Ihis post will be somewhat rambling as I have the misfortune to view this book (Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore).both as an opportunity to learn something about the world ,but also something about myself. This is often unhealthyt and I hope it is not overly self indulgant or adolescent.
I have never had the emotional fortitude to study the gruesome details of totalitarian society, whether that of ancient Rome, feudal Europe or the triumvirate of twentieth century horrors; Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany or China under the stewardship of chairmans Mao. When I succumbed to the temptation, Fox Butterfield's "Alive in the Bitter Sea"(about Communist China), or in the case of required school reading (The Diary of Anne Frank)-I felt greatly saddened but on some basic level exempt from the threat that we could ever experience similar horrors. Since these issues did not relate to my primary activities, medicine and business and not being compulsively introspective I haven't thought about these issues much. However I was much younger when readings such works and have periodically wondered whether my own inability to relate to these events was based on:
a) Emotional Immaturity
b) Developmental Immaturity
c) An unacknowledged squeamishness
d) The inability of a post war American raised in physical and emotional security to ever fathom the circumstances giving rise to these horrors.
Earlier this summer on seeing the author on television, I decided to put the book at the top of my summer reading list and at least think about some of these issues.
Montefiore's book is able to depict the often mundane human qualities that coexist in some kind of demented equilibrium in the lives of
A cast ot thugs that include Molotov, Beria, Kruschev, Kagonavich, Yagoda, Mikoyan, Yeshov, the butcher Khrushchev et al. Partly the depiction of ordinary events, tennis matches, picnics, all night stag parties, children's birthday parties as well as personal reminisces of elderly participants or children put some of these events into an almost empathetic vision. It is gut wrenching to see a man continue to work with Stalin on a daily basis after his wife has been liquidated, but maddening to think I am actually feeling this for a mass murderer and sadist himself. Some of the activities of daily life were: all night drunken stag parties, Stalin's cruel humor, his insomnia, incredible patience as well as the superhuman physical endurance and the overwhelming fear that were key aspects of these underlords or "magnates" as Montefiore calls them. The work succeeds using primary source material, the occasional minor anecdote and the minimal amount of editorializing. In this context the mention of say another 100,000 people to be sacrificed in the terror of the late thirties becomes even more chilling. However my personal inability to understand the evolution of these horrors remain and I must believe that in any system devoid of fundamental liberties,the scum, the sadists and the troublemakers will always rise to the top.
I had in started to read the book in tandem with Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" to keep the erosion of liberty as the primary focus. That failed, as the narrative was too compelling although I suspect the underlying idea had some rigor and value.
Was there a point at which the horrors of Stalin's reign would have been avoidable? Was the terror, which persisted until the very end the product of one man, or was it inevitable in any case? What are our lessons for today? Do current incursions and potential incursions on some of our liberties possibly portend a police state?
One of my favorite American quotes is Jefferson's "The Price of Freedom is"Eternal Vigilance " It is even the title of one of the categories of this blog.I had always thought this meant that any diminution of liberty threatens the whole edifice and must be fought. This led to somewhat schizophrenic view regarding historic events such as Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The book somehow led me to conceive of "Eternal Vigilance" as an even more onerous task-one in which the citizens of our republic must periodically relinquish certain fundamental liberties in the face of an external threat but then recognize when the threat is over and demand these liberties back. Our record of accomplishment is very good on this matter and the minimal and in my opinion insufficient incursions on our liberties so far demanded in the War on Terror are not reasons for alarm.
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