The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification
more important trace is preserved outside the pages of the book itself, in the form of the
above-mentioned proof sheets, corrected and annotated in her own handwriting, by P. F. Kudelli, the
editor of the volume.
As the official reason for hiding the most important minutes of the Petrograd Committee for the year
1917, Kudelli jotted down the following note on the proofs: "The speech of V. I. Lenin was recorded by
the secretary of that session of the Petersburg Committee with considerable omissions and numerous
abbreviations of various words and sentences. In places, the record of Lenin's speech cannot be
deciphered. To avoid presenting the speech in garbled form, it will, there fore, not be printed."
It is quite true that the record of the minutes is imperfect, containing many omissions and obscure
passages. But this is equally true of all the minutes of the Petrograd Committee for the year 1917. The
record of the November 1 session is, if anything, superior to several others. It is generally known that
Lenin's speeches were always difficult to record even in shorthand, because of the peculiarities of his
delivery. He spoke very rapidly, using extremely complex sentences, making sudden and abrupt
interpolations, etc. Nevertheless, the full import of Lenin's speech of November 1 (14) is perfectly clear.
Lunacharsky's speech and the two speeches of Trotsky are quite adequately recorded. The reason for the
excision of these minutes is wholly different. Nor is it difficult to find. The reason is denoted on the
margins of the proof sheets by a heavy line accompanied with an enormous question mark. These
notations are placed next to the following words in the text:
"As for conciliation [with the Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionists] I cannot even speak about that
seriously. Trotsky long ago said that unification is impossible. Trotsky understood this and from that time
on there has been no better Bolshevik."
It was this passage that completely overwhelmed the Secretariat of the Central Committee and resulted in
a reconstruction of the entire book which is unpleasant enough in itself -- for even in its present ravaged
form it constitutes a deadly document against the falsifiers. Enough to mention that the viewpoint of the
Central Committee as presented to the locals was referred to as "the viewpoint of Lenin and Trotsky"
(cf., p. 845). Not even a man as assiduous as Yaroslavsky can attend to every detail.
I might remark in passing that it would be highly instructive to reconstruct the independent ideological
creative work of this incompetent compiler and spiteful falsifier during the year 1917. We shall recall
only a single fact that is little known or conveniently forgotten. After the February Revolution,
Yaroslavsky issued in Yakutsk jointly with the Mensheviks a review, Sotsial-Demokrat, a mode! of
infinite political sordidness, straddling between Menshevism and the most provincial form of liberalism.
Yaroslavsky at that time was at the head of the Yakutsk Chamber of Arbitration, whose function it was to
safeguard the splendors of the democratic revolution against clashes between workers and capitalists.
This spirit permeated all the articles in the above review, of which Yaroslavsky was the editor. Among
his collaborators who, too, did not violate the spirit of the publication were Ordjonikidze and Petrovsky,
the present Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee. In a leading article which
might seem incredible had it not appeared in print, Petrovsky literally shed tears to express his emotions
over the fact that a government official had donated 50 roubles to charity. Petrovsky expressed his firm
conviction that the revolution would attain its full fruition the moment when the ruling classes began to
follow the example of the noble titular or, perhaps, aulic councilor. These staunch "Marxists" and
inflexible "revolutionists" are now editing Lenin and are seeking to edit all history. On a proof sheet of
the November 1 session they write with assurance:' 'Junk that." (See the facsimile reproduction.) Exactly!
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