[spirited irish]

ping

[dfwgator]

Only good thing Stalin did was to have Trotsky killed.

[Salman]

Historical note:
Trotsky's gripe with Stalin was that Stalin wasn't Communist enough.
Let that sink in.

[dfwgator]

General ...Dostoievye useye tovarich trotsky borodina (etc.)

SUBTITLE: 'THIS IS THE MAN WHO BROUGHT OUR BELOVED TROTSKY BACK TO US'

General Beluntanks dretsky mihai ovna isky Mr Reg Pither.

SUBTITLE: 'FIRST MAY I PRESENT MR PITHER FROM WEST OF ENGLAND' Pandemonium lasting for about ten seconds.

General Shi muska di scensand dravenka oblomov Engleska Solzhenitzhin.

SUBTITLE: 'FORGIVE ME IF I CONTINUE IN ENGLISH IN ORDER TO SAVE TIME'

General And now, Comrades, the greatest moment of the day, the moment when I ask you to welcome the return of one of Russia's greatest heroes, creator of the Red Army, Lenin's greatest friend, Lev Davidovich Trotsky!



Comrades. Bolsheviks. Friends of the Revolution. I have returned. (renewed cheering) The bloodstained shadow of Stalinist repression is past. I bring you new light of Permanent Revolution (his movements are becoming a little camp and slinky). Comrades, I may once have been ousted from power, I may have been expelled from the party in 1927, I may have been deported in 1929 but (sings) I'm just an old-fashioned girl, with an old-fashioned mind. (a certain amount of confusion is spreading among the audience and particulary the general on the podium) Comrades, I don't want to destroy in order to build, I don't want a state founded on hate and division (sings) I want an old-fashioned house with an old-fashioned fence, and an old-fashioned millionaire.

Pither (voice over) Our friend Mr Gulliver was clearly undergoing another change of personality.

A senior general appears beside Pither with two guards.

General So! You have duped us. You shall pay for this. Guards, seize him.

The guards seize the startled Pither and drag him away. The senior general strides back across the stage avoiding Gulliver, towards the general who addressed the audience.

General Shall I seize him too?

Senior General No, I think we'll have to keep him, he's going down well.

General He's more fun than he used to be.

Senior General He's loosened up a lot. This is an old Lenin number.

[Bratch]

Author must have a piece work contract.

That first sentence is the word version of Kentucky burgoo.

[Billthedrill]

Trotsky and Stalin were rivals for Lenin's favor, who played the two of them off against one another rather adeptly; for example, one of Stalin's troop movements prior to the Battle of Warsaw (which the Soviets lost) was regarded by Trotsky as insubordination, but was almost certainly done at Lenin's behest. Stalin proved the better intriguer and more ruthless competitor of the two scorpions in that bottle.

There was an old bastard named Lenin
Who did two or three million men in
That's a lot to have done in
But where he did one in
That old bastard Stalin did ten in.

Robert Conquest's best limerick, IMHO...