ALLIANCE 30:
Marx, Lenin and Stalin On the Jewish Question:


PART 4; For Other Parts:  Go to Table of Contents:
[NOTE THIS EDITION IS AMENDED SLIGHTLY FROM THE FIRST EDITION.
a FULL EXPLANATION WILL BE GIVEN IN A SEPERATE ISSUE OF ALLIANCE.  October 2001]


THE CHANGING LEADERSHIP OF THE SECRET SERVICE

    It is accepted by most if not all Marxist-Leninists, that at various times, revisionists within the USSR Bolshevik party took control of the secret services.

    Since that is the case, determining whether particular campaigns undertaken by the secret services - were really in the interests of the Marxist-Leninists, or the interests of the revisionists - needs to take into account several specific facts of the campaign as well as the personality of the chiefs of the secret service at the particular time in question.

    In assessing the evidence regarding the alleged Zionist Plot, it is therefore necessary to understand those who made the allegations and effected the arrests.

The Case of Ezhov And the Appointment of Beria To The Secret Services

    Stalins attempts at creating a trusted and close network of Marxist-Leninists around him in foreign policy (See Part Two of this article), matched a similar strategy in the secret service. In previous Alliance issues, we have discussed how, Stalin attempted to either root out, or at worst, to contain the counter-revolutionary terror, that was striking at the best of the Bolsheviks, as intended and organised by the hidden revisionists.

    Firstly Yagoda was removed from heading the secret service after his Trotskyite affiliations became clear. His substitute was Nikolai Ivanovich Ezhov, who became the head of the Secret Police the NKVD. But again it appears that this office had been infiltrated by hidden revisionists.
    For example, Arch Getty has shown how Stalin obstructed Ezhov in his "mass" arrests and expulsions from the party. For example, this exchange shows the antagonism between the two:

    Zhdanov (a close comrade-in-arms of Stalin) tried to place further brakes upon Ezhov, as shown when: "In a highly publicized attack Zhdanov accused the Saratov kraikom (party leadership-Ed) of "dictatorship" and "repression".. At the Feb 1937 Central Committee Plenum, Zhdanov gave the keynote speech on democratizing party organisations, ending bureaucratic repression of Alittle people," and replacing the co-option of party leaders with grass roots elections. Indeed under pressure of this line, contested secret ballot party elections were held in 1937." Cited from Stenographic Records. Cited In AStalinist Terror, New Perspectives."Ed. J.Arch Getty & Roberta T. Manning. Cambridge University Press, 1993. p.51).     In the case of Avel’ Enukidze, then Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of Soviets, Ezhov had wanted to expel him. But Stalin and Molotov defended Enukidze.

    After further pressure from Ezhov, he was expelled.

    But then Molotov and Stalin moved for him to be re-admitted. Though the plenum agreed with Stalin and Molotov, this re-admission never happened - having been arrested, he was shot in 1937. The record shows a clear pattern here - where Stalin was set versus Ezhov. (Arch Getty & Manning; Ibid; p.54).

    Even in the case of the arch-Right revisionist Bukharin, (a leading ex-Bolshevik whose prominence and past service made him especially controversial - yet especially important to deal with. Precisely just in case he did become the focus of further organised opposition) - even his execution was controversial. Stalin wanted him expelled, and not even put on trial, let alone executed.

    The opposition to Stalin on this matter were: Ezhov, Budennyi, Manuilskii, Shvernik, Kosarev and Iakir (who voted to shoot Bukharin without trial); and Litvinov, Postyshev, Shiriatov, and Petrovskii (Who voted to send Bukharin to an open trial).

    The Plenum voted for Stalin’s line by a majority. But the documents of agreement were altered (in Mikoian’s handwriting) and Stalin’s advice was simply ignored. (Arch Getty & Manning; Ibid; p.58).

    Even a very hostile Sudoplatov, records that Stalin’s attitude was surprisingly the opposite of the conventional portrait painted of a vindictive dictatorial individual. According to Sudoplatov, Stalin preferred private rebukes rather than prosecution , for example when dealing with instances of "corruption":

"I learnt from Malenkov’s deputy- Anna Tsukanova.. That the Central Committee did not always prosecute corruption reported by the Party Control Commission and security organs. Stalin & Malenkov preferred to reproach an errant high-ranking official rather than to prosecute him, but if the man landed in the wrong power group, then the incriminating evidence was used to demote or purge him." Sudoplatov; Ibid; p. 319 It can only be reasonably concluded, that Stalin was trying hard to limit the damage being done by a revisionist taking cover behind a Left-ist and zealot position.

    In this situation, Lavrentii Beria was put in this sensitive and critical job. Stalin himself put Beria into this job, after Ezhov had tried to prepare a case against Beria. Beria appealed to Stalin, who appointed Beria initially as Ezhov’s Aassistant". Beria became first deputy chairman of the USSR NKVD at the end of August 1938, having been relieved of his prior position as first secretary of the Georgian party organisation. (Amy Knight: "Beria-Stalin’s First Lieutenant"; Princeton New Jersey 1993; p. 87-88). On 17 November 1938, Sovnarkom and the Central Committee adopted a report issued by Beria’s investigation entitled: "On Arrests - Supervision By the Procuracy And the Conduct of Investigations", which passed a resolution. This was a:

    Immediately after, in the words of Amy Knight, his biographer, Beria "cleansed" the NKVD. As far as he could, he tried to only place trusted Bolsheviks in the key positions. As he had personal knowledge from Georgia of who was reliable or not, many of the appointees were from Georgia. This has been labelled as a "Georgian mafia" controlled by Beria. But since the objective was to place trusted comrades in key positions, and Beria knew these people best - this derogatory term is un-justified. As Knight puts it, Beria:     It is accepted by even hostile and anti-Marxist-Leninist writers, that following Beria’s changes, thousands of prisoners in the camps were released: "There was a general feeling that the NKVD would eschew the excesses of the Ezhov period and people began to talk about a "Beria thaw"." Amy Knight: ABeria-Stalin’s First Lieutenant"; Princeton New Jersey 1993; p. 92     Many bourgeois reports and Khruschevite revisionists have labelled Beria as a man who was both a political evil and a sexual debauchee given to raping young girls. But these are dubious, as Knight herself acknowledges: "It should be noted that the stories have been disputed by some who knew Beria. One former NKVD employee expressed strong doubts that Beria was raping young girls, noting that he was known in police circles as a man with exceptional self-control who worked extremely hard". Amy Knight: ABeria-Stalin’s First Lieutenant"; Princeton New Jersey 1993; p. 97.     As an enemy of both bourgeois and Khruschevite revisionists, Beria is bound to attract negative and libellous comments. But Marxist-Leninists are aware that Beria effectively cleared the NKVD of revisionist practices and revisionist personnel. His later treatment at the hands of the revisionists led by Khrushchev, who were now in power, after the death of Stalin - lends credence to the view that Beria was a Marxist-Leninist. That case has been well summarised by W.B. Bland in an article published by the Stalin Society of London UK." (Bland: "The Doctors Case & The Death Of Stalin"; Stalin Society; London nd ca 1992. NB: soon to be placed on the web site of Alliance).

