Stalin is trending

[blindpig]

From the Breakthrough telegram account:

Stalin's "Mistake"
#history

Revealing Stalin's alleged mistake in forecasting the development of world capitalism, Sarmatov <...> writes:

"In fact, starting in the 1950s, we experienced not the fascistization of the entire capitalist world, but the opposite—the cultivation of 'bourgeois freedom,' 'tolerance,' 'multiculturalism,' and so on, not to mention the creation of a social security system. It was precisely in the mid-1950s that 'European integration' began (leaving behind, for example, the traditional confrontation between French and German imperialism) and other processes of uniting the bourgeois world in the face of the communist threat; wars between imperialist countries temporarily became a thing of the past, in their classic form. And the 'new, democratic, and civilized' Western capitalism, providing its proletarians with a high standard of living, presented itself to ordinary Soviet citizens of the 1970s and 1980s as a highly attractive alternative to socialism, which was weakening under the blows of the market reforms of the CPSU leadership. Here is an example of a significant mistake made by one of the classics of Marxism-Leninism."

Did Stalin make a mistake? According to Sarmatov, he did, because Stalin's prognosis regarding the fascistization of the bourgeoisie, allegedly given in his speech at the 19th Congress, failed to materialize. Without distorting Stalin, this speech was a thank-you from the Congress to all fraternal parties and groups, a parting word, not a theoretical statement. Furthermore, Stalin's speech thesis reflects the state of affairs at the time of the Congress and is not a prognosis. Furthermore, the assessment of the fascistization of the bourgeoisie is given within the timeframe of the Congresses, not for the second half of the 20th century, as Sarmatov presents it. Thus, Stalin's words regarding the fascistization of the bourgeoisie do not and cannot contradict the historical facts of the second half of the 20th century.

According to Sarmatov, Stalin was mistaken because Stalin's specific historical prognosis regarding the fate of Germany, England, and Japan failed to materialize. However, Sarmatov distorts Stalin's position. Stalin said that the movement for peace, for the prevention of a new world war and the defeat of Germany and Japan, does not exclude the inevitability of wars between capitalist states, including a new world war. If Sarmatov had not replaced Stalin, he would have 100% agreed with this statement from Stalin's work. However, Sarmatov presents the matter as if Stalin asserted the inevitability of a new world war between England, Germany, and Japan against the United States, despite the existence of the USSR. Stalin did not write this. He wrote "merely" that the movement for peace and the defeat of Germany and Japan "is not sufficient to eliminate the inevitability of wars in general between capitalist countries." Moreover, in his forecast of the exacerbation of contradictions between Germany, England, Japan, and the United States, Stalin undoubtedly had in mind that, firstly, the USSR would have to play on the contradictions between these imperialists, and the CPSU would not declare a policy of peaceful coexistence as the basis for relations between the socialist and capitalist camps at the 20th Congress; Secondly, that the USSR would build communism, and the CPSU would not declare at the 22nd Congress that the country's primary economic goal was to overtake the United States in per capita consumer goods production. It should be noted that the essence of interstate relations among imperialist countries, both before and after the collapse of the USSR, was the struggle, primarily between Germany, France, and other countries, against US global domination. Thus, Stalin's forecast contained no errors.

Read in full - https://teletype.in/@prorivists/trotskyism_gk