<o>#reading notes

<des>

     Reading notes for Robert Conquest's Stalin: Breaker of
     Nations (New York: Viking, 1992),

<doctype>book
<author>Conquest, Robert
<title>Stalin: Breaker of Nations
<city>New York
<publisher>Viking
<year>1991

<reader>
Wayne McGuire
Compuserve: 71330,2074
Genie: w.mcguire
Internet: wmcguire@world.std.com
Channel One (BBS): 617-354-8873

<abb>
/ach = anti-Christianity
/ccr = Communist crimes
/pwo = priesthood of the world
/q = quote
/wdo = world domination

<notes>

<rn>#14 stalin's marxist belief system at core of his career;
extirpation of heresy /q=g3l11

<rn>12 stalin bitter about his height (5' 4")

<rn>17 stalin expressed himself in style of catechism

<rn>19 stalin's rebellion against seminary authoritarianism

<rn>21 "typical all-purpose sage at the level of popular
portentousness" /tl

<rn>21-2 early revolutionaries support vision of dictatorial
intelligentsia /q=g4-p22g2 /pwo [priesthood of the world]

<rn>31-2 key marxist dogma re progressive pauperization of the
proletariat was decisively refuted

<rn>32 they "learn to predict a fire with unerring precision,
then burn the house down to fulfill the prediction."

<rn>33 bolsheviks vs. mensheviks; former wanted narrow group of
professional revolutionaries to control the movement

<rn>35 re stalin: "He is constantly described as breaking up
meetings by crude heckling in language both coarse and
vituperative."

<rn>41 stalin said mensheviks were jewish group while bolsheviks
were true russian group; maybe not a bad idea to organize a
pogrom in the party

<rn>52 stalin=the steel one; molotov=hammer

<rn>93 stalin letter calling for massive bloodshed in order to
impose dictatorship of the proletariat on georgia /ccr

<rn>107 stalin quote to kamenev & dzerzhinsky on sweet revenge
/q=g2

<rn>113 bakunin's devastating critique of marxism: workers become
party leaders will represent themselves, not the people /q=g5

<rn>114 revolutionary vanguard must force its will on the
proletariat, who don't know their true interests /q=g4

<rn>115 communist self-delusion re party representing the
proletariat /g4-5

<rn>117 "to provide doctrinal justification to excuse their
prejudices" /tl

<rn>118 "the idea of arguing merely to crush enemies" /tl

<rn>119 trotsky: the party is always right, infallible /q=g4-5

<rn>120 richard wright on fanatical ignorance of communists
/q=g2-3

<rn>120 tendency in west to excuse excesses of militant
revolutionaries on grounds of their good intentions to create
better society

<rn>122 stalin wanted to promote proletarian revolution all
throughout the west (1924)

<rn>122 trotskyites argued that soviet revolution was dependent
on revolutionizing the west

<rn>128 stalin kills parrot; his fierce anger

<rn>130 communist leaders rename places in soviet union after
themselves (megalomania); stalin this, stalin that

<rn>133 membership of politburo in 1924: zinoviev, kamenev,
trotsky, bukharin, rykov, tomsky & stalin; stalin would kill the
other six

<rn>139 stalin's involvement in chinese communist revolutionary
activities (1927)

<rn>140 bukharin: stalin is unprincipled intriguer who knows only
vengeance /q=g3

<rn>141 gap between communist theory & reality

<rn>143 hatred of marxist urban intelligentsia for peasants /q=g2

<rn>144 kulaks were not rich exploiting class

<rn>147 stalin decides kulaks are hostile foe (1928)

<rn>153-6 one of first show trials

<rn>155 stalin put party loyalty above professionalism &
competence

<rn>157 stalin's attack on religion from 1929 on /q=g2-3 /ach

<rn>158 stalin in 1929 announces aim of "the liquidation of the
kulaks as a class"; part of program of collectivization /ccr

<rn>158 war against kulaks; 15 million people uprooted /ccr

<rn>159-160 kulaks called vermin, totally dehumanized; grossman
compares their treatment to that of the jews by the nazis
/q=g4-p160g2 /ccr /3*

<rn>159 slave labor camps (concentration camps) proposed by
naftali frenkel in 1928 /q=g2-3 /ccr /3*

<rn>160 total ruination of the countryside

<rn>163 in many ways, the greatest known tragedy of the century:
5 to 7 million died of starvation /q=g4 /ccr

<rn>164 war against ukrainian nationality; famine was act of
deliberate malice, designed to break will of peasantry /q=g4 /3*
/ccr

<rn>169 stalin's wife commits suicide

<rn>172 comintern's vision of world revolution; "World Federation
of Soviet Republics"

<rn>174-6 similarities between fascism/nazism & communism; many
communists became fascists

<rn>181-5 world media taken in by stalin: george bernard shaw,
h.g. wells, julian huxley, etc.

<rn>184 stalin to lady astor: "the violent death of a large
number of people was necessary before the Communist state could
be firmly established."

