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and welcome to

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revolutions

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on may nineteenth twenty

1:36

nineteen i publish the first episode

1:38

of the tenth and final season of the revolution's

1:41

podcast it was episode ten point

1:43

one the international working men's association

1:46

and now here we are more than three years

1:48

later

1:49

the thirty nine episodes just to get through the

1:51

revolution of ninety five then

1:53

a hiatus to finish hero to world's

1:56

which went from blank piece of paper when i started

1:58

the series to a completed me

1:59

the script to the hardcover release a

2:02

now as i read this

2:03

the paperback is eminently forthcoming the

2:06

pandemic it and then it went on and

2:09

on and on it still goes on i

2:11

was personally in and out of french operating

2:13

rooms then we move back to france not

2:15

that those two are explicitly linked

2:18

there have been a million upheavals

2:20

big and small personal professional

2:23

public and private they've been

2:25

political upheavals that we'll follow even if

2:27

i don't talk about it here on the podcast

2:30

wars and insurrections mass protests

2:32

and attempted coup the ruling class

2:35

intrigues systemic failures and insufficient

2:37

responses the greedy the

2:39

timid the daring the inept the fearful

2:41

the blind the cunning be unwilling in the bold

2:43

all crashing into one another the

2:46

unthinkable thinkable

2:47

impossible possible

2:49

the past not even past

2:51

the future staring is dead in the face

2:54

it's been a long three

2:56

years

2:57

the went by in the blink of an eye

3:01

one episode ten point one we saw

3:03

a scruffy crew of political dissidents

3:05

and radical social activists convene

3:08

in london and eighteen sixty four plot a new course

3:10

for european civilization by

3:12

virtue of europe's colonial stranglehold

3:14

on the world the plot a new course

3:16

for human civilization

3:19

most of them were veterans of the barricades

3:21

of forty eight

3:23

at least a printing presses or forty eight and

3:25

they worked in the reactionary aftermath of the failures

3:27

of forty eight their concern

3:30

was a monstrously exploited economic system

3:32

enforced by the hired gun to the ruling the

3:35

objective was nothing less than total

3:38

revolution just swapping

3:40

out this ruler for that ruler the

3:42

end of rulers that is transferring

3:44

property from this tribe to that drive

3:47

the end of property not

3:49

just the rise of one tiny political faction

3:52

overthrowing another tiny political faction

3:54

but the end of factions entirely

3:56

the end of the minority ruling the majority

3:59

the end of mass

3:59

we case and misery and degradation a

4:02

triumph of dignity justice and prosperity

4:04

for all liberty equality

4:07

and fraternity

4:11

remittance option the international socialist

4:13

movement was run through with internal

4:15

conflicts arguments backbiting shit

4:17

talking and infighting there's

4:20

also on capitalism and imperialism almost

4:23

as vicious is their assault on each other in

4:25

a few short years the first international working mint

4:28

association explicitly organize

4:30

to unite them in unbreakable solidarity

4:33

broke into to rival camps to

4:36

international

4:37

the each side expelling all the members of the

4:39

other side

4:41

urges encounter purges were baked into

4:43

the foundation from the start and

4:45

so it went for the russian wing of international socialism

4:48

the decades were nothing happened in the weeks

4:50

where decades happen marxist

4:52

an anarchist orthodox and revisionist

4:55

bolshevik and mentioning internationalist

4:58

and chauvinist social democrat in

5:00

communist

5:01

the left opposition the right deviation

5:03

ist

5:04

every few years or months or weeks

5:06

a new round of purges expulsions and walkouts

5:09

as any one of the several socialist

5:11

parties out there broke into two camps those

5:14

two into for in those four and eight it

5:16

was eight into sixteen

5:18

the each group declaring themselves to be the avatars

5:20

of social purity and righteousness and

5:23

everyone else a blockhead it bunch of

5:25

losers

5:27

now unfairness

5:28

it's always easier for the defenders of the status quo

5:30

to stick together

5:32

the status quo was a tangible existent

5:34

thing

5:35

it's here and now it what

5:37

exist unity of purpose

5:39

is simply defending what exists

5:42

protecting how things are

5:46

not only that they have the tangible

5:48

resources to protect themselves because what

5:50

they are defending for those

5:52

tangible resources meanwhile

5:55

the fight to replace the status quo it

5:57

means creating something new that presently

6:00

this only in the imagination the

6:02

blank slate of infinite possibilities the

6:04

to utopia approachable from an infinite

6:07

number of pass some of them leading

6:09

and wildly different directions up

6:11

our around her behind this valley

6:13

or that mountaintop that paradise

6:16

by the sea

6:18

and because there are an infinite number of places to go

6:20

in an infinite number of ways to get there

6:22

the critics are the status quo the enemies of the status

6:24

quo then divide into an infinite

6:26

number factions the defenders

6:28

of the status quo can just sit tight and stay

6:30

put

6:31

that's literally all they have to do all

6:34

they want to do all they ever will do

6:37

so the socialists and the anarchists and

6:39

the communists bought amongst each

6:41

other and within their own ranks the

6:44

battleground of factional infighting from

6:46

the first international forward

6:48

was always the congress and the

6:50

executive committee

6:52

always and everywhere we find congress

6:55

and committees whatever the party

6:57

whatever the faction congress's and committees

7:00

a congress of delegates would convene to vote on

7:02

platforms and policies for this party or

7:04

that party the most importantly

7:07

the vote on the permanent committees who would supervise

7:09

the work after the congress disbanded simple

7:12

practical necessity the members of these various

7:14

standing executive committee

7:16

were empowered to articulate and enforce

7:18

policies platforms tactic strategies

7:21

and objective

7:22

the when control of one of these executive committee

7:25

and winning control the party when

7:27

you control the movement and possibly winning control

7:30

the whole revolution

7:31

it meant making your vision of the

7:33

revolution the official version

7:35

of the revolution

7:37

the the only permissible

7:39

vision of the revolution

7:42

from the standing committee so the first international

7:44

through the executive committee so the russian social

7:46

democratic labour party to the central committee

7:48

the bolshevik party and now the politburo of

7:51

the communist party we've seen time

7:53

and again that winning controlled the small committees

7:55

of perhaps fiber seven or nine

7:58

