Dave Barry Quotes
The Soviet Union at this time was being run by the Communists, a group of men fierce in their dedication to wearing hilariously bad suits. Their leader was Josef Stalin (Russian for "Joey Bananas")
Barry, Dave. Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States. Random House, 1989, p. 138.
Communists had different reactions to the atrocities committed by Stalin. Many, like Buck condemned it and remained committed to Communism. Others, were so outraged that the left the party and had no more to do with Communism. Others were in denial and did not believe it. Still others acknowledge the crimes but consider Stalin, on balance a positive force. A few concluded that what Stalin did was necessary for Communism and the Soviet Union to develop.
who worked with the Communists. The Communists were to Flip-flop again when Russia needed arms and assistance to fight Hitler when the pact broke down. See {595773}
This was only 6 years after the Russian Revolution. Communist Russia had extended its influence to much of the world without firing a shot. To many, communism looked like the future. The Russian inability to make communism work economically in the next 70 years destroyed most of its influence.
In 1927 the Russian Communist Party changed its position regarding the world union movement. Prior to that the Communists would not organize unions competing with already existing trade unions. Foster was one of the communist leaders who was the strongest advocate of this solidarity of the working class. However, after years of preaching one thing, he reversed himself. This type of adherence to party discipline led to him getting a derogatory nickname. See {592421}.
Lenin, Uritsky, and other Bolshevik leaders were attacked in 1918. Lenin was wounded but Utrtsky died, and this triggered the attacks on the other Russian factions by the Bolsheviks known as the “Red Terror.”
Stalin’s purges and suppression of potential rivals killed off mostly other communists exceeding the number of communists killed by brutal, murderous, anti-communist forces over the world.
Baldwin had written a book praising revolutionary communism in Russia, but like many other American socialists, grew disillusioned with Russian Communism and Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship especially when in 1939 the Russians became allied with Hitler and Germany. Russia’s repression of civil liberties was far worse than anything he had seen in America. He was so negative about Russian Communism that in the early 1940s, he ejected all members of the Communist Party from membership in the ACLU.
Even leading Soviet officials were critical of the Stalin era and Stalin’s brutal, dictatorial methods.
Seeger’s admission was typical of tens of thousands of Americans who had become disillusioned with the fairness, equity, and effectiveness of capitalism during the depression. They were easy prey for Communist propaganda which pointed out all the problems in American society from legal racial discrimination to lack of a social safety net while at the same time lying about the Russian achievements and hiding the horrible abuses of human rights—especially the political murders of millions of people. Then the truth about Russia emerged, Seeger and so many others abandoned the Communist Party as at the same time America was improving its society and beginning to try and deal with the great problem that had plagued America from its inception—racism and slavery.
This quotation is typical of Mrs. Roosevelt’s strong criticism of Communism. However despite these positions, many of her political enemies continued to call her a Communist or a “fellow traveler”—one who tended to support Communism.
This was a big factor that made the Red Scare so damaging.
Only 6 years after the Russian Revolution Lenin was already being perceived as an international provocateur and instigator of problems.
David McAlister Barry is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comic novels. Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1988) and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2005).
