On Sat, Mar 7, 2026 at 08:11 AM, Charles wrote: > > Since the year of the poem is 1935 and the Moscow trials did not begin > until 1936, Gandall performs the miracle of reversing time when he > suggests the poem is "a parody of ...the Moscow purge trials."
Even though Brecht did not and could not have written the poem with the great purge trials of 1937-38 in mind, I learned that critics adopted it to illustrate the scripted and staged nature of the proceedings and pitiless execution of the victims while Stalin's supporters evoked it with reference to the alleged hypocrisy and sham professions of innocence of the defendants. Also, although the liquidation of the left and right oppositionists (as well as perhaps a greater number of loyal supporters of Stalin accused of wrecking and other treacherous acts) peaked at the end of the decade, the bloody purges began immediately after Kirov's assassination in 1934, the most notable being the arrest of Zinoviev and Kamenev at the end of that year leading to their execution in 1936. My own view is that the poem is what it appears to be on the surface - an indictment of bourgeois liberalism - and while Brecht may have developed misgivings about the purges, if and when he broke with Stalin, it would more likely have been over the suppression of the East German workers' protests in 1953. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40979): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40979 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/118178757/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
