Dizzy With Success: Part 1 (of 2)

"You must assume your duties with a feeling of the strictest Party responsibility, without whimpering, without any rotten liberalism. Throw your bourgeois humanitarianism out of the window and act like Bolsheviks worthy of Comrade Stalin. Beat down the kulak agent wherever he raises his head. It's war- it's them or us! The last decayed remnant of capitalist farming must be wiped out at any cost!...Your job is to get the grain at any price. Pump it out of them, wherever it is hidden...Don't be afraid of taking extreme measures. The Party stands four-square behind you. Comrade Stalin expects it of you. It's a life-and-death struggle; better to do too much than not enough...This is no time for squeamishness or rotten sentimentality."

Unfortunately for Comrade Stalin, these "extreme measures" led to a massive decline in productivity- the exact opposite of what he had hoped for. Peasants were rebelling all over the country, production was falling, and Soviet power- in particular his own authority- was being seriously challenged. While he was still determined to crush the peasantry and force his collectivisation down their throats, he realised that he first had to make a tactical retreat. This is the context of Dizzy With Success.

Bibliography:
R. Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment, (London, 1992)
R. Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow, (London, 1986)
http://www.marx2mao.org/Stalin/DS30.html

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