Indicting Documents on Conditions in the Soviet Union, and the Holomodor, 1933/4

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 2737

I'm reposting the following from my books-for-sale section, as I think it may be useful for someone out there who happens to read this blog to know that this fairly rare resource is out there in the world, and available. I am not well acquainted with this area except for the basics of the Soviet Union in the 1930's, so the descriptions of the contents and interpretations are necessarily rudimentary, though there's enough there I think for someone interested in this area to be able to know if this material may be useful.

The post is on three volumes of translations of news and reports coming out of the cloaked and secretive U.S.S.R. in 1933 and 1934. The publication was produced at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, a translation from the Polish journal, as referenced by Kris Dietrich in his Taboo Genocide: Holodomor 1933 & the Extermination of Ukraine. There are definite and numerous statements in this journal that—even for the limited amount that I have read in it—are very critical of the Soviet leadership, particularly in regard to the grain tax and the effect of collectivization in Ukraine and the Northern Caucasus. This comes at the time of massive political and social repression, manipulating the criminal code, establishing a new constitution, and the beginning of the next wave of extermination by starvation in Ukraine (the Holodomor). For example, in the chapter on agriculture in the Ukraine (on page 7 of that section) we read the summary of the extent of the “participation of the Soviet State in the grain balance” by the kolkozi was at least 70% in Ukraine and about 100% in the Norther Caucasus, meaning that there there would be no food left for those farming it, with this particular paragraph ending “what is left for the peasants"?  The answer to that question was written in millions of lives lost to the monster that was Stalin

Rosja Sowieka. 3 documents, September 1933, February 1934, March 1934. 

 (1) Rosja Sowieka (“Soviet Russia”, printed originally in Warsaw) No. 6 (50/51) of September 30, 1933.

 

This seems to be a some-generation carbon copy of typed sheets, made on very thin or onion paper. 12.25x7.5”, 126 leaves (printed on one side only). Bound in a work-a-day cardboard binding. Provenance: the Library of Congress, w/their surplus duplicate stamp rear cover.

VOLUME A.  Rosja Sowiecka (Soviet Russia) "Agriculture in the U.S.S.R.", October 1933.

• Includes the following sections: “What proportion of the crops is confiscated by the Soviet Government?”, 9pp;“The Meaning of the Grain Tax in 1933”, 3pp;“The Increased Burden during the Last Ten Years on Soviet Agriculture”, 4pp; “The Unchangeable Economic Tendencies of the Four Years of Collectivization”, 12pp; “Soviet Methods Relative to Agricultural Statistics”, 2pp; “The Problem of the Gigantic Grain Reserves of the Soviet Government”, 4pp; “Agriculture in the Ukraine and the Northern Caucasus”, 7pp; “How Does the Soviet Village Make Up Its Grain Balance?”, 3pp; “Mobilization of the Urban Population to Assist Agriculture”, 4pp; “The State of Mechanization of Soviet Agriculture”, 8pp; “The State and the Village in the U.S.S.R.”, 11pp; “Signs of the Weakness of Soviet Agriculture”, 8pp; “Soviet Economic Diplomacy in the United States”, 9pp, “Concealed Inflation, or Deflation”, 5pp Plus 42. leaves. ”

VOLUME B. Rosja Sowiecka (Soviet Russia) No. 11 (60/61), February 28, 1934, Warsaw. 12.5x8.5” (onion skin-like sheets), the text seeming to be some-generation of carbon copy.
Three sections, 93 leaves, ca. 18,000 words, including:

• I. Political-Social Record of the USSR (10 sections, 43pp). Including: “Remarks on the 15^th and 17^th Congresses of the Communist Party”, 4pp “Stalin and Lenin”, 2pp; “Changes in the Communist Party”, 5pp; “The Solidarity of Stalin's new Staff”, 2pp; “Historical Sources of the Worship of Stalin”, 7pp; “Decisive Effects of the 1927 depression Upon the Evolution of the Communist Party”, 7pp; “The struggle for power and the fight for a program for 1927-1935”, 4pp; “The theory of the leader as a result of internal Bolshevik conflicts”, 3pp; “The problems of collectivization...” 5pp; “The progress of 'socialism in only one country' at the 17^th Congress”, 5pp.

• II. The Treaty Policy of the U.S.S.R. (5 sections, 27pp)

• “Imperial debts and the Franco-Soviet Commercial treaty”, 5pp, plus four other sections on trade, for a total of 27pp.

• III. Soviet Railways (6 sections 23pp.)

Leafing through this volume I came upon a rusty paper clip secured at the bottom of a single page. I'm a fan of found book art, so I read a bit of what it was that it was possibly marking for attention. There was a word that jumped right out at me just above the metal dog ear--"liquidation". This one was volume and published February 28, 1934, which would place it in the thick of a particularly brutal period of Soviet history: there was the Soviet famine of 1932-33 (just ten years after the last great famine there), the Holomodor of 1932-3 (in which 10 million Ukrainians were murdered via famine), a completely oppressive police state of massive suspicion that would lead to the deportation and death of millions, the Great Purge, and much more that would nearly cause a collapse of the Soviet Union come 1941. The "liquidation" here though was being used in reference to dismantling the farm collectivization scheme that lead to the destruction of so many millions of people, and was coming at the suggestion of 'rightist" (meaning more liberal) leadership in the Soviet government. In this particular case, the suggestion was that of Martemyan Nikitich Ryutin, a high-level political functionary who was pro-peasant and definitely anti-Stalin, a stance that would lead in 1937 to his arrest and execution (all in a 24-hour period, like so many of them). Even though I really only know the highlights of Soviet history in the 1930's, reading this section of the document definitely left me with a sad admiration for this man and his allies, because nobody was allowed to survive under Stalin who was not a believer in his removed self. 

This was the path of following a simple paper clip. 

VOLUME C.  Rosja Sowiecka (Soviet Russia) No. 12, (62/63), March 30, 1934, Warsaw. 13x8”, 99pp altogether. Provenance: the Library of Congress. Sturdy if not somewhat worn. Including:

• I: Social-Economic Record of the U.S.S.R. 1. Reform of the Central Soviet Offices 4pp 2. Contributions in the Organization of Soviet Economy (Laws of September 9, 1929, and March 15, 1934).__+__"(3) Rosja Sowiecka (Soviet Russia)" No. 11 (60/61), February 28, 1934, Warsaw. 12.5x8.5” Three sections, 93 leaves, ca. 18,000 words. Including: Political-Social Record of the USSR (10 sections, 43pp); “Remarks on the 15th and 17th Congresses of the Communist Party”, 4pp “Stalin and Lenin”, 2pp; “Changes in the Communist Party”, 5pp; “The Solidarity of Stalin's new Staff”, 2pp; “Historical Sources of the Worship of Stalin”, 7pp; “Decisive Effects of the 1927 Depression Upon the Evolution of the Communist Party”, 7pp; “The struggle for power and the fight for a program for 1927-1935”, 4pp; “The theory of the leader as a result of internal Bolshevik conflicts.