Communist Mythomania

I N 1938, subsequent to the extermination of the old Bolsheviks, the teaching of Marxism-Leninism was all but abandoned within the Russian Communist Party. To replace the old more or less theoretical scriptures, a Short Course on the History of the All-Union Party (Bolsheviks), edited and partly written by Stalin himself, was issued to party schools. Henceforth, the indoctrination of party members was to be based on pragmatic action models described in conformity with the interests of the self serving ruling clique. In 1959, the presently unacceptable Stalinist fabrication was superseded by a Khrushchev falsification, The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which updated the legends about the Communist past to the XXI party congress of February 1959.

Western responses to these Communist brainwashing initiatives now are forthcoming, after a truly extraordinary time lag. In 1960, a British author, Leonard Schapiro, and an American writer, John S. Reshetar Jr., initiated the long overdue attack on Communist idolatry. True to the ethos of objective and iconoclastic scholars, they turned the rules of evidence against the Communist my-thomaniacs. They deserve a vote of thanks.

SP

About the Author

Stefan T. Possony

Featured Tags

I N 1938, subsequent to the extermination of the old Bolsheviks, the teaching of Marxism-Leninism was all but abandoned within the Russian Communist Party. To replace the old more or less theoretical scriptures, a Short Course on the History of the All-Union Party (Bolsheviks), edited and partly written by Stalin himself, was issued to party schools. Henceforth, the indoctrination of party members was to be based on pragmatic action models described in conformity with the interests of the self serving ruling clique. In 1959, the presently unacceptable Stalinist fabrication was superseded by a Khrushchev falsification, The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which updated the legends about the Communist past to the XXI party congress of February 1959.

Western responses to these Communist brainwashing initiatives now are forthcoming, after a truly extraordinary time lag. In 1960, a British author, Leonard Schapiro, and an American writer, John S. Reshetar Jr., initiated the long overdue attack on Communist idolatry. True to the ethos of objective and iconoclastic scholars, they turned the rules of evidence against the Communist my-thomaniacs. They deserve a vote of thanks.