survive.
min was still alive, achieved prominence under Stalin continued to be active in the Khrushchev years.
Voroshilov, Mikoyan, Kaganovich, Hotov ValenKov te occupied the summits power in the USSR. But, the author observes, The people whom acus in this book can be of pride for the ISSR. the Communist mankind as a eviewed by are Holmes Through these short Medveder consists of portraits of six men, all of All began their political activity while undoubtedly sanctioned ine iquidation of his statt the officer tain generaly aclanucc that Politburo members sign the blacklists he had drawn up. was not possible to refuse survive.
Despite the likely consequences, some leaders did try to protect their subordinates ana limit purges. GK sergo vraznonikiaze, Politburo member long-ume personal wiene of Stalin, tried to protect given lesser assignments.
several ot his subjects were still alive in 1983 as Medvedev Wal finishing his They would • recognised sometimes be they went about Moscow. At a theatre per formance Moscow, members the SOlIC audience recognised Molotov and asked him to autograph their pro'Fora moment he came to life. Then suddenly young woman in the toyer began u doing? This man's "What are vou doing?
executioner! hundreds of troved people!' The people around him scattered like autumn leaves. He lowered his head and quickly made for the exit'.
Then there was Malenkov, once widely regarded as Stalin's heir but far too much compromised by the past and quickly out-manoeuvred bv Khrushchev. In retirement he kept alansel. apparently resolved to take his terrible secrets with him to the grave. It seems he became religious in his old ge ana tele were Iepor ) him being seen enterin various churches. Perhaps he was seeking forgiveness there for numerous But the Soviet people and progressive humanity can never forget the terrible crimes of stalinism. As Roy Medvedev points moral of his book is the urgency and importance of struggle for socialist which can ensure that never again can such things take place and that never again can such people lead the Soviet All Stalin's men, by Medveder, Oxford 1983. Basil Blackwell, £8.95.
crimes of THIS IS an Italian communist's reminiscence the historic Soviet Communist congress at which Khrushchev delivered his 'secret' speech denouncing the crimes of Stalin. Vidali was present as a delegate free territory from the of Trieste', a divided city on the Italian-Yugoslav border.
Although the congress was held in February 1956, the diary was published for the first time in 1974. This It S first English publication Vidali, better known in the Communist movement Carlos Contreras. joined the movement when he was 17. After being tortured exiled by Mussolini's fascist regime he was jailed repeatedly in many countries.
Reviewed by Robyn Marshall During the Spanish Civil War was a fun• пе chonary or lne communis!
In his hiswal Hugh Thomas Vidali names one of the agents who, on orders from Stalin, helped organise murue. of Andres Nin, leader of the Party of Marxist Unification (POUM).
Vidali claims that his role misrepresented, refused to Inal aways give personal details leaders to Stalin's political police Vidali faced another complication in coming to with stalinism and the implications Khrushchev's revelations Although it's not explained in this book, at the end of world war Yugoslav partisans marched Into Trieste Just ahead of a division of New Zealanders This resulted in Trieste being divided in two: Lone A, the port and the west of the city, was held by the British Yugoslavia took Zone B During the bitter split between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the Italian Communist Party slavishly followed Stalin supported the capitalist Italian government, in the dispute ovell Trieste. 1956, , Trieste was still split.
meant recognition otte Union's errors in dealing with Yugoslavia, extremely painful line for Trieste Communist members to accept.
delegates were allowed to attend the which closed Khrushchev's four-hour secret soccen was made. This made many of the delegates resentful in une cornoors al n congress, Vidali met an ol‹ acquaintance Yelena Stasova, a leading Communist Party figure in Lenin's time.
She narrowly avoided perishing in the 1930s purges.
However, Stasova relentlessly defended friends in prison and did al she could for their families Talking with Vidali she Tes him of 40 mulla.
friends who had died in fact, slain s prison:
Vidali himself had almos Deconc a victill Vidali also meets the wife of former foreign minister Molotov. In 1948 Lavrenty Beria, chief of the secret police had conspirec with Stalin sanges to Chalec.
trotskyism Molotov was told to divorce her or face the consequences He bowed to Stalin's pressure and dutifully divorced her After Stalin's death she had been released rehabilitated describes Anastas Mikoyan's congress sebabie lor wa.
for strong Criticis of the Stalin period and the cult of the Molotov Beria personality. This anticipated Khrushchev's later helped set report and certain air of expectation at the congress foreign were left in the dark Nothing was clear, except and that portraits Stalin were beginning to disappear overnight In the open part of the care was taken not to mention Stalin's Hall Later, when Khrushchev's special report was leaked Vidali's assessmen was that: Khrushchev hastried to save nosel - I don't will succeed. himself has Decause le been a creature of Stalin, Stalin's accomplice flatterer to a greater extent than others Vidali saw the speech as just manoeuvre bid.
Khrushchev's He was also shocked by what he learned at a secret meeting with old coll munists released prison in Siberia who had LIK( ¡all accepted Stalin's leadership question, Vidali Witnoul was thrown into a crisis by twentieth revelations. He resolves it by concluding 'Going ahead by forced marches, with no previous experience which to rely, at the cost incredible sacrifices the Soviet Union succeeded in itself into that fortress which was resist all enemy able to attacks and the capitalist siege, up to and including victory Wal against the most pitiless of enemies Nazi tascism.
All this in spite of Stalin, as some people declare Vidali went on to become one of the strongest supporters of Togliatti, the leade the Italian Communist Party who was largely responsible for the develonment Eurocommunism.
the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union man, f4.95.
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HIS RECENT book by the Soviet Marxist historian m figured prominently in the history of the Soviet ion in the Stalin period. They were not the best of lin's entourage, nor necessarily the worst, but they
angraphies, Roy Medvedev All Stalin's men