Dizzy With Success: Part 2 (of 2)
Dizzy With Success began by trumpeting the success of the collectivization- a complete distortion of the truth. "The Soviet government's successes in the sphere of the collective-farm movement are now being spoken of by every one. Even our enemies are forced to admit that the successes are substantial. And they really are very great. It is a fact that by February 20 of this year [1930] 50% of the peasant farms throughout the USSR had been collectivised. That means that by February 20, 1930, we had over-fulfilled the five-year plan of collectivisation by more than 100%...What does all this show? That a radical turn of the countryside towards socialism may be considered as already achieved.
Stalin then goes on to emphasise the "supreme importance" of this historical triumph, before also noting some negative consequences. "But successes have their seamy side, especially when they are attained with comparative 'ease'- 'unexpectedly,' so to speak. Such successes sometimes induce a spirit of vanity and conceit: 'We can achieve anything!' 'There's nothing we can't do!' People not infrequently become intoxicated by such successes; they become dizzy with success, lose all sense of proportion and the capacity to understand realities; they show a tendency to overrate their own strength and to underrate the strength of the enemy; adventurist attempts are made to solve all questions of socialist construction 'in a trice.'"
So Stalin has now blamed his own idea of crash collectivisation- his own desire to do everything "in a trice"- on certain "people" imbued with "a spirit of vanity and conceit." This is a lie. He then adds to this lie by promising to punish those responsible.
"Hence the Party's task is: to wage a determined struggle against these sentiments, which are dangerous and harmful to our cause, and to drive them out of the Party. It cannot be said that these dangerous and harmful sentiments are at all widespread in the ranks of our Party. But they do exist in our Party, and there are no grounds for asserting that they will not become stronger. And if they should be allowed free scope, then there can be no doubt that the collective-farm movement will be considerably weakened and the danger of its breaking down may become a reality. Hence the task of our press is: systematically to denounce these and similar anti-Leninist sentiments."
After blaming his own catastrophic lack of planning on others, and after declaring his plans to punish "these dangerous and harmful" people, Stalin now tells the biggest lie of all. He declares his opposition to the use of terror, which, as we have seen with the Khatayevich quote, was the very essence of his policy. Furthermore, he also declares his opposition to rigid centralisation- again a lie, as this was another policy dear to Stalin's heart.
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