members was a great price

8:00

and it was the substantive tragedies critique

8:02

of the bolsheviks when he said

8:04

any internal politics of the party these

8:06

methods lead to the party organization substituting

8:09

itself for the pretty

8:10

the central committee substituting itself for the party

8:12

organizations

8:13

and finally the dictator substituting himself

8:16

for the central committee the

8:18

only thing he got wrong about this in projecting

8:20

the future layout of the communist party

8:22

there's the additional wrong of the politburo

8:25

between the central committee and the dictator

8:28

well try to be was of course prescient he

8:30

did not complain much about these things when he

8:32

was in the politburo thirty

8:36

years it was always whoa to those who

8:38

disagreed with the executive committee

8:40

especially if and when and where

8:43

a handful of members realize they were

8:45

empowered to set rules about who could be a member

8:47

of the party

8:48

you could participate in party congress who

8:51

was allowed to vote for members of the executive

8:53

committee once control

8:56

over the process was secured the results

8:58

would always be the same because those

9:00

who control the process controlled the results

9:03

this could become permanent

9:05

once the executive committee establish themselves

9:07

as the quarterfinal appeal to

9:10

whom all complaints must be

9:12

sent and from whom all

9:14

final judgment would be handed down

9:17

circuit would be close whatever

9:20

the politburo said was right even

9:22

when it was wrong

9:24

the only options left would be to conform

9:26

quit or be expelled

9:31

obviously i'm talking about all this because we've come

9:33

to the final chapter of the russian revolution

9:36

which if it wasn't called the final chapter would be called

9:38

the great purge

9:41

in the great purge joseph

9:43

stalin would carry the logic of

9:45

committee rule and banishment of opposition

9:48

logic that had been a part of revolutionary socialism

9:51

since the days of marx engels and mckernan

9:54

the most monster his conclusion

9:57

it was the final elimination of all mental

9:59

legal and political lines that separated

10:02

disagreement with stalin

10:04

from

10:05

treason against the party the soviet union

10:07

and the revolution

10:10

the early nineteen thirties stalin had danced

10:12

is politburo quadrille with ruthless agility

10:15

isolating and removing his rivals one by

10:17

one until the only dance partners laughed

10:20

were those of someone's choosing they

10:22

only danced to attuned stone

10:25

cold but

10:27

his victory brought him know rest

10:29

when you played treacherous games against the thousand

10:31

hidden enemies your whole life it's impossible

10:33

to nazi hidden enemies everywhere all

10:35

the time

10:37

specially

10:38

once you surround yourself with people who agree with

10:40

you because they are terrified of disagreeing

10:42

with you though

10:44

we have this tragic irony the

10:46

just astound power inside the soviet union

10:48

became truly unassailable in the mid nineteenth thirty

10:51

the unleashed a massive campaign

10:54

of terror

10:56

stolen aimed his great purge at all

10:58

levels of soviet society up

11:01

at the top he aimed to eliminate

11:03

lenin's thin stratum about bolsheviks

11:06

anyone who claim political authority legitimacy

11:09

respect due to their own service

11:11

to the party and the revolution

11:12

rather than simply stalin's whims

11:16

in the middle rungs he aimed at stake bureaucrats

11:18

party officials and local functionaries anyone

11:21

who even so much as hinted at the

11:23

existence of our method of communist

11:25

statecraft

11:26

different from the glorious system

11:28

handed down by comrade stalin

11:31

this middle group also included pretty much anyone

11:33

who'd gone to college education before the revolution

11:36

including most of cultural intelligentsia

11:39

writers pilots artists musicians theater

11:41

director film makers anyone

11:43

who showed any interest of thinking for themselves

11:46

those include an academic elites like professors

11:48

and scientists and researchers last

11:51

night class of engineers and technical specialists

11:53

and managers who had already been feeling

11:55

the heat a political terror since the beginning of the first

11:57

five year plan

11:59

and last but certainly not least because

12:02

they felt it the most the have a general

12:04

masses hundreds of thousands

12:06

workers peasants shopkeeper secretaries

12:09

cleaning staff teachers people

12:11

denounced for god knows what reason put

12:13

on a list arrested by the police and either

12:15

shoved on a cattle current sent off to a labor camp

12:18

drag to a basement where they would be

12:22

no explaining the great purge of

12:24

course begins with stones own

12:26

paranoid megalomania and his obsession

12:29

with eliminating personal enemies stalin

12:32

would always act and behave as the u s s

12:34

r the revolution the communist party to central committee

12:36

the politburo and he himself we're

12:38

all one in the same thing and moreover

12:41

in a state of constant seat

12:44

they were encircled by enemy the

12:47

stones paranoia was driven partly by

12:49

an intense feeling of perpetual victimization

12:52

the he was always the but of slander and unfair

12:54

attacks from everyone else

12:55

that everyone was out to get him

12:57

and so he can always justify

12:59

going off and getting them first

13:02

stallman also came ready equipped just

13:04

as line and it the personality of a boy

13:07

when he saw people backing down he didn't take

13:09

that as a time to let up but instead to go

13:11

harder it wasn't enough to beat

13:14

your enemies you had to degrade them humiliate

13:16

them and ruin them and then

13:18

destroy them

13:21

but well stolen zone increasingly unhinged

13:23

personality is a necessary part of explaining

13:25

the great purge it is not sufficient

13:28

stalin siege mentality wasn't just

13:30

a a psychological idiosyncrasy it

13:32

was essential world you of the bolshevik party

13:35

the idea that they were always and everywhere surrounded

13:37

by enemies trying to beat down the gates

13:39

climb over the walls come up through the

13:41

sewers this is understandable

13:44

given that they had come from the revolutionary

13:46

underground

13:47

where people absolutely had been out to

13:49

get them

13:50

all the time they're not just

13:52

visible enemies like policemen gendarme

13:54

our soldiers

13:56

hidden enemies right in their own ranks

13:59

every

13:59

comrade at every party meeting

14:02

might in reality be an agent

14:05

of different

14:06

by an informer an agent provocateur

14:09

this isn't paranoid delusion

14:12

this was just a fact of daily life it

14:15

is an idol paranoia to suspect you're closest conrad

14:17

of secretly working against you in

14:19

fact in the job description of any

14:21

alert revolutionary

14:24

this culture paranoia grew proportionately

14:27

when the bolshevik seize power and became

14:29

