DOWNLOAD THE HISTORICAL COMPONENT ON THE TCHE-KA TERROR
APPROXIMATELY 1,700,000 VICTIMS MAINLY WORKERS AND PEASANTS
Lenin , this historical icon whose centenary of disappearance irreverently invites us to contemplate the shadows of his reign in new light. If Lenin's faithful disciples sometimes cling with the fervor of priests to a saint, we cannot ignore that their passionate sacralization sometimes resembles a cult of fools more than a nuanced understanding of his heritage. Of course, it is easy to fall into veneration or outright condemnation, but this forgets that history, like a good novel, is rich in shades of gray.
Historical events like the Russian Revolution are both fertile ground for dark humor and a wealth of lessons. Between academic debates and jokes in the shadow of the sickle and hammer, it is essential to maintain a critical mind and a smile. After all, remaking the world is serious work, but who knows better than your devoted JEAN GILLOT that we can mix laughter and reflection? On this, comrades of time and spirit, may history continue to inspire us, perhaps with fewer gulags and more gags!
HUMOR BREAK AND CUP OF COFFEE
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LET'S BECOME SERIOUS AGAIN...
The purpose of this brief is not to provide an exhaustive comprehensive review, but rather to encourage our subscribers to explore beyond the two works we have mentioned. It is not our intention to replace the work of historians. However, we claim the right to express our perspectives according to a proletarian vision.
In this year marking the centenary of Lenin's death, we would like above all to highlight a maxim that is both scathing and full of wisdom: only imbeciles, priests and followers of the Trotsko-Stalino-Maoist sects refuse to change their minds. .
This ability to evolve is essential because, as long-time labor activists, we must recognize that some of us were once captivated by the Trotskyist vision of the October Revolution of 1917. It was described to us as a first attempt of transition to socialism, supposedly 'betrayed' by Stalin alone, an idea anchored lastingly around Leon Trotsky 's book entitled " The Revolution Betrayed".
However, today, with a certain renewed humility in the face of historical knowledge, we admit that our previous understandings must be put into perspective. The recently opened Russian archives and the most recent historical research suggest that Stalinism already found part of its origins in the Jacobinism of Lenin. Although we are not professional historians, but committed and concerned activists, we find ourselves confronted with the repercussions of the Stalinist tragedy: the challenge is the reconstruction of communist hope in the light of uncompromising historical research.
To our almost five thousand most fervent subscribers, we therefore recommend the attentive and critical reading of "The Terror under Lenin" by Jacques Baynac, as well as the writings of Étienne Lesloug on the repression in Kronstadt, which will complete our re-examination of the Leninist-Trotskyist doxa, the latter having made a notable appearance in our previous publications: [CLICK ON THIS LINK]
Presentation of the book by Jacques BAYNAC
In 1975, Jacques Baynac , historian and councilist communist, had highlighted the authoritarian and oppressive aspects of the 1917 state apparatus in his pioneering book "The Terror under Lenin". Nearly half a century later, L'Échappée editions have opted to republish this writing in 2024, thus marking the centenary of Lenin's death. Faced with an attempt at historical revision and a possible rehabilitation of Lenin, it becomes crucial to re-examine the origins of the authoritarian regime that he established, notably with the creation of the Cheka in December 1917. This secret police, which would later become the NKVD and overseeing the infamous Gulag camps, embodied the oppressive side of the Bolshevik government. The new, expanded edition of "The Terror Under Lenin" includes a series of revealing documents, shedding an uncompromising light on Lenin's system of governance, synonymous with terror. Texts come from both official sources and critics of the Soviet period, such as W. Woïtinsky and Martov, as well as posthumous writings by Alexandre Skirda analyzing counter-terror and other authors such as Raymond Duguet and Michel Heller. Of particular interest in this edition is the inclusion of a 1922 critical study entitled "The Repression of Anarchism in Soviet Russia", written by exiled Russian anarchists and published in 1923, making it a vital historical account to understand the dynamics of the Russian Revolution.
