By Vestnik Kavkaza
Ahead of marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad an initiative group of Volgograd’s residents proposed returning the name of Stalingrad to the city. The initiative was supported by the vice-premier Dmitry Rogozin who posted in his microblog that he “has never hidden his absolutely positive view on this, considering the economic-investment point of view,” while the speaker of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin said that such a decision should be made by residents of the city in a referendum. Edward Radzinsky, writer, playwright, screenwriter, didn’t express his attitude to the renaming, but he spoke in details about his view on Stalin in the historic novel “Apocalypses from Koba,” the third volume of which was presented in Moscow.
The third volume is about the most mysterious years of Stalin’s ruling. Radzinsky came to the following conclusion: “After his death the well-known “black notebook” remained in the country cottage. It was widely discussed. It contained results of the elections in the 18th session of the top bodies of the party. Names were marked by crosses and question-marks because he planned new purge. It was a man who mixed up time, told the guardsmen ridiculous stories about his heroic past. But in fact he was an old leopard of revolution, who holed up in his country cottage and planed apocalypses.”
Radzinsky promised to return to television and produce a series about Lenin: “Because without him a lot is not clear. Who was he? What is the portrait of a Russian radical? What is Leninism? We know what Stalinism is. This is very interesting.
Lenin was very sincere. He was a journalist. Thus, his charm was that today he could say one thing, but tomorrow he knew he could say another because the tactics had changed, while the strategy remained the same – world revolution. In 1918 Lenin didn’t imagine Russia without a world revolution. Do you know who else didn’t? Stalin. Everything had to be changed later. Complete collapse, starvation. On the one hand, there was intervention, on the other hand, there were two capitals. And nothing more. Armies came closer from time to time, an overthrow took place every 5 minutes. And it was alright. Why? How did this happen? The army that was quenched in the First World War was against them – all these generals. And who was against them? Antonov-Ovseenkos and Budennys. What happened? Who could defeat them? And what did Lenin do at that moment?
Every session in 1919 and 1920 was ended by a round of applause in honour of the world leaders Lenin and Trotsky and the iron leaders Kamenev and Zinoviev. Not Stalin. That is why nobody knew his portraits. They say Stalin appeared and reached the top from nowhere… Nonsense! At that time only two people could come to Lenin’s office without a report. Not the iron leaders Kamenev and Zinoviev, but Trotsky and Stalin. Right after the overthrow Stalin became one of key figures in the administration. He was a manager. Lenin understood that a manager was needed. Trotsky is the promoter of the revolution: speeches, raising men, shooting to death… But somebody had to work. He began to form an administration, because the nomenclatura is a part of this administration.”
