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Anticommunists and Trotskyists cannot afford to be objective because the evidence does not support their falsehoods and fabrications. Very few of the academic scholars who write about Stalin-era Soviet history make any attempt to practice objectivity. | Anticommunists and Trotskyists cannot afford to be objective because the evidence does not support their falsehoods and fabrications. Very few of the academic scholars who write about Stalin-era Soviet history make any attempt to practice objectivity. | ||
=== Practice | === Practice andTheory === | ||
Lenin wrote that “without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.”<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/i.htm Lenin, What Is To Be Done?(1902), Chapter 1, Section D.]</ref> But what makes theory scientific, and so potentially revolutionary? That the theory is tested by an accurate understanding of the world, which is gained through practice. | Lenin wrote that “without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.”<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/i.htm Lenin, What Is To Be Done?(1902), Chapter 1, Section D.]</ref> But what makes theory scientific, and so potentially revolutionary? That the theory is tested by an accurate understanding of the world, which is gained through practice. | ||
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Just as Leon Trotsky was the first to apply the term “totalitarian” to the USSR during the period of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]’s leadership, so he was the first to use the term "Stalinism". | Just as Leon Trotsky was the first to apply the term “totalitarian” to the USSR during the period of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]’s leadership, so he was the first to use the term "Stalinism". | ||
The Oxford English Dictionary identifies | The Oxford English Dictionary identifies thefirst use of the word "Stalinism" in the English language:<blockquote>1927 Daily Tel.22 Nov. 10/3: A violent denunciation of ‘Stalinism’ and its ‘terrorising of the party’.</blockquote>This is reference to an article about the activities of Trotsky and other Oppositionists during and after the November 7, 1927, celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The scare quotes indicate that the paper is quoting the Oppositionists. The Trotskyist site Marxists.org joins overtly pro-capitalist writers in stating:<blockquote>... '''Stalinism lastedlonger and was more total''' than fascism. But '''fascism and Stalinism shared in common...that they rested on absolute terror''' ... (ibid.)</blockquote>Marxists.org recognizes that “Stalinism” does not have any fixed meaning:<blockquote>...getting at the core definition of “Stalinism” [is] difficult, but not impossible.<ref>At <https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/s/t.htm#stalinism>.</ref> | ||
The political tenets of Stalinism revolve around '''the theory of socialism in one country–developed by Stalin to counter <u>the Bolshevik theory</u> that the survival of the Russian Revolution depended on proletarian revolutions in Europe.''' In contradistinction, the Stalinist theory stipulates that a socialist society can be achieved within a single country.</blockquote>This is false. Marxists.org continues [emphasis [[Grover Furr|mine]]]: | The political tenets of Stalinism revolve around '''the theory of socialism in one country–developed by Stalin to counter <u>the Bolshevik theory</u> that the survival of the Russian Revolution depended on proletarian revolutions in Europe.''' In contradistinction, the Stalinist theory stipulates that a socialist society can be achieved within a single country.</blockquote>This is false. Marxists.org continues [emphasis [[Grover Furr|mine]]]: | ||
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There are people around me in the outside world, whose opinion is important for me: there is the traditional intellectual public opinion, and, most importantly, the opinion of former prisoners who were still very much alive in 1994. And they measured our victims in the whole history of terror by some absolutely inconceivable figures, tens of millions. | There are people around me in the outside world, whose opinion is important for me: there is the traditional intellectual public opinion, and, most importantly, the opinion of former prisoners who were still very much alive in 1994. And they measured our victims in the whole history of terror by some absolutely inconceivable figures, tens of millions. | ||
And yet, according to my calculations, '''in the entire history of Soviet power, | And yet, according to my calculations, '''in the entire history of Soviet power, from1918 to 1987 (the last arrests were in early 1987), according to the surviving documents, it turned out that 7 million 100 thousand people were arrested by security agencies across the country. At the same time, among them were arrested –and quite a lot –not only for political crimes'''. Yes, they were arrested by security agencies, but security agencies arrested people for banditry, smuggling, counterfeiting. And for many other “general-purpose” crimes . . . | ||
And here is the final figure –7 million. This is for the whole history of Soviet power. | And here is the final figure –7 million. This is for the whole history of Soviet power. | ||