " 'This impression was so deeply implapted in my soul that 'I felt the necessify of writipg about him to one of my nearest friends, who was then a refugee abroad, re.qnesting hjs opinion. Some time afterwards, when I wa.s already in exile in Siberia — ■ it was at the end of 1903 — I received an enthusiastic reply from Lenin, to Whoip it appeared lny friend had shown my note. Lenin's letter was eomparatively short, but it offered a daring ,fearless eriticism of the practical policy of our party. . . . " 'Only Lenin was capable of writing of the most eopfused things with such .simplicity, condensation, and daring that eaeh phase did not speak, it shot. This simple and daring letter strengthened me even more in the belief thpt we had in Lenin's personality the mountain eagle of our party. I cannot forgiye myself for burning that letter.' After a survey of Stalin's career, his piany imprisonments, comes this revedling touch when the Russian revolution was in fnll swing: — "The Krondstadt sailors were asking for Stalin. Their inquiry was point blank: " 'Shall we or shall we not come out with our rifles?' " 'Biedney watched Stalin intently. 'I was consumed with curiosity,' he tells. 'How — would Stalin answer a question about arms over the telephone?' Stalin humorously and slyly screwed up his face, stroking his moustache with one hand.

" 'What! Rifles, rifles? Why, comrades, you ought to know what to do,' spoke Stalin. 'We here are only scribblsrs and we always carry our arms, our pencils, with us. As to your arrn, it is for you to decide.' "B'.edney was convulsed with laughter. Stalin has always been a master at giving clear directions,' he ohserves in his narrative." Stalin and His Decoration. That Stalin, too, is not without pride, Mr. Levine reveals again and again. For example, Stalin had endegvoured to thwarf Trotsky, and had failed — he was to succeed later, as all the world knows — but dealing with this particular incident Stalin's biographer says: — "A year later, after Trotsky's successful campaign to save Petrpgrad from General Yudenitch, the Political Bureau met to award to him the Order of the Red Banner, the^highest decoration granted by the Soviet Government. Kameney then proposed that a eimilar award be made t0 Stalin. " 'For what ? ' asked Kalinin. 'I , can't understand why it should be given to Stalin.' But the decoration was approved. When the meeting adjourned, Bukhafin rushed at Kalinin. "Cap't you upderstapd?' Bukharin argued. 'This is Lenin's idea. Stalin can't live • unless ha has what someone else has. He will never forgive it'." One of the surprising features of the hook is the evidence it affords of Stalin's dislike of Americp. Ref erring to the present economic crisig as it affects the United States, a statenient pf Stalin's is quoted by the biographer, which reveals this fact: — " 'Democrats accuse Republicans, Republicans accuse Democrats,' says Stalin, 'and both together accuse the Hpover group with its Federal Reserve Systejn, which failed tp keep the crisis '.'in pheck." There are even wise men who see the cause of the world economic crisis in "Rolshevik plots." . . . "Citadel of Capitalisin." " 'The crisis has sti-qck deepest of all at the principal country of capitalism, its citadel, the U.S.A. which concentrates in its hands not less than half of the whole production and consumption of the worlcf. Obviously this circumstance cannot but lead to a cojossal extension of the sphere of' influence of the crisis, to the sharpening of the crisis, and the pccumulation of "unbudgpted" difflculties for worll capitalism.' . . " 'The present economic crisis is developing on the basis pf the general criis of captialism, which begap during the period of the imperaliist war, undermining the foundations of capitalism an4 facilitating the oncoming of the pconomic crisis'." A few pages later the following amusing story is told: '"In Moscow, there is current a story of a man, all out of breath, runniug headlong in the street. He humPed iiito a friend. " 'Where are you running ? ' he was asked. " 'I am carrying out Stalin's orders. I am pupning to pvertake the United States'.It should hb said thnt while the I

book is mainly a biogi-aphy of Stalin it is also the story of mQdern Russia. No book of recent years has thrown more light on the pre-revplution days, when the secret campaign fQr getting rid of Tsardom was launched, while the story of the revolution itself and finally the study of the working of the Five-Year Plan all helped to give ■Mr. Levine's book an importance which the student of political history and the general reader who is interestp4 in piep fin4 affajrs cannot ignore. ^ -4.. •-> 3 -J ^ -- —