In the early years of communism in Russia there were genuinely altruistic people, even in their KGB (secret service). But within it all there was a vindictive centre. I'm just realising where this came from and from how far back.
After reading the biography of a vindictive American President, Nixon, I now find myself with Francis Wheen's biography, "Karl Marx" (1999, Fourth Estate) on my Christmas reading list. Reading about two such personalities in a row, despite the quality of the writing, is not comfortable. The savagery with which Marx and Engels attacked and then ostracised any individuals within the many associations and choral societies (! -- named such to avoid police investigation) gives a clue as to the culture that simmered within the communist movement. It is no wonder therefore that a century later the USSR would find themselves with a dictator who took thousands of individuals away from their families in the middle of the night and shot them, and a further 6 million who were consigned to the labour camps in Siberia where they died. Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
