BOOKS
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in class struggle as the "violent midwife of history" even if it had other
stimulants as well, such as intra-party struggles for power, personal
pathologies, bureaucratic overzealousness, and the commitment
to
cre–
ate a huge and permanent slave labor force. As the chapter on Cambo–
dia points out, the "intention was to create an egalitarian society in
which justice, fraternity and altruism would be the key values, yet like
other Communist regimes it produced a tidal wave of selfishness,
inequality and irrationality."
Rather than attempting
to
summarize the diverse chapters, a small
sampling of some lesser known facts and aspects of the crimes of vari–
ous communist states will be illuminating.
Not all the crimes of communist states began with Stalin. For
instance,
the Kholmogory camp, on the great river Dvina, was sadly famous
for the swift manner in which it dispatched a great number of its
prisoners. They were often loaded into barges, stones were tied
around their necks, their arms and legs were tied, and they were
thrown overboard into the river. Mikhail Kerov one of the main
leaders of the Cheka, had started these massive drownings in June
1920...
a large number of mutineers from Kronstadt, together with
Cossacks and peasants from Tambov province...were drowned in
this fashion in
1922.
In that area, Order No.
171
stipulated that "any citizens who refuse
to
give their names" should be shot on sight and "wherever arms are
found execute immediately the eldest son in the family."
Another monumental crime was the Soviet famine of the early
I930S
the occurrence of which may be familiar to a handful of educated Amer–
icans but few are likely
to
know that it was not due
to
natural causes
but
to
human-political design. "In all regions affected by the famine, the
sale of railway tickets was immediately suspended, and special barri–
cades were set up by the GPU
to
prevent peasants from leaving their dis–
trict"
to
make sure they would not escape the famine. In
1933,
while
millions were dying of hunger, the Soviet government continued to
export grain.
Just as the Nazis diverted badly needed railway carriages and man–
power from the war effort in order to complete the extermination of the
Jews, "at a time when the Red Army was retreating on all fronts and
losing tens of thousands every day. ..Beria diverted more than
14,000
