Why Gorbachev rehabilitated executed Bolshevik leaders

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14 SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1988 The following is an interview with Pierre Broue, a leading French historian and currently the director of the Leon Trotsky Institute in Paris.

Socialist Action: How do you explain the recent rehabilitations by the Soviet bureaucracy of Bukharin, Rykov, Rakovsky, and the other Bolshevik Party leaders who were sentenced to death by Stalin during the Third Moscow Trial in 1938?

Pierre Broue: It is important to place these rehabilitations in the context of the unfolding events in the Soviet Union today.

Gorbachev's policy of glasnost is in a sense a policy of openness and truthfulness, although its real objective is economic austerity and restructuring. The essence of this policy is the introduction of capitalist market mechanisms which will inevitably result in massive layoffs and unemployment.

But it is not possible to apply a policy of "openness" in the economic sphere while, at the same time, continuing to stifle all political expression and to hide the truth about the history of the Soviet Union. Soviet historians themselves have had to admit that the Soviet people do not believe the official version of their history.

In the Soviet Union, a series of articles on Trotsky, written by prominent pro-glasnost historians, began to appear last summer. This is extremely significant. It is a reflection of the depth of the movement throughout Soviet society which is demanding that the truth be told.

Socialist Action: But hasn't there been a strong backlash against historians like Afanasier who were demanding greater historical accuracy? Aren't they now being accused of sympathizing with "Trotskyism?"

Broue: Yes, of course. There was, in particular, an extremely violent and stupid article by a certain Ivanov in a leading party journal only a few weeks ago. Yes, Afanasiev and others have lost their posts in the party, but they have maintained their principled positions and have continued to express themselves. I think this is very positive.

I think that the struggle for the truth about the past is one of the motor forces of the political revolution in the Soviet Union, as Trotsky himself pointed out.

Socialist Action: But how do you explain the rehabilitation of Khristian Rakovksy, who was one of the leaders of the Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky.

Broue: Rakovsky, I think, is being rehabilitated because he was in the same trial as Bukharin. In fact, of all those who were tried along with Bukharin, only Perestroika: New Thinking for our Country and the World, by Mikhail Gorbachev, Harper and Row Publishers, 1987, $19.95.

A useful way to make sense of Gorbachev's far-reaching changes in the Soviet Union is to look at how he presents them to Western readers in his new book, BOOK REVIEW "Perestroika: New Thinking for our Country in the World."

A review of two aspects from his book— his attitude toward the Soviet workers and his attitude toward women-will help shed light on the direction of his reform program.

That Gorbachev knew there were deep problems in the Soviet Union, and that something had to be done to prevent a social upheaval that would challenge the privileges of the entire bureaucracy, is quite evident in his book.

Gorbachev writes, "Any delay in beginning perestroika could have led to an exacerbated internal situation in the near future which, to put it bluntly, would have been fraught with serious social, economic, Khristian Rakovsky and political crises.

Gorbachev's main solution to the mounting problems has been to increase economic production. But those who will be asked to bear all the sacrifices to make perestroika work will be the Soviet workers.

Gorbachev, for example, is opposed to what he calls "equalizing" incomes. In an interview with the liberal newspaper La Stampa of Turin, Italy, one of Gorbachev's top economic advisers made this point in a different way. He said, in words not unlike those used by Reagan:

"Under the current Soviet reforms, our social guarantees will be preserved but a Yagoda [previously head of Stalin's secret police] has not been rehabilitated. The bureaucracy would have had a tremendous credibility problem had it not rehabilitated Rakovsky along with Bukharin.

It is obvious that the rehabilitation of Bukharin and Rykov is very worthwhile for Gorbachev because it is the rehabilitation of the Right Oppositionists in the Bolshevik Party; that is, of party leaders who were more or less partisans of opening up the country to the laws of the market economy and private property.

Socialist Action: So you think that Gorbachev is seeking to legitimize his current policies by appealing to the authority of some of the early leaders of the Bolshevik Party...

Broue: This is part of it. But it doesn't explain it all. The other reason is that there is tremendous pressure from the Soviet people themselves-particularly the youth-for the truth.

Socialist Action: Do you think that Trotsky can be rehabilitated? Already his photographs have been New Thinking for welfare mentality will be discouraged...The welfare mentality impedes the growth of society's wealth. We are trying hard to combat egalitarianism. The principle is:

Those who work harder should earn more."

With the introduction of the limited capitalist market mechanisms contained in perestroika, problems that never existed before will begin to arise. Unemployment is now seen as an inevitable necessary evil by top Soviet economists. Social stratification will increase. Shortages will increase. Plant closures will increase. And, placed alongside of Museum.

Broue: I don't think he will be rehabilitated under Gorbachev, though I am convinced that in the long run he will be. For me, the rehabilitation of Trotsky will only occur when his articles and books are widely published in the Soviet Union and his ideas are free to be discussed'and disseminated. I don't think this can happen under Gorbachev.

I think what you are seeing today is a move toward recognizing the historical figure of Leon Trotsky. But this is the kind of "recognition" that Stalin offered Trotsky in 1926. A clear example of this was Gorbachev's speech to the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, where all the slanders and lies about Trotsky were once again raised. This "recognition" has nothing to do with Trotsky's real role in Soviet history.

I think that any genuine rehabilitation of Trotsky will only occur as a result of a political revolution that will remove the bureaucracy as a whole.

Socialist Action: This appears to be the case of Rakovksy as well. He has been "rehabilitated," but will the bureaucracy allow his works to be published? The manuscript of his "Memoirs," for example, was confiscated by Stalin's secret police in 1930.

Broue: That is correct. Everything that Rakovsky wrote while in exile—his history of the civil war in the Ukraine, his account of the internal struggles in the Bolshevik Party, and, most important, his articles on the rise of the bureaucracy under Stalin-were all confiscated. A major demand that should be raised in the Soviet Union and internationally is for Rakovsky's "Memoirs" and writings to be made public.

Rehabilitate the victims of the Moscow Trials! Speakers:

Esteban Volkov, Leon Paul Siegel, author "The Trotsky's grandson Meek and the Militant™ Conrad Lynn, Lawyer for George Saunders, TransNAACP lator Samizdat Morris Schappes, Editor, Juliet Ucelli, N.Y. Marxist Jewish Currents School New School, New Yor‹, March 19, 7:30 p.m.

Sponsored by: Moscow Trials Campaign Cttee as government subsidies are phased out, retail prices on food, clothing, and housing will begin to rise.

Gorbachev on the role of women In his book, Gorbachev also gives us his ideas on the relationship of perestroika to other social issues. Changes in economic relations also bring about changes in social and personal relations. When he speaks of the new status of women that is evolving, he begins to sound more like an archconservative than a so-called socialist. "But over the years of our difficult and heroic history, we failed to pay attention to women's specific rights and needs arising from their role as mother and home-maker, and their indispensable educational function as regards children. "Engaged in scientific research, working on construction sites, in production and in the services, and involved in creative activities, women no longer have enough time to perform their everyday duties at home-housework, the upbringing of children, and the creation of a good family atmosphere. "Now, in the course of perestroika, we have begun to overcome this shortcoming. That is why we are now holding heated debates in the press, in the public organizations, at work and at home, about the questions of what we should do to make it possible for women to return to their purely womanly role."

Under the guise of reform, the Soviet bureaucracy is seeking to buy time to defuse public anger and preserve its rule. But the measures it adopts can only exacerbate the very conditions which have given rise to widespread dissaffection in the first place.

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