The Post-War Reshuffle That Removed Beria From Sole Control of the Secret Services- The Atomic Threat

    Beria had proven himself capable of running the necessarily vigilant, but controlled secret service that a socialist state must have, faced by an imperialist combination.

    However after the war, a new danger arose - the atomic bomb monopoly by the USA. It was essential to have in charge of the Russian Atomic Bomb project, someone who was an utterly reliable Bolshevik. Stalin ensured that Lavrentii Beria was given this mandate. This very serious and onerous task could not be done well with divided attention.

    The future safety of the USSR critically depended upon its success. Therefore, Beria was duly relieved of his post as the sole Commissar of Internal Affairs which he had held from 1938 to December 1945. He ceased to be solely in charge of security and intelligence in the USSR and overseas - excepting for all security problems directly connected with his job as manager of the Special State Committee on Problem Number One - the creation of the atomic bomb. (Sudoplatov P, Ibid; p.315)

The secret services had already been divided into three arms in April 1943.

    Probably this was likely to be because the work load was already too great to enable only one agency to entirely cover the work. Thus the former People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) was split into three arms:

    3) The Counter-Espionage Department of the People’s Commissariat for Defence (SMERSH) headed by Victor Abakumov.
    After the war in 1946, SMERSH was abolished, and the NKVD was re-named the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and was headed by Sergey Kruglov who was later openly revisionist. The NKGB was renamed the Ministry of State Security (MGB) and remained under Abakumov.
    Today most Marxist-Leninists are in agreement on the class affiliations of Beria, Kruglov, and Merkulov.

    It is true that some Indian Marxist-Leninists (of Revolutionary Democracy) have recently raised questions about Beria, but these have not been to date, substantiated in print. We therefore will not deal with these purely verbal allegations.

    But there still remains some significant queries about whether Abakumov was a Marxist-Leninist, or whether he was a revisionist.
    We are forced to consider this matter for the correct interpretation of several later events - including the matter of Stalin's death. Also, at least in part, the correct interpretation of the alleged Zionist Plot - hinges on this matter. We msut examine the question:
    Was Victor Abakumov A Marxist-Leninist?
    The Case for Abakumov Being a Marxist-Leninist:
Essentially as far as Alliance can discern, the case on behalf of Abakumov rests on two matters as follows: As the British Marxist-Leninist W.B.Bland views it, Beria and Abakumov were associated as close comrades. By this reasoning, Abakumov must have been a Marxist-Leninist. Bland cites the following views of historians of the Soviet secret services- Levytsky and Wolin & Slusser:
     "Beria’s adversaries in the Party (i.e. the opponents of M-L-ism-Ed).. Achieved a notable victory in late 1951, with the replacement of V.S.Abakumov, an associate of Beria’s by S.P.Ignatiev a Party official, as head of the MVD".
      S.Wolin & R.Slusser :"The Soviet Secret Police"; London; 1957; p.20.
       
    "Abakumov, Beria’s intimate friend was removed from his post and replaced by S.D.Ignatiev.."
      Levytsky op cit p.204
     In corroboration of Bland’s point of view, it is also alleged by Sudoplatov that Abakumov was an ally of Beria ( Sudoplatov; Ibid; p.324). However this view is contested by Amy Knight- who is undoubtedly the most extensive biographer of Beria (albeit a bourgeois historian), available in the English language. Knight claims that:
    "Beria’s loyal deputy Merkulov was replaced by Victor Abakumov as head of the MGB late in the summer of 1946. This change was not instigated by Beria who was distressed to lose Merkulov."
      Knight Ibid; p.141.
    Knight maintains that Stalin placed Abakumov in charge of the MGB. This is very possible as the pressures on Beria had to be relieved somehow. But it is most unlikely that it was done for the purpose, as Knight maintains, that Stalin wanted to:
    "Limit Beria’s pervasive influence on the security organs."
      (Knight Ibid; p.141).
    The pressures dictating that Beria should be freed for the work on the nuclear bomb, meant that several loop-holes had opened, for the revisionists to squeeze themselves back into the security apparatus with a view to renewing disruption. As the changes took place, several opportunities arose:
    "The following months witnessed numerous changes in both the MVD and MGB as several new deputies arrived, apparently under the auspices of Abakumov and Kruglov. These changes may also have been influenced by the arrival of a new CC secretary A.A.Kuznetsov, who took over party supervision of the police. With the exception of Stepan Mamulov, a longtime Beria crony who became a deputy minister in the MVD, none of the new men were part of Beria’s "Georgian Mafia", although most had been in the security or internal affairs organs for a long time."
      (Knight Ibid; p.141).
       
    ii) Khrushchev ordered the execution of Abakumov
    Abakumov was arrested while Stalin was still alive.
It is thus highly plausible that the arrest itself, coming under Stalin’s life time, might  have been a part of the revisionist strategy or the Marxist-Leninist strategy.
    However, there is no doubt that Abakumov was tried, after Stalin’s death, in Leningrad before the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court presided over by Lieutenant-Colonel E.L. Zeidin. He was charged with "committing the same crimes as Beria", and also with having:
     "Fabricated the so-called Leningrad Case’, in which many Party and Soviet officials were arrested without grounds and falsely accused of very grave state crimes".
      In Bland: "The Doctors Case & The Death Of Stalin"; Stalin Society; London nd ca 1992; p.66.
    Thus Abakumov was then sentenced to death by shooting, by the revisionists. This pro-Abakumov evidence seems to Alliance fragmentary at best.
    If Stalin was still alive while Abakumov was imprisoned, it suggests that Stalin did not try to obtain his release. One suspects that were Beria to be imprisoned, Stalin would have moved heaven and earth to get him out.
    What evidence is there against Abakumov?
 
