STALIN’S METHODS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 August 1938, Page 9

STALIN’S METHODS

“Having grown up under the conditions of revolutionary struggle against the old regime, we had all been trained in the psychology of oppositionists, of irreconcilable non-con-formists. , “Involuntarily, our minds work in a direction critical of the existing order; we seek everywhere its weak sides. “In short, we are all critics, destructionists—not builders. This was all to the good—-in the past; but now, when we must occupy ourselves with constructive building, it is all hopelessly bad. 'lt is impossible to build anything enduring with such human materials, composed of sceptics and critics .... “It was thus that Stalin reasoned. “The conclusion he drew from .all this was certainly daring; if the old Bolsheviks, the group constituting today the ruling caste in the country, are unfit to perform this function, it is necessary to remove them from their posts, to create a new ruling caste.” The above is part of the explanation of the purges by Stalin which appears in a remarkable little book “The Letter of an Old Bolshevik.” This survey of Russia’s temperament explains the apparent indifference of the people to the mass executions and is well worth careful consideration. The author does not give his name for obvious reasons.