Editing Marxists Behaving Badly (section)

==== 3. "Stalin the Dictator" ====
There is a great deal of evidence that Stalin was not a dictator, and no evidence that he was one. In 2004 [[wikipedia:Stephen_G._Wheatcroft|Stephen G. Wheatcroft]], [https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/12894-stephen-wheatcroft a leading academic specialist in the Stalin period], published an article titled “[https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/teamstalin.pdf From Team-Stalin to Degenerate Tyranny].” Wheatcroft’s whole article concerns Stalin’s dedication to collective leadership. Wheatcroft’s whole article concerns Stalin’s dedication to collective leadership.<blockquote>The system was dominated by Stalin, but despite the popular image of the dictator imposing his will on others, the record of his private meetings indicate that in the 1930s and early 1940s, [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] had a very broad circle of acquaintances and he spent a considerable time meeting and working with others ... His working style was as part of a working collective or editorial team, rather than as a ‘loner’. (90)<ref>Stephen G. Wheatcroft. [https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/teamstalin.pdf “From Team-Stalin to Degenerate Tyranny.”] In E.A. Rees, ed., The Nature of Stalin’s Dictatorship. The Politburo, 1924-1953. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, 79-107.</ref></blockquote>In a review of the volume in which Wheatcroft’s essay appears [[wikidata:Q55629236|Gabor T. Rittersporn]] concludes:<blockquote>... one can also agree with Rees’ comment that, when all is said and done, hardly any government lives up to the standards of collective decision-making, even in democratic states, and that this circumstance must be taken in account when writing about the Soviet system.<ref>European History Quarterly 36 (2006), 332.</ref></blockquote>But wait a minute –what about that “degenerate tyranny” part? This is only mentioned in the '''last few sentences''', with '''no evidence'''. Wheatcroft ends his article this way:<blockquote>But at the same time, he [<nowiki/>[[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]] grew increasingly unhappy with this dependency, and began to take erratic and tyrannical decisions. (104)</blockquote>''What'' decisions?  In  2004  Wheatcroft failed  to identify  even  a  single  act  of  “dictatorship”  or “tyranny” by [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]! Nor can anyone else do so today.

In [https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf a secret report dated March 2, 1955,] the U.S. [[Central Intelligence Agency]] stated:

'''Even in Stalin's time there was collective leadership. The Western idea of a dictator within the Communist setup is exaggerated.''' Misunderstandings on that subject are caused by lack of comprehension of the real nature and organization of the  Communist  power  structure. '''Stalin,  although  holding  wide  powers,  was merely the captain of a team''' and it seems obvious that Khrushchev will be the new captain.<ref><https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf>.Accessed 02.22.2022.</ref>

In  his  infamous  “Secret  Speech”  to  the  XX  Party  Congress  on  February  25,  1956, Khrushchev made a number of claims about strange decisions that Stalin supposedly made during his last years. In my book ''Khrushchev Lied'' I showed that every such statement by Khrushchev in that speech is false (except for one, that I can’t prove either true or false).<ref>[https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/ Grover Furr]. [https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=E6BC9593A1787378B671944F51B393A9 Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence That Every “Revelation" of Stalin’s (and Beria’s) Crimes in Nikita Khrushchev’s Infamous “Secret Speech”to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, is Provably False.] Kettering, [https://www.erythrospress.com/bookstore/product/khrushchev-lied-by-grover-furr-2011/ OH: Erythrós Press & Media LLC, 2011.]</ref>

There have been a few attempts by Western anticommunist “scholars” to argue that Stalin was a “dictator.” All rely on asserting that the Moscow Trials defendants were innocent; that the famine  of  1932-33  was  caused  by  collectivization,  if  not  actually  desired  by  Stalin;  that  the Tukhachevsky  Affair  defendants  were  innocent;  that “[[Yezhovshchina|the  Great  Terror]]”–discussion  to  come below –was indeed planned by Stalin.

None of this is true, as I have shown from primary-source evidence in my books and articles during the past decade. But in the politically-charged field of Soviet history, it is obligatory to call Stalin a “dictator.”