What an interesting day, June 26th of 1931 was.
1. The New York Times headline was "Stalinism Solving Minorities Problem."
The article was based on cables the Times correspondent, WALTER DURANTY, sent based on his experience in Moscow.
His lead paragraphs:
"PARIS. June 25One of the most evident ways in which Soviet Russia is modifying Marxism is in the matter of nationalities and Soviet federation, for which Joseph Stalin is directly responsible as Commissar of Nationalities during the period prior to 1923, when the Constitution of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was adopted and the commissariat in question abolished.
Karl Marx conceived of the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship in a highly industrialized state, where the actual majority of the population would be urban workers speaking the same language and having the same needs, habits and aims. For this homegeneous majority the elimination or absorption of other classes and sections of the population would be a relatively simple matter, once it gained political power and held the economic reins."
Walter Duranty -* STALINISM SOLVING MINORITIES PROBLEM - New York Times - 26 June 1931
2. In his book "Dupes," Dr. Paul Kangor focuses on the Westerners seduced by communism, and Duranty is a perfect example.
a. Kangor says: Dupes, in this connection, are folks who have been used by the communists to believe that either the communists are just like them, and therefore deserve their protection, or have been led to believe that the communist party is no more menacing than any other American political party.
3. Stalin's method was simple and straightforward: "...the Ukrainian famine, known as the Holodomor, or death by hunger....We may never know how many died of starvation in 1932-33. Yushchenko and others speak of 10 million, or about a third of the population of Ukraine."
Genocide or not, Stalin starved millions to death and Soviet regime concealed for 54 years « Current Politics in Ukraine
4."... the Pulitzer Prize was given to Walter Duranty of The New York Times. Mr Duranty, a Harrow-educated Englishman, won the prize for 1932 articles that argued Stalin was "doing the best for the Soviet masses". The same articles neglected both the facts of the deportation of hundreds of thousands and the beginnings of the Ukrainian famine, in which millions perished. The Great Depression was on and many New York Times editors saw the Soviet Union as an intriguing economic model. The Pulitzer committee duly canonised Duranty, concluding his work was "marked by scholarship, profundity, impartiality"*. Their award was a gift to Duranty - but an even greater one to Stalin."
Amity Shlaes, Why Soviet history is back in vogue (Financial Times, Aug. 25, 2003)
Of course, dupes are still a factor in American politics, aren't they....how else to explain the closeness of the polls?
BTW....the Pulitzer folks never took back the NYTimes award.
Heed the warning of George Santayana when you vote in November.
1. The New York Times headline was "Stalinism Solving Minorities Problem."
The article was based on cables the Times correspondent, WALTER DURANTY, sent based on his experience in Moscow.
His lead paragraphs:
"PARIS. June 25One of the most evident ways in which Soviet Russia is modifying Marxism is in the matter of nationalities and Soviet federation, for which Joseph Stalin is directly responsible as Commissar of Nationalities during the period prior to 1923, when the Constitution of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was adopted and the commissariat in question abolished.
Karl Marx conceived of the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship in a highly industrialized state, where the actual majority of the population would be urban workers speaking the same language and having the same needs, habits and aims. For this homegeneous majority the elimination or absorption of other classes and sections of the population would be a relatively simple matter, once it gained political power and held the economic reins."
Walter Duranty -* STALINISM SOLVING MINORITIES PROBLEM - New York Times - 26 June 1931
2. In his book "Dupes," Dr. Paul Kangor focuses on the Westerners seduced by communism, and Duranty is a perfect example.
a. Kangor says: Dupes, in this connection, are folks who have been used by the communists to believe that either the communists are just like them, and therefore deserve their protection, or have been led to believe that the communist party is no more menacing than any other American political party.
3. Stalin's method was simple and straightforward: "...the Ukrainian famine, known as the Holodomor, or death by hunger....We may never know how many died of starvation in 1932-33. Yushchenko and others speak of 10 million, or about a third of the population of Ukraine."
Genocide or not, Stalin starved millions to death and Soviet regime concealed for 54 years « Current Politics in Ukraine
4."... the Pulitzer Prize was given to Walter Duranty of The New York Times. Mr Duranty, a Harrow-educated Englishman, won the prize for 1932 articles that argued Stalin was "doing the best for the Soviet masses". The same articles neglected both the facts of the deportation of hundreds of thousands and the beginnings of the Ukrainian famine, in which millions perished. The Great Depression was on and many New York Times editors saw the Soviet Union as an intriguing economic model. The Pulitzer committee duly canonised Duranty, concluding his work was "marked by scholarship, profundity, impartiality"*. Their award was a gift to Duranty - but an even greater one to Stalin."
Amity Shlaes, Why Soviet history is back in vogue (Financial Times, Aug. 25, 2003)
Of course, dupes are still a factor in American politics, aren't they....how else to explain the closeness of the polls?
BTW....the Pulitzer folks never took back the NYTimes award.
Heed the warning of George Santayana when you vote in November.
