Note by Hunterbear: This is yet another fascinating -- if chilling -- historical postscript. I doubt very much that it's the last on the myriad of still mysterious issues involving Stalin's death, Beria, and -- soon after Stalin's death -- Beria's quick trial and execution on charges of high treason.
I remember those times. I followed them as best I could. I was a soldier -- 19 years old in March, '53 when Stalin died. More than a decade ago, a film -- "The Inner Circle" -- was made on Stalin's life and times [a Columbia Pictures Features Film.] I didn't see the flic -- but, in a Grand Forks ND bookstore, I did find one languishing copy of a book, The Inner Circle: An Inside View of Soviet Life Under Stalin -- the in-paper print companion to the film. It's compiled and written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Alexander Lipkob and translated/edited by Jamey Ganbrell, published by New Market Press, New York, 1991, 148 pages. The text isn't especially impressive in detail and analysis but the book is replete with more than 150 extraordinary photos from the Kremlin archives [as well as many from the film itself.] The archival photos make it well worth the $16.95 I paid back then. There are a number of interesting photos of Beria -- and others. Stalin, of course, is the star -- and there's a wealth of photos on him from his earliest years through his massively attended funeral. It was/is a favorite borrowed book -- by friends of mine in CPUSA, radical friends who are former members of CPUSA, friends who are all sorts of Left radicals and Reds but never in CPUSA, friends who are simply interested in Soviet and Russian history. It's that massive array of really great photos. I usually have to fight politely to get the book back -- but I always recover it. My favorite photo in the rich collection involves five fierce Mongol tribesmen on horseback -- with the caption, "Building the Turkestan-Siberian Railway, 1928. The Central Asian riders hold a portrait of Stalin and a makeshift sign reading, "We will sharply repulse the Self-Seekers and Wreckers of Production." For people like myself -- Natives -- the Mongol peoples are our cousins. And so was and is Lenin -- himself part Tartar and a thoroughly honorable person. Stalin was not a cousin -- no matter how the pie is cut. And, of course, the world went on -- and, among other things, Stalin died, Beria was shot, massive changes swept and flew and blew from and into the Four Directions. And now, in 2003, one wonders what dark and evil things are afoot in all sorts of global corners that will be revealed in sad and gory detail a half century or so from now -- or even a few years hence [or tomorrow]. I do remain an unshakeable optimist to my very core. People are basically good [as I see it] and I think History [and the Creator] do intend Humanity to fully enjoy rich and bountiful success sooner or later in a far-flung and global socialist democracy. There are many good things afoot -- many indeed -- and they will always hold the upper hand in our stormy, slashing River of No Return. But Beria remains a stark and sanguinary warning -- in a time span replete with many from many cultures and many ideologies. Keep fighting -- always toward the Sun. In Solidarity - Hunter [Hunterbear] Dossier of Stalin's Henchman Presented (Soviet secret police chief Lavrenty Beria) Europe Daily ^ | January 17 2003 | AP MOSCOW (AP) - Russian prosecutors on Friday presented a criminal dossier on feared Soviet secret police chief Lavrenty Beria, including a list of hundreds of women he had allegedly stalked and raped. The Russian Military Prosecutor's office presented Beria's 47-volume criminal case, which ended with death sentence and a quick execution in 1953. The dossier will be opened to the public only after 25 years, Russian television stations reported. They said that prosecutors had presented the Beria files to disprove media reports that they had been stolen. Prosecutors allowed the cameramen to film some documents, which included a list of women that was confiscated from his aide. Soviet-era investigators accused him of stalking and raping women. RTR state television said the handwritten list contained hundreds of names. The station briefly showed several fragments of the list that included women's names and telephone numbers. Valery Kondratov, a senior prosecutor in charge of reviewing Soviet-era repression cases, said that Beria's files made no reference to an alleged arsenal of deadly poisons developed in a laboratory he personally ran. ``There was no information about the special laboratory, let alone recipes of some secret poisons,'' Kondratov said in televised remarks. Some Russian and foreign historians have said that Beria had the laboratory develop an array of poisons to use against his foes at home and abroad. Some theorized that Beria might have poisoned Soviet dictator Josef Stalin himself. Beria was appointed head of the NKVD secret police in 1938 and played a major role in the terror of the Stalin era. He oversaw purges in which tens of thousands of people were executed and ruled the forced labor camps where millions were imprisoned. Beria was one of Stalin's closest confidantes and was entrusted with key tasks such as overseeing the development of the Soviet atomic bomb. Beria was arrested in a power struggle months after Stalin's March 1953 death, convicted of treason and terrorism and shot. During interrogation after his arrest, Beria testified to personally having brutally beaten prisoners. In 2000, Russia's Supreme Court rejected an appeal for Beria's legal exoneration from his relatives, who claimed that his sentence at a closed trial and execution were illegal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
