From mryle@richmond.edu Wed Nov 26 11:35:56 1997
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 10:02:52 -0500
From: Martin Ryle 
Reply-To: H-Net Russian History list 
To: Multiple recipients of list H-RUSSIA 
Subject: Re: TERMINOLOGY OF TERROR

Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 18:37:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Jochen Hellbeck 

I recently came across a source which might shed some light on Peter Holquist's inquiry on the terminology and, by implication, the nature of the Great Terror. The source is the Moscow diary of the French writer Romain Rolland who was on an official visit to the Soviet Union in summer 1935. During this visit Rolland met with Stalin, and he recorded this conversation in his diary. Pressed by Rolland on the issue of human rights, Stalin replied: "Nam ochen' nepriiatno osuzhdat', kaznit'. Eto griaznoe delo. Luchshe bylo by nakhodit'sia vne politki i sokhranit' svoi ruki chistymi. No my ne imeem prava ostavat'sia vne politiki, esli khotim osvobodit' poraboshchennykh liudei."

Stalin then spoke about the many enemies who had managed to intrude into the Communist camp, and went on: "Nas slishkom poglotili politicheskie zaboty. My zanialis' kolkhozami, my ne znali, u nas ne khvatalo vremeni... Kogda uznali, eto srazilo nas. Kak byt'? NAM PONADOBITSIA 2 ILI 3 GODA, CHTOBY ISKORENIT' VSEKH ETIKH RAZBOINIKOV. I MY DOB'EMSIA SVOEGO. NO DLIA ETOGO NEOBKHODIMO VNUSHIT' STRAKH." (emphasis mine; "Moskovskii dnevnik R. Rollana," Voprosy literatury, 1989, no.3, p. 221)

In this passage Stalin came very close to describing his intent to cleanse the party ranks as an act of state terror, if we define terror as a practice of instilling fear, in this case among the suspected opponents of Soviet power.

What is perhaps even more striking about this passage is that it provides a strong sense of the scripted nature of the purge campaign. Speaking in 1935, Stalin announced that it would take 2-3 years to get rid of all these rogues. The basic script according to which the terror unfolded, I would suggest, was the Soviet Marxist vision of mankind's ultimate liberation and the creation of a new, totally pure social body. Note again Stalin's side-remark in the passage quoted above: "No my ne imeem prava ostavat'sia vne politiki, esli khotim osovbodit' poraboshchennykh liudei." I should add that Stalin's remarks on the terror were embedded in a conversation with Rolland which revolved largely around the new Soviet (or Proletarian) Humanism, a widely propagated term at the time. This is how their conversation went on: "Vozvrativshis' k voprosu o novom gumanizme i o filosofii Marksa i Engel'sa, Stalin govorit prekrasnye, teplye, ubeditel'nye slova o sushchnosti marksizma, kotoraia sostoit v tom, chtoby pomoch' cheloveku vyrvat'sia iz put neobkhodimosti i obresti svobodu. Polnota lichnosti - eto glavnaia tsel'."

A persisting challenge facing historians of the Stalinist terror is the relationship between the purge campaign and the self-proclaimed goals of the Soviet regime. Many historians would argue that the humanist professions on the part of Bolshevik leaders served largely to deflect attention from the grueling terror policy, to delude outside observers or even themselves. I would suggest instead to view them as deeply intertwined, as emanating from a shared, overarching concern for social and individual purification.

Jochen Hellbeck
Department of History
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
hellbeck@umich.edu

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