    The Case Against Abakumov
i) Abakumov’s other Allegiances

    In 1947, Abakumov revealed the responsibility of Malenkov for some defects in aviation production that were apparently concealed from the state. (Sudoplatov; Ibid; p.315).
    Malenkov was given a party reprimand, demotion & a temporary exile to Kazakhstan and removed from the CC secretariat. However Malenkov’s duties were then taken by Aleksei A. Kuznetsov. Sudoplatov claims that: "Kuznetsov & Abakumov soon became friends".
 
    But if this is truly so, this must shed some doubt and suspicion upon Abakumov’s identity as a Marxist-Leninist, since Kuznetsov was well known to be a close ally of the revisionists Vosnosenky and Khrushchev. As Bland has pointed out in the Marxist-Leninist Research Bureau Report no 2 (reprinted as Alliance Number 17) the Politburo of the CC of the CPSU(B):

     "adopted a resolution "On the Anti-Party Actions of the Comrades Aleksey A. Kuznetsov, Mikhail I Rodionov and Pyotr S Popkov".
    Bland ML Research Bureau; Report No.2; London; nd circa 1992; p. 25
    Also, as W.B.Bland had previously made clear in the now classic "Restoration of Capitalism in the USSR", Kuznetsov was an ally of the arch-revisionists Vosnosenky and Khrushchev:
     "Party leaders confide that ... Vosnosensky and Kuznetsov ... (were) in 1949... trying to establish a separate Communist organisation in the Russian Soviet Republic .. With headquarters in Leningrad instead of Moscow".
    C.L.Sulzberger:"The Big Thaw"; New York; 1956;
    Also See Bland In "Restoration"; Wembley 1988; reprinted Alliance Number 14; p.342.
    (NOTE: This was originally on the Alliance web-site; & currently is still available at a mirror site at:  http://www.virtue.nu/allianceml/
    We are in the process of re-loading all our documents at this current site i.e. at Brinkster.].
    Also find Appendix 3 "The Leningrad Plot" at:   http://www.virtue.nu/allianceml/
    But Stalin is said to have fought for Malenkov’s reinstatement from Sudoplatov’s testimony:
    "Stalin however allowed Malenkov to return to Moscow after two months & appointed him deputy prime minster. Beria in this period strongly supported Malenkov." (Ibid).
    Malenkov was a later vacillator and not a firm Marxist-Leninist. But Stalin had clearly recognised the anti-Marxist-Leninist behaviurs of Kuznetsov.

(ii) The General Zhukov Affair

    Abakumov was apparently behind various attempts to destroy the career of General Zhukov, and his efforts resulted in the dismissal of Zhukov from the Bolshevik party CC. Using evidence from the imprisoned General Nivikov, Zhukov was charged with conspiracy. In these charges, Novikov had described Zhukov as being of a man of:

     "Exceptional ambition" and.. A man "namoured with himself", who loved glory and honour. He was officious and would not tolerate opposition."
      Chaney, Preston: "Zhukov"; 1976; Norman Oklahoma; p. 371.
     But as Zhukov’s biographer makes clear, Stalin only reluctantly agreed to an enforced and  temporary retreat for Zhukov, pending full investigation saying:
    "Nonetheless Comrade Zhukov, you will have to leave Moscow for a while."
      Chaney Ibid; p. 373.
       
    Zhukov was sent to Odessa to run the Military District from June 13th to December 1947.
    He was reprimanded in June 1947 for the only single objective negative fact that had emerged on him. What was this? Zhukov had in peacetime awarded an actress with a medal. He was therefore reprimanded then for:
     "Improperly rewarding artists in his district. The right to reward reverted in peacetime to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR".
      Chaney Ibid; p. 374.
    In December 1947 Zhukov was summoned to the Central committee Plenum where he heard his charges read out. Upon hearing that no new facts were stated he refused to argue, and when he saw that the ensuing vote had expelled him from the Central Committee, he simply marched out. All other allegations, against Zhukov remained un-proven. But as Chaney says, Stalin remained unconvinced of Zhukov’s "error":
     "Despite their relentless effort to have Zhukov arrested, Beria and Abakumov failed to convince Stalin of the Marshall’s guilt. As Khrushchev told Zhukov later, Stalin said to Beria:
      "I don’t believe anyone that Zhukov would agree to this. I know him well. He is a straightforward person; he is sharp and can say unpleasant things to anyone bluntly, but he will never be against the Central Committee".
      Another version was that Stalin said:
      "No, I won’t arrest Zhukov. I know him well. For four years of war, I knew him better that my own self."
      Chaney Ibid; p. 375.
    Thus it was Stalin who resisted the attacks on Zhukov, in which to a large extent Abakumov was involved. Naturally, others were also involved in the complex battles, and the inter-relationships become important, to attempt to systematically work out.
    From 1947 General Rukhadze was placed in the Ministership of state security of Georgia, having been in the war years, the head of SMERSH in the Caucasus. According to Sudoplatov his anti-Beria inclinations were well known. (Sudoplatov; Ibid; p.321.)
    He was assisted by Ryumin, who later becomes a key figure in the subsequent anti-Marxist-Leninist plots, that became known to the world at large as the "Anti-Zionist Plot" and the "Doctors’ Plot".
    We will return to Abakumov below, when we examine his testimony on the murder of Mikhoels and the Doctor’s Plot (See below).
But at least some evidence cited to this point in this report, continues to identify Abakumov as an honest Marxist-Leninist.

Given the obvious truth that the revisionists were responsible for his death, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that as Bland has it, Abakumov was an honest Marxist-Leninist. 