<rn>186 baltic-white sea canal built by slave labor, mostly
kulaks; 200,00 died; canal was practically useless

<rn>191 krushchev in 1937: "Rebuilding Moscow, we must not be
frightened of pulling down a wood, or some little church, or this
or that cathedral." /ach

<rn>191 stalin's "destruction of scores of cathedrals, churches
and monasteries everywhere" /q=g3 /ach

<rn>196 april 7, 1935: stalin extends all penalties, including
death, down to 12 year old children

<rn>197 the great terror of 1936-8

<rn>199 krushchev "consciously acting the Holy Fool" /tl

<rn>205 stalin officially justifies use of torture against
enemies of revolution /q=g5 /ccr

<rn>206 1936-8 campaign of terror directed against entire soviet
society /q

<rn>207 millions killed during great terror /q=g6 /3* /ccr

<rn>209-10 checkhov on oppressive fanaticism of left-wing
intellectuals; worse than inquisition /q=g6-p210g1 /aco

<rn>211 "It is impossible to deceive Comrade Stalin." /tl

<rn>211 "Marxism promised a quick and all-purpose solution to all
the problems of history."

<rn>211 crackpot scientific theories of bolsheviks; marr &
lysenko

<rn>212 gushing worship of stalin in short course

<rn>212 short course history of the all-union communist party,
1938

<rn>213 absurdities of stalin worship

<rn>219 stalin's involvement in spanish civil war

<rn>224-7 stalin's collaboration with & aid to nazi germany

<rn>244-5 pro-stalinist views of roosevelt's advisor harry
hopkins

<rn>245 roosevelt completely taken in by stalin /g3-4

<rn>246 beaverbrook thought stalin "a kindly man"

<rn>247 soviets would have gone under without western supplies

<rn>250-1 anthony eden's crass appeasement of stalin

<rn>253 "Bad tactics can be redeemed by good strategy."
(clausewitz) /tl

<rn>256-8 katyn

<rn>258-9 stalin deported over 2 million people; 1/3 of them
died in process /q=g4-p259g3 /ccr

<rn>260 stalin dissolved cominterm in 1943, wanting to avoid
irritating roosevelt

<rn>261 repulsive stalinophile lobbies in u.s. state dept. &
british foreign office; lack of concern for poland

<rn>262-3 roosevelt taken in by stalin

<rn>264-5 yalta; stalin breaks all promises

<rn>265 stalin condoned rape in germany & yugoslavia

<rn>270 stalin consolidates terror system after the war /q=g4
/ccr

<rn>270 stalin silences voices of independent literature

<rn>276-7 condemnation of genetics; pseudo-science decreed by the
state

<rn>277 lysenko's theories supported marxist doctrine

<q>

     Lysenko's ideological attraction for Stalin was his claim
     that he could change plants by environmental pressure--that
     is directly and totally, not merely by breeding for good
     results. This theory promised the submission of the plant
     world to the orders of the party.

<qp>177

<rn>278 facts of nazi-soviet collaboration were suppressed in
nuremberg tribunal

<rn>278 intrinsic expansionism of soviet system

<rn>278 sidney hook criticized nuremberg trial procedures

<rn>279 leading communist litvinov warned that nothing would
satisfy stalin, who was driven by ideological vision of conflict
between communist & capitalist worlds /q=g3 /wdo

<rn>279-80 stalin's tactics in taking over eastern europe

<rn>290-1 stalin's anti-semitism

<rn>293 stalin says zionists were behind svetlana's first
marriage

<rn>294 railway of death--forced labor /ccr

<rn>295 films required to be ideologically correct; eisenstein

<rn>298 more scientific crackpots

<rn>303 stalin accompanied his aggression with "a vast propaganda
campaign in favor of peace and progress"

<rn>304 soviet joke: "there'll be such a struggle for peace that
not a stone will be left standing." /nb=92-2:96

<rn>305 anti-semitic campaign against zionists in czechoslovakia;
communist official praises nazi gas chambers /q=g1

<rn>307 execution of leading jews in the crimean affair, 1952

<rn>308 1952: alleged zionist conspiracy in which ben-gurion
promised truman that zionist organizations would spy on socialist
nations in exchange for american support for israel

<q>

     The vast Zionist conspiracy was traced to a secret
     American-Israeli agreement by which, in 1947, Ben-Gurion had
     promised President Truman that in exchange for American
     support for Israel, the Zionist organizations would
     undertake espionage and subversion in the socialist
     countries.

<qp>308

<rn>309-310 doctor's plot

<rn>314 "the hypnotic power of mass ideology" /tl

<rn>315 "the psychological horrors of mass falsification" /tl

<rn>318 stalin's cruelty

<rn>318 stalin's personal involvement with mass murder /q=g5 /ccr

<rn>319 norman cohn on messianic personality type from the
pursuit of the millennium /q=g4

<rn>320-1 perfect match between marxist paranoid ideology type &
stalin's paranoid personality /q=g6-p321g2

<rn>321 stalin's absurd predictions about ussr surpassing
capitalist west in development & progress

<rn>326 "good intentions" of communists concealed great evil

<rn>326 milovan djilas: "All in all, Stalin was a monster who,
while adhering to abstract, absolute and fundamentally utopian
ideas, in practice had no criterion but success--and this meant
violence, physical and spiritual extermination."

<rn>334 stalin: "Marxism is the religion of a class, its symbol
of faith."

</notes>

</o>