Re: 25 Classic Books That Have Been Banned

William Hyde  <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:

>
That is really not the impression I have of him.  He was a man of
incredible intellectual arrogance, utterly convinced that he was right,
and that he alone knew what was to be done and that no sacrifice was too
costly to eliminate what he considered to be the ultimate evil.

He certainly was that way at the end.  I don't think he started out that
way.  But he was also willing to compromise on important things in order
to get other important things (as the whole NEP shows).

Democracy was fine provided people voted the right way - consider the
example of Georgia I gave an another post.

And I think that's part of the point of the soviet system, that it gives
people a lot of opportunities to get their vote diluted by people from
other places and groups.  But yes, he had signs saying "Serve the People"
hanging up, not ones that say "Trust the People."

One one occasion in the civil war Stalin had executed many "opponents"
in a given area and thought he had done enough.  He said as much to
Lenin who told him to keep on killing.  Unlike Stalin, Lenin took no
pleasure in killing, but he could be more ruthless.

And in the end, just like the French, they eliminated one aristocracy only
to create another one...
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."