The letter we publish below was written in 1967 just as the Soviet bureaucracy was preparing to observe the fiftieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution and a year before the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Its importance lies in the fact that it is signed by the surviving children of the old Bolsheviks who were murdered on the instructions of Stalin. The names of some of the signatories may therefore come as a pleasant surprise to many comrades who might have presumed that the children of the old Bolsheviks suffered the same fate as the members of the Trotsky family.
The signatories to this letter, by their very names, and by some of what they write, represent a living link with the traditions of Leninism. The letter has its shortcomings but these might well be deliberate, keeping in mind the fact that it is addressed to the Central Committee of the bureaucracy. This might also explain why the authors have not attacked the bureaucracy, which Stalin only represented, but have instead concentrated their wrath on the personality of Stalin. This could create the impression that the bureaucracy no longer exists or that its existence or non-existence is linked to a rehabilitation of Stalin" which is an extremely undialectical method of approaching the problem.
The role and nature of the bureaucracy was best analysed by Trotsky in The Revolution Betrayed and with a few modifications the anacracy as the expression of a privileged social layer which arose in the Soviet Union because of the extremely low level of the development of the productive forces, the decimation of the revolutionary vanguard in the Civil War, the imperialist encirclement of the first workers' state, the unpreparedness of the party for a fight against bureaucracy, and the failure of the revolution in Western Europe. However, even after some of the objective reasons for the existence of the bureaucracy had disappeared, the usurping bureaucratic caste continued to exist. This caste is haunted by four main contradictions which revolve round: a) relations with imperialism and the expanding world revolution; b) есonomic management; c) social inequality; and d) the question of socialist democracy. These contradictions can only be resolved by anti-bureaucratic political revolutions that will overthrow the bureaucracy and replace it with Soviet power. This can only be done by building a new Left Opposition outside the degener ted Communist Party. Whether or not a major ity of the signatories recognise it or not, this is the only way in which they can rehabilitate the revolutionary tradition of their fathers and finally defeat Stalinism.
To the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR (CPSU) on behalf of the surviving children of the innocent communist victims of Stalin.
Today, in speeches, in the press, on television, the "merits" of Stalin are praised. This repreents a political revision of the 20th and 22nd Congresses of the CPSU.
This troubles us deeply. And not only because our parents and ourselves were, like millions of others, victims of the criminal machine of Stalin. It saddens us to think that the betrayed masses were forced to consent to this arbitrary despotism.
This must not be repeated. The rebirth of the past brings communist ideas into question, discredits our system and legalises the assassination of millions of innocent people.
All the attempts to whiten the black deeds of Stalin raise the danger of a repetition of the ideous tragedy that struck our Party, our peo ple and the whole communist movement.
The tragedy of the Chinese events obliges all of us to outline necessary safeguards to prevent a repetition of similar catastrophes. Only revealing totally the crimes of Stalin and his supporters can generate movement, consciousness and indignation in all of society needed to destroy all the results of the Stalin cult and make the return of new cults and new despotisms impossible.
How can one praise Stalin after all that our people and the international communist movement have suffered because of him?
This adulatory praise shackles our movement, weakens our ranks, destroys our power and makes the triumph of communism imposI We must celebrate the 50th anniversary of e great October revolution under the flags o 1e Party, bearing like a torch the immorta name of Lenin, the greatest democracy, collective control of society, control of society by society itself.
, unfurl these flags is the best homage • pay to the men crushed by the diaboli cult of the individual On some of us today there is still an unjustified stigma. Others are doomed to oblivion.
History will bring them back into the heart of the Party, into the heart of the people.
The monument to the victims of Stalin's despotism promised by the 22nd Congress of the Party must be erected to mark the existence of the Soviet state for 50 years.
In these days of celebration, those who fought for a world October will be with us.
Their number cannot be counted: from the eminent leaders of the Party to the soldiers in the ranks of the revolution.
There is no place for the name of a despot on the flags of the Party. ten here and to see our letter as part of the struggle for communism. We hope this letter will allow an irreparable error to be avoided SIGNED BY: Piotr Yakir, son of E. A. Yakir; L. Petrovsky, son of P. G. Petrovsky and grandson of G. I. Petrovsky; A. Boki, daughter of G. G. I. Boki; A. Antonov-Ovseyenko, son of V. A. Antonov-Ovseyenko; G. Troitskaya, daughter of Livchitz; G. Akoulov, son of I. A. Akoulov; S. V. Stankova (Ossinskya-Obolevskaya), daughter of communists; G. Polechtchouk, daughter of N. I. Muralov; Yu Jivliouk, son of communists; V. Terlin, daughter of M. S. Gorb; Z. Serebriakova, daughter of G. Serebriakova; "The serious crimes of Stalin make all positive judgement of his activity immoral. I am signing pre cisely this point": Yu Aikhenwald, son of a communist; S. Fedorova, daughter of G. F. Fed orova; J. Kriapiviansky, son of N. G. Larin (Bukharin), son of N. I. Bukharin and grandson of Yuri Larin; S. K. Radek, daughter of Karl Radek; A. Vsesviatskaya, daughter o communists: A. Gastev. son of A. Gastev Larissa Bogoraz, daughter of a communist; I. Yakir, grand-daughter of I. E. Yakir and daughter of P. I. Yakir: N. Netchinchtohikov, son of a communist; N. N. Popov, son of N. Popov; N. N. Demtchenko, son of N. Demtchenko: "It is impossible to forget and to justify the crimes of Stalin in the name of any of his services" V. Schvartzstein, son of a communist; I, Piatnitsky, son of O. A. Piatnitsky; T. Baeva, daughter chis), son of a communist; M. Ivanov (Kalinin), grandson of M. I. Kalinin; I. A. Shlyapnikova daughter of the friend of Lenin, A. Shiyapnikov; V. Yenukidze, in the name of eight people of a family of Bolsheviks, crushed by Stalin; Aria Reingoldovna Dimze-Berzin, daughter of R. I. Berzin; T. Smilga-Polouian, daughter of communists; L. . Zavadski, son of a communist; Yu Kim, son of a communist; S. Guenkin, son of a communist.