Posted on 06/27/2009 1:38:16 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
He belonged to the ruling classes and his family were Russified Polish aristocrats. After university, he practiced law. He wrote poetry and a novel. He was sophisticated, urbane and widely travelled, even visting the United States. He had suave manners and spoke most European languages and several oriental. In 1909, when in Paris, he severely denounced the Bolsheviks and Lenin personally saying, among much else, that "The Bolsheviks aim is power, influence over the people, they desire to bridle the proletariat and Lenin is twisting Marxism according to his own whim to gain power." During the October Bolshevik revolution he was a bystander who played Chopin waltzes on a grand piano in the Smolny Institute when all around him was chaos and panic. Yet this was the man chosen by Stalin and without his shrewdness and ruthlessness, Stalin could never have pushed through collectivization in 1929 or the show trials of the early 1930's.
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Well he drove his niece to commit suicide. There is reason to believe he was having an incestuous relationship with her. It may even have been a murder disguised as suicide.
I totally agree with you. Dostoevsky was a profound universal writer who was also prophetic. My favorite novel is “The Brothers Karamazov” because of the way it deals with the matter of Christian faith vs. atheism and sets forth the best “arguments” for both. He doesn’t use his own Christian faith rhetorically but challenges the reader to consider and analyse the existential realities involved. I think the fact that he was himself nearly executed under Russian czardom gave him a depth and profundity about life, death, and ultimate concerns and values that is unequalled. By the way, Lenin hated Dostoevsky as well as the “pre-conversion” Tolstoy. By that he meant that after Tolstoy converted to his unique version of Christianity, everything he said was worthless - of course, because it couldn’t be accomodated to the Marxist dialectic of history!
To give the devil his due, Hitler was no coward and won the Iron Cross during the First World War. He always proudly displayed this. It’s been documented, on the other hand, that Stalin was cowardly and even during World War II was afraid to get too close to the front, despite the propaganda he published for popular consumption about being “with the troops.” He was rejected for service in the war because he was deemed physically “unfit.” This was because one arm was shorter than the other due to being run over by a carriage when young. To me, this only goes to show that maniacs can be physically courageous or cowardly - like all humanity!
I’ve read, I think in one of Beavor’s books, that Stalin didn’t even come out of his room to speak with anyone for over 10 days after Operation Barbarossa began.
The country had no leadership. It’s amazing the whole thing didn’t collapse as Hitler predicted it would.
Dostoevsky is my absolute favorite writer and I think ‘The Brother’s Karamazov’ is one of the greatest novels ever written. I’ve read it at least once a year since I was 13.
I want to thank you for motivating me. I last read that great novel in a “Great Books” course I had at the University of Pennsylvania (I’m embarrassed to say how long ago!) and the professor told us that we should not be obsessed with devouring every “new” book but to spend equal time re-reading the great classics of the past. I’ve been remiss in that regard. Your post was a good reminder of a good admonition. All best,
The only new books I read are usually non-fiction and more often than not religious, or perhaps, political/social in nature. I find so much of today’s fiction to be trash, for lack of a better word. I end up rereading classic after classic. I always find something fresh in each one and I usually come away with a different or more expanded understanding.
orchestrating with Stalin the death of millions.
He's as guilty as if he'd pulled the triggers himself.
The message of his life is that one NEVER really knows who is the potential mass murderer and who will join the Dostoyevskyian forces of total, demonic evil as in the "possessed."
Amen to that. Bttt.
Yes, I’ve read similar reports about Stalin by Robert Conquest and other Soviet experts. These historians say that when the German invasion took place Stalin was in his “near” dascha and thought that when several of his friends came to rally him he was convinced they actually came to arrest him. He was, in fact, so shaken that he had Molotov address the Russian people on the radio to tell them about the invasion. The only disagreement on this point that I’ve read is in Dmitri Volkogonov’s biography of Stalin. But even he concedes that Stalin was so shaken that he found it very difficult to function.
I hadn’t heard that about Checkov but it doesn’t surprise me. “The Cherry Orchard” certainly portrays the decadence of the ancien regime. The relationships between the Bolsheviks and literary figures is interesting. Maxim Gorky was lured back into the Soviet Union by Stalin and became a sort of propaganda tool for Stalin. However, there are some reputable sovietologists that claim Gorky was becoming disillusioned and too outspoken and was killied by Stalin. After all, we mustn’t forget that it was Lenin who coined that much-used phrase, “useful idiot.”
Once again, we’re on the same page! For example, I remember the first time I was required to read Herodotus and Thucydides. My initial reaction was, Ugh! Some old, dry irrelevant stuff from ancient history. But what a surprise! I not only discovered it to be highly relevant to the present but actually very exciting and engaging reading! To cite just one aspect, I firmly believe that we can’t possibly fully understand the conflict today between the West and Islamofascism if we don’t examine the wars between Athens and Persia (Iran) and the values that distinguish Western civilization from theocratic Islam. Of course, Mohammed died c. 632 A.D. but the essential issues of conflict remain, even though expressed in different terms. I agree with you that too much of modern fiction is just trash. “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.” - Santayana
Exactly right. People like Menzhinsky are possibly even more culpable because they KNEW exactly what they were doing and what kind of people they were serving! Good insight about the devil. As Goethe said, the “devil” exists within every human heart and is not some “outside” force beyond us at whom we can self-righteously point.
You’re not an old Star Trek fan, are you? ;-)
Now everyone will know what a complete nerd I am...but...My best friend and I often have discussions in which totalitarian, revolutionary regimes take center stage and many is the time we’ve discussed the descriptions of many of the major players of the bloody cults that were created. Seemingly normal, well-educated, mild-mannered men often perceived as ‘soft’ looking and ‘soft’ speaking, yet underneath it all they were nothing more than serial killers intoxicated on their power over life and death. Pray that we don’t have to deal with these types of humans here in our country.
LOL, I’d like to think it’s not just nerdiness! ;-) I’ve a bit of nerd going on, also, as I’ve had these kinds of conversations. It’s sad to think that given the ‘right’ circumstances, some people just have this lurking beneath them. Or maybe they seek out power. Good point, usually the ‘quiet’ ones. I, too, pray we don’t have to see this come to light.
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