STALIN'S SECRET POGROM
If you are in the mood for some egregious propaganda of the Cold-War
variety, then a 530 page book entitled Stalin's Secret Pogrom [The
Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-fascist Committee] edited by
Rubenstein and Naumov [2001] could pique your interest. After reading
the entire work, it is easy to conclude the book is little more than an
anti-Soviet, anti-Stalin hatchet job masquerading as objective
scholarship in which omissions are of far greater import than
inclusions. Even the title is a blatant lie since one need only read
the contents, put out by bourgeois propagandists themselves no less, to
see that the defendants were put on trial for, among other things,
slanderously accusing the Soviet government of practicing Anti-Semitism.
It was not a trial or pogrom against Jews for being Jews; it was a
trial of Zionist Jews who accused the Soviet government, among other
things, of being Anti-Semitic. The Soviet government was attempting to
punish Anti-Semitism and unfounded accusations of same, not promote it.
The deceptive aspect of the title is also evident in the fact that
Stalin is barely mentioned throughout the entire text. There is an
implicit, but unproven assumption, that Stalin is behind the curtains
somewhere pulling strings when there is no evidence of same and he never
even makes an appearance.
The facts with respect to the book�s contents are relatively straightforward.
During World War II Stalin and his supporters approved the formation of
a committee of Jews to aid the anti-fascist cause by enlisting support,
primarily financial, from Jews throughout the world. Two of the leading
members of the committee, Mikhoels and Fefer actually made a tour of the
United States during 1943 and met with influential Jews and other
potential financial backers. Despite the committee�s justifiable
creation, evidence came to light after World War II that these men and
13 other members of the committee: conveyed classified information
regarding the Soviet Union�s economy, industry, and culture to foreign
agents, engaged in espionage, offered to help create a Jewish republic
in the Crimea so that Zionists and American imperialists could use it as
a "beachhead" to dismember the Soviet Union, spread nationalistic
propaganda accusing the Soviet government of being anti-Semitic,
transformed the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee into a center of
nationalistic activity in which Zionist propaganda sought to shift the
allegiances of Soviet Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel, etc.
The work�s failings are particularly noteworthy.
First, nearly the entire work focuses on one denial of guilt after
another by the 15 defendants, despite the fact that they had already
confessed to multiple crimes years earlier during the preliminary
investigations. Readers are not allowed to read these confessions and
would never even know they existed were it not for the fact that the
examining officers kept referring to them and the defendants kept giving
lame excuses for having admitted to the confessions contained therein
and signing them.
Second, believe it or not the reader is not even given access to the
indictment prior to reading the transcript. Did you ever try to read a
trial transcript without even knowing what the trial was about or what
the defendants were accused of having done. Talk about mental strain.
The editors try to mask their intentional duplicity by tossing in the
following ridiculous footnote on page 75:
�The indictment was 45 pages long and recounted a full list of crimes
ascribed to the JAC [Jewish Anti-fascist Committee] as a whole and to
individuals in particular.� The text of the indictment, dated March 31,
1952, can be found in the archives of General Volkogonov in the
manuscript division of the Library of Congress, Washington DC.�
Imagine! The reader is supposed to search out the indictment for
himself, assuming it can even be found. The editors could not find
space for a 45 page indictment, which goes to the heart of the trial,
but they could find hundreds of pages for defendant denials,
justifications, and obfuscations. It is quite apparent that the editors
did not want the readers to really know the full bill of particulars
regarding what the defendants were accused of having committed. They
were too busy trying to make the Soviet government appear anti-semitic
and suppressive.
Finally, and particularly egregious, is the fact that 42 VOLUMES of
preliminary investigatory material is available but never revealed in
which the evidence against, and confessions of, the defendants are
clearly exposed. Almost none of this is presented to the reader for
obvious reasons, even though it is repeatedly referred to by the
defendants and the presiding officers. The editors had no intention of
presenting all the data corroborating the defendants� guilt. They were
far more interested in making sure readers only read the repeated
denials in the trial itself.
Interestingly enough, although the trial testimony reeks with denials,
alibis, and justifications by the defendants, there are a sizable number
of instances in which the defendants either confess to particular acts
or testify against other defendants, much to the latter�s chagrin and dismay.
In light of these facts, as well as the revealing consideration that
the book and accompanying research were funded by a whole series of
capitalist foundations, its central message is fully understandable.
That this work will never win a prize for neutrality or objectivity is manifest.
for the cause,
Klo
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