'Stalin sees before himself the most grandiose task which requires efficiency of all strengths of even an exceptionally strong man, and he is forced to give very considerable part of his strengths on liquidation of harmful consequences of brilliant and dangerous whims of Trotsky. Trotsky by all his speeches, writings, actions, even by his only existence, subjects the dangers of his, Stalin's, business.
The great organizer Stalin, understanding, that even a Russian peasant can be brought to socialism, he, this great mathematician and psychologist, tries to use for his aims even his opponents, whose capabilities he underestimates in no way. He knowingly surrounded himself by many people who were spiritually close to Trotsky. He is considered to be merciless, and during many years he fights to win over to one's side capable trotskists, instead of destroying them, and in his persistent efforts, with which he tries to use them in behalf of the business, there is something touching'.
'To explain these legal trials of Zinoviev and Radek by an aspiration of Stalin to domination and thirst for revenge would be simply ridiculous. Joseph Stalin, carrying out, in spite of resistance of the whole world, such grandiose task, as economic building of Soviet Union, the Marxist Stalin will not harm to the foreign policy of the country and by this to the serious area of the work, following his personal reasons, as some character from a class composition of high school students do' (Leon Feuchtwanger).
The witness Zinoviev. 'The statement to the investigation bodies':
'I was sincere in my speech at the 17th Congress. But in reality two souls continued to live in me. We did not manage truly to submit to party, to merge with it to the end we continued to look back and to live by a special stuffy life, all our position doomed us to double-dealing... My former like-minded persons always voted for the party line, and among themselves criminally kept on speaking hostilely to the party and the state... And anyway we actually remained one of centers of fight against the party and her great work.
From the first interrogation I was passionately indignant that I could be we mixed up with scoundrels, reaching to the murder of Kirov. But facts are stubborn things. And founding out all facts from an indictment against the Leningrad center, I had to acknowledge moral and political responsibility of former Leningrad opposition and my personal one for the committed crime'.
Now when the turbid wave of fascism spits on socialistic movement of working class and mixes up democratic aspirations of the best people of the civilized world with dirt, a new constitution of the USSR will be an indictment against fascism, which says that socialism and democracy are invincible' (J. Stalin).
'In very possible way it is needed to strengthen and fix our Red Army, Red fleet and Red Aircraft, it is needed to hold all our people in a state of mobilization's readiness in face of danger of military attack, that no 'chance' and no focuses of our external enemies can take us by surprise' (J. Stalin).
'For prosperity of that science, which is not fenced off from people, does not keep itself at a distance from people, but am ready to serve to the people and pass to all achievements to them; the science which serves people not under constraint but voluntarily and willingly' ( Stalin's toast on a reception in Kremlin)
THE AG'S WORD ABOUT WORD
'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not' (John 1: 3-5)
Word is the greatest gift of the Creator to man, created 'in God's image and likeness'. By word it is possible to create reality - erect and destroy, heal and kill, save and corrupt, by Word it is possible to fight on the side of word or on the side of darkness and lie. For word is the most powerful weapon of mass destruction or salvation.
It was Word that created the world and it was those to whom the Heaven endowed with word, are called to create the Kingdom 'inside us' and transform reality of the world 'that loath in wickedness' according to Plan.
'He that rejected me, and received not my words, hath one that judged him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day' (John 12:48).
It was perfectly understood by Joseph who called writers 'engineers of the human souls'.
'You produce goods that are necessary to us. People's souls are more necessary than machines, tanks or airplanes.'
So-called 'method of socialistic realism' (reflection of reality in its 'revolutionary development') is not too laughable and ridiculous. As Alexander Pushkin wrote, 'Deception, elevating us, is more precious to us than a lot of low truths ". ELEVATING means calling to high truth, to the Heaven, and helping to overcome the 'leaden abomination of life'.
Isn't history of God-humanity, ripening and forming in humanity, an ascending and revolutionary one unlike 'descending' history of old humanity, leading to outer darkness, to second and final death, i.e. from ashes in ashes?
This means that it's is not varnishing the truth but a dream and an ideal Project or Way it is necessary to go on. It may not be so but so it MUST be. An example of varnishing is a film "The Kuban Cossacks". What bad is in teaching people who flocked to watch it, they watched it by several times, longing for dream. And they have watched it until now, being full up with modern 'bitter truth' after which they want to hang themselves only.
Of course, correction of the 'fallen world' or thinking of positive heroes is hardly possible for people. It is difficult even talented ones, not to say of self-seekers. Blessed are 'talented self-seekers whose films are watched and songs are sung until now, waking up 'reason, kindness, eternal values' in people's souls. How thankful they must be to Joseph and to hateful censorship which drove their souls away from hell, though they aspired there! Let it be under threat of a shot in a back, let it be because of a fee, but they fought on the side of Light, but not darkness. The criterion was good fruits.
The walls of Antivampiria were erected, external wolves were outcast and internal ones were rendered by harmless. As a basis of the new ideology the Plan was taken: i.e. soldered, selfless and unselfish ascent of family of people to the Bright Future which differed from the Kingdom by absence of faith in immortality, in a posthumous great reward for an earthly exploit.
I said already that such unselfish service to the idea of 'The Kingdom of Freedom' without a hope on a reward in that place is delightful. Many warriors went to death, counteracting to the kingdom of Mammon and requiring nothing in exchange. They only followed dictates of their hearts. And Lord, as it is known, said, 'Son, give me your heart.'
It is a constructing of reality 'in its revolutionary development'. Joseph required help in this great cause from the intelligentsia. For this purpose he intimidated, drove on and suborned them because those were ordinary sinful people, mainly, disbelieving neither in God nor in the Plan. At the best they submitted to the 'Law' which was inscribed in their hearts and which in a great deal coincided with official ideology. There were no saint writers. Only 'the red martyr' Nicolay Ostrovsky, under whose words anyone who was 'born from above' would sign.
Man's the most precious value is life, and you must live it so that you should not feel anguish for aimlessly spent years and disgrace for the mean and petty past and that you could be able to sat at the death's door, 'All my life and all my strengths have been given to the most wonderful thing - the fight for liberation of humanity".
Of course, here it is said about revolution against KINGDOM of BOURGEOISNESS, but not about the one where a proletarian, winning by himself, becomes a 'collective bourgeois'. It is liberation from slavery of bad matter.
A bourgeois is always a slave. He is a slave of his property and money, a slave of his desire for enriching, a slave of bourgeois public opinion, a slave of his social position; he is a slave of those slaves which he exploits and is afraid of. He created an enormous material kingdom, submitted to it and subordinated others.
Bourgeois has an insuperable tendency to create a fictitious world, which enslaves man and corrupts the world of true values. A bourgeois creates the most fictitious, most unreal and most terrible in its unreality Kingdom of money".
Of course, here Nicolay Berdyaev says about the kingdom of Mammon, service to which the Lord has put in irreconcilable contradiction with The Plan.
Nicolay Ostrovsky writes about such 'liberation of humanity', for which it is necessary to give life.
Construction or creation of the coming Kingdom of the 'Bright Future', as it was said and sung in Stalin's Antivampiria is done on the basis of the best things in man, on the talents given to him by God, on God's image in him, on the search for Truth and the Heaven, on his disgust for the yoke of bad materiality and his thirst for liberation of spirit.
Was it necessary to forbid writing 'gore stories'? Joseph thought that the problem was in a position of a writer. Of course, word can represent nonsense, horror, boredom and 'leaden abomination" of life as illness or sin, leading to spiritual death but not to get drunk by a sin and not to tempt by it.
'I'm a flusher and water-carrier who is mobilized and called by revolution.' Mayakovsky wrote.
'Word is a commander of man's force
Marsh! So that past time should blow up like shots.
'I'm people's leader and their servant simultaneously.'
There is not retreat from the Plan here. Word must dig up man from under obstructions of materiality, fuss and sins, to elevate him and call him to stars to construct a coming city, city-dream, corresponding to Call of his heart. It is a mine of new ideas, fantasies, foresights, revelations, intuition and breakthrough to the future, to the Father's house. First of all, it is a right position which was faultlessly distinguished by Joseph\t was another matter that he couldn't always call thing by their names.
