STALIN, A GREAT MAN ?
To the communists, who are up in arms against Hitler and the Nazis and are patently against Netaji's collaboration with the fascists in his bid for seeking military assistance for the liberation of his motherland, Stalin was a great man. Yes, the half a million enslaved prisoners he executed in Siberia and the seven million Ukranians he starved to death, the millions of kulaks he cleansed off the face of the earth during the years of collectivisation and the indiscriminate mass murder he engaged in out of sheer paranoia that cost almost every Soviet family dear in the loss of a dear one, and the reign of terror for three decades that he unleashed on his own people, indeed prove him to be so.
Stalin and Lenin before him, both of whom justified mass murder for revolution, as their dastardly deeds in bold letters declare, remain the objects of adoration of our communists while Netaji remains blighted in their minds as a patriot who had erred in becoming an ally of the fascists despite their party's declared apology on this count.
When Stalin collaborated with the imperialist-capitalists in the Anglo-French-American combine to fight Hitler, it was seen as the people's struggle against fascist barbarism but when Netaji collaborated with the fascists to free his motherland from British imperialism, it was not seen as anti-imperialist struggle but was quickly condemned by the Communist Party of India as deplorable fascist alliance, to put it euphemistically, and as fascism itself, to put it in plainer, more blunt terms.
Hence, history must be discerningly read and inferences thereafter drawn. Else, the pitfalls along the path are many and one is sure to precipitously fall into the chasm of erroneous understanding and all its concomitant ills.
Written by Sugata Bose
To the communists, who are up in arms against Hitler and the Nazis and are patently against Netaji's collaboration with the fascists in his bid for seeking military assistance for the liberation of his motherland, Stalin was a great man. Yes, the half a million enslaved prisoners he executed in Siberia and the seven million Ukranians he starved to death, the millions of kulaks he cleansed off the face of the earth during the years of collectivisation and the indiscriminate mass murder he engaged in out of sheer paranoia that cost almost every Soviet family dear in the loss of a dear one, and the reign of terror for three decades that he unleashed on his own people, indeed prove him to be so.
Stalin and Lenin before him, both of whom justified mass murder for revolution, as their dastardly deeds in bold letters declare, remain the objects of adoration of our communists while Netaji remains blighted in their minds as a patriot who had erred in becoming an ally of the fascists despite their party's declared apology on this count.
When Stalin collaborated with the imperialist-capitalists in the Anglo-French-American combine to fight Hitler, it was seen as the people's struggle against fascist barbarism but when Netaji collaborated with the fascists to free his motherland from British imperialism, it was not seen as anti-imperialist struggle but was quickly condemned by the Communist Party of India as deplorable fascist alliance, to put it euphemistically, and as fascism itself, to put it in plainer, more blunt terms.
Hence, history must be discerningly read and inferences thereafter drawn. Else, the pitfalls along the path are many and one is sure to precipitously fall into the chasm of erroneous understanding and all its concomitant ills.
Written by Sugata Bose
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