    THE JEWISH ANTI-FASCIST COMMITTEE AND THE ANTI-JEWISH PLOT
    The Effects of The War Upon the Jews of the Soviet Union
    As the Nazis entered the USSR in their war of aggression, they organised killing squads against the Jews of the former Pale of Settlement, within the USSR:
    "The former "Pale of Settlement" - fell under German occupation. In the territories annexed by the Soviet Union after September 1939 - the Baltic, eastern Poland, Bessarabia and the Bukovina - live 1,910,000 Jews; in the Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Crimea and other areas of the RSFSR overrun by the German forces are 2,160,000 Jews. Of these, 1.5 million manage to flee before the German troops arrive. More than 2.5 million are trapped, 90 percent of which live concentrated in less than 50 towns. In the months before the attack, the Nazi leadership has designed a method for these particular circumstances: the mobile killing units.. "Einsatzgruppen,"..of SS men, German police and local helpers... Outside cities with large Jewish populations, mass killings of unprecedented scope and speed take place - in Babi Yar outside Kiev, in Ponar outside Vilna, in the VII.Fort outside Kaunas. In the first five months of operation, the "Einsatzgruppen" shoot 100,000 Jews per month... about 2 million Jews are still alive after the first sweep in November 1941.. Jews are forced into "ghettos" and the population Aselected" for immediate killing, deportation or for forced labor. From 1942 onward, these ghettos are Aliquidated" and the remaining population shot. By the end of 1943, another 900,000 Jews are killed". 
      WWW Site: "Beyond the Pale"; Op Cit; at:
      http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/53.html
    During the war anti-Semitic chauvinism continued to be expressed against the Jews despite high involvement of the Soviet Jews in the resistance:
    "The Jews of the Soviet Union took an active part in the fight against Nazi Germany. About half a million served in the Red Army, and many volunteered for service at the front. Jewish soldiers ran an extra risk: when taken prisoner, they were bound to be shot immediately. An estimated 200,000 Soviet Jews died on the battlefield. During the war, the old anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews as cowardly soldiers was resurrected. Rumours circulated that Jews are "draft dodgers.." http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/53.html
    The Soviet state took action to organise the Jewish partisans and fighters, and to publicise their actions in the West. This took the concrete from within the Soviet Union of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAFC). Its’ organisation was approved of, and supported by both Stalin and Beria.
     "The Soviet authorities in April 1942 allow the establishment of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Its aim is to organize political and material support for the Soviet struggle against Nazi Germany from the Jewish communities in the West." (See Web site at "Beyond the Pale"; Op Cit p.61: http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/61.html ).
       
    "One should bear in mind that attempts to organise an international Jewish committee in the Soviet Union during the first months of the War were sponsored by Beria, head of the Soviet Security Police. Individuals connected with the security apparatus also preformed a significant role within the Soviet Antifascist Committee which emerged in Spring 1942."
      Redlich Shimon:"Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia-The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the USSR, 1941-1948"; 1982; USA; p.11.
    There is some dispute as to the origin of the idea of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.

    Two members of the "Bund", from Poland, were imprisoned by the Soviets after the annexation of Eastern Poland under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in 1939. These two men were Henrych Erlich and Wiktor Alter.
    They proposed to set up an international Jewish Committee in the USSR. Upon the arrest of the two, international pressure mounted to release them. This included Polish socialists such as Wanda Wasilwska and the American Federation of Labor, and the British government. As a letter written from the Foreign Office explained, this would strengthen the hand of the "moderate Poles" led by General Sikorski:

     "A letter from the British Foreign Office to the British Embassy in Moscow listed Erlich and Alter among eight outstanding Polish specialists whose release was sought by the British "to strengthen General Sikorski’s hand with his people", ie to bolster the moderate Poles."
      Redlich Shimon: "Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia-The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the USSR, 1941-1948"; 1982; USA; p.14.
    But when Beria became involved in their case, the previously announced death sentences were lifted and they were released. They were then allowed to assist in the formation of the Committee. As Redlich points out, the Soviet Government was actively thinking about such steps, and a parallel Slav Committee, had already been created "within a few weeks after Hitler’s attack". (Redlich Ibid; p. 11. )
    Claims that Alter and Erlych were primarily responsible for a similar idea in respect of the Jews, are impossible to verify. It is however, certainly the case that both were then later executed.

    Who would gain from their executions?
    Although both of them were Bundists, and thus anti-Bolshevik, both were working towards the ridding of Poland from Nazi rule and the establishment of a democratic and social-democratic state in Poland. Their contacts with the Polish ambassador in Moscow, Professor Stanlsilaw Kot had assured their allegiance to:

    "The New Plan.. Which will shape the fate of the future Europe in the spirit of political freedom social justice and national equality... Kot subsequently reported to his superiors in London that the "Bund delegates told me that the Soviet Government (NKVD) asked their assistance in spreading propaganda especially in America. They promised their help on condition that they would conduct the propaganda themselves, not as figure heads, and that it would be under the control of the (Polish) ambassador."
    Redlich Ibid; p. 24,
    Despite evidence that is acknowledged, that they had established links with visiting social democrats such as Water Citrine of the British Trades Union Congress and members of the Soviet - British Trade Union Committee, it appears that Alter and Erlych were genuinely interested in the liberation of Poland.     It is clear then, that their murder did not objectively help the USSR.
    Yet they were suddenly re-arrested on December 4th 1941.

    Even Shimon Redlich, the anti-Marxist-Leninist historian of the JAFC, finds the arrests inexplicable, from the point of view of both Stalin and the desperate struggle of the USSR state against Hitlerism.
In the absence of further data, Alliance is forced to interpret this as another attempted sabotage (See above for other documented war time sabotage).

    However the decision had been taken, somehow the fact of their executions; had subsequently to be explained to the world.
    Vyshinsky accused them of : "working on behalf of Germany". Redlich Ibid; p. 30.
    This seemed to many to be a rather un-convincing allegation.
    There was considerable negative international response to their re-arrest. Workers circles in the USA especially, were split by the news of these two executions. However, the executions were indeed confirmed by Litvinov in early 1943, who stated that both of them had argued for a Peace with Germany. (Redlich Ibid; p. 33).
    Further documentary data on this matter is still awaited.
    However by the time the arrests of the Bund-ists,  had occurred, a Jewish Anti-fascist Committee had been established.

