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Labour And The Gulag: Russia and the Seduction of the British Left
The Labour Party welcomed the Russian Revolution in 1917: it paved the way for the birth of a socialist superpower and ushered in a new era in Soviet governance. Labour excused the Bolshevik excesses and prepared for its own revolution in Britain.
In 1929, Stalin deported hundreds of thousands of men, women and children to work in labour camps. Subjected to appalling treatment, thousands died. When news of the camps leaked out in Britain, there were protests demanding the government ban imports of timber cut by slave labourers.
The Labour government of the day dismissed mistreatment claims as Tory propaganda and blocked appeals for an inquiry. Despite the Cabinet privately acknowledging the harsh realities of the work camps, Soviet denials were publicly repeated as fact. One Labour minister even defended them as part of 'a remarkable economic experiment'.
Labour and the Gulag explains how Britain's Labour Party was seduced by the promise of a socialist utopia and enamoured of a Russian Communist system it sought to emulate. It reveals the moral compromises Labour made, and how it turned its back on the people in order to further its own political agenda.
In 1929, Stalin deported hundreds of thousands of men, women and children to work in labour camps. Subjected to appalling treatment, thousands died. When news of the camps leaked out in Britain, there were protests demanding the government ban imports of timber cut by slave labourers.
The Labour government of the day dismissed mistreatment claims as Tory propaganda and blocked appeals for an inquiry. Despite the Cabinet privately acknowledging the harsh realities of the work camps, Soviet denials were publicly repeated as fact. One Labour minister even defended them as part of 'a remarkable economic experiment'.
Labour and the Gulag explains how Britain's Labour Party was seduced by the promise of a socialist utopia and enamoured of a Russian Communist system it sought to emulate. It reveals the moral compromises Labour made, and how it turned its back on the people in order to further its own political agenda.
951 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 27, 2017
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197 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 20, 2024
This is a good but flawed history of the relationship of the UK Labour party and its supporters such as Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb with the Soviet Union. The problem is that this is a post collapse of the Soviet Union polemical denunciation rather than any kind of history.
Although it is easy to see now how foolish so many left wing politicians and sympathisers were in the obtuse blindness to the Soviet Union but it was not only the wishy washy liberal left wingers who took a hard nosed view towards the reality of doing business with the Soviet Union. Governments in all countries of all political strips and their business interests in all countries fought to get their hands on Russian gold and natural resources. Everyone turned a blind eye to horrors when it suited them. The Labour parties record is shameful but it came about through specific circumstances, that doesn't make it right, noble or pleasant reading but without context all you are left with is polemic. No one learns from polemic, well maybe no one learns from history, but it is only through history that you have a chance of moving beyond name calling and understanding - which may lead to censure, but the basis must be on understanding not retrospective judgement.
Although it is easy to see now how foolish so many left wing politicians and sympathisers were in the obtuse blindness to the Soviet Union but it was not only the wishy washy liberal left wingers who took a hard nosed view towards the reality of doing business with the Soviet Union. Governments in all countries of all political strips and their business interests in all countries fought to get their hands on Russian gold and natural resources. Everyone turned a blind eye to horrors when it suited them. The Labour parties record is shameful but it came about through specific circumstances, that doesn't make it right, noble or pleasant reading but without context all you are left with is polemic. No one learns from polemic, well maybe no one learns from history, but it is only through history that you have a chance of moving beyond name calling and understanding - which may lead to censure, but the basis must be on understanding not retrospective judgement.
September 4, 2018
A very thorough, well researched book. Every argument made is backed up by evidence. Sometimes, the telling of the story can be bogged down by the evidence, but in this case, I feel that it is necessary. Recent history has shown that Marxism is popular again amongst the far left in Britain. There is a tendency to rewrite history to suit a certain perspective. This book says that you can say what you want, but you can't argue with facts. For anyone who has romantic notions of Soviet Russia, this book is necessary. However, I am sure that those who need to hear this message are least likely to read it or accept its conclusions. However, it is good that this book has been written to remind us of the horrors under Soviet Russia. Millions died purely because they were the wrong "class" and the British Labour party turned a blind eye, pretending that it didn't happen, or worse, accepting that what was happening was inevitable or even just. The most revelatory part of this book for me was the deconstruction of thought of George Bernard Shaw. His views were highly repulsive and I am surprised that he is still held in such high regard. It is also scary to think that some of his ideas are becoming fashionable again. Anyway, I highly recommend this book as necessary for anyone interested in modern British politics. We cannot understand what is happening today without the lessons that this book teaches us. It makes so much plain.
July 3, 2024
Who knew what and when did they know it?
An indictment of how far some will go in their pursuit of power.
An indictment of how far some will go in their pursuit of power.
