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 2003 • No. 2 |
HISTORY AND CULTURE: Death of the Butcher |
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On the 50th anniversary of the death of Joseph Stalin, Arnold Beichman recalls the atrocities Stalin perpetrated—and the allure he held for craven Western intellectuals. |
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 Fifty years ago, on March 5, 1953, Josef Vissarionovich Stalin died. One of the world’s great genocidists, comparable to Adolf Hitler not only as a mass killer but also as an anti-Semite, Stalin was preparing a large-scale pogrom, the outgrowth of what is today known as the “doctor’s plot.” How he died, when he died, and whether he was done in by his comrades, fearful of another purge, all remain a mystery to this day. With all that was known about Lenin’s monstrous successor, there is another mystery that is even older than the anniversary of Stalin’s death: How could so many otherwise intelligent people, who were not Communist Party members so far as we know, have spoken admiringly of Stalin? |
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