    Information provided in an internal party document, "Pursuant to the inquiry of Comrade Shumeiko" upon the JAFC, confirms that the Jewish Anti-fascist Committee in the USSR (JAFC) was formed soon after a rally organised in Moscow of the representatives of Athe Jewish people" Vaksberg A, Ibid, p. 107. It occurred after the:

    In a memo of 21 June 1946: "To Comrade M.A.Suslov"; the members were itemised. The leading elements were in the main, long standing party members:
    "1. Secretary of the Committee, whose duties (following the death of Comrade Shakhno Epshtein) are carried out by the writer I. Fefer, member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) [VKP(b)] since 1919.
    2. Deputy Secretary of the Committee, Comrade S.M. Shpige’glias, VKP(b) member since 1919 and formerly a party worker."
      Memorandum of JAFC ; 21 June 1946; To "Comrade M. A. SUSLOV, Director Section For Foreign Policy of the Central Committee Of the Communist Party"; At Library of Congress site on web: http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/m2antfac.html
    But, as a leading representative of the politburo, Solomon Lozovsky was the political representative. He was then Deputy Commissar of Political Affairs, and deputy chief of Sovinformburo. It was he who officially announced the formation of the committee, talking to foreign correspondents in Kuibyshev in April 1942: "All the anti-fascist committees arose in connection with Hitler’s treacherous attack on the USSR.. The Jews have created an anti-fascist committee to help the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the USA." Redlich Op Cit; p. 40.     The JAFC published a paper- "Eynikayt", from the summer of 1942, until late 1948. The key members of the JAFC included, Solomon Mikhoels (the Jewish actor, and Director of the Moscow Jewish State Art Theatre), Shakhne Epstein, the executive secretary, and Itzik Feffer was a poet as well as a Red Army Colonel; Ilya Ehrenburg the noted writer; David Bergelson the writer; Perets Markish the Soviet-Yiddish poet.
    Of all these, undoubtedly the most popular figure in the JAFC was Solomon Mikhoels, famous for his stage roles and this Theatre. It is said that Stalin had nick-named him as "The Wise Solomon",  (Teller, Judd L: "The Kremlin, The Jews & The Middle East"; New York; 1957; p.41.") though this is specifically repudiated by other sources. Rapport; Ibid).
    After the victory of Stalingrad, in 1943, a tension erupted over a dual potential role for the JAFC:
    Firstly, to defend Jewish refugees and provide assistance and rehabilitation to Jewish expatriates; and
    Secondly to "activate" foreign Jewry for the defence of the USSR. (Redlich Ibid; p. 43-44).

    The latter view predominated, and Mikhoels and Feffer were sent on a speaking tour of the West. They succeeded in convincing Jewish people in the West to support and donate to the Russian anti-war efforts:

    The leading lights of the Western Jewish intelligentsia met them such as those of the American Committee of Jewish Writers & Scientists, with Albert Einstein, Sholom Asch, Lion Feuchtwangler, Howard Fast, Lilian Hellmann and others. The trip succeeded in raising funds for at Aleast one thousand aeroplanes and five hundred tanks and uniforms and food etc. Vaksberg Ibid; p.118

    There is little doubt that Mikhoels and Feffer made a significant impact upon world Jewry, and garnered respect and enthusiasm for the USSR.

