Only yesterday I mentioned my second article (from February 2008) on this blog; it was the first part of a piece about the NKVD, the Stalinist instrument of repression, that I called "Stalin's SS."
The second part of the piece included a section about the NKVD's involvement in the Spanish Civil War, 1935 - 1939, and its brutal suppression (under command of Alexander Orlov) of POUM the Trotskyite organisation that fought the fascists, but did not subscribe to Stalin's idea of communism.
And tonight I watched a Ken Loach film, "Land and Freedom" which told the story of an idealistic British volunteer who fought with a POUM unit. The film shows quite clearly how the official republican side suppressed popular movements like POUM - obviously under Soviet direction.
The old joke runs "A cynic is what an idealist calls a realist." Stalin was indeed a realist - terrifyingly so.
Until the next time.
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