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Biased

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Soviet Encyclopedia assesses
“Joseph Stalin and his work.

IF TRUTH as the statement
of the development of reality
is controversial, then so is
Stalin. Unlike jesting Pilate,
however, we do stay and de-
mand an answer.

The great merit of the assess-
ment of Stalin by the Soviet
Encyclopedia now made avail-
able in English, is that is gives
us all the clues we need for
an answer.

The assessment sets out the
main events of a life which
literally spans the centuries —
from the last years of the 19th
to the middle decades of the
present century. Even the stark
enumeration of these events
eannot but strike deep chords
in anybody with any respect
‘for history’s forward shove.

More significant, however, is
the evaluation of Stalin’s deeds
and his theoretical propositions.

The mistakes are clearly an-
alysed—the land distributionist
error, the failure to move
quickly enough following Feb-
ruary, 1917, the tinge of chauv-
inism in the early twenties.

Then, in the later thirties
came “the wrong thesjs that
class struggle inside the coun-
try would grow sharper as
Socialism made rapid strides
. . ~ (the) massive repression
against his ideological and poli-

tical adversaries...which, in

the new conditions, was not
necessary.”

Stalin’s. false assessment of
the international situation on
the eve of the Great Patriotic
War, the failures in post-war
agrarian development and
“grave errors ... on certain
questions of foreign policies
(e.g., the break with Yugo-
slavia)"’ are mentioned, to-
gether with some wrong form-
ulations in the Economic Prob-
lems of Socialism in the USSR.

Very categorical and sharp
criticism is made of the de-
velopment of the cult of per-
sonality, wfaose origins are
traced to “the concrete his-
torical and objective condi-
tions in which the building of
Socialism was accomplished
in the USSR and also certain
negative traits in the person-
ality of Stalin himself.”

Yet after all the negative
points have been brought out
the conclusion is immensely
positive. ’

“All his (Stalin’s) activity is
linked with the realisation of
great Socialist changes in the
Soviet country. The Commun-
ist Party and the Soviet people
remember and respect Stalin.
His name is inseparable from
Marxism-Leninism .. .”

A little earlier it is stated:

“In the course of long year’s

Stalin has been the leader of
the Party and the Soviet State.
An outstanding ' proletarian
revoluionary, he has played a
great role in the organization
of the struggle of the proletar-
iat of Russia . . . In his theore-
tical writings Stalin developed
the Marxist-Leninist theory by
applying it to the concrete con-
ditions of building Socialism
inthe USSR. This was of great
importance to the international
working .class and the Com-
munist movement.

In view of the rather pro-
longed campaign against “Stal-
inism” by the more vociferous
of the anti-Sovieteers, the pre-
sent assessment should help to
clear the issues and give cold
comfort to these “stalwarts.”

Equally would it militate
against those would like to
point to a reversal of the 20th
Congress trend, a retreat to the
mistakes of the past. So pen-
etrating a grasp of the past can
only be the result of an ad-
vance from it.

Stalin through his-leadership
of vast work created condtions
where his deeds would be sur-
passed, his mistakes corrected
and himself properly under-
stood. It is this maturity that
speaks through fhe Encyclo-
pehia article.

MOHIT SEN

: © Separate Tables has

not enough Major

WITH A cast like the one in
Separate Tables you could
hardly “go wrong. Five front-
rank stars and half a dozen
outstanding supporting players
are all on top of their form in
United Artists’ version -of
the Terence Rattigan stage
play.

The scene is a Bournemouth

hotel, comfortable but oppres- °

sive, with deep leather arm-
chairs, heavy plush curtains
and an air of faded respecta-
bility. .

Faded, too, are the residents
—elderly ladies and retired
sontlemen, who dine at separ-
ate little tables, and grumble
across the room to each other
about the service and the
weather.

It is difficult to understand
why an American journalist
(Burt Lancaster) has chosen
this decaying corner of old
England in which to drink
away his troubles. But here
he is—and his troubles duly
follow him, in the shapely form
of Rita Hayworth, his ex-wife,
who has come to the hotel to
torment him.

Although intelligently acted,
all this has nothing to do with
Bournemouth—it might just as
well have been New York or
Timbuctu.

But another theme emerges,
which has much more convic-
tion because it springs directly
from the stodgy pretentious-
ness of the surroundings.

It concerns the Major (David
Niven), a respected resident
who has built around himself
a legend of chivalry and valor.

Imagine the horror of his
well - bred fellow - residents
when they discover that he has
recently been arrested in a
local cinema for molesting
young women! Particylary
shocked is Deborah Kerr, a
Shy, plain spinster with a
childlike mind, who has fallen
timidly in love with him.

His story is handled with
sympathy and skill — a weak
and lonely man, in the grip

RITA HAYWORTH

of an obsession, moving from
hotel to hotel, seeking com-
panionship and respect in a

bleak and friendless world.
The two themes have very
little .bearing on each other.
They don’t even suggest good
dramatic contrast. It would
have been an altogether
stronger film if it had concen-
trated on the Major, and gone

more deeply into his life.
NINA HIBBIN

Earth of friends

Peace and spring! I hear them sing
A duet sweet and low.

They freely share the bombfree air
Everywhere I go.

And happy overhead they lover
By each hopeful home,

And come and go, above, below,
And endless round us roam.

The petty wars pursue their course
Between the bossed and bossing,
And agony glides frequently
Where needled nerves are tossing.

The tyrants try that we may die,
As they have always done;

But now at last, unlike the past,
Their claws slip off my son.

His sunlit hope can make real scope.
For every ray it sends

Into a time when the topmost crime
Is crushed. by an earth of friends.

—THE WESTERNER

April 24, 1959 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5&

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