The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification -- Chapter 11
8. One of Stalin's official biographies reads: "In 1918, he was once again exiled to Turukhansk, where he
remained until 1917." The Stalin jubilee issue of Pravda similarly stated that "Stalin spent
1918491~915-1916 in exile in Turukhansk" (Pravda, Dec.21, 1929). That is all! These were the years of
the imperialist war, of Zimmerwald and Kienthal, of the collapse of the Second International, of the
profoundest ideological struggle in the ranks of socialism. What part did Stalin take in this struggle?
These four years of exile should have been the years of intense intellectual activity. The exiles, under
such conditions, keep diaries, write treatises, elaborate theses, platforms, exchange polemical letters, etc.
It is hardly conceivable that Stalin did not write anything during four years of exile on the basic problems
of war, the International and the revolution. Yet one would seek in vain for any traces of Stalin's
intellectual labors during those four amazing years. How could this have happened? It is all too obvious
that had a single line been found in which Stalin had formulated the idea of defeatism or had proclaimed
the need for a new International, this line would have long since been printed, photographed, translated
into all languages, and endowed with learned commentaries by all the academies and institutes. But no
such line was ever found. Does this mean that Stalin wrote nothing at all? No, it means nothing of the
sort. That would he utterly improbable. But it does mean that among everything he had written during the
four years there is nothing, literally nothing, that could be utilized today to reinforce his reputation. Thus,
the years of the war, when the ideas and slogans of the Russian Revolution and of the Third International
were being hammered out, prove to be only a void in the ideological biography of Stalin. It is very likely
that during this time he said and wrote: "Let them climb the walls there, and busy themselves with
stirring up a tempest in a teapot."
9. Stalin arrived with Kamenev in Petrograd in the middle of March 1917. Pravda, under the editorship
of Molotov and Shliapnikov, was vague and primitive, but, nevertheless, "Left" in character, antagonistic
to the Provisional Government. Stalin and Kamenev removed the old editorial board, as being too far to
the Left, and assumed an utterly opportunist position in the spirit of the Left Mensheviks: (a) sup port of
the Provisional Government, "in so far as"; (b) military defense of the revolution (i.e., the bourgeois
republic) (c) unification with the Mensheviks of the Tseretelli type. The position of Pravda of that time is
truly a scandalous page in the history of the party and in the biography of Stalin. His articles of March
1917, which were the "revolutionary" conclusions of his deliberations in exile, wholly explain why from
the works of Stalin pertaining to the epoch of war not a single line has appeared to this day.
10. We reprint below Shliapnikov's account of the over turn effected by Stalin and Kamenev, who, at that
time, were united on a common position:
"The day of the first issue of the 'transformed' Pravda the 15th of March -- was a day of rejoicing for the
defensists. The whole Tauride Palace, from the jobbers in the State Duma Committee to the very heart of
the revolutionary democracy, the Executive Committee of the Soviets, buzzed with a single piece of
news: the victory of the moderate and reasonable Bolsheviks over the extremists. In the Executive
Committee itself we were met with venomous smiles. This was the first and only occasion on which
Pravda met with the approval of even the staunch defensists of the Lieber-Dan stripe. When this issue of
Pravda reached the factories, it there aroused utter dismay among our party members and our
sympathizers, and caustic gratification among our opponents. Inquiries poured into the Petersburg
Committee, the Bureau of the C.C. and the editorial board of Pravda --W hat happened? Why has our
newspaper renounced the Bolshevik line and taken the path of defensism? But the Petersburg Committee,
as well as the entire organization, was caught unawares by this coap. There was general indignation and
the Bureau of the C.C. was blamed for this incident. The indignation in the local districts was enormous,
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