In the late 1920s and early 1930s – the government and population of the suffering US (following the 1928 Wall Street Crash) – found it intriguing that the original ‘7’ Socialist Republics (which existed between 1922-1936) and the ’12’ Republics (which existed between 1936-1940) that comprised the USSR not only remained totally unaffected by the collapse of Western capitalism, but continued to develop and prosper! By 1936 the USSR was comprised of the following Socialist Republics:
- Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
- Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
- Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
- Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
- Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic
- Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic
- Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
A small number of other ‘Republics’ were added at a later date [namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940] whilst the ‘Karello-Finnish SSR’ was absorbed into Russia in 1956 – forming what would become the final ’15’ constituent Republics of the USSR. From 1940-1956 the USSR would be comprised of ’16’ Republics – the highest number its membership would reach. The USSR must not be conflated with the ‘Communist Bloc’ – which consisted of all the Socialist countries of Eastern Europe ‘Liberated’ by the Soviet Red Army post-1945 – and other Socialist countries around the world. At its peak, the ‘Communist Bloc’ consisted of the following ’24’ countries:
Afghanistan, Albania (until 1961), Angola, Benin, Bulgaria, China (until 1961), Congo, Cuba. Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Ethiopia, Grenada, Hungary, Kampuchea, Laos, Mongolia, Mozambique, North Korea, Poland (until 1989), Romania, Seychelles, Somalia (until 1977), South Yemen, Vietnam (formerly North Vietnam) and Yugoslavia (until 1948)
This reality led to President Roosevelt establishing full diplomatic relations with the USSR in 1933 (the year Hitler came to power in Germany) even sending Harpo Marx (the brother of Groucho) to Moscow as a Good Will Ambassador! Indeed, many interested people traversed through USSR during this time period – all curious to see how the ‘Socialist’ System was succeeding and transforming Soviet life! At the time, despite the odd nay-sayer in the background – much of the chatter about the Soviet Union was positive. The available source texts from time portray and reveal this reality. There is no talk of pogroms, gulags, oppressions and purges – although it is true that the US took the side of Trotsky. How odd it is then, to bear witness to a deluge of post-1945 texts which serve to construct an alternative history that would have the unsuspecting reader to believe that whilst Roosevelt was chatting with Stalin and Harpo was making Soviet Generals ‘laugh’ – that most of the population of the USSR lived in Prison Camps and that Stalin was personally involved in a famine he had deliberately caused in (Catholic) West Ukraine! Interestingly, the US Philosopher – Will Durant – who could not read, write or speak Russian, visited the USSR in 1933 (the year of Roosevelt’s Diplomatic Mission) – and claimed a Russian peasant woman stated to him that life was terrible. When asked to produce this woman, he could not – and neither could he explain how he understood or communicated with this woman. Durant appears to be a foreshadowing of the disinformation that was to come out of the US – post-1945.
Of course, none of the post-1945 pseudo-history – that emerged out of the deficient imagination of the anti-intellectual US – is true! It is a shadow history devoid of all reality – rather like a religious myth that gains its power through its demand of ‘Blind Faith’! Believe the lie or face the consequences! I say NO to this – as do many other people! Many, if not all of the anti-Stalin stories that permeated the West post-1945 – are fake – and possess no foundation in material reality. The US seems to be following the trajectory of attempting for their ‘lies’ to outlast the truth – if only the lies lasts long enough – and is delivered with the right kind of intensity! It is astonishing to consider that the casual and routine lies told about Stalin are now considered ‘truth’ – simply because what really happened is purposely withheld by the Bourgeoisie that currently controls the means of production in the US! This is Class War of the highest degree and the deepest depravity! The following is how Grover Furr started to realise how the US System had constructed a gigantic ‘lie’ about Joseph Stalin and the reality of the USSR:
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 