The Stalin school of falsification - Marxists Internet Archive

Stalin School of Falsification -- Chapter 11
those days Stalin. During the time of his modest activity in the Execu tive Committee [he] gave me the
impression -- and not only more of a drab spot which would sometimes emit a dim and inconsequential
light. There is really nothing more to be said about him." (Notes on the Revointion, Bk. 2, pp. 26sf.)
17. Lenin, who had finally managed to break through from abroad, raged and thundered against the
"Kautskyist" Pravda (the term is Lenin's). Stalin withdrew to the side lines. At the time when Kamenev
manned the defenses, Stalin remained silent. Gradually he slid into the new official groove made by
Lenin. But we do not find emanating from him a single independent idea or generalization on which it is
worth while dwelling. Whenever the occasion arose, Stalin stepped in between Kamenev and Lenin.
Let us take the most acute moment of the inner-party struggle on the eve of the October insurrection.
Kamenev and Zinoviev came out in the non-party press against the insur rection. Lenin in a letter to the
Central Committee branded their action as "infinitely vile," and raised the question of expelling them
from the party. Lenin was particularly indig nant at the fact that in all their open declarations, Zinoviev
and Kamenev, without ceasing to agitate against the insur rection, covered their violation of the decision
of the party with hypocritical and diplomatic formulse. Meanwhile, on that very same day, October 20,
there appeared to the astonishment of the Central Committee the following declara tion in the central
organ of the party:
"Statement by the Editorial Board. We on our part express the hope that the matter will be considered as
closed with the statement made by comrade Zinoviev (and also comrade Kamenev's statement in the
Soviet). The sharp tone of comrade Lenin's article does not alter tile fact that we are fundamentally in
agreement." (Protocols of the C.C. of S.D.L.P.R., Aug. 1917 -- Feb. 1918. State Publishers, 1929, p.
137.) Thus, where Lenin spoke of an "infinitely vile" behavior, covered up by diplomatic subterfuges, the
edi torial board, basing itself on these subterfuges, spoke of "agreement."
The editorial board consisted at the time of Stalin and Sokolnikov. "Comrade Sokolnikov announced that
he had had no part in the declaration of the editorial board with regard to the letters of Zinoviev, and that
he regarded this declara tion as erroneous." (Idem., p. 128.) Thus, it was made clear that Stalin on his
own responsibility supported-against Lenin, against the Central Committee, and against the other
member of the editorial board -- Kamenev and Zinoviev at the most critical moment, four days prior to
the insurrection; and did so through an official declaration which could not but confuse the entire party.
There was universal indigna tion. The protocol reads: "Comrade Stalin presents a state ment that he is
withdrawing from the editorial board." (Idem., p. 129.) Rather than aggravate an already rather difficult
situation, the Central Committee did not accept Stalin's resignation.
But, after all, how explain the astounding declaration of Stalin in Pravda.~ Like a number of other steps
taken by Stalin during the period from April to October, the declara tion cannot be understood unless we
take into consideration the fact that Stalin was under the influence of his Menshevik policy during March
and the first days in April. What had occurred only yesterday was still so fresh in the minds of everyone.
Stalin up to April 4 had marched so closely in step with Kamenev. The turn in party policy after April 4
was so sharp that Stalin found himself all this time in a condition of acute political infirmity: he
squirmed, kept mum, allowed others to commit themselves, but once in a while he would burst out
against Lenin, in the spirit of the above-quoted editorial declaration.
18. For a number of years, Stalin and all his Kuusinens have been broadcasting throughout the world the
version alleging that Trotsky had wilfully and against the decision of the C.C. decided not to sign the
peace treaty at Brest Litovsk. Stalin even undertook to prove this in the press. We have now the official
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