Let History Judge

by Рой Медведев, Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev

The most comprehensive and revealing investigation of Stalinism and political developments in the Soviet Union from 1922-1953, this edition is an extensively revised and expanded version of a classic work. The internationally known historian Roy Medvedev has included more than one-hundred new interviews, unpublished memoirs, and archives from survivors of Stalin's death camps. This updated version of a classic work was written during a time of great change in the Soviet Union. With the advent of perestroika and glasnost, more progressive leadership has sought to demolish the Stalinist system which had finally crippled the Soviet Union and incited public discontent.

Let History Judge contains new material on purges in 1929-1931 and terror against the peasantry; the Kirov assasination and show trials; the "great terror" from 1936-1938, which caused irreparable damage to the Soviet Union and left it vulnerable for Hilter's attack in 1941; the trial of Bukharin; Trotsky's revolutionary activity and Stalin's involvement with his murder in Mexico; Stalin's miscalculations and errors during the war, which cost the Soviet Union nearly 25 million in casualties; new purges from 1946-1953; and the actual vote of the Seventeenth Congress, which decided Stalin's candidacy.

Since the first edition was finished by the author in 1969 and published in 1971, dozens of new informants have come forward to give their evidence to Roy Medvedev. Distinguished Soviet literary, cultural, and political figures like the late Alexander Twardovsky, Ilja Ehrenburg, Konstantin Simonov, Yuri Trifono, Mikhail Romm and many others have accumulated documentary records of Stalinism in anticipation of an expanded version.

Genres: History, Russia, Politics, Nonfiction, Russian History, Soviet History, Russian Literature

891 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Рой Александрович Медведев (14 ноября 1925, Тифлис) — советский и российский публицист, закончил философский факультет ЛГУ, доктор педагогических наук, профессор, политический деятель, один из представителей левого крыла диссидентского движения в СССР. Автор работ по истории. Брат-близнец учёного-геронтолога, диссидента Ж. А. Медведева.

Reviews

[sologdin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid internal Marxist critique of the Stalinist system, attending to violations of ICCPR-type concepts as well as deviations from socialist policy.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think there's a way to write on the Stalinist era that isn't oppressive, so if 800+ pages on this particular variant of totalitarianism - with pages upon pages of names of folks who were purged - doesn't appeal to you, skip this. It can drag you down.

That said, Medvedev's work is impressive for a number of reasons - the first being his access (novel at the time) to internal party and other unpublished sources that illuminate the cruelty of the era. His is a critical look at Stalin, but it comes from a dedicated Soviet who has been trained in Marxist historiography. The crimes of Stalin are carefully and unflinchingly documented, but Medvedev also makes a strong case that the rise of Stalin was far from inevitable - at least as a consequence of socialist ideology. That is probably the strongest intellectual contribution of the book: disentangling Stalinism from socialism and Marxism.

The book is also noteworthy as an example of the groundbreaking work done in the Soviet Union in the field of Russian history at a time when the Soviet academy was home to hackish sycophants and academic dissent could still land someone in hot water. As a historical object itself, the book is a monument to the intellectual courage of its author.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of all the books I have read for Russian history I found this one the most fascinating. Mainly because of the provenance and the links to the other texts which reference the author.

[Dr G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an easy book to read at 875 pages, and with a lot of detailed information about many individuals who were victims of Stalin.
Nevertheless, It is well worth reading. In fact, it is important to read, just to remain aware of exactly how evil Stalinism was.
Medvedev (b 1925) is still alive and remains in Russia according to Wikipedia which also states he is a supporter of Putin. This seems odd in view of Putin's behaviour, surely a mixture of Stalin's and the Romanovs' methodologies. However, he was expelled from the CP for the publication of the book when the Russians were looking at rehabilitating Stalin (as they are apparently considering again). Perhaps, then, one can overlook a certain pragmatism in his current position.
Medvedev's argument is that Stalinism was a consequence of Stalin's own character and nothing to do with communism or socialism or the aftermath of revolution. He shows sympathy for the concept that a post-revolutionary omelette requires the breaking of eggs. Lenin receives sympathetic treatment on this basis.
In many regards, it is useful that Medvedev remains faithful to communism/socialism since his book can not be characterised as a pro-western, anti-Russian diatribe. (He is also critical of Solzhenitsyn on a number of points.)
The book is meticulous in detailing the repression, torture and killing of thousands of Russians over the course of Stalin's leadership. So there is value in such a study being written by a historian who supports both Marxism and present-day Russia.
Medvedev rejects any suggestion that Stalin was mad, insisting that (a) he was evil in his determination to do anything to stay in power and, in his readiness to exact revenge on anyone who crossed him or whom he thought might cross him, and that (b) those around him allowed him to carry out his evil.

