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Stalin, his personality and his military capacities

The Hitlerian aggression drenched the Soviet Union in a bath of blood and steel that surpassed all the horrors that the world had ever previously seen. Never in humanity's history has such a terrifying test, of such unfeeling violence, been imposed on a people, its cadres and its leadership. Under such conditions, it was impossible to pretend, to rationalize or to try to save oneself with empty words and acts.

The moment of truth had come for Stalin, the supreme leader of the Party and the country. The war was to measure his moral and political strength, his will and endurance and his intellectual and organizational capacities.

At the same time, all the `truths' about Stalin, revealed in a self-interested manner, by the Hitlerians and by the more `respectable' Right, were to be tested: the war would show up without doubt Stalin the `dictator', whose `personal power' was not affected by the `slightest contradiction', the `despot' who did not listen to reason, the man of `mediocre intelligence', etc.

Half a century after the war, these slanders, put forward at the time by socialism's worst enemies, have become primary `truths' once again. With time, the international bourgeoisie succeeded in imposing on intellectual circles the monopoly of its class `truth'.

Yet the Second World War itself provided ample material to denounce this lie, which is so important to save capitalism, the system of exploitation and pillage.

Fri Aug 25 09:03:42 PDT 1995