Constant Reader Introducing anew column. by Brian Pearce

Pat or secretary- of ‘thé British- Soviet Friendship Society, writes in his British-Soviet Newsletter dated February: 22, under: the heading “The “Purges” of ~ 1937-8":

‘Together with ‘the actual revision of a number: of past :

sentences,. now found to have been. unjust, certain rumours have been’. circulated in the Press. and..sundry. newsletters to the effect that the big treason trials.of the 1930s are now. recognized to have been unfounded. ‘One of the latest reports on this subject “quotes” an article :

= by IL. Serov in. Pravda of December:21, 1957:

‘A perusal, however, of the relevant.’ passages in the article makes it clear that it is not the big treason trials. that Serov. . .¢fiticizes—but the purge that. followed: ‘during. 1937 and 1938 .in-the.wake of:-these trials.’

Kept from his readers Certain ‘nobody could: draw from Serov’s article the conclusion that ‘the big treason trials of the 1930s are now recognized to have been unfounded’-for he expressly justifies three* of.

them, ‘namely the ‘Industrial Party’ trial‘ of..1930, the ‘Menshevik’ trial of :1931>and the ‘Metro-Vickers’ trial of 1933:

It-is. just that, however,: which makes: so° significant his omission to mention the Zinoviev-Kamenev trial (1936) or to except thé Pyatakov-Radek ‘trial or the Generals’ “trial (1937) _ or the. Bukharin- -Krestinsky trial. (1938) from: his blanket repudiation of the ‘repressions” of 1937-38. aa letter the ‘numerous references to: victims. of thése trials that have. appearéd»in the Soviet Press over the last few. years— references: of a kind ‘that. are fully understood to- imply. rehabilitation: of the persons concerned...

Thus, for example, in an‘ article in Literaturnaya Gazeta of . .

February 28, 1957, on Latvian: literature, the writer ‘mentions Robert Eidéemann (‘a talented‘ Soviet Latvian writer who was also an outstanding commander in the Civil War, head of the Frunze Military Academy,°a member’ of .the ‘Revolutionary Military Council and chief of Osoaviakhim’).

Eidemann is. listed along with a number of other Latvian writers, with the comment: ‘In relation to many of these writers violations of socialist legality were committed.”

“‘Unmentioned’ in recent years Now. Eidemann was one of. the: Generals executed with Tukhachevsky. - It is also: significant that in an editorial on party history in the journal Problems of History (no. 3: of 1956) Gamarnik was mentioned: alongside Antonov-Ovseyenko €rehabilitated” by Mikoyan in his Twentieth: Congress speech) as one: -of . these whose names. had been “unmentioned? in the writings of ‘recent years’.

Gamarnik, then head of the Red Army’s political administration, ‘was “included ‘in the indictment. of the Generals; ‘butwas said’ to- have killed “himself: to avoid’ arrest;

“(The implicit ~ rehabilitation”.of Gamarnik. is particularly : ‘interesting in: that Krestinsky, one of the principal accused:

in the “1938 treason trial, was alleged. to have been go-between

for a group of civilian group.) , Again, Tukhachevsky himself is named, as‘ commander’ of the First Army, in articles on the Eastern Front in 1918-19 in Problems of History nos. 6 and 10 of 1956.

Sloan knows very well that:the mere, mention’ of his namé ;

was interpreted by Soviet citizens: as an admission that ‘the former Red Army chief had not been guilty of the crimes for which he was executed.

And now comes Marshal Bagramyan’s article on the Soviet ; ;

army anniversary, with its mention of the officers murdered by -Yezhov .. ;

‘Shoot ’em all down’ — Sloan’s anxiety about the ‘anti-Irotsky’ trials is understandable, for he was one of those who worked hard at the time to convince the working-class movement here of the justice of the verdicts.

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: Thus in Controversy of March 1938 he wrote of the victims: ‘It is a good thing they have been shot. Further, if there were more of them, then more of them should have ‘been shot.’

Sloan’s controversial methods have not changed, either. In the same article he denounced as ‘an unscrupulous misquotation by Trotsky’ Stalin’s statement. of November 6, 1918 about Trotsky having been the chief organizer of the October Revolution—though this appeared in the collection of Stalin’s articles called ‘The October. Revolution’ which had been published by Lawrence and Wishart in their ‘Marxist-Leninist Library’ such a short time before as 1936!

Sloan evidently believes in the tactic of bold denial, Alas . for such methods, though—1958 is not 1938.

_ Seize this opportunity THE third issue of Universities and Left Review (Winter = 1958, 4s.) contains the full text of the pamphlet The Insiders, that most useful factual exposure of the “managerial <révolution’ ‘theory “behind “Industry and Society.

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People who missed getting ‘The. Insiders’ when it first . appeared should seize this opportunity of securing a first-class piece of propaganda ‘material. -_ Other contributions include ‘Hungary and Socialism’, by Francois Fejté, who wrote what many think the best book to date about the background to the Hungarian Revolution; a survey of ‘Labour Movement Historiography’ by John Saville, himself a notable worker in this field; and ‘Russia Alive’,. by Michael Kullman, an impression of the Moscow Youth Festival which supplements the account given by Maurice Pelter in his Newsletter pamphlet ‘Russian Youth Awakes’. Announced in this issue is the opening of a Left Book Centre at 7 Carlisle Street, W.1, on March 14. This should “meet a long-felt need for a place where the literature of all socialist trends, without discrimination, can be obtained.

No confirmation Latest volume of Documents on German Foreign Policy published by the Foreign Office confirms the rumours we used to hear about King Edward VIII’s Hitlerite sympathies already when he was Prince of Wales.

What no documents so far published have confirmed is the charges regarding talks. between Trotsky and Hess which were brought up in the notorious Moscow trials.

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Nor was anything mentioned about them atthe Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal. Trotsky’s widow was refused permission to interrogate the Nazi leaders on that occasion.

Soviet Studies _ The quarterly Soviet Studies, published for Glasgow University by Basil Blackwell, Oxford, often carries well-informed articles.of general interest and value. ° ‘ ; ._ For example, the October 1957 number has an article ‘Labour and the Social -Structure’, by Margaret Dewar, which offers a penetrating analysis of relations between the bureaucracy and the working class in the Soviet Union today.

In the January 1958 number Jacob Miller reviews at length a