the communist party

14:31

it was no longer about the police or

14:33

the ministry of the interior

14:35

what about entire nations and armies

14:37

and people's

14:38

all of them out to destroy soviet russia

14:40

and the revolution

14:42

the white armies were backed by an international gallery

14:44

of enemies france britain

14:47

germany the united states poland

14:49

and japan

14:50

it hardly matters that after historians got

14:52

the time to sift through the various government archives

14:55

that it became clear the international interventions

14:57

by these powers into russia during the civil war

14:59

the far less vast coordinated or committed

15:02

in the soviet leader suppose

15:04

the matter because in the heat of the civil war

15:07

they saw enemies everywhere because they

15:09

were enemies everywhere the

15:11

internal and external at home and abroad inside

15:14

outside above and below

15:16

the consequences of too much paranoia

15:18

paled in comparison to the consequences

15:20

of too little

15:23

it's also not like the nineteen

15:25

thirties were a time to let ones garden

15:29

now from our vantage point almost a hundred years

15:31

later we can see plainly that what about to happen

15:34

in the soviet union is a grotesque

15:37

a deadly exercise in creating absurd

15:39

fantasies that all participants recognized

15:42

as absurd fantasy

15:43

then pretend we're we're

15:46

we also know that internally the opposition

15:48

to stalin was hopelessly atomizer week and

15:50

inconsequential that

15:53

in the nineteen thirties the uss are was still

15:55

surrounded by enemies

15:56

the not you said come to power in germany mussolini

15:59

ruled it

15:59

the

16:00

in the forest the empire of japan

16:02

who had already don't russia a humiliating

16:05

defeat degeneration earlier

16:06

that aggressively expanding

16:09

meanwhile the lingering belief that the headquarters

16:11

of western capitalism in britain france

16:13

and the united states

16:14

the leaders of the international bourgeoisie were always

16:17

devising ways to undermine in and overthrow

16:19

the soviet union

16:21

was it beyond belief that right now at

16:23

this very moment any one of those

16:25

powers was suborning spies and saboteurs

16:27

inside the soviet union

16:29

that political opposition to stalin was ready to

16:31

accept aid from any power willing to give

16:34

wasn't crazy

16:36

are you had to do was look at the history the communist

16:38

party itself the bolsheviks

16:40

had after all pulled into finland station on

16:43

a train paid for by the kaiser

16:47

know whether he was working in the kremlin making

16:49

the official rounds through the soviet union or

16:51

relaxing and his beloved retreat on the black

16:54

sea stalin's mind always

16:56

returned from whatever project

16:58

he was working on to the larger problem

17:00

of all those enemies out there out to

17:02

get him

17:03

foreign powers like germany and japan passing

17:06

money in information to dissident political

17:08

leaders inside russia

17:09

the use that money and information to

17:11

turn workers and peasants against comrade stalin

17:14

and by extension the politburo

17:16

the central committee to communist party the soviet union

17:18

and the revolution as

17:20

his mind returned to this place

17:22

one face to out clearer than any other

17:25

one voice rose above the rest

17:27

moon pen would not stop

17:29

scribbling

17:33

the snaps on daddy like best the

17:36

man whose intellectual arrogance wrinkled twice as

17:38

hard because his intellectual superiority could

17:40

not be denied rocky

17:42

who embodied a totally legitimate

17:44

communist alternative to snow

17:47

this claim to being stoned true heir was

17:49

distressingly plausible

17:51

he had been a world famous political celebrity

17:54

when stalin was an anonymous functionary

17:57

it's safe to say that trotsky had lived rent free

17:59

and

17:59

the and head for twenty years the time

18:02

had only increased stalin's obsession

18:04

his fear and his hatred of truth

18:07

and it's why tragedies name will be everywhere

18:09

in nineteen thirty six ninety thirty seven

18:11

in nineteen thirty eight

18:13

every confession would include links to toronto

18:16

i met with trotskyite corresponded with trotsky

18:19

i'm a member of a group led by trotted

18:21

hockey tried to keep track

18:24

the would always come back to trotsky

18:27

as with all of stalin's paranoia he

18:30

was not wholly unjustified

18:33

all those people he had isolated and

18:35

ditched in the politburo quadrille was

18:37

anyone associated with the old workers in

18:39

the position or the left opposition are the

18:41

united opposition or the right deviation

18:43

ist all those guys had networks

18:46

of friends allies and supporters who'd

18:48

been pushed out into the political wilderness

18:50

where they nurse deep and better resentments

18:53

and plotted their comeback

18:54

all of them fully intended their time

18:57

in the wilderness to be merely temporary and

18:59

when they states they're great comeback it would

19:01

be to fulfill the dying words of lenin

19:04

get rid of stalin

19:07

the form of nineteen thirty two the secret police

19:09

uncovered a couple of long documents written by

19:12

an old bolshevik name marty meehan return

19:14

the first was called an appeal to all

19:17

members of the all union communist party

19:19

the other was a two hundred page book like called stalin

19:22

and the crisis of the proletarian dictatorship

19:25

britain who'd been an ally of the right

19:28

called for an end to force collectivization the

19:30

smelling of industrialization in the reinstatement

19:32

of all exile party members including

19:34

trotsky

19:36

the appeal provocatively called stalin

19:38

the grave digger of the revolution and

19:41

evil genius of the russian revolution and

19:43

stated bluntly stalin must

19:45

be removed by force though

19:49

those don't imagination was a fever swamp

19:51

of paranoia it's not like he was wrong

19:53

that lotta people would love to see him overthrown

19:56

lost in prison were executed

20:00

these threatening anti stone tracks and

20:02

to wide circulation among all flavors of

20:04

the opposition and when the author was

20:06

identified region himself was arrested and

20:08

sentenced to ten years in prison

20:10

the most troubling thing of all was not that somebody

20:12

had written all this that how many people had

20:14

reddit

20:15

how many people chose not to repeat it oh

20:19

and natural paranoia further grew

20:21

into unnatural proportions in december

20:24

nineteen thirty four when he was due to sudden boom

20:27

if you will recall windsor know vf was

20:29

ousted from all his party position to nineteen twenty

20:31

six leadership of the communist party in

20:33

leningrad was handed to a guy called sergei cure

20:37

i was widely popular inside the party

20:39

had a genial good nature and inability to

20:42

get along with everyone at a time when that wasn't

20:44

just out of fashion but potentially dangerous

20:47

the he could get along with anyone because

20:49

he got along with stalin

20:52

you're off was above all stalin loyalist and

20:54

probably the one person in the party stalin actually

20:56

considered a real personal

20:58

friend somebody he enjoyed hanging out with

21:01

on december first nineteen thirty four while cure off

21:03

was walking through the corridors and small me institute

21:06

still the headquarters of the revolution in leningrad

21:08

since the dramatic days of nineteen seventeen

21:11

a disgruntled former member the party came up

21:13

and shot him in the head the

21:16

assassin turned out to be a classic loan

21:19

and even under suggestive torture couldn't

21:21

make any convincing claims to being the trigger man

21:24

for some vast coordinated conspiracy all

21:27

the investigation it cure out assassination revealed

21:29

was that security around the small the institute was

21:31

like that a political opposition

21:33

to stalin existence there's

21:36

nothing really to connect the two this

21:39

conclusion was not entirely satisfactory to stalin

21:42

that was the conclusion even of the secret police

21:46

the secret police had been reorganized again

21:48

in july nineteen thirty four

21:50

that which had started as the checker and

21:52

then became the gp you

21:54

was no folded into a larger apparatus

21:56

of internal security com the people's commissariat

21:59

for internal affair

21:59

there's

22:00

no and by the russian acronym

22:02

the nkvd

22:04

the head of the nkvd was a

22:06

guy called kenreck you go to

22:09

the details of you go to his early career or

22:11

disputable but he joined the bolsheviks before

22:13

the october revolution and quickly found a home

22:15

in the checker

22:16

the rose to become it's deputy chairman and run day

22:18

to day operations after was reorganized

22:21

as the gp you

22:22

and he held that operational position for a decade

22:25

the gp you became the nkvd

22:27

in july nineteen thirty four

22:29

you gotta was named people's commissar

22:31

for internal affairs

22:33

giving him broad jurisdiction over both the regular

22:35

police and the secret police

22:37

which was now a huge network of agents

22:39

operating pretty much independently of all

22:41

other party and state organizations the

22:44

nkvd with above below and behind

22:46

you all the time and everyone knew

22:48

it

22:50

but while you go to was a careful political

22:52

survivor and had absolutely no

22:54

ethics to speak up he did

22:56

after all continue to hold his position as known

22:58

throughout faction after faction

23:01

he was not among those whose career had been

23:03

entirely made by stone

23:05

the was not a hundred percent stalin's man

23:08

and it was affect both of them were well aware of

23:12

meanwhile up through the ranks to the party

23:14

apparatus rose another man who was willing to be

23:16

far more accommodating of stalin's wishes

23:19

the take early

23:20

the wish to uncover the vast conspiracy

23:22

he knew existed this

23:25

is nikolai he adjusts he

23:28

just came from the lower classes he'd started

23:30

his life as taylor's assistant in a factory

23:32

worker he served two years in the

23:34

army in world war one joined the bolsheviks

23:36

and nineteen seventeen and then spent the civil war serving

23:39

in the red the the

23:41

nineteen twenties he bounced up the bronx about

23:43

the state and the party promoted

23:45

ever upward as people better than him more talented

23:48

than him and more independent fam or ousted

23:50

by stalin only

23:52

and nineteen thirty four years off was elected

23:54

to the central committee of the communist party

23:57

now unlike you go to your jaw was

23:59

the stalin's man he was one of storms favorite

24:02

and he was constantly in and out of the boss's

24:04

office and as i just said he

24:06

was more than willing to enable stalin's

24:09

most paranoid fantasies

24:11

the job harshly criticized the nkvd

24:13

his investigation of cure off murder for failing

24:15

to uncover a vast opposition network

24:17

that must have been behind the assassination

24:20

eventually stalin was himself convinced

24:22

up when he was already convinced

24:25

and at the end of nineteen thirty five reopen the cure

24:27

off case

24:28

the gona who knew which way the wind's blowing

24:31

ramped up arrest and investigations of this

24:33

mask trotskyite conspiracy well

24:36

aware that stalin had told us off to keep close

24:38

eye on the nkvd

24:40

they had better deliver what the boss wanted

24:44

and so did it in early nineteen

24:46

thirty six without anyone being fully

24:48

cognizant of what was happening either

24:50

the perpetrators nor the victims

24:52

the great purge began

24:55

the most infamous expression of the purge

24:57

would be the moscow show trials of nineteen

24:59

thirty six nineteen thirty seven in nineteen thirty

25:01

eight the show trials where

25:03

the mechanism by which stalin systematically

25:05

targeted and eliminated all the old

25:08

bolsheviks it was a mechanism

25:10

there had been first introduced with the trial of

25:12

the s r

25:13

and and refine during all those trials against

25:15

economic record in the late nineteen twenties

25:17

and early nineteen thirties

25:19

the method would be the same almost

25:22

no evidence would be needed

25:23

the show trials were first and foremost a show

25:26

and would wrestle largely on dramatic confessions

25:28

by the accused confessions

25:30

would be extracted by various threads and torture

25:32

and false promises

25:34

and which provided stalin with both public

25:36

propaganda

25:37

the personal satisfaction of watching his enemies

25:39

humiliated ashamed and

25:41

groveling

25:44

the first on the docket were is a know vs

25:46

and caminos

25:48

that's their political defeat and nineteen twenty seven

25:50

they had been kicked out of the party but then later

25:53

reinstated picked out again and and secretly

25:55

convicted of complicity in cure offs assassination

25:57

even though no evidence existed because ahead

25:59

the to do it

26:01

the nineteen thirty six they were hauled back to moscow

26:04

and subjected to extended interrogations

26:06

that broke them down mentally and physically

26:09

the summer nineteen thirty six they were ready to confessed

26:11

anything to make it also the

26:14

secure the deal stone personally promised they would

26:16

not be executed if they admitted to being co

26:18

ringleaders of a vast conspiracy organized

26:20

by trotsky they also promised

26:22

not to do anything to their families and

26:25

so

26:26

they confess

26:27

the first things they had nothing to do with in

26:31

august nineteen thirty six the first trial

26:33

began the know bf com

26:35

enough and fourteen other defendants admitted

26:37

to leading was officially dot be trotskyite

26:40

came in a fight the know v eight leftists

26:42

counter revolutionary block in

26:45

a pure looking display trumpeted for all the world

26:47

to see innovia cabinet

26:50

and the other leading lights of the communist party

26:52

step forward one by one to confess in the most