"In 1943 Solomon Mikhoels and the writer Itzik Feffer embark on a seven-month official tour to the USA, Mexico, Canada and Great Britain. They are received everywhere with great enthusiasm: for a long time, no official contact with one of the largest Jewish communities of the world had been possible. Especially in the United States, where many Jews have not forgotten their ties with Russia, the tour is a great success, and many millions of dollars are raised for the Russian war effort. The JAFC becomes the focal point of a national awakening for Soviet Jewry at a time when its very survival is in danger. Many Jews turn to the JAFC with requests for help, among them survivors from the Nazi camps who find their houses occupied upon their return." WWW Site Beyond the pale: http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/61.html      One important achievement of the JAFC was that several prominent Jews from all over the world came to the USSR as guests of the committee: "Over two years, representatives of a series of foreign Jewish antifascist organizations have visited the Committee: Deputy Chairman of the Jewish Antifascist Committee of Bulgaria, Mr. Zhak Vradzhali; one of the leaders of the Union of Jews of Czechoslovakia, Mr. Rozenberg; representatives of Jewish organizations of France, Poland, et al. Recently Mr. Ben Zion Goldberg (Waife), the son-in-law of Sholem Aleichem, visited the Soviet Union. He is a prominent public figure in the United States, a member of the executive committee of the Soviet-American Friendship Society (headed by Lamont), chairman of the Committee of Jewish Scientists, Writers, and Artists of the United States (Albert Einstein is president of the Committee), vice-president of Ambidjan, the All-American Society for Aid to Birobidzhan (president of Ambidzhan-- Steffenson). Mr. Goldberg is also a major American journalist.. Mr. Goldberg was received in Moscow by M. I. Kalinin and S. A. Lozovskii.. Met Soviet writers .. representatives of the Soviet Jewish community (at the Jewish Antifascist Committee in the USSR headquarters), with leaders of the State Jewish Theatre, with the chief rabbi of the Moscow Jewish congregation, Shliffer, and with leaders of the Red Cross, among others... During his stay in the Soviet Union, Mr. Goldberg dispatched via the Soviet Information Bureau 33 articles to the American, Canadian, English, Palestinian, Polish, and Yiddish press. The articles were extremely friendly toward the Soviet Union. Before his departure, Mr. Goldberg began to write a book in English entitled England, the Opponent of Peace, and a book in Yiddish entitled Jewish Culture in the Soviet Union." Memorandum to Comrade Suslov; Ibid; AT:
 http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/m2antfac.html
    Further requests were being received by the USSR from prominent Jews in "several countries": "Such requests were received from: N. Goldman, the chairman of the executive committee of the World Jewish Congress; Dr. Stephen Wise, chairman of the American Jewish Congress; Louis Levine, chairman of the Jewish Union for Soviet Aid under Russian War Relief; Mr. Raiskii, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Presse Nouvelle in Paris; et al." Memorandum to Comrade Suslov; Ibid; AT:
 http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/m2antfac.html
At this stage, the Jewish AFC proposed a detailed plan to make the Crimea the site of a Homeland for oppressed Jewish people from all over the world, including all the refugees from the war.
This was proposed by the JAFC in a letter to Stalin dated February 15, 1944.
It seems that only part of this letter has been made public to date. That fragment reads: "The creation of a Jewish Soviet Republic will once and forever, in a Bolshevik manner, within the spirit of Leninist -Stalinists national policy, settle the problem of the state legal position of the Jewish people and further development of their multi century culture. This is a problem that no one has been capable of settling in the course of many centuries. It can be solved only in our great socialist country."
Cited From Literatunaya Gazeta July 7th; 1933.; By Sudoplatov Ibid; p. 286.
    As mentioned above, Stalin had approved the formation of the committee. Even the virulently anti-Stalin figure Vaksberg notes that Stalin had written to the JAFC the following note:     Why therefore, as various Zionists state, should Stalin have turned against the JAFC? They allege "anti-Semitism".     The major allegations made on a personal level about this charge are frankly ludicrous. Thus for instance, reliance upon Khrushchev and moreover upon an unclear source reveals this: "The first symptoms of Stalin’s anti-Semitic policy are rooted in his personality and may be traced to the pre-revolutionary period. Many people who knew him well, such as Khrushchev, suggested that his Judaeophobia was pathological. Stalin's struggle against Trotsky and his numerous Jewish supporters fuelled the anti-Semitic trends in the Kremlin dictator’s policy. ‘Anti-Semitism and anti-Trotskyism reared their heads simultaneously’, Trotsky wrote."
Iakov EtingerAThe Doctors' Plot: Stalin's Solution to the Jewish Question"; in Editor: Yaacov Ro'i:"Jews & Jewish Life in Russia & the Soviet Union"; Ibid; p.103.
    It is remarkable that Trotsky then, himself a Jew never commented that this was the reason for his "persecutions" in a more visible and public forum. Nor indeed do Trotsky’s followers including Isaac Deutscher his primary biographer use this charge. What else does Professor I. Etinger have for us?     Other comments from Vaksberg, indicate the same source for other various anecdotes. But interestingly, the most virulent anti-Stalin Vaksberg records other facts that show Stalin was not anti-Semitic. So Vaksberg, although interspersed with sly digs and innuendoes throughout, must note that Stalin was vociferous against anti-semitism: "The composer Dmitri Rogal-Levitsky... was in 1944 commissioned to orchestrate the new state anthem.. His notebooks .. Record the conversation (of a banquet)... "Stalin asked how many conductors there were at the Bolshoi Theatre. They told him seven of whom three were Jews... "Do you have Nikolai Golovanov there? Stalin asked....
"We were planning to entrust two or three productions to him began Tsazoksky.... "And?" Interrupted Stalin.
"He refused".
"Good thing!" Stalin said, striking a match.
"I don’t like him... He’s an anti-Semite. Yes a real anti-Semite. A crude anti-Semite. He should not be allowed into the Bolshoi Theatre.. It’s like letting a goat into the cabbage patch," he said laughing"..
Then the conversation turned. But a while later without any obvious connection, Stalin returned to the first theme: "But that Golovanov is an anti-Semite"..
"I’ve not dealt with him in that sense".
"Don’t worry you will, if you let him into the Bolshoi Theatre... Golovanov is a real anti-Semite, a dangerous, principled anti-Semite.. You cannot let Golovanov into the Bolshoi Theatre. That anti-Semite will turn everything upside down."
Vaksberg A; "Stalin Against the Jews"; New York; 1994; p. 29-30.
    Yet ultimately, Vasberg dismisses this all, as an elaborate facade behind which Stalin’s own "anti-Semitism" could be hidden. Vaksberg refers to Stalin’s daughter having "destroyed" Svetlana Alliluyeva’s first marriage because it had been to a Jew - Grigory Morozov (Moroz). Such personal testimony is liable to selective "filtering". But even Svetlana’s own words are somewhat self-contradictory. She states that Stalin did not stand in her way regarding her marriage, but he refused to allow her husband to visit him. Perhaps the real reason that Stalin disliked him, was not that he was a Jew, but lies in what he told her:     It is true that Svetlana says later on, that Stalin told her that the "Zionists had thrown the first husband" into her way. (Alliluyeva, Svetlana, "Twenty Letters to a Friend"; Ibid; p.196).
    However the marriage appears to have failed of its’ own accord, Svetlana is quite clear on this.

The net definite "evidence" to prove the racism of Stalin must be in doubt by an open mind.
The real "proof" for the accusers, who convict Stalin of "anti-Semitism"- appears to lie in the matter of the so called "Zionists’ Plot" and the "Doctor’s Plot".

    The same general problem is faced by Zionists,  who although they accuse Beria of being an anti-Semite, confront and cannot explain data that in reality shows the opposite: Furthermore, it must be noted firstly that it was Beria, who after Stalin’s death - first repudiated the "Doctor’s Plot", as being a sham : "Beria’s position as chief of the security services and the police place him in an invidious position as the likeliest candidate for indictment and castigation for all persecutions that has taken place .. Stalin’s successors have fingered him as the author of the so-called Doctor’s Plot... Yet after Stalin’s death it was Beria who exposed the indictment which in itself, disputes his executioners’ contention that he was its author. The Minister of State Security the real boss of the secret police at the time that this evidence was manufactured, was Semyon D.Ignatiev, Beria’s political enemy. Although publicly pilloried for his central role in concocting the indictment, Ignatiev was restored to favour at the Kremlin immediately after Beri had been purged. The post-Beria Kremlin significantly had maintained that there was not anti-Semitic intent behind the doctor’s indictment.. Which in turn invites speculation that the charge might not have been dismissed had not Beria exposed them in his life time." Teller Ibid; p. 90-91.
 
"Not only did Beria denounce the Doctor’s Plot was a hoax after Stalin’s death, he also took it upon himself to attempt a revival of Jewish culture immediately after Stalin died." Knight A; Ibid; p.148.
Following this Pravda ran an editorial that stated:     Khrushchev by several accounts, was well known to be an anti-Semite. Amy Knight puts it as follows:     That Stalin ensured that Khrushchev was in effect repudiated upon the issue of anti-Semitic pogromists was clear, when Malenkov was sent to the Ukraine to correct the "blindness" of Khrushchev to anti-Semitic abuses: "Khrushchev’s case is different. Even before his name was generally known outside the USSR, he had acquired notoriety in the Jewish press... for an episode in Kiev when the war ended. He was then boss of the Ukraine. Jewish wartime refugees, braving the local populations; anti-Jewish animus and the Kremlin’s bruited displeasure, trickled back to their devastated homes in the Ukraine. One day in a scuffle over an anti-Semitic remark, two Red Army officers one Jewish and the other Ukrainian, fired their guns at each other. The Ukrainian died, and the result was a pogrom in Kiev. The Ukrainian was buried with military honours and Khrushchev marched in the funeral procession. The pogromists went unpunished until Malenkov arrived to restore order." Teller Ibid; p. 92. This view is substantiated more recently by Knight’s biography of Beria:     Mikhoels would pay a price for his request for intervention, addressed to the Marxist-Leninist Molotov. But who was it that wrote his bill?

The Murder of Solomon Mikhoels

    As discussed above, Stalin had supported the JAFC and sent it congratulatory telegrams.
    It seems though, that the general attitude inside the USSR to the JAFC changed after the war.
    One of the signs of this change was that the previous plan to publish a book - the so called "Black Book" - cataloguing the Nazi genocide of the Jews, and the Jewish partisan struggles, was only brought to fruition in the USA but not in Russia:

    But the death of Mikhoels - allegedly in a murder committed at the direct order of Stalin, is the event that is usually cited as the beginning of the alleged anti-Semitic campaigns of the Soviet USSR.
    It is alleged by many, including Sudoplatov, that Stalin feared the potential power that Mikhoels would have, and had him assassinated in January 1948:     But as noted in the foreword, Sudoplatov’s memoirs have been seriously discredited.
    It is true that other sources also refer to the death of Mikhoels and all assume that Stalin "ordered the murder of Mikhoels".

    In fact, the mysterious death of Solomon Mikhoels in Minsk on January 13, 1948, served to rob the USSR of a valuable and respected figure. For all these other sources, this contradiction, is not apparently a difficult issue - since they all pre-judge Stalin as variously, mad, irrational, capricious.. etc.
However this line of reasoning is countered by the facts previously adduced.
    (See Previous issues of Alliance on Personality Cult :(1) The Cult of
    Personality (Talk at The Stalin Society (UK) May 1991) AT: http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/STALIN-TXT/WBBPERSONALITY1991.html2) Stalin - Myths and Reality: Talk intended for the Third ISML Conference Paris October 1999:  http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/STALIN-TXT/WBBSTALINMYTHSPARIS1999.html

    The most detailed source, of the actual last days of Mikhoels life, is found in Arkady Vaksberg. (ibid pp159-170). As Amy Knight points out, the assumption is usually made that Beria performed the killing:

    However it seems that Beria related the facts of the case, in a letter to Malenkov, after the death of Stalin.
    According to this letter, Beria questioned Abakumov in prison, where Abakumov had remained following Stalin's death. Beria learnt that the key players were Ogol’tsev and Tsanava. Knight insists that Stalin "ordered" the killing:     In fact Knight reminds us that Beria had: But, she fails to remind us that Stalin had also supported Mikhoels and the JAFC.

So was ultimately responsible for the murder of Mikhoels?
It seems that the revisionist S.D.Ignat’ev (or Ignatiev) was heavily involved:

Who was pushing for action on the "anti-Zionist plot"?

Vaksberg claims that Abakumov was supported by Malenkov and Mikhail Suslov. We would argue that of these, Suslov was an out and out revisionist and at best, Malenkov was a vacillator.

    On October 12, 1946 Abakumov (after having taken over from Vsevolod Merkulov, the Ministry of State Security) wrote a memorandum entitled: "On Nationalistic Manifestations of Some Workers of the Jewish Anti-fascist Committee", accusing them of :

    It was finally on March 1948 that Abakumov forwarded a report to the Central Committee arguing that JAFC leaders and Mikhoels had: This report went to the Central Committee and was copied to Stalin, Molotov, Zhdanov, and Kuznetsov.

By 20 November 1948, the Politburo adopted the resolution approving a decision of the Council Of Ministers to disband the JAFC.
This resolution was adopted after the sudden death of Zhdanov in August 1948, and thereafter the correct anti-cosmopolitanism campaign, was crudely transformed into the incorrect anti-Semitic campaign.
(For Bland's article on the anti-cosmopolitanism article see:   http://www22.brinkster.com/harikumar/CommunistLeague/COSMOPOLITANISM-COMPASS131-1998.HTM

    Abakumov continued to send memos to Stalin over this issue, calling the JAFC a "hot-bed of Zionism" in a memo of the March 1, 1948. (Vaksberg; Op Cit; p.196. )

    It was after September 3rd, 1948 that action was finally taken against the JAFC. On that date, it is alleged by Vaksberg and other bourgeois commentators that the "mass rallies" greeting Golda Myerson (later to be known as Golda Meir) in her post as the first Israeli ambassador, "frightened" Stalin.

Yet as Vaksberg himself states, in the spring of 1945 Stalin had allowed open and massive Jewish rallies to commemorate the Jewish dead of the war:

"On the recommendation of the World Council of Rabbis meeting in Jerusalem, Stalin permitted Moscow Jews to organise a memorial service for the six million Jewish victims of the Nazis.... Major governmental figures marshals, and generals and celebrated artists attended – over 20,000 people.. Raising over half a million rubles for the postwar restoration of the country. The solemn Kadish was repeated in 1946. In 1947 it was banned."
Vaksberg; Op Cit; p.185.
    By March 26th 1948, Abakumov had sent a memo to Stalin, Molotov and CC Secretaries Zhdanov and Kuznetsov entitled "On the Espionage and Nationalistic Activity of the Jewish Anti-fascist Committee", stating that Mikhoels was:     On November 20th 1948, item no.81 on the agenda of the Politburo of the CC stated:     Thus far at any rate, the "facts" are not quite so obvious as made out by the Zionists who attack Stalin as anti-Semitic. There is a clear implication from Vaksberg, that a compromise decision had been made, with the final statement just cited, regarding an explicit counter-manding of further arrests.
Nonetheless, David Goldstein had already been arrested in September, and on December 24th Fefer was arrested. Vaksberg; Op Cit; p.200-201. Lozovsky was arrested on January 16th. Vaksberg; Op Cit; p.202.

    A little complicating, but true, is that Salmon Lozovsky was also a hidden revisionist (partially discussed previously by Alliance - See Alliance issue Number 15); who had subverted correct trade union tactics in the Comintern and the trade union international Profintern (led by Lozovsky).

    However, Alliance argues, until further evidence can be adduced, that the net effect of these arrests, was once more to alienate the Marxist-Leninist wing of the Bolsheviks Party from a section of the working class.

    Moreover it served to strengthen the hand of international support for Israel, and to serve as an instrument of propaganda against the USSR.

