Trotsky on his death bed.
Trotsky on his death bed.
3,149 words
But there are in our country semi-Trotskyites, quarter-Trotskyites, one-eighth Trotskyites, people who help us, not knowing of the terrorist organization but sympathizing with us. — Karl Radek at the Moscow show trials, 1937 (more…)
2,962 words
Michael Malice
The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil
Independently Published, 2022
What a joy to open this book and find that whatever the author’s White Pill is supposed to be, it somehow involves Ayn Rand (AR). It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand (1971, by Jerome Tuccille) was the name of an actual book that came out when I was in my teens and going through my own brief Objectivist period. The book is a funny saga about the author’s time as a militant libertarian. (more…)
Stalin aiming a rifle at the Soviet Union’s Central Committee in 1934. His comrades took it as a joke; it’s doubtful many of them were still laughing a few years later.
Stalin aiming a rifle at the Soviet Union’s Central Committee in 1934. His comrades took it as a joke; it’s doubtful many of them were still laughing a few years later.
3,163 words
One of the more fascinating spectacles of the twentieth century’s totalitarian smoke and mirrors was the show trial, courtesy of Joseph Stalin. With his Leninist view of history and its underlying theme of the triumphal ascendency of the Socialist Man as the thematic driver, the show trial — a fake legal proceeding with built-in theatrics — would become the national stage for an elaborate morality play and “teachable moment” that affirmed the moral perfection of Big Brother. (more…)
Walter Duranty
Walter Duranty
2,600 words
“The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weaker man with the sponge. First, the criminal who slays, then the sophist who defends the slayer.” — Lord Acton
“There is no famine, nor is there likely to be.” — Walter Duranty, The New York Times
Walter Duranty, a British-born journalist, served as the Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times from 1922 through 1936. (more…)