But the main thing for him was construction of kingdom, resisting Mammon.
Servants of art are co-creators of the Almighty in a great cause of Plan, beginning from intruding on the world 'that lieth in wickedness' with the destructively-creative program of Antivampiria and freedom from 'work of an enemy' or 'the way to the sun from being a worm'. About it Nekrasov wrote:
Where you, are singers of love, freedom, peace and valor?
It is an age of 'blood and sword'!
On the throne of earth you have seated a banker
And declared an executioner to be a hero.
The crowd shouts, 'Singers are not needed to the age!'
And there are singers, a deity has become silent.
Oh, who will now remind a man of his High calling?
So, the method of 'reflection of reality in its revolutionary development' proclaimed by Joseph fully corresponded to the highest mission, laid by the Heaven on workers of culture, called to inform 'broad masses' about the Plan and the word of Creator by affecting their feelings and minds. Unlike priests who appeal to spirit and faith. By the way, this socialist realism is completely idealistic and theocratic. Word creates reality and consciousness determines existence.
'Sow reason, kindness and eternal values.' Though Joseph added, 'and irreconcilability to enemies.'
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword' (Matthew 10:34).
Joseph denied the principle 'art for an art', because pure art is the same heartfelt lust - a sauce without a dish.
'Dead words smell bad', - Gumilev wrote, meaning rotten, empty and idle words.
'With whom are you, masters of culture?' It is the most important problem. There are warriors of Antivampiria or Vampiria and people who don't care a fig. Mockery of everything and cynicism are instruments of Satan. 'Create, invent, try', but not mock. Servants of culture are called to make a stair, leading people to the Bright Future. Socialistic realism at stretch can be called 'stair of ascent.'
"Can it be called the tower of Babel?" - giggled the AD.
"The tower of Babel is an attempt of ascent to God in sinful state. Joseph proclaimed separation of church from state and obligatory observance of bases of Christian ethics.
"Especially 'you shall not kill!" - the AD giggled again.
"As Joseph said, 'young snakes were hatched from bureaucratic eggs.'"
* * *
Michael Vyshynsky: What did Trotsky demand?
Pyatakov: He demanded realization of certain acts in the line of terror and in the line of sabotage; he brought a question (it was in the middle of 1934) that now, after coming of Hitler to power, it is quite clear, that his, Trotsky's, viewpoint about impossibility of construction of socialism in a single country completely came true. Military collision is inevitable, and if we, trotskists, want to save ourselves, as a political force, we must, taking up a defeatist position in advance, not only passively watch and contemplate but actively prepare this defeat. But for this purpose it is necessary to train cadres, and cadres cannot be trained by words only. Therefore, now it is necessary to conduct appropriate sabotage work.
I can remember, in this directive Trotsky said that without necessary support from the side of the foreign states the government of the block can neither come to power, nor hold out at power. Therefore the question is about the necessity of the appropriate preliminary agreement with the most aggressive foreign states, such as Germany and Japan are, and that by him, Trotsky appropriate steps are already undertaken to enter into relation both with the Japanese and with the German governments.
Pyatakov: Approximately by the end of 1935 Radek got detailed letter-instruction from Trotsky. Trotsky in this directive stated two variants about possibility of our coming to power. The first variant is a possibility of coming to power before war, and the second variant - in war-time. The first variant Trotsky presented as a result, as he said, concentrated terroristic blow. He meant simultaneous commitment of assassinations against a number of leaders of CPSU(B) and the Soviet state, and first of all against Stalin and his closest helpers.
The second variant, which was more credible from the point of view of Trotsky, was a military defeat. Because war, according to him, is inevitable, and it will be in the nearest time, first of all against Germany and possibly with Japan, consequently, the question is about obtaining their favorable attitude toward coming of the block to power by an appropriate agreement with the governments of these countries. Therefore, by a number of concessions to these countries on beforehand agreed terms it is possible to get appropriate support to hold out at power.
THE PAGES OF JOSEPH'S LIFE
In 1936 in Kremlin he received workers of gold industry, industry of non-ferrous metals, light and rare ones. He took part in the conference of front-rank workers of animal-husbandry, in the conference of front-rank workers on flax and hemp and in the work the 10th Congress of the All-Union Young Communist League.
