Such are only a few historical facts. But can it be said that Lenin did not decide to use even the most severe means against enemies of the Revolution when this was actually necessary? No; no one can say this. Vladimir Ilyich demanded uncompromising dealings with the enemies of the Revolution and of the working class and when necessary resorted ruthlessly to such methods. You will recall only V. I. Lenin's fight with the Socialist Revolutionary organizers of the anti-Soviet uprising[1], with the counterrevolutionary kulaks in 1918 and with others, when Lenin without hesitation used the most extreme methods against the enemies. Lenin used such methods, however, only against actual class enemies and not against those who blunder, who err, and whom it was possible to lead through ideological influence and even retain in the leadership. Lenin used severe methods only in the most necessary cases, when the exploiting classes were still in existence and were vigorously opposing the Revolution, when the struggle for survival was decidedly assuming the sharpest forms, even including a civil war.
Stalin, on the other hand, used extreme methods and mass repressions at a time when the Revolution was already victorious, when the Soviet state was strengthened, when the exploiting classes were already liquidated and socialist relations were rooted solidly in all phases of national economy, when our party was politically consolidated and had strengthened itself both numerically and ideologically.
It is clear that here Stalin showed in a whole series of cases his intolerance, his brutality and his abuse of power. Instead of proving his political correctness and mobilizing the masses, he often chose the path of repression and physical annihilation, not only against actual enemies, but also against individuals who had not committed any crimes against the party and the Soviet Government. Here we see no wisdom but only a demonstration of the brutal force which had once so alarmed V. I. Lenin.
Lately, especially after the unmasking of the Beria gang, the Central Committee looked into a series of matters fabricated by this gang[2]. This revealed
- ↑ The Socialist Revolutionary party, formally organized in 1902, represented the populist wing of the Russian socialist movement. It aimed at including in the socialist movement the Russian peasants, among whom the Socialist Revolutionaries had carried on large-scale work from the 1890s on. The Socialist Revolutionaries enjoyed especially great influence among the peasants and those sections of the intelligentsia which were linked with the peasantry (teachers, leaders of cooperatives, doctors, etc.). In the November 1917 elections to the All-Rnssian Constituent Assembly, the Socialist Revolutionaries obtained a clear majority. After the Bolsheviks had forcibly dissolved the Constituent Assembly and ended the war with Germany, the Socialist Revolutionaries organized a number of popular uprisings against Communist dictatorship starting in the spring of 1918 (in Archangel, on the Volga, in Siberia, and elsewhere).
- ↑ This statement by Khrushchev is not quite true: Investigation of Stalin's terrorist acts in the last period of his life was initiated by Beria. On April 4, 1953, Beria announced the release of all those arrested in the so-called