26:54

grovelling terms treason his

26:56

acts against the soviet union and the revolution

27:00

as soon as they were done confessing all sixteen were found

27:02

guilty and sentenced to death

27:05

now

27:06

the never intended to keep his word to his old comrades

27:09

on august twenty fifth nineteen thirty six you know bf

27:11

in canada for taken down to a prison basement

27:14

and unceremoniously shot

27:16

the oldest of the all bolsheviks were done to death

27:18

just like the romanov time

27:21

had come for the revolution to devour

27:23

the last of her children the

27:26

prepare this final revolutionary feast

27:28

stolen needed someone who did not harbor

27:30

any doubts or hesitations

27:33

that meant getting rid of your go

27:35

to

27:36

this is not to exonerate you go

27:38

to in any way he oversaw the nkvd

27:41

during a decade of mass arrest and imprisonment

27:43

and executions the was also a pioneer

27:46

in realizing you could you slave labor from

27:48

the go ox to help build russian infrastructure

27:51

the

27:52

he was resistant to the great purge

27:55

he had always doubted the existence of a

27:57

grand coordinated conspiracy sir

27:59

and tragedy

28:01

and in nineteen thirty six suggested they maybe not

28:03

go forward with anymore show trials because it was bad

28:05

for publicity on the world stage

28:08

these were doubt and hesitations someone

28:10

could not tolerate

28:11

though involved nineteen thirty six known wrote

28:13

a memo to the politburo that said

28:16

we consider it absolutely necessary and

28:18

urgent that conrad he's off

28:20

be appointed to head the people's commissariat

28:22

of internal affairs

28:24

you've gotta has obviously proved unequal

28:26

to the task of exposing the trotskyites

28:28

a know be i park the gp you

28:30

was four years late in this matter the

28:32

party heads and most of the nkvd agents

28:35

in the region are talking about this

28:38

the very next day you gotta was demoted to a minor

28:40

post in the government the nickel why

28:42

he is

28:43

the name people's commissar for internal

28:45

affairs

28:47

no under huge offs direction

28:49

second moscow trial was staged in january

28:51

nineteen thirty seven

28:52

this one also focused on a conspiracy allegedly

28:55

organized by trotsky the

28:58

second moscow trial was called the case

29:00

of the anti soviet trotskyist center

29:02

and featured seventeen more or bolshevik defendants

29:06

the most famous of them was carl radek the

29:08

steadfast communist internationalist and

29:10

revolutionary better in of poland and germany

29:12

and russia also among the accused

29:15

was european talk off who'd been named check

29:17

by lennon's testament is one of the up and coming

29:19

theoreticians of the communist party standing

29:22

beside them was also grigori so comic off

29:24

long time commissar finance the

29:27

charges were all absurd they

29:29

were leading members of a conspiracy organized

29:31

by trotsky and backed by nazi germany

29:34

to overthrow the u s s r thirteen

29:37

of them were sent to radek

29:39

was given only a term and labor camp for providing

29:42

the most convincing confession confirming

29:44

the great lie that there was not just in inner conspiracy

29:46

the huge network of sympathizers and fellow

29:49

travelers left be identified and

29:51

eliminated

29:52

the trial was also broadcast for the whole world

29:54

to see and hear shocking confessions

29:57

of the most incredible crimes by the least likely

29:59

sauce

30:00

it was unbelievable

30:02

as well it should have been

30:06

adjacent to the attack on the all party leadership

30:08

stone also targeted the upper rungs of the red

30:11

army and navy the senior military

30:13

staff was full of heroes of the civil war who

30:15

commanded respect influence in authority

30:17

independent of

30:19

and who by the very nature of the military hierarchy

30:22

commanded armies and navy's that might be

30:24

turned against on

30:26

in nineteen thirty seven the nkvd fabricated

30:29

a right wing trotskyist military conspiracy

30:32

literally fabricated as and forged documents

30:34

themselves and tortured junior officers

30:36

into making incredible confessions implicating

30:39

the most decorated officers in the red army

30:41

we're now used to being spies and saboteurs

30:44

working for the nazis but

30:47

the trial with the military officers would not

30:49

be one of the show trials no

30:51

one seems to have understood that dispatching party

30:53

flax with one thing

30:54

the tearing down military heroes was another might

30:57

not go over well publicly

30:59

though in june nineteen thirty seven

31:02

they held secret trial then quickly

31:04

and away from the spotlight the

31:06

topic list were three of the five marshals

31:08

of the soviet union the senior most leaders

31:10

of the military elevated to those positions because

31:13

they had one the civil war they

31:15

were all found guilty of heinous acts of treason

31:18

and executed right then and their

31:21

this trial was the beginning of a massive subsequent

31:23

perjure the red army

31:24

almost the entire uppermost rung of the officer corps

31:26

was dispatched

31:28

the and nineteen thirty eight about five

31:30

percent of the total officer corps had been purged

31:32

including most of the senior commanders

31:35

though

31:36

heading into world war two

31:37

all the best and brightest and most experience

31:40

commanders the red army hand

31:43

which i can tell you had the senior

31:45

leadership of the nazi party absolutely

31:47

giddy with the white

31:51

down a social wrong from all those elite leaders

31:53

the great purge spread out into the middle strata

31:55

of soviet society most infamously

31:58

devouring the cultural intelligentsia

32:01

during these years thousands of writers musicians

32:03

scientists poets linguists philosophers

32:05

playwright movie directors were arrested

32:08

in prison sent to labor camps or outright executed

32:11

universities and research department and publishing

32:13

houses and theaters and music companies

32:16

the are placed under constant surveillance by the nkvd

32:19

the slightest paying of disloyalty your independent

32:21

thought

32:22

married in a knock on door in the middle of the night

32:25

that it was all part of stones broader cultural

32:27

campaign to make everything and everyone

32:30

inform to stall and vision of

32:32

communist society during

32:34

the same period those who confirmed system and vision

32:37

of society were promoting axed until

32:40

he changed his mind and yesterday celebrated

32:43

brighter became today sinister villain

32:45

and tomorrow's erased memory

32:49

the great purge was never aimed solely

32:51

at senior officials and educated

32:53

elite

32:54

it also targeted the general population

32:57

on july second nineteen thirty seven stolen

32:59

issued top secret orders to regional leaders

33:02

of the party and the nkvd they

33:04

were told to immediately produce a list of all cool

33:06

lox and criminals in their districts

33:08

those named were to be rounded up and either deported

