Return to the Gulag

Return to the Gulag

I stumbled upon this intriguing movie from ReasonTV in part about a man's search to discover what became of his father in Stalin's Gulags. I found it especially interesting because in Amity Shlaes book "The Forgotten Man" I had just read about a group of American intellectual/activists who were sympathetic to socialism making a trip to Stalin's Russia in 1927 just like Freda Utley.

I wrote some of my thoughts about that trip to the LOG. I copy it here because I think it fits with the reality shown in this video: a system of governing that either dismisses or downplays the important of individual liberty will inevitably trample it violently.

In 1927 a group of American "progressives" sailed off to visit
Stalin. Universities Profs and Union men/women heading over to see
the "worker's paradise." They all left with high hopes and
expectations from a system to which they were sympathetic, but
returned a divided lot with mixed feelings. As I read about trip, it
occurred to me that one man in particular had an experience there
that really defined the paramount issue of the left vs. right even
today.

His name was Paul Douglas from the University of Chicago. One thing
he noticed immediately was a fascination of the Soviets over a
rather obscure murder case in the US: two men (Sacco and Vanzetti),
anarchists, convicted of murder of a paymaster and sentenced to
death. The "workers" in Russia apparently saw (or rather were taught
to see) the men as martyrs - victims of American capitalism. Douglas
might have been sympathetic himself, however, he heard enough
stories of the "justice" in Russia since arriving to know that the
American "martyrs" had FAR more of a fair trial that any alleged
criminal in Russia. And during a meeting with factory workers,
Douglas became fed up with the fascination with the "martyrs" and
finally let go with one of the stories he'd heard that took place in
the very same factory at which he was speaking, telling them that
Sacco and Vanzetti had enjoyed "the full defense of the law" and
then he asked:

"But what about yourselves? Two months ago a group of bank clerks
were arrested at two o'clock in the morning...they were tried at
four o'clock and executed at six. Where was their right to assemble
witnesses, to engage counsel, to argue their case, and if convicted,
appeal?"

About halfway through his statement, his translator refused to
translate. But afterwards, a worker who understood English (I
assumed) would confront him on the issue. She said: "You talked only
of INDIVIDUAL justice. This is a bourgeois idea."

Whatever effect this might have had on Douglas (many of these
travelers would, despite seeing the totalitarianism and violent
repression of dissent by Stalin would go on to remain committed
socialists and become the brain trust of Roosevelt's New Deal), it
spoke volumes to me. The irony of dismissing individual liberty and
justice, while being critical of someone's individual liberty being
put to death (Sacco and Vanzetti) by a government completely escaped
the soviet worker - and perhaps Douglas as well.

So here's the moral of the story as I see it: A society and
associated government that maintains individual liberty and justice
as its paramount purpose and ideal will NEVER drift into the the
realm of totalitarian policies and atrocities. However a society and
associated government that maintains that the "greater good" is its
purpose and its highest ideal, will by its very nature forever have
a license to engage in all manner of totalitarian policies and
atrocities.