Research Seminar: Lukes on Rudolf Slánský
Igor Lukes, Professor of International Relations and History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, gave a talk as part of the Pardee School Research Seminar Series on March 21, 2018.
The presentation was entitled “The Murder of a General Secretary” and focused on the postwar General Secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party Rudolf Slánský. Slánský was one of 14 leaders arrested in 1951 and put on trial in November 1952, charged with high treason.
Lukes highlighted that in addition to being one of the founders of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party and its postwar Secretary General, Slánský was the most Stalinist among the Stalinists in the Communist realm. Slánský was one of the top communist victims of the postwar Stalinist purges, according to Lukes.
According to Lukes, the standard explanations for the purges include that they were used by Stalin as an instrument of discipline, that they coincided with Moscow’s shift in the Middle East from supporting Israel to its Arab neighbors — made evident by anti-Semitic themes in some of the trials, and that Stalin wanted to indicate that there would be no toleration for any specific road to socialism.
Lukes said that the Slansky purge was a product of the collision of Slánský, the brothers Noel and Hermann Field, and the intelligence agency OKAPI. Noel Field was a Soviet GRU agent whose activities before and after World War II allowed the Eastern Bloc to use his name as prosecuting rationale during the Slánský show trial.
During his trial, Slánský was found guilty of “Trotskyite-Titoist-Zionist activities in the service of American imperialism” and publicly hanged in December 1952. According to Lukes, his last words were “Thank you. I’m getting what I deserved.”
Igor Lukes writes primarily about Central Europe. His publications deal with the interwar period, the Cold War, and contemporary developments in East Central Europe and Russia. His work has won the support of various other institutions, including Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, the Woodrow Wilson Center, IREX, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1997 Lukes won the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching at Boston University.
The Pardee School Research Seminar Series is a forum for faculty and students to discuss and receive feedback on ongoing research. The series is a mix of presentations, works-in-progress sessions, and research workshops. Faculty and students based at BU and elsewhere are invited to present and attend the Research Seminar Series. Anyone interested in presenting should send an e-mail with name, affiliation, and a presentation description, with “Pardee Seminar” in the subject line, to: Mahesh Karra.