January 16, 2020
"The hand of Vengeance found the Bed
To which the Purple Tyrant fled
The iron hand crush'd the tyrant's head
And became Tyrant in his stead"
Blake
+++
20 million people were killed due to the horrific Communist totalitarian rule of Soviet Russia in the last century. (see THIS). Gradually, the deception of economic and social success of this 5 year experiment (and beyond), with its staggering murderous liquidation of the"Kulaks", the persecution of the Russian church, and slave labour in the Timber Gulag was exposed but not without resistance - not least by the Labour party, ILP, and the British Communist party. In spite of the evidence and continued protestation from the opposition the denial continued.
In Udy's words: “Between twenty-five and thirty-five million people (including women, children and old people) were forced to join collective farms and surrender their homes and land to the State. A further 1.8 million were deported, hundreds of thousands of whom died over the next few years or in the purges of the Great Terror in 1937-38. A few years later, the resulting disaster in agricultural production brought famine, which led to a further three to five million deaths from starvation. For these, Stalin and the Politburo bear direct responsibility…not least because the Soviet Union was earning foreign currency by exporting ‘surplus’ grain even as millions of peasants were dying of starvation in Southern Russia and Ukraine.”
This book is a detailed account of speeches, letters and communications among politicians, ambassadors and others concerning the Soviet deception and Labour's denial - an accurately penetrating work of over 600 pages that must have demanded hours of committed research from the author.
It contains a warning for us all who hold fast to our ideologies and heroes, whether religious or political, to the extent that we are blinded to any evil perpetrated by them.
It is one thing to deny and hide evil, but what, for me is more staggering is that, given the facts of the matter, British Socialists in the main left wing parties (Ultimately The Labour Party) continued to support not only the Marxist ideology but the perpetration of torture and murder in its application by the Soviets! Most atrocious of all was the playwright George Bernard Shaw, co-founder of the Fabian society, defending the torture and extermination of those who failed to contribute favourably to the dictates of the proletariat. Shaw was blunt: "Compulsory labour, with death as the final penalty, is the keystone of Socialists". He openly defended the Soviet extermination of private capitalists and political dissidents in equally shocking language: "‘In this they [the Russians] are merely carrying out a proposal made by me many years ago. I urged that every person who owes his life to civilised society, and who has enjoyed since his childhood all its very costly protections and advantages, should appear at reasonable intervals before a properly qualified jury to justify his existence, which should be summarily and painlessly terminated if he fails to justify it . . . A great part of the secret of the success of Russian Communism is that every Russian knows that unless he makes his life a paying proposition for his country then he will probably lose it. I am proud to have been the first to advocate this most necessary reform. A well-kept garden must be weeded."
Elsewhere Udy states: "While today we know much about the Nazi concentration camps, there is little awareness in the West of the vast extent of its Soviet equivalent – the gulag, the prison camp system first established by Lenin and then enlarged by Stalin....By contrast with Willy Brandt’s ‘kniefall’ before the Warsaw ghetto monument, there has been no act of national repentance for excesses of the Soviet Communist era." (emphasis mine)
He goes on to say "Today, Gulag survivors and their families see Russia governed by a former member of the state body which, in an earlier incarnation, also comprised their guards and executioners."
And today, because it does not fit with our peace loving socialist narrative we, like the majority of the Labour party in the 1920's, (unless you are as perverted as GBS and others) prefer to look aside and pretend it never happened and fail to make the necessary inquiry as to how such a system can produce such atrocities and why we are reluctant to think a bit harder about the facts revealed in this book.
It has certainly been an eye opener to me... And it forces the reader to ask the question regarding our present Labour party which has just lost dramatically to a Conservative majority: "What was really in the minds Corbyn, MacDonald and (ex Communist activist) Corbyn advisor Andrew Murray and the new left leadership? Are they intelligent or well read enough or courageous enough to see not only the failures of the socialist system but also it's dangers?" Thankfully we are not in a position to find out!
Only today, as the new potentials are vying for leadership, I read "Lisa Nandy accuses Jeremy Corbyn of standing with Russia over the Salisbury attack".
Again in the Economist: "How Vladimir Putin is preparing to rule for ever"
".... In the past 20 years Mr Putin’s regime has killed too many people, and misappropriated too many billions, to make it plausible that he would ever voluntarily give up effective power."
However, I want to finish on a positive note. Three Labour leaders stand out who had the courage to go against the flow of Soviet support: Tawney, Atlee and Bevin. A healthy democracy needs a strong opposition to the government in power - it is my hope that someone will rise up with the courage of the aforementioned three who will stand up for truth and equality which will respect an intelligent freedom for all. If not then my hopes are that our country will continue have the wisdom, insight and intuition to keep these people away from any involvement in the leadership of our country.
I would suggest alongside this political/historical insight into Socialism further insight into the philosophical foundations in the late Roger Scruton's "Fools, Frauds and Firebrands".
