RUSSIAN PURGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1939, Page 3

RUSSIAN PURGES

CLASSED AMONG SOVIET ACHIEVEMENTS. SERVICE TO ENTIRE WORLD. The astonishing claim that the Russian “purges” since the summer of 1936 are “the most signal act of humanism ever known to mankind” is made in a summary of the achievements of Russia’s ruling Communist Party during the past five years, prepared for submission to the eighteenth Party Congress (writes the Moscow correspondent of the “Christian Science Monitor.”)

The claim is supported by the following unusual argument:— Joseph Stalin’s opponents in Russia represented Fascism and reaction everywhere. If they had been permitted to survive they would have overthrown the Stalin regime, which is held to be transforming the world. By destroying its political opponents the Russian Communist Party has therefore “rendered an inestimable service to the entire world.

The “purges” are listed as one of nine chief achievements accomplished under the leadership of the Communist Party since the last Party Congress was held in 1934. Another achievement rated as equally important to the “purges” is publication of a new history of the Russian Communist Party, which is described as “a powerful revolutionary weapon in the struggle against all enemies of Socialism” and also .as “a scientific history of Bolshevism. enriching the Marxist-Leninist theory, which, like every genuine science, is inseparable from practice and is, therefore, continually being perfected.” Perusal of this story shows that its compilers have ventured to “re-write history" in the light of recent conflicts between Stalin and other veteran Communist leaders. The names of the hundreds of men and women who have been executed since 1936 have thus either disappeared from the pages of the iiew work or the careers of these persons are pictured from the beginning in a most unfavourable light. Some of these revolutionary leaders were portrayed in previous histories published in Moscow as recently as 1934. Other achievements for which Russia’s ruling party claims credit are less startling, although some of them have not been satisfactorily proven. They are: — 1. The Soviet Union has become an industrial world power, holding first place in Europe and second in the world for industrial output. 2. Collectivisation of farming, now practically complete, has solved the most difficult problem of Russia’s socialist revolution: the remolding of agriculture on socialist lines. Agricultural labour in Russia has thus become “one form of industrial labour.” 3. The socialist system of production has become the “sole dominant system; of economy in the Soviet Union.” As a result crises, poverty, and unemployment have disappeared “forever.” This is the same claim made by German National Socialists for their system. 4. The so-called Stakanoff movement, a modified form of labour speedup, has been perfected to a point where it can serve as a bridge between Socialism (the present Russian system) and Communism (the objective). 5. Russia has experienced a cultural revolution since 1934, as evidenced by thousands of new educational institutions, theatres, clubs, etc, 6. The new Stalin Constitution adopted in 1936 recorded fundamental changes in the structure of Soviet society. There are now declared to be “only two friendly classes,” workers and peasants, together with an “intelligentsia” (not a class) which has “sprung up from the people.” The slight dividing lines among these three groups are declared to be rapidly disappearing. 7. The party has devoted its chief attention during the past five years to creating an adequate armaments industry, made necessary by the “menace of an attack from Fascist countries” and by the allegation that Russia is “surrounded by a hostile capitalist world.”