We also recommend reading Kronstadt 1921 MULTI-VOICE CHRONICLE OF THE KRONSTADT REVOLT 1921 which is a polyphonic account of the sailors' uprising and its crushing: The debate surrounding the violent suppression of the sailors' uprising in the advanced port of Petrograd in March 1921 has agitated the Leninists and the various currents of the workers' movement for a hundred years. This event was the "bloody twilight of the Soviets", while the former supported the imperative need for the Bolsheviks to neutralize the fortress, while admitting, for some, the partial legitimacy of the demands and the honesty of the insurgents. Etienne Lesourd took the initiative of confronting and merging the writings of different sides – taking care, of course, to correct the errors or deceptions present in these accounts. In sympathy with the rebels, the publisher seeks to achieve a form of objectivity, while recognizing that it will not achieve total neutrality...
In conclusion: PLATEFORMEJAUNE strives to carry out a program to prevent an nth betrayed socialist revolution...
It should be noted that we remain attached to the necessary dictatorship of the proletariat, and we do not exclude the use of revolutionary violence against the predictable and probable bourgeois reaction. However, the use of revolutionary violence is a constraint in a transitional period of struggle against the forces of reaction. It can in no way serve as a pretext to stifle the plurality of different tendencies of the communist and anarchist movement, and stifle freedom of speech within the workers' movement.
Our criticism clearly concerns what was implemented by Lenin, rallied by the young Trotsky: the massive repression of the working and peasant class, but also of all left-wing oppositional tendencies, including the anarchists. We also criticize the economic project carried by Lenin which took German state capitalism as a model.
Today, we cannot ignore our deplorable exclusion by Chekists during the interprofessional general assembly of the 20th arrondissement last year during the fight against pension reform, because we had then expressed opposition to the reformist orientation in a discussion group. We might think that in a revolutionary context, the same people who talk about "workers' democracy" would probably not hesitate to have us shot...
/* EXPULSION OF PLATEFORMEJAUNE FROM THE INTER PROFESSIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MÉNILMONTANT 75020 CLICK ON THE LINK:
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Taking stock, we have chosen to amend our platform where we specify our vision of communism, which is intended to be a historic movement towards the abolition of all forms of relations of exploitation and political domination, with security mechanisms: the horizontal organization of power in committees with executive delegates controlled by the base, by the imperative mandate and the permanent revocability of the delegates. In our political platform, we alert our proletarian brothers that the counter-revolution can also come from our own ranks, because the “Chekist”, Jacobin and bourgeois spirit is still very much alive and constitutes a mortal danger for the success of a social revolution. The dictatorship of the proletariat must be directed against the exploiters and must not be confused with the dictatorship of a small Chekist bureaucracy originating and very often directed by non-proletarian petty-bourgeois elements who advance in masks: this is what we can call the fifth column of the labor movement.
EXTRACT FROM THE “TERROR UNDER LENIN” ON THE MASSACRE OF THE ASTRAKHAN WORKERS ...AND YES IT WAS NOT ONLY CRONSTADT...
The massacre of the Astrakhan workers refers to a violent episode of the Russian Revolution, which took place in the city of Astrakhan, located in southern Russia on the banks of the Volga. This event took place in March 1919, during the Russian Civil War. In Astrakhan, tension erupted when workers and sailors went on strike to protest harsh living conditions and the compulsory labor decree established by the Bolshevik government. The workers demanded better food rations, an end to the detention of people without trial, and a change in the army's mobilization policy.
Chekist armed forces opened fire on strikers and demonstrators, and it was reported that many workers were killed or drowned in the Volga River after being thrown from barges. This bloody episode is representative of the brutal repression to which opponents of the Bolsheviks were victims during the civil war. Censorship and political repression prevented information about the massacre from being widely known at the time, and it remains less well known than other atrocities of the period.
LENIN THE ZEAL LEADER OF THE VETCHEKA....
According to this extract Lenin was a supporter of a personal dictatorship, and therefore theorized the personality cult of Stalin and all the megalomaniac tyrants who followed...
SOME EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK ON CRONSTADT
TO COMRADE WORKERS AND PEASANTS... "Now it is TROTSKY, this criminal, who is throwing our sons and your children at us"
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