[Törő László Dávid]

Medvegyevet ezért a művéért 1969-ben kizárták a kommunista pártból, így csak nyugaton jelenhetett meg. Forráskutatás közben rendszeresen zaklatták a szovjet hatóságok; ez a vaskos történeti munka már morális szempontból is hatalmas emberi teljesítmény.
Motivációja az volt, hogy a Sztálint rehabilitálni igyekvő nézetekkel szemben ellensúlyt képezzen és vitába szálljon a kommunizmust valamilyen szempontból relativizáló nyugati és keleti véleményekkel.
Több száz oldalon, lehetőségeihez képest hatalmas forrásbázist megmozgatva érvel amellett, hogy a sztálinizmus nem valamilyen szükséges rossz volt (pl. a feltételezett modernizáció érdekében), hanem egy tehetségtelenséget pártoló, bűnszervezetként működő elit uralma, ami éppen a fejlődéstől vágta el a Szovjetuniót tehetséges tudósok, katonai vezetők likvidálásával.
Konkrét számadatokkal igyekszik bizonyítani, hogy a kommunista forradalom és a terror nem nemzetiségi/etnikai kérdés volt – a kommunizmus és a zsidóság azonosítását joggal tartja a kommunizmus bűneit relativizáló eljárásnak, ebből a szempontból Szolzsenyicinnel is vitázik.
Erős érvei miatt (szerinte a bűnözők és a politikai foglyok egy táborba zárása felér a gázkamrák kegyetlenségével) vitára ingerlő olvasmány, ugyanakkor a kommunista terrorról szóló művek közül az egyik legfontosabb.
Mivel rengeteg személyes forrást is felhasznál, egyfajta előképe lehet a későbbi, „modernebb” mikrotörténeti munkáknak (pl. Orlando Figes könyvének a sztálinista besúgóhálózatról).

[Differengenera · Rating 5 out of 5]

account of the consequences of Stalin's leadership of the USSR from the 1905 split to the revolution itself, the worker's opposition, Lenin's death, industrial and literary debates, collectivisation, the successive witch-hunts for underground Menshevik organisations followed by the Japanese / German / French / Tsarist agents in the upper echelons of the state apparatus.

This is, as far as I understand, one of the first works published in the USSR which went as far as it did in saying that the Purges not only did not follow legal procedures, but that torture was used, and that many of the accusations were completely fabricated; even if others had said Stalin might have gone overboard and made certain mistakes no-one had said this was all caprice and paranoid gangsterism.

I also understand that significant amounts of the primary data was obtained from the victims and families of the victims, who managed to get their accounts of what was happening to the author. In order to make this stuff really hit Medvedev quotes from them at length; underlines again how successfully Victor Serge channelled the sublimated romanticism and pragmatic nihlism at work in the mentalité of your average functionary of the epoch.

No shortage of particularly outrageous sections: arrests and executions of German communists who had fled Nazism, the shafting of Greece, Bukharin's last testament, both moving ('Remember, Comrades, that on the red flag you carry on the victorious road toward communism lies a drop of my blood as well'), but also a bit shameful for its seeming elision of his standing by while friends were pulled under the wheels before him. What a reckless, senseless and pointless waste of human, intellectual and cultural resources

tldr how about this Stalin guy

[Kevin Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much research!!!

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stalin was an animal. I didn't realize this until I read this book. What a horror show.

[Bill Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stalin, from his usurption of power to his death. A real horror story. Written by a Russian and published in 1967.

[Bill V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an English translation and not the original Russian. The reading was tedious at times. The book never developed a flow that made reading easier. I am aware the author, Medvedev, is a communist writer and attacks Stalin, not communism itself. I already knew how inhumane and barbarous Stalin was as a leader and the book explodes some of the myths surrounding him, his cult of personality. One aspect I wasn't aware of was the deleterious impact Stalin had on the arts, mathematics, science and many other fields of Soviet life. All of this set back not only the Soviet Union but "real" communism itself. Ideally, I would have given this book 3.5 stars but it's closer to 4 than 3 in my opinion. I'm glad I read it but will never read it again.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great... anecdotes of stalin... assumes some background.

[Read a Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extremely thorough collection of primary source material - very difficult and rare to find outside of this collection all in one place.

[Ke · Rating 4 out of 5]

每一个中国人都应该读一读，认识一下共产主义如何失败，又为什么会失败。