33:11

or executed depending on the circumstances

33:14

as we discussed last i'm most of the real

33:16

cool ox had been rounded up and deported years

33:18

earlier and so that left the nkvd

33:21

to uncover new kulaks wherever

33:24

and however they could and

33:26

failure to produce a convincing and long

33:28

enough must that when that list

33:30

was produced your name would probably

33:32

be on it

33:34

the local unit to the nkvd having

33:36

quotas to hit

33:37

rounded up people on the slightest pretense

33:40

torture them into confessing and implicating others

33:42

and then rounding up those named and doing

33:44

the same thing all over again

33:47

in this way hundreds of thousands of people

33:49

were accused of various political crimes including

33:51

old favorites like economic sabotage

33:53

wracking

33:54

spying for foreign powers are organizing

33:56

interactions among the peasant and the workers

33:59

people would

33:59

and be rounded up tortured and sign confessions

34:02

that would be passed over to little nkvd tribunals

34:05

who would review and stamp paperwork

34:07

they barely glanced at

34:09

there were only ever two sentences

34:11

deportation to the ghoul logs or immediate

34:13

execution

34:15

the purge fell hard on the general

34:17

population but it felt disproportionately

34:20

hard on non russian nationalities inside

34:22

the soviet union

34:23

holes ukrainians fans latvians

34:25

whoever

34:27

national minorities comprised thirty six

34:29

percent of the victims had the great purge despite being

34:31

only a fraction of soviet union's total population

34:34

and into of death were handed down and about seventy

34:36

five percent of cases involving minority

34:38

nationalities and only fifty percent

34:40

of those involving russians

34:42

the per to the polls was particularly intensive

34:45

they accounted for twelve and have percent of everyone

34:48

who was killed that

34:50

is groups were all targeted because they came from areas

34:52

on the border with hostile powers and

34:54

might be in league with those asked

34:56

so non russians were treated to especially harsh

34:59

and unforgiving treatment because they

35:01

were plausibly suspected of opposing

35:03

the russian com yes the

35:05

i wonder why

35:08

after nearly two year reign of terror

35:10

that blanketed every level soviet society

35:13

stalin delivered his grand finale in march

35:15

nineteen thirty eight

35:16

it was meant to put the final nail in the final

35:19

coffin of all opposition they

35:22

orchestrated the third of the great moscow

35:24

show trials this one targeting all

35:26

the remaining or bolsheviks the special

35:28

emphasis on all the right deviation ist

35:31

since most of the left had already been purged

35:33

though this meant the group who had helped stolen

35:36

run the u s s r in the late nineteen twenties

35:38

nikolai bukharin alex a recall christian

35:41

recast ski nikolai christian school for

35:44

them stolen saved his most absurd

35:46

accusations

35:48

beginning with the crazy charge that

35:50

the current in the others had plotted to assassinate

35:52

lenin and stalin back nineteen eighty

35:55

and ending with their alleged plot to

35:57

partition the u s s r and hand over all

35:59

it's tara

35:59

these to germany japan and great britain

36:03

this is all clearly insane

36:05

and on the first day of the trail krasinski repudiated

36:08

his written confession and pleaded not guilty

36:10

to autonomous he recanted

36:13

his recantation the next day after

36:15

being encouraged to confess with such persuasion

36:17

that he dislocated his shoulder booker

36:20

and held out against confessing for the better part

36:22

of three months finally the

36:24

combination of the ongoing tortures interrogation

36:27

and direct threat to his wife and son

36:30

the war him down the

36:32

even still when he stood up and confessed at his trial

36:34

it was only to vague crimes of opposition

36:37

the never acknowledged the single one of the specific charges

36:39

against him not that

36:41

it matters

36:42

they were all found guilty

36:44

current himself was shot a march the fifteenth

36:46

nineteen thirty eight

36:50

with this one round of confessions and executions

36:53

pretty much the entire original leadership

36:55

of the bolshevik party had now been liquidated the

36:57

people who carried the party into the october revolution

37:00

through the civil war and all through the nineteen twenties

37:03

anyone that lennon would have recognized as

37:05

a colleague and collaborator and conrad

37:07

now dead

37:09

the original members of the first politburo sunovia

37:12

cabinet boob not to call mccaffrey

37:14

coffin to current

37:16

russia

37:17

only macau tomsk he avoided execution by

37:19

committing suicide nineteen thirty six expanding

37:23

the scope beyond just the politburo practically every

37:25

member of the original central committee who would run

37:27

the party in the teens and twenties was

37:29

now gone their death date

37:31

read like a roster the leaders of the french revolution

37:34

to date of death no matter the year

37:36

their birth there's always dash

37:38

seventeen ninety three and seventeen ninety

37:40

four the russian equivalent

37:42

of this is nash nineteen thirty six ass

37:44

nineteen thirty seven a dash nineteen thirty eight

37:47

everywhere you look

37:49

ninety thirty six as nineteen

37:51

thirty seven asked nineteen thirty eight

37:54

though in fairness it wasn't all of them some

37:57

of them made it to dash nineteen thirty nine and dash

37:59

nineteen four radek

38:01

was executed in a labor camp in nineteen thirty nine

38:04

like a recap and christian coffee managed to make

38:06

to nineteen forty one before they were hauled out and shot

38:09

the and the men and women who had made

38:12

the revolution of october devoured

38:14

not by the revolution

38:15

my

38:17

the rewrote all the history books to make october

38:19

the work of two men and two men only

38:21

lennon the great infallible leader

38:23

install and his great and infallible

38:26

air

38:29

then years earlier trotsky denounced aren't actions

38:31

as the onset of a russian dormitory

38:33

the cynical and conservative retreat from the revolution

38:37

in hindsight we can see no interest settlements

38:39

in nineteen twenty seven

38:40

revolution in many ways had barely begun

38:43

collectivization the five year plan and now the great

38:45

purge this is not the stuff attorney

38:47

door

38:48

the most previously radical days of the jacobin

38:50

reign of terror stalin

38:53

was at least a passing student of revolutionary

38:55

history

38:56

and he knew that after the terror must

38:58

com a term he door

39:00

and so he nineteen thirty eight he abruptly

39:03

shifted gears again

39:05

rather than go down like robespierre no

39:07

and decided to be the author of his own terminal

39:10

the play both parents in this unfolding

39:12

historical drama

39:13

then why not

39:14

not like anything matter like

39:16

anyone could though

39:19

one of the defendants at the third and final show

39:21

trial none other than gingrich you

39:23

go to

39:24

charge now with unjustly orchestrating a campaign

39:27

of indiscriminate terror presiding

39:29

over the imprisonment and murder of thousands of

39:31

innocent people for shame for shame

39:34

comrade stalin is ashamed

39:37

go to was found guilty and executed in march nineteen

39:39

thirty eight

39:42

but sending you go out as a sacrificial

39:44

offering to the gods of derby door

39:46

there's not enough

39:47

in the summer of nineteen thirty eight after the

39:50

final show trial alan turned

39:52

on nikolai issue the amount

39:54

of the loop and trashed him and party meetings which

39:57

was clear precursor to expulsion

39:59

as any

39:59

close to start a new

40:01

and you don't with close to stone the

40:04

got himself resigned his head of the nkvd

40:06

in november nineteen thirty eight but this did

40:08

not save him he was arrested

40:11

in april nineteen thirty nine and accuser quote

40:13

massive unfounded arrests of

40:15

completely innocent persons

40:18

the story was now going to be that you gotta and

40:20

then huge off had gone completely rogue misleading

40:23

comrade stalin and the other party leaders and

40:25

building a giant machine of death to satisfy

40:27

only their own sadistic pleasure

40:30

i now snow and had issued an order suspending

40:32

all the death sentences

40:34

and winding down mass repression and

40:36

the great purge

40:38

though stolen got to have his cake and eat it

40:40

too

40:41

the directed a campaign of mass murder to secure

40:43

his power position for ever

40:45

then

40:46

the credit for ending it

40:48

there's off himself was shot on february second

40:51

nineteen forty

40:52

in an execution room of his own special

40:54

design

40:56

his replacement his head of the nkvd was

40:58

like stone a georgian

40:59

george by the name of the bronte barrier

41:03

the kind generous and compassionate so

41:05

the ascension of barrier which signal the arrival

41:08

the kinder and gentler secret police

41:11

it would be no more range of terror in the soviet

41:13

union ever again

41:16

after all this the great bogeyman of stalin's

41:18

imagination was still out there

41:21

trotsky we're still talking still

41:23

scribbling with his pen he

41:25

been evicted from france and nineteen thirty six

41:28

and proceeded to live for a time in norway

41:30

once he was evicted from norway he was

41:32

invited to come live in mexico my left

41:34

wing president was are a cardinal now

41:37

we're back to episode nine point twenty seven

41:39

of the mexican revolution rocky

41:42

lived in mexico for the final four years of

41:44

his only

41:44

continuing to right

41:46

in in his own special way continuing

41:48

to alienate and ostracize anybody

41:51

who might support him i'm actually

41:53

kind of money that stalin was obsessed with the idea

41:55

that trotsky was organizing a vast coordinated conspiracy

41:58

because anyone who got close to

41:59

the

42:00

the eventually pushed away

42:03

i tried to do believe to his very last

42:05

breath the his present condition of exile

42:08

was exactly like the exile he had endured

42:10

before nineteen seventeen that

42:12

eventually his story would end

42:14

with a triumphant return to russia where

42:16

he would reclaim the mantle as lennon's

42:18

air that is not

42:20

how the story of trotskyists it

42:23

ends instead with an ice axe to back of the head

42:25

on august twenty first nineteen forty

42:28

the russian revolution was over

42:30

stalin had one

42:34

over the course of the great purge from nineteen

42:36

thirty six nineteen thirty eight the total estimate

42:39

of arrested was somewhere between one point five

42:41

and two point five million people

42:43

the ghoul logs now burst with prisoners

42:45

who were put to work is de facto slaves

42:48

the soviet union's ongoing projects

42:50

of industrialization and modernization the

42:53

total executions were somewhere in the neighborhood of

42:55

seven hundred thousand give or take

42:57

a hundred thousand here and there if

43:00

you include all those who subsequently died in the

43:02

camps thanks to the brutal conditions the

43:04

total death toll of the great purges roundabout

43:06

a million many

43:08

families followed the official he accused after

43:10

their death oh and promised not

43:13

to harm the family to the bolsheviks if they can

43:15

fast but he broke those promises

43:17

hammond have sons were executed so was

43:19

his first wife org

43:20

he was executed nineteen forty one along with

43:23

one hundred and sixty other prominent political prisoners

43:25

including the great s our leader maria

43:27

spirit on of

43:29

current wife was sent to a labor camp but

43:31

she survived

43:33

and saw her husband rehabilitated a half century

43:35

later

43:36

but most families were not rounded up

43:38

they just endure the pain and trauma of having

43:41

loved ones disappear one day typically

43:43

the families of those put to death

43:46

were told their loved ones had been sentenced to ten

43:48

years in a prison camp but they were forbidden

43:50

to write home or communicate in any way

43:53

the news ten year period to lapsed at the end

43:55

of world war two and nineteen forty six and

43:57

forty seven forty eight

43:58

the families were told

43:59

the relatives had died in prison

44:03

if we pull back and look at the big picture

44:06

the loss of life and russia and the soviet

44:08

union during this revolutionary period is

44:10

staggering they're not even

44:12

counting the two million soldiers and civilians

44:15

who died in the midst of world war one robbie

44:17

talking about a million or a million and a half people

44:19

killed during the russian civil war five

44:22

million who died and the famine of the early nineteen

44:24

twenties the ten million who died in the

44:26

famine at the early nineteen thirties

44:28

and here we've got another million or so killed in this

44:30

great purge

44:32

the euro rough estimates the pushes

44:34

the number of what we call excess deaths

44:36

stemming from the revolution in the civil war

44:39

and every other thing happened most

44:41

to something like twenty million and

44:43

this is all leading into the catastrophic disasters

44:45

of world war two this estimated to have killed twenty

44:48

seven million people i can't

44:50

even begin to fathom the trauma adored by

44:52

someone who's born in like nineteen hundred

44:54

and who managed to live to the age of fifty come

44:57

of age in the revolution of nineteen o five and

44:59

it's repressive aftermath and in world

45:01

war one and and the revolution in the civil war

45:03

and collectivization in the purges and then world

45:05

war two this just

45:08

the god

45:09

terrific

45:11

there are hard times in history

45:13

then there are

45:14

hard times in history

45:17

the

45:17

hard times

45:21

so

45:22

let us return out to the beginning and

45:24

take stock of where we stand

45:26

what can we make a the russian revolution

45:28

what can we make of a long arc from marks

45:30

the stalin

45:31

and in theory the bolshevik party and subsequently

45:34

the communist party there's the party

45:36

the proletariat

45:37

that is where they came from it's who they were

45:39

meant to represent the communists

45:42

were a manifestation of industrial capitalism

45:45

the answer to it horrors and degradations and

45:47

exploitation

45:49

opening chapter two the communist manifesto

45:51

marx and engels route in what relation

45:53

to the communists stand to the proletarians as a

45:55

whole

45:56

the com years cannot form separate party opposed

45:58

to the other working class party

46:00

they have no interest separate and

46:02

apart from those of the proletariat his home

46:05

they do not set up any sectarian principles of around

46:07

by which to shape and mode the proletarian movement

46:11

the now we're gonna want to point out the obvious here but

46:13

i think that the russian communist party has strayed quite

46:16

a bit in the interval between marxist

46:18

on the communist absolutely

46:20

opposed other working class parties

46:22

they did have interest separate and apart from those

46:24

as the proletariat as a whole they absolutely

46:27

developed sectarian principles of their own which they

46:29

used to shape and mold the proletarian movement

46:33

i think that the critics of the russian

46:35

communists

46:36

inside and outside the party inside

46:38

and outside the soviet union have a fair point here

46:41

the inner party the central committee and the politburo

46:44

the got themselves off from that banks no

46:46

matter how many times the central committee in the politburo

46:48

declared that the communist party was identical

46:50

with the proletariat

46:52

very clear they were not

46:54

they developed into a run of the mill ruling

46:56

click with their own interests

46:58

this had been clear since at least nineteen eighteen the

47:01

whatever else the communist party was in the soviet

47:03

union were

47:04

it was not by and for the workers

47:07

the soviets had long ago been co opted in were

47:09

controlled by political appointees representing

47:11

the party interests

47:13

donna to workers

47:15

spontaneous participation on the workers it

47:17

was over before the bullet holes were even patched

47:19

up in the winter palace right across

47:21

that rebellion happen swear there was a whole workers

47:23

opposition movement inside the party and

47:26

what happened to those who tried to give voice to the workers

47:29

they were repressed expelled and

47:31

ultimately liquidated once and for all the great purge

47:35

no in terms of the little list of objectives

47:38

at marx and engels put in the communist manifesto

47:40

admittedly the russian communist it pretty well

47:43

the about private property they set up universal

47:45

free education they centralized credit communications

47:48

and transportation in the hands of the state

47:51

marx and engels also explicitly called

47:53

for the quote

47:54

establishment of industrial armies

47:56

especially for agriculture which

47:59

stolen could

47:59

do any time he wanted to justify collectivization

48:04

and when they got down to brass tacks of what communism

48:06

meant marx and engels wrote the

48:09

distinguishing feature of communism is not the abolition

48:11

of property generally but the abolition

48:13

of bourgeois property

48:15

or to my private property is the final

48:17

and most complete expression of the system up producing

48:20

an appropriate products

48:21

that is based on class antagonisms

48:23

the exploitation of the many by

48:26

the feel

48:28

the obviously the russian communist exceeded

48:30

in eliminating bourgeois property

48:32

but i am among those who believes that the elimination

48:35

of such property was never meant to be an end

48:37

and to it's

48:39

why they made it clear that they wanted to abolish the

48:41

system of exploitation of

48:43

the many by the feel there in

48:45

the workplace or in the state or in the family

48:48

the dictatorship the proletariat so

48:50

often invoked it's often misunderstood and

48:53

to them simply the first moment in history when the many

48:55

would rule the many while

48:58

property and capitalist exploitation needed to

49:00

go because it was illegal and economic system

49:02

that locked into places system of the few

49:04

ruling the many for their own benefit and

49:08

unfortunately again to look at the system that want

49:10

a prevailing in russia first under lenin and

49:12

stalin that a few did

49:14

not continue to rule the many

49:17

they abolish bourgeois property sure

49:19

that was their dictatorship of the proletariat the

49:21

rule the many over the money or

49:23

was it simply a dictatorship it's

49:27

impossible to look at the soviet union as it was

49:29

ultimately constituted under stalin the

49:31

not recognize that the revolutionary dream

49:33

of a world free of to radically exploitive

49:36

ruling class composed of a tiny fraction

49:38

of society ruling over everybody else

49:40

had gone unfulfilled

49:43

it is a dream that remains on for sale

49:45

still live in a world in search of an answer to the

49:47

conundrum posed by bucharest liberty

49:50

without socialism is privilege and

49:52

injustice socialism

49:55

without liberty slavery

49:57

and brutality

50:01

the that it

50:03

as far as the revolution's podcast goes

50:05

this will be my final narrative episode

50:08

the last time i'll tell you about the who and the what

50:10

in the when and aware of revolutionary history

50:13

the little why and how thrown in for

50:15

good measure

50:17

my my account which is probably not exactly

50:19

right

50:20

i've written and edited and recorded

50:22

three hundred and twenty of these narrative episodes

50:25

from the kingdoms of charles stewart

50:28

it's or old man does

50:31

stalin's great purge i've written somewhere

50:33

in the neighborhood of one point five million words

50:35

give words take i've enjoyed writing

50:37

and reading and sharing every one of those words

50:40

knowing news revolutionary stories has been my life

50:42

for nine years the story

50:44

is now over and

50:46

the podcast isn't over and when we come

50:48

back in a few months i'll do my wrap up episodes

50:51

but those are going to be essays that are reflective

50:53

and thematic not narrative the

50:55

story is over

50:57

this is the final chapter even

51:01

on the podcast is going to and i'm not

51:03

going anywhere

51:04

and you'll notice that published right alongside

51:07

this episode is some information about a book tour

51:09

and speaking engagements that will start up in september

51:11

and october

51:13

the to work that will run concurrently with the last

51:15

run of episodes

51:17

and after that

51:18

just more podcast more books

51:20

more of whatever else i happened to dream up

51:23

and i still got a lotta dreams left that's

51:27

the tenth and final season of

51:29

the revolution's podcast is now done

51:32

the russian revolution

51:33

oh one hundred and three episodes

51:36

of it

51:37

however

51:38

and i'll see you

51:39

the others