    It was the Writers Union under Alexander Fadeyev who pushed for a resolution that called for closing associations of Jewish writers and closing Yiddish almanacs. That the hand of the revisionists was heavy in making these decisions is made clear by Shimon Redlich in his history of the JAFC. He points out that another key revisionist involved was Boris Ponomorarev:

    As Redlich points out, various hypotheses linking the affair with an alleged Malenkov-Zhdanov hostility; or to an attempt to discredit Beria;  simply do not make any sense.
    He is left only to explain it as Stalin’s fear of the international contacts that Soviet Jewry had built with overseas Jews. He himself acknowledges Stalin's previous support of these contacts:     Another potential "reason" leading Stalin to take this step, is cited by Redlich as the following: Alliance finds that the evidence to date, suggests that Mikhoels was murdered, and was not the victim of an accident.

    This is dealt with directly below, in a citation from Beria.
As to who was responsible, there continues to be disagreement.

Only one piece of evidence links Stalin to this directly.
That is evidence provided by the cross examination of Abakumov while he was imprisoned.

    This was referred to above, from the biography of Beria by Knight (see page above). The full cited is the following, and is drawn from a document upon Abakumov, available in Russian only. Significant sections are cited from the English text of a piece by Iakov Ettinger, based on reports in Russian cited by Stoliarov:

    After Stalin’s death, Beria investigated the Mikhoels events further. It emerged again from Abakumov’s testimony, still being in jail, that Abakumov had asserted not only that Mikhoels had been killed, but that Stalin had ordered him to perform this murder :     Beria’s letter then outlines that the murder of Mikhoels was disguised by crudely staging a motor vehicle accident: "The letter goes on to describe in detail how Mikhoels was "liquidated". There were several options for eliminating Mikhoels: a) a car accident, b) running him over with a lorry in a deserted street. Since neither gave a 100 per cent guarantee the following course was decided upon: to invite Mikhoels, through one of our agents, to visit an acquaintance of his late at night, provide a car from the hotel he was staying in, allegedly to drive him there, take him to Tsanava's dacha and liquidate him. Then the body was to be put in an out-of-the-way deserted street and run over by a lorry. And that is how it was done. To keep the matter secret, agent Golubov, who accompanied Mikhoels on this fatal visit, was also done away with (they were run over by a lorry near the dacha). At the end of the letter Beria declared:
The MVD deems it necessary: a) to arrest and initiate proceedings against former USSR Deputy MGB Minister S. I. Ogol’'tsov and former State Security Minister of Belorussia L. F. Tsanava,
b) to repeal the Supreme Soviet decree conferring honours on the participants in the murder of Mikhoels and Golubov."
Etinger I: Ibid; p. 120-121; Citing: 'Argumenty i Fakty 2'; 1992.
In Conclusion: Alliance argues the following:

1. If it is agreed that Beria was a Marxist-Leninist, his letter indicates the primary responsibility for the attacks on the JAFC are laid on the door of low level operatives
S. I. Ogol'tsov and L. F. Tsanava.

2. Backing up these individuals but at a higher level were the revisionists Malenkov and Suslov and Ponomoranev. Of these the first, was possibly a "vacillator" but the other two were definitely revisionists.

3. There remains the matter of Stalin. We argue that Stalin had nothing to gain by the  murder of Mikhoels, that his "ego" definitely did not require this as bourgeois sources claim; and that it was not in his interests. However Abakumov’s testimony "fingers" Stalin. What then? Barring a "mistake" upon Stalin’s part, we suggest the following two possibilities:

We believe the data thus far shows that Beria was a consistent Marxist-Leninist.
We believe therefore that the most likely conclusion is that Abakhumov was tricked by the revisionists into effecting Mikhoels murder.

It is very remarkable that the newer generation of revisionist leaders of the USSR - those who actually dissolved the state- held a Politburo Commission and declared the direct responsibility to lie with Malenkov.

It is pretty inconceivable that these individuals who hated Stalin, would not publicise evidence linking Stalin with this issue if it in truth existed:

The Case of Polinya

The wife of Molotov - Polina Zhemchuzhina - was Jewish. She had held high ranking posts for the Bolsheviks such as People’s Commissar of the Fish Industry, head of the State Perfume Trust, as well as being on the Bolshevik Central Committee. It is alleged that she incurred Stalin’s’ wrath as she had been the last person to see Nadezdha Allilueva alive before she committed suicide. This according to Vaksberg was the reason for her removal from the Central Committee for "failure in work". Previously she had received a reprimand for neglect and, for allowing in 1939, some German spies to penetrate her area. According to Golda Meir’s testimony, Polinya "wished the Zionists in Palestine well" saying:

    This conversation was monitored and the Central Committee was informed. According to Vaksberg, Stalin reportedly told Molotov: It is important to recognise that as so often, the primary source for this conversational tit-bit of information is the revisionist Khrushchev.

    In late 1948 the Molotovs were divorced, and in February 1949 Zhemchuzhina was arrested.
    Prior to this, some bizzare personal charges including one of an extraordinary adultery involving a juniro employee, and espionage were laid at a meeting of the Politburo.
    However even Vaksberg, is in agreement that various documents were indeed missing, from the Ministry of Light Industry textile branch, then being run by Zhemchuzhina.

    Nonetheless the various charges against Zhemchuzhina also included:

"Being present at the memorial service at the synagogue on March 14th, 1945; enjoying the nationalistic play Freileks produced by the Jewish bourgeois nationalists Mikhoels at the Jewish Theatre; and of attending the funeral of Mikhoels." Vaksberg; Op Cit; p.192.     It is likely that some of these latter minor charges are true. Whether that made her an enemy of the state is debateable in the view of Alliance currently. But it is notable that Zhemchuzhina never repudiated Stalin, even after years in prison (Vaksberg; Op Cit; p.192).

    It seems most likely that both she and Molotov were aware that there were inner-party battles going on that explained the turn of events.
    In fact although Stalin is blamed for these events, it is most unclear why Molotov should have been targeted. For not only did his wife suffer imprisonment, but observers agree that he himself was demoted in rank although he remained within the Politburo. (Knight M; Ibid; p.147).

Alliance argues then, that the general aim of the revisionists to take over leading positions of state power was assisted by the direct and in-direct attack upon Molotov - as far as we know a reliable Marxist-Leninist, while Stalin was alive.




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