He was chairman of the plenum of the Constitutional Commission, guided the plenum of the Central Committee of CPSU (B), delivered a report about the project of the Constitution of the USSR, and took part in the work the 8th extraordinary All-Union Congress of Soviets, delivered a report about the project of Constitution and about the work of the Drafting Committee.
'However, I would not mind against performance of Bulgakov's play 'The Run', if he added one or two dreams to his eight dreams, where he would represent internal social reasons of the civil war in the USSR, so that a spectator could understand that all these in their own way 'honest' seraphs and all kinds of private-docents turned out to be knocked out from Russia not on the whim of bolshevists, and because they scrounged of people in spite of their 'honesty' and that driving away those 'honest' supporters of exploitation, Bolshevists carried out will of workers and peasants and acted therefore quite correctly' (J. Stalin).
'Theatric plays are now more necessary to us than all other things. A play should be understandable. Our worker is busy. He stays at plant for eight hours. At his home he has family and children. Where he can sit down to read a thick novel. A play is now a kind of art, which is the most necessary to us. A worker would easily see a play. With the help of plays it is easily to make our ideas national one or propagate them among people'.
'Our strength is in the fact that we have taught Bulgakov to work for us too' (J. Stalin).
'It's no use talking about 'leader'. It is not good and, perhaps, indecent. The matter is not in 'leader' but in a collective leader in the Central Committee of the party' (J. Stalin).
'Obviously, Stalin is bothered with such degree of adoration, and he sometimes he laughs at it. They say that at a dinner in an intimate friendly circle in the first day of New Year Stalin lifted his glass and said, 'I toast for the health of the incomparable leader of people, genius comrade Stalin. Here, my friends, it is the last toast which will be offered here this year for me' (Leon Feuchtwanger).
'I was told much and even got documentary confirmations that Stalin possesses an enormous capacity and goes deep in every trifle, and so he really doesn't have time for superfluous ceremonies. From hundreds of welcoming telegrams, coming to his name, he answers no more than one. He is extraordinarily straightforward up to impoliteness, and doesn't object the same straightforwardness of his interlocutor (Leon Feuchtwanger).
Jawaharlal Neru witnesses:
'Then mall breathing space came when Lenin in 1921 entered a new economic policy. It was a known deviation from a communism, they took a step back in order that fetching breath and recovering forces, they can later take a few steps forward. But people memorized the Stalin program.
A plan foresaw closer relations of peasantry with industry by means of formation of exemplary enormous agricultural enterprises, state and collective ones, and industrialization of the entire country by building of large plants, hydro-electric power stations, mines and so on.
In addition to it a plan foresaw a great number of other measures, having to do with education, science, co-operative trade, building of houses for millions of workers and general increase of their standard of life and so on. This was the famous five-year plan, or the FIVE-YEAR, as Russians named it. It was a grandiose program, realization of which would be a difficult work even during life of whole generation for a rich and progressive country. An attempt to carry it out in backward and poor Russia seemed to be the limit of madness.
Construction, which was carried out at a great rate, demanded great sacrifices from Russia. The soviets exported everything that could be sold: wheat, rye, barley, corn, vegetables, fruit, butter, meat, game, honey, fish, caviar, sugar, vegetable oils, pastry wares and so on. The export of these goods meant that they lacked for them.
The masses almost with enthusiasm agreed to new sacrifices. They lived by poor ascetic life, they sacrificed present things for the sake of their great future, proud and privileged builders of which they counted themselves. For the first time in history Soviet Russia concentrated all energy of people on peaceful creation, on a desire to raise a backward country in area of industry and do it under socialism.
The five-year plan quite changed the face of Russia. From a feudal country she suddenly grew into an industrial country. Its moving forward in area of culture is striking. Poverty and privation haven't disappeared yet, but terrible fear of unemployment and hunger have disappeared here.
The five-year plan overmastered imagination of the whole world. Today everybody talk about 'planning', about five-year, ten year or three-year plans. Thanks to the Soviets a word 'planning' sounds now as a magic word'.