To which the Purple Tyrant fled
The iron hand crush'd the tyrant's head
And became Tyrant in his stead"
Blake
+++
20 million people were killed due to the horrific Communist totalitarian rule of Soviet Russia in the last century. (see THIS). Gradually, the deception of economic and social success of this 5 year experiment (and beyond), with its staggering murderous liquidation of the"Kulaks", the persecution of the Russian church, and slave labour in the Timber Gulag was exposed but not without resistance - not least by the Labour party, ILP, and the British Communist party. In spite of the evidence and continued protestation from the opposition the denial continued.
In Udy's words: “Between twenty-five and thirty-five million people (including women, children and old people) were forced to join collective farms and surrender their homes and land to the State. A further 1.8 million were deported, hundreds of thousands of whom died over the next few years or in the purges of the Great Terror in 1937-38. A few years later, the resulting disaster in agricultural production brought famine, which led to a further three to five million deaths from starvation. For these, Stalin and the Politburo bear direct responsibility…not least because the Soviet Union was earning foreign currency by exporting ‘surplus’ grain even as millions of peasants were dying of starvation in Southern Russia and Ukraine.”
This book is a detailed account of speeches, letters and communications among politicians, ambassadors and others concerning the Soviet deception and Labour's denial - an accurately penetrating work of over 600 pages that must have demanded hours of committed research from the author.
It contains a warning for us all who hold fast to our ideologies and heroes, whether religious or political, to the extent that we are blinded to any evil perpetrated by them.
It is one thing to deny and hide evil, but what, for me is more staggering is that, given the facts of the matter, British Socialists in the main left wing parties (Ultimately The Labour Party) continued to support not only the Marxist ideology but the perpetration of torture and murder in its application by the Soviets! Most atrocious of all was the playwright George Bernard Shaw, co-founder of the Fabian society, defending the torture and extermination of those who failed to contribute favourably to the dictates of the proletariat. Shaw was blunt: "Compulsory labour, with death as the final penalty, is the keystone of Socialists". He openly defended the Soviet extermination of private capitalists and political dissidents in equally shocking language: "‘In this they [the Russians] are merely carrying out a proposal made by me many years ago. I urged that every person who owes his life to civilised society, and who has enjoyed since his childhood all its very costly protections and advantages, should appear at reasonable intervals before a properly qualified jury to justify his existence, which should be summarily and painlessly terminated if he fails to justify it . . . A great part of the secret of the success of Russian Communism is that every Russian knows that unless he makes his life a paying proposition for his country then he will probably lose it. I am proud to have been the first to advocate this most necessary reform. A well-kept garden must be weeded."
Elsewhere Udy states: "While today we know much about the Nazi concentration camps, there is little awareness in the West of the vast extent of its Soviet equivalent – the gulag, the prison camp system first established by Lenin and then enlarged by Stalin....By contrast with Willy Brandt’s ‘kniefall’ before the Warsaw ghetto monument, there has been no act of national repentance for excesses of the Soviet Communist era." (emphasis mine)
He goes on to say "Today, Gulag survivors and their families see Russia governed by a former member of the state body which, in an earlier incarnation, also comprised their guards and executioners."
And today, because it does not fit with our peace loving socialist narrative we, like the majority of the Labour party in the 1920's, (unless you are as perverted as GBS and others) prefer to look aside and pretend it never happened and fail to make the necessary inquiry as to how such a system can produce such atrocities and why we are reluctant to think a bit harder about the facts revealed in this book.
It has certainly been an eye opener to me... And it forces the reader to ask the question regarding our present Labour party which has just lost dramatically to a Conservative majority: "What was really in the minds Corbyn, MacDonald and (ex Communist activist) Corbyn advisor Andrew Murray and the new left leadership? Are they intelligent or well read enough or courageous enough to see not only the failures of the socialist system but also it's dangers?" Thankfully we are not in a position to find out!
Only today, as the new potentials are vying for leadership, I read "Lisa Nandy accuses Jeremy Corbyn of standing with Russia over the Salisbury attack".
Again in the Economist: "How Vladimir Putin is preparing to rule for ever"
".... In the past 20 years Mr Putin’s regime has killed too many people, and misappropriated too many billions, to make it plausible that he would ever voluntarily give up effective power."
However, I want to finish on a positive note. Three Labour leaders stand out who had the courage to go against the flow of Soviet support: Tawney, Atlee and Bevin. A healthy democracy needs a strong opposition to the government in power - it is my hope that someone will rise up with the courage of the aforementioned three who will stand up for truth and equality which will respect an intelligent freedom for all. If not then my hopes are that our country will continue have the wisdom, insight and intuition to keep these people away from any involvement in the leadership of our country.
I would suggest alongside this political/historical insight into Socialism further insight into the philosophical foundations in the late Roger Scruton's "Fools, Frauds and Firebrands".